I've been convinced for many years that ZOS isn't especially interested in achieving true balance—because the moment they get there (and it wouldn't be difficult to do if they genuinely wanted to, it would just take some planning and a concerted effort, not even as much as One Tamriel, even), they essentially run out of things to adjust, leaving only new content and quality-of-life improvements to work on, which, frankly, are what most players seem to want anyway—along with an innumerable list of bugs that people have been talking about for years (and don't even get me started on my time collecting lorebooks) and keep getting compounded every year—but they take longer to develop than simply tweaking a few numbers. And fiddling with the numbers is a constant and time consuming thing, which makes them look really busy.

The combat team adjusting Wall of Elements for Update 59:

With ZOS, it's always been a game of whack-a-mole:- "This thing seems to be over-performing, let's nerf it and buff this other thing." This isn't adding "more choice," it's shifting where the numbers are and what you want players to use, it's precise, it's tactical, it's deliberate, and it's certainly not balance. You have the stats for what is and isn't used, or what gets used more frequently, you nerf and buff based on those presumably because you don't want players getting into a rut and only using a few select things; you spend time making other things—be they armour, abilities, or classes—and you want people to use those. I understand that. Find out why these things are used and balance the other things to be in line so that people can have actual choice. Ultimately, this is how it usually end up:

• For casual players, "it" is a huge nerf (think about all the casual/semi-casual players coming to the forums to complain about their loss of damage with the heavy attack build nerfs a few years ago) and now they feel they need to use this other buffed thing, and every 3-6 months they have to "re-learn the game."
• For end game raiders, "it" is just "the new meta." They adapt accordingly and move on with their lives.

Subclassing is along those same lines. Just another tune added to this endless merry-go-round of things that need to be "balanced," "re-balanced," "added to the standardisation," "tweaked," and "adjusted." I doubt any real thought for balance was given when they pushed that out the door.

Balancing by spreadsheet isn't inherently a bad thing—and it's not the same as homogenisation—in fact, I'd argue it's probably the only viable path to actual balance, and that assumes the community even cares about balance (I personally don't). But if the entire system starts showing cracks from the outset, during your design phase, as it did during the standardisation push in 2018~2019, where various things were left, quite frankly, half-arsed or outright not included at all in the later hybridisation push, then perhaps that should've been a signal to postpone the effort of implementing it fully on the Live servers—or, better yet, not pursue it at all until the design goals and systems were stable enough to support it and all avenues were addressed (e.g. potions and food). Of course, that ship has sailed... and here we are, but I'd hope there's a lesson to be learned... though I'm not naïve enough to think my voice or post has any weight.

On the subject of set bloat: I've said since returning to the game in mid-2016 that the vast majority of item sets were more or less redundant, and, at worst, useless. When I stepped away from the game at the beginning of 2023 after many years of end game raiding, there were somewhere around 450-ish sets in the game. I said then—and still believe—that you could simply remove 50% of them outright, and most players wouldn't even notice. A few might briefly wonder where their set went, they'll complain, only to quickly replace it with something else—and probably with something better than what they were using.

Someone recently brought up Amber Plasm vs. Wretched Vitality, and another person responded by saying Amber Plasm still has value if you approach content in order. There are two things wrong with that. One, Wretched Vitality is a crafted set and available to anyone as soon as they exit the tutorial area. Second, and more specifically, I'd push back on that by pointing out that most new players (and I know at least a few people who started in 2020) probably have no idea what the "correct" order is anymore. At least while I was still playing, and I don't imagine it's changed, new characters were dropped straight into the latest expansion content rather than starting on the original starter islands, so most players starting with (and since) the Morrowind chapter are already starting with the "incorrect" order, it's a nonsensical argument with no basis in reality, and ZOS's own design philosophy is that the game can be played in any order (which was the entire point of One Tamriel making the entire game freely accessible and not level-gated). So the idea that players are meant to work through base game zones as if it were still 2014, then associated dungeons and trials (making sure to do Craglorn last), then DLC, and finally expansions in precise order... simply doesn’t reflect how the game is structured, or how it’s presented to new or veteran players; it is purely personal preference and nothing to do with actual balance or progression.

TL;DR
If you don't have a clear vision where you want things to be/go more than ten years and 47 major updates (not including all the incremental updates along the way like the ninja-nerfs to Mundus stones over the years) after launch, it's unlikely you ever will. So one of two things is likely true here, either:

• ZOS has a very clear vision and their vision is constant change and not real, lasting balance, or
• Everyone at ZOS is clueless and lacks any vision or cohesive direction

My money is on the former rather than the latter. I'm not even saying those are the only two options, amongst them being "these things take time," etc., "would another 20 years even be sufficient time?" These are just the two that make the most sense to me.


- Signing out and going back under my rock

Lucasl402 wrote: »

Does our ESO membership automatically give us a reddit account now?

Why would any game related discussion take place anywhere other than on the official forums for such discussions? I see a rep posted an explanation, but it rang hollow for me. Why does this forum exist now then?

They have an official discussion forum to gather and consolidate feedback. But not everyone will use it and they want to get as much feedback as possible, so they also have social media accounts and will post stuff there. Anything important there will also get posted here, for the most part. Reddit is a huge platform for discussions so it has some tools that there own doesn't have, which made it a better choice for AMAs.

Between the BG livestream and this discussion on reddit it seems obvious why the dev's don't communicate directly with the community basically ever. It makes us wonder if they even play the game they create.