On the whole, I will say these are a good set of patch notes. This is a welcome development as every update’s patch notes since Imperial City has been a disappointment for me as they seemed to be a compilation of nerfs. These notes attempt to address real problems, make some much-needed quality of life changes, and I do appreciate that the combat team at least tried to think of gameplay/counterplay adjustments rather than band-aid and blanket nerfs. So, these are encouraging and on the whole a nice improvement to the game in spite of the critiques I will list.
I also understand that ZoS pdates are focused, whereby you looked to address specific themes, rather than a hodgepodge of unrelated issues. Here we had itemization, mundas/traits, procset counterplay, etc. So I recognize that’s why we are not seeing anything with classes, abilities, on other balance issues that players have raised. That being said, I think it would be a good idea for ZoS to indicate to us what is planned for next update to keep us in the loop.
Armor Sets
Draugr’s Rest: like other “healing” sets, it’s bonuses are geared toward healing, but the “meta” is that healer sets should enable their allies with buffs. The 5th piece bonus is an OK effect, but small beneficial ground effects go against the emphasis on movement that ESO has put in its newer content. The “Healing Done” bonus needs to be more than 2% for me to want that over Spellpower or Recovery.
Earthgore: Every PvP guild is going to farm this set to eliminate enemy Negates, the big healing are nice bonuses. I’m guessing ZoS is totally fine with this since Negates are obscenely strong.
Would have liked to see more 5-piece bonus that did something other than procs and “moar damage.” Isn’t much of the theme of this patch to undo the harm caused by such sets?
Chaosball
I feel bad that
@ZOS_GinaBruno had to ask us to try this and we didn’t. It’s hard to get any sort of group-organized PvP on a PTS. Please be quick to act on the feedback we do provide once the patch drops. My hunch is that this game will be much more interesting than Relic and Domination, though the score and debuff timers may need to be tweaked once we play it and see strategies unfold.
Hiding friendly visual effects
I don’t like this. At all. If I am in a group and I care about the performance of other members, I need to see what effects they are using, even if that’s “noise.” I suppose I don’t need to see an allied Templar’s Rune Focus, but if I’m in a PuG group and the DPS is low, I really need to see if the DPS archer is using Volley. As it is in my PvP group, the leader sometimes has to ask if our Eye of the Storms went off.
I get it, you are trying to improve performance. But these piecemeal baby steps 1) are equivalent to tearing a single page out of
War and Peace and 2) lower the overall quality of the game. To have a meaningful impact, i.e., a changed that might entice many of those who quit because of “lag,” you need to bite the bullet and actually invest in the underlying core issues, whether that is expanding the capacity/quality of your servers, a more robust anti-cheat measures that will allow the client to handle more calculations, etc.
Fixes / Updates
- "Maelstrom Restoration Staff: Fixed an issue where this was not providing enough Critical Strike rating relative to other item set bonuses." – Long overdue, but thanks!
- "Willow’s Path: The percentage increase to recovery granted by this Item Set will now modify all flat increases to recovery, such as drinks." – And the was much rejoicing
- “You will no longer be warned that an item can be destroyed if the upgrade chance is 100%.” – Thank You
- "Potion reduction enchantments now correctly reduce the cooldown of potions. For real this time." – Nice to see this fixed.
- "Dawnbreaker: This ability and its morphs can no longer be dodged." – Thank you.
- "Improved the reliability of CC (crowd control) immunity when other status effects are on you." – This by itself makes the whole Horns patch worth it!
- "Engine Guardian: The monster summoned by this Item Set’s proc will now stick by your side instead of attempting to wander off and engage enemies (similar to the behavior of the Betty Netch)" – Thank you.
- “Furniture listed in Guild Stores can now be previewed.” – Thank You
- “You can now deposit Alliance Points and Writ Vouchers into your account bank where they may be withdrawn by any of your characters” – Thank you
- “Dodge rolling now grants immunity to immobilizations when it is used while you are silenced” – Thank you. Encase + Negate was way too strong.
- “Fire Rune: This ability and its morphs are now hidden to enemy player characters.” – Long overdue, but the skill’s actual power is still underwhelming to slot over more efficient and versatile alternatives.
PvE stuff
- Imperial City Dungeon nerfs – unnecessary as we get stronger every patch and these have already been neutered.
- Shadows of the Hist nerfs – makes me wonder why there is such a thing as “normal” mode.
- City of Ash II nerfs – called this specific fight during the Morrowind PTS
- "Improved treasure chests found in Veteran Dungeons and Trials and Relocated heavy sacks and treasure chests away from areas where your group has to split up” – Thank you, really like these quality of life improvements.
Balance changes
- Mundas Stones: Standardizing the bonuses with other systems was a good idea to increase build diversity. I still think Lady, Lord, Steed, and Ritual are underwhelming, though that’s because I believe what they’re modifying isn’t strong to begin with.
- Weapon Traits: I like what you are trying to do here. I trust @Asayre judgment that they’re all close and what is best will depend on the situation, which is how it ought to have been in the first place.
- Infused, however, in combination with specific glyphs like Oblivion, Spell/Weapon Damage, and Torug’s Pact, is going to cause problems in PvP. Infused is *very* strong in single target situations and I fear that all this patch is doing is replacing the armor procs sets in our death recaps with weapon enchant (more specifically Oblivion).
- I know the math says that the Divine trait + Regeneration Mundas is comparable to what’s given by the new Prosperous trait, however new Prosperous is still underwhelming. Divines is strong with damage, with Thief and Shadow, which is why I think people will still decon Prosperous. Also, it should be renamed to something else.
- Item set 1,2,3,4 piece bonuses. More relative power to our gear means our classes are becoming less relevant, less important, and more overshadowed. I like buffs, I like being more powerful, but this is the continuation of a bad trend that has seen the soul sucked out of our classes, to be replaced by generic power available to everyone in the form of gear and the Champion System.
“Proc sets”
I’m not sure ZoS can win here. Many players are simply ideologically opposed to them and find it unacceptable that even a single proc set appears in their death recap. On the other hand, they are in the game, incentivize content, supposed to offer options, etc., and thus can’t be the decon trash those who hate proc sets want.
I’m also not so sure Viper is going to go away. It still offers the same amount of damage and if a sorcerer’s Curse spell is considered burst at 3.5 seconds, then so ought Viper’s damage over 4. Poisonous Serpent is probably more proc friendly this patch. And it’s still beholden upon a target to avoid what will probably be a point-blank projectile from Red Mountain. People might not use these sets because they vaguely believe these sets were nerfed, but many of these changes are not nerfs and do nothing to curb the power these sets had (which I understand was ZoS’s intent, given that they believe the damage is fine).
Skoria and Selene are still going to be used and combined with Infused weapon glyphs (perhaps augmented by Torug’s Pact), people are going to see a lot of things in their death recaps that are not player abilities. I suspect PvP players are going to still be echoing many of the same complaints and thus louder calls to separate PvE from PvP.
I don’t know if ZoS can do anything here to appease both sides. Remember proc sets were
already nerfed before, they can’t crit. And the no CP format will by its nature artificially amplify their power and be that much more important since I have less resources. In no CP or Battlegrounds, I am absolutely going to want to use Oblivion enchants because my normal light and heavy attacks become potential killers.
I think the issue would be best solved by examining how it was the proc sets were actually relatively more powerful way back when (Valkyn used to crit you for 10K and you had less CPs and less resources), yet did not cause the level of outrage.
- 1.4-1.5: Player health relatively higher. Class power not yet stolen by gear and champion system means I want to use my abilities to kill and can use same strong abilities to better defend myself. Soft caps inhibited abusive combinations that procs could be a part of.
- 1.6 – Viper CP 160 updated. There is no such thing as no CP, so proc sets are not in an environment that artificially inflates their power. Only one proc set can be worn so players cant be burst down with multiple instances of invisible burst damage. Classes are still in the process of getting nerfed and their soul sucked out to fuel the Champion System, but they still have enough tools such that players would not yet look elsewhere. Believe or not, Engine Guardian and 1-piece Kena bonus perceived to be on par with (fixed) Valkyn that can crit.
- Proc set era. No CP environments. Possible to wear three instant damage proc sets. Introduction of the Oblivion enchant. Classes nerfed. Morrowind resource sustain nerfed. Is it any wonder why proc sets are now overperforming even though they are relatively weaker?
In short, I think it’s the direction the game has gone that is responsible for the menace that is proc sets and the best way to address the problem would be to alter the course ESO is heading and back toward elements the game used to possess that inspired it players to use builds that did not rely on proc sets.
Torug’s Pact + Infused + Oblivion Glyphs or some combination thereof.
The combination of these three might not make for a “BiS” DPS character, but it sure seems to be too “easy” to put good, constant, and unavoidable DPS on another player. A main complaint in ESO going on for about a year now is that it is too easy to put instant burst damage on players without using abilities so I find it strange in the very patch in which ZoS put forth as a main goal was to curb these abuses (from proc sets anyways), it would be enabling something similar. I understand the Torug’s Pact additive bug has been fixed, but getting hit every 1.4 seconds with nearly 2K damage that people can do absolutely nothing about is going to be frustrating. And this isn’t even considering these can proc on passively from things like Wall of Elements and Poison Injection.
I know irresistible damage has been a game mechanic forever (I still remember the old rewards for the worthy bows had this property), though I’m not exactly sure why your combat team decided to update and expand it with the mechanic of Oblivion damage and making it so easily accessible and augmentable. And I’m further confused why it is somehow excluded from Battlespirit. If we go by the precedent ZoS set for Burning Spellweave:
“Burning Spellweave is currently one of the most dominant Magicka DPS sets in the game, which limits diversity in set gearing. We’ve slightly reduced the proc chance and Spell Damage it grants so it is more in-line with other Item Set options, and is only a more attractive option when you are using many Flame Damage attacks.”
The same logic applies to Oblivion enchants as I am constantly hit by 1900 pink damage (that is the color my UI generates) no matter if my opponents are magicka, stam, healers, tanks, gankers, etc., these Oblivion damage glyphs are ubiquitous and the (otherwise good) changes to weapon trait is going to make them even stronger.
Five-point summary
- The Infused trait, especially combined with an Oblivion glyph for PvP, is potentially too strong in single target scenarios and may simple replace “proc set” frustrations
- I think the hiding visual effects is well-meaninged, but detracts too much for people who care about the effectiveness of their groups or allies. Also, the emphasis on these sorts of piecemeal measures to address performance won’t bring back those who quit the game.
- “Proc sets” and other means of instant burst damage that come with no resource costs I think will continue to be a problem as long as combat in environments where players health is relatively low and access to resoruces/skills is restricted because of resource bottlenecks. No-CP and Battlegrounds particularly so.
- I think it’s kind of pathetic that a gear set such as Necropotance assumes so much importance and argument because our class skills are meh and generic.
- The large number of quality of life adjustments and bug fixes are very welcome.
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