Scribing gave me access to a Magicka pull/Taunt ability for pugging dungeons/Trials as a NB Tank via Leashing Soul. It let me add more armor shred from Minor Breach to my Oakensoul 2H off-tank in addition to an immobilize via Binding Soul. Love it.

PvP subclassing I haven't really changed my go-to Oakensoul build (since I've got Offering/Cloak/Merciless as cornerstones)

I've experimented dropping siphoning for Storm Calling and Overload LA weaving and increased defenses with Lightning form, and evasion with Bolt Escape, using Monomyth.

As for the receiving end I've just gotten used to Fossilize/Shalk/Merciless burst from players I can barely put a dent in even going full glass cannon. (Usually means I'm respawning)

Working on NB PvE DPS (Tome/Assassination/(Pending unlock)Aedric) too, but still experimenting with builds and feel like I need to grind out a Templar for its passive stats before I can really get back into it (sadge that I deleted my old Templar a while ago), but luckily I have chars at level 50 for every other class so as a vet player it's generally a very smooth transition into subclassing (RIP fledgling players).

- Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?
Yes absolutely.

- If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?
i have multiple builds.
my main build for my main character was mostly grimoires, Netch, Feral Guardian.

- What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before?
i replaced Green Balance and Winter's Embrace with Daedric Summoning and Herald of the Tome. I'm happy to finally be able to summon daedric pets and use Fatecarver on my Warden and all other characters.

replaced Animal Companions and Winter's Embrace with Shadow and Storm Calling on my Vampire and maximum speed builds.


- What game content was it?
Subclassing my damage builds has made content easier like world bosses, infinite Archive, incursions, dungeons.

i got Shadow and Storm Calling for Shadowy Disguise and Bolt Escape, there's recovery passives too which is nice. and they help with Theft. Lets me not need invisibility potions anymore.

Played vet dungeons and trials, PVP (poorly, but I enjoy it - cyrodil>BGs personally)
My mains were magplar (pve) and stamdk (PVP) though I did enjoy the arca and nb too
Tried subclassing - Can I do content I couldn't previously? I could do everything previously (except hm and trifectas - because I never wanted to get into the groups for them). Now: damage is higher which I didn't mind, I'm pretty casual so I like easier.

What I didn't like is that I don't really feel the point of alts anymore. Class identity feels dead - I had my DK tank, plar, NB, and Arca DDs and Necro heal, now what's the point - pick the prettiest and off you go.

I took a break because the direction of the game has been irritating me the past few patches. It bugs me to have to drastically change my build and play style every patch - I am an average player, but like to pull my weight and not just hope some S-tier DD will be in my my vet pug.

Sorry for the long rant, but I used to play this daily - be excited to log in. Now? Eh.

Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?

Not really. No.


If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?

It didn't but I'll tell you what I did anyway.

PriorBuild: Oakensoul Magic Nightblade for strictly solo or duo damage-centric PVE. Not Heavy Attack.

I took the STORM CALLING line of Sorcerer on my main, my oakensoul Nightblade, in place of of the SHADOW skill line because the Shadow line is mostly useless to me. Replaced Blockade with Ligtning Flood. It didn't change much.

If you think about it, players who use oakensoul out of need or preference aren't going to benefit as much from subclassing. We only have room for 5 actives, and it looks like you are changing our class skills to duplicate the useful effects of the oakensoul mythic. Certainly for Nightblade. That's a loss, not a gain.


What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before?

See above. It didn't allow me to do anything I couldn't do before.

In my opinion, Nightblade was not overpowered in PVE before U46, in fact, in my opinion it was not a popular damage dealer PVE class. After messing around with the Assassination Skill Line the way you have, particularly in U47, it could be even less useful in PVE - if that matters.

If I could go back to my pure Nightblade as it was before U46 I would do that.

My max level characters are all Nightblades with one Sorcerer, so I don't have an Arcanist to pick from. I could grind one, but at this point I do not plan to do that.

Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?

Yes

If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?

Many characters, many builds and the subclassed characters have all had their builds drastically changed. I tend to make changes slowly and methodically so I've only changed some aspects on some characters as yet.

What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before?

Application of the two most effective damage skill lines: Assassination & Herald of the Tome.

In one build a sorc healer became much more proficient in group healing by replacing irritating old flappy with Extended Ritual from the Templars Restoring Light.

What game content was it?

PVE, all the way up to World Bosses (but I still cannot solo some of the newer ones). As these new builds have changed skill rotations one is still learning.

I'm not not proficient in PVP and therefore cannot comment on that aspect.

With subclassing however I was able to convert my Arcanist into a master assassin.

I've never liked the Arcanist class primarily for the overabundance of green colour effects which I personally find quite sickening. I fervently wish that we had skill colours for all skills so one could return to actually using these class skills again. I did however build a very capable and effective Arcanist before the update but that character did not get much playtime due the greenness.

This Master Assassin Arcanist is my new favorite after Update 46.

Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46? My damage output has improved. So far, I have not competed any content that I could not complete before.
If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build? Arcanist class build
What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before? Subclassing Arcanist/Nightblade/Templar
What game content was it? Veteran Trials

Separately, I have lots of alts, and most of them still need to be updated for subclassing and scribing. I still want to redo my tank and healer alts for subclassing and scribing. And most of my damage dealing alts still need updated. I think subclassing and scribing are time consuming, and sometimes when I am getting frustrated with the grinding, I think that I was happier before they were introduced.

Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?

• Playing the same content but having some more fun with more difficult levels of IA, certain dlc world bosses, and clearing dungeons solo faster which is nice. Vet dungeons seem to go faster for sure.
• I'd say the biggest change is I find myself experimenting with a bunch more builds that basically resolve some gameplay and flow issues various classes have
• Also I think its led me to experiment more so im learning more about how to build semi optimized stuff

If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?

• Nightblade -> Messed with Gravelord a bit but I found for NB running another DPS skill line wasn't really needed and it impacted my sustain/mitigation in ways I didn't really want. Main thing is my current NB pure class build game play was already super dynamic and exactly what I wanted. Stamina Dagger Bow build with Rapid Strikes + Poison injection and the built in execute abilities + grim focus. DPS has been totally fine post Update 46 so I never bothered really pursuing to much sub-classing on this one. One or two flex slots below but nothing I am looking to actively solve for with sub-classing at the moment. Gameplays smooth and works well enough for the content I play.
  
  Before:
  
  
  After: Work In-Progress
  
  
  
• Dragon Knight -> Similar to NB the core kit for DK was already coherent for me and worked so well every sub-class adjustment I have tried has felt like I was losing some of the flow that makes Stamina DK dot melee stuff so fun. The sustain changes I had to adjust gear/food/enchants a bit to deal with thats about it. At some point ill continue test out mixing in a proper execute ability with Dawns Wrath but honestly that has kinda screwed up the gameplay flow & dps/def/sustain mix I currently have with DK more than I want to.
  
  Before:
  
  
  After: Work In-Progress
  
  
  
• Sorc -> This ones tough. I have run a Stamina No Pet Dagger + Bow build here to with an emphasis on Bound Armaments and Crystal Fragments. Absolutely was one of my favorite builds pre-patch. Havent played as much lately, I figure just wait until ya'll are done tinkering. I have tried swapping in Assassination but it felt like I was losing something unique from before so I gave up on that kinda quickly.
  
  Before:
  
  
  After: Work In-Progress
  
  
  
• Warden -> This is the first class I really leveraged sub-classing with. Warden Animal Companion and Winters Embrace are awesome and super thematic unique skill lines so I kept those and just added Assassination since Warden has never really had a good finisher. Where i landed is super fun for me works good in most solo content and has some sweet burst dmg. Core of the theme here is still where I want it, I just have some extra functionality and access to executes that were only really accessible via weapons skill lines before.
  
  Before:
  
  
  After:
  
  
  
• Necro -> One of the classes like arcanist that I think has seen the most gameplay benefit from sub-classing for me but also the most dramatic replacement of Necro abilities. On net I ended up with something I massively enjoy that feels thematic despite the minimal # of necro skills im still using. Grave Lord + Animal Companion + Dawns Wrath has been dope. Pre-patch necro gameplay loop was fun but sorta awkward with Blast Bones. Necro base class has always been a struggle to fit the puzzle pieces together (some good stuff there just really hard to find). Sub-classing has let me swap a bunch of stuff like blastbones out entirely for Deep Fissure delayed burst. Net net...im playing my necro a ton now across content and enjoying the hell out of it. I definitely enjoyed the base class corpsebuster build I had from before and would return to it if the necro class in general sees some quality of life improvements and some dot/morphs that sync better with other skills.
  
  Before:
  
  
  After:
  
  
  
• Templar -> This is definitely a class I plan to mess with sub-classing on just havent gotten to it yet. Might be that I take the necro build I landed on and simply construct here instead. I did land on a build with Storm Calling and Assisnation that I am for sure enjoying but its not quite settled and ill probably go back to the drawing board over time with this. Templar is the class I am most likely to go full tank on with sub-classing and see what I can do there.
  
  Before:
  
  
  After: Work In-Progress
  
  
  
• Arcanist -> Pre-patch arcanist was honestly the class I played the least since the beam based builds had some of the least fun gameplay of all classes. Just has none of the dynamic active combat flow that the rest of ESO is sorta structured around. After patch though....oh man I was able to basically entirely reconstruct Arcanist into something that is now arguably my favorite build. Switched to Tentacular Dread burst as the core of the build and havent looked back. It is super effective and soooo much more fun than the beam stuff. Settled on Herald of the Tome + Storm Calling + Winters Embrace. The build I had before sub-classing was just not fun. This though....yea entertaining and no more beam! Wish I could post a video for this one's gameplay its great, using the two scribe abilities to build crux cleanly in rotation. Its so fun it makes me tolerate how visually distracting the giant green triangles constantly in the middle of the screen are instead of just being crux symbols or numbers above my skill bar.
  
  After:
  
  
  

Anyway sub-classing has been awesome thanks for introducing it. Some awkward changes but overall good stuff.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All! We are looking to understand how Update 46 and the launch of Subclassing, and more recently making Scribing a part of the base game, may have changed the play experience and character build for you and the content you engage in.

• Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?
• If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?
• What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before?
• What game content was it?

Any and all feedback is helpful for us to relay back to the Combat Team. That way, they have anecdotal experience to add to their existing data. Thanks in advance to all constructive feedback!

(This is strictly to get feedback on your play experience between Update 45 and Update 46. We are not factoring Update 47 PTS feedback in this since it is not available to everyone at the moment).

Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?
No.

feedback is helpful
Zos policy/paradigm of catering to casual, ephemeral and/or occasional players rather than a more eclectic approach inclusive to existing long term players has pretty much hit many longer term players who have simply quit. You know: apparent lack of interest in them, their needs etc is pretty much reflected when they move on from eso. The ones like me who are left have been entrained by this policy/paradigm towards a much more transient and casual approach, expecting less and spending less time in game and less money.

Regarding scribing and subclassing I have barely looked at either. I just don't feel motivated to do so, especially since this casualisation policy/paradigm, among others, has driven away a lot of players I'd normally do group content with. In fairness, I do have time-constraints which also impacts my game time. My main concern with subclassing is the destruction of the core game classes which will make it much harder for these ephemeral/transient casual players (me now) zos have created and/or encouraged to resume eso with extant characters on relogging after an absence. With scribing and the associated Golden Pursuit currently active, which is presumably to encourage an exploration of scribing, zos have disincentivised me to engage because I actually bought Gold Road so cannot grab even the simplest of those by 'claiming scribing from the crown store'. Again, this apparent absence of real interest in me as a paying player is reflected as no interest from me in engaging with eso and any 'new' system introduced. In fairness, once more, Golden Pursuits are generally as interesting to me as watching paint dry but, still, I'd expect more effort and directed intent towards inclusivity in such game activities from zos, nonetheless.

I fully expect a new 'update 35' incoming which will hammer damage and sustain - and likely any interest in resumption of playing eso given the implied pressure at that point to embrace, in particular, subclassing for any of my characters to have any kind of group role viability. It's already clear that the core classes and their viability are the first casuality to subclassing and, despite statements that it's not zos' intent to do this, I don't really see this improving.

Thanks for asking, though.

Thanks for the opportunity to give feedback here.

I'm sorry, but I have to start by saying I despise Subclassing. I don't hate the idea of it, but the way it was implemented felt like someone took a sledgehammer to ESO and now we're sifting through the detritus to see what is salvageable. I'll start by addressing your specific questions, and then I'll have some further thoughts afterwards:

Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46? If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?

No, not in the slightest.

I play top-end dungeons and high-end trials on my main, who is a Dragonknight tank. I'm very comfortable with how he plays and I really enjoy it. I'm also very much into the character design and backstory I have (more on that below), so I started ESO knowing that I wanted him to be a DK and I liked his identity and skills. My standard setup for most things looked like this for trash/bosses:
  
With that setup - and some changes for specific things here and there - I managed to get every 4-man trifecta in the game (I got Lep Seclusa as my last one the week before U46 dropped), as well as the first 5 trial trifectas (TTT, IR, GH, GS, DB) and some of the later HMs.

Now I do have an overland build for him as well that's specifically my "lore-friendly screw-around build" using off-meta sets and skills but it really matches the way I want my character to be.

I'll say that the Shield Toss skill alone sold Gold Road to me because I've been dying to be able to have my main go full Steve Rogers, and I threw a knockback on it so I can spend five minutes just laughing because I tossed a shield at some mob's head and threw him off a cliff with it. Meta? No. But fun? Heck yes. And I can very easily Armory between my for-fun and sweaty builds depending on what I'm doing that day.

What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before? What game content was it?

Now? Well, I can still do all of that content. It hasn't changed that.

But now it just feels so wrong to play. As I said, I'm really into my whole design for my character, and now I have to throw away everything about him because I'm "supposed" to run something. It feels dirty - like I'm just playing a random build that I have no input in because the difference between a meta build and anything else is immense. Who cares what I want to play, because now all that matters is what I have to play.
  
Like... he's themed around fire. Not ice! What? And what is this Hermaeus Mora nonsense doing here?!? He's not a Daedric Cultist! I had to throw away a lot of my fire skills so I could throw in all of this other stuff I need to run because the group needs it all. It doesn't feel like my character anymore, just some random mish-mash of "here, run this because you need to!"

I know one of the big ideas we hear a lot (even from the devs!) is "Play the way you want! You don't need to play meta if you don't want to!" Which... well, no, not really. Especially if you're talking about the later trial HMs. But even for lower level content than that like standard vets, we need to remember that we live in a society. We can't solo vDSR, so you need other people there. And if you're getting people to take the time to run things with you, it is the mark of a good citizen to show up at your best. If you're coming in and telling the group that you don't care about them and treat them like disposable NPCs, then they're also free to take someone else who does want to play with others.
I always compare it to doing a group project in school. Sure, you could tell your groupmates that you're not going to do any of the planning with them and you'll do your part of the project on the topic you want whether they want to do that topic or not and then drop it in their lap. But that's not going to get you a good grade; that's likely to make your groupmates complain to the teacher that you're not working with them and they'll try to get you replaced. That isn't toxicity, at least not on the part of the group. That is toxicity on your part for treating the other members like trash and not wanting to work with them to do a project together.

Now I do still play my standard build sometimes when I'm in a group of friends and they also don't mind me willingly eating nerfs and playing at a subpar level since I'm now not playing the best of the best setup. And that's much more fun since that's the build I made for my character. And yes, I can still do the content at a high level. But I know that I am gimping myself by doing so, and I do not want to inflict that on random people.

So yes, I can still do all the content I did. The only thing is that I am not having fun anymore. It feels like a chore, and I want to get out and put my fun build back on... which then feels like a bit of a letdown since I'm not pushing myself in high level content. In short, because of Subclassing, it feels like ESO's new mantra is "Play the way you want, or play the content you want. But not both."

---

So when I first heard about Subclassing (and yes, it was leaked through all of the Trial Discords a few weeks before the official reveal), we all knew that it looked like a disaster waiting to happen. We all know that the Classes themselves are not completely balanced with each other, and now we're going to allow people to drop their underperforming lines and take overperforming lines from other Classes as well. The raider Discords were already calling the meta setups even before the official reveal... and they were all right. And yet, it almost seems like... the combat team didn't anticipate any combos beyond 'Zookeeper' and 'Elementalist'?

Now I'll say it again: I don't have a problem with Subclassing existing in the first place. I'm really happy for the people who are able to make their fun overland builds a little close to what they wanted them to be, I really am. But it needed some limits on it to prevent it from bringing a wrecking ball to combat. I actually would have even liked a freer form of Subclassing: get rid of the skill point and XP penalties, allow swapping all three lines, and allow accepting multiple lines from the same Parent Class. But balance it properly. Personally, I would have started by allowing Subclassing just by swapping lines willy-nilly to be possible in overland and normal content only, so PvP and vet PvE would still have some structure. Maybe as it's balanced further, then start to open it up later. I was really hoping that would be the case, and... well, the Khajiit's out of the bag now.

This does remind me a lot of the Vengeance tests in a way - a lot of players like Vengeance as it is and that's great. But a lot of the hardcore PvPers loathe Vengeance because they have fun by building and experimenting with sets and skills and the like... and that part isn't in Vengeance. Similarly, high-level PvE since Subclassing has pretty well turned into "If you are a DPS, run this setup. If you are a tank, run this setup. If you are a healer, run this setup" because nothing else comes close to that level of power. It's "template PvE," just making us farm the stuff for our own templates. The creativity and fun we used to have progging high-level content has been drowned out in a green (and sometimes cyan) laser rave with everyone holding red glowsticks.

As I said, I'm extremely into the character design and development process. I spend months preparing my characters and writing their backstories. I have one character per Class, and I designed them around their Class because I see their Class as their set of abilities. Scribing actually was a lot of fun since I could start to pull in elemental attacks that are not native to their Classes, but once Subclassing hit... well I was originally going to do it for a few of them, but I ended up hating it so much that I stubbornly kept all of my characters pure and took it as a personal challenge to build them the way I wanted using only sets and Scribed skills to spite Subclassing - like my Maormer Elemental Monk character (Sorcerer) who I built to use wind, water, and earth from his sets, fire and lightning from his staves, and then a Scribed skill to give him some ice along with the wind and lightning he has native to his class.
I actually was invited to a friend's stream as part of the ESO Tenfest to talk about my character design process (also featuring the next character design I have waiting in the wings for as soon as we get a new Class... hopefully soon please!)
That's also one of the things I actually like about Subclassing too - the fact that Subclassing would allow ZOS to add a new Class and then players who just want to toy around with the new lines could do so on existing characters, but those like me would still have the option of making a brand new Level 1 character to explore the new tutorial and updated starter zones.

Now, I'll admit that my alts are just for-fun characters, so I'm not really concerned about them being underpowered compared to the meta (especially considering my second character is a werewolf who keeps his transformation unmorphed since his fur is not supposed to be black or white. Then again, he's supposed to be a brown werebear so that's a different problem entirely - which again could be fixed with Skill styling, please...)
But as for my main... that's where it hurts. And it really hurts that in order to play at a high level, I am expected to throw away his individuality and the setup I made for him because having a pure DK is so incredibly much worse than anything I could do with a Subclassed setup (or rather, there's really only one or two Subclassed setups that would be acceptable themselves).

The other main issue I have is that Subclassing and all the balance around it seems... directionless. We're at the point where there are massive pendulum swings in the combat design and nobody knows what the Combat Team's goal even is. Even in some of the PTS discussion, there are two schools of thought on how it should be (I wrote a whole post on this over there) Basically, everyone can agree that a focused build should be more powerful than a jack-of-all-trades build, but which is the 'focused' build and which is the 'jack-of-all-trades' build? Are we focusing on a character's role, so a character with 3x DPS lines should do more damage than a pure Class which can do all roles with those lines; or are we focusing on a character's archetype, so a character who specs hard into their parent Class will be stronger than a character who trades some of their Class's innate weaknesses for another Class line to have more abilities?
Personally, I am in the latter camp. Using something like D&D as an example, a character who keeps one Class all the way to level 20 will have access to a smaller number of abilities since they can only access their Class's abilities... but they have the most powerful versions of those abilities, whereas a character who picked up a multiclass can't access those top-level abilities, but has a lot more options in combat.
(I'll also point out that I use D&D as an example since it is most similar to the Class system in ESO. Classes in previous TES games were more just telling you which skills started out at a higher level, but it's difficult to compare a solo RPG to an MMO since balance isn't really a factor in a solo game since other people aren't involved so you can be as godmode as you want, but when others are around you do need to worry about balance)

That balance swinging is also torturous, since the obvious solution is always "let's nerf skill X because it's OP if it's combined with skill Y from a different parent Class!" But... what if you're not running that combo? What if you are just running skill X because you like the three parent Class lines, and now you were just handed a major nerf on the potential that you might combine it with Y... which you're not. You just lost a lot of power with nothing to show for it.
That's what we've seen for the 'balancing' in U46, particularly with the severe nerfs to DK sustain and Sorc pet business. The balance isn't conditional to using Subclassing, it's essentially "you'd better Subclassing or else you'll lose a lot of power!" There's a part of it that feels like we're being... 'encouraged' to Subclass whether we want to or not. I know I've heard that "pure Classes feel very underpowered compared to Subclassing" was a major piece of feedback even from the Content Creators testing an early build, but that hasn't really been addressed. I don't like that it feels almost like the devs are telling me that the way I like to play is "wrong." But as it is, anyone who chooses not to Subclass is willingly taking a massive self-nerf and for what?

Another thing I'll point out related to the above is that it almost seems that even the devs don't realize how the Classes are built. Now I don't expect the developers to play the game outside of work or be pros at it, but there should be some base level of understanding of the mechanics of the game. In the Developer Preview article, the Systems Designer is quoted as saying "players can drop their tank and support skill lines for more damage-dealing abilities and passives." But... only three of the seven Classes have strictly defined skill lines by role. That's less than half of the Classes! All of the basegame Classes (DK, NB, Templar, Sorc) have some lines that may fit better into one role of the other, but most players before Subclassing would use a mix of skills from two or even all three lines. How can we drop a healing line if we don't have a healing line?

I do think that the combat team coming out and saying what their goal is for balance - whether to consider a role as the focus or a Class as the focus - would help. It does seem that most people who are not fans of Subclassing as it is are the ones who favor the parent Classes as the focused builds and Subclassed builds as being able to spread out utility and use other skills to account for innate weaknesses. Even the preview article does reference this by saying "Also, there is no desire to reduce the effectiveness of pure classes and their ability to complete content," but the massive power Subclassing allowed did de facto reduce the effectiveness of pure Classes greatly.

That also leads to a discussion of Class Identity. Players have always talked about Class Identity as a way to tell how the character feels - DKs always felt a bit on the tanky side, even as a DD or healer; Sorcs were your streaky movement Class; and so on. This was especially important in PvP since you wanted to have an idea what that enemy would do - you see them go into stealth and you know there's a NB around: everyone hold block since they will probably try to bomb on the flags or the like. Now, you see someone in PvP with a Netch following them and you have no idea what's coming.
I'll go back to that article again: "Class identity is still important for key aspects of our game: Achievement, class styles, class scripts, class item sets, and so much more," but this reads almost like an insult. When players talk about Class Identity, we mean the skills they use and how we can anticipate their actions. That is gone. There is no more Class identity. And yet, the devs are holding onto this idea of "Class identity" because... God forbid someone who wasn't born a NB wears pants with modelled-on pockets?!?! What?!?! Locking the Class set style pages was an unpopular move when it was first done in U41 (when they were unlocked in U40), and now the team is doubling down on that?!?!

So yeah, that was a book, I know. But I'm writing all of this because I really love this game. I just... don't really love the direction it's been going in lately.
As an anecdote, I'm known in my friends circle as the Bugtester. If there is a bug in this game, I will find it and I will be affected by it. I once lost all of my Trial gear when my storage chests were deleted and it took a month to get it all back. I spent a full patch cycle unable to do any questing whatsoever because my quest states were all borked. I got an 11-day temp ban in the PTS Planemeld since I want to test every patch and give my feedback.
And even after all of that, I have never dropped ESO. But U46's completely unbalanced mess that was Subclassing got me the closest to uninstalling that I've ever been.

It makes me sad that I spend my time going onto the PTS every cycle to test things and make reports, only for pretty well all of the PTS feedback to be discarded without a glance. I'm not a content creator; I'm doing it all because I love this game, but I've come to the feeling that this game doesn't care one bit about me. Between the utter lack of communication, and the one-two punch of bad news of the NA event getting cancelled and then reading between the lines of the Director's letter, it really left a sense of hopelessness behind.

I'll admit, I'm pretty well at the "log on, do endeavors, log off and go play something fun" stage. ESO has kinda lost that fun for me. The writing of the story content has been on a steady decline - I'll admit that there's not much that can be done in an MMO where world states need to allow for many different players, and I'm actually one who would like the world to stay static in 2E 582 so players don't feel like they need to rush through content to do it in the right order. But I have other games like Skyrim of BG3 if I want my hardcore solo RPGs I can lose myself in. And let's not forget that TES 6 might be a thing. Eventually. Maybe.
I find it interesting that that one "What is your favorite expansion year in terms of storytelling" thread from last week had so many people saying Orsinium, even though it wasn't an option. That was a fantastic story. Even some of the Q4 DLCs we've had were great. But the tentpole Chapter lines were usually dull and full of obnoxious one-dimensional caricatures and returning character were more often than not horribly Flanderized.

At this point, most of what I'm doing now is... looking at my characters, dreaming up costumes for them, dreaming up stories for them, and hoping that eventually I'll get some new ways to play (read: Classes) that I can make more.
Essentially, I'm playing The Sims: Tamriel Edition. And let's face it, The Sims is free to play now if that's all I'm doing in the first place...
I'd love if ESO would really look to the things it does well and the things you can't get from other RPGs - Finn's Dungeons/Trials team is consistently amazing, and I'm so excited we're getting two sets of dungeons this time again. ESO also allows us to see parts of Tamriel we haven't seen since Arena, and there's still so much of Tamriel itself that is left to be explored. And the group content, because the best part of playing ESO is being able to share it with friends.

Sorry if that seemed like a bit of a downer. I really do love this game, but sometimes I think it doesn't love me back. Here's a few character pictures in the spoiler below if you want to see some though.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All! We are looking to understand how Update 46 and the launch of Subclassing, and more recently making Scribing a part of the base game, may have changed the play experience and character build for you and the content you engage in.

• Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?
• If so, prior to the launch of Update 46, what was your character build?
• What did you change to your character build when Update 46 launched that allowed you to play or complete content that you had trouble with before?
• What game content was it?

Any and all feedback is helpful for us to relay back to the Combat Team. That way, they have anecdotal experience to add to their existing data. Thanks in advance to all constructive feedback!

(This is strictly to get feedback on your play experience between Update 45 and Update 46. We are not factoring Update 47 PTS feedback in this since it is not available to everyone at the moment).

Hi Kevin,

Wouldn't it be useful to add follow-up questions for the people who answer "no" to your first question as well?

I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of hastily overlooking this, and not a matter of ill intent, but right now it appears to me like you're not looking for actual feedback, and are instead looking for positive user experiences to use in your next bit of marketing. Optics matter.

My ability to play did improve with the addition of subclassing.

My main character is a Necromancer, I've poured most of my time and effort into her, and I genuinely like playing the class, as a healer in PvE.

But when it comes to solo play, like questing, clearing public dungeons and delves, playing Necromancer doesn't really feel satisfying. The class is lacking in quick damage, so fighting through common mobs which you encounter every few steps in a delve feels too slow. Blastbones does deal good damage, but you have to wait until it digs itself out of its grave or whatever. Skulls and scythe also don't do well, especially when compared to Templar jabs or Arcanist tentacles.

I've found a build with Grave Lord, Assassination and Aedric Spear skill lines (as a side note, it seems like every DD build now relies on Assassination), and it made solo play feel better, jabs go brrrr

But honestly, I'd be much happier if you'd just introduce class change tokens and let me change my main character's class to Arcanist. They have everything for comfortable play.

Can't say much about scribing, I did collect all the scripts and grimoires on my main character, but I don't want to rely on it because if I get used to it, that would mean I'd have to farm the scripts on every single one of my characters, and only one of them has Arcanist beam atm. You've made subclassing progress shared across the whole account, why can't the same be done for scripts?

Credible_Joe wrote: »

It's dangerous to subclass into Necromancer if you have any other pet abilities in your kit, as corpses flood every instance and easily hit pet cap. I suggested a while back to refactor corpses into a necro crux equivalent, but any solution that resolves the ambiguous priority of corpses as pets would be welcome.

Funny that, I remember before subclassing went live the devs suggested an all-pet build with Necro, Warden and Sorc. I guess they haven't really tested it themselves?

Didn't care for the releveling of skills and after playing around with ones I thought would be viable it didn't fit my play style.
I solo mainly and use Isobel the most, but after trying to do some basic grinding in public dungeons and the other ones I can solo I ended back to my original set up.
Forgot to mention my main character is a Warden and I use the oaken ring in a lot of my set ups. Subclassing just made it hard to work it in with going back to bar swapping for me

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

loosej wrote: »

Hi Kevin,

Wouldn't it be useful to add follow-up questions for the people who answer "no" to your first question as well?

I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of hastily overlooking this, and not a matter of ill intent, but right now it appears to me like you're not looking for actual feedback, and are instead looking for positive user experiences to use in your next bit of marketing. Optics matter.

The assumption here was that if the answer to the first question was "no" that folks would tell us why as part of the first question response and then ignore the remaining questions as they would not be relevant. Responses to these questions are not being used by marketing at all. The questions came up while having a meeting with our combat team about subclassing and some of the data they are reviewing. So we are trying to get some feedback for the team. Whether your experience has been positive or negative, we want to hear it.

I might not be a fan of subclassing, but I'm honestly glad to see some communication. Both here and on pts forum.

Hi All! We are looking to understand how Update 46 and the launch of Subclassing, and more recently making Scribing a part of the base game, may have changed the play experience and character build for you and the content you engage in.

- Did your ability to play and/or complete certain types of game content improve after the launch of Update 46?

No. And I am playing even less than before, in part, because of it.

While I am glad sub-classing has been enjoyed by some, I feel it a waste of time and resources. I've built or am learning to build characters with class skills which work together. An identity, if you will. Overland content in most of the game is not that difficult, with the exceptions of a few mechanics like the wandering Heralds in Telvanni Peninsula. To be honest, I don't even run with a companion most of the time or on the majority of my 40 (over 4 accts) characters.

Arcanist is a class I avoided for the longest while, but you made it part of the 10 yr anniversary achievement (which is ultra annoying to me as a beta tester). I dislike the mechanics of the class (really dislike much of the Necrom storyline, don't want to finish it, still part of the cursed achievement). Now, with mid-level arcanists it's far easier to use the beam - light blue because the green sears the eyes - but it's also far more difficult to do even casual group-adjacent content because of so many sub-classing to beam arcanist.

I do not participate in PvP, so I cannot speak to that. When I'm in dungeons or other group content, I'm with guildmates and as long as you're giving it your best they, thankfully, do not discriminate against "old school" builds such as much of random PUGs do.

Scribing has been an interesting diversion from the sub-classing nonsense, I admit. But it's really only useful on my necromancers for that first scribed skill.

Sub-classing is not about accessibility; it's about a cool new toy that was deemed a good idea to implement regardless of anything else.