Are you tired of PvP getting your characters and gear nerfed?

CatalinaWineMixer2 · June 30

AScarlato · June 30

Yes

Apparently it was PVP that killed the Thundercaller set I completely golded out for my PVE LIghtning RP Sorc, only to have it destroyed the next week.

Over it personally.

Soarora · June 30

Yes

Glad that ZOS is finally making use of “against monsters” and “while battle spirit is applied”.

Radiate77 · June 30

Yes

Yeah and I’m even more tired of PvE removing functionality from my PvP experiences entirely.

To this day, half my friends have never walked into Halls of Fabrication, and I’m still waiting on Empower to do ANYTHING in PvP.

Luneca · June 30

No

Most things broken in PvP don't get nerfed until they become a problem in PvE. That's an unfortunate fact.

valenwood_vegan · June 30

I'm tired of pvp and pve not being balanced separately and of zos swinging that nerf hammer around without much thought or subtlety, but I'm not willing to phrase it in a way that "blames" one playstyle or the other for the issue.

FluffyDoom · June 30

Yes

PTS exists, yes? Feedback was extensive, detailed, proven and yet here we are, again.

So YES, I'm super tired of my PvE and PvP characters getting nerfed and fun sets being ruined over the years (and years and years) depending on which was overperforming or simply had the loudest voices yelling about it ad nauseum! If only there was some type of system or coding that would allow certain problematic effects to be enabled/disabled only in the PvP or only in PvE areas before going live, a kind of battle spirit, if you will. ("against monsters” and “while battle spirit is applied” is nice to see now finally, and should be on the item before release to live service)

Nerfs are not fun (even if needed)!

Didn't participate is this latest round of what some are calling "gotcha" nerfs, because lessons learned years ago. Feels bad for the new players that didn't know how this cycle repeats.

Seems like an increase in "feels bad" moments recently.

Destai · June 30

Yes

The ongoing issues with the combat team leadership and decisions has burnt me out.

A few things have consistently stood out to me:

Ideas are sometimes presented only to be rejected by the community immediately, like Update 35 or this Signet Mythic.
It can sometimes feel like the community is expected to point out fundamental problems with proposed changes, rather than those concerns being addressed during internal testing and evaluation before the ideas are shared publicly.
The conversation between the community and the combat team feels one-sided. Players are asked to provide feedback, data, and parses, but we rarely get to see the team's own testing, builds, or data that explains why certain changes are necessary or what goals they're trying to achieve.
It can feel like PTS feedback doesn't have much impact when issues still make it to the live servers.
PvE builds sometimes end up being affected by PvP balance decisions. I don't think that's the PvP community's fault—it's more a challenge of trying to balance both modes under the same systems.
The overall design vision isn't always clear. When established playstyles are toned down, it's hard to know what the intended direction is, because that broader vision hasn't been communicated very well.

One thing I have appreciated this year is that several other teams have noticeably improved their communication. That's why it's disappointing that the combat team doesn't seem to have made the same progress, especially given how much discussion and controversy combat changes tend to generate. Better communication around goals, testing, and long-term direction would go a long way toward building trust, even when players disagree with specific balance decisions.

Stamicka · June 30

Yes

What I'm sick of is the indirect nerfing through the "play it your way" philosophy that keeps introducing more build customization. It leads to way fewer options, not more.

For starters, going pure mag or pure stam for any class is no longer viable, so that killed half my characters. Even if I adapt the builds to be more modern, a lot of things I liked don't work well anymore.

PvE related balance changes have negatively impacted PvP and PvP related balance changes have negatively impacted PvE. It goes both ways. I’m a huge advocate for separating the two.

I’ve done both endgame PvE and PvP, both aren’t in a good spot.

Phantom4041 · June 30

Yes

I honestly think that certain skills and maybe even gear should be exclusive to PVE, this way they shouldnt have to worry about balance.

IZZEFlameLash · July 1

Yes

Even if it is a nerf to something I don't use often, it does get tiring.

zammo · July 1

No

Not that I even agree with the sentiment of the thread, but if something is doing too much in PvP, why isn't it doing too much in PvE? Why are we demanding harder content, but having a meltdown when something that is subjectively over performing gets reigned in?

spartaxoxo · July 1

No

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

I'm tired of pvp and pve not being balanced separately and of zos swinging that nerf hammer around without much thought or subtlety, but I'm not willing to phrase it in a way that "blames" one playstyle or the other for the issue.

This. I'd appreciate them redefining what they consider a gentle nerf and to take more scalpels to stuff than sledgehammers. But I'm kinda over this playerbase treating balance like other players are to blame.

Usureki · July 1

Yes

I don't really understand the incentive of this poll. What is the message is it supposed to deliver to ZOS DEVs?

playsforfun · July 1

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Major_Mangle · July 1

No

playsforfun wrote: »

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Funny how people still convince themselves this blatant lie that PvP is responsible for even more than a fraction of nerfs to abilities/sets etc. An overwhelming majority of balance changes done to sets and skills are due to their overperforming status in PvE. Nerfs done for PvP reasons that affects PvE is a very short list.

ToddIngram · July 1

No

playsforfun wrote: »

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Good to know you are fully on board for vengeance being forced on trials and dungeon content. ESO dies when the PvP community leaves.

Taarente · July 1

Yes

just enforce separate sets for pve and pvp and be done with it.

Militan1404 · July 1

No

playsforfun wrote: »

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Or maybe the pve’ers learn to adapt when their cheese is getting balanced, and stop letting stets play the game for them. Zos need to stops catering to people thats stuck mid-game, becouse we all know pvp is the real end-game.

bmnoble · July 1

Yes

I am just not a fan of nerfing something, that you get people specifically to grind with the hook of how powerful a set or mythic is only to turn around and have it always feel like:

"Actually, this was too over tuned, even if it was crystal clear when we made it that it would have been the case and we decided to leave it as is to get people excited and do a rug pull after everyone went out and farmed it your welcome shower us with praise for the good deed we just did."

I can appreciate the need for balance but it needs to be prioritised before the sets are released, not after, I would much rather they release a set with an interesting concept that might be a bit under powered and then adjust it with a slight buff.

All the current approach does is generate mistrust, it comes across as a marketing decision to make the set too powerful to generate engagement with players, only to screw over those that did that, whether its true or not its something that even if they deny they would never be able to clear up the doubt because of how plausible the scenario is.

Udrath · July 1

No

PVE’ers won’t be happy until they can do 1 million dps. 50k-60k dps used to be considered really good in summerset for reference. Overtuned skills and sets/mythics bleed over to pvp often.

How high does dps and healing need to be, and why does it keep getting higher? Both PvP and PVE should be skilled based not won using easy to use gear/abilities that are overtuned imo

They should get rid of the base 1000 spell damage for starters. This would resolve a lot issues in PvP. Meanwhile heavy attack builds thrive in PVE (which isn’t a bad thing)

MorallyBipolar · July 1

No

Adapt and overcome. This is how the PvP community gets by when nerfs come to OP gears. The PvE community can do the same.

AScarlato · July 1

Yes

MorallyBipolar wrote: »

Adapt and overcome. This is how the PvP community gets by when nerfs come to OP gears. The PvE community can do the same.

I think some of us are just a bit tired of running in circles as they introduce and then nerf things sometimes on a whim.

It takes time and effort for some people to collect and improve the gear, only to have it ruined shortly after.

The Thundercaller thing I noted above happened quite some time ago and I still resent it and clearly am holding tight to that grudge.

playsforfun · July 1

ToddIngram wrote: »

playsforfun wrote: »

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Good to know you are fully on board for vengeance being forced on trials and dungeon content. ESO dies when the PvP community leaves.

The 300-500 that play PvP compared to rest of the community, you can only just fill greyhost, i'd call that the small minority for sure

ToddIngram · July 1

No

playsforfun wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

playsforfun wrote: »

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Good to know you are fully on board for vengeance being forced on trials and dungeon content. ESO dies when the PvP community leaves.

The 300-500 that play PvP compared to rest of the community, you can only just fill greyhost, i'd call that the small minority for sure

Your assuption that only 300-500 people play Grey Host is wildly inaccurate. If you played PvP you'd know this already.

CameraBeardThePirate · July 1

Nice job showing your bias OP.

It always goes both ways. There are just as many things nerfed or changed for PvE reasons that were never a problem in PvP.

Remember Stalking Blastbones? It was a pinnacle of PvP necro, and was changed so that PvE necro has an "alternative rotation" (that no one was asking for anyways). It gutted necro in PvP so much that only now after the class masteries is it crawling out of the depths of mediocrity.

Remember the sweeping DoT changes in U35? All for PvE reasons, and it killed most pressure builds in PvP; now most pressure setups don't really even use many DoT abilities and instead rely on Status Effects.

BetweenMidgets · July 1

It isn't PVP that is gutting your sets, it is ZoS' lack of insight in thinking through how their sets play in their game.

Gabriel_H · July 1

No

Way too broad a question, without context or nuance.

Gabriel_H · July 1

No

ToddIngram wrote: »

playsforfun wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

playsforfun wrote: »

Yes, just do away with greyhost & only have vengeance, this would fix all balance issues, if they don't like it then tough, adapt or leave, everything seems to get nerf due to imbalance of PvP so it's time zos went to their original plan & stop catering to the tiny proportion of the game.

Good to know you are fully on board for vengeance being forced on trials and dungeon content. ESO dies when the PvP community leaves.

The 300-500 that play PvP compared to rest of the community, you can only just fill greyhost, i'd call that the small minority for sure

Your assuption that only 300-500 people play Grey Host is wildly inaccurate. If you played PvP you'd know this already.

At primetime there are about 750 players per server in non-Vengeance Cyrodiil. Meanwhile at the same time there are about 10,000 players not in Cyrodiil. That is in keeping with the %s seen in most MMOs that have PvE and PvP.

While over the course of a month there will be a couple of thousand players who have played in Cyrodiil that also applies to non-Cyrodiil with tens of thousands of players playing each month. i.e Only around 5 - 10% of players play PvP exclusively, and not all of them play in Cyro.

BXR_Lonestar · July 2

Yes

BetweenMidgets wrote: »

It isn't PVP that is gutting your sets, it is ZoS' lack of insight in thinking through how their sets play in their game.

That's because none of the devs play their own game at a high level, so they don't really understand their own game.

They should HIRE some gamers who put a lot of time into their game so they can get insight from people who actually play their game at a high level. Both PVE and PVP.

Luneca · July 2

No

BetweenMidgets wrote: »

It isn't PVP that is gutting your sets, it is ZoS' lack of insight in thinking through how their sets play in their game.

This is true. Anyone that slotted Threads of War or any other set that did status effect damage before the Signet came out already know that what ZOS put out was broken. In fact I saw a post in September or November 2025 talking about how damage stacking was already powerful and if a mythic came out that increased status effect damage it would be bad.

And...one did come out

Shame I didn't get to try it for myself and see people fall to despair

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

BetweenMidgets wrote: »

It isn't PVP that is gutting your sets, it is ZoS' lack of insight in thinking through how their sets play in their game.

That's because none of the devs play their own game at a high level, so they don't really understand their own game.

They should HIRE some gamers who put a lot of time into their game so they can get insight from people who actually play their game at a high level. Both PVE and PVP.

I don't know. If it happened to me, I'd definitely spend all my time advocating for buffing siege.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Are you tired of PvP getting your characters and gear nerfed?

Are you tired of PvP getting your characters and gear nerfed? 160 votes