Hi guys, first of all, I want to say, please be civil and clear. Thank you.
About myself, I have been playing ESO since it came out on PS4, I also play on PC. I have spent maybe too much time on this game and have over 18 characters with a lot of time and money invested in them all. I have played so many different builds and style that I lost count and struggle to have room on my bank, guild bank, all my characters and wardrobes. ZOS, it is typical of games to increase item capacity for players (free and paid or alternative ways) as the game progresses! So I hope you would add more horse capacity upgrade, Banker and Bag space upgrades. We have so much gold, we want to use it to increase space. You can make it interesting and chanlleging by adding requirements if you want, just be reasonable. Back to my introduction again, sorry. I have played all the classes extensively and own multiple characters per class (minimum 3).
Onto the real discussion -
The discussion is regarded to dragon knights and dragon knights only! But we are allowed to use another nonDK skills as reference and comparisons, or strategic or practical uses. For example, is this change good against this ability or class. Just do not go rambling about Templar, Nightblade, etc.
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So, I read the notes and I’m left confused at 4 a.m., which killled my sleep more then it killed the DPS.
1: Stonefist (and its morphs)
First of all, the stone fist change is a positive change. The cost and damage is debatable. As for the 25 damage per stack, that needs more clarity from the Devs. Is it weapon or spell? Or just 25 damage flat? If it’s just. Flat 25 damage to the enemy (this means it doesn’t increase your weapon or spell damage), then the value is too small to make a difference.
Second, the change to physical and flame damage is definitely good change and suits the class identity better. Poison would probably be more suited but the name says “stone” and not some toxic rock (maybe the rock has poison elements, who knows).
2: Molten armaments (and its morphs)
This is an interesting change. Tanks and healer can now use them more effectively to increase the team’s buff up times. And both Stam and mag dps in pvp and pave has to worry less about accessing the buff (brutality or sorcery) through their own kits because the other morph will give both and not just one.
3: Searing Strike (and its morphs)
The damage has been significantly reduced. In fact, it’s 60% weaker on the dot! 60%! And it cost more. It cost almost like an AOE in the current patch unless you are using something like Eruption. So the damage reduction is actually more than 60% if the increased cost is included. How much reduction, someone do the math.
The damage reduce would had been fine if the reduction value was lower, but the cost increase was a bad idea! DKs (especially MagDK) are notorious for having resources management issues with various builds. You are heavily reliant on items, sets and using your ultimate wisely to sustain. I like that, it makes you have to play better and smarter as well as give more value to your ultimate. But, the overall cost increase to everything makes the issues worse. And the player skill gap between good, bad and okay players will grow farther, especially in pvp. This is both good and bad. The good part is that it makes a good player good and respectable! But the new, beginner and amateur players will struggle more and shy away from the class.
4: Fiery Breath (and its morphs)
This change is quite concerning!
The increased duration to dots from 8 to 10 sec is great! But in pvp, it will have deferent outcomes. Most players will last the 10 sec, but all the other players using something to purge or a Templar cleansing after every 4 seconds, the increased duration is pretty much, useless. In fact, you are spending more resource placing all these expensive dots and other abilities on the Templar while using one expensive to clean several negative effects and heal itself. (Note heals are not reduced the patch, only dps). Nightblades on the other hand can cloak to save themselves for a lot of the damage. As Captain Full-Frontal said from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, “it doesn’t matter how powerful you are, if you can’t hit me”.
But the biggest issue I have is the change to the damage increase mechanic. Currently, Fiery breaths’s proper morphs add 10% extra flame damage which adds to the DK identity. But I’ll interested in new changes to the ability to make it more iconic to DKs while keeping game balance. The patch notes on the other hand says that the damage increase from 1% to 10% based on every 333 spell power that the player has on the character. This is a bad change in my opinion. Why? Because it funnels DKs to focus on spell power sets up for this skill to be effective. 333 sp is a large amount for every 1%. This will reduce build diversity. That is not what ESO is about!
5: Eruption (not mentioned in the patch but is important)
In the current patch, Eruption cost more than an arm and a leg because it’s and AOE which after what feels like decades finally does damage that reflects the cost compared to other AOEs of similar nature. But, it’s still debatable because DK’s sustain issues.
Now that basicllay everything on DK’s tool kit does less damage and cost more, casting expensive abilities such as Eruption is basically suicide. In fact, I have an AOE build for my Warden to be deferent than my other 18+ characters and the other players, I’m heavily concerned build that character because the abilities will cost too much for me to use. I have sustain issues even on the current patch, next patch might make than build useless that the lv1 with a broom would brush me off as trash lol. Similarly, DK’s with focus on apes because of Open world or being ganked or preference, etc. willl struggle. And Fiery break’s morph now requiring more spell damage to be effective means you have to reduce regen/recovery for more spell power. Which results in AOEs such as Eruption to be more expensive, especially if the target is mobile.
6: Wings (and it’s morphs, also not mentioned in the patch)
I don’t know what to say about this ability. It used to make a DK a DK, but now it’s like almost generic.
The morph for removing immobilization is pretty much a joke. You use it to remove immobilize and then get immobilize soon after. The only real positive is the damage reduction but the cost is expensive and the duration is short as it should be because the damage reduction from projectile is high. Alternative to this is the acceleration morph from the Psijic skill line (note, this skill is locked behind summerset, which require additonal fees). Race Agaisnt Time cost less and gives more damage due to increased critical damage (minor force) and increases movement speed, nonetheless, allows you to access the excellent Psijic Skill passives like the damage shield and major protection and orbs that also do damage. Overall, it’s a more useful skill, especially for Open world on all classes. The damage reduction on reflective plate is great and I love it, but you can use rage against time to get out of sight and take no damage as well. So there is that issue.
The dragonflies scale is an interesting change. It killed the unique reflect everything that DK’s had and make it’s identity. But now it’s more balanced because it doesn’t negate the full damage from the projectile, instead it fires back a deadly fireball at the target for each projectile every 0.5 sec if you have high damage while reducing the damage of projectiles greatly. The duration and the cost of the ability definitely suits the skill.
There is a lot more I’d like to speak about but it’s already 5:34 a.m. now and I might make more mistakes than I already have. So I’ll shut up and let you guys at it! I’m sorry that the message is LONG! And thank for reading and enduring this far! I very much appreciate it!