Why can't we pick up the Chaosball in Werewolf form anymore?

Erickson9610 · October 2024

The Chaosball was reworked with the Battlegrounds update to possibly transform the player into a Werewolf Behemoth or a Vampire Lord, but one of the three Chaosballs don't transform your character into anything — the problem is that even this third one can't be picked up by players in Werewolf form.

I used to build Werewolf characters specifically for holding the Chaosball. Sure, it wasn't as tanky as a character in their human form could be, but it's sad to know that I can no longer use Werewolf form for holding the Chaosball like I once could. It used to be possible on the PTS, but was likely disabled to prevent a bug with the skill bars not being properly overwritten by the Chaosball transformation.

Is there a chance this change can be reviewed? I'd like to play as a Werewolf in Battlegrounds, but this change is actively working against that.
@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_BrianWheeler

huskandhunger · October 2024

Can we please let werewolves pick up the chaosballs please, 🥺 we like to play fetch the ball thank you 🙏😁

ZOS_Kevin · October 2024

Thanks for submitting this. We are passing this along for investigation.

IncultaWolf · October 2024

+1 I like playing my werewolf in battlegrounds, really sad to see this playstyle locked out of certain content

ZOS_Kevin · October 2024

@Erickson9610 and @IncultaWolf, to help with the investigation, can you confirm the following for me?

Are you talking about picking the Chaosball up after a player dropped it or from its original location?

IncultaWolf · October 2024

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@Erickson9610 and @IncultaWolf, to help with the investigation, can you confirm the following for me?

Are you talking about picking the Chaosball up after a player dropped it or from its original location?

Hey Kevin, so I went back and did some testing.

Werewolf CAN pick it up when it spawns initially, in the middle/original location, but CANNOT pick it up after another player drops it/dies. I recorded some footage if you need it.

@ZOS_Kevin

ZOS_Kevin · October 2024

Thanks for following up! Will definitely take the video to share with the team in the morning.

Erickson9610 · October 2024

IncultaWolf wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@Erickson9610 and @IncultaWolf, to help with the investigation, can you confirm the following for me?

Are you talking about picking the Chaosball up after a player dropped it or from its original location?

Hey Kevin, so I went back and did some testing.

Werewolf CAN pick it up when it spawns initially, in the middle/original location, but CANNOT pick it up after another player drops it/dies. I recorded some footage if you need it.

@ZOS_Kevin

I can confirm this myself. I took a few screenshots from my own gameplay.

When the Chaosball is dropped and you try to pick it up manually, you get the message "You cannot use this while transformed."

But when running over the Chaosball when it spawns, it is automatically picked up, and you don't get that error.

If picking up the Chaosball manually is unintended, then does that mean that Werewolf being able to hold the Chaosball when it spawns is also unintended?

IncultaWolf · October 2024

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thanks for following up! Will definitely take the video to share with the team in the morning.

https://youtu.be/3KJFrU-Hv_0?si=ifXJmatMg07M0rQI

Celas_Dranacea · October 2024

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thanks for following up! Will definitely take the video to share with the team in the morning.

Ty for looking into this sir! Gives us ww’s some hope

ZOS_Kevin · October 2024

Hi Folks! First, thanks for your feedback and sending the clips focusing on Werewolves not being able to pick up the Chaosball. Really helps get an answer swiftly on this issue.

After chatting with the team this morning, its been determined that currently this is working as designed. Players who are transformed into forms other than their standard humanoid form will no longer be able to pick up Chaos Balls which also Transform you into Behemoths or Vampire Lords. Standard Chaos Balls can be picked up while transformed if the Chaosball is in its native location, but not in the wild if you are transformed. This is currently working like this because we found issues in PTS that would have been problematic on the live server. This was the best way we could address it in the time we had before launch.

However, we plan to address this in a future update to be consistent regardless of your transformation status when interacting with the Chaosball. We'll share more once that update is ready.

tomofhyrule · October 2024

Seems there are a lot of anti-werewolf mechanics now. I get that being in werewolf form is a meme, but it definitely does feel like ESO is actively discouraging being a werewolf lately.

Besides the cosmetic issue in the Archive where werewolves get stuck in the verse animation when accepting one, there’s also a problem if a werewolf is sent to the Filer’s Wing side area. When you get transformed into a watcher, it needs to transform you twice and that ends up setting your health recovery to zero.

I really hope ZOS gives our wolves some love. I have so much fun playing mine, but I realize it’s completely gimping my character to be in wolf form (not to mention the fact that I want him to have brown fur so I’m forced to keep the transformation unmorphed as well). I’m not looking for them to be meta, but at least making it so they’re viable would be nice.

Erickson9610 · October 2024

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Seems there are a lot of anti-werewolf mechanics now. I get that being in werewolf form is a meme, but it definitely does feel like ESO is actively discouraging being a werewolf lately.

I don't expect to be able to bar swap for the Relequen mechanic in Cloudrest any time soon, but to lack the ability to crouch for places like the Hollowjack boss fight or the Tarcyr boss fight is especially unfortunate. I figured the Chaosball transformations would be the reason that Werewolves can no longer pick them up, and I hope that issue in particular is addressed soon.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Besides the cosmetic issue in the Archive where werewolves get stuck in the verse animation when accepting one, there’s also a problem if a werewolf is sent to the Filer’s Wing side area. When you get transformed into a watcher, it needs to transform you twice and that ends up setting your health recovery to zero.

It's interesting that there is a proper loop exit animation for selecting a Verse/Vision while in Werewolf form, but you only see it if you close out of the menu without selecting anything. Actually picking a Verse/Vision (which is required to progress) never properly plays the exit animation, letting your character slide around in that looping animation.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I really hope ZOS gives our wolves some love. I have so much fun playing mine, but I realize it’s completely gimping my character to be in wolf form (not to mention the fact that I want him to have brown fur so I’m forced to keep the transformation unmorphed as well). I’m not looking for them to be meta, but at least making it so they’re viable would be nice.

I agree with this. I'd much prefer to use the brown fur or even the NPC-only grey fur. All of the Werewolf players being either white-furred or black-furred gets old fast, considering how diverse their human forms can be customized. Between more cosmetic customization and viability in content, there's a lot more I hope for for the Werewolf playstyle.

IncultaWolf · October 2024

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi Folks! First, thanks for your feedback and sending the clips focusing on Werewolves not being able to pick up the Chaosball. Really helps get an answer swiftly on this issue.

After chatting with the team this morning, its been determined that currently this is working as designed. Players who are transformed into forms other than their standard humanoid form will no longer be able to pick up Chaos Balls which also Transform you into Behemoths or Vampire Lords. Standard Chaos Balls can be picked up while transformed if the Chaosball is in its native location, but not in the wild if you are transformed. This is currently working like this because we found issues in PTS that would have been problematic on the live server. This was the best way we could address it in the time we had before launch.

However, we plan to address this in a future update to be consistent regardless of your transformation status when interacting with the Chaosball. We'll share more once that update is ready.

Thanks Kevin, really glad to see it'll be addressed in the future. Also appreciate the communication/acknowledgement lately.

Trashasaurus · May 2025

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

However, we plan to address this in a future update to be consistent regardless of your transformation status when interacting with the Chaosball. We'll share more once that update is ready.

So is this never going to happen? Still can't.

JaxontheUnfortunate · May 2025

Yeah I wouldn’t be holding my breath in this one unfortunately, it just seems that anything WW related is not very high on the priority list.

CameraBeardThePirate · May 2025

JaxontheUnfortunate wrote: »

Yeah I wouldn’t be holding my breath in this one unfortunately, it just seems that anything WW related is not very high on the priority list.

It's a perfect meeting of the two things ZOS neglects the most, in fact. PvP x WW - the most redheaded stepchild of redheaded stepchildren

Hartanna_Lurk · June 12

Please, @ZOS_Kevin it's been 3 years.
Please fix it so Werewolf form can hit 'E' to pick up the Chaos Ball like everyone else.

Usureki · June 16

Yo! "That's not a bug, its a feature!" Rly?

Do we have any description in-game indicating this "feature"?

X94 · June 16

Because you are dog and you need to go sit unless I throw you a ball.

ZOS_Icy · June 19

Greetings,

We have closed this topic as it was originally created in October 2024. In many cases, it's better to create a new thread on a topic that you want to discuss as opposed to bumping one that is rather old.

The Elder Scrolls Online Team