Faun Falls word boss is an example of overtuned madness in overland getting nerfed to heck because it should never have been pushed to live being that broken. But sure blame the top end for being too strong and the game being built around them because it's their fault ZOS don't balance properly and won't listen to PTS feedback and want to force people to "have fun" with one-shot mechanics even in overland. It would be so good if we could just forget this year ever happened and try something actually helpful without breaking the game.

NextTuesday wrote: »

Faun Falls word boss is an example of overtuned madness in overland getting nerfed to heck because it should never have been pushed to live being that broken. But sure blame the top end for being too strong and the game being built around them because it's their fault ZOS don't balance properly and won't listen to PTS feedback and want to force people to "have fun" with one-shot mechanics even in overland. It would be so good if we could just forget this year ever happened and try something actually helpful without breaking the game.

What's broken about Faun Falls word boss? Seems like nice world boss with good mechanics to me. Are you upset because you can't figure out the ghost wall mechanic? 🙄

I'll take dynamic mechanics that involve agility and strategy over brain dead mechanics where you just stand there and parse on the WB. I want more complexity in this game and LESS content designed for literal children.

I said Faun Falls was overtuned on release and had to be nerfed. It's there in your quote. There is less wrong with it now than there was at release, when it would melee one shot people. I was clearing it with one other person on release before it got nerfed so no, I don't have trouble with the mechanics. The wall mechanic is fine except the hit box for the gap needs to be more clearly defined.

WBs do need to be accessible, they need to be clearable by the lowest common denominator as an overland item. By its nature it won't be stimulating to the top end, nor should it be, and that is why the top end has veteran arenas for hard solo content. We need more of those, not more complex overland stuff that non-overlanders don't care about anyway. I don't do WB dailies for the engagement and I don't want to. It's a grind and it should be easy to get over and done with.

Overlanders can have their relatively simple overland so we can have our relatively complex group and arena content. Separate overland from other stuff and let people play how they want. Some people want complex combat but others don't and there IS a middle ground that doesn't force either side to tolerate the other in sweeping combat changes every few months. Let each preference succeed in its own area and the game will flourish.

U36? Brother U33 was the start. My barswap ceased to function reliably at that point and I'd grind to a halt when the ball group showed up. Now my bar simply greys out and no skills at all work. Range is inconsistent at best and lag will rubberband me all over. I've started getting the loadscreens again. I thought we were finally rid of those...

Yeah, I got hit by a comet next to the couple stairs up to a transit shrine in a keep while I hit block but did not appear to do anything as I went flying and took damage, and another hit a second later while I was sill in the air and sent my higher. I could see the first landing on the stairs that lead to the D-ring.

Much fun. Such wow.

Please rework necromancer make the skull be as a pet and warden rework the ice skills to winds and make a new ice mage like sorceress please.

Only what i see is copy pasta the same text lines: Play The Way You Want, Active Combat etc...

Lol Crow you're going to get procs turned off in all PvP again now. So sayeth the combat dev overlords who don't actually play this game or understand how it's played.

Jaraal wrote: »

NextTuesday wrote: »

Lol Crow you're going to get procs turned off in all PvP again now. So sayeth the combat dev overlords who don't actually play this game or understand how it's played.

You're kidding, right? Part of ZOS' combat (and marketing) strategy is to release three to six overtuned sets (usually of the proc variety) every three months.

It will be interesting to see how the upcoming lack of new DLC affects the timing of the set production machine.

My money is on new Rewards for the Worthy. Dark Convergence was a great moment in PvP /s

Lol exactly. Don't have to fix PvP or combat in general if you just keep force-feeding the game overtuned procs XD

Next PvP release will be titled Cyrodiil: Proc Wars.

Except nothing has actually changed or been updated, let alone fixed, because power disparity or something idk buy crowns.

I agree, but can't imagine it will happen. I don't forsee any improvement in cyrodil at all. If anything I see it getting sunset in a year or two.

I will not be happy but it just seems like this is the direction they are headed.

Elsonso wrote: »

ZOS should not balance this game around the capabilities and preferences of the people who have mastered the game. At best, they can provide hard content for them, but the majority of the game has to be attainable by people who have not (yet) mastered the game. Even the hard content can't be too hard or it becomes a barrier.

Exactly the opposite. Every single game is balanced towards the high end in terms of player skill/knowledge, as it should be.
Every single top Strategy game is like that, every single top FPS games like that, every single MOBA is like that, every single BR is like that, and every single RPG and MMORPG should be like that. When we talking about Multiplayer/Online gaming.

Also all of this genres are at their top, aka Moba, FPS, BR, and the main reason is because of player skill involved the mechanics that you need to learn and get better as a gamer overall.
And guess what the top end are like in every single game, like 1 to 5% of the player base, and the rest are casual, but they don't cry out loudly or they do, but nothing is listen to them, and this genres are still the top in terms of player base.
The so call casuals watch the so call Pros and try to become as good as them. And they are showing the way, and how is done.

MMO for comparison to FPS require like zero efforts to be good at it. You need some practice, but nothing really demanding or hard. It's more of a knowledge you need to learn. In FPS games, that are so played, probably the most played genre out there, you will need years to just get good mechanics, and you will need to specifically target this mechanics in order to improve in them, like AIM, Movements, your positioning and so on.
And the Skill Ceiling and improvements you can make is literally unlimited.

In ESO for a plain example you need to click the mouse 1 per second, which even 1 year old can do, if you can't for whatever reason, then gaming, and especially Online one is not for you. LA Weaving is always been in the game, and it's always been about the timing of it, it's not how fast you can click your mouse or so.

Also game that you become a "master" in a week is a terribly designed game.

ESO Combat is already slow enough, and the only thing that makes it a bit of action-based is the LA Weaving.

And hell no Content/achievements should be hard. World Bosses should be hard. They should present a challenge and people that want to kill/beat them should put the work necessary to beat them.

In this game there is already enough of easy content. If you want to do the hard content in the game, then you should work towards it. Hard content meant to be hard and are not for everyone. IF you want to do them, you need to be good enough to do them.

Just like in Single Player Action games, in easy difficulty you can do the game with 1 game, normal is challenging, and Hard is exactly that Hard. Not to mention there should be Very Hard and so on difficulty content that should be achievable for a very few people, so you can actually feel rewarded when you do them.

A few things I believe many folks were looking for in a post of this nature:

• Timeline for completion of hybridization.

• Addressing the vast gap in difficulty from veteran difficulty to Hard Mode.

• Addressing a legitimate way for new players to learn mechanics so the skill gap can actually be closed a bit without constant heavy handed nerfs across the board.

• Addressing the distinct lack of a real reward system in the game. Having such a poor one really hurts replayability because what is the point? Especially with AWA. It might be time to take a page from some other MMOs and ask yourselves what is making them successful.

• Combat changes in an MMO are to be expected for skills and sets periodically but are we going to see an end to major core combat changes?

• A general timeline for addressing the major performance issues in pvp or at least an acknowledgement that it is being actively worked on meaningfully in the new year.

• QOL changes that aren't only acquirable through the crown store.

This is definitely not an exhaustive list but I think I can speak for most players when I say we really want to see something a bit more concrete.

Nihilr wrote: »

There seems to be a lot of complaining in this thread, but not really any constructive criticism going on.
HYBRID VARIETY
I disagree with hybridization making less variety. If you as a player haven't been experimenting with new set combos this year, you're sorely missing out. I have been loving the use of Vateshran Resto backbar on my stamina characters, because my playstyle is to set up passive healing at the start of a fight, and go glass cannon after to not worry about healing mid/late fight. You can wear medium on a mage, but you'll need to find penetration elsewhere in your build!


MASTERY
Now here's the biggest problem as others mentioned above: Making HM "the mastery", means that we have to build an exact way that you Devs expect us to! It's not all skill, because if it wasn't, then you'd scale the difficulty to hard-coded mechanics that don't let meta-builds cheese the bosses by burning them with boring robo-rotations.

I'd honestly prefer more mechanics, and 0 dps gates on all bosses. This would also open the game up to solo dungeon modes. Controversial and will get a lot of pushback: If we can complete a hardmode boss by ourselves with patience as a tank or healer, but still have a risk of getting 1-shot if we fail the puzzle/order-of-operations, then would that not be a fair alternative? Smashing the boss into oblivion shouldn't be the only way the game is played.

CONCLUSION
You're all doing a great job. Still expecting splitting skills, new skills, new weapons, or less dependency on animation cancelling with the future changes. I have played for a few years, my husband has played since 2016--and even I wouldn't mind relearning a new combat setup because the only people who are complaining are just angry that the game will be less "exclusive" for them in their 'perfected repeat attack pattern'. How loathesome.

You've gravely overlooked how important all the mechanics you claim to like or dislike effect end game PvP, all negatively might I add.

For example the hybrid meta really funneled play styles into a really weird spot. Let me tell you right now I see more players running resto back bar than SnB these days. Everyone is running the same 3 or 4 builds because literally all the other sets cannot keep up with the 3-4 builds we have now. As an avid theory crafter, specifically for PvP I can tell you sustain builds and raw damage builds aren't hardly viable. All the hybrid force did was allow all players to run the same high proc damage high damage mitigating builds. When you say you disagree I think you're only taking into the account that you can now slot any set and make it "work" but what you overlooked was the viability of the builds.

Your entire mastery take is focused strictly on PvE which just like the devs, shows much you neglect PvP as part of the game. I don't believe your points would effect PvP i.e. 0 dps gates on bosses, or solo dungeon runs but I just wanted to point out that mastery isn't just understanding dungeon and boss mechanics, but also player/combat mechanics in general. Which have been effected enough by PvE to impact PvE usually for the worse to be frank.

When it comes to mastery let me ask you. In terms of mastery combat, do you think picking and choosing times the times you should light, medium or heavy attack not pertain to skill? Is animation canceling not a mechanical skill that when used by two good players the player who tech flubs the least will often win, which insights skill level and mastery? I cannot stress how much you over look these skills as a mastery mechanic especially in PvP. Personally I don't see it making too much a difference in PvE, sure higher skilled players can dish out high numbers in shorter time maybe but you can get vet trials done regardless of players using advanced tech skill. I've Played this game since release and I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see the skill gap closing more and more because players don't want to learn mechanical tech skill but would rather slot the most powerful sets that do all the damage (not literally but quiet close) for them and just run with more players than the opposing players. PvP is never "perfect repeat attack pattern" the combos change consistently (with as much option as we currently have at least) depending on the situation and how you read it.

Please note, I'm not trying to take jabs at you or anything. I just think you completely overlooked a huge part of what these mechanics and changes have on ESO as a whole and you only focused on a PvE aspect. I just wish you inform you of the struggles the overlooked PvP community has to go through when these changes happen. You're definitely entitled to you own opinions of the game, but maybe I can at least open your mind a but and nudge you into, at the very least, not supporting the dev team in dismantling PvP.

Kallykat wrote: »

LordDragonMara wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

ZOS should not balance this game around the capabilities and preferences of the people who have mastered the game. At best, they can provide hard content for them, but the majority of the game has to be attainable by people who have not (yet) mastered the game. Even the hard content can't be too hard or it becomes a barrier.

Exactly the opposite. Every single game is balanced towards the high end in terms of player skill/knowledge, as it should be.
Every single top Strategy game is like that, every single top FPS games like that, every single MOBA is like that, every single BR is like that, and every single RPG and MMORPG should be like that. When we talking about Multiplayer/Online gaming.

Also all of this genres are at their top, aka Moba, FPS, BR, and the main reason is because of player skill involved the mechanics that you need to learn and get better as a gamer overall.
And guess what the top end are like in every single game, like 1 to 5% of the player base, and the rest are casual, but they don't cry out loudly or they do, but nothing is listen to them, and this genres are still the top in terms of player base.
The so call casuals watch the so call Pros and try to become as good as them. And they are showing the way, and how is done.

MMO for comparison to FPS require like zero efforts to be good at it. You need some practice, but nothing really demanding or hard. It's more of a knowledge you need to learn. In FPS games, that are so played, probably the most played genre out there, you will need years to just get good mechanics, and you will need to specifically target this mechanics in order to improve in them, like AIM, Movements, your positioning and so on.
And the Skill Ceiling and improvements you can make is literally unlimited.

In ESO for a plain example you need to click the mouse 1 per second, which even 1 year old can do, if you can't for whatever reason, then gaming, and especially Online one is not for you. LA Weaving is always been in the game, and it's always been about the timing of it, it's not how fast you can click your mouse or so.

Also game that you become a "master" in a week is a terribly designed game.

ESO Combat is already slow enough, and the only thing that makes it a bit of action-based is the LA Weaving.

And hell no Content/achievements should be hard. World Bosses should be hard. They should present a challenge and people that want to kill/beat them should put the work necessary to beat them.

In this game there is already enough of easy content. If you want to do the hard content in the game, then you should work towards it. Hard content meant to be hard and are not for everyone. IF you want to do them, you need to be good enough to do them.

Just like in Single Player Action games, in easy difficulty you can do the game with 1 game, normal is challenging, and Hard is exactly that Hard. Not to mention there should be Very Hard and so on difficulty content that should be achievable for a very few people, so you can actually feel rewarded when you do them.

So, just tell a whole portion of the playerbase they shouldn't play the game? That doesn't seem smart, and it doesn't fall in line with ESO's values. That's like saying to you, "You think the game is too easy? Don't play ESO then. It's not for you."

This game is meant to be played by people at various skill levels. Portions of the game are geared toward those with higher and lower skill levels. ESO is not an FPS game, and if ZOS tried to balance everything the way you suggest, they would lose a large portion of their playerbase.

The problem is when they try to balance everything too far in either direction. The game started out (2014) being too hard and didn't draw in the casual audience, but over the past few years, they have completely swung the direction of the balance way too far in the opposite direction catering almost solely for the casual players that don't want to do harder content and we are seeing a near complete loss of the other side of the player base that wants that challenging content in the game and who find that content fun and engaging.

They need to strike a balance when making changes, too casual and the game is no longer an MMO and more like a casual mobile game, too end game and the game loses the casual audience.

Getting that balance of both right is what they need to be aiming for, they made a good start and used to have normal dungeons for those that don't care at all about hard content but still provided some challenge to actually work through, they used to have vet dungeons that required at least some level of skill and knowledge to complete and HM content that was designed for the top 10% of players with score pushing being the very end game goal for the top 0.1%.

Unfortunately they have strayed from that design philosophy and currently they have normal mode that is story mode (basically watch a movie to complete this content), vet is now what normal used to be where it takes a bit of skill or knowledge to complete it but is otherwise easy content, but HM has been catered solely to the top 0.1% so that skill gap required to complete the hard content has naturally drastically increased to compensate for those design changes which have left nothing for those in between the top 0.1% and the average player.

It's like how they yoyo back and forth with class balance changes. instead of tweaking abilities by small percentage values, they either completely over buff them or they basically delete them from the game because they have become so unusable. There needs to be a middle ground.