I was pretty disappointed to see
@ZOS_GinaBruno comment in the Cyrodiil healing thread about walking back the change.
Yes, it's true that for random balance adjustments (e.g., the Jabs change, the removal of Stalking Blastbones, etc.), it would have been nice for the team to drop the changes completely in PTS and try a different approach the following PTS cycle.
But when it comes to
pain points that people have been requesting an adjustment to for
years, I don't believe that completely walking back the change to leave the problem unaddressed for another third of the year is the right move.
HoT stacking has been an issue for years. No, the proposed change isn't perfect, but instead of completely walking it back, why not adjust the numbers a bit for this PTS cycle, AND ALSO re-approach the change next PTS cycle?
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. The meta in Cyrodiil has been so stagnant, that even an overtuned nerf would be preferable to leaving it as is, since at the very least, the meta would change up a bit.
This change is also unique in that we can't really test it on PTS large scale. Why not adjust the severity of the nerf for this PTS cycle, see how it plays out in Cyrodiil on live, then try a different approach next PTS cycle with the information you learned from how the change played out?
I don't think the adjustment to healing was a perfect change - but for the first time in over half a decade, the team did
something to address the issue, and that can only be a good thing.
I think this can be applied to other pain points as well. For changes that are out of the blue (again referencing things like Jabs or Stalking Blastbones), it's okay to scrap it and go back to the drawing board. But for things like this, that have been requested for years, why not do both? Implement a stop-gap change, even if it isn't perfect, and re-visit it later.