How is the game now? Specifically Cyrodiil

AbraXuSeXile · January 6

Have things improved and hows pvp population? Been a long time since i played and my current game (swgemu) has gone a bit flat

xylena_lazarow · January 6

Not as bad as the u35 slump. Population is low but could recover. Performance isn't great but also not as bad as people complain. The meta is much better following long overdue nerfs to Vamp 3, Tarnished, and Sorc Ward. Still better off logging out than trying to fight against ball groups as a random.

React · January 6

I'd say it's pretty bad overall. Performance isn't always terrible, but can get really bad with large fights occurring. There have been quite a few new issues cropping up since the recent server outage that have yet to be acknowledged.

Population is genuinely >50% ball groups on any given night for PC NA. With the low population caps there tends to only ever be one or two fights happening at a time maximum, and the majority of the time there are ball groups present at these fights. It's pretty unfortunate honestly.

Meta isn't great. Undeath nerf was necessary, but there is a ton of free damage floating around coming from proc sets, status effects, and long duration dots - so you just get melted by pressure when a few people are hitting you with no way to counterplay it, often times.

AbraXuSeXile · January 6

React wrote: »

I'd say it's pretty bad overall. Performance isn't always terrible, but can get really bad with large fights occurring. There have been quite a few new issues cropping up since the recent server outage that have yet to be acknowledged.

Population is genuinely >50% ball groups on any given night for PC NA. With the low population caps there tends to only ever be one or two fights happening at a time maximum, and the majority of the time there are ball groups present at these fights. It's pretty unfortunate honestly.

Meta isn't great. Undeath nerf was necessary, but there is a ton of free damage floating around coming from proc sets, status effects, and long duration dots - so you just get melted by pressure when a few people are hitting you with no way to counterplay it, often times.

It's still that crappy proc set meta? -___-

Turtle_Bot · January 7

AbraXuSeXile wrote: »

React wrote: »

I'd say it's pretty bad overall. Performance isn't always terrible, but can get really bad with large fights occurring. There have been quite a few new issues cropping up since the recent server outage that have yet to be acknowledged.

Population is genuinely >50% ball groups on any given night for PC NA. With the low population caps there tends to only ever be one or two fights happening at a time maximum, and the majority of the time there are ball groups present at these fights. It's pretty unfortunate honestly.

Meta isn't great. Undeath nerf was necessary, but there is a ton of free damage floating around coming from proc sets, status effects, and long duration dots - so you just get melted by pressure when a few people are hitting you with no way to counterplay it, often times.

It's still that crappy proc set meta? -___-

yep, has been for ages now, every time a procset gets nerfed there's always a new proc set created to replace it that makes the meta just as meh.

Unfortunately some ball group players have also been on a massive crusade in recent patches getting anything and everything that somewhat works against them completely deleted from PvP as well (see the recent Azureblight deletion from PvP). It's made cyrodiil almost unbearable to go into lately if you don't have a group to go in with...

The 2 team BattleGrounds (BGs) have been fairly fun though (well the more casual 8v8 BG has been anyway, haven't really bothered with the sweaty 4v4 BGs). There were a lot of issues (queue drops, bugs, dropped from server etc.) recently, although it seems there has been some fixes.

xylena_lazarow · January 7

React wrote: »

status effects, and long duration dots - so you just get melted by pressure when a few people are hitting you with no way to counterplay it, often times

I refuse to believe a player of your level has trouble with this.

99% of my deaths are from direct range spam while outnumbered. The other 1% is Rushing Agony.

opethmaniac · January 7

Since the power crash on the datacenter the server and Cyrodiil runs like trash (in my case: Blackreach/EU). Lot (more then usual) lags, high APM movement directions will be swallowed so you ran around like a headless chicken. I mostly run Oakensoul, so bar swapping is no issue for me.

Versutia_1986 · January 7

Are performance issues just limited to PC or something? Admittedly, I don't play all day, every day. But, I play at peak on XB EU and I rarely have issues with performance. Ball groups, AvA(vA) or otherwise.

Pop is rarely 3 bars across the board from the times I go on. Maybe Friday/Saturday night? If one Alliance is streaming ahead, then forget any real contest, and pops will be low and made up of the hardcore.

Tigor · January 7

AbraXuSeXile wrote: »

Have things improved and hows pvp population? Been a long time since i played and my current game (swgemu) has gone a bit flat

Remember you were templar, very tanky. Now sorcs are OP, many new sets. Wardens, Necromancers and Arcanists have been introduced. Population changed, there are those who returned, never quitted and started. Performance has improved since the start. The long loading screens have gone. Lag is rarely noticable. Ball groups are not farming that much any more. I would say Cyrodiil has improved. The forum is also less toxic.
Maybe you should try to play it again.

AbraXuSeXile · January 7

Tigor wrote: »

AbraXuSeXile wrote: »

Have things improved and hows pvp population? Been a long time since i played and my current game (swgemu) has gone a bit flat

Remember you were templar, very tanky. Now sorcs are OP, many new sets. Wardens, Necromancers and Arcanists have been introduced. Population changed, there are those who returned, never quitted and started. Performance has improved since the start. The long loading screens have gone. Lag is rarely noticable. Ball groups are not farming that much any more. I would say Cyrodiil has improved. The forum is also less toxic.
Maybe you should try to play it again.

Yeah ive got 1 of each class but mained a templar mostly. I dont like the sound of a less toxic forum, The toxicity means its somewhat competitive.

Might give it a try its been some years now and my cp has probably fallen far behind from cap.

React · January 7

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

React wrote: »

status effects, and long duration dots - so you just get melted by pressure when a few people are hitting you with no way to counterplay it, often times

I refuse to believe a player of your level has trouble with this.

99% of my deaths are from direct range spam while outnumbered. The other 1% is Rushing Agony.

Open your cmx after any given solo outnumbered fight and look at your damage received. I think you're severely underestimating how impactful it is constantly having your heals offset by sources of "free" damage.

A common example is some random nightblade with a bow applying a poison injection to you. That poison injection can proc sheer venom 4 times, tarnished nightmare 3 times, the poisoned status effect any number of times depending on RNG, the glyph on the bow 3 times and potentially whatever status is associated with it, you'll get hit with sundered each time tarnished procs, etc.

All off one single cast of a 20 second long dot.

They've stuffed too much free damage into fire and forget abilities/playstyles when they should be buffing direct damage. Direct damage has counterplay, dots/status/procs do not (outside of templar purge).

xylena_lazarow · January 7

React wrote: »

Open your cmx after any given solo outnumbered fight and look at your damage received. I think you're severely underestimating how impactful it is constantly having your heals offset by sources of "free" damage.

Unless I'm jumped by a bunch of dueling builds, my defensive sustain and tactics cover it. It's the sudden spikes in damage from a mile away that get me, and it doesn't have to be from a player that I was actively engaged with, usually it's some pot shot Sorc(s) who didn't even show up until the end, so they're only a small % of my incoming damage in cmx.

I'm pretty happy that open world pressure builds like my DK are good again after that horrible u35 drought, but there's good reason you see a lot more ranged Sorcs (and Acuity Wardens) than pressure DKs.

React wrote: »

They've stuffed too much free damage into fire and forget abilities/playstyles when they should be buffing direct damage. Direct damage has counterplay, dots/status/procs do not (outside of templar purge).

Hots. Free healing buffs that affect hots. Dots and hots are baked into the combat, if you want pure direct damage only, pretty sure that's an entirely different game, more like Smash or Street Fighter.

React · January 7

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

Hots. Free healing buffs that affect hots. Dots and hots are baked into the combat, if you want pure direct damage only, pretty sure that's an entirely different game, more like Smash or Street Fighter.

It's what this game used to be, during the times that the majority of the veteran playerbase reflects fondly on as the "golden eras". Back when the vast majority of damage in the game was burst sourced through direct damage skills that had adequate counterplay via well timed rolling and blocking, and which also required more thought on the user's behalf than simply applying 20 second dots & proc sets.

If the current pressure was like the old pressure and was being upkept by a careful and practiced rotation of 4-10 second dots, it would be more acceptable. But that isn't the case. Current pressure is coming from 20 second dots continually proccing free status effects, glyphs, proc sets, and from things like ele susc and jeralls. It isn't skillful, it isn't fun to utilize or fight against, and it lacks adequate counterplay.

I mean seriously, open your CMX and look at your top sources of damage received across multiple solo outnumbered fights. Look at how often status effects and proc sets are up at the top. It is blatantly obvious that they're overperforming, especially when compared to sources of direct damage. It would be great for the overall health of PVP if they shifted damage away from status & procs into more sources of direct damage.

LarsS · January 7

ZOS will release a new campaign this year with specific class pvp skills that will allow higher pop limits. Will be interesting to see if they succed.

xylena_lazarow · January 7

React wrote: »

It's what this game used to be, during the times that the majority of the veteran playerbase reflects fondly on as the "golden eras".... I mean seriously, open your CMX

Look at a 1v1 where you beat a DK dueler, odds are they still had a lot more total damage than your Blade. I've lost long duels to Blades where I doubled up on their dps but got got by a combo (git gud Xy). You're a burst player yet you're parsing your cmx reads as if total raw dps is all that matters, if that was the case, we'd all be on our PvE builds.

Dunno which era you mean, for me it was basically 2015-2018 when I was my most tryhard, there was a pretty good balance of tanky Defile attrition builds, midrange dot pressure builds, and bursty glass cannons. Dot skills were relatively much stronger than they are now, so you had less reliance on status effects or proc sets.

Once Summerset hit and they nerfed everything, it was a boring tank meta dominated by Wardens holding block for minutes at a time in between identical wombo combo attempts (same as they do now). It's low apm, low risk, and low skill ceiling, but it's incredibly strong thanks to generic defensive power creep and a busted proc set that's basically a better version of Zaan that you can't LoS or purge, but players will excuse it because it's BiG nUmBeRs not a fireball.

I quit for a few years until Malacath livened things up. Great build and playstyle diversity as long as you had Malacath.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO · January 7

AbraXuSeXile wrote: »

Tigor wrote: »

AbraXuSeXile wrote: »

Have things improved and hows pvp population? Been a long time since i played and my current game (swgemu) has gone a bit flat

Remember you were templar, very tanky. Now sorcs are OP, many new sets. Wardens, Necromancers and Arcanists have been introduced. Population changed, there are those who returned, never quitted and started. Performance has improved since the start. The long loading screens have gone. Lag is rarely noticable. Ball groups are not farming that much any more. I would say Cyrodiil has improved. The forum is also less toxic.
Maybe you should try to play it again.

Yeah ive got 1 of each class but mained a templar mostly. I dont like the sound of a less toxic forum, The toxicity means its somewhat competitive.

Might give it a try its been some years now and my cp has probably fallen far behind from cap.

If you have a group to play with it can be fun but it wont be as good as it was prior to the time you quit its only got worse since then.

Ulvich · January 8

The only reason I run Cyrodiil is because I have done all other content. And even then Cyrodiil is rather monotonous. It's always the same thing.... Capture a keep, capture a scroll, capture resources, fight a few players... all the while you are hoping you don't get kicked from the server.

Arjuska · January 8

I've also had a couple of years break from active playing and got back during the holidays.

8v8 battlegrounds was the best change they've done in a while, can be really fun!

Cyrodiil alone is pretty depressing as always, but I played recently with a group of 5-6 and that was quite fun actually, so I think with proper builds if you have a couple of friends it can be alright

Still some lag during primetime, but not as bad as it has been.

Looks like there's a fair bunch of old returning players as well, been seeing my friendlist be even 6 people online at one time! It's a miracle

JustLovely · January 8

AbraXuSeXile wrote: »

Have things improved and hows pvp population? Been a long time since i played and my current game (swgemu) has gone a bit flat

PvP population cap is the lowest it's ever been in the history of the game right now. Yet often times you can still get in with no queue during prime time. That should answer your question.