(1) blah blah blah diversity
Answer 1: Current meta with no restrictions create only an illusion of diversity, while completely invalidating the fairly well-designed and interesting combat mechanics underlying ESO pvp.
The truth is, there are only a handful of sets worth running and 90% of them are proc damage / proc healing sets. The proc damage/healing sets offer no meaningful differences in mechanics or interactivity.
Some examples:
- would you rather hold left click to do insane damage for free (heavy attack sets) or tap left click to do the same (Syvarra's)?
- Or would you rather proc an insane dot by casting splitting trap (oblivion's foe) or by casting crit rush (unleashed terror)?
- Do you want your left click to proc crows (Unfathomable Terror) or do you want your left click to proc swords (Morkuldins)?
- Do you want a green beam to heal you for free (Chokethorne), a red beam (Engine Guardian), or red particles (Earthgore)?
- Do you want to see random meteors fall from the sky for 4k (Skoria), or would you rather see a random bear crush somebody for 6k (Selenes)?
The differences in proc conditions are minute and all of them result in breaking the balance of global cooldown management. In such an environment, the combat is not readable beyond "I better watch out for random damage that can come in any form at any time with almost no relation to positioning, timing, or resource management".
Answer 2: What diversity that IS created by the current meta is actually detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the game by its playerbase.
I concede that some of these ridiculous sets can be combined to create some unique builds. The problem is most (probably all) of these "unique" builds basically make the game more boring and frustrating to play. Prime example of this would be 80k thew's block tanks. The entire playstyle consists of putting yourself in a bad position and holding right click until you get low, pressing "R" to pop Goliath, and then dying after your ulti runs out. Or consider the 40k HP werewolf with insane defense/hp regen stacking that simply becomes a DPS / movespeed check.
(2) you're just bad and that's why you can't handle procs
We crushed with procs and we still crush without procs, the only difference is that without procs the combat is more readable, there are more options in any situation, and the skill ceiling is higher. Same victories, just more enjoyable.
No excuses now when you lose either, it's either lag or you made a mistake. (Reality check: it's not always lag)
(3) no one does damage in no proc Cyro
maybe don't stack 38k HP with 4k hp regen on your stam necro and then complain about how you don't do damage
(4) sorcs are OP broken and unbeatable
if
@Kitashngmr is 1vXing overload sorcs on the regular in a 25k HP medium armor stam dk without wings, this is probably just a learn to play issue
(5) what about class imbalances
Answer 1: They exist with or without procs. In the proc environment, you saw a lot less sorcs and stam nbs because the procs favored stand and fight classes. In the no proc environment, you see a lot less mag DKs because they need some help.
Answer 2: If we're going to have class imbalances anyway, I'd rather have class imbalance in an environment where the combat mechanics actually make sense and the player's skills matter more
Answer 3: In a no proc environment, we can see class imbalances more clearly, which makes it easier to identify potential fixes
(6) class action law suit? "promissory estoppel?"
Please stop, YOUR specific intent in buying the DLC just to use a couple items for a relatively small part of the entire product doesn't invalidate the fact that every time you bought said product (the base game and any DLC), you signed (accepted) a written contract that contains a commonly understood and expected clause explaining that the developers are free to make balance changes that impact your use of the purchase.
(7) But I didn't read the contract
But you could have, and you also declared that you did read it by signing it / accepting it.
(8) But I don't like it
Sorry to hear that.
(9) but in a perfect world I could sue ZOS over this and win
BAD ENDING: You win the class action lawsuit and set a legal precedent that cripples future developers from making any big changes to their games, no matter how necessary it may be to balance the game and make it more enjoyable. You spend your class-action lawsuit earnings of $2.50 on microtransactions for your next game while flaming its developers for not having the balls to make risky changes to their game. Everyone loses.
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My 2 cents on the extended no proc Cyrodil:
Is it ideal? No.
In a perfect world, we could have 2 separate campaigns, or ZOS could immediately code in a way to selectively ban certain sets in Cyrodil without breaking the rest of the spaghetti code, AND be able to pick the right sets to ensure quality balancing, or we can even have both at the same time.
This is not that world, and I'm willing to accept that. I think no proc Cyrodil is plenty interesting. There's enough variety if you're willing to accept that maybe you aren't the absolute master of the game as you think you are. If you can find 2-4 people to play with, you'll find there are plenty of things you can do in terms of team play and composition. And we will eventually end up with the "ideal" scenario as ZOS has already stated they will work toward proc AND no proc servers, and also expanding the allowed stat sets.
A lot of the complaints about how no proc Cyro plays is a learn to play issue. Why do I believe this? Because all week long we snack on the same OP sorcs that according to the forums cannot be beat while half paying attention to the game. Because I watch good players in apparently "trash" classes 1v2 overload sorcs in open world.
Just the other day, somebody linked a video of a 38k HP stam necro complaining that no proc cyro is boring and you can't kill anyone. At roughly the same time we were farming 100k+ AP worth of kills inside an enemy keep, outnumbered in a 4 man group with no healer with "bad" off-meta classes.
If you're having trouble getting kills because you stacked 38k HP on a stamcro with 3k hp regen, this is the epitome of a learn 2 play problem. Maybe it turns out that malacath and vat 2h was carrying your damage and you need to make some adjustment to your build and risk dying in a 1v1 in order to get damage.
To those of you who dislike what ZOS is doing and have simply decided to say "I don't like this, I want to use my sets, I don't mind procs, and I'm unsubbing", I respect that.
Best of luck on your next game and your life in general. I'll keep playing and I believe there will be plenty of people playing once this patch hits.
- I think Battlegrounds are fun. Yes, some players are unkillable. Yes, some player can 1shot you. But Battlegrounds aren't all about kill, most of the time these sort of players just don't play the objectives.