Brian seems like a super nice guy but I don't think he represents the sweaty PvPers very well

SkaraMinoc · 12:41AM

We had a 16+ hour power outage in the PNW this morning, so I missed the stream. I just finished rewatching it and I have a few takeaways.

Brian is super friendly and is probably genuinely fun to be around
Brian's BG build was not ideal (Hist Sap, Mara's Balm, Oakensoul, Spell Wall)
Brian's comment after getting stomped 0-500 was "that's okay, it's about the medal score you get"
Brian saying that SypherPK has a good kd ratio but they were only 6 kills 5 deaths
Brian unable to answer SypherPK's question about what ability was pulling them all in (Rush of Agony) and what Arcanist ability was stunning them (Rune)

Now I know some of it was about trying to keep the stream momentum going and to keep it friendly and casual for everyone to watch and enjoy. But my impression is that Brian doesn't represent the sweaty PvPers very well. This is not surprising to me given the way the Competitive Leaderboard is designed.

I appreciate the 2-sided 4v4 "competitive" battlegrounds. Personally I think they have potential. But I think they need to be designed specifically for veteran PvPers with an actually competitive leaderboard based on win/loss. Or at a minimum, split the leaderboards in two, one based on win/loss and another based on medal score.

Personofsecrets · 2:44AM

So Sypher's first experience back was getting Rush combod...

Orbital78 · 3:07AM

I'm kind of surprised they haven't put an monster only flag on rushing agony yet. It gets exploited a lot in Cyrodiil. Pulling you like 20m.

DeadlySerious · 3:08AM

Personofsecrets wrote: »

So Sypher's first experience back was getting Rush combod...

Oh please, please tell us that there is a video of this out there somewhere. I'm begging you!

I'd like nothing more than to see ZOS employees go to Cyrodiil and get yanked around into RoA death balls over and over again, and from way out of the official range of the set. Maybe if they see just how RoA just sucks the fun out of Cyrodiil they'll make some changes to the set. It just seems like they don't know because they've never seen it first hand, so they need to. That's all. Not wishing ill on zos employees, just saying I think things might change if they saw how bad RoA is to deal with first hand.

Poss · 3:33AM

Sypher’s question “what is that Arcanist hard cc called” was so awkward. It was met with complete silence from the head PvP guy because he just didn’t know. And then Brian’s claim he wasn’t a tank despite running Maras, Hist, 40k health and literally walking around the entire arena perma blocking. We’re currently plagued with an excruciating tank meta right now and I really can’t see this changing when the guy responsible for balance is rocking a Templar bubble tank himself.

This whole stream told me all I needed to know about the Dev’s opinion of PvP. I was looking forward to watching this, I grew up watching Sypher play ESO but I walked away feeling an intense sensation of emptiness. They really do not have a clue what the PvP playerbase want even Sypher looked bored out of his mind. This was exactly why he left the game in the first place

fizzylu · 3:45AM

Poss wrote: »

This whole stream told me all I needed to know about the Dev’s opinion of PvP.

I feel like it's been pretty clear where they stood the day the new BGs went live.

DemonicGoat · 4:03AM

Yea, That stream was insightful as to why things are they way they are around combat,pvp,bgs,etc. (IMO)

Syphers question to Brian at 01:33:40

The VOD is here:

10th anniversary..

Poss wrote: »

Sypher’s question “what is that Arcanist hard cc called” was met with complete silence from the head PvP guy because he just didn’t know. And then Brian’s claim he wasn’t a tank despite running Maras, Hist, 40k health and literally walking around the entire arena perma blocking.

This whole stream told me all I needed to know about the Dev’s opinion of PvP. I walked away feeling an intense sensation of emptiness. They really do not have a clue what the PvP playerbase want even Sypher looked bored out of his mind. This was exactly why he left the game in the first place

dinokstrunz · 4:14AM

Yeah the stream was painful to watch. ZoS really aren't doing themselves any favours with showcases like that.

Theignson · 4:55AM

There have been ~100 posts pointing out how broken and buggy RoA is. RoA is game breaking, gives no warning, pulls (with lag) way beyond the 12M (already a HUGE perimeter, larger than anything else in the game!)-- if you happen to be fighting somewhere in the vicinity you get pulled with no warning, NO CC IMMUNITY, so then you are cc'ed, then the death dump of ulti's from the mindless bot balls doing this.

It's sad that they seem unaware of what RoA is and how badly it's broken despite now years of posts. Maybe nobody from the developer team reads the posts anymore?

kevkj · 5:51AM

The marketing team or whoever set up the event did not do Mr Wheeler any favours. He's not a streamer by trade and he was expected to PVP (which did not appear to be something he did that often) and socialize/engage with streamers he presumably has never spoken to all while having to be cognizant that he is representing ZOS on the main stream. I do understand the novelty of having the lead combat dev playing on stream but I do not think it added to the experience positively. He could have been in the call, just talking to stream during matches and only chatting to the streamers in between.

fizzylu · 6:12AM

kevkj wrote: »

He's not a streamer by trade and he was expected to PVP (which did not appear to be something he did that often) and socialize/engage with streamers he presumably has never spoken to all while having to be cognizant that he is representing ZOS on the main stream.

I thought he was a big Cyrodiil player? But yeah, either way I don't think that's what I would say is the problem with the stream.... nope, not even close.

Rohamad_Ali · 6:27AM

Sypher sure picked a strange time to return. This update is a huge stinker.

Stafford197 · 7:05AM

Finally had a chance to see some of stream…. the people in charge are far less knowledgeable than most Vet players and also enjoy the tank meta. In their eyes, the current balance is in a good spot.

I think we already knew there was no hope for meaningful PvP changes, but at least for me the stream confirms it. Imagine thinking the tank meta will one day go away and then watching Brian’s build

And to be clear this is nothing against them on a personal level! Some people take it too far. It’s just a game. At the same time though, we should temper our expectations about balance ever improving.