Update 49 is now available for testing on the PTS! You can read the latest patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/pts
Maintenance for the week of January 26:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – January 26
We will be performing maintenance for patch 11.3.2 on the PTS on Monday at 8:00AM EST (13:00 UTC).

Update 49 PTS – Week 2 Summary

  • MXVIIDREAM
    MXVIIDREAM
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    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

    Any plans to address that people can still queue out of IC even when carrying more than 100 telvar? On PTS it's still possible to use the dungeon or battleground queue to bypass the queue limitations.

    The niche with that is that if they leave the battleground or dungeon they get a penalty anyway I don’t think that should be changed a lot of us go into ic while we wait for ques so I don’t think this change or addressing this in the way you think is a good idea especially if already queued for those things

  • Major_Mangle
    Major_Mangle
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    MXVIIDREAM wrote: »
    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

    Any plans to address that people can still queue out of IC even when carrying more than 100 telvar? On PTS it's still possible to use the dungeon or battleground queue to bypass the queue limitations.

    The niche with that is that if they leave the battleground or dungeon they get a penalty anyway I don’t think that should be changed a lot of us go into ic while we wait for ques so I don’t think this change or addressing this in the way you think is a good idea especially if already queued for those things

    The people who abuse this to safely farm telvar do not give a damn about such penalty I can guarantee you that. This exploit undermines the entire design of IC and telvar and needs to be fixed once and for all, so if people find loopholes with another queue it should be fixed before live.
    Edited by Major_Mangle on January 24, 2026 12:12PM
    Ps4 EU 2016-2020
    PC/EU: 2020 -
  • imPDA
    imPDA
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    The people who abuse this to safely farm telvar do not give a damn about such penalty I can guarantee you that. This exploit undermines the entire design of IC and telvar and needs to be fixed once and for all, so if people find loopholes with another queue it should be fixed before live.

    BG and Dungeon queues will not allow to escape IC as efficient as it is now with Cyrodiil queue, they are simply long. It can be abused reliably only in one scenario - if you queue dungeon with 4 people in a group, because it pops immediately, then you can kick members and avoid penalty.

    I personally would prefer this to stay as it is now, because you can wait for BG or Dungeon playing IC.

    In ZOs shoes I would monitor how much people will leave BG or dungeon after teleporting out of IC. If they have proper logging, it will be easy enough, and if it still be used frequently, restrict this queue too, but from my pov, restricting dungeon and bg queues is too much for now.
    Edited by imPDA on January 24, 2026 12:28PM
    Your Friendly Neighborhood PvP Enjoyer (prior to U48)
  • MXVIIDREAM
    MXVIIDREAM
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    My genuine thoughts and a lot of what I’ve been seeing

    Molten whip

    needs to be reverted back to how it was weapon damage and spell damage 100 per stack 3 stacks include 3% damage done per stack to monsters keeps roughly the same damage done as before but I genuinely believe the stacking with breath should remain to at least give players the option to use this with breath or else I think people are going to subclass it and use arcanist anyway

    avalance

    Great great idea, sadly a little ineffective in combat bosses immune phases and just combat in general make this a little redundant I propose 2/3seconds to build stacks 4 seconds of no damage to lose them
    Much better uptime for 90% of combat this alone could fix a lot of the underwhelming dk performance in most pve scenarios

    blessings of the peak


    Adding crit damage to this is a brilliant idea however for the sake of all roles I believe it should be crit damage and crit healing this benefits both support dps and tanks

    I wouldn’t mind also seeing 300/600crit resistance rank 1 and 2 added into blessings of the peak, with PvP the way it is and how impen got the treatment it did a while ago I would like to see every class also now have crit resistance worked into them over the refreshes and I think this is the correct skill line to work it into
    I think it would go a great way to slowing down some of this insane burst we have reached in PvP
    I picked the numbers out of my own experience it’s roughly equal to the champion point tree cp aswel as 600 Crit Resistance ≈ ~9% reduction in incoming crit bonus damage so it seems a fair number to me

    Including these changes I’m ecstatic if dk went live exactly as is including the additional pts Notes above

    Appreciate you reading

    Edit: not sure why the avalanche part went bold as a whole thing sorry about that looking at the code and it’s just avalanche in bold or I’d change it sorry again
    Edited by MXVIIDREAM on January 24, 2026 3:18PM
  • Lord_Hev
    Lord_Hev
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    Please do not listen to the feedback from players who have never even been inside a normal group dungeon.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POze2zNgqPQ


    As it stands now, tanks are not even needed for the wandering bosses. On live the content will be completely trivialized, no grouping will be encouraged, and it will suffer the same problems as baseline overland. The encounters, especially bosses need to be buffed so that a proper tank is HEAVILY encouraged to progress. The mob packs should also have their statistics buffed closer to trial-tier mobs to compensate for the volume of players that will flood through and trivialize the engagement.
    Edited by Lord_Hev on January 24, 2026 10:52PM
    Qaevir/Qaevira Av Morilye/Molag
    Tri-Faction @Lord_Hevnoraak ingame
    PC NA
  • MashmalloMan
    MashmalloMan
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    The VFX slider is a really good idea, but if you can't specify what effects are reduced at an individual level, please continue to rethink how transparent visuals for skills like Lightning Form and Elude behave. These are very disorienting.

    I've been really happy to see you acknowledge this by removing it from Dragon Blood for DK and Bubble for Templar. I'm praying Sorcerer is so lucky at the end of the year. Even if you like the effect, I feel like it could be done so much better than simply making us transparent and invalidating all of our hard work to customize the appearance of our characters. The worst part is loosing track of what abilities are actually being cast, forcing us to use add-ons for GCD and cast tracking. I want as little add-ons impeding my experience as possible, so it really sucks to play that way for the better part of 12+ years due to being a Sorc main.

    I'm not sure if there is others like these, but I'd also suggest redoing Blade Cloak at some point as it clashes with many self applied effects forcing one or the other to appear. That skin like shimmer is really unnecessary, the ability would look even cooler by further highlighting the floating daggers part of that ability.
    @MashmalloMan - PC NA

    PC Beta - 2400+ CP
  • Malyore
    Malyore
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    ZOS_Jose wrote: »
    LunaFlora wrote: »
    New VFX Brightness & Intensity [Feedback]: We have seen feedback related to the overall brightness, size, and intensity of the updated skills VFX. We are working on some sliders so you can better customize your experience and adjust the brightness and intensity of how your abilities and/or other players’ abilities appear on your screen. This will not make it into Update 49, but we did want to let you know we’re working on it and will share more info when we have it.
    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom
    This sounds good, but i see you specify new vfx and updated skills, is this only for the skills part of Visual Refresh or also items i mentioned in my thread?
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/681702/accessibility-request-a-list-of-strobing-flashing-effects-occurrences/p1

    edited to tag Jessica

    Heya Luna, nice to meet you! This is Jose Camacho, Gameplay Engineer, first post actually!

    I am responding as I'm currently investigating the in-game slider setting implementation. As it is now, the in-game slider setting reduces the transparency of any VFX sourced from either yourself, remote players, NPCs, with settings for each sourcing category individually. That means you can reduce the visibility of everyone, just other players, just NPCs, or any combination!

    As for which VFX this applies to, the slider applies to all VFX we can catch belonging in the sourcing category. For example, if the slider for your own VFX intensity is lower, then all VFX caused by you from your own abilities, mounts, etc will be lowered. We hope to include item sets in that category but more testing is needed as we investigate. The hope is to include the options for environment as well but more investigation work needs to be done.

    Really excited to bring this to you as we've seen this request over the years like with your recent post and want to make ESO a more accessible game for all!

    I can't tell you how happy I am to see this. All of the various effects and implementation for their control sounds like it's definitely on the mark for what many of us have been wanting. Thank you!! The ESO team has been really superb this year.

    With that being said, are there any plans to allow the VFX on things like mounts and armor sets (namely the sets with permanent VFX) to have their transparency adjusted to the point that they are invisible? @ZOS_Jose
  • evLRise
    evLRise
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    Not a single mention of 2H animations has me very worried. If their current PTS version hits live as is, a lot of players who have issues with the new style will have been ignored.

    Yes, there seems to be a majority that likes the new animations. But at the same time, there's been a lot of feedback pointing out how they lack impact, look too much like you're swinging a light sword/lightsaber, a little bit too flashy and not enough like they would fit in an Elder Scrolls title. The iconic 2H ult sound will also be missed.

    They actually look way more in line with actual sword moves from manuscripts. Definitely not close to realistic, but way closer by comparison.
    There's Dunmers and there's N'wahs
  • SirIronclad
    SirIronclad
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    evLRise wrote: »
    They actually look way more in line with actual sword moves from manuscripts. Definitely not close to realistic, but way closer by comparison.

    I get that in reality two-handed swords are way lighter than you'd assume from how they're displayed in the majority of fiction. But I'd still like my 2H animations in ESO to have more oomph than the current PTS versions have.

    Since they want to modernize the game, I think it's time they think about diversifying the different weapon types in each skill line more. At the very least, get them closer to destruction staves. That should be the case for animations as well. The new animations look way too much like sword fighting, considering they will be used for maces and axes as well.

    At the same time, the devs ought to take new art in a direction that still suits the Elder Scrolls IP. And there's been so much feedback pointing out the new 2H style being at odds with that. I think the issue is that it just doesn't look grounded enough.
    Edited by SirIronclad on January 25, 2026 7:17AM
  • Radiate77
    Radiate77
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    evLRise wrote: »
    They actually look way more in line with actual sword moves from manuscripts. Definitely not close to realistic, but way closer by comparison.

    I get that in reality two-handed swords are way lighter than you'd assume from how they're displayed in the majority of fiction. But I'd still like my 2H animations in ESO to have more oomph than the current PTS versions have.

    Since they want to modernize the game, I think it's time they think about diversifying the different weapon types in each skill line more. At the very least, get them closer to destruction staves. That should be the case for animations as well. The new animations look way too much like sword fighting, considering they will be used for maces and axes as well.

    At the same time, the devs ought to take new art in a direction that still suits the Elder Scrolls IP. And there's been so much feedback pointing out the new 2H style being at odds with that. I think the issue is that it just doesn't look grounded enough.

    We are getting an animation toggle from @ZOS_Jose and his team that will tone down effects, with a setting including multiple options.

    For those who don’t like the 2H animations, or DK ones, toning down the flashiness of the skills will leave the abilities looking more grounded and realistic. Very excited to see how it plays out.
    Edited by Radiate77 on January 25, 2026 8:24AM
    Dragon Priest [Restoring Light, Draconic Power, Grave Lord]
    Death Knight [Grave Lord, Winter’s Embrace, Siphoning]
    Pyromancer [Ardent Flame, Dawn’s Wrath, Earthen Heart]
    Summoner [Living Death, Grave Lord, Daedric Summoning]
    Ranger [Animal Companions, Green Balance, Shadow]
    Druid [Earthen Heart, Animal Companions, Stormcalling]
    Elementalist [Stormcalling, Winter’s Embrace, Ardent Flame]
    Dawnguard [Dawn’s Wrath, Restoring Light, Ardent Flame]
  • ChaoticWings3
    ChaoticWings3
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    Radiate77 wrote: »
    evLRise wrote: »
    They actually look way more in line with actual sword moves from manuscripts. Definitely not close to realistic, but way closer by comparison.

    I get that in reality two-handed swords are way lighter than you'd assume from how they're displayed in the majority of fiction. But I'd still like my 2H animations in ESO to have more oomph than the current PTS versions have.

    Since they want to modernize the game, I think it's time they think about diversifying the different weapon types in each skill line more. At the very least, get them closer to destruction staves. That should be the case for animations as well. The new animations look way too much like sword fighting, considering they will be used for maces and axes as well.

    At the same time, the devs ought to take new art in a direction that still suits the Elder Scrolls IP. And there's been so much feedback pointing out the new 2H style being at odds with that. I think the issue is that it just doesn't look grounded enough.

    We are getting an animation toggle from @ZOS_Jose and his team that will tone down effects, with a setting including multiple options.

    For those who don’t like the 2H animations, or DK ones, toning down the flashiness of the skills will leave the abilities looking more grounded and realistic. Very excited to see how it plays out.

    I actually didn't know about that. Would you possibly be able to link that information for reference?

    Besides the flashiness of the skills, the only issue with 2H animations for me was probably the change to reverse slash looking less like an execute and more like a regular slash. I think I just prefer the slight jumping animation but that's me.
    evLRise wrote: »
    They actually look way more in line with actual sword moves from manuscripts. Definitely not close to realistic, but way closer by comparison.

    Since they want to modernize the game, I think it's time they think about diversifying the different weapon types in each skill line more. At the very least, get them closer to destruction staves. That should be the case for animations as well. The new animations look way too much like sword fighting, considering they will be used for maces and axes as well.

    I agree with this idea as well since the animations look really good on greatswords but the other weapons look a little more awkward since axes and maces would have a bit more weight to them in different ways.
  • Radiate77
    Radiate77
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    @ChaoticWings3 Page 1 of this thread.
    ZOS_Jose wrote: »
    LunaFlora wrote: »
    New VFX Brightness & Intensity [Feedback]: We have seen feedback related to the overall brightness, size, and intensity of the updated skills VFX. We are working on some sliders so you can better customize your experience and adjust the brightness and intensity of how your abilities and/or other players’ abilities appear on your screen. This will not make it into Update 49, but we did want to let you know we’re working on it and will share more info when we have it.
    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom
    This sounds good, but i see you specify new vfx and updated skills, is this only for the skills part of Visual Refresh or also items i mentioned in my thread?
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/681702/accessibility-request-a-list-of-strobing-flashing-effects-occurrences/p1

    edited to tag Jessica

    Heya Luna, nice to meet you! This is Jose Camacho, Gameplay Engineer, first post actually!

    I am responding as I'm currently investigating the in-game slider setting implementation. As it is now, the in-game slider setting reduces the transparency of any VFX sourced from either yourself, remote players, NPCs, with settings for each sourcing category individually. That means you can reduce the visibility of everyone, just other players, just NPCs, or any combination!

    As for which VFX this applies to, the slider applies to all VFX we can catch belonging in the sourcing category. For example, if the slider for your own VFX intensity is lower, then all VFX caused by you from your own abilities, mounts, etc will be lowered. We hope to include item sets in that category but more testing is needed as we investigate. The hope is to include the options for environment as well but more investigation work needs to be done.

    Really excited to bring this to you as we've seen this request over the years like with your recent post and want to make ESO a more accessible game for all!
    Edited by Radiate77 on January 25, 2026 9:07AM
    Dragon Priest [Restoring Light, Draconic Power, Grave Lord]
    Death Knight [Grave Lord, Winter’s Embrace, Siphoning]
    Pyromancer [Ardent Flame, Dawn’s Wrath, Earthen Heart]
    Summoner [Living Death, Grave Lord, Daedric Summoning]
    Ranger [Animal Companions, Green Balance, Shadow]
    Druid [Earthen Heart, Animal Companions, Stormcalling]
    Elementalist [Stormcalling, Winter’s Embrace, Ardent Flame]
    Dawnguard [Dawn’s Wrath, Restoring Light, Ardent Flame]
  • Fruity_Ninja
    Fruity_Ninja
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    I’m actually blown away at the level of communication @ZOS_JessicaFolsom , this feels like a new ZOS. Well done, posts like this are a big step in the right direction.
  • Malyore
    Malyore
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    I’m actually blown away at the level of communication @ZOS_JessicaFolsom , this feels like a new ZOS. Well done, posts like this are a big step in the right direction.

    Yeah, I can't believe how it feels almost like an indie/fan level of developer communication with their audiences (which is a good thing. It's very connected, responsive, and down to earth). Allthewhile, it's being done for a worldwide online videogame. They have really turned themselves around, and honestly are shifting the standards for how large scale companies and games imprinted with the Microsoft brand should be behaving. I hope this new model serves them well and influences others at Microsoft :)
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