Yes, I'll be tuning in. But I'd like to further stress that we need to keep it civil and encourage direct and honest dialogue. Showering the devs with insults will not help accomplish anything.

chrisw_63_ESO wrote: »

Noxavian wrote: »

Tune into the stream tomorrow on Twitch at 4pm EST!

Please keep in mind when you post timed events like this that Tomorrow is a little ambiguous on the other side of the world. Not to mention the only reference we have to 'tomorrow' is your edit date, which is Today. See what I mean? Today, the 15th, is the date of the Livestream. If some one sees this and assumes from the edit date that the stream is "tomorrow", the 16th, they'll miss it.

i agree, change it to May 15 at 4pm EDT.
Also you can add link to twitch channel to first post https://www.twitch.tv/bethesda/

It's probably a good idea to round up all the questions we want to ask so we don't struggle to remember everything during the stream. Here's what I came up with off the top of my head; feel free to add more to the list:

• "What are the biggest issues with the Vampire rework as expressed by the community and how do you intend to address them?" - probably the most important question of them all. If answered (which I don't think it will be), this will give us an idea of just how much (or how little) they listened to us in the past few weeks, and how in-depth they went trying to figure out exactly what we want. The answer can range anywhere from "people wanted a reduction to vampire penalties so we gave it to them, and now we're wrapping up the update" to "*lists like eight different issues* ... we know you guys wanted so much and we gave you so little, but we've arrived at a compromise and we've addressed four of these issues (shows gameplay of them already addressed), two more are in the works, and the other two go against our design philosophy/have massive drawbacks the community hasn't envisaged/are not feasible in the current state of the game/whatever". The answer will let us know just how effective giving feedback on these forums really is and whether the concerns we've expressed since week 1 were delayed or simply ignored.
• "What happened to the wings on Bat Scion? Why were they removed?" - This leans into the Scion wings issue while coming from a reasonable perspective - Bat Scion did have wings and they were removed, we only need to know why. The reason might explain why asking for wings of any kind might be fruitless - perhaps it's a technical limitation, who knows.
• "What was the design process behind Blood Frenzy - why does it work the way it does and why did it get nerfed so hard in 6.0.3?" - I expect them to touch on it anyway, but asking to explain it in more depth would be helpful. This ability has been a point of contention for many players for many reasons.
• "Why did Vampiric Drain change so much since Live? Why is its damage so low?" - again, straightforward and objective reasoning - Drain Essense already existed, and reducing its damage was a conscious decision. That means there must have been some thought process behind the change.
• "Since your spammable is melee, is it realistic to expect a Vampiric gap closer/speed boost of some kind, and if not - why?" - Another big issue people here have discussed. If they say no, perhaps it's because ZOS were specifically against it.
• "Why is Blood Scion transformation closer to Bone Goliath rather than Werewolf in its function?" - I'm not necessarily pro-third bar, but it would be interesting to know why they went the Goliath route.
• "Is there any value in the new skill line for Tanks and Healers?" - this question touches on the "vampire is a ganker's toolbox" issue. It's a nice, open-ended question that will hopefully allow the devs to tell us what they think and whether they were set on a DPS-heavy Vampire playstyle from the beginning.
• "How do you intend to support Stamina Vampire builds?" - again, not my personal issue, but I've seen it pop up every now and then. Perhaps the logic was "WW for Stamina, Vampire for Magicka", and ZOS intended to phase out Stampires.
• "How will you encourage players to stay at Stage 4 despite the drawbacks?" - this has been a hot topic since 6.0.0.
• "Will there be a way to temporarily 'opt out' of vampire strengths and weaknesses?" - the dreaded Stage 0 discussion.
• "What led you to change the Vampire Lord set to amplify both your strengths AND weaknesses as a Vampire?" - Vampire Lord set is almost universally considered to be even worse now than it used to be on Live, which is quite an achievement.
• "Do you plan on further expanding the Vampire skill line in the near future?" - Emphasis on near future. While 5+1 is what we're getting for now, perhaps there's something else in the works that will make us happy. You know it, I know it, we all know it - the answer to this will be cautious and vaguely hype-building, but I will ask this question anyway.

"Why did Vampiric Drain change so much since Live? Why is its damage so low?" - again, straightforward and objective reasoning - Drain Essense already existed, and reducing its damage was a conscious decision. That means there must have been some thought process behind the change.

It's literally there to counter the health loss from your other abilities. Not sure why this is such a hard leap of logic to people. It heals more, does less damage because it's an "oh crap, I'm about to die button." Does it serve well? Well not in PvP it doesn't because you're likely to get CC'd trying to do it.

"How will you encourage players to stay at Stage 4 despite the drawbacks?" - this has been a hot topic since 6.0.0.

This is one biggest questions in my mind. Even before the ability cost change I didn't think stage 4 was compelling, after 6.0.3 I definitely don't now.

Feel like trying to ask for things to be added just don't have enough time for. The frenzy making eviscerate act as a gap closer woulda been super cool for those who want that.

You pretty much covered my big issues: Frenzy, Vampire Lord armor, competely gutting the vampire stage reduction to vampire skills.

I'll be tuning in. I've not been able to participate in PTS, but as a filthy casual RPer, I am very interested in the general feel of the vampire in various stages. Based on what I've read here, it seems that there is a consensus that a more vampirically corrupted person feels very weak and frail. They can only use their previous skills with great difficulty, and are unable to recover from a stubbed toe. On top of that, they kill themselves with their own vampiric abilities, and are expected to be fighting at low health to be more effective, making them rather fragile.

In the new quest when turned, Lamae proclaims: Their reward for being fully corrupted is the ability to run away and hide. Is this really the headspace of a vampire who has been drinking blood to become more powerful? If anything, it seems like the precise opposite.

So, I hope to find out what the guiding philosophy is for the new vampire.

My 2 cents (which I know won't matter, but it's fun to pretend) is below:

I don't understand why they didn't leave normal costs alone, and make the increased vampire stages provide buffs to the effectiveness of vampiric skills. I'd imagine that the vampiric drain of a fully corrupted vampire should hit like a truck, while the vampiric drain of a lesser one would barely tickle. Likewise, a fully corrupted vampire should be able to mistform longer than one who is not.

Just imagine the feeling of wanting to grow the strength of your vampiric abilities, and suffering the penalties of fire damage, health regen, monstrous appearance, and social acceptance due to it. Heck, you could even require that the vampire be at stage 4 before they can transform into a scion. Imagine that headspace. That would be an immersive vampiric existence.

The way it is now, the "reward" of choosing vampiric corruption is the ability to run and hide, as well as the requirement to do so, because you are frail and impotent.

Also a quick reminder there are points you can earn by watching these Twitch streams, and you can spend these points to do certain things like highlighting your comment you post into chat. These points are limited so if you're going to post something read it twice for spelling and grammar errors as well as making sure it is constructive and concise. They can see these comments during the stream.

my questions:

1. - why did you make Vampire a melee based skill line with no gap closer? Blood Frenzy should be replaced with Bat frenzy (gap closer), and one of the morphs should offer a HOT effect.

2. - vampires are all about stealing health from their victims to sustain their own unlife. why then are there two skills that use health as resource, but no efficient way to heal/siphon health as a vampire? drain essence is pretty much useless and fails as an effective means to steal health from your enemy.

If they haven't addressed these concerns by now, it won't happen on Twitch.

Stream is going to start soon.

Did they say 9 PM British Summer Time ?

Yep.... was just about to post that here. They won't touch it at all till it hits live. This is going to be a shock to a lot of people not monitoring the PTS or these forums.

Heh, at least we can expect some further tweaks after the update drops. Probably not the best time to be tweaking things (you'd probably want everything to be balanced and ready before the update), but it's something.