Greetings Community! I am not normally a forum warrior but felt compelled to articulate the growing concern in a meta shift among the solo and small man player base from this current patch with an overabundance of speed to what the devs envision in the upcoming installment. For reference there were numerous adjustments added by the devs in the last PTS patch which greatly limited the ability to remove snares (Reducing forward momentum to four second snare immunity) and viable skill access to major expedition with even more changes coming in terms of Immovable Speed and Lingering health/Speed Pots. While many reacted in a non constructive manner I want this thread to be a lively and positive in nature so that a good conversation can be had from both perspectives.

The problem: Some feel with the introduction of swift, speed has gotten out of control with player builds being "uncatchable" since snares are removed via forward momentum, players can stack swift with major expedition and be at 60% increased move speed without factoring in sprint/medium armor/minor expedition ect.

The reaction: Given this concern, the devs enacted a major change with speed. They changed the golden value of swift from 10 percent to 6 percent (30 percent vs 18 Percent). Limited access to major expedition from skills to four seconds. Have announced a change to speed pots (Probably looking at the same uptime as pots with major vitality- currently 16.3 seconds) . While also increasing the "Sprint Speed" from the Steed mundus to 10 percent from 5 percent. Finally they reduced the effectiveness of using forward momentum by fifty percent to four seconds.

My thoughts on why ZoS is moving in that direction: Players should work their builds to be more sustain focused if they want to maintain a workable speed. We (as a player base) are aware of the continued power creep that the CP System poses and by changing player access to speed this will reduce stam's ability to combat snares/movement thus effectively reducing damage posed by stam since they will need to use other methods: Example Steed over mundus, More sustain for maintaining skills that grant major expedition ect.

The actual effect: Players that relay on self buffed speed (No rapid maneuvers) will have an increasingly difficult time to removing snares and maintaining workable speed percentages while fighting outnumbered.

What the changes do not affect: Ball Groups that play in numbers 12+ where they have focused roles.

Ball groups have no concern with the changes since they have the ability to designate a player to provide major expedition and snare removal via rapid maneuvers. The player builds no WD, can run in medium (has someone providing defensive buffs and heals), while focusing on having a high stam pool and regen. This allows them to spam a 6k stam skill repetitively without running short on resources.

In addition to that the ball group runs:

Templars/Sorcs being tasked with providing ranged or AOE CC via Javelin/Steak/Rune Prison. While stam players are assigned the role of providing continued range snare harassment using flying blade or the group may use a disruptor who provides both using steak/encase.

What it doesnt do: Combat the actual problem with the game which is ball groups. They will have no need to adjust their builds as there was nothing changed that shifts their meta. This does however affect small scale or solo players with the same breath reinforcing ball group meta which is a major source of zerging/lag.

Post in review: Speed was out of control. The adjustment to swift was warranted but the change to major expedition skills was not. A huge meta change was enacted but A. It only affects players that relay on themselves for mobility and B. Doesnt combat ball groups spamming rapids or purge.

My compromise: Revert the skill changes to 66 percent of original value, Scale Forward Momentum down to 6 seconds, Increase Shuffle to 6 Seconds (Due to Cost) and create a cost increase to ball group skills like purge/rapids similar to steak as their currently is not a counter to it when building a high regen build.

Disagree, agree or provide your own thoughts. We as a community need to discuss this as the looming change will have a huge effect on the game.

CCing some ZOS Employees if they would like to discuss on this topic as well.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Wrobel @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_Gilliam