We have "Cleanse" but what about "Purge"?

TheDarkRuler · January 2021

I was recently talking with a few guild mates about this and that in ESO PVP areas. I was abit annoyed because I was trying a new build that day and was crushing against an enemy who was able to surround himself with buffs over and over without me able to break through. So my opinion might be biased.

I said to a friend "Why is it that you cannot remove those buffs from enemies?" like in other MMOs (see WoW). Adding a Purge effect to some underpowered abilities or sets might make them viable for PVP.

For ESO i think there might be two ways of including it:

Hard-Purge: Remove one random beneficial effect from targeted enemy unit and disable toggled abilities.
Soft-Purge: Remove X seconds from all active beneficial effects duration from enemy unit.

What do you think? Does ESO need a Purge mechanic or not?

paulsimonps · January 2021

TheDarkRuler wrote: »

I was recently talking with a few guild mates about this and that in ESO PVP areas. I was abit annoyed because I was trying a new build that day and was crushing against an enemy who was able to surround himself with buffs over and over without me able to break through. So my opinion might be biased.

I said to a friend "Why is it that you cannot remove those buffs from enemies?" like in other MMOs (see WoW). Adding a Purge effect to some underpowered abilities or sets might make them viable for PVP.

For ESO i think there might be two ways of including it:
Hard-Purge: Remove one random beneficial effect from targeted enemy unit and disable toggled abilities.

Soft-Purge: Remove X seconds from all active beneficial effects duration from enemy unit.

What do you think? Does ESO need a Purge mechanic or not?

It might make a cool set with a cooldown or something, as a skill however, both options could prove to be very OP. Cause a a skill, there would be nothing preventing you from just spamming it and removing all their "beneficial effects", which would in the way you worded it, include Heal over Times. Which are very common in PvP. You could run a group with a dedicated purger and the enemy team would have to rely on burst heals alone, and that would drain their resources very fast and death would follow. But since there is already a set effect that removes a certain amount of healing done to a target I don't see why it can't be a set, with the right proc conditions and cooldowns.

SgtNuttzmeg · January 2021

Judging by how poorly the game handles purge already, I can't imagine how poorly this would effect performance too.

Personally I don't think this kind of mechanic would ever make it into the game as it would have too big of an impact on sustain and would only expand the skill gap inbetween players.

BXR_Lonestar · January 2021

TheDarkRuler wrote: »

I was recently talking with a few guild mates about this and that in ESO PVP areas. I was abit annoyed because I was trying a new build that day and was crushing against an enemy who was able to surround himself with buffs over and over without me able to break through. So my opinion might be biased.

I said to a friend "Why is it that you cannot remove those buffs from enemies?" like in other MMOs (see WoW). Adding a Purge effect to some underpowered abilities or sets might make them viable for PVP.

For ESO i think there might be two ways of including it:
Hard-Purge: Remove one random beneficial effect from targeted enemy unit and disable toggled abilities.

Soft-Purge: Remove X seconds from all active beneficial effects duration from enemy unit.

What do you think? Does ESO need a Purge mechanic or not?

I think what your describing is what other games would refer to as "dispel" and I think it would be a great addition to PVP. It would definitely help add some counter-play to the game.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2021

It would be borderline gamebreaking for classes like pet sorc, if someone could cast one skill and make it so you have to resummon both of your pets. I don't really run pets in PVP, but it would essentially destroy pet builds.

Other than your remove toggle suggestion, I could see it being a little interesting, but they would need to be careful as to what is included. There are things you would have to consider though. Take a buff like spellpower (major sorcery), that many people get through potions. Because they run potions, they dont slot a skill for it. If a 45 second buff can simply be cancelled by a skill, that would VERY powerful. It's not nearly as big a deal if their skill causes you to have to reapply a buff with a global cooldown (i.e. you cast a skill in response), but if there skill means you could lose access to an important buff for 44 seconds, that would be a massive problem. It would also make buff trackers (often done via addons) much more important. People have played this game for years knowing that when they cast a buff, it's there for x number of seconds.

exeeter702 · January 2021

Cleansing and purging works well in other mmos because of the existence of both hard targeting and ability specific cooldowns.

When there is a mental game that you have to play around when to dispel/purge and when not to, the dynamic is interesting.

In eso however, the only thing that controls ability use cadence is resource pool and the GCD. As a skill, like most high impact utilities in this game, it would have to be prohibitively expensive. Other than that, it would moreso be relegated to a monster set or 5pc set bonus with a controlled proc condition (rng or auto purging would be useless) and an appropriately timed iCD.

But again, like most things of that nature in eso, are generally smart targeted or aoe for players to use via synergies. You have have no way of selecting specific targets to strategically snipe key buffs of enemy players, and ultimately it would not be an interesting addition to ESOs combat.

Ratzkifal · January 2021

I am not sure if purges are useful in a game without cooldowns unless they are made so overpowered that the entire meta revolves around using or avoiding that skill...