I tried the PTS

Slidell_70458 · July 2022

I decided to see how things were on the PTS, as ZOS suggested. I compared my Oakensoul Magplar on the current version of the game to the PTS version. My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

I went around killing zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and the world boss Zemarak-thul in the area of the Vile Laboratory in Coldharbor. I did this on both the current version of the game and the PTS, twice on each. On the current version of the game my highest jab damage was 12,916. On the PTS it was 6142. It took 2 jabs to kill a zombie instead of one. The good news was that I could still solo the world boss; it just took forever.

So, after testing on the PTS, I really hate these changes.

****EDIT*****

As suggested I looked at my characters on both servers and found a couple differences. On PTS not all of my CP were used, and I didn't have on Oakensoul. I have been wearing it for a while so it's strange that a fresh PTS server would be that outdated. In any case I made an Oakensoul for the PTS and looked at my numbers again.

Live vs PTS:
36550 - 35711 Magicka
4620 - 3911 Spell Damage
40.6% - 40.6% Critical Chance
11571 - 7274 Penetration
38% - 28% Critical Damage

I was wearing War Maiden, High Isle, Oakensoul ring and 1 piece of Ilambris. Weapon (destruction staff) was gold and the rest purple (or orange.) My CP are maxed out.

I killed some more zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and while things felt better they were still noticeably slower.

Sorry for not checking this before my original post. I shall in the future.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · July 2022

OMG, those new numbers are terrible.

I'm sad now. :'(

AzuraFan · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

It took 2 jabs to kill a zombie instead of one. The good news was that I could still solo the world boss; it just took forever.

This is what worries me. I'm worried that overland, which is where I spend 99% of my time, will now be a tedious slog. I was never a one-shot killer (except for stuff like wolves with low HP). Now it'll be even worse. Funny thing is I think the changes are meant to target players like me, i.e. those who don't do much damage. Or maybe it was for those who are middle tier. Who knows? Hard to tell given the changes.

sbam66 · July 2022

Wow🤩that is pretty amazing. Simply changing the buffs from major to minor

jaws343 · July 2022

sbam66 wrote: »

Wow🤩that is pretty amazing. Simply changing the buffs from major to minor

Well, they also severely nerfed the Templar's jabs, so a 1 to 1 comparison between PTS and Live isn't really a valid indication of Oakensoul power.

Marto · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

Looking at the patch notes, your stats should have been changed by -215 or -258 Spell damage, -5% damage done, -10% crit damage, and approximately -2% damage mitigation.

Your Magicka, Crit Chance, and Penetration should have been entirely unaffected.

You're probably missing something in your PTS build. Check your gear enchants, mundus stone, and buffs.

SeaGtGruff · July 2022

I just spent several hours soloing world bosses on the PTS and had mixed results. I can't give numbers, because I didn't look at my stats on live vs. PTS, or do any timed comparisons. My times tend to vary a good bit on live, anyway, due to differences in my gameplay from day to day or even hour to hour.

For the most part, I might not have even known that there were any changes if I hadn't already known about them, because the differences in time and difficulty weren't all that noticeable-- certainly not like the differences I noticed after Update 33, when I went from being able to solo all of the Northern Elsweyr world bosses on my PC EU main, to being totally unable to solo one of them and having an extremely difficult time soloing another one. I'm eager to try those particular world bosses on the PTS after my PC EU characters get copied over, but I didn't have any trouble soloing them on my PC NA main.

Interestingly enough, at least two world bosses seemed to go down more quickly and easily on the PTS-- Dubdil Alar and Old Kalgon's Keep. But I can't say whether that was due to changes in Update 35, or just my gameplay at the time.

On the other hand, Nilthog's Hollow and Scar's Edge seemed to take a bit longer than usual, although not unduly so. And as I said, my times can vary a bit on the live server depending on different things.

So far I've done the world bosses in Vvardenfell, Northern Elsweyr, Glenumbra (except The Wolf's Camp), Stormhaven (except Spider Nest), and Rivenspire (except Valeguard Tower), plus two in the Alik'r Desert. I can still solo all of the ones I can on the live server, and on average I'd say their difficulties and times seem roughly the same as on the live server, so at the moment I'm happy that the changes don't seem to significantly impact my gameplay. But I need to try out additional content, such as soloing some dungeons, as well as testing with my other characters-- especially my PC EU main, who was so noticeably affected by Update 33's changes.

Edit: I forgot to mention two things, both related to when I was soloing Sulipund Grange.

First of all, I had no trouble at all generating Ultimate between the times that Wuyuvus grabbed me and I had to use Precognition to break free. In fact, it seemed like I might have been generating Ultimate a little bit quicker than I do on live-- not a lot quicker, just a little bit.

And second, the duration of my Lightning Splash (or Liquid Lightning?) was noticeably longer than on live.

AzuraFan · July 2022

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I just spent several hours soloing world bosses on the PTS and had mixed results. I can't give numbers, because I didn't look at my stats on live vs. PTS, or do any timed comparisons. My times tend to vary a good bit on live, anyway, due to differences in my gameplay from day to day or even hour to hour.

For the most part, I might not have even known that there were any changes if I hadn't already known about them, because the differences in time and difficulty weren't all that noticeable-- certainly not like the differences I noticed after Update 33, when I went from being able to solo all of the Northern Elsweyr world bosses on my PC EU main, to being totally unable to solo one of them and having an extremely difficult time soloing another one.

Sounds promising. What class do you play? From reading comments in the PTS forum, some classes were hit harder than others. I'd assume that goes for builds and sets too.

ArchMikem · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%..

SeaGtGruff · July 2022

AzuraFan wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I just spent several hours soloing world bosses on the PTS and had mixed results. I can't give numbers, because I didn't look at my stats on live vs. PTS, or do any timed comparisons. My times tend to vary a good bit on live, anyway, due to differences in my gameplay from day to day or even hour to hour.

For the most part, I might not have even known that there were any changes if I hadn't already known about them, because the differences in time and difficulty weren't all that noticeable-- certainly not like the differences I noticed after Update 33, when I went from being able to solo all of the Northern Elsweyr world bosses on my PC EU main, to being totally unable to solo one of them and having an extremely difficult time soloing another one.

Sounds promising. What class do you play? From reading comments in the PTS forum, some classes were hit harder than others. I'd assume that goes for builds and sets too.

My PC NA main is a PetSorc, but I play him like a 2H Stam Melee Tank/DD hybrid-- not quite tanky enough to be a true Tank, and definitely not enough DPS to be much of a DD. Before I saw this thread and posted in it, I had been thinking of posting a thread of my own with all of the details about my build, my numbers on live vs. PTS, and some actual timed comparisons. I don't parse or use any add-ons at all, so I can't give any actual DPS or combat metrics, just the numbers which are shown on my Character screen, skills and gear tooltips, etc.

I'm certain that my results are different than what other players will experience, because I don't use strict skill rotations and weaving the way a lot of players do, plus the particular skills which I use might not be as heavily impacted as the particular skills which other players use. Everyone who's concerned about the changes should definitely take their characters for a test run on the PTS to see what's what. I'm just relieved that on my PC NA main the changes don't seem to be very noticeable one way or the other (i.e., in either a good way or bad way). But I've no idea about any of my other characters yet.

Didgerion · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

I decided to see how things were on the PTS, as ZOS suggested. I compared my Oakensoul Magplar on the current version of the game to the PTS version. My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

I went around killing zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and the world boss Zemarak-thul in the area of the Vile Laboratory in Coldharbor. I did this on both the current version of the game and the PTS, twice on each. On the current version of the game my highest jab damage was 12,916. On the PTS it was 6142. It took 2 jabs to kill a zombie instead of one. The good news was that I could still solo the world boss; it just took forever.

So, after testing on the PTS, I really hate these changes.

And this is one good example why you don't want so many changes in one patch.

Paralyse · July 2022

Considering we have no idea what gear sets, skills, CP, etc OP is running it's a bit premature to panic, yes?

With every combat change we have new sets and new skills and new CP that we need to use, because sets get nerfed and skills get nerfed and CP gets nerfed

Would be interested to know OP's build and what gear they are using.

Hapexamendios · July 2022

As my main DPS and single player character is a magplar, I can't say I find this very encouraging. If you could TC, please tell us what gear your were using. Much appreciated.

DairyCat · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

Did you like forget to put on your gear lol? The nerfs really don't match up with these drops lol.

Snamyap · July 2022

DairyCat wrote: »

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

Did you like forget to put on your gear lol? The nerfs really don't match up with these drops lol.

Maybe they forgot their champion points? Those penetration numbers look really of.

Amottica · July 2022

Marto wrote: »

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

Looking at the patch notes, your stats should have been changed by -215 or -258 Spell damage, -5% damage done, -10% crit damage, and approximately -2% damage mitigation.

Your Magicka, Crit Chance, and Penetration should have been entirely unaffected.

You're probably missing something in your PTS build. Check your gear enchants, mundus stone, and buffs.

This makes sense. I am pretty sure the ring on live does not give the wearer ~2k spell damage in any possible build so it does not make sense that OP lost almost 2k spell damage going to the PTS.

They are missing something.

Slidell_70458 · July 2022

As suggested I looked at my characters on both servers and found a couple differences. On PTS not all of my CP were used, and I didn't have on Oakensoul. I have been wearing it for a while so it's strange that a fresh PTS server would be that outdated. In any case I made an Oakensoul for the PTS and looked at my numbers again.

Live vs PTS:
36550 - 35711 Magicka
4620 - 3911 Spell Damage
40.6% - 40.6% Critical Chance
11571 - 7274 Penetration
38% - 28% Critical Damage

I was wearing War Maiden, High Isle, Oakensoul ring and 1 piece of Ilambris. Weapon (destruction staff) was gold and the rest purple (or orange.) My CP are maxed out.

I killed some more zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and while things felt better they were still noticeably slower.

Sorry for not checking this before my original post. I shall in the future.

Amottica · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

As suggested I looked at my characters on both servers and found a couple differences. On PTS not all of my CP were used, and I didn't have on Oakensoul. I have been wearing it for a while so it's strange that a fresh PTS server would be that outdated. In any case I made an Oakensoul for the PTS and looked at my numbers again.

Live vs PTS:
36550 - 35711 Magicka
4620 - 3911 Spell Damage
40.6% - 40.6% Critical Chance
11571 - 7274 Penetration
38% - 28% Critical Damage

I was wearing War Maiden, High Isle, Oakensoul ring and 1 piece of Ilambris. Weapon (destruction staff) was gold and the rest purple (or orange.) My CP are maxed out.

I killed some more zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and while things felt better they were still noticeably slower.

Sorry for not checking this before my original post. I shall in the future.

@Slidell_70458

I suggest including the difference in jabs damage as you did in the OP. I also suggest a complete edit of the OP to show the accurate information as some may continue to post in this thread based on the inaccurate information.

Thanks for checking on this.

Thanks to @Marto for such a keen observation.

Tigertron · July 2022

Granted I'm NB but I did a couple vet dungeons solo and other than taking longer I honestly did not notice anything terrible. I even think Mirri may have been buffed because she managed to survive the entire boss fights and normally dies half way through. She is a bow DPS.

Again this was solo so I was face tanking with Surprise Attack most of the time.

SeaGtGruff · July 2022

No need to apologize. The important thing is that you actually went onto the PTS to do some comparisons, to get firsthand experience about how the changes are going to affect your character(s).

Slidell_70458 · July 2022

Amottica wrote: »

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

I also suggest a complete edit of the OP to show the accurate information as some may continue to post in this thread based on the inaccurate information.

I tried to edit but there was no obvious way (like there is in Reddit.)

starkerealm · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

I tried to edit but there was no obvious way (like there is in Reddit.)

It's bugged... which, okay, no surprise.

Just left of the post # in the upper right hand corner of your post, you should see a gear icon when you hover over it. It's a little awkward because it only becomes visible when you're hovering your cursor over your post.

Also, when you first post, the gear icon will not become visible until you refresh the page (that's the bug I mentioned earlier.)

joseayalac · July 2022

OPs number don't make sense, they didn't change the values of the ring by that much.

starkerealm · July 2022

joseayalac wrote: »

OPs number don't make sense, they didn't change the values of the ring by that much.

It's not just the ring. There's a lot of balance changes stacking together simultaneously. It's shockingly hard to evaluate any of the changes individually because of that. The resulting gestalt feels terrible. How much of that is the ring? Dunno, probably not much to be honest, but it is impossible to know for sure.

carlos424 · July 2022

Tigertron wrote: »

Granted I'm NB but I did a couple vet dungeons solo and other than taking longer I honestly did not notice anything terrible. I even think Mirri may have been buffed because she managed to survive the entire boss fights and normally dies half way through. She is a bow DPS.

Again this was solo so I was face tanking with Surprise Attack most of the time.

Makes sense. Nightblade saw a couple of nice buffs that will help compensate for LA and dot nerfs.

MEBengalsFan2001 · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

I decided to see how things were on the PTS, as ZOS suggested. I compared my Oakensoul Magplar on the current version of the game to the PTS version. My Magicka went up from 36,550 to 36,566, my Spell Damage went down from 4620 to 2768, my Critical Chance went down from 40.6% to 28.6%, my Penetration went down from 11,571 to 7274, and my Critical Damage went down from 38% to 10%.

I went around killing zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and the world boss Zemarak-thul in the area of the Vile Laboratory in Coldharbor. I did this on both the current version of the game and the PTS, twice on each. On the current version of the game my highest jab damage was 12,916. On the PTS it was 6142. It took 2 jabs to kill a zombie instead of one. The good news was that I could still solo the world boss; it just took forever.

So, after testing on the PTS, I really hate these changes.

Something else is a mist here. If your spell damage is 4600 and you just lose 200 from the ring major courage down to minor courage it shouldn't drop down by almost 2k.

tsaescishoeshiner · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

As suggested I looked at my characters on both servers and found a couple differences. On PTS not all of my CP were used, and I didn't have on Oakensoul. I have been wearing it for a while so it's strange that a fresh PTS server would be that outdated. In any case I made an Oakensoul for the PTS and looked at my numbers again.

Live vs PTS:
36550 - 35711 Magicka
4620 - 3911 Spell Damage
40.6% - 40.6% Critical Chance
11571 - 7274 Penetration
38% - 28% Critical Damage

I was wearing War Maiden, High Isle, Oakensoul ring and 1 piece of Ilambris. Weapon (destruction staff) was gold and the rest purple (or orange.) My CP are maxed out.

I killed some more zombies, Ogrim, Ice Atronachs and while things felt better they were still noticeably slower.

Sorry for not checking this before my original post. I shall in the future.

Would you consider updating your original post above with these values? As it currently is, it's feeding people misinformation about how dramatic the changes are on PTS.

Amottica · July 2022

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

I also suggest a complete edit of the OP to show the accurate information as some may continue to post in this thread based on the inaccurate information.

I tried to edit but there was no obvious way (like there is in Reddit.)

@Slidell_70458

For the OP of a thread, the edit is near the title. Same cog symbol.

JanTanhide · July 2022

I was on the PTS this morning on one of my Magicka Templars. I ran Wayrest Sewers 1 in Vet solo to see what the difference would be.

It was easy to solo tbh but it was like walking through knee deep mud. I did change my CP a bit so pretty much DOTs were buffed as much as possible. The dungeon took much longer to get to the final boss fight and it wasn't fun. Really boring "combat".

Oh my, the change to the Puncturing Sweeps animation is horrid. It looks like my Templar is holding an old Mop and jabbing it wildly in the air. Clunky and slow. Please don't do this ZOS.

Buff, drop all the DOTs, stand in them and puncture away watching the counter go from 20 seconds to 1 and start over again. LOL. Yeah, that was some really fun combat NOT!

These radical Yo-Yo changes every few patches have gotten to me and I'm sick of it. Everything changes every few months and we start the process over again. Why? What is fun about doing this? Nothing. It's a slap in the face of Veteran players. 8 years I've been here.

8 years may be my limit of pain.

TaSheen · July 2022

JanTanhide wrote: »

I was on the PTS this morning on one of my Magicka Templars. I ran Wayrest Sewers 1 in Vet solo to see what the difference would be.

It was easy to solo tbh but it was like walking through knee deep mud. I did change my CP a bit so pretty much DOTs were buffed as much as possible. The dungeon took much longer to get to the final boss fight and it wasn't fun. Really boring "combat".

Oh my, the change to the Puncturing Sweeps animation is horrid. It looks like my Templar is holding an old Mop and jabbing it wildly in the air. Clunky and slow. Please don't do this ZOS.

Buff, drop all the DOTs, stand in them and puncture away watching the counter go from 20 seconds to 1 and start over again. LOL. Yeah, that was some really fun combat NOT!

These radical Yo-Yo changes every few patches have gotten to me and I'm sick of it. Everything changes every few months and we start the process over again. Why? What is fun about doing this? Nothing. It's a slap in the face of Veteran players. 8 years I've been here.

8 years may be my limit of pain.

I understand your pain. But I don't expect to feel it. Because I will just do housing and crafting until (if) sense returns. I've enjoyed your posts over the years, and I will be extremely sorry to see you go.

Be well. I hope you can find somewhere to be happy.

Slidell_70458 · July 2022

Amottica wrote: »

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Slidell_70458 wrote: »

I also suggest a complete edit of the OP to show the accurate information as some may continue to post in this thread based on the inaccurate information.

I tried to edit but there was no obvious way (like there is in Reddit.)

@Slidell_70458

For the OP of a thread, the edit is near the title. Same cog symbol.

Thank you; edited.