I don't see it being an issue.

It'll do like 200 more damage per second in PvP. So it's not a lot.

Plus I'm already not standing in it because I don't want to lose resistances.

Approximately two forevers ago I saw a suggestion that made a lot of sense to me. The gist was something like this:

• Make Razor Caltrops a strong DoT with a weak snare, and let it apply Major Breach/Fracture (this last part did happen)
• Make (whatever Anti-Cavalry was called before) the opposite -- a weak DoT with a strong snare, and give it stamina draining for both on-foot and mounted players (similar to oil catapults) so it'll be actually useful in PvP
• Give both morphs a short travel time, similar to Endless Hail so sharp-eyed players can avoid it if they are on their game
• Give both morphs ramping costs, similar to Streak, to cut down on people spamming it (this was back when we had cost reduction CPs & Caltrops had an upfront burst damage, though; probably not needed now)

I didn't pay super close attention to Caltrops' evolution, to be honest... and my memory of how it's gone is also a bit fuzzy. But IIRC we went from it being kind of a must-have skill for every stam build to it being a metal confetti meme skill.

AoE Major Breach is nice, but not that nice where the damage of the skill that applies it should be lol-worthy. I think the buff to Caltrops is fairly... well, fair. More testing needed I suppose, but it's a kind of underwhelming skill currently on Live servers, no? I'm happy to see a low skill being brought UP for a change!

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

This change is pretty good, its a DOT so it wont affect PVP too much.
For PVE stamina DDs can use some extra AOE dmg so its nice but not overly powerful.

Caltrops will still be pretty weak compared to necro's Unnerving Boneyard.

Unnerving Boneyard doesn't snare though so if you can avoid the synergy there's nothing to worry about there. But razor caltrops can be used to snare so that you can't avoid burst (like sub-assault + dawnbreaker). This change to the breach morph of Caltrops was just plain unnecessary as the skill was strong enough already, in my opinion.

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

My archers used to use caltrops for breach and AoEDoT. After the last nerf, we shelved it for Night Mother's Gaze (breach) and volley (AoEDoT). As @GreenHere said above, breach is nice combined with an AoEDot but not if the Dot is lol-worthy.

Will evaluate the new caltrops after it goes live and see if it can earn a slot again.

It's an aoe breach debuff so I think that is the trade-off for damage. The other morph is just sitting there. I also hate the way ZOS leaves useless morphs there

I use it on my Templar tank as a snare so and I haven't found a good alternative (that fit the theme of my character). A lot of snares and things that apply major breach don't do much damage. Elemental drain doesn't do damage at all or snare. Trapping Webs snares and does damage but doesn't apply breach (unless I'm mistaken). I think those skills are balanced and aren't overloaded. So I'd rather have this skill remain as it is and have the other morph get a huge damage buff.

IDK if anyone said it, but the only reason anyone uses caltrops in PVP (and most do), is to tag players to get the AP if/when they die. This skill needs a buff.

Stam dps 100% rely on razor caltrops now since they can't get penetration from CP any more. Compared to mag dps, they are still way nerfed even if caltrops get a boost to damage. I'm purely writing from a PvE perspective here. It's a question of stam dps going extinct in higher level content.