A DPS cap would solve most of the problems with subclassing, class identity and diversity

Booldi · June 2

Subclassing is the single most controversial change added to the game. On one hand, it turned the endgame into a homogeneous mass of the same build run by everyone. On the other hand, a lot of casual players really enjoy the role-playing aspect of it and the freedom it provides.

A DPS cap that would be reachable with multiple build approaches would bring diversity back for the endgame while leaving subclassing for the casuals as is. Moreover, it would allow casual players to engage with endgame content more easily.

How could it work?

There could be a maximum damage value (per player) that targets can suffer each second. Anything above that could be mitigated.
Certain abilities could completely or partially ignore the damage cap, to allow for burst damage and to give ultimate abilities and the like value.
Gear quality could increase the damage cap by a flat value.
ZOS in future content could focus on adding new gear with a focus on making more builds endgame compatible.

Kalthea · June 2

The issue with this is more of a Hardware limitation than a system limitation. While you COULD set this in place, the amount of checks that would need to be done is a bit crazy just to keep the DPS at a balanced spot.

The other problem with this is that it would remove the sense of power growth from players. If you have a universal DPS ceiling, there isn't really much of a reason to go farming for new gear if you can achieve the cap through the bare minimum. This would also lead to min maxing, where you hit the DPS cap and then focus everything else into as much defense as possible, making you both max DPS and very tanky.

Morvan · June 2

High DPS is already accessible to casuals through beam builds, DPS is currently more accessible than it has ever been in the history of this game. I dare say that anyone who can't parse at least 100k in 2026 is either new or running a bad build by choice, which is still a stretch since even mediocre builds can go way beyond 100k nowadays.

But yeah, capping DPS is a terrible idea, diversity is achieved through decent balancing, anyone who invests their time into this game learning how to rotate and collecting sets should be rewarded for it, capping DPS would make most of the game redundant.

Booldi · June 2

Morvan wrote: »

High DPS is already accessible to casuals through beam builds, DPS is currently more accessible than it has ever been in the history of this game. I dare say that anyone who can't parse at least 100k in 2026 is either new or running a bad build by choice, which is still a stretch since even mediocre builds can go way beyond 100k nowadays.

But yeah, capping DPS is a terrible idea, diversity is achieved through decent balancing, anyone who invests their time into this game learning how to rotate and collecting sets should be rewarded for it, capping DPS would make most of the game redundant.

Yeah. Proper balancing would be the best. But ZOS haven't been interested in that in years. Nothing was ever done about beams or subclassing.

CameraBeardThePirate · June 2

A dps cap would kill the game, full stop. End game players that reach those crazy high dps values keep playing the game to improve. If they were artificially prevented from improving further they'd just leave the game lol.

Booldi · June 2

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

A dps cap would kill the game, full stop. End game players that reach those crazy high dps values keep playing the game to improve. If they were artificially prevented from improving further they'd just leave the game lol.

As one of those players, I don't think that's true at all. Mechanics are what make the endgame difficult, and the fun part of pushing DPS numbers is the build crafting. This would allow you to buildcraft more.

maryjane1412 · June 2

this is the worst idea i have ever read.

whats the point of playing the game knowing there is a limit on how you play and how you improve ???

Morvan · June 2

Booldi wrote: »

Morvan wrote: »

High DPS is already accessible to casuals through beam builds, DPS is currently more accessible than it has ever been in the history of this game. I dare say that anyone who can't parse at least 100k in 2026 is either new or running a bad build by choice, which is still a stretch since even mediocre builds can go way beyond 100k nowadays.

But yeah, capping DPS is a terrible idea, diversity is achieved through decent balancing, anyone who invests their time into this game learning how to rotate and collecting sets should be rewarded for it, capping DPS would make most of the game redundant.

Yeah. Proper balancing would be the best. But ZOS haven't been interested in that in years. Nothing was ever done about beams or subclassing.

They are doing it right now, though? In a week nearly every subclassed setup will be surpassed by class masteries. They're doing pretty well in terms of balancing this year, at least for PvE.

MSattrtand · June 2

I do not understand why you are assuming that people will suddenly stop optimising even with the DPS cap. If the only thing endgame raiders care about is DPS, a 3-healer strat on Ansuul HM wouldn't be a thing - that's a DPS loss. Duo-tanking and duo-healing vKA HMs wouldn't be a thing, since that's also a DPS loss. So, raiders already take survivability into account when theorycrafting their raid compositions. And if ZOS introduces a DPS cap, it will become something like a crit damage cap - you reach it, and you start optimising something else, like pen or survivability.

Here is an example of a group composition for a giga-safe trifecta prog for U50, created by Charles:

While right now it's just a thought experiment, if a DPS cap becomes a thing, it would become a typical trifecta roster. You would put Flare, Reaving Blows, Echoing Vigour, and Barriers on DDs to increase their survivability and make it safer. And ideally, you'd like to have enough healing/damage mitigation to drop a healer in favour of another DD. Or both healers. And a tank. The DPS cap is per person, so the more DDs you have, the better, assuming every DD can hit it, and having more DPS makes fights faster and safer. Yeah, you'd have a 1T 11DD group comps on some fights.

In conclusion, the meta will just shift in favour of getting more survivability in case the DPS cap is introduced. It won't bring much more variety than we have now - you already can get enough DPS to successfully get a trifecta, even with RPish builds, so this change won't even help much.

CatoUnchained · June 2

Booldi wrote: »

A DPS cap would solve most of the problems with subclassing, class identity and diversity

Subclassing is the single most controversial change added to the game. On one hand, it turned the endgame into a homogeneous mass of the same build run by everyone. On the other hand, a lot of casual players really enjoy the role-playing aspect of it and the freedom it provides.

A DPS cap that would be reachable with multiple build approaches would bring diversity back for the endgame while leaving subclassing for the casuals as is. Moreover, it would allow casual players to engage with endgame content more easily.

How could it work?

There could be a maximum damage value (per player) that targets can suffer each second. Anything above that could be mitigated.

Certain abilities could completely or partially ignore the damage cap, to allow for burst damage and to give ultimate abilities and the like value.

Gear quality could increase the damage cap by a flat value.

ZOS in future content could focus on adding new gear with a focus on making more builds endgame compatible.

A dps cap on paper might sound like a good thing, but it's not. DPS has to be limited by some other means. Otherwise there's no motivation to keep trying to get better.

Usureki · June 2

Though I agree with the intention, I don't think that setting a cap would be a right direction. If the power creep is way to great, cure the illness, not the symptom. Class rewamps are promising, class masteries are promising, they're just taking sooooo loooong....

CameraBeardThePirate · June 2

Booldi wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

A dps cap would kill the game, full stop. End game players that reach those crazy high dps values keep playing the game to improve. If they were artificially prevented from improving further they'd just leave the game lol.

As one of those players, I don't think that's true at all. Mechanics are what make the endgame difficult, and the fun part of pushing DPS numbers is the build crafting. This would allow you to buildcraft more.

This would not allow for more buildcrafting lol. You'd find a build that hits the cap and you'd be done with theorycrafting, with no further need to tweak the build at all or explore new things.

ESO_Nightingale · June 2

Im sorry but this will not work.

CatalinaWineMixer2 · June 2

Booldi wrote: »

A DPS cap would solve most of the problems with subclassing, class identity and diversity

Subclassing is the single most controversial change added to the game. On one hand, it turned the endgame into a homogeneous mass of the same build run by everyone. On the other hand, a lot of casual players really enjoy the role-playing aspect of it and the freedom it provides.

A DPS cap that would be reachable with multiple build approaches would bring diversity back for the endgame while leaving subclassing for the casuals as is. Moreover, it would allow casual players to engage with endgame content more easily.

How could it work?

There could be a maximum damage value (per player) that targets can suffer each second. Anything above that could be mitigated.

Certain abilities could completely or partially ignore the damage cap, to allow for burst damage and to give ultimate abilities and the like value.

Gear quality could increase the damage cap by a flat value.

ZOS in future content could focus on adding new gear with a focus on making more builds endgame compatible.

Absolutely. This is how you eliminate meta. Its the only way. What it means is, every Class is then able to achieve the end game damage ceiling. What it means is, suddenly every set in the game gets opened up as a possibility. What it means is, people will actually start playing how they want again. And not get punished for it. There are armor, crit, pen caps ect. Just imagine if I started complaining that my armor cap needs to be removed on my tanks. To scale with the out of control dps. It's what is currently going on with dps. Institute a dps cap please, there isnt always going to be a meta😎

Lord_Hev · June 2

Zos, or at least the "original team" already had the foresight of soft-caps when the game launched. Some aspects of a soft-cap system should seriously be re-considered.

Oblivion_Protocol · June 4

CatalinaWineMixer2 wrote: »

Absolutely. This is how you eliminate meta. Its the only way. What it means is, every Class is then able to achieve the end game damage ceiling. What it means is, suddenly every set in the game gets opened up as a possibility. What it means is, people will actually start playing how they want again. And not get punished for it. There are armor, crit, pen caps ect. Just imagine if I started complaining that my armor cap needs to be removed on my tanks. To scale with the out of control dps. It's what is currently going on with dps. Institute a dps cap please, there isnt always going to be a meta😎

It’s cute that you think that. The meta in PVP would just shift from DPS to defense and healing. You’d see the rise of mega tanks that can’t die because DPS just isn’t high enough.

As for PVE, as soon as people hit the cap, that would be the end of any reason to strive for a better build. You’d see DPS builds stagnate the same way healer builds have stagnated for years.

Treeshka · June 4

Artificial caps are bad for the game. Critical damage cap we have now in my opinion is also a bandaid solution.

bachpain · June 5

MSattrtand wrote: »

I do not understand why you are assuming that people will suddenly stop optimising even with the DPS cap. If the only thing endgame raiders care about is DPS, a 3-healer strat on Ansuul HM wouldn't be a thing - that's a DPS loss. Duo-tanking and duo-healing vKA HMs wouldn't be a thing, since that's also a DPS loss. So, raiders already take survivability into account when theorycrafting their raid compositions. And if ZOS introduces a DPS cap, it will become something like a crit damage cap - you reach it, and you start optimising something else, like pen or survivability.

Here is an example of a group composition for a giga-safe trifecta prog for U50, created by Charles:

While right now it's just a thought experiment, if a DPS cap becomes a thing, it would become a typical trifecta roster. You would put Flare, Reaving Blows, Echoing Vigour, and Barriers on DDs to increase their survivability and make it safer. And ideally, you'd like to have enough healing/damage mitigation to drop a healer in favour of another DD. Or both healers. And a tank. The DPS cap is per person, so the more DDs you have, the better, assuming every DD can hit it, and having more DPS makes fights faster and safer. Yeah, you'd have a 1T 11DD group comps on some fights.

In conclusion, the meta will just shift in favour of getting more survivability in case the DPS cap is introduced. It won't bring much more variety than we have now - you already can get enough DPS to successfully get a trifecta, even with RPish builds, so this change won't even help much.

This right here is what kills ESO's whole supposed backbone of playing the way you want. There are 3000 sets in the game and it boils down to half a dozen in use. Sad.

SeaGtGruff · June 5

Doesn't the game have caps on other stats? Not just combat-related stats, but also things like movement speed? I don't get why some people freak out whenever a DPS cap gets suggested. Exactly how much DPS do they think is enough-- infinite? And then the players who min-max and theory-craft to squeeze the absolute most DPS out of the game that they can complain about how utterly trivial and unchallenging the game is because they can just melt through everything. It's insane.

Renato90085 · June 6

sound like still can't stop player still run low cpm/very safe but high dps build and help the 95% terrible builds hit dps CAP..like now
why not just nerf subclass dps passive stack and balance pure class buff too

Dalsinthus · June 6

The calculations involved in capping total dps are likely to bog the game down further and are not worth it. How do you cap damage when a player has 10 active sources of damage all running at once?

There are options that would be more realistic. They could put a cap on weapon and spell damage. They could have a diminishing returns system where above a threshold additional weapon and spell damage increases provide increasingly smaller buffs.

With all of these proposed changes the first question should be - what is the problem we are trying to solve?

nb_rich · June 8

Capping DPS is one of the most silly things I have read to be honest. This would take away any sort of skill. It would also make sets pointless if we just all capped at the same damage. The 5 piece bonus would be the only thing we care about at that point.

This would also make leaderboards pointless since everyone can only hit the same total damage. Speed runs would be pointless and only come down to who has the most movement speed.

Surprised this is even a discussion to he honest, but guess we need something to talk about while we wait for this update to finish lol