came back to the game after a long break, what happened to light and heavy attack damage?

dsalter · September 2022

came across this "Oaken soul" ring and decided to dig into it, makes the game into a 1 bar option, GREAT! finally no more hurting my hands bar swapping to compete when my build was mostly stealth > heavy attack initiate > spam rapid strikes (for stam) or dump down liquid lighting, elemental wall and spam heavy lighting.
but then i noticed how pathetically low damage heavy attacking and light attacking was now... what happened? one QoL item added (personally i wish Oaken was base game so more folks could access and enjoy the single bar gameplay) only to find out the playstyle of many who have physical pains doing the whole bar swapping thing and relying on heavy/light spam was heavily nerfed.

are we expecting a base game ring added that amps up light and heavy attack damage by 300% but critical rating is forced to 0 to fix and make the game more accessible and thats why its nerfed? cause unless thats the case the whole point of using oaken was gutted as i dont see many game play benefits of a single bar if its not for accessibility as you are severely hampering debuff access along with more utility/hybrid options

Dr_Con · September 2022

heavy attacking inferno staff nightblades doing 40k+ damage out of stealth happened.

there were other people using dual wield who were just as bad, and leading up to the nerfs it was funny watching them trying to squeeze all they could out of these broken sets, and to see them disappear after the nerfs.

this was all in CP IC and cyrodiil btw.

Damage in these cheesy ways was nerfed across the board as power creep had occurred on certain items (*cough* caluurion's), a lot of community outcry which you can read about several pages back, many people even threatening to quit and following through on it (since it gutted certain playstyles and they couldn't keep up anymore), but people are still able to do insane parsing. U35 is pretty much the tanky ball ult dump group burst meta, there's few benefits of building squishy anymore. Reasons why is debatable.

I think the point of Oaken is to never have to pre-buff tbh. There's people still using it who do very well. It still works in no-proc gameplay when many feel it shouldn't.

Ghaleb · September 2022

U35 happened on August 22nd which introduced the changes you are referring to.

But you can retain your one-bar-build, as meanwhile a lot of my guildies use a one-bar-sorc-build which does 80-90k on the trial dummy, reliable 30-40k in trial runs and at times above 100k DPS in Trash.

stevenyaub16_ESO · September 2022

In pve you have to build for it and it's pretty decent. They are close behind conventional builds in dungeons which is surprising, and surpassing them if you aren't considered a top tier DD.

Hamish999 · September 2022

I'm loving Oakensoul on my magsorc heavy attack build. I'm now able to solo content I would have struggled with before.
You do have to commit to the style of play though and use sets like Sergeant's Mail to get the most benefit from the changes to Empower. I can get 60K+ single ticks from a lightning staff heavy attack.

dsalter · September 2022

glad to see the option of continuing my less agony playstyle is still available but having to go out of my way to get new sets and such just to get back to where i was is kind of off-putting, especially with how fickle RNG can be.
if PvP was the issue couldnt they have... maybe put a max damage cap on the battle spirit?

markulrich1966 · September 2022

Heavy staff attack hit like a wet noodle if you use "old" setups.

I used Mother Sorrow and Torugs Pact, on a sorc this now is underperforming heavily.

What you need are 2 things:
1.) empower, a buff you get from some skills, alternatively from the set "queens Elegance" (now renamed to "Elegant"). Empower increases damage of full heavy attacks by 80%.
Note: Empower works ONLY in PVE now, no longer in PVP.

2.) a heavy attack set. My favourite is sergeants Mail from wayrest sewers, I prefer it to undaunted unweaver or undaunted infiltrator from Arx Corinium and Blackheart haven.

The most impact has Empower, a Dragonknight gets it from Molten Armaments, a Templar from Solar Barrage, a sorc gets it from skills only if he reached mages guild 9, that offers a passive skill to get empower for 10 seconds casting a skill.

As I don't have MG 9 on all sorcersers, I started to equip them now with Queens Elegance. Second set then Sergeants Mail. Preferred Monster set Sellistrix.

On my DKs and Templar I combine Sergeants Mail with Torugs Pact or a damage set like New Moon Accolyte.

I'm sorry you just realized it now that the undaunted event is over, it made farming Sergeants Mail a little less tedious because the reward boxes from the endboss dropped set pieces.

On the plus side, my heavy attacks now are stronger than before U35 with my old setup, I can burn down a Worldboss like Thannar or Na'ruzz in Northern Elsweyr better now. Even without Oakensoul.

Artim_X · September 2022

Oakensoul provides empower so your damage should be about the same as before the patch. Oakensoul was probably the only thing properly balanced last patch.

Artim_X wrote: »

Magplar Parse PTS:

A very casual one-bar aedric spear heavy attack meme build that I'm currently recreating on live with a new character.
Rotation: Maintain elemental susceptibility throughout fight, Crescent Sweep at start of fight then on cooldown right after a heavy attack, Blazing Spear, Puncturing Sweep, Heavy Attack, Puncturing Sweep, Heavy Attack, Puncturing Sweep Heavy Attack, Blazing Spear, Puncturing Sweep, etc. etc. till enemy dead.
Gear: I messed around with different heavy attacks sets, but the only combination that consistently gave me the results I wanted was my absolute favorite Infallible Mage and Sergeant's Mail.
5 Infallible Mage (Divines with Max Mag Enchants), 1 Slimecraw Guise for max spell critical (Divines, light, Max Mag Enchants), Oakensoul Ring (arcane with spell damage enchant), Sergeant's Mail chest (Divines with Max Mag Enchants), and Sergeant's Mail's ring + necklace (arcane with spell damage enchant)/lightning staff (infused/shock enchant).