Most of us agree, update 35 is a hot mess. It’s made rotations more complicated for a few classes and builds. Nerfed some classes DPS to oblivion. As well as made old veteran content harder for a few classes and builds—which to me seems counter intuitive. If I have spent this much time leveling my character and invested that time farming the best gear, practicing, etc. than why is content I had conquered successfully now more difficult? What would be my motivation to login and continue? To level new skills and get different gear, just to have it all change once again for what reason again? Cause I am managing and watching timers WAY more now.

Even if you are one of those people who annoyingly love to brag about how it didn’t change anything for you, or just adjust, or get gud, QQ crowd. You biggest counter is that it didn’t change anything. So what was the point? Why waste all that time, when you could have done so many other things to bring players back and entice new ones to join?

So, let’s get constructive. I am not an expert at the game mechanics like so many of you are, so I won’t pretend. I have read some amazing posts about how U35 could have been improved. Truly insightful stuff and this community really knows this game, I’d argue much better than ZoS executives, not the devs or creatives, who I don’t feel are responsible for this giant blunder. The executive who makes decisions are, they call the shots. Maybe they do not have time to play the game or interact with the community and therefore are making decisions based on faulty data, spreadsheets, etc. I’ve seen it at my old place of employment.

My suggestion is to ditch U35. Scrap it. Leave the game as is for a bit longer and shift focus to things that will get people to stay and get new subscribers. While also making more of a concentrated effort to diversify the game. Currently as it stands, the game is severely lacking in diversity, and I will explain further with the ideas I think would be of more value to the game to address. At least they would to me. I think to a lot of people, but I digress.

Here they are:

- Fix all the known frustrating bugs. Example: The Wayrest Sewer door. You could either let players open the door no matter what is aggroed after the boss dies, or create an NPC, like some old tramp hanging out, that let’s players know to go kill the angry alligators so the dang doors open. For the longest time I had no idea it wouldn’t open because the alligators in the previous room got aggroed. And no one in PuGs even thinks to do that.

- Diversify pet skins. Yeah, I play a Warden, and while I love my bear, I find it a bit immersion breaking that literally every Warden has the same bear. Let us have a bit more control over our characters, let us feel like we have some influence on our toons and can set ourselves apart and add our own style and choice to our toons. Wouldn’t it be great if you could unlock skins of the Wild Guardian with quests, dungeons, and even through the crown store? There is an endless level of non-combat pets. Why not skins for Sorcs and Warden’s pets? A bratty Banekin, a Snowy White Wolf. It would be truly awesome!

- Diversify racials. As I said before, the game lacks diversity in endgame. Everyone is either an Orc, High Elf, Dark Elf, or Khajit. Because the racials are grossly unbalanced. The meta pushes for a game that severely lacks diversity in end game. Everyone has the same weapons, the same generic skills. Granted, balancing a game is hard and its obvious ZoS struggles with that given u35. But you could start small. Racials need an overhaul. Each race should have one combat racial that improves damage. Nords could have bonus damage with 2 handers and axes. Wood elves get a bonus to damage with bows, Dark Elves with daggers, etc. Then, a bonus to resources. Nords have more stam, Redgaurd’s have their stem regen, Bretins keep their magika bonus, etc. Then a racial for crafting, Orcs use less mats for armor, etc. Then a racial that like the argonians swimming. Finally a racial for defense. Dark elves have fire resistance, nords col, etc. An offensive bonus, a defensive bonus, a crafting bonus, a resource bonus, and a unique bonus that does not affect combat but is fun and sets them apart. For every race.

- Diversify morphs. Currently morphs feel identical. Whether its magika or stam, it’s hard to tell the difference they are so similar, especially for Necros and Wardens. This too needs an overhaul. Not necessarily with the damage they do, but with how they look and feel. Stalking blast bones for instance; Magika could stay as is, whereas stamina could be that you raise up a cloud of pestilence. Basically, magika necro spells focus on raising the dead, while stamina focus more on diseases. Think of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Stam is pestilents, and Magika is death. The Warden could have two very different kinds of guardians. The DPS bear (with access to skins!) and a magical Raven. The raven does magical damage, maybe a CC or returns some health or other resource back to the Warden. But, even if it kept its same function, you could just change the look and feel so it feels different, and the choice feels unique and diverse. Same with Shalks, like, really, it’s just bugs, but the magika version could feel like ice shards. Or another way to approach it could be to take all the stamina abilities and make them feel like nature and beasts and the magika could be ice centered. The DK is super fire guy, why not a magika warden super ice gal?

- Diversify weapons. Everyone at one time was using destroy staves. Now it’s dual wield daggers. This needs to be reexamined and overhauled. It would be better if weapons were similar in function and different in look. But better more astute players could have way more insight here. You can definitely achieve this by adding in better racials as well as giving some buffs to weapons. It was really sad that my Wood Elf Warden was so lackluster with their bow. Let them pew pew harder!

- New skill lines. Unarmed—Lets have monks! Illusion magic. Why is that not a thing in in ESO? It’s a thing in literally every ES game. As well as Alteration, conjuration, and thu’um are all missing from ESO. Granted this is a much bigger undertaking, but still better time spent than u35 or any other updates. You really had the game in a strong place before u35.

- Adding new weapons like Halberds, spears, crossbows, flails, etc. They can all be categorized under 1 hander, ranged, 2 hander, etc.

- Cloaks! How does a fantasy game not have cloaks? That would be a lot of work but think about how much work went into u35 and every hates it. No one hates cloaks! They can have additional stats that don’t necessarily affect combat in case there is a concern about balance. Maybe they help with stealth, or running faster, or bonuses to defense. Maybe they teleport you places for free. Some can just be cosmetic because Human Rangers would just look cooler with cloaks! So would Khajit thieves. Some could provide cool auras that set you apart from the crowd.

- Hiding armor. It’s great that we can hide helms. Some of my outfit designs call for no shoulder armor. I know I am not alone. Let us hide more pieces of armor! At least shoulders. I don’t want my wood elf to look like a freaking NFL linebacker.

- Companions lack diversity. It’s a bit immersion breaking to see a bunch of Bastions running around. I’ll be in a marketplace and run into all the other octuplets. . . I know ZoS is proud of their companions and character designs. But here is the thing—you don’t make a game for yourself, you make it for an entire community and frankly, we don’t care about Bastion’s face. Well, some of us do, and a lot of us don’t. It gets old seeing his face over and over and over again, as well as all the other companions. Let us put helmets on them, especially Bastions annoying stupid face. Because I want to be able to customize my experience as much as possible. Also, can we just shut him up completely? If he asks me one more time what I am going to make with that I am gonna punch his face.

- Pathing. I would give my kingdom for the ability to not get caught up on a freaking twig when fighting an overland boss. MY KINGDOM. Sometimes the pathing is so freaking bad. My character lacks the ability to step over a pebble. Really? He is a giant 6’8” nord, who is taken down the Maelstrom Arena in Veteran, but he cannot for the life of him step over a twig. . .

- New races! After race balancing, cause again, those racials are just beyond comprehension. So bad. It’s like you prefer certain races over another. . . Racism in a fantasy game. . . But new races would be cool, or just one, special unlockable. Like Half Giants. I am tall, I like to play tall characters, I want to be as tall as Lyris! She is so cool.

Just some creative brainstorming around ideas I think would have been better time spent than U35. Because it’s time to just admit failure and be honest with the community. ZoS messed this one up. Take the L, own up to it, apologize even, the community will thank you, appreciate you, respect you, and might not go back to FF14, Wrath Classic, or any other game.

I’d be interested in hearing all the creative ideas the community would have as well. This is a list of things I have been thinking about since I started playing. I used to work in gaming and am a creative who still works in the creative field, so my ideas are more on the creative side of things, that’s my expertise. However, I am sure there are plenty of mechanics experts that have great ideas for improving combat and balance. I just stick with what I know.