PTS Patch Notes v11.3.3

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online PTS v11.3.3! This week, we take the first steps to bring back 3-Sided Battlegrounds through the spotlight events. During PTS, each day will have a 3-Sided Battleground set up with different game modes. For example, Monday is Deathmantch, Tuesday is Crazy King, etc. The only exception is Friday through Monday will have the same mode playing throughout the weekend. The 3-Sided Battleground testing on PTS will end on Monday, Feb. 9.

In addition to 3-Sided Battlegrounds returning, we have a slew of changes coming in for Night Market. From encounter refinements to changes based on your feedback, there is quite a bit to review. Additionally, we have some fixed made for the PTS Tamriel Tome. These fixes should help with an overall better experience when interfacing with the Tome and viewing your challenges. The Tamriel Tome Weekly challenges will reset on Tuesday.

We also have some Base Game fixes included in this patch, including an adjustment to Battlespirit, and adding some barricades to Aleswell Farm to curb some unwanted jumping behavior. You will find more details on those fixes and more further down in the patch notes.

Please also note, while this is the last week of PTS updates, items like the Night Market and the PTS Tamriel Tome will be available until the end of February. We will still be reviewing and taking feedback on these items. With certain activities/ systems launching later in Season Zero, it will allow for a little more time for changes to be made before launch. So keep the feedback coming!

Thank you for providing feedback to improve U49/ Season Zero content for launch. This update is around 505MB in size. Thanks!

Overview
New Features / Updates / Big Changes
- 3-Sided Battlegrounds
- Mounts for Gold
Template Information
Known Issues
Combat & Gameplay
Fixes & Improvements
- Season Zero
- Base Game

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

3-Sided Battlegrounds
From today until Feb. 9, 3-Sided Battlegrounds will be available on PTS for testing. From now until Friday, the game mode will change, to make sure all game modes within 3-Sided are functioning correctly. From Friday to Monday, the same mode will be available for testing. The schedule is available below.

Monday: Deathmatch
Tuesday: Crazy King
Wednesday: Chaos Ball
Thursday: Capture the Relic
Friday: Domination (will run till the following Monday)

Mounts-For-Gold

Based on player feedback, we have swapped out the Nix-Ox War Steed mount as it was previously provided as a bonus for owning Morrowind. Instead, you may now acquire the Rubyflare Torchnix where the War Steed was previously available.
- We have also improved some small bugs and inconsistencies with our new Mounts-for-Gold books.
  - We improved the positioning of Vol 2 in Glenumbra.
  - Added copies of Vol 2 and the Intro at Happy, Healthy Horses.
  - Added a copy of Vol 2 at Swiftsteed Stables.
  - Added a copy of Vol 2 at Saddle and Stirrup.

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

Gilded Trophy and Bust furnishings have been removed from the faction vendors. They are now awarded when defeating the relevant Gilded boss.
- The trophies can be acquired the first time you defeat that specific Gilded boss.
- The busts can be acquired by defeating the Gilded bosses after completing the "Gold-plated Keymaster" achievement, which requires defeating all three Gilded bosses in the Night Market.

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

The collector’s editions of the Khenarthi's Roost and Reaper's March treasure maps, as well as Glenmoril Wyrd treasure maps, are currently still unique and do not stack. This will be fixed in a later update.

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

Class Abilities
- Dragonknight
  - Ardent Flame
    - Dragonknight Standard: Reduced this Ultimate and all of its morphs' cost to 200, down from 250 (225 to 200 for Shifting). Reduced the base damage reduction to 7-10% based on rank, down from 9-12%. Reduced the base Weapon and Spell Damage to 270-300, down from 345-375.
      - Standard of Might: This morph sees the same changes to values as the base morph. This morph now grants the caster 15% damage done, 15% reduced damage taken, and 300 Weapon and Spell Damage while inside the area, rather than 475 Weapon and Spell Damage and 12% reduced damage taken.
        
        [Developer Comment]
        We're making some adjustments to the power of this Ultimate between its morph supportive damage version and outright damage version to try and give them a healthier place in the meta. By reducing the cost to aid in uptimes we're gently reducing the supportive power, while also trying to give back some of the power to the caster to try and deliver on the sentiment many have expressed of wanting the "original" Standard back. While we're not going to exactly revert this Ultimate in efforts to avoid oversaturating Ardent Flame in the context of subclassing in the long term, we're willing to juice these values up for the time being.

Lava Whip
- Flame Lash: This morph now grants 7% damage done, doubling against monsters, for 45s after spending all stacks of Power Lash, rather than granting 12% damage done to monsters for 30s after gaining any stacks of Power Lash. The healing from both versions now always activates, rather than requiring you to deal damage.
- Molten Whip: Seething Fury now grants 5% damage done to monsters and 2% damage done to players per stack, rather than only grating 5% damage done to monsters per stack. Seething Fury is no longer deactivated while Engulfing Dragonfire is slotted.

Draconic Power
- Dragonfire Breath
  - Engulfing Dragonfire: This morph's stacking mechanic have been retuned to ensure this morph doesn't eclipse the other spammable options, while also making its ramping effects easier to achieve consistently. Now increases in damage done by 5% every tick, regardless of enemies hit, up to 50% maximum, rather than increasing in damage done by 20% every other tick, if an enemy was hit, up to a maximum of 80%.
    
    [Developer Comment]
    We originally tried avoiding bringing this morph down in power while finding alternative solutions that enhanced other Dragonknight abilities, but in the process we've heard that the solutions felt too restrictive and unintuitive to the class kit, so we're loosening those restrictions and instead toning down the power of this morph so it still stands as a fun alternative with some contextual strengths.

Earthen Heart
- Avalanche Landslide: This passive has been renamed to move away from the frequent association with snow and ice.
- Superheated Ward
  - Magma Fist: This morph now gains an additional effect when hitting a target at max stacks of Heat Shock, which increases the damage done of your next Magma Fist by 66% within 6 seconds, up to once every 6 seconds. Heat Shock now lasts for 7 seconds, rather than 10, and increases damage taken by 66, up from 33 (originally 65 pre PTS).
    
    [Developer Comment]
    We're trying two adjustments here - moving Heat Shock closer to the original duration and power to hit on the feedback we've seen where many veteran players expressed the desire to see some of the mastery with this morph's upkeep return. Additionally, we're adding a little bit of power to this morph so it feels like it offers the caster something as well, so there's an alternate playstyle for Stamina focused DKs.

Magma Armor
- Corrosive Armor: This morph's penetration now once again only applies to direct damage attacks. Adjusted the damage limit to 6% of your Max Health, rather than 12% (originally 3% pre PTS). Increased the damage done by 12.5%, and it once again targets all enemies instead of only monsters.
  
  [Developer Comment]
  We're walking back the penetration changes made from PTS 1 for this (and Onslaught) based on a lot of the PvP community feedback we've seen. As such, we're also lessening some of the penalties incurred - while retaining a sharper trade off with this Ultimate compared to before. In general, it'll still have a higher damage ceiling compared to live, while sacrificing some duration and survivability - but to far less of an extreme.

Skills & Character Respec
- Attempting to respec abilities while in combat now properly prompts a UI response.
- Based on player feedback, respeccing from the UI is no longer allowed in timed/leaderboard content, with the exception of the Infinite Archive.
Skill Scrolls
- Attempting to use a Skill Scroll while transformed now prompts an error message.
- Skill Scrolls can no longer be used while channeling abilities.
Visuals and Audio
- Dragonknight
  - Based on player feedback, updated the damage shield visuals and audio for the refreshed Dragonknight abilities to last for their full duration. These abilities include Ferocious Leap, Magma Shell, Superheated Ward, Volcanic Ward, and Earthshield Mantle.
  - Fixed the casting animation on Dragon Blood and its morphs.
  - Fire Keeper: This ability’s effects no longer break if cast multiple times in a row.
  - Fixed an issue with Molten Weapons visuals when entering and exiting UI menus.
  - Molten Weapons visuals no longer despawns early if the ability is re-cast multiple times.
  - Fixed various audio issues with Searing Strike, Lava Whip, and Fiery Grip.
  - Fixed an audio issue with Obsidian Shield’s aura when applied to allies.
  - Fixed an issue with the first person visuals of the Azure Blue style for Magma Armor and its morphs.
  - Azure Blue style of Engulfing Flames now end correctly when the cast is cancelled.
  - Fixed visual timing issues with Dragon Blood’s Azure Blue style.
  - The Azure Blue style visuals of Earthspike Mantle now despawns correctly.
- Two Handed
  - Added different damage sounds for the three core Two Handed archetypes – Maul, Greatsword, and Battle Axe – to Reverse Slash and its morphs.
  - Added audio for the Stampede AoE on Critical Charge.
  - Improved the audio mixing for Momentum and its morphs.
  - Fixed various audio issues for Berserker Strike, Cleave, Critical Charge, Reverse Slash, Momentum, and Uppercut.
  - Fixed a first person camera issue that occurred when blocking during a Two Handed heavy attack.
Weapon Abilities
- Two Handed
  - Berserker Strike
    - Onslaught: This morph's penetration now once again only applies to direct damage attacks. Increased the duration effects from this morph to 8 seconds, up from 5.

Item Sets
- Monster Masks
  - Glittering Goad: The visual effects for this set now play correctly .

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

Fixes & ImprovementsSeason Zero

General
- Characters now play a unique emote while a player is in the Tamriel Tomes UI.
Challenges
- Weekly Challenges now correctly appear on Season start. This will reset on Tuesday.
- You now have access to a consistent amount of Challenge Re-Roll currency compared to the number of Weekly Challenges available.
- Multiple Challenges have undergone a minor text polish.
UI
- Furnishing bundles within the Tome rewards have been updated to display the full names of their contents.

General
- Increased experience gains throughout the zone.
- Daily quests can no longer be shared with factionless players.
- Updated sound effects and music in several areas of the Night Market.
- Several quests and quests objectives are now easier to locate when nearby.
- Skirmishes will now provide a treasure chest upon completion for participants.
- Made clarifying visual effect changes to the Egg of Arac memento.
- Adjusted the visual effects of the Faction Favor orbs to make them easier to see.
- Skirmishes will now appear every 30 minutes.
- Reduced the frequency of special attacks when first engaging basepop monsters within the Night Market and increased the time before basepop groups will return.
- Tonic of Portent Favor tooltip now explicitly mentions the Night Market.
- You will now only see the death recap hint related to Ensnaring Spiders under the correct circumstances.
- The Ruinous Confrontation achievement can no longer be completed in The Parch and its text has been updated to reflect it can only be completed in Sorrow’s Friend and the Skittering Precinct.
- Oddity begin times are no longer solely guided by a timer. They now ensure the timer is complete and a player is nearby before beginning.
- You will now receive credit for Oddity completion even if you met an untimely death provided you remain in the area of the Oddity.
- Updated the UI to better highlight relic requirements for each of the Gilded bosses.
- Added Relics and Events help windows and the following help categories: Night’s Den, Bosses, Tonic if Portent Favor.
- Trophies and Busts for the Night Market now have their correct icons.
- Calamitous bosses now have a visual indicator on the map of their current combat state.
- The Ritual in the Parch now rewards the correct Relic Splinter.
- Each district doorway within the Starlit Plaza now has an icon indicated in the map.
- Skirmish Map icons will now correctly indicate when the event is active.
- Boss icons on the Night Market UI are now correctly greyed out until those bosses are defeated.
- Compass pins for Skirmishes have had their radius reduced.
- Faceted monsters in the Night Market have improved loot drops.
- The daily coffers can now also reward thematic Motifs, Recipes, Furnishings, and other loot as well as crafting materials, similar to other daily coffers.
- You can now purchase Curated Item Set Containers for the item sets available in the Night Market from the faction vendors for gold. The quality of the item set piece awarded is reflected in the quality of the container purchased:
  - Overland sets in Blue quality can be purchased for 2,000 gold at a threshold of 1,000 Favor.
  - Dungeon sets in Purple quality can be purchased for 20,000 gold at a threshold of 2,000 Favor.
  - Trial sets in Gold quality can be purchased for 70,000 gold at a threshold of 5,000 Favor.
Opulent Ordeal
- Added clarifying text to the Opulent Checklist book to better inform you how you can go about obtaining the key to the Opulent Ordeal.
- Web Eater’s Vindication, Arid Varlet’s Retribution, and Knightshade’s Descent abilities are now always lethal.
- Enemies knocked into the grapple pit in the Cobwebs will now perish.
- Small Incandescent Pods that appear in the central arena now persist longer and are easier to see.
- Decreased the health of the Opulent Arid Varlet, Opulent Knightshade, Opulent Web Eater, and Flameshapers.
- Announcements for the appearance of essences now remain on screen for slightly longer.
- Ensnaring Spiders will no longer persist in the central arena once all players are defeated.
- The Sticky Web effect from the Cobwebs will no longer persist on you at great distances and the snare associated with Sticky Webs will no longer be applied immediately after using the Egg of Arac.
- You no longer have a chance to get stuck in the barriers between areas.
- You can no longer use the Sand Walls, Grapple Points, or Incandescent Pods prior to combat (but you can still use them once the encounter is defeated).
- Reduced the damage of the Unmitigated Burning Essence, Unmitigated Spidersilk Essence, and Unmitigated Pitch Essence.
- Grapple Points are now more responsive.
The Parch
- You no longer have a chance to be teleported randomly while hugging walls during the Daring Race.
- The Calamitous Dunegorger can no longer be targeted by your attacks on the surface and will now correctly award Golden Sleight when defeated.
- You will now always receive loot and the appropriate achievements for defeating the Calamitous Dunegorger.
- Ritual Skirmish:
  - The visual tornado effects will no longer have a chance to persist.
  - Motes of Magic are not permanent and if you attempt to leave the skirmish area while carrying a Mote you will see it drop at your feet.
Skittering Precinct
- You can no longer be targeted by Roksa’s attacks in graveyards.
- Movement speed bonuses no longer cause you to move more quickly than intended when affected by monster Web Pull abilities.
- Shades of Dranos encountered outside the boss space will no longer cast Shadowbolts through walls.
- The Grapple Posts near the Gossamer Crypt are now easier to target.
- Brood Skirmish:
  - You can no longer black damage from the Hot Coals ability.
  - Your character will now move slightly faster when carrying dregs.
  - After successfully burning dregs, your character will be affected by Adrenaline Rush causing them to move slightly faster the next time they pick up and carry dregs.
  - The Hordemother does increased damage.
Sorrow’s Friend
- The Guiding Light Oddity will now always reward participating players upon completion.
- Argent Exarch Molonach’s shades will no longer be able to target companions but Dire Wolves are now able to.
- Small Incandescent Pods will no longer sometimes appear floating in the air.
- Calamitous Wailing Bedina no longer has a chance to summon monsters inside of walls.
- Descender Skirmish:
  - Monsters will no longer follow you leaving the Skirmish area.

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

General
- Battlespirit will now reduce the amount of healing received by 33% when you have 8 or more Heal Over Time effects on your character.
Cyrodiil
- The Aleswell Farm now has an updated barricade to block jumping into Aleswell Keep.

General
- Updated the Winterhold Empyrean Wolf Dusk and Dawn mount furnishing names to reflect which one is which.
- Several animation improvements have been made to the Monster Hunter personality.

Emotes
- The "Valenwood Skull Blocks" furnishing now plays the correct sounds when you first interact with it.
Housing
- Added missing sound effects to a variety of furnishings.
- Updated the sound effects for the “Egg of Arac” Replica housing item.
- The “Gleaming Lamp” now plays audio when placed into a house.

Thorn's Bite Withersteed combination fragments text now correctly notes they form a mount.

Antiquities
- Fixed an issue with West Weald Antiquity Leads on rotating vendors requiring direct purchase of Gold Road. These can now be purchased if you own Gold Road or are a member of ESO+.

Furniture
- Added missing Icons for the following furnishings:
  - Trophy: Alziriix
  - Bust: Alziriix
  - Trophy: B'Kyfxi
  - Bust: B'Kyfxi
  - Trophy: Fateline's Knell
  - Bust: Fateline's Knell
  - Trophy: Web Eater
  - Bust: Web Eater
- "Worm Cult Forge, Mining" furnishing selection node in precision mode is now centered.
- Feast Banquet furnishing lighting is now a closer match the New Life Dessert Banquet furnishing.
Houses
- Buccaneers Bay
  - Rain will no longer fall on you when you are indoors.
- Night’s Den
  - The vault will now look at your banked gold when updating the amount of gold in the vault space rather than the amount you have in your inventory.
  - Corrected the tutorial text for the Night's Den Bank Safe to specify the correct favor requirement.
  - Made a few minor visual adjustments.

General
- The visual for Visitor’s Guide to Eastern Solstice now matches the icon in the lore library

General
- Quest indicators now properly appear next to conversation options when talking with NPCs.
- Fixed an issue where the tooltip for the Hero's Return menu could incorrectly display after leaving combat.
Gamepad
- The zone guide keybind on the HUD now displays correctly.
- Fixed issue where you would be unable to attack after using the gamepad quickslot menu with Toggleable Quickslots turned on.

Alphawolf01A · February 2

Question about the Winterhold Empyrean Wolf Dusk and Dawn mount. Does it switch to the appropriate appearance mode, if it is placed in a house with the day/night furnishing active?

Radiate77 · February 2

The Patch Notes have been infiltrated!
Quick, hide the Necromancer rework!

shadoza · February 2

". . . based on a lot of the PvP community feedback . . . " ===> Are you not concerned that changes based on PvP comments may not work well for use in the PvE play?
" ... We're making some adjustments to the power of this Ultimate between its morph supportive damage version and outright damage version to try and give them a healthier place in the meta. " ===> Is this a PvP reference as well? I thought the class did well in the test run I did. What meta are you comparing it to?
Perhaps it is the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon but it seems that nearly everything in this test is based on group play, guilds, or PvP.

I cannot test Night Market because I am not a groupie
I cannot test battlegrounds because I am not a PvP player (The power balance goes to groupies and dungeon gear so why bother, yes?)
I will not test the changes to Dragonknight because I am not a PvP player --> I feel you do not listen to casual, non-stream players anyway. I tested the Dragonknight class as a tank and it did well in a group dungeon.
I guess I'll check out the changes to the UI and the tome since there is nothing else related to the common player.

Perhaps you should close the PTS to the public and just invite the people who want to hear from to test. Doing this would save players like myself from feeling unheard, unappreciated, and unwanted. I started this test excited for the changes. Now, I feel dejected. I don't want to play the game anymore.

Gabriel_H · February 2

An utterly meaningless change. You should not be able to stack 8 HoTs to start with. It throws off combat balance AND is a performance problem.

tsaescishoeshiner · February 2

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Battlespirit will now reduce the amount of healing received by 33% when you have 8 or more Heal Over Time effects on your character.

This will turn players on the same faction against one another and lets your allies hamper your build and get you killed.

"Healing Received" includes healing you give yourself, so this means that allied heals-over-time from randoms will nerf your big self-heal crit with the equivalent of Major Defile. All because your ally didn't know or care about the fine print healing change.

The solution is to change it to only healing that others give you but not your own—is that what "Healing Taken" is?

Overall, thanks for the great changes and communication!

Radiate77 · February 2

@tsaescishoeshiner, the solution is to not allow same-name morphs to stack on players, and after over ten pages of a thread suggesting it, I would like to believe they now know this.

coop500 · February 2

Not addressing the 36 player cap on Night Market is defo a... choice.
Edit: Whoops, we're not supposed to be able to type here haha.

SummersetCitizen · February 2

Open patch notes!

Hi mom! 😊

ZOS_Kevin · February 2

Radiate77 wrote: »

The Patch Notes have been infiltrated!
Quick, hide the Necromancer rework!

Honestly, keeping all the comments. You have been immortalized via patch notes.