From the first week's patch notes:
Fixed an issue where you could add or remove abilities on your ability bar while you were in combat.
Originally: You could not edit your skill bar while in combat, but there were two exceptions:
- If you did not participate in combat for a period of time (i.e., if you took no damage and dealt no damage), you could change your abilities. E.g., in a trial, you might run off to a corner of the room, avoid taking damage for a little while, and then make adjustments. In the overland, you could kite an enemy that's chasing you, and after not taking any hits for a while, you could adjust your abilities. In both cases, you are still technically in combat (if you open your skills window, there will be the pulsing red border around your screen), but you are allowed to change abilities if you effectively left combat by avoiding participation in combat.
- If you are dead, you can always change your abilities (if you are in a group and the rest of the group is in combat around you, then you will remain in combat even while dead).
What got broken: In the Wolfhunter patch, the combat ability change restrictions all went away. You could change abilities in combat even if you have recently took damage or dealt damage and are still alive. This needed to be fixed.
What is currently on the PTS: The "fix" on the PTS, however,
does not return the game to the original behavior. It goes much further and eliminates two the exceptions that were originally there. Now, if you are in a dungeon or trial, dying will not allow you to make adjustments to your bar--
the entire group must wipe. It's also no longer possible to avoid taking/dealing damage for a period of time to gain an opportunity to change your abilities.
Why this is a problem: The original behavior respected the
spirit of the no-changes-in-combat rule. It allowed changes if you were technically in combat but were not really in combat because you had disengaged or died. Death, in particular, should let you change abilities: on the PTS currently, if you died and decided that you need to change your bar to avoid future deaths like that, you have to ask your group to wipe and reset the entire fight. Also, in a game where
"stuck in combat" bugs are not uncommon, being able to change abilities when you were
effectively out of combat was a nice reprieve from the effects of those bugs.
@ZOS_GinaBruno Why can't we just go back to the way it was originally? Do you really intend for this fix to go well beyond what actually got broken?