On New Class Reworks

T3vvy · January 9

First of all massive shout out to ZOS on putting out the DK rework article.

My question for discussion is as following, and if any devs see this and want to reply that would be great:

If it turns out that the new reworked classes are either incredibly powerful OR incredibly weak, we may end up in a situation where viable choice of classes become smaller and smaller as we get more reworks (since they are happening over time, looking to be 2-3 years worth of work). Do you think ZOS will do compensatory buffs/nerfs to the unreworked classes as this process continues? Do people foresee this being an issue?

Markytous · January 10

T3vvy wrote: »

First of all massive shout out to ZOS on putting out the DK rework article.

My question for discussion is as following, and if any devs see this and want to reply that would be great:

If it turns out that the new reworked classes are either incredibly powerful OR incredibly weak, we may end up in a situation where viable choice of classes become smaller and smaller as we get more reworks (since they are happening over time, looking to be 2-3 years worth of work). Do you think ZOS will do compensatory buffs/nerfs to the unreworked classes as this process continues? Do people foresee this being an issue?

With Console/PC patch releases being in sync finally, I do believe that fixing/balancing gameplay features/mechanics should be more feasible going forward in a more real-time way. Of course, we haven't gotten there yet, but with the way Season 0 is shaking things up and more content is being bundled into the Base Game I do believe active balancing and tweaking in response to feedback/combat performance analytics will be easier. As of right now, Skill Lines are definitely not balanced in line with each other and if Class Refreshes end up shaking things up (either over or underperform) I can't see this being much different than how it is right now. At least, the apparent move away from FOMO ZOS is showing us gives me faith that new classes/refreshed skills won't be released for marketing purposes. PTS and testing will still be crucial to make sure class re-balances are released in a fun/healthy state. I don't personally see issues here, as I can't see how it can be more of an issue than Subclassing currently is.

Turtle_Bot · January 10

T3vvy wrote: »

First of all massive shout out to ZOS on putting out the DK rework article.

My question for discussion is as following, and if any devs see this and want to reply that would be great:

If it turns out that the new reworked classes are either incredibly powerful OR incredibly weak, we may end up in a situation where viable choice of classes become smaller and smaller as we get more reworks (since they are happening over time, looking to be 2-3 years worth of work). Do you think ZOS will do compensatory buffs/nerfs to the unreworked classes as this process continues? Do people foresee this being an issue?

I believe they did state that they would be working in smaller changes to the other classes for each "class update", but for now we will have to wait and see what the PTS patch notes brings on monday.

MXVIIDREAM · January 11

My concern is them chasing power the dk is meant to stand out here and as it’s the first one getting buffed it’s going to be stronger than the rest but not stronger than subclassing currently
My concern is they will make this dk relatively average don’t doesn’t stand out and as they update all the other classes it’s going to get hella weak

Freelancer_ESO · January 12

ZOS doesn't have any new Trial or Story content coming out till Summer. So, if they are going to do a nerf pass, this is probably their window if they don't want nerfs to come with a big content drop.

Realistically speaking, the support for reworks isn't going to be that high if the rework makes the class functionally worse and kills off the way people play currently unless people really love the new visuals/play style.

MincMincMinc · January 12

I wouldnt worry too much with the notion of "what if dk is stronger than the rest now" We are already in a situation where a vast proportion of the playerbase is running off of animal, assassination, and stormcalling with a meta dependent on tanking with timed burst.

I have my doubts that a dot meta will ensue because we already have the counters to dots on all builds. We have high mobility even without streak on a build. We also have high one click wonder burst heal with healing soul.

Most of combat now is waiting 30-40s for a rehearsed timed 2-3s burst window before running around again. This is not condusive to being burned down by a dot build 30m+ away. I would only worry about dot build meta if zos actually balanced movement speed back down to the 100%-130% average speed before.