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Why did Fortified Brass get such a huge nerf?

Sejha
Sejha
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Before taking a break from the game for a year because of personal reasons I spent a lot of personal time and effort getting my hands on a full set of fortified brass crafting stations. Because it was one of my favourite tank sets and generally was unused by most folks; and I wanted to try to get people into using it because it filled a specific niche, covering what tanks need to cover.

I loved it.

Now I return to the game and its been completely dumpstered, the amount it grants is reduced, it doesn't grant anything BUT armor now. Its literally worthless.

Why was this done? For what purpose?
Give werewolves a taunt. Let us do what we were made for.
  • nsmurfer
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    Every common source of resist except procs, Nord and Heavy Armor has been nerfed though.
  • Sejha
    Sejha
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    nsmurfer wrote: »
    Every common source of resist except procs, Nord and Heavy Armor has been nerfed though.

    Every single source? Really?

    When did this change happen?
    Give werewolves a taunt. Let us do what we were made for.
  • Royaji
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    Because it was actually a poor set for tanks (and the nerf did not affect that part much) but quite a problematic set in PvP.
  • blendertoes
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    Armor is a newish term that means spell and physical resistance, so while it did take quite a nerf, it is not as useless as it looks.
  • Sejha
    Sejha
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    Royaji wrote: »
    Because it was actually a poor set for tanks (and the nerf did not affect that part much) but quite a problematic set in PvP.

    Can you elaborate on this a bit more? It was actually decent for many pve dungeons, especially ones with bosses who had tick damage (ICD for example) who needed to be stat checked through.

    I think I can assume on pvp it was the old "dps took a defense option and it wasnt fun bc they couldnt die as fast" nonsense.

    If Im wrong here on that, please let me know.
    Give werewolves a taunt. Let us do what we were made for.
  • Royaji
    Royaji
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    Sejha wrote: »
    Royaji wrote: »
    Because it was actually a poor set for tanks (and the nerf did not affect that part much) but quite a problematic set in PvP.

    Can you elaborate on this a bit more? It was actually decent for many pve dungeons, especially ones with bosses who had tick damage (ICD for example) who needed to be stat checked through.

    I think I can assume on pvp it was the old "dps took a defense option and it wasnt fun bc they couldnt die as fast" nonsense.

    If Im wrong here on that, please let me know.

    If you need Fortified Brass to stay alive in a dungeon, you are an inexperienced tank or lack CPs. Simple as that. If you know what you are doing you don't need to be at resistances cap. In that sense Fortified Brass is (and was) a waste of a set slot for any tank who knows what they are doing.

    The problem in PvP was that, unlike in PvE, this set was significantly more stat dense than other options and came at very low opportunity cost. Its stat density was thus reduced.
  • blendertoes
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    Well, how do you expect tanks to get experience? Jump right into Sunspire an MoL to get BiS sets? Fortified Brass is great for a new tank because the extra passive mitigation allowed them to stay alive long enough to learn mechanics and it is crafted. Another in a line of tank sets nerfed for reasons not associated with tanking, looking at you Hist Bark.
  • Royaji
    Royaji
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    Well, how do you expect tanks to get experience? Jump right into Sunspire an MoL to get BiS sets? Fortified Brass is great for a new tank because the extra passive mitigation allowed them to stay alive long enough to learn mechanics and it is crafted. Another in a line of tank sets nerfed for reasons not associated with tanking, looking at you Hist Bark.

    Extra resistances will very rarely save you from failed mechanics. You will still get one shotted if you've done something wrong regardless if you have 28k or 33k resistances. And Fortified Brass is still completely fine for its niche. Not my personal choice even for an inexperienced tank though.

    I also do lament the days of Hist Bark/Tava's tanking but such are the ways of the dev team we have to live with.
  • Vaoh
    Vaoh
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    Because like we’ve seen countless times, these Devs use a spreadsheet to balance “power budgets” and then you get what you get. They don’t understand what context is or how ESO plays the way their experienced playerbase does.

    In the case of Fortified Brass, it went from a set that was not widely used but was viable for its purpose, to being pretty much trashed. There are better sets to use no matter what you’re looking for.

    Plus next patch Battle Spirit will debuff healing by 60%. You will want to focus on stronger heals via higher Max/Damage stats even more than before which Armor does not provide.
  • MashmalloMan
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    It wasn't nerfed because it was OP, it was simply too far over the 5 piece static bonus formula standard ZOS uses. Just get Pariah. It has always been the better option and it escaped the nerf that happened to Fortified Brass because it has a "proc" condition. What some people aren't aware of is that pariah has a portion of the 5 piece bonus given just by wearing the 5th piece. The 11094 Armor over 100% hp is really like 2.7k upfront and 8.4k over your 100% to 0% hp, so it out performs Fortified at around 70-75% HP and completely dwarfs it at lower hp..

    BTW, the 3/4 piece bonuses changing to Armor equals out to the same overall amount of resistance it had before. Only the 5 piece was nerfed, but it's in line for standards seen below. Every multiplier is within 2.30-2.33 of a 2-4 piece bonus.

    Hundings Rage:
    2-4 piece bonus = 129 weapon damage
    5 piece bonus = 129 * 2.3255 = 300 weapon damage

    Fortified Brass:
    2-4 piece bonus = 1487 armor
    5 piece bonus = 1487 * 2.3268 = 3460 armor

    Hulking Drauger:
    2-4 piece bonus = 1096 stam
    5 piece bonus = 1096 * 2.3357 = 2560 stam

    Spriggan's:
    2-4 piece bonus = 1487 penetration
    5 piece bonus = 1487 * 2.3201 = 3450 penetration

    Leviathan:
    2-4 piece bonus = 833 weapon crit
    5 piece bonus = 833 * 2.3097 = 1924 weapon crit

    annnnnnd so on.
    Edited by MashmalloMan on April 18, 2020 10:28PM
    @MashmalloMan - PC NA

    PC Beta - 2400+ CP
  • Luckylancer
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    Fortified Brass:
    2-4 piece bonus = 1487 armor
    5 piece bonus = 1487 * 2.3268 = 3460 armor


    This is the reason. Devs only think about numbers. When the set was 5k it wasnt OP, it was average. Now fortified brass worth less than my toilet paper hoard. Devs are definitely playing their game.
    Edited by Luckylancer on April 19, 2020 5:37AM
  • VaranisArano
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    Well, how do you expect tanks to get experience? Jump right into Sunspire an MoL to get BiS sets? Fortified Brass is great for a new tank because the extra passive mitigation allowed them to stay alive long enough to learn mechanics and it is crafted. Another in a line of tank sets nerfed for reasons not associated with tanking, looking at you Hist Bark.

    There are loads of other tanking sets for beginners. Beyond obvious choices like Plague Doctor/Ebon Armory, my favorite is Whitestrake's Retribution, a crafted set that procs a damage shield at 30% health. It's the perfect training wheels for a new tank, saving you from mistakes and, when it quits proccing, you know you don't need it anymore!

    (We'll not discuss the fact that I golded out two pieces of Whitestrake's before I realized I would get good enough to graduate to better sets... :) )
    Edited by VaranisArano on April 19, 2020 1:22PM
  • Ratzkifal
    Ratzkifal
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    Fortified Brass:
    2-4 piece bonus = 1487 armor
    5 piece bonus = 1487 * 2.3268 = 3460 armor


    This is the reason. Devs only think about numbers. When the set was 5k it wasnt OP, it was average. Now fortified brass worth less than my toilet paper hoard. Devs are definitely playing their game.

    They are probably playing the game. They just don't understand it as well as the people that live the game, although they think they do.
    This Bosmer was tortured to death. There is nothing left to be done.
  • CleymenZero
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    Sejha wrote: »
    Before taking a break from the game for a year because of personal reasons I spent a lot of personal time and effort getting my hands on a full set of fortified brass crafting stations. Because it was one of my favourite tank sets and generally was unused by most folks; and I wanted to try to get people into using it because it filled a specific niche, covering what tanks need to cover.

    I loved it.

    Now I return to the game and its been completely dumpstered, the amount it grants is reduced, it doesn't grant anything BUT armor now. Its literally worthless.

    Why was this done? For what purpose?

    In 4 man, I'm usually in Torug+Alkosh. If there's no healer I'll either tank in medium with Alkosh on body and Perfected Olorime sword and board or Heavy Torug body Olorime frontbar.

    Yolnakriin is another option but Bottom-line, Fortified Brass has never been an option.

    The only spot I think Brass COULD be ok is medium fortified brass as offtank in the Hel Ra Citadel HM where you just taunt every gargoyle and run around like a headless chicken and even then...
  • YandereGirlfriend
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    Balancing via Spreadsheet is simply a flawed approach to itemization.

    I never used Brass but I was glad that it existed because it was a viable set that provided build flexibility to players of many playstyles.

    Post-nerf we have one fewer viable set and even less build diversity so what, exactly, was accomplished?

    Ironically, this spreadsheet managed to cook up New Moon Acolyte, a set FAR more ubiquitous and ruinous for build diversity than Brass ever was.
  • Luckylancer
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    Ratzkifal wrote: »

    They are probably playing the game. They just don't understand it as well as the people that live the game, although they think they do.

    ***. Brass was not a pain point ever. Anyone that plays the game can see it. They just see its numbers are high and nerfed it.

  • MashmalloMan
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    There is no issue with balancing sets via speadsheet when they meet the exact same conditions. Static sets like Brass and Hundings should use the same multipler for the 5th piece bonus. That makes sense.

    The real issue is the base standards are flawed to begin with. This has reprucutions on everything in the game, sets, mundus stones, and racials.

    These are the 1-4 piece bonuses:
    • 1206 Max Health
    • 1096 Max Resource
    • 129 Health Regen
    • 129 Resource Regen
    • 129 Damage
    • 833 Crit (3.8%)
    • 1487 Penetration
    • 1487 Armor
    • 4% Healing Done
    • 4% Healing Received

    129 health regen =/= 129 resource regen and 129 resource regen =/= 129 damage. I'd suggest a small increase similar to max resources vs max health which is a 1.1x multiplier.
    • 129 168 Health Regen (1.3x multiplier)
    • 129 155 Resource Regen (1.2x multiplier)

    How this affects some racial passives:
    • Wood Elf
      • 258 Stam Regen -> 310 Stam Regen.
    • Khajiit
      • 100 HP Regen -> 130
      • 85 Stam/Mag Regen -> 102, maybe round down to 100

    Small buffs, but very much needed on races that are slightly behind. This isn't to say more changes are needed for them, but using ZOS's current standards on these passive values and an increase to the base standards used, means they should be updated to follow suit.

    Crit is in a solid place, it's the second best damage stat behind penetration for pve due to high crit dmg multipliers, however penetration caps are easily reached making it the best. For pvp, crit is very low on the totem pole because crit damage multipliers are so low. Crit resist is easily obtained by set traits and cp, in no cp, you also have less reliable crit chance without the blue star to increase it by 9%. The proposed changes to reduce impen crit resist, but offer base crit resist is a step in the right direction to make it more interesting to choose for pvp and opens up build diversity.

    Armor and Penetration is equal and for the most part, I agree with this, but because of that, it makes increasing the armor value difficult. Penetration is the strongest damage based bonus you can get so I won't comment on any suggestions as I'm not sure how to balance it properly. 1 thing to note is Penetration is only Physical or Spell, there is no combined value like Armor. ZOS did mention on the patch notes for U23 that they would be looking to combine Physical/Spell Penetration on sets into 1 value for the future, as well as combining the debuffs of Breach and Fracture like they did for Resolve and Ward. What values they land on remains a mystery and they seem to still be working on Penetration seeing as it's been 2 updates later. We will have to see tomorrow if they remembered to come back to this idea with U26.

    Healing done and received might be at a good place? Not sure, but I do feel like Argonian should have 8% healing done instead of 6%.

    Main change I feel strongly about is regeneration.
    @MashmalloMan - PC NA

    PC Beta - 2400+ CP
  • YandereGirlfriend
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    @MashmalloMan

    I agree with you in that spreadsheet balance does very much depend upon the inherent ratios that you establish between various attributes and that an incorrect set of ratios produces an incorrect gameplay balance regardless of what the spreadsheet says.

    I do believe that the game would be better off if sets were allowed to violate the spreadsheet ratios and be "OP" in limited or niche ways (e.g. the opposite of how NMA is OP). Some 5-piece set effects are also quite difficult to convert into the basic ratio building blocks.

    Regarding Argonians, I think that in a situation where healing scarcity is basically nonexistent (indeed, it's getting nerfed again in PvP and is more than sufficient in PvE) that the Healing Received/Given bonuses are quite weak.

    I would love to see a general Healing re-balance where base healing abilities were massively nerfed but the Healing Received/Given bonuses were massively buffed.

    This would have the effect of actually placing value on those stats as well as forcing players to specialize in Healing in order to be effective at it rather than the lamentable situation we have now where any DPS can be their own pocket healer.
  • xaraan
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    Because someone that's been running balance or working on balance the last year+ has fallen in love with a new buzzword based concept: Stat Density.

    Without realizing that it only matters how dense stats are in context.
    So things need to be looked at on a more case by case basis. As this adjustment shows. Sure it probably needed toned down when they changed up some of the various armor bonuses, but they over-did it a bit. Looks balanced on a spread sheet, but really isn't worth using (maybe it is for some niche build, but for the most part it isn't).

    -- @xaraan --
    nightblade: Xaraan templar: Xaraan-dar dragon-knight: Xaraanosaurus necromancer: Xaraan-qa warden: Xaraanodon sorcerer: Xaraan-ra
    AD • NA • PC
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