Hi all. I've been reading posts from the PTS and it seems the combat team is really focused on the damage gap between mid-line players and high-end players. I suppose it does contribute to accessibility problems since new content is tuned for high-end players. The combat team has also identified weaving as a major sore spot, although the reasons for that remain a bit of a mystery to me.

Something that seems to have been lost in the light attack discussion is that total damage has two parts; 1. raw damage dealt and 2. how often it happens (frequency). One might think with all the changes to HoTs and DoTs in this patch it would be on everyone's mind, but it doesn't seem like that. I'm not going to post a bunch of parses since there are lots out there already, but I've been looking at several posted by high-end players targeting raid dummies. This is what I've seen in all of them:

1. Raw Damage: Light attacks hit for a few thousand damage, depending on gear and setup. Other one-and-done abilities, like spammables, can average damage into the tens of thousands. This does not seem to show that light attacks deal an unhealthy amount of raw damage.

2. Frequency: In a high-end rotation, light attacks occur once between each global cooldown. That's 60 every minute. All other active abilities combined (attack skills, heals, DoTs, buffs, summons, whatever) make up another 60 per minute. Spammable abilities, which one might think should be the most frequent, account for around 30 actions each minute in most parses. To me, this seems to show a very very unhealthy number of light attacks happening.

If both of these are true, the combat team's focus on the raw damage of light attacks misses the mark. An approach that deals with the frequency would be far healthier for the game.

Something that hasn't really entered the discussion is ESO's actions per minute (APM) requirement. A high-end rotation currently requires 120 APM on both live and test servers, no matter what build you choose. That's the 60 from light attacks and 60 from other abilities. Basically, this means people have to input two commands every second just for their rotation before they can start to move, react and adjust to anything else the content needs.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of data out there about how many APM the average person can handle but there are a few things I can say pretty confidently. First, the amount of APM needed for a high-end rotation in ESO is much higher than other games in the genre (i.e. MMORPGs). Big titles like WoW and FFXIV have similar global cooldown systems to ESO's, but they rarely allow players to use abilities between the global cooldowns. Second, speaking from personal experience and discussions with friends, trying to move from mid-line damage to high-end damage is a lot tougher when you have to radically increase your APM. I know that's subjective and anecdotal, but I can't find much hard data on the subject of APM. Third, people with many sorts of impairments will never be capable of reaching the high levels of APM that ESO currently asks of high-end players.

Okay, so we want to increasing the health of the game (don't we always?). Apparently, we want to reduce the damage of light attacks. And we want to increase the accessibility of content. First, yes, I suppose light attacks will need to be reigned in. Second, the APM requirement of high-end rotations needs to come down. Since light attacks are already under construction, and since they make up half of our rotations, it makes sense to look at those. The big questions is: how do we bring down the number of required light attacks and enforce a damage reduction without sacrificing the whole system or killing the "fun factor"?

Well guys and gals (and ZOS), here is my proposal: Reduce the base damage of light attacks like it was planned but don't get rid of scaling. Add a stacking buff (call it Weapon Charge or something) every second spent in combat without using a light or heavy attack. When the next light or heavy attack is used, consume the stacks and add damage based on the number consumed. I would like to see each stack add a full attack's worth of damage. That would give you zero damage loss as long as you eventually spent your stacks. I would also drop the stacks when out of combat and put a limit on the number. I'll throw out twelve as a decent place to start. It's high enough to feel "punchy" if you wait for it to build up, it would add a bit of strategy to light attack timing, and it would eliminate a whopping 55 APM if you waited for max stacks each time. I also think it's low enough to prevent unbalancing bursts of damage. Triggered effects like resource restoration and set bonuses would not be effected by the buff. They would still need to be triggered by multiple light attacks. That would keep the utility aspect of weaving intact and keep the skill relevant for those that are able to handle it.

TL;DR

Light attacks don't hit too hard, they happen too often. Reduce the number of light attacks.
ESO's high-end rotations require too many APM. Reducing the number of light attacks would help.
Add a stacking buff to light attacks so they get stronger if you don't use them. Lower APM but no damage loss.

Cheers & happy hunting all!