Excellent changes to sloads and rune cage! This should help bring rune cage back down to par with other hard CC's, HOWEVER there is still the issue of the CC itself being buggy and often delayed/unbreakable. This should be evaluated during this pts cycle. Other than that I personally am satisfied with the changes to rune cage.

While the sloads change certainly will help medium armor builds avoid it more frequently, it may not fully "balance" the set. Even with the first cycle of PTS notes removing the first tick as well as the ability to proc itself, it will still deal a relatively high amount of damage and will remain just as unavoidable as it was previously for a wide variety of builds. I'd recommend upping the cooldown slightly to reduce the uptime, perhaps a cooldown of 10 seconds instead of 6. This will allow for recovery time in between sloads procs, instead of it just being active 100% of the time in 1v1 encounters. Even with it being dodgeable, there is no way to predict and actively roll it's proc without counting down the exact cooldown and even then, this will be near impossible if outnumbered or under pressure.

I'd also like to propose a skoria nerf; this set is one that hasn't been adjusted alongside the numerous other procs that had balance changes applied to them, and it is so powerful that stamina builds can afford to run it without sacrificing much at all. The damage should either be brought down, or the cooldown should be brought up. This is a set that is on my recap 4x as frequently as sloads, and is often hitting for nearly the same damage as a full duration sloads proc.

Personally I think the best solution to proc sets would be to have them scale off of max stats like abilities do, so that they couldn't be used by cheesy, proc set reliant builds with terribly low stats (and tanks). They should reward building into damage with high damage, not allow it to anyone willing to slot the set. Obviously if this change was made, the base damage values would have to be evaluated for changes.

@ZOS_GinaBruno

@ZOS_GinaBruno Last week, @ZOS_Jay wrote, "Next week, there should be additional changes to Balorgh that hit some of the concerns you all have pointed out."

The only change to Balorgh that I see in today's notes is a repeat note for a change that was made for last week's patch. Could you please check to see if these really are the only changes that are made this week?

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Nightblade

• Assassination
  • Death Stroke
    • Incapacitating Strike (morph): This ability now only stuns if you have 120 Ultimate or more. To visually show its readiness state, the icon will change to a recolored version and the animation of the cast will change.

Sorcerer

• Dark Magic
  • Rune Prison
    • Rune Cage (morph): This ability now only deals damage if the stun lasts for its full duration.

Bad changes not solving issues at all.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/5324549#Comment_5324549

Thank you ZOS for the jewelry craft changes. I'll be finally putting my crafters at max tier for JC writs at least to see the extent of the change. Combined with the reduction to upgrade costs and increase to vouchers for JC master writs, this should balance out the majority of the issues with the system. I'll wait to do full testing on live before saying for sure. I'd expect the value of chromium grains to go up slightly due to the upgrade reduction then come down moderately due to the writ change with an overall minor reduction in current value. I'd also expect the value of platinum ounces to shoot back up if players with 15 crafters start needing nearly 500 daily for their writs.

ak_pvp wrote: »

Hey, its a pretty good start.

The revert change to runes damage means that it won't be slotted on most solo sorcs bars, since an only CC ability is quite a sacrifice, however its still a problem (and was when it was introduced) from groups pinning you with a buggy to break, 40m uncounterable CC.

Sloads projectile NEEDS to be reflectable. It is indeed a projectile, and adding yet another exception to wings shows bias. Especially since DK has nothing to combat it, unlike cloak/purge/roll. Tanks already have many counters in dots, doubly so for bleeds, unblockable on targets (like curse/potl) and many AoEs.

Or even better, just not stack. Have it refresh instead, since it is oblivion damage and PvP oriented. Then make the cooldown to proc per target (like wyrd tree) so it isn't useless.

It is however Oblivion dmg. So no, it does not need to be reflectable. Roll dodge like the rest of us.

Im confused... when is the class representative based changes? Apart from sloads (Still disastrous for mag builds) and rune cage (Damage from cage isnt the central issue, the sorc natural combo being undefendable with it is) I dont see any and this is the last "main changes.

Incap change is ok, thoughi still think it will remain best ult in game.

MagWarden still has zero and 99% of other issues are untouched

Thank you for the PTS. It really helps us add-on authors be ready for the DLC right on release day. It also provides a safe testing ground where we can burn through consumables and materials.

Please could we have a character copy from Live? Those of us working on tradeskill add-ons have a much easier time testing if we have our homes with attuned stations and inventories full of specific sealed master writs that exercise the code we're working on. When I have to rebuild my inventory through template character containers, and then travel out in the wild to access crafting stations, my edit-test-debug cycles take hours instead of minutes. Sometimes the containers never produce the writ or item I require in order to test. It's enough of an additional hurdle that I often choose to suspend add-on work until the next character copy.

--Z

ziggr wrote: »

Thank you for the PTS. It really helps us add-on authors be ready for the DLC right on release day. It also provides a safe testing ground where we can burn through consumables and materials.

Please could we have a character copy from Live? Those of us working on tradeskill add-ons have a much easier time testing if we have our homes with attuned stations and inventories full of specific sealed master writs that exercise the code we're working on. When I have to rebuild my inventory through template character containers, and then travel out in the wild to access crafting stations, my edit-test-debug cycles take hours instead of minutes. Sometimes the containers never produce the writ or item I require in order to test. It's enough of an additional hurdle that I often choose to suspend add-on work until the next character copy.

--Z

@ziggr You could ask around on the PTS forum if anyone from EU with a fully attuned home would make their home available to you on the PTS.

RIP magwarden. So young, so much potential... that rune cage nerf though. That's EXACTLY what the player base said was wrong.... LOL! Sorc meta 2015 - indefinitely.

Blobsky wrote: »

Im confused... when is the class representative based changes? Apart from sloads (Still disastrous for mag builds) and rune cage (Damage from cage isnt the central issue, the sorc natural combo being undefendable with it is) I dont see any and this is the last "main changes.

Incap change is ok, thoughi still think it will remain best ult in game.

MagWarden still has zero and 99% of other issues are untouched

Templar rune was addressed

Qbiken wrote: »

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

So now the Tank-Killer set is a projectile. (Sloads)

Assuming it inherits all the projectile traits, this means that it can also be reflected by the 'tank' class wings...

@Peekachu99

Play WW yourself. It's far from shambles. Besides, permawolf in BG's doesn't seem like a good design choice IMO. (Especially since it can be done when building full glass-cannon)

I find the ability to stay in WW-form on PTS very similar (if not easier) compared to live. While Gilliam is a competent player, he could have done things better in that BG match on ESO live. Permawolf in battlegrounds is not an issue what so ever

Show me a video of you doing this and I’ll believe you. You have weeks to come up with one, and that’s about what it will take for you to get lucky enough without being chain cc’d or having corpses disappear too fast to maintain form, consistently.

Liam12548 wrote: »

Excellent changes to sloads and rune cage! This should help bring rune cage back down to par with other hard CC's, HOWEVER there is still the issue of the CC itself being buggy and often delayed/unbreakable. This should be evaluated during this pts cycle. Other than that I personally am satisfied with the changes to rune cage.

While the sloads change certainly will help medium armor builds avoid it more frequently, it may not fully "balance" the set. Even with the first cycle of PTS notes removing the first tick as well as the ability to proc itself, it will still deal a relatively high amount of damage and will remain just as unavoidable as it was previously for a wide variety of builds. I'd recommend upping the cooldown slightly to reduce the uptime, perhaps a cooldown of 10 seconds instead of 6. This will allow for recovery time in between sloads procs, instead of it just being active 100% of the time in 1v1 encounters. Even with it being dodgeable, there is no way to predict and actively roll it's proc without counting down the exact cooldown and even then, this will be near impossible if outnumbered or under pressure.

I'd also like to propose a skoria nerf; this set is one that hasn't been adjusted alongside the numerous other procs that had balance changes applied to them, and it is so powerful that stamina builds can afford to run it without sacrificing much at all. The damage should either be brought down, or the cooldown should be brought up. This is a set that is on my recap 4x as frequently as sloads, and is often hitting for nearly the same damage as a full duration sloads proc.

Personally I think the best solution to proc sets would be to have them scale off of max stats like abilities do, so that they couldn't be used by cheesy, proc set reliant builds with terribly low stats (and tanks). They should reward building into damage with high damage, not allow it to anyone willing to slot the set. Obviously if this change was made, the base damage values would have to be evaluated for changes.

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Mostly terrible idea. “Let’s let the bursty NB/Sorc/Whatever benefit more from burst proc sets!” said no one ever aside from you. Dps and glass cannons are already rewarded in every other way by having their offensive/ defensive and healing abilities bolstered by their max stats. The only way this would work would be if Protection buffs, healing given/ received and armor buffs likewise scaled with Health as a max stat. But since most everyone in this game is laser focused on max dps, that would never happen.

Peekachu99 wrote: »

No WW adjustments for two PTS cycles, really? Is the plan to just leave it in shambles for another two years now? The timer is atrocious and Gilliam couldn’t even stay in form in a BG on your live stream.

lmao, so you want free WW form for 15 mins, gtfo with your stupid OP version of WW

KingLogix wrote: »

the rune cage damage isn't the issue...

And Sorcerer is Wrobel favourite class, he is not admitting Rune Cage problem even after 100 of complaints!