Monster Set/Arena Weapon Changes

PureEnvelope35 · April 2020

So looking through the patch notes and I am sure most of us have noticed that arena weapons have some..... strange changes, as well as most monster sets have been nerfed, some such as Bloodspawn, Engine guardian and Lord warden have been made far worse than they are on live.

And in terms of arena weapons it seems that using perfected weapons will not give a major buff as they currently do on live. (RIP vAS+2 Inferno)

As most of us know, these changes aren't that good, some reasons for that are:
-Most of us have farmed for ages to get the correct traits, weights and enchants for our monster sets, as well as building playstyles around them, which would be fine if these weren't nerfs 6 years into the game's lifetime, which can have a negative impact on everyone.

-The difference between veteran arenas and normal mode arenas is quite a massive gap, thus having the difference between the bonus being nearly nothing, might also be a negative change to everyone who has spent 100s of hours training to complete vet arenas, whereas just about anyone with an IQ above room temperature can complete arenas on normal.

Imho the difference from perfected to non perfected arena weapons should be noticeable, as apposed to the current 103 wpd/spd on PTS, as well as monster sets keeping their power instead of "comparing to 5 piece sets in regards to our set bonus efficiency standards." given that monster sets do play an integral roll in many builds.

Another advantage of arena weapons keeping their power as it is on live and monster sets staying similar to their power; is that the new antiquities will also play an important roll in many builds, forcing players to choose between a regular primary 5 piece, secondary 5 piece and monster set, or using a setup with an arena weapon, 5 piece set, and some antiquities.

The proposed change above would also allow for more build diversity, which would make both PvE and PvE more interesting in a lot of cases.

If anyone else has some extra ideas to add on to my lengthy post, please let me know in replies.

~Pure

Nagastani · April 2020

Hey,

I wanted to come back here and reply to this. You're saying what we're all thinking

Not too long ago, I had another issue with something else that made me reconsider using most monster helms and this was before any of this Greymoor nonsense gained visibility. And now, for reasons you and others have stated I'm reconsidering using Arena weapons altogether, also.

They want us to re-farm them... what a joke. Why even bother when 6 months down the road they can just force our hand on this again for a different reason. Based on reviewing the Greymoor PTS, my line of thinking is most arena weapons are now joining monster sets in the realm of 'the grey' and useful only for Decon.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a huge fan of vAS weapons. So now the player base that aligns with the same feelings are all getting kicked to the curb, as are our builds. It makes you think, is it *really* worth the time and effort to find a group to go out there and re-acquire this junk gear? Would it be better from an economic and build stand point to just omit most arena weapons from my builds and build without them?

You know, ZOS making changes like this does not make me care anymore than I already do, esp about arena weapons. It just seems like they are now no longer practical and no longer will serve as integral components in any build that heavily favors like a DPS or Healing role. It's all a numbers/theory game now using traditional sets.

Very sad. I remember how awesome it was to get my first vAS Greatsword or vAS Inferno Staff. That feeling is about to be erased. But what I am also interested in is the why? Why do this to us. Is it so everyone gets a trophy? Are ppl angered that some of us worked harder than them and risked more to get groups and to get access to this exclusive content? Is this trend going forward (and I suspect it is)? Is ZOS doing this to punish the player base because of all the ppl who exploited vAS last year?

Not going off on a rant, but for all the time and money I've put into this game and into earning my vAS weapons I feel cheated and deserve a better explanation as to why. Since last year I've seen so many terrible, harrible changes and am seriously now, considering leaving the game for good.

Dracane · April 2020

I think they do not want perfected versions of arena sets and trial sets to be massively better.
They only want them to be a motivation for veteran players, who they know will want the possible maximum. Even though that maximum exclusively exists on paper and does not translate to actual gameplay in most cases anyway.

Nagastani · April 2020

Well for most ppl the challenge is massively harder. It took me (2) years after Clockwork City was released to finally get with a Trials Guild who helped setup my DPS build and worked with me to finally earn my vAS weapons. I would sit in Craglorn for weeks on end asking for a vAS group, ppl would put me on ignore, never got an invite and then this stretched on over 2+ years.

So some of us earned our stripes. And when I see changes like this, it's makes me think the challenge and reward is leaving the game. nAS already gives a great weapon if you pass it. nAS and vAS are not equal challenges and should never be equal rewards. Aside from completion or for reasons you stated Dracane there is no reason to run vAS now. No reason for anyone to look up and face a challenge. Just take your trophy and walk away.

He who cares the most wins and if I don't have to care anymore then that's not winning.

Olupajmibanan · April 2020

It's a good design to put perfected versions to veteran difficulty, or hard mode in case of vAS, that are only marginally better. You can heal through all the content even without that small magicka bonus Perfected Master Resto will provide. Which is good, new and inexperienced players will have access to these weapons with their specific functions, but to get the most of it you must do veteran/hardmode.

But in the case of vAS Destro staff, this is plain bad change without any thoughts given to it. I still suspect that they only forgot to change Asylum Destro and they'll change it later. Difference between perfect PTS and non-perfect PTS is small, just as it should be, but the difference between perfect on live and perfect on PTS is enormoooous, big enough to make players decon it even without thinking of using it.

If a change makes players want to deconstruct (even Alcast called new Perfect AS Destro a "deconstruct material" on the stream with NefasQ) an arena weapon obtainable only on hard mode, than the change is absolutely wrong.

Nagastani · April 2020

Yeah was watching that yesterday. It didn't take him long to arrive at that conclusion either.

kalunte · April 2020

well, when i think abou CR stuff, considering the difference between normal and perfected version of those sets i would say that for once ZoS looks quite consistent. the difficulty gap is extreme but you can have some perfected armor only by doing at least vCR+1 for a very light bonus.

PureEnvelope35 · April 2020

Dracane wrote: »

I think they do not want perfected versions of arena sets and trial sets to be massively better.
They only want them to be a motivation for veteran players, who they know will want the possible maximum. Even though that maximum exclusively exists on paper and does not translate to actual gameplay in most cases anyway.

I agree that you are probably right with how they were thinking but the issue is, most people who currently can't do endgame content such as vAS+2, vDSA, vSS etc, also won't be able to even with easier access to endgame gear given from what I have seen a lot of inexperienced people on certain rolls failing to do well even with endgame gear. (myself included when it comes to doing good DPS even with proper gear.)

And with monster sets I am still unsure what they were thinking with some nerfs, Bloodspawn was potent but a 48% nerf seems a bit harsh, similarly the 77% resource nerf to Symphony of Blades is also nonsensical given that it wasn't used too often given the difficulty some people would have running through Depths of Malatar multiple times.

PureEnvelope35 · April 2020

kalunte wrote: »

well, when i think abou CR stuff, considering the difference between normal and perfected version of those sets i would say that for once ZoS looks quite consistent. the difficulty gap is extreme but you can have some perfected armor only by doing at least vCR+1 for a very light bonus.

This I do agree with but I think another use of doing trials on veteran difficulty/vet hardmodes is earning gold jewelry, instead of spending upwards of 800k to gold out 3 jewels, whereas the main advantage to vAS was earning better weapons.