So with the hoopla over the changes possibly going on with the game, I tried to look at the history of changes to sets and metas in the game. I have never paid a lot of attention until recently so I may have missed a few things that are important to others. This is what I have found, focusing on PvP.

1. Scalebreaker - soul trap and entropy were buffed and made unavoidable, DOTs were buffed, healing was buffed to counter the DOTs, Warden and MagSorc both struggled (really any class without a purge) in PvP because the DOT damage was so high. DOTs were the way to play during the time, there was no need for a spammable. The Pro during this time was a very reactive combat style of game play, fast and furious. If you didnt keep your heals up you died.

2. Dragonhold - All the DOTs were nerfed back to their previous values, Entropy and Soul Trap were semi-viable, the DK got hit so hard that the strongest DOT was Volatile Armor (during PTS)

3. Greymoor - Vampire patch, Intro of the first overtuned mythic Malacath (buff damage by 25%, but didnt allow crit) which made proc sets more viable. This is when players started running proc sets in no cp battlegrounds. Stat sets were nerfed when Malacath was introduced so this made proc sets the sets to use.

4. Stormthorn - All proc sets are overhauled. Proc sets used to have a percent chance to proc, but with Stormthorn the removed the percent value and place conditional values. This meant that they proc 100% if the conditions were followed. A player only needed to use one skill because of the power of the proc sets during this time. During this time we had Covid and so the meta continued for almost a year without adjustment. Understandable.

5. Flames of Ambition - No Proc Cyrodiil came out. During this time build diversity in PvP seemed to drop because of the lack of usable sets for PvP. Another complete reset basically. Over a three month period (half the time that was estimated) the proc sets were reworked.

6. Blackwood - Procs sets scale with weapon damage and spell damage. The team was pretty responsive during PTS so many adjustments were made even though a few sets remained overtuned. This made it so a player couldn't run multiple procs and have ridiculous damage.

7. Waking Flame - Intro of Plaguebreak, Hrothgar’s Chill, and Dark Convergence, which are proc sets that were considered the most broken sets in the game.

8. Deadlands - Buff some procs sets allowing them to crit. I believe this is when we started seeing more hybridization. Due to hybridization and being able to crit, sets like Caluurian’s Lagacy began to be THE set to have for Nightblade because of the burst power. It guaranteed stun and crit from stealth. Nightblades could rampage through Cyrodiil. The standard was supposed to be that proc sets should damage but you should be able to react to it. A player couldn’t react to it.

9. High Isle - Major Force added to Oakensoul. Coupled with sets like Caluurian’s Legacy, the boost from major force would make even the heaviest tanks die after two or three cooldowns.

**If I missed something let me know or post it below**

Summary:

We have ZOS over buffing and over nerfing DOTs during Scalebreaker. We have the introduction of Malacath Ring which led to the buffing and nerfing of proc sets. This then led to the rework of proc sets and the introduction of broken proc sets like Plaguebreak, Dark Convergence, and Hrothgar which were stronger than anything before. We then had the hybridization changes that were said were going to be monitored with no skill overhaul yet. We've switched from DOT proc sets to bursty proc sets that can now crit and are now buffed with Major Force with a new mythic bringing forward a new proc meta just like the last one they nerfed into the ground. On top of that you have this light and heavy attack change which is just a reversion of a previous change that they made. To me, this seems to be the issue with this change because this is the developer playbook at this point. Personally I don't think we should care if light and heavy scale off of weapon damage or spell damage or if they're a flat value because we know in a year or less it will just be reverted all over again. That's what history tells us with this development team.

I am hoping that looking at the past decisions of the current Combat devs that there will be more understanding on the reaction from the older players. It seems the younger ones do not understand the intensity of the reaction because they have only been playing for a year or so.