Hello, reader... this will be a controversial post so get ready to cringe- let me tell you about myself first to establish credibility.
1) played MMOs for nearly 10 years, and have nearly 55K hours in mmos collectively .
2) have 750 hours in eso, 500 on steam, nearly 200 on this account, most of the played time is in BGs
The Problem
Eso struggles from what i will call the damage implosion effect, it is caused by stats that run out of control due to the CP system- while nerfed- did not address the core issues because of one reason- one can not balance PvE and PvP at the SAME time. I seen this discussion here before... but here is the 500Iq those posts miss, that this solution is in itself a SYMPTEM.
The true cause of the poor balancing and struggle in eso occurs due to the metas creates in game, through poor decisions on Zos. This post shall attempt to fix most if not all CORE issues.
Ultimates
All ultimate's should be channeled, there is no reason for abilities so powerful to just activate. They should be used strategically and not spammed as a 'get F of me'. This is poor design which promotes no thinking and zerging. Minimum 5-6 second channel time for any ultimate, so they can act as traps
Dragging Hit boxes
Templar
The first poor cause of combat in eso is the inconsistent and poorly designed hit boxes, that do not PUNISH mistakes. This results in abilities that are spammed with no risk. Here are simple fixes to some of the most egregious skills.
1) Biting Jabs / sweep- once selected and used, should lock the user in place, there should be no reason [both physics] and logic, that a fighter -even with magic- should be capable of leaning forward and twisting and turning like made of clay. Logic aside, add a modifier to jabs, that if the first hit misses, the character becomes unbalanced, if hit will knock them down.
2) piercing javelin- The ability should not track to the enemy, make it a single straight box that travels- if it misses your cool down is increased by 5 seconds
3) focused charge: the charge should begin slowly then accelerate without the ability to cancel it, that would allow you to dodge it, and hit the templar in movement
4) sunflare: should be aimed, and made into a cc like archers aoe, should be no reason such a power ability auto locks
5) Backlash- should be limited to an enemy directly in front of you, no reason it should be active from behind
6) Radiant destruction: should be an aimed cone, and reduce so that it activates if enemy has min 25% hp like all executes
Necromancer
1) Skull / Blast Bones: should not track, should require aiming at enemy- same treatment as javalin. Being at range should always be harder then being up close
2) Skeletal mage: should only fire in straight lines [cant move either]
3) Death scythe: cap at to 25% hp recovered, locks direction and impossible to move to realign your hit.
4) bone totem: make it pulse once, and apply 6 second of fear, or once for the buff [you can get knocked out of it, and miss your buff]
5) spirit mender: same way, make it a burst heal, in cc aoe.
Warden
1) the bear must engage each enemy manually, and not attack/ harass without you doing anything. If you want the bear to swipe, you must press the button, costs 10 ultimate [removes the execute from the ability] . This also applies to all sorc pets. No free damage for you.
2) Dive: no tracking, single strait line
3) scorch: should act like a trap, put a warden rune, and only activates if enemy steps on it- morph to cone, line, or mine field
4) swarm: should be active only in the cc area you put it down in, removes all invisibility while you stand in it.
5) Frost cloak: should have a 15 second cool down, same as all shields: impossible to reset it
Sorc / Mage Guild / Psycjic order
- All spam able aoes, need to fully expire before you put them down again. Due to massive regan, one can simply spam aoe until you hit the enemy. Bad design
- single targets, should be made into cones, that become more narrow the further away you are [should be nearly impossible to line up far away]
- Dark Exchange: make it consume 100% of your stamina [simple fix]
- curse: should disappear if you knock down the sorc within the 4 seconds [loose focus]
- mages fury: should be manually aimed, does exponentially less damage the further you are.
- bolt escape: should stun you after you escape, make it 35M in a random direction [to make it harder to use]
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NightBlade
-Blade: remove the ranged execute, your a malee class play like one [or make it aimed like all sorc abilities]
-teleport strike: increase the distance to 35M, but make it aimed, the damage is done through a 1M aoe
-Mark Target: remove the heal on marked target or add a 8 second timer on it
-grim focus: switch to heavies only
strike: turn this ability into a bomb, stun from all directions, but must be aimed
cloak: make its effect permanent, but can not recast until the target hit with it has died. No escaping into shadows to avoid hits [bad game design]
shade: should be a turret like skeleten for necro: does not move beyond area its spawned
Stife_ get rid of this ability entirely, its not needed for NB
criple /drain power- acts like swarm
Dragon Knight
-whip: give it a 3 second charge up, cant cancel but increase its range by 16M
-searing strike: make it arc up to 6M, but roots you, and you cant animation cancel
-fire breathe: increase the range to 50M, decrease its damage the further away you get- locks in place on cast
-fiery grip: must be manually aimed, should not teleport player but drag them: dodge roll to get out of the pull
-: inferno: like other turrets is limited to area it was used
Leap: increase range to 50M like teleport, remove the knock down
Stone fist: if first hit misses, should reset cool down, not continue being spammed
Vampire:
Remove all stages of vampirism, and make stage 2 the default. Increase the damage of drain to 100% and make it a pool like sorc storm pool. Rest of abilities are fine
Werewolf
make all the abilities have friendly fire, and werewolves being able to be hit by allies attacks- should fix them.
All malee weapons
Add a stagger effect, if you ability is blocked, you should stagger and get 'unbalanced', if your attack misses, you gain -40% movement speed, to prevent spamming
-Critical rush: increase range to 30M, remove all damage from this ability. Should be a gap closer.
-flurry: should be unable to pierce block at all, daggers dont pierce shields or swords.
-whirlwind: add actual cones instead of a hit scan, i recommend one blade every 15 degrees of arc around player
Bow
- Sorry you bow mains, but you range is getting reduced by 70%. At the speed the player fires the bow, is only doable with a short bow, if a trained archer can fire about 1 arrow every 2.5 seconds with accuracy at range longer then 30M.
- poison abilities: do not stack, change them to bleed, poison, stun, and slow. [Injection, lethal arrow, etc]
Second Major Problem with PVP- SETS
In comp you have 2 options, proc or tank, so the solution is simple.
1) set max resist in pvp to 18K, so that people actually die.
2) make all proc sets in pvp illegal
3) increase all players HP by 15K in pvp, and regulate it by class.
DK: 35K, NB: 20K, Wa: 35K, Sorc: 20K, Necro: 30K, WW: 25K, Vamp: 25K, Temp: 25K etc
... this will remove the garbage meta in game, and open a lot of options [GW2, does this by controlling the usable limit of gear, you do not need to do this.]
Bad Match Making system
Add tracked K/D ratio, and match players by skill not by level.
Add CP count bracket and merge pvp ques: 1-20, 21-31, 32-40, 41-50, CP under 160, 160-230, 231-300, 301- 370, etc
Add actual reason to pvp: award 500 end for pvp quots : kill 300 players, take 2 forts, etc
Bad Servers:
I have rarely played a pvp game where ping was above 50, invest the money given to you and actually upgrade your servers, stop giving players excuses.
Overall
thanks for reading this post, and i know your typing right now "your wrong' .... tell me if you disagree or if you agree. I doubt i am a vocal minority