i have an idea on how to improve the performance of the game and not just in cyrodiil but i think it would be a great boon as well as add strategic gameplay.

long ago zos was meddling with making hots and dots style effects as one only per character. This was seen as too restrictive and was not implemented and i think that was a fair assessment.

my idea brings that back but in a new way that i think could greatly enhance performance while not impeding players too much.

So when you get a dot or hot on you you get a "condition stack" of whatever that skill is. When someone else casts the same skill as with the previous idea the dot timer refreshes itself as you can only have one of these effects. However when this happens you gain a condition stack along with the refresh. If multiple people cast the same skill you keep getting stacks and the original skill is just refreshed with the new attacker. You cannot advance your own conditions. Only other players can advance a condition stack from a skill. After the last stack is applied only the duration is refreshed. This is compatible with existing gameplay as "stacks" are quite common in many skills and armor effects.

additionally there would be some room for cross ability play where a certain proc and skill would share the same generic dot and thus allow player condition stacking if they were set up for it, at the cost of one of the effects damage.

basically there would be a condition stack for each dot and hot. The first time the skill is on you there is no stack and each time after advances the stack. Each stack will confer specific buffs and debuffs depending on the skill.

so for a dot lets take the case of poison injection
first cast on you gets you the dot.
if the dots still on you the second cast refreshes the dot but also adds a condition stack of poison.
if you have a stack on you the next time your hit with the same skill you gain another stack.
the stacks and dots will have the same timer. Only the highest stack effect counts.

stack 1: minor defile for the dots duration, poison status x1
stack 2: major defile for the dots duration, poison status x2
stack 3: major and minor defile at the same time for the dots duration. poison status x3 . Non purge-able.

and the case for a hot like regenerating

stack 1: minor fortitude for the duration
stack 2: major fortitude for the duration
stack 3: both at the same time. When the effect ends you are purged as well.

The idea here is to reduce the number of active hots/dots of each type to one but not completely discount the other players contributions through advancing the stacks with crippling or beneficial effects. To make it interesting when you get to max stacks of a dot you can no longer purge it. Max stacks of a hot gives you a free purge when the effect ends.

these condition stacks would be independent of the existing "status effects" and thus no changes would be required to them. In order to make the stacks efficient they would always have standard effects, no crit, no proc and cause no enchants or other status effects.

in addition to improving performance there is a group play component here where some players could advance the stacks to achieve an effect that could not be done otherwise. For instance there is no current use for major cowardice. There could be certain skills used by multiple players that would serve make that debuff available via the stacking process.

In the past you would have three skills ticking away under the new system there would only be one but powerful conditions would be added that can be exploited instead. A side benefit is that this system makes meta somewhat redundant as far as hots and dots is concerned. Too many with the same set and builds would not be as advantageous as a more well rounded group with a few with the same build.

this game has the best armor and weapon system of any game but I think it needs more interesting systems built around it to really take advantage of it.

EDIT!

in addition this system could also be used to improve crowd control in this game. Similar to the above you could only have one snare and one hard cc on you at a time but when more than one is on you you again advance stacks that have different effects on you. So when your hit by three different snares you only have one snare on you ( and all snares should be 30% across the board) but each stack after that will slow you down in the form of a speed and other debuffs. Get too many on you and you wont be able to roll dodge out of it.

hard cc could also use this system though i would separate this into roots and stuns with unique immunities for each. Stuns having a longer immunity ( 10 seconds) and roots a shorter (5 seconds) but also using the condition stack for both processes.

for instance stun could have a woozy style debuff so you get stunned ones its just the stun but if you get stunned again while woozy there could be some other effect that climbs with stuns piled on you. Same thing with roots. The difference with the hard ccs is that you would get not only a debuff but a buff as well possibly making your next root or stun within a timeframe much less effective.