Cyrodiil Healing Nerf!!

AD42 · January 14

@ZOS_GinaBruno
How will this change work with sets and effects?
1.Major Defile, Minor Defile
2. Jerall Mountains Warchief
6%, 12%, 35%. + 50%(33%)
Does the development team even understand what they are doing? Do they have gaming experience? They know how it works.

Master_Assassin999 · January 14

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi all, thanks for the continued feedback provided in this thread. We recognize that many of you would still like to see this issue addressed – we do too! – and reverting this change doesn’t mean we are shelving it. Again, this first try was exactly that – it was a first try and just didn’t land. This is all part of development being a bit more fluid moving forward and allowing us the space to iterate and try different things.

We do still plan to revert this change which you’ll see in next week’s PTS patch, but in the spirit of iteration and talking through options, here are a couple options (it would need to be one or the other) we may be able to explore for Update 49:
We could reduce the 50% modifier to a lower value, such as 33%

We could increase the number of HoTs it takes to trigger the modifier, maybe to 5

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread, but realistically, many require time-consuming code changes and bandwidth is currently very tight with everything else the team is working on. Also keep in mind any options we lay out for Update 49 don’t and won’t prevent us from considering a longer-term option later. We are definitely open to discussing a short-term solution, though, and are interested to hear what you think of the two options presented above.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
I am not really sure what is the actual issue that you are referring to here...

Is it tanks, aka the unkillable block builds ? Then nice

Otherwise, calling groups of players, dedicated to the game to the point of becoming so nicely coordinated and so skilled that they manage to stand strong in front of the zerg and not let numbers dictate the outcome of a fight, an issue, is not really the other good alternative

Stridig · January 14

Teeba_Shei wrote: »

Artisian0001 wrote: »

It's just so odd to read the proposed change and see that of the countless suggestions they are all ignored. 33% is still an insane number for small groups, whereas 5 HoTs might increase the group limit by a single person not affected by this change. On top of the fact that large groups can still spam shields and not be affected. It's so strange that of all the things suggested, this is the updated proposal, it doesn't appease anyone except those that don't understand how the game works.

Large groups can still avoid this with shield stacking, ground hots, etc.
Smaller groups are still heavily affected when echoing was huge in smaller groups.

There are an endless amount of other options. Start it at a group size of 8, and scale it up based on group size.Ex:
5% at 8
10% at 9
15% at 10
20% at 11
25% at 12

These numbers are still huge but they punish only the bigger groups. You can even start it at 6 and have it ramp up by 4% or something.

A lot of people come to another conclusion of allowing only 1 unique HoT in a group and that's great and all but the skill gets completely gutted at the same time. If you want to make it so only 1 of these can be cast in a huge group you would have to change the skill.

Additionally you can do a ramping reduction in healing based on the number of HoTs on a person, this, sadly, can be avoided as well by doing what was previously mentioned.

Regardless, starting at 33% is still too much. If you want people to be happy without upsetting those that actively play in 12 man groups, or multiple 12 man groups, or those in smaller groups, start the number lower and progressively adjust it based on feedback. All players should be okay with a 10% decrease. Changing this to a 15%, then a 20% if needed, can be done within seconds during regular maintenance. Large changes never happen like this in other games and it just reminds me of the period of DoT changes that ruined the game for months.

This actually makes way more sense. The goal is to target large groups, like 12 mans, and not touch small scale groups. The current ideas on the table target cast way too large a net and are likely to disrupt people that aren't the target for this nerf.

I hope I'm reading this wrong, but you aren't actually suggesting PEOPLE should be targeted for nerfs, right? I would hate to think folks in the community want to be punitive to actual players for playing the game within the rules of the game.

heimdall14_9 · January 14

Teeba_Shei wrote: »

Artisian0001 wrote: »

It's just so odd to read the proposed change and see that of the countless suggestions they are all ignored. 33% is still an insane number for small groups, whereas 5 HoTs might increase the group limit by a single person not affected by this change. On top of the fact that large groups can still spam shields and not be affected. It's so strange that of all the things suggested, this is the updated proposal, it doesn't appease anyone except those that don't understand how the game works.

Large groups can still avoid this with shield stacking, ground hots, etc.
Smaller groups are still heavily affected when echoing was huge in smaller groups.

There are an endless amount of other options. Start it at a group size of 8, and scale it up based on group size.Ex:
5% at 8
10% at 9
15% at 10
20% at 11
25% at 12

These numbers are still huge but they punish only the bigger groups. You can even start it at 6 and have it ramp up by 4% or something.

A lot of people come to another conclusion of allowing only 1 unique HoT in a group and that's great and all but the skill gets completely gutted at the same time. If you want to make it so only 1 of these can be cast in a huge group you would have to change the skill.

Additionally you can do a ramping reduction in healing based on the number of HoTs on a person, this, sadly, can be avoided as well by doing what was previously mentioned.

Regardless, starting at 33% is still too much. If you want people to be happy without upsetting those that actively play in 12 man groups, or multiple 12 man groups, or those in smaller groups, start the number lower and progressively adjust it based on feedback. All players should be okay with a 10% decrease. Changing this to a 15%, then a 20% if needed, can be done within seconds during regular maintenance. Large changes never happen like this in other games and it just reminds me of the period of DoT changes that ruined the game for months.

This actually makes way more sense. The goal is to target large groups, like 12 mans, and not touch small scale groups. The current ideas on the table target cast way too large a net and are likely to disrupt people that aren't the target for this nerf.

all this would do is make them break up into groups of lowest # and run together still wont help anything

AD42 · January 14

So far, everything that's happening in this thread and beyond is leading to the death of this game. The developers can engage in as much dialogue as they want, but every decision they make demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the game's mechanics.

Master_Assassin999 · January 14

Definitely, imagine punishing people for playing an MMO as a group

Radiate77 · January 14

I love the framing that some people are taking this.
People will truly climb obstacles to twist the meaning of a change.

AD42 · January 14

There's no hard work behind this change. The developers don't want to rework skills. And they don't want to make healing weaker. They want to make it impossible for strong players to differentiate themselves from weaker ones. Those who can maintain a lot of hots should become weaker.
After every change like this, people leave the game.

Radiate77 · January 14

AD42 wrote: »

There's no hard work behind this change. The developers don't want to rework skills. And they don't want to make healing weaker. They want to make it impossible for strong players to differentiate themselves from weaker ones. Those who can maintain a lot of hots should become weaker.
After every change like this, people leave the game.

What? 😂

All of the skills are being reworked…

Adding a temporary measure intended to curb the power of groups terrorizing entire campaigns will not kill the game. If anything it will encourage more people to participate. People might finally be able to put a dent in the ball, and feel like their entire faction isn’t held hostage because 12 entitled people feel like they need to be Emperors without the work.

AD42 · January 14

Radiate77 wrote: »

AD42 wrote: »

There's no hard work behind this change. The developers don't want to rework skills. And they don't want to make healing weaker. They want to make it impossible for strong players to differentiate themselves from weaker ones. Those who can maintain a lot of hots should become weaker.
After every change like this, people leave the game.

What? 😂

All of the skills are being reworked…

Adding a temporary measure intended to curb the power of groups terrorizing entire campaigns will not kill the game. If anything it will encourage more people to participate. People might finally be able to put a dent in the ball, and feel like their entire faction isn’t held hostage because 12 entitled people feel like they need to be Emperors without the work.

Have you ever played in a group like this? Have you spent countless hours analyzing logs? Have you created hundreds of builds?

Radiate77 · January 14

AD42 wrote: »

Radiate77 wrote: »

AD42 wrote: »

There's no hard work behind this change. The developers don't want to rework skills. And they don't want to make healing weaker. They want to make it impossible for strong players to differentiate themselves from weaker ones. Those who can maintain a lot of hots should become weaker.
After every change like this, people leave the game.

What? 😂

All of the skills are being reworked…

Adding a temporary measure intended to curb the power of groups terrorizing entire campaigns will not kill the game. If anything it will encourage more people to participate. People might finally be able to put a dent in the ball, and feel like their entire faction isn’t held hostage because 12 entitled people feel like they need to be Emperors without the work.

Have you ever played in a group like this? Have you spent countless hours analyzing logs? Have you created hundreds of builds? If not, I don't think you lack understanding of the game.

My brother, I used to lead a DC ball group, all the way back in 2017 before you had all of these ways to essentially cheat.

It’s fun for a little while, but the first few times you vacate the other two factions, you start to feel bad.

Artisian0001 · January 14

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

Teeba_Shei wrote: »

Artisian0001 wrote: »

It's just so odd to read the proposed change and see that of the countless suggestions they are all ignored. 33% is still an insane number for small groups, whereas 5 HoTs might increase the group limit by a single person not affected by this change. On top of the fact that large groups can still spam shields and not be affected. It's so strange that of all the things suggested, this is the updated proposal, it doesn't appease anyone except those that don't understand how the game works.

Large groups can still avoid this with shield stacking, ground hots, etc.
Smaller groups are still heavily affected when echoing was huge in smaller groups.

There are an endless amount of other options. Start it at a group size of 8, and scale it up based on group size.Ex:
5% at 8
10% at 9
15% at 10
20% at 11
25% at 12

These numbers are still huge but they punish only the bigger groups. You can even start it at 6 and have it ramp up by 4% or something.

A lot of people come to another conclusion of allowing only 1 unique HoT in a group and that's great and all but the skill gets completely gutted at the same time. If you want to make it so only 1 of these can be cast in a huge group you would have to change the skill.

Additionally you can do a ramping reduction in healing based on the number of HoTs on a person, this, sadly, can be avoided as well by doing what was previously mentioned.

Regardless, starting at 33% is still too much. If you want people to be happy without upsetting those that actively play in 12 man groups, or multiple 12 man groups, or those in smaller groups, start the number lower and progressively adjust it based on feedback. All players should be okay with a 10% decrease. Changing this to a 15%, then a 20% if needed, can be done within seconds during regular maintenance. Large changes never happen like this in other games and it just reminds me of the period of DoT changes that ruined the game for months.

This actually makes way more sense. The goal is to target large groups, like 12 mans, and not touch small scale groups. The current ideas on the table target cast way too large a net and are likely to disrupt people that aren't the target for this nerf.

all this would do is make them break up into groups of lowest # and run together still wont help anything

Based on the proposed change you can say that about any size group though? Why don't groups of 12 just break into 4 groups of 3 with the proposed change? The change is silly altogether and punishing people who have committed time to playing coordinated with others in an MMO where this should be rewarded is odd to begin with, but if people are going to complain about it because they can't as a solo player, compete with a ballgroup, and think ballgroups out performing them should be punished, and for whatever reason ZOS thinks this is something they should address (who knows what this is based on, probably not much because their proposed changes, both of them, are so tone deaf they probably came up with them as fast as they came up with the idea of needing the change to begin with) then we should at least look at better ways to go about it.

YandereGirlfriend · January 14

Did anybody read the giant list of affected skills that I posted on Page 17?

WAY more than Radiating and Vigor are getting caught in this.

Basically any open-world build will have 2-3 affected skills.

Radiate77 · January 14

We can go back to dynamic ult-gen.
That might be fun.

Lagzee · January 14

Artisian0001 wrote: »

It's just so odd to read the proposed change and see that of the countless suggestions they are all ignored. 33% is still an insane number for small groups, whereas 5 HoTs might increase the group limit by a single person not affected by this change. On top of the fact that large groups can still spam shields and not be affected. It's so strange that of all the things suggested, this is the updated proposal, it doesn't appease anyone except those that don't understand how the game works.

Large groups can still avoid this with shield stacking, ground hots, etc.
Smaller groups are still heavily affected when echoing was huge in smaller groups.

There are an endless amount of other options. Start it at a group size of 8, and scale it up based on group size.Ex:
5% at 8
10% at 9
15% at 10
20% at 11
25% at 12

These numbers are still huge but they punish only the bigger groups. You can even start it at 6 and have it ramp up by 4% or something.

A lot of people come to another conclusion of allowing only 1 unique HoT in a group and that's great and all but the skill gets completely gutted at the same time. If you want to make it so only 1 of these can be cast in a huge group you would have to change the skill.

Additionally you can do a ramping reduction in healing based on the number of HoTs on a person, this, sadly, can be avoided as well by doing what was previously mentioned.

Regardless, starting at 33% is still too much. If you want people to be happy without upsetting those that actively play in 12 man groups, or multiple 12 man groups, or those in smaller groups, start the number lower and progressively adjust it based on feedback. All players should be okay with a 10% decrease. Changing this to a 15%, then a 20% if needed, can be done within seconds during regular maintenance. Large changes never happen like this in other games and it just reminds me of the period of DoT changes that ruined the game for months.

I couldnt agree more with you about the fact that shields are just as big of a problem as stacking hots. But thats about it. How does allowing one unique HoT, per player, completely gut the skill? Could you elaborate on that? Maybe im just missing your point. But Imo it would be the best balance change cyrodiil has gotten in years.

A change like this, one HoT/shield morph per player, is a drop in the bucket of all the healing and shielding available in this game. From skills, to sets, to ults, there are more than enough. But the current meta of stacking these things so many times is just grossly over tuned. I just dont understand how anyone can watch this play out in game and come to any other conclusion.

I dont know if the proposed 50% healing change is the right answer or not. Do i think its the best answer? No, i think the best answer is to use battle spirit to limit morphs of HoTs/shields to one per player. Ideally the higher version would apply to the player, and if the heal you casted is lower it would just refresh the skill. But if that couldnt happen then so be it.

That being said, if they refuse to use battle spirit to do something like this, and want to change each skill individually, which is going to take a long time, then i think they should try things in the meantime. And the only way to try it, and see how it actually plays out, is in cyrodiil on the live servers.

I do also agree that scaling it up would be a good idea, based on group size, but they dont usually do things based on group size. Even though i wish they would. But i disagree that 33% is too high. I think its not high enough, at the top end. But regardless, if its punishing enough people will just run around not grouped.

Maybe another way to go about it would be to reduce a HoT/skills effect based on how many a player has. 1-100%, 2-50%, etc. But these things will probably get the same answer of being too complex to do right now. which just leaves us in the same place. A stale, boring, laggy, dwindling, cyrodiil.

heimdall14_9 · January 14

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi all, thanks for the continued feedback provided in this thread. We recognize that many of you would still like to see this issue addressed – we do too! – and reverting this change doesn’t mean we are shelving it. Again, this first try was exactly that – it was a first try and just didn’t land. This is all part of development being a bit more fluid moving forward and allowing us the space to iterate and try different things.

We do still plan to revert this change which you’ll see in next week’s PTS patch, but in the spirit of iteration and talking through options, here are a couple options (it would need to be one or the other) we may be able to explore for Update 49:
We could reduce the 50% modifier to a lower value, such as 33%

We could increase the number of HoTs it takes to trigger the modifier, maybe to 5

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread, but realistically, many require time-consuming code changes and bandwidth is currently very tight with everything else the team is working on. Also keep in mind any options we lay out for Update 49 don’t and won’t prevent us from considering a longer-term option later. We are definitely open to discussing a short-term solution, though, and are interested to hear what you think of the two options presented above.

thanks for not just scrapping change ...

going by my builds and playstyle id like to see you try the 2nd choice if these are my only choices , but i dont see this being the answer to whats harmingHOT healing on an major lvl when it comes to ballgroups stacking 12+ of the same thing is!!!! PUTTING an HARD CAP on # of HOTs stacks players can have is the TRUE and REAL fix to this issue rather it be 1 source of each HOT or 2 this the only way not limiting it to group size , making HEALERS as BAD for alliance with debuffs % triggers for TRYING to SUPPORT their alliance ( with this format i wont roll my PVP healer at all , tho shes whos trying to get her 5 stars ( rank 39 atm)

i think i speak right by all 68 of my toons (- my 4 healers) when i say id like option 2 at this point in time and again thank you and the team for not giving up on trying to fix this long lasting issue

AD42 · January 14

All this will lead to is even more tanks in PvP. If there's a chance your healing will decrease, it's better not to lose health.

Radiate77 · January 14

I don’t think anyone is saying that you shouldn’t have great results playing in a coordinated group.

Over time, the group benefits and buffs have stacked to a point where it’s no longer a great result, it’s an unstoppable one.

Thumbless_Bot · January 14

It's not just about groups. HOTs from others in general need to be addressed, whether they are from your group or some randos.

Discord is a thing. Organized people can play inside and outside of a group in eso.

Root cause analysis needs to apply here. Meaning this should apply to any heal from others. Artificially narrowing the scope will only leave gaps for organized players to exploit.

This should apply to skills, sets, cp, and to shields.

Start at some number of heals from others, 2 or 3. Reduce healing/shield from others from any source above by x percent at 2 or 3 heals/shields, then increase healing/shield reduction up to some max for each additional heal/shield.

This leaves solo and small groups alone and it also leaves large groups that dont abuse mechanics alone as well.

I think my own heals should be added to the calculation for number of heals, otherwise I could have two hots and get 2 or 3 more without penalty. That's absurd in pvp. However, my heals should always heal me fully.

Radiate77 · January 14

The benefit of being in a coordinated group needs to be that you can communicate better, that you can make advantageous plays and focus damaging or healing people and taking care of objectives that need more or less attention.

What we have is far more menacing than that.

LarsS · January 14

@ZOS_GinaBruno
To put it bluntly those of us who regularly comment on pvp changes on this forum, are not representative of most of the players who play in pvp. In fact, from what I see many of those who objected to the change are players connected with top level ball groups or small scaler groups. It is largely the same people that had voiced a strong opposition to Vengeance too.

I suggest that you contact the GM:s of some casual guilds and ask them for their view. On PC/EU you could for ex. speak with AD Minions and Decimation Elite. In addition, please check out the zone chat and you will see that many voice their frustration about the top-level groups.

It is exciting to fight large groups of players with a smaller organized group. Still the present power gap is too large and detrimental to a health cyro, the zone chat is good proof of that.

Thus I do think you would see the rational in implementing the change you intended. If it is to much it can be modified later.

Thumbless_Bot · January 14

LarsS wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno
To put it bluntly those of us who regularly comment on pvp changes on this forum, are not representative of most of the players who play in pvp. In fact, from what I see many of those who objected to the change are players connected with top level ball groups or small scaler groups. It is largely the same people that had voiced a strong opposition to Vengeance too.

I suggest that you contact the GM:s of some casual guilds and ask them for their view. On PC/EU you could for ex. speak with AD Minions and Decimation Elite. In addition, please check out the zone chat and you will see that many voice their frustration about the top-level groups.

It is exciting to fight large groups of players with a smaller organized group. Still the present power gap is too large and detrimental to a health cyro, the zone chat is good proof of that.

Thus I do think you would see the rational in implementing the change you intended. If it is to much it can be modified later.

I play solo and run two hots. If I happened to be in the vicinity of someone spamming radiating regen my goose would have been cooked with this change. No thanks. It needs refinement.

Wolfshade · January 14

You think healing is to strong and the problem that needs to be solved, no problem.

Sanctuary (no hot, no buff) just +10% increase received healing and persists through death. The way better solution for everyone i think.

The rest, wasted whines, wasted work, wasted money, wasted time and i still hope that somewhere in 2026 ZOS learn not to listen to those kind of well known players who cried for that change.

If you would play your game you would know what scenes will be affected in cyro and that it will affect the most important scenes. This will not affect Ballgroups, this will affect Grey and that what it is ment to be. Every Keepfight will be sensless anymore, from start till finish, from gates till flags, all for the raven-vengeance lovers who played every Campaign empty.

They just nerv Grey to make Vengeance a success.

MincMincMinc · January 14

There is also the other angle ive seen everyone here ignoring

WHY ARE PEOPLE RUNNING SO MANY HOTS

Hots and health recovery act as HP bar rebound dampers. The more you have the quicker you respond to incoming events back up to your ideal max hp.

The reason you would need more stability is if too many wild swings are happening to your healthbar.....This would be attributed to the current state of the game.

Crit resist does not have alot of sources, thus to equalize out the crit damage we would need to bump up the only few sources we have like impen. On the other hand the number of crit damage sources in a build has probably more than doubled since zos gutted impen. This dynamic leaves us guessing whether hits are actually going to hurt or not. Some players ults tickle, while other players who know to abuse crit damage will do 10-15k hits per burst skill.
Access to timed/burst skills that are beyond bloated. Look at the most popular subclassing and we see things like sub assault and merciless bow at the same time. We should be wondering why we have bloated basic skills to be so strong they are better than most ultimates.
Health recovery might aswell be mentioned since it nolonger exists in pvp and would normally help stabilize builds, but the 50% cut made it pointless to ever slot.

I honestly dont know how you go about solving the issue of allowing multiple timed/burst skills. Considering these skills can stack with other skills, their standard probably shouldnt be equivalent damage to ultimates first of all. If I was to redo classes I would probably lock the 5th skills behind the pure class requirement. Or only nightblades can access the nightblade 5th skill which would be merciless. So we could move defining skills like sub assault to the last spot. No more streak+sub+merci builds

AD42 · January 14

LarsS wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno
To put it bluntly those of us who regularly comment on pvp changes on this forum, are not representative of most of the players who play in pvp. In fact, from what I see many of those who objected to the change are players connected with top level ball groups or small scaler groups. It is largely the same people that had voiced a strong opposition to Vengeance too.

I suggest that you contact the GM:s of some casual guilds and ask them for their view. On PC/EU you could for ex. speak with AD Minions and Decimation Elite. In addition, please check out the zone chat and you will see that many voice their frustration about the top-level groups.

It is exciting to fight large groups of players with a smaller organized group. Still the present power gap is too large and detrimental to a health cyro, the zone chat is good proof of that.

Thus I do think you would see the rational in implementing the change you intended. If it is to much it can be modified later.

Listening to people who play poorly is a terrible idea. Why listen to players who can only defeat even weaker players with superior numbers? This will lead to a worse gaming experience.

Kaltivael · January 14

Limit the amount of Heal Over Time and damage shield effects you can have at a time while Battlespirit is active

2-3 echoing vigors / 2-3 regens / 2-3 damage shields etc

ZOS way overthinking it lol

ceruulean · January 14

AD42 wrote: »

Listening to people who play poorly is a terrible idea. Why listen to players who can only defeat even weaker players with superior numbers? This will lead to a worse gaming experience.

"With deprioritized skill, returning player rate was down significantly for 90% of players. The 10% of highest skilled players came back in increased numbers [during the experiment], but in aggregate, we see meaningfully fewer players coming back to the game.... This is a concern for all players, including the top 10%, as if this pattern is allowed to continue, players will exit the game in increased numbers [if skill is deprioritized in matchmaking after the experiment ends, it will cause a negative feedback loop]. Eventually a top 10% player will become a top 20% player, and eventually a top 30% player, until only the very best players remain playing the game. Those original top players will become increasingly likely to not return to the game. Ultimately, this will result in a worse experience for all players, as there will be fewer and fewer players available to play with. "

From "Matchmaking Series: The Role of Skill in Matchmaking" by Activision Publishing, Inc.
https://research.activision.com/publications/2024/07/Call-of-Duty-Matchmaking-Intel-02

The publishers of Call of Duty, a series that makes much more profit than ESO, has determined that making the top 10% happier is not a good idea, because it makes the 90% unlikely to return.

People speak with their feet.

Teeba_Shei · January 14

AD42 wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno
How will this change work with sets and effects?
1.Major Defile, Minor Defile
2. Jerall Mountains Warchief
6%, 12%, 35%. + 50%(33%)
Does the development team even understand what they are doing? Do they have gaming experience? They know how it works.

Don't forget that oil and meatbags each have a 50% healing debuff that stacks with itself.

AD42 · January 14

Teeba_Shei wrote: »

AD42 wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno
How will this change work with sets and effects?
1.Major Defile, Minor Defile
2. Jerall Mountains Warchief
6%, 12%, 35%. + 50%(33%)
Does the development team even understand what they are doing? Do they have gaming experience? They know how it works.

Don't forget that oil and meatbags each have a 50% healing debuff that stacks with itself.

Absolutely right. Many similar effects have already been added.

AD42 · January 15

ceruulean wrote: »

AD42 wrote: »

Listening to people who play poorly is a terrible idea. Why listen to players who can only defeat even weaker players with superior numbers? This will lead to a worse gaming experience.

"With deprioritized skill, returning player rate was down significantly for 90% of players. The 10% of highest skilled players came back in increased numbers [during the experiment], but in aggregate, we see meaningfully fewer players coming back to the game.... This is a concern for all players, including the top 10%, as if this pattern is allowed to continue, players will exit the game in increased numbers [if skill is deprioritized in matchmaking after the experiment ends, it will cause a negative feedback loop]. Eventually a top 10% player will become a top 20% player, and eventually a top 30% player, until only the very best players remain playing the game. Those original top players will become increasingly likely to not return to the game. Ultimately, this will result in a worse experience for all players, as there will be fewer and fewer players available to play with. "

From "Matchmaking Series: The Role of Skill in Matchmaking" by Activision Publishing, Inc.
https://research.activision.com/publications/2024/07/Call-of-Duty-Matchmaking-Intel-02

The publishers of Call of Duty, a series that makes much more profit than ESO, has determined that making the top 10% happier is not a good idea, because it makes the 90% unlikely to return.

People speak with their feet.

Do you prefer to be the best among the worst?