HatchetHaro wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Instead it was radio silence all this time. If they knew before the PTS was supposed to go up that Warden wasn't ready, they should have said something about it as soon as they knew. The letter itself claims they want transparency, yet clamming up and saying they aren't going to go into specifics over what's delaying something so big to a lot of people by such a long time is NOT transparency. Not giving us even a vague "there are X problems" is the exact opposite of what the letter claims they want.

People aren't being unreasonable for wanting something other than what's essentially "oh well" about something that was supposed to be ready for testing a few weeks ago but now has been delayed until some time next year. Whatever it is that's made it so the reworks have to be pushed SO far out is very unlikely to be something they only found out about very recently. The layoffs wouldn't have had anything to do with it initially because it should have pretty much been ready before that happened.

People aren't demanding they go into explicit detail about whatever has caused the delay. What we're asking for is the bare minimum in a one or two sentence explanation. Is it coding or other technical problems? Is it memory-related? Was the scope of it too big so they need more time? Because right now there are people on these very forums speculating that the rework for Warden hasn't even been STARTED yet. That is not a good thing for people to be thinking.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So... because Kevin is giving us previews of the QoL updates, we should be happy with how communicative the Combat team has been? Despite a lot of that communication not being related to combat?

Look, it is possible to give previews into the Combat without setting things in stone. And they are not. For example, look at this that they posted a month before DK was released on PTS: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69219
Does it give specifics? No. Does it give a direction? Yes.
Why can't we get a few bullet points like that for Warden? We have people openly wondering if Warden will keep any or all of its current three themes, and they can't even say "yes, the three themes will still be there."

You're openly insinuating that any communication from anyone means all the communication is top notch. But people have been saying for the past few months that communication from all the teams except one was stellar. But the one team that didn't get with the program is still not with the program.

So, let's look at some questions that the team could answer without boxing them in:

• Has the Warden refresh started?
• Will Warden still have the same three themes?
• What are the current issues with Warden that you intend to address?
• Is the team able to do multiple Class Refreshes in parallel?
• Are the Refreshes actively preventing the addition of new Combat features, e.g. new Skill Lines or Classes, until they are finished?

None of those are making any promises. So why can't they say anything?

We're not complaining about the Community Managers. But also let's consider that Jason's posted on here to talk about the Dynamic Encounters to address some of the playerbase's problems and tell us there's a fix coming in U51. Finn (still a huge loss) used to pop on to talk to us about how the Night Market was going and address some points there. Brian... is evidently telling the Community Managers that they need to do verbal gymnastics to avoid even the word "Warden."

Once more, I really must direct you guys back to Jess's and Kevin's comments regarding this, because a lot of this frustration comes from ignoring what they have already explicitly told us: this delay has nothing to do with the Combat Team.

I don't know how much more clear that can be. Genuinely, what kind of response are you looking for from the Combat Team? Throw other teams under the bus with a curt "Hey guys, we did our work, go blame the art departments"? Do you have any idea how much worse that would make ZOS look, and even more importantly, function as a cohesive studio?

Even if the core combat logic was wrapped prior to July 6th, a feature cannot ship to PTS without passing through art, animation, audio, and QA passes, all of which were directly disrupted by the layoffs.

tomofhyrule, I get it, you also want other answers because you're excited for the Warden refresh. I feel the same way! But I also see no reason why they would start teasing it when the pipeline isn't yet ready to support a release. Several of your questions are also strictly about internal ZOS operations, which no company is going to divulge publicly on a forum.

Look, I'm no fan of Brian Wheeler's design decisions either; I will scream into the heavens forever how badly designed the 2-team BG format is, and ZOS is quite aware of the community sentiment regarding that - why else would they bring 3-team BGs back as a permanent fixture? But this communication gap is not his problem to manage right now; his team has done the work, PR is not ready to share more, what more do you want from them?

At a certain point, demanding "one or two sentences" feels less about getting information and more about looking for a certain kind of closure to justify your disappointment and anger. It's valid anger, for sure; they can't expect the general public to understand all the complexities involved in their game development pipeline. The point I made with that PTS combat test example still applies here: even that vague "one or two sentence" explanation won't satisfy anyone; it's just going to create more ammo for worst-assumption speculation and doomposting. There's no closure to be found there.

At the very least, let's wait until the U51 PTS starts before we start demanding answers, yeah? At least then, the Community Managers would have cleared the PTS patch notes and feedback threads off their plates, and then can focus more on sharing what they can with us.

HatchetHaro wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Instead it was radio silence all this time. If they knew before the PTS was supposed to go up that Warden wasn't ready, they should have said something about it as soon as they knew. The letter itself claims they want transparency, yet clamming up and saying they aren't going to go into specifics over what's delaying something so big to a lot of people by such a long time is NOT transparency. Not giving us even a vague "there are X problems" is the exact opposite of what the letter claims they want.

People aren't being unreasonable for wanting something other than what's essentially "oh well" about something that was supposed to be ready for testing a few weeks ago but now has been delayed until some time next year. Whatever it is that's made it so the reworks have to be pushed SO far out is very unlikely to be something they only found out about very recently. The layoffs wouldn't have had anything to do with it initially because it should have pretty much been ready before that happened.

People aren't demanding they go into explicit detail about whatever has caused the delay. What we're asking for is the bare minimum in a one or two sentence explanation. Is it coding or other technical problems? Is it memory-related? Was the scope of it too big so they need more time? Because right now there are people on these very forums speculating that the rework for Warden hasn't even been STARTED yet. That is not a good thing for people to be thinking.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So... because Kevin is giving us previews of the QoL updates, we should be happy with how communicative the Combat team has been? Despite a lot of that communication not being related to combat?

Look, it is possible to give previews into the Combat without setting things in stone. And they are not. For example, look at this that they posted a month before DK was released on PTS: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69219
Does it give specifics? No. Does it give a direction? Yes.
Why can't we get a few bullet points like that for Warden? We have people openly wondering if Warden will keep any or all of its current three themes, and they can't even say "yes, the three themes will still be there."

You're openly insinuating that any communication from anyone means all the communication is top notch. But people have been saying for the past few months that communication from all the teams except one was stellar. But the one team that didn't get with the program is still not with the program.

So, let's look at some questions that the team could answer without boxing them in:

• Has the Warden refresh started?
• Will Warden still have the same three themes?
• What are the current issues with Warden that you intend to address?
• Is the team able to do multiple Class Refreshes in parallel?
• Are the Refreshes actively preventing the addition of new Combat features, e.g. new Skill Lines or Classes, until they are finished?

None of those are making any promises. So why can't they say anything?

We're not complaining about the Community Managers. But also let's consider that Jason's posted on here to talk about the Dynamic Encounters to address some of the playerbase's problems and tell us there's a fix coming in U51. Finn (still a huge loss) used to pop on to talk to us about how the Night Market was going and address some points there. Brian... is evidently telling the Community Managers that they need to do verbal gymnastics to avoid even the word "Warden."

Once more, I really must direct you guys back to Jess's and Kevin's comments regarding this, because a lot of this frustration comes from ignoring what they have already explicitly told us: this delay has nothing to do with the Combat Team.

I don't know how much more clear that can be. Genuinely, what kind of response are you looking for from the Combat Team? Throw other teams under the bus with a curt "Hey guys, we did our work, go blame the art departments"? Do you have any idea how much worse that would make ZOS look, and even more importantly, function as a cohesive studio?

Even if the core combat logic was wrapped prior to July 6th, a feature cannot ship to PTS without passing through art, animation, audio, and QA passes, all of which were directly disrupted by the layoffs.

tomofhyrule, I get it, you also want other answers because you're excited for the Warden refresh. I feel the same way! But I also see no reason why they would start teasing it when the pipeline isn't yet ready to support a release. Several of your questions are also strictly about internal ZOS operations, which no company is going to divulge publicly on a forum.

Look, I'm no fan of Brian Wheeler's design decisions either; I will scream into the heavens forever how badly designed the 2-team BG format is, and ZOS is quite aware of the community sentiment regarding that - why else would they bring 3-team BGs back as a permanent fixture? But this communication gap is not his problem to manage right now; his team has done the work, PR is not ready to share more, what more do you want from them?

At a certain point, demanding "one or two sentences" feels less about getting information and more about looking for a certain kind of closure to justify your disappointment and anger. It's valid anger, for sure; they can't expect the general public to understand all the complexities involved in their game development pipeline. The point I made with that PTS combat test example still applies here: even that vague "one or two sentence" explanation won't satisfy anyone; it's just going to create more ammo for worst-assumption speculation and doomposting. There's no closure to be found there.

At the very least, let's wait until the U51 PTS starts before we start demanding answers, yeah? At least then, the Community Managers would have cleared the PTS patch notes and feedback threads off their plates, and then can focus more on sharing what they can with us.

Look, this is also talking about how ineffective the Combat Team's communication is in relation to the others.

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the Solo Dungeons?"
Oh, but we know that! They talked about them on the DevChat streams that it will be March of Sacrifices and Moon Hunter Keep, and they will be set up with repeatable quests. They'll have an activatable at the very beginning that will allow you to put on thematic difficulties so you can customize your experience. Rewards will include new Monster helm sets that differ from the standard ones: Mylenne and Tarcyr. Also, the group dungeons are dropping for free.

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the new Events?"
Oh, but we know that! They talked about the new High Seas of Tamriel event, which will be a two-week period where we'll get a daily repeatable quest that will lead to a Dungeon instance (solo up to 4 players) that will take place in a ship battle, and then we'll be able to get into a Dwemer diving bell and have a section on the ocean floor.

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the new Trial?"
Oh, but we know that! They showed off Crimson Veldt, which will be in the area of Fort Sungard in the Reach. It's set in the Hunting Grounds and is planned as a savannah biome, and will be quite different to the trial we've done before. The first part will be an open area where we have to hunt creatures on the savannah, and we'll have mounted combat in order to do so. And then there'll be a bit where we have a racing part we need to get. Unfortunately they need more time to polish that so it won't be in U51 as scheduled."

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the Class Refreshes?"
Yeah, me too. Guess maybe at some unspecified time in 2027 they'll get to it?

You see the problem here?

They showed previews of the Solo Dungeons, Nowhere Vault, and Crimson Veldt on the Dev Update streams because those features were locations that were clearly visually ready to be shown. It stands to reason they didn't show off the Warden refresh because it simply wasn't at that stage yet during those streams.

The Solo Dungeons and Nowhere Vault are already confirmed to be in U51 anyway. The difference there, then, is between previewing Crimson Veldt while keeping the Warden refresh under wraps.

So, I see the comparison you're drawing there, but there is a clear distinction when you look at how these showcases work. Do you see it?

The answer, yet again, lies in Kevin's post: art, animation, and audio are part of the pipeline. Crimson Veldt had enough theming, environmental art, and encounter design to be deemed ready for a livestream showcase. The Warden refresh probably didn't. If the visuals and animations for a class refresh aren't ready yet, what exactly are they supposed to show us on a live video stream? What do you think would happen if they showed off the new Warden abilities with mismatched animations and broken effects?

tomofhyrule wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Instead it was radio silence all this time. If they knew before the PTS was supposed to go up that Warden wasn't ready, they should have said something about it as soon as they knew. The letter itself claims they want transparency, yet clamming up and saying they aren't going to go into specifics over what's delaying something so big to a lot of people by such a long time is NOT transparency. Not giving us even a vague "there are X problems" is the exact opposite of what the letter claims they want.

People aren't being unreasonable for wanting something other than what's essentially "oh well" about something that was supposed to be ready for testing a few weeks ago but now has been delayed until some time next year. Whatever it is that's made it so the reworks have to be pushed SO far out is very unlikely to be something they only found out about very recently. The layoffs wouldn't have had anything to do with it initially because it should have pretty much been ready before that happened.

People aren't demanding they go into explicit detail about whatever has caused the delay. What we're asking for is the bare minimum in a one or two sentence explanation. Is it coding or other technical problems? Is it memory-related? Was the scope of it too big so they need more time? Because right now there are people on these very forums speculating that the rework for Warden hasn't even been STARTED yet. That is not a good thing for people to be thinking.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So... because Kevin is giving us previews of the QoL updates, we should be happy with how communicative the Combat team has been? Despite a lot of that communication not being related to combat?

Look, it is possible to give previews into the Combat without setting things in stone. And they are not. For example, look at this that they posted a month before DK was released on PTS: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69219
Does it give specifics? No. Does it give a direction? Yes.
Why can't we get a few bullet points like that for Warden? We have people openly wondering if Warden will keep any or all of its current three themes, and they can't even say "yes, the three themes will still be there."

You're openly insinuating that any communication from anyone means all the communication is top notch. But people have been saying for the past few months that communication from all the teams except one was stellar. But the one team that didn't get with the program is still not with the program.

So, let's look at some questions that the team could answer without boxing them in:

• Has the Warden refresh started?
• Will Warden still have the same three themes?
• What are the current issues with Warden that you intend to address?
• Is the team able to do multiple Class Refreshes in parallel?
• Are the Refreshes actively preventing the addition of new Combat features, e.g. new Skill Lines or Classes, until they are finished?

None of those are making any promises. So why can't they say anything?

We're not complaining about the Community Managers. But also let's consider that Jason's posted on here to talk about the Dynamic Encounters to address some of the playerbase's problems and tell us there's a fix coming in U51. Finn (still a huge loss) used to pop on to talk to us about how the Night Market was going and address some points there. Brian... is evidently telling the Community Managers that they need to do verbal gymnastics to avoid even the word "Warden."

Once more, I really must direct you guys back to Jess's and Kevin's comments regarding this, because a lot of this frustration comes from ignoring what they have already explicitly told us: this delay has nothing to do with the Combat Team.

I don't know how much more clear that can be. Genuinely, what kind of response are you looking for from the Combat Team? Throw other teams under the bus with a curt "Hey guys, we did our work, go blame the art departments"? Do you have any idea how much worse that would make ZOS look, and even more importantly, function as a cohesive studio?

Even if the core combat logic was wrapped prior to July 6th, a feature cannot ship to PTS without passing through art, animation, audio, and QA passes, all of which were directly disrupted by the layoffs.

tomofhyrule, I get it, you also want other answers because you're excited for the Warden refresh. I feel the same way! But I also see no reason why they would start teasing it when the pipeline isn't yet ready to support a release. Several of your questions are also strictly about internal ZOS operations, which no company is going to divulge publicly on a forum.

Look, I'm no fan of Brian Wheeler's design decisions either; I will scream into the heavens forever how badly designed the 2-team BG format is, and ZOS is quite aware of the community sentiment regarding that - why else would they bring 3-team BGs back as a permanent fixture? But this communication gap is not his problem to manage right now; his team has done the work, PR is not ready to share more, what more do you want from them?

At a certain point, demanding "one or two sentences" feels less about getting information and more about looking for a certain kind of closure to justify your disappointment and anger. It's valid anger, for sure; they can't expect the general public to understand all the complexities involved in their game development pipeline. The point I made with that PTS combat test example still applies here: even that vague "one or two sentence" explanation won't satisfy anyone; it's just going to create more ammo for worst-assumption speculation and doomposting. There's no closure to be found there.

At the very least, let's wait until the U51 PTS starts before we start demanding answers, yeah? At least then, the Community Managers would have cleared the PTS patch notes and feedback threads off their plates, and then can focus more on sharing what they can with us.

Look, this is also talking about how ineffective the Combat Team's communication is in relation to the others.

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the Solo Dungeons?"
Oh, but we know that! They talked about them on the DevChat streams that it will be March of Sacrifices and Moon Hunter Keep, and they will be set up with repeatable quests. They'll have an activatable at the very beginning that will allow you to put on thematic difficulties so you can customize your experience. Rewards will include new Monster helm sets that differ from the standard ones: Mylenne and Tarcyr. Also, the group dungeons are dropping for free.

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the new Events?"
Oh, but we know that! They talked about the new High Seas of Tamriel event, which will be a two-week period where we'll get a daily repeatable quest that will lead to a Dungeon instance (solo up to 4 players) that will take place in a ship battle, and then we'll be able to get into a Dwemer diving bell and have a section on the ocean floor.

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the new Trial?"
Oh, but we know that! They showed off Crimson Veldt, which will be in the area of Fort Sungard in the Reach. It's set in the Hunting Grounds and is planned as a savannah biome, and will be quite different to the trial we've done before. The first part will be an open area where we have to hunt creatures on the savannah, and we'll have mounted combat in order to do so. And then there'll be a bit where we have a racing part we need to get. Unfortunately they need more time to polish that so it won't be in U51 as scheduled."

"Hey, I wonder what the devs are doing in terms of the Class Refreshes?"
Yeah, me too. Guess maybe at some unspecified time in 2027 they'll get to it?

You see the problem here?

They showed previews of the Solo Dungeons, Nowhere Vault, and Crimson Veldt on the Dev Update streams because those features were locations that were clearly visually ready to be shown. It stands to reason they didn't show off the Warden refresh because it simply wasn't at that stage yet during those streams.

The Solo Dungeons and Nowhere Vault are already confirmed to be in U51 anyway. The difference there, then, is between previewing Crimson Veldt while keeping the Warden refresh under wraps.

So, I see the comparison you're drawing there, but there is a clear distinction when you look at how these showcases work. Do you see it?

The answer, yet again, lies in Kevin's post: art, animation, and audio are part of the pipeline. Crimson Veldt had enough theming, environmental art, and encounter design to be deemed ready for a livestream showcase. The Warden refresh probably didn't. If the visuals and animations for a class refresh aren't ready yet, what exactly are they supposed to show us on a live video stream? What do you think would happen if they showed off the new Warden abilities with mismatched animations and broken effects?

Look, this is the last time I'm replying to this.

There is so much that could be shown, and not all of it requires all of the other parts to be finished. Seriously, what need is the Art or Animation or Audio teams to have it all done to say "our vision for the Warden refresh is that we intend to add damage skills to the frost line."? You seem to think that the only time they can reveal anything is when it's completely done, but we saw them give a high-level overview of DK a month out from PTS. We saw them post on the forums that "we're looking at adding a bite attack to Werewolf" a month out, and that's it. Little things can be said.

Communication doesn't need to be exhaustive. It just needs to exist. So here's the idea: the Combat Team not even giving a direction makes us think they don't have a direction. That sounds like an issue if they've been working on it for months and have not even started. People were openly wondering if Warden was even still going to exist as Warden because of the amount of ambiguity around it. And there's nothing.
You keep linking to Kevin and Jess saying "Oh, Vengeance isn't delaying anything!" Ok fine. It's not. Something is though. Have they started Warden? Oh, suddenly the communication's gone from that topic!

Does Wheeler owe us anything? No, of course not. But you know what else? We don't owe ZOS our subs either. And if the general feeling is "nothing is happening and they haven't even started," and there's no intent to correct any misinformation and conspiracy, then I have other games I can play.

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

BigPlays420 wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Red99 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Lagzee wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Combat and Class balance is something that affects all facets of the game, from the most casual of overland questing to hypersweaty PvP. Leaving that to languish for any length of time will only serve to drive more and more people away. This is especially obvious from the recent surprise Vengeance test - Vengeance as it currently is was running fine and had a population that enjoyed it as is, so the Combat Team taking time away from the Refreshes to focus on modifying that mode (especially in a way that removed what its main userbase enjoyed to try in vain to entice a userbase that wants nothing to do with it) seemed like a case of skewed priorities.

Hey all, related to the above, while we aren't going go into specifics (and I recognize that's disappointing), the class refresh schedule change is not due to anything the Combat Team is or will be working on. Vengeance work is unrelated.

If its something that can change, or if things can be shifted, it really should be considered. I just hope you guys understand the damage that will be done this year with a lack of this refresh. Among other things.

Like i said in another comment, ill play regardless, to some extent. Its disappointing, but not something im going to quit over. The biggest disappointment to me is what i know will come with a lack of content, trial, and the class refresh that so many people want more than anything. And what is going to come is an overall decline in players. Which absolutely sucks, and is the complete opposite of what this game needs.

The things that some people at zos think are going to be enough, to hold people over til next year, are just not going to cut it. But i hope im wrong. Id love players numbers to skyrocket, but amidst all this chaos and disappointment, i just dont see any outcome other than the opposite.

Just wanted to clarify what Jess meant here. She simply wanted to note that PvP (Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, Vengeance) and the combat team as a whole are not at fault for the delay. They are actively working on what they can for the combat refresh as we speak. One thing to remind folks is that development of features or revamping of features is not solely on one team. There are a pipeline of teams that need to touch the product before it can be complete (examples: art, animation, audio, narrative, etc.). So we're working on getting more hands freed up from various teams as they wrap up existing immediate items to assist with other parts of the pipeline.

Also, we want to note that the Community Team has been banging the drum internally on how important the combat refresh is to the community overall. So the teams are aware and doing the best they can to get them done and done right.

This is not a valid excuse, you promised us 4 class reworks this year, including the wolf, I can understand the possible postponement of the class after the warden given the layoffs, but for the warden there are no excuses it should have already been ready and if it is not it is because your various development teams were not capable of doing what they had to do

Nothing's been "promised".

Game development is iterative and tumultuous. The senior leads that have been laid off weren't given advance notice or time to train the remaining staff, and so pushing certain features back is the only realistic solution while the studio regains its footing and momentum. Yes, that includes needing the extra space and time to make sure the studio is back to full operational capacity so they can ensure that the Warden refresh ships with high quality, especially during the high-pressure PTS cycles.

The excuse is plenty valid; being dismissive of the layoff impact is not.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Aliyavana wrote: »

FlipFlopFrog wrote: »

You're a billion dollar company.

ESO is your flagship game.

It brings in tens of millions a month.

And a planned class refresh is pushed back for an entire year? really guys?

I think the thing that frustrates me about these kind of newsletters is that they tell us their decision to push back the class refresh but there’s no real depth to why that decision has been made. I'm not saying we need a deep dive into the in's and outs of it all but it would be nice to know a little bit more of why exactly it's been pushed back so far. ZoS clearly has resources, why are they not being spent on giving the players what they actually want? And more importantly what you promised us?

Really disappointing.

A huge portion of them got laid off. They are working with less people.

So? Honestly, not our problem. And my sympathy has run dry as it's not my job as a customer to excuse everything a company does.

Yeah, absolutely. If you're unhappy with the delayed content, then speak with your wallet, and walk away.

But treating a sudden headcount loss as "not my problem" won't magically make the Warden refresh come faster. The studio lost staff, the pipeline slowed down, and ignoring that reality doesn't change it.

Warden was, at most, a couple of weeks away from hitting the PTS. A delay of a few months because of the layoffs would be understandable, but pushing it back by well over half a year is absurd. They didn’t technically promise a date, but they did give us a timeline, and this goes far beyond that. It makes it very hard to believe the layoffs are the only reason. From where I’m standing, it feels like the Warden rework was never going to make this PTS cycle regardless.

The level of disrespect being shown to the player base is astounding.

That's not how game update cycles work. Updates and features don't just ship whenever they're ready on any random Tuesday. There are rigid update patches and PTS testing cycles for a reason.

If a feature isn't fully QA-tested and ready when the PTS for a specific patch locks, or if the team lacks the bandwidth to handle and iterate on that feature during the PTS cycle, it misses that entire update cycle. ZOS can't just spawn an extra PTS cycle midway through a patch to drop a single class refresh, and so it has to wait for the next major scheduled update.

Like, if they needed even just a couple extra weeks into August to finish the Warden refresh, or if post-layoff bandwidth meant they couldn't properly iterate on player feedback without compromising the Warden refresh's quality, that's being pushed to the next update. That's just how software deployment works. Yes, patches and hotfixes exist, but do you really want them to drop the Warden refresh without at least a round of player testing?

You’re explaining why it might miss this PTS cycle, not why it has apparently disappeared for well over six months.

Nobody is asking them to release it on a random Tuesday or skip player testing. Missing one update because it needed more time would be understandable; it could simply enter the next scheduled PTS. But if layoffs occurring roughly a week before this PTS caused the rework to miss every remaining 2026 cycle, then it clearly was nowhere near as close to completion as their communicated timeline suggested.

“Rigid update cycles” explains a one-patch delay. It does not explain an indefinite postponement into 2027.

The PTS for U51 was originally scheduled for July 6, 2026. The Xbox layoffs happened on July 6, 2026. Notice how that's the exact same day. The one month bump of the U51 PTS from July 6 to August 3 was the time they needed to get their bearings, restructure, and redo their roadmap.

While the exact release date of the Warden refresh is currently unclear, the lack of a locked date is basic risk management. Remember, Asha Sharma laid out plans for approximately 3,200 cuts in Xbox throughout their 2027 fiscal year (for Microsoft, that is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027), and has already started with 1,600 of those on July 6, 2026. What this means is, there are approximately 1,600 cuts left, and so ZOS has to navigate a landscape where future restructuring could still happen; given the possibility of further layoffs in the future, not promising an exact date while the dust is settling is simply just avoiding making promises they aren't 100% sure they can deliver.

Keep in mind, Update 51 launches on September 28, 2026, and Update 52 is slated for a January 2027 release. That's just four months. We very well may still see the Warden refresh hit the PTS in December of this year for the U52 PTS cycle.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

BigPlays420 wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Red99 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Lagzee wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Combat and Class balance is something that affects all facets of the game, from the most casual of overland questing to hypersweaty PvP. Leaving that to languish for any length of time will only serve to drive more and more people away. This is especially obvious from the recent surprise Vengeance test - Vengeance as it currently is was running fine and had a population that enjoyed it as is, so the Combat Team taking time away from the Refreshes to focus on modifying that mode (especially in a way that removed what its main userbase enjoyed to try in vain to entice a userbase that wants nothing to do with it) seemed like a case of skewed priorities.

Hey all, related to the above, while we aren't going go into specifics (and I recognize that's disappointing), the class refresh schedule change is not due to anything the Combat Team is or will be working on. Vengeance work is unrelated.

If its something that can change, or if things can be shifted, it really should be considered. I just hope you guys understand the damage that will be done this year with a lack of this refresh. Among other things.

Like i said in another comment, ill play regardless, to some extent. Its disappointing, but not something im going to quit over. The biggest disappointment to me is what i know will come with a lack of content, trial, and the class refresh that so many people want more than anything. And what is going to come is an overall decline in players. Which absolutely sucks, and is the complete opposite of what this game needs.

The things that some people at zos think are going to be enough, to hold people over til next year, are just not going to cut it. But i hope im wrong. Id love players numbers to skyrocket, but amidst all this chaos and disappointment, i just dont see any outcome other than the opposite.

Just wanted to clarify what Jess meant here. She simply wanted to note that PvP (Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, Vengeance) and the combat team as a whole are not at fault for the delay. They are actively working on what they can for the combat refresh as we speak. One thing to remind folks is that development of features or revamping of features is not solely on one team. There are a pipeline of teams that need to touch the product before it can be complete (examples: art, animation, audio, narrative, etc.). So we're working on getting more hands freed up from various teams as they wrap up existing immediate items to assist with other parts of the pipeline.

Also, we want to note that the Community Team has been banging the drum internally on how important the combat refresh is to the community overall. So the teams are aware and doing the best they can to get them done and done right.

This is not a valid excuse, you promised us 4 class reworks this year, including the wolf, I can understand the possible postponement of the class after the warden given the layoffs, but for the warden there are no excuses it should have already been ready and if it is not it is because your various development teams were not capable of doing what they had to do

Nothing's been "promised".

Game development is iterative and tumultuous. The senior leads that have been laid off weren't given advance notice or time to train the remaining staff, and so pushing certain features back is the only realistic solution while the studio regains its footing and momentum. Yes, that includes needing the extra space and time to make sure the studio is back to full operational capacity so they can ensure that the Warden refresh ships with high quality, especially during the high-pressure PTS cycles.

The excuse is plenty valid; being dismissive of the layoff impact is not.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Aliyavana wrote: »

FlipFlopFrog wrote: »

You're a billion dollar company.

ESO is your flagship game.

It brings in tens of millions a month.

And a planned class refresh is pushed back for an entire year? really guys?

I think the thing that frustrates me about these kind of newsletters is that they tell us their decision to push back the class refresh but there’s no real depth to why that decision has been made. I'm not saying we need a deep dive into the in's and outs of it all but it would be nice to know a little bit more of why exactly it's been pushed back so far. ZoS clearly has resources, why are they not being spent on giving the players what they actually want? And more importantly what you promised us?

Really disappointing.

A huge portion of them got laid off. They are working with less people.

So? Honestly, not our problem. And my sympathy has run dry as it's not my job as a customer to excuse everything a company does.

Yeah, absolutely. If you're unhappy with the delayed content, then speak with your wallet, and walk away.

But treating a sudden headcount loss as "not my problem" won't magically make the Warden refresh come faster. The studio lost staff, the pipeline slowed down, and ignoring that reality doesn't change it.

Warden was, at most, a couple of weeks away from hitting the PTS. A delay of a few months because of the layoffs would be understandable, but pushing it back by well over half a year is absurd. They didn’t technically promise a date, but they did give us a timeline, and this goes far beyond that. It makes it very hard to believe the layoffs are the only reason. From where I’m standing, it feels like the Warden rework was never going to make this PTS cycle regardless.

The level of disrespect being shown to the player base is astounding.

That's not how game update cycles work. Updates and features don't just ship whenever they're ready on any random Tuesday. There are rigid update patches and PTS testing cycles for a reason.

If a feature isn't fully QA-tested and ready when the PTS for a specific patch locks, or if the team lacks the bandwidth to handle and iterate on that feature during the PTS cycle, it misses that entire update cycle. ZOS can't just spawn an extra PTS cycle midway through a patch to drop a single class refresh, and so it has to wait for the next major scheduled update.

Like, if they needed even just a couple extra weeks into August to finish the Warden refresh, or if post-layoff bandwidth meant they couldn't properly iterate on player feedback without compromising the Warden refresh's quality, that's being pushed to the next update. That's just how software deployment works. Yes, patches and hotfixes exist, but do you really want them to drop the Warden refresh without at least a round of player testing?

You’re explaining why it might miss this PTS cycle, not why it has apparently disappeared for well over six months.

Nobody is asking them to release it on a random Tuesday or skip player testing. Missing one update because it needed more time would be understandable; it could simply enter the next scheduled PTS. But if layoffs occurring roughly a week before this PTS caused the rework to miss every remaining 2026 cycle, then it clearly was nowhere near as close to completion as their communicated timeline suggested.

“Rigid update cycles” explains a one-patch delay. It does not explain an indefinite postponement into 2027.

In addition to the above, it also doesn’t explain why the team is unable to communicate.

Was there a slight problem with Warden, meaning it would finish in mid-August (thereby missing the PTS cycle and being forced into U52 in January)? Would it be possible for Sorc to drop with Warden together in U52 since Sorc should have gone on PTS around September in the original timeline? Was there a major problem and they had to start from scratch? Is anything else being done in the meantime?

The combat team is stonewalling any communication. We have no idea where they are or what their progress is, and therefore we have nothing to latch on to.
And yes, they do owe us answers. Are we expected to continue paying for ESO+ on nothing but hopes and dreams?

We all want more communication from them, but calling it "stonewalling" completely ignores what the Community Managers have already told us.

Jess literally replied directly to your point to clarify that the combat team isn't shifting focus to Vengeance, and Kevin expanded on that, letting you know that class refreshes rely on a full pipeline of teams, so freeing up cross-department bandwidth post-layoffs is the real bottleneck. On top of that, Kevin just posted a preview thread sharing sneak peeks from at least 39 Word-doc pages of PTS patch notes he's actively finishing up for Monday. They are communicating, even when the community management team has been hit hard by the layoffs.

You're not getting specific granular dev updates on future features. Expecting them to have an answer for stuff like "whether the Sorcerer and Warden refreshes are merging in U52" while they are actively restructuring is asking for premature promises. None of those plans are confirmed or concrete, and any statement they release at this point can so easily be misconstrued as promises and guarantees by this community, and so if or when they cannot deliver on those when time comes, they lose even more trust.

Look, remember when they made a PTS test that radically changed light and heavy attacks, and made it so abundantly clear in bolded letters that those changes were experimental and very much not slated to actually go into the game, and that the only goal with those changes was testing and gathering feedback? Yeah, that did not stop the myriad of threads doomposting about the future of the game. When anything they say is taken with the most extreme assumptions, silence until certainty truly is the best option.

That timeline is incorrect. July 6 was no longer the scheduled PTS date when the layoffs occurred. ZOS had already announced in June that U51 PTS was being pushed from July 6 to July 27. The later roadmap adjustment moved it only one additional week, from July 27 to August 3.

So no, the entire July 6–August 3 gap was not a month they needed to “get their bearings” after the layoffs. Three of those four weeks had already been added beforehand—which only reinforces the point that the Warden refresh was already behind schedule before the layoffs happened.

And keep in mind: they did not give us any indication whatsoever of when in 2027 the Warden refresh was supposed to arrive, while they were perfectly capable of giving the new PvP zone a specific release window.

So spare me the attempt to frame this as “basic risk management.” The rework went from supposedly being close enough to discuss publicly to vanishing from every remaining 2026 cycle without explanation. [snip]

hiyde wrote: »

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

And keep in mind: they did not give us any indication whatsoever of when in 2027 the Warden refresh was supposed to arrive, while they were perfectly capable of giving the new PvP zone a specific release window.

The letter doesn't even use the word "Warden", it says "next refresh" which leaves room for swapping to another class.

If they wanted to say "Warden refresh will happen in (U51/U52/Q1, Q2/sometime in 2027)", they coulda (shoulda) said that. Instead, a significant amount of wiggle room is available based on the exact words used.

ZOS can certainly clarify if they wish to.

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

BigPlays420 wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Red99 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Lagzee wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Combat and Class balance is something that affects all facets of the game, from the most casual of overland questing to hypersweaty PvP. Leaving that to languish for any length of time will only serve to drive more and more people away. This is especially obvious from the recent surprise Vengeance test - Vengeance as it currently is was running fine and had a population that enjoyed it as is, so the Combat Team taking time away from the Refreshes to focus on modifying that mode (especially in a way that removed what its main userbase enjoyed to try in vain to entice a userbase that wants nothing to do with it) seemed like a case of skewed priorities.

Hey all, related to the above, while we aren't going go into specifics (and I recognize that's disappointing), the class refresh schedule change is not due to anything the Combat Team is or will be working on. Vengeance work is unrelated.

If its something that can change, or if things can be shifted, it really should be considered. I just hope you guys understand the damage that will be done this year with a lack of this refresh. Among other things.

Like i said in another comment, ill play regardless, to some extent. Its disappointing, but not something im going to quit over. The biggest disappointment to me is what i know will come with a lack of content, trial, and the class refresh that so many people want more than anything. And what is going to come is an overall decline in players. Which absolutely sucks, and is the complete opposite of what this game needs.

The things that some people at zos think are going to be enough, to hold people over til next year, are just not going to cut it. But i hope im wrong. Id love players numbers to skyrocket, but amidst all this chaos and disappointment, i just dont see any outcome other than the opposite.

Just wanted to clarify what Jess meant here. She simply wanted to note that PvP (Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, Vengeance) and the combat team as a whole are not at fault for the delay. They are actively working on what they can for the combat refresh as we speak. One thing to remind folks is that development of features or revamping of features is not solely on one team. There are a pipeline of teams that need to touch the product before it can be complete (examples: art, animation, audio, narrative, etc.). So we're working on getting more hands freed up from various teams as they wrap up existing immediate items to assist with other parts of the pipeline.

Also, we want to note that the Community Team has been banging the drum internally on how important the combat refresh is to the community overall. So the teams are aware and doing the best they can to get them done and done right.

This is not a valid excuse, you promised us 4 class reworks this year, including the wolf, I can understand the possible postponement of the class after the warden given the layoffs, but for the warden there are no excuses it should have already been ready and if it is not it is because your various development teams were not capable of doing what they had to do

Nothing's been "promised".

Game development is iterative and tumultuous. The senior leads that have been laid off weren't given advance notice or time to train the remaining staff, and so pushing certain features back is the only realistic solution while the studio regains its footing and momentum. Yes, that includes needing the extra space and time to make sure the studio is back to full operational capacity so they can ensure that the Warden refresh ships with high quality, especially during the high-pressure PTS cycles.

The excuse is plenty valid; being dismissive of the layoff impact is not.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Aliyavana wrote: »

FlipFlopFrog wrote: »

You're a billion dollar company.

ESO is your flagship game.

It brings in tens of millions a month.

And a planned class refresh is pushed back for an entire year? really guys?

I think the thing that frustrates me about these kind of newsletters is that they tell us their decision to push back the class refresh but there’s no real depth to why that decision has been made. I'm not saying we need a deep dive into the in's and outs of it all but it would be nice to know a little bit more of why exactly it's been pushed back so far. ZoS clearly has resources, why are they not being spent on giving the players what they actually want? And more importantly what you promised us?

Really disappointing.

A huge portion of them got laid off. They are working with less people.

So? Honestly, not our problem. And my sympathy has run dry as it's not my job as a customer to excuse everything a company does.

Yeah, absolutely. If you're unhappy with the delayed content, then speak with your wallet, and walk away.

But treating a sudden headcount loss as "not my problem" won't magically make the Warden refresh come faster. The studio lost staff, the pipeline slowed down, and ignoring that reality doesn't change it.

Warden was, at most, a couple of weeks away from hitting the PTS. A delay of a few months because of the layoffs would be understandable, but pushing it back by well over half a year is absurd. They didn’t technically promise a date, but they did give us a timeline, and this goes far beyond that. It makes it very hard to believe the layoffs are the only reason. From where I’m standing, it feels like the Warden rework was never going to make this PTS cycle regardless.

The level of disrespect being shown to the player base is astounding.

That's not how game update cycles work. Updates and features don't just ship whenever they're ready on any random Tuesday. There are rigid update patches and PTS testing cycles for a reason.

If a feature isn't fully QA-tested and ready when the PTS for a specific patch locks, or if the team lacks the bandwidth to handle and iterate on that feature during the PTS cycle, it misses that entire update cycle. ZOS can't just spawn an extra PTS cycle midway through a patch to drop a single class refresh, and so it has to wait for the next major scheduled update.

Like, if they needed even just a couple extra weeks into August to finish the Warden refresh, or if post-layoff bandwidth meant they couldn't properly iterate on player feedback without compromising the Warden refresh's quality, that's being pushed to the next update. That's just how software deployment works. Yes, patches and hotfixes exist, but do you really want them to drop the Warden refresh without at least a round of player testing?

You’re explaining why it might miss this PTS cycle, not why it has apparently disappeared for well over six months.

Nobody is asking them to release it on a random Tuesday or skip player testing. Missing one update because it needed more time would be understandable; it could simply enter the next scheduled PTS. But if layoffs occurring roughly a week before this PTS caused the rework to miss every remaining 2026 cycle, then it clearly was nowhere near as close to completion as their communicated timeline suggested.

“Rigid update cycles” explains a one-patch delay. It does not explain an indefinite postponement into 2027.

The PTS for U51 was originally scheduled for July 6, 2026. The Xbox layoffs happened on July 6, 2026. Notice how that's the exact same day. The one month bump of the U51 PTS from July 6 to August 3 was the time they needed to get their bearings, restructure, and redo their roadmap.

While the exact release date of the Warden refresh is currently unclear, the lack of a locked date is basic risk management. Remember, Asha Sharma laid out plans for approximately 3,200 cuts in Xbox throughout their 2027 fiscal year (for Microsoft, that is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027), and has already started with 1,600 of those on July 6, 2026. What this means is, there are approximately 1,600 cuts left, and so ZOS has to navigate a landscape where future restructuring could still happen; given the possibility of further layoffs in the future, not promising an exact date while the dust is settling is simply just avoiding making promises they aren't 100% sure they can deliver.

Keep in mind, Update 51 launches on September 28, 2026, and Update 52 is slated for a January 2027 release. That's just four months. We very well may still see the Warden refresh hit the PTS in December of this year for the U52 PTS cycle.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

TheAwesomeChimpanzee wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

BigPlays420 wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Red99 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Lagzee wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Combat and Class balance is something that affects all facets of the game, from the most casual of overland questing to hypersweaty PvP. Leaving that to languish for any length of time will only serve to drive more and more people away. This is especially obvious from the recent surprise Vengeance test - Vengeance as it currently is was running fine and had a population that enjoyed it as is, so the Combat Team taking time away from the Refreshes to focus on modifying that mode (especially in a way that removed what its main userbase enjoyed to try in vain to entice a userbase that wants nothing to do with it) seemed like a case of skewed priorities.

Hey all, related to the above, while we aren't going go into specifics (and I recognize that's disappointing), the class refresh schedule change is not due to anything the Combat Team is or will be working on. Vengeance work is unrelated.

If its something that can change, or if things can be shifted, it really should be considered. I just hope you guys understand the damage that will be done this year with a lack of this refresh. Among other things.

Like i said in another comment, ill play regardless, to some extent. Its disappointing, but not something im going to quit over. The biggest disappointment to me is what i know will come with a lack of content, trial, and the class refresh that so many people want more than anything. And what is going to come is an overall decline in players. Which absolutely sucks, and is the complete opposite of what this game needs.

The things that some people at zos think are going to be enough, to hold people over til next year, are just not going to cut it. But i hope im wrong. Id love players numbers to skyrocket, but amidst all this chaos and disappointment, i just dont see any outcome other than the opposite.

Just wanted to clarify what Jess meant here. She simply wanted to note that PvP (Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, Vengeance) and the combat team as a whole are not at fault for the delay. They are actively working on what they can for the combat refresh as we speak. One thing to remind folks is that development of features or revamping of features is not solely on one team. There are a pipeline of teams that need to touch the product before it can be complete (examples: art, animation, audio, narrative, etc.). So we're working on getting more hands freed up from various teams as they wrap up existing immediate items to assist with other parts of the pipeline.

Also, we want to note that the Community Team has been banging the drum internally on how important the combat refresh is to the community overall. So the teams are aware and doing the best they can to get them done and done right.

This is not a valid excuse, you promised us 4 class reworks this year, including the wolf, I can understand the possible postponement of the class after the warden given the layoffs, but for the warden there are no excuses it should have already been ready and if it is not it is because your various development teams were not capable of doing what they had to do

Nothing's been "promised".

Game development is iterative and tumultuous. The senior leads that have been laid off weren't given advance notice or time to train the remaining staff, and so pushing certain features back is the only realistic solution while the studio regains its footing and momentum. Yes, that includes needing the extra space and time to make sure the studio is back to full operational capacity so they can ensure that the Warden refresh ships with high quality, especially during the high-pressure PTS cycles.

The excuse is plenty valid; being dismissive of the layoff impact is not.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Aliyavana wrote: »

FlipFlopFrog wrote: »

You're a billion dollar company.

ESO is your flagship game.

It brings in tens of millions a month.

And a planned class refresh is pushed back for an entire year? really guys?

I think the thing that frustrates me about these kind of newsletters is that they tell us their decision to push back the class refresh but there’s no real depth to why that decision has been made. I'm not saying we need a deep dive into the in's and outs of it all but it would be nice to know a little bit more of why exactly it's been pushed back so far. ZoS clearly has resources, why are they not being spent on giving the players what they actually want? And more importantly what you promised us?

Really disappointing.

A huge portion of them got laid off. They are working with less people.

So? Honestly, not our problem. And my sympathy has run dry as it's not my job as a customer to excuse everything a company does.

Yeah, absolutely. If you're unhappy with the delayed content, then speak with your wallet, and walk away.

But treating a sudden headcount loss as "not my problem" won't magically make the Warden refresh come faster. The studio lost staff, the pipeline slowed down, and ignoring that reality doesn't change it.

Warden was, at most, a couple of weeks away from hitting the PTS. A delay of a few months because of the layoffs would be understandable, but pushing it back by well over half a year is absurd. They didn’t technically promise a date, but they did give us a timeline, and this goes far beyond that. It makes it very hard to believe the layoffs are the only reason. From where I’m standing, it feels like the Warden rework was never going to make this PTS cycle regardless.

The level of disrespect being shown to the player base is astounding.

That's not how game update cycles work. Updates and features don't just ship whenever they're ready on any random Tuesday. There are rigid update patches and PTS testing cycles for a reason.

If a feature isn't fully QA-tested and ready when the PTS for a specific patch locks, or if the team lacks the bandwidth to handle and iterate on that feature during the PTS cycle, it misses that entire update cycle. ZOS can't just spawn an extra PTS cycle midway through a patch to drop a single class refresh, and so it has to wait for the next major scheduled update.

Like, if they needed even just a couple extra weeks into August to finish the Warden refresh, or if post-layoff bandwidth meant they couldn't properly iterate on player feedback without compromising the Warden refresh's quality, that's being pushed to the next update. That's just how software deployment works. Yes, patches and hotfixes exist, but do you really want them to drop the Warden refresh without at least a round of player testing?

You’re explaining why it might miss this PTS cycle, not why it has apparently disappeared for well over six months.

Nobody is asking them to release it on a random Tuesday or skip player testing. Missing one update because it needed more time would be understandable; it could simply enter the next scheduled PTS. But if layoffs occurring roughly a week before this PTS caused the rework to miss every remaining 2026 cycle, then it clearly was nowhere near as close to completion as their communicated timeline suggested.

“Rigid update cycles” explains a one-patch delay. It does not explain an indefinite postponement into 2027.

In addition to the above, it also doesn’t explain why the team is unable to communicate.

Was there a slight problem with Warden, meaning it would finish in mid-August (thereby missing the PTS cycle and being forced into U52 in January)? Would it be possible for Sorc to drop with Warden together in U52 since Sorc should have gone on PTS around September in the original timeline? Was there a major problem and they had to start from scratch? Is anything else being done in the meantime?

The combat team is stonewalling any communication. We have no idea where they are or what their progress is, and therefore we have nothing to latch on to.
And yes, they do owe us answers. Are we expected to continue paying for ESO+ on nothing but hopes and dreams?

We all want more communication from them, but calling it "stonewalling" completely ignores what the Community Managers have already told us.

Jess literally replied directly to your point to clarify that the combat team isn't shifting focus to Vengeance, and Kevin expanded on that, letting you know that class refreshes rely on a full pipeline of teams, so freeing up cross-department bandwidth post-layoffs is the real bottleneck. On top of that, Kevin just posted a preview thread sharing sneak peeks from at least 39 Word-doc pages of PTS patch notes he's actively finishing up for Monday. They are communicating, even when the community management team has been hit hard by the layoffs.

You're not getting specific granular dev updates on future features. Expecting them to have an answer for stuff like "whether the Sorcerer and Warden refreshes are merging in U52" while they are actively restructuring is asking for premature promises. None of those plans are confirmed or concrete, and any statement they release at this point can so easily be misconstrued as promises and guarantees by this community, and so if or when they cannot deliver on those when time comes, they lose even more trust.

Look, remember when they made a PTS test that radically changed light and heavy attacks, and made it so abundantly clear in bolded letters that those changes were experimental and very much not slated to actually go into the game, and that the only goal with those changes was testing and gathering feedback? Yeah, that did not stop the myriad of threads doomposting about the future of the game. When anything they say is taken with the most extreme assumptions, silence until certainty truly is the best option.

That timeline is incorrect. July 6 was no longer the scheduled PTS date when the layoffs occurred. ZOS had already announced in June that U51 PTS was being pushed from July 6 to July 27. The later roadmap adjustment moved it only one additional week, from July 27 to August 3.

So no, the entire July 6–August 3 gap was not a month they needed to “get their bearings” after the layoffs. Three of those four weeks had already been added beforehand—which only reinforces the point that the Warden refresh was already behind schedule before the layoffs happened.

And keep in mind: they did not give us any indication whatsoever of when in 2027 the Warden refresh was supposed to arrive, while they were perfectly capable of giving the new PvP zone a specific release window.

So spare me the attempt to frame this as “basic risk management.” The rework went from supposedly being close enough to discuss publicly to vanishing from every remaining 2026 cycle without explanation. [snip]
[edited for bashing]