Unlabelled Elder Scrolls Online - Summerset & Update 18 Teaser - A Recap Of Last Week's Private Playtesting & Feedback Event

4/04/2018 06:49:00 pm
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Elder Scrolls Online - Summerset & Update 18 Teaser - A Recap Of Last Week's Private Playtesting & Feedback Event

Summerset & Update 18 Teaser - A Recap Of Last Week's Private Playtesting & Feedback Event

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 07:00 AM PDT

Last week, Zenimax invited 12 players from around the world to their studio for several days consisting of playtesting and feedback meetings. Myself and /u/Woeler were among the attendees (see a full list of those invited below).

  • Gilliamtherogue
  • Ixtyr
  • Woeler
  • techandjunk
  • Alcast
  • Shimmer
  • Xynode
  • Tianlein
  • Inklings
  • Ninja614
  • Starkerealm
  • Nestor

Now that the embargo on our NDAs have been [partially] lifted, I'd like to walk through some of the details of what we saw, heard, and felt regarding the upcoming Summerset Chapter, the Psijic Order, Jewelry Crafting, various balance changes, and also offer my perspective on the progress the ZOS team has been making.

Please Note: I will not be revealing any story spoilers below, nor will I be discussing too many details of the new Cloudrest Trial. I will, however, outline the balance changes we discussed, but please remember that everything we saw on-site last week may be changed or tweaked based on both ZOS's internal plans as well as our feedback. I advise against losing your collective shit, be it in a positive or negative manner, until you're able to actually test the changes and new content on the PTS later this month.

Overall Synopsis

In general, the tone of the entire experience was extremely positive. I'll be honest - I've become very cynical and depressed regarding ESO's future in the past year, particularly as a PvP player, and my expectations of this event were fairly low. Despite that, I left the studio feeling fairly excited and hopeful, and that feeling has not diminished in the days since the trip. The team was extremely receptive to feedback from myself and the others in attendance - early feedback on balance changes and skills seemed to be taken to heart, with the team willing to make some changes to certain skills, balance updates, etc., pretty much on-the-spot. We had multiple breakout sessions with various development leads, including over an hour of direct feedback just for animations, animation canceling, and weaving feedback, plus time to walk through the classes, upcoming balance changes, hours of discussion around major pain points and areas we wanted to see them focus on in the future, and more.

That's not to say everything was perfect - there is still a long way to go and some things I disagreed with, but I can see tangible progress. Rob Garrett, the new Lead Gameplay Designer (he left RIOT to join the team in January), seems to be a particularly positive influence - one of the main points he stressed with us was the importance of their team being able to better define and communicate their vision and goals with the playerbase, particularly when it comes to the vision for each individual class and game type (PvP vs. PvE, etc.), and then audit all of their current and future changes against more tangible, defined principles - which is something a lot of folks in the hard-core community have been wanting for a long time. I will always have my doubts, but I am excited to see how that goes, and I genuinely do buy in to what he (and the overall team) had to say about it. If they manage to hold true to that ambition, I hope that it, among other things, will make it easier for both the developers and the players to hold each other accountable and drive the entire property forward with fewer headaches.

As far as the Summerset Chapter goes - I have no major complaints with the content we saw during our testing. Seriously - none. Aesthetically the zone is incredible, the volume of questing content and repeatable content seems adequate, there are less annoying restrictions or gaps than we've seen with some previous DLCs, the new systems (ie. Jewelry Crafting) are interesting, powerful, not terribly out-of-balance, and developed with a level of thought that some previously-developed systems lacked (in my opinion), the Psijic Order skill line seems a lot less brokenly-overpowered than I first anticipated, and the new Trial absolutely blows vAS out of the water. To me, the best DLC/Chapter ever released by ZOS in terms of overall content volume and quality was Orsinium - Summerset strikes me as being generally better in almost every way. It really does feel like ZOS has learned from many of their past mistakes with this update.

Summerset Content

First of all, the zone is incredible. Period. I know there has been speculation/concern that Summerset would just feel like a re-skinned Auridon - and while it does have some mild similarities that you might expect, the quality is lightyears ahead. The architecture is phenomenal, and the team made amazing use of height and scale that puts any other zone to shame. I remember walking up to the gates of Orsinium for the first time on the PTS, feeling awestruck and intimidated by the sheer height and scale of the city - walking up to Alinor in Summerset for the first time put that feeling to shame. Artaeum is a similar story - the architecture is incredible, and remarkably unique, I found myself really wanting to dig in and explore as much as I possibly could. Both islands also have a variety of new creatures we've never seen before, the world bosses were all fun and engaging and had some actually not-entirely-pointless mechanics to them, and the new "Abyssal Geysers" (think re-skinned Dark Anchors) felt accessible, if somewhat trivial, but they looked incredible, and fill the void I felt was missing by the absence of Dark Anchors from the other DLC zones.

The zone overall does feel very Altmer-ish - meticulously clean and organized, and the environment has amazing creatures and fauna that we haven't really seen anywhere else in a TES game before. Lore nerds should be excited - and while I didn't delve too deeply into the story so as to spoil it for myself, I found it really, really difficult to not sit around and listen to the voiceovers or read more of the lorebooks scattered about. Altmer are far from my favorite race in the TES universe - but I'm totally hooked now. I just want to go back and play more.

Cloudrest (Trial)

ZOS learned their lesson from vAS and vHoF. That's the biggest takeaway I got from this trial, and it seemed to be a pretty unanimous feeling amongst the rest of the testers present. There have been some grumblings by the end-game PvE community about not wanting to see another "mini-trial" - you really should just play it if you're concerned. I like the format, but this time around, I also love the execution. Cloudrest was designed by the same developer who created the Rakkhat fight in vMoL - and I'm not surprised, since Rakkhat is by far my favorite encounter in the entire game, and this entire trial feels similarly satisfying - the mechanics of each boss feel fun, there isn't really anything noticeably "cheesy", and every mechanic layers upon the others in a meaningful way, both within each individual "side boss" fight as well as the final encounter, particularly on the Hardmode variants.

Unfortunately I can't get into too much detail regarding the Trial mechanics - but I just want to reiterate that this is, at least mechanically, a very good set of encounters. We were able to see (and complete) every fight on Normal and Normal-Hardmode, and saw every fight on Veteran (and we were able to beat one of the side bosses after a few attempts). We saw basically every meaningful mechanic in every fight (just wait until you try the Execute phase in the final encounter, it's a truly splendid clusterfuck of awesome), and I really have no complaints. While some mechanics are very punishing, they really reward and enforce good teamwork and communication, and there isn't too much obnoxious RNG to drive players insane. I also really appreciate the fact that the team is really enforcing and teaching mechanics on Normal mode - yes, the Veteran version is significantly harder, but you can't just stack-and-burn-and-ignore-mechanics on Normal, which is a positive as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I do have a few concerns - my initial impression was that the fights in this Trial were very movement-heavy. That could lead to some difficulties with Stamina DPS classes, as they may find it difficult to ramp up their sustained damage depending on how groups choose to strategize. This is mostly a concern for high-end score-run groups, and less so for simple completion of content, particularly since some of the new mechanics seemed to do a good job of being equally punishing to both Magicka and Stamina players (Oblivion Damage, anyone?), meaning the traditional advantage of Magicka builds having better survivability may play less of a factor - but it's still a concern, and I'll be interested to see how things play out over time.

My other concern had to do with the reward structure - I was somewhat underwhelmed by most of the new gear sets introduced with this Chapter as a whole, and that carries over into Cloudrest as well. A few of the sets could be drastically improved with a few changes to the 2-4 Set bonuses, and I'm hopeful that ZOS makes some of those tweaks we suggested, but again, we'll need to see what happens with the PTS. I really loved this Trial - so I genuinely hope these great encounters don't go unplayed because the rewards feel somewhat lackluster.

The Psijic Order

For the most part, the skill line introduced with the Psijic Order "guild" feels useful, but not terribly broken. There are exceptions to both of those sentiments, but I'm less concerned about most of what I saw than I anticipated I would be.

Artistically, I have to say that the Art and Animation teams outdid themselves here - the visual effects on all of these skills (including some passives) are absolutely incredible, and they all really fit the whole High-Elf Ancient-Magick aesthetic perfectly.

Skills

Unfortunately I don't have full tooltips in front of me, and I also know a few details were still being clarified so some of the details below (like all of the more "specific" notes in this post) are subject to change before hitting PTS - but the following should give you a good idea of each of the new skills in the Psijic Order skill line. Big shout-out to Gilliamtherogue and Inklings for helping to jog my memory here - unfortunately, this was the one area that I forgot to take detailed notes, so forgive me if I miss a few details.

Ultimate - Undo

This Ultimate allows the player to step back in time four seconds, instantly rebounding back to their previous position and resetting their Health, Magicka and Stamina to their values at that point in time.

  • Initial Thoughts - this Ultimate will be useful for double-bombing as a Bombblade, and for 1vX-style players who are good at using their terrain to their advantage. The animation is phenomenal - once you cast Undo, it literally rubber-bands you back in time (intentionally, for once), retracing your steps until you're back in the position you were four seconds earlier. It's like watching your character in rewind - really nifty animation.

  • It will take significant skill to use this Ultimate properly - you have to be really smart with your resources and pre-planning your engagements, being more proactive rather than reactive to the encounter, otherwise you can realistically find yourself in a worse position by using this Ultimate rather than a better one. I also have a hard time imagining a scenario where a Dragonknight will find this useful - since DKs often use Ultimates to regenerate their resources, using this skill could actually end up costing you resources, since you lose the resources you would have otherwise gained by casting literally any other Ultimate.

Active Skill - Time Stop

This skill involves the player selecting an 8-meter radius area (not player-based, it functions more like "Negate Magic" in the way that you aim-and-throw it), and players in the area immediately begin to slow down. After 1.5s, any target within the radius of the skill are frozen-in-time for an additional 3s. If you manage to get out of the area before the 1.5s cast completes, you'll be safe - but otherwise, this is a hard stun, very similar to the stun from the Warden Sleet Storm ultimate - it drops block and roots you.

  • Initial Thoughts - This skill is honestly the only one that truly frightened me as a PvP player - I offered a few nuggets of feedback to Eric and the team about ways they could alleviate it from being abused without fundamentally breaking the skill (like locking the caster in place while casting, a la Remembrance, rather than just slowing the caster and still allowing movement), but it really felt a bit too strong if it makes it to Live without changes.

  • On the plus side, the animations for the bubble around the area you're freezing time in, and the stun, are both pretty fantastic. It literally locks you in place in the motion you were in when the cast completed, which looks really slick.

Active Skill - Imbue Weapons

Casting this skill applies a buff that adds extra Physical Damage to your next two Light Attacks (not Heavy Attacks) for 2s. One morph turns this into a Magicka skill and applies a random status effect (Burning, Concussed or Chilled). The other morph heals the caster for 15% of the damage done.

  • Initial Thoughts - This could be interesting in a number of scenarios, particularly when stacked with the upcoming changes to the Empower buff. It feels somewhat like a discounted-version of the newly-adjusted Dragonknight Combustion passive, and will need to be tested further before I decide how much I like it and whether it's worth a slot on my bar.

Active Skill - Acceleration

This skill is an instant-cast Magicka skill that grants you 3s of Major Expedition and 12s of Minor Force. One morph reduces the cost of Sprint by 50% for 12s, while the other morph becomes a channeled skill, but triples the duration (to 36s).

  • Initial Thoughts - FINALLY, a Magicka-based Minor Force AND a potentially not-entirely-useless Magicka-based escape skill that doesn't involve being a Vampire for PvPers! In PvE, casters won't need to worry about slotting Trap Beast anymore, which is awesome. However, while I personally didn't test it in a parse, some of the other attendees reported that certain classes had a harder time finding a place for the skill in their rotations - MagSorcs and MagNBs in particular. MagDKs seemed to be the easiest, but I'm sure with more testing and time with the skill, players will find a way to make this work. Very nice little buff to Magicka builds here, particularly in PvE.

Active Skill - Meditate

If you've ever played Overwatch before, the animation for this skill really reminds me of the way Zenyatta levitates in the air - once cast, the player enters a meditative state, restoring Health, Magicka and Stamina every second. One morph grants you more resources per second, while the other gives you Major Protection during the channel. The skill can be bashed, but is not otherwise interrupted by incoming damage, although you are locked in place while channeling and cannot move.

  • Initial Thoughts - This may be useful during combat in some situations, particularly if you really need more resources and have a short window where you know you won't be taking any damage. However, I realistically see this as more of a "let me quickly reset before re-engaging" button. The Health and Resource returns are literally several thousand per second, so you only need 4-5s to get most of your resources back. As a Nightblade ganker, I could really see this skill replacing Vigor on my bar if I play intelligently - build for max damage, get my 1-2 kills, Shade out, then Meditate to get all of my resources back and move on to the next kill. The Major Protection morph may also actually be useful for Tanks in some PvE content who need some resources in a pinch.

Passives

There are five passives in this skill line. One of them allows the player to gain access to "rifts" - something you'll encounter throughout Tamriel as you complete the Psijic Order quest line. There is also a passive that gives the player a 5,000 Damage Shield whenever they are blocking passively if they have a Psijic Order skill slotted, which regenerates back to full strength gradually over time, and reaches full strength again after 10 seconds. Another passive grants you passive damage "orbs" that stack up to five times every time you cast a Psijic Order skill within 10 seconds of another, and then the orbs launch at the target doing one burst of either Physical or Magick Damage (based on your build - this is basically a lower-damage non-execute Sorcerer Implosion passive). I can't remember the final two passives, but I do vaguely remember at least one of them being useful. Again, my apologies for the lack of details here.

Jewelry Crafting

A lot more thought was put into this system than I first anticipated would be, which is great news. I know some players are unhappy that the system will be gated behind a paywall - and while that is a legitimate concern, it's also an entirely separate discussion I won't get into here. I'll jump into the details of each of the new traits below, but first, a background on how the system works:

Once you purchase Summerset, you'll gain access to a new Jewelry Crafting skill line. It functions fairly similarly to the other non-consumable Crafting Skills - you visit a crafting station in a major city or at the crafting set stations in Tamriel (or in Player Houses - and yes, they are separate stations entirely, so you will need to buy new Jewelry Crafting Attunable Stations for your house), and can craft Necklaces and Rings of your desired set and level.

  • The raw materials and upgrade tempers for Jewelry Crafting are sourced by mining new nodes that you can find throughout Tamriel.

  • Each trait stone is sourced through different means (similar to Nirncrux being only available in Craglorn). For example, to gain trait stones for the Infused trait, you'll need to do daily quests or events by killing mobs in Summerset, you'll need to do Cyrodiil Dailies to get Bloodthirsty gear and traitstones, and Harmony can only be sourced by completing the weekly Trial.

  • Existing Dropped Gear Sets will not drop in the new traits - the only way, then, to get your Necropotence Rings in "Infused" or "Bloodthirsty" will be through Transmutation.

  • Finally - there are no styles for jewelry, since they aren't visible on character models.

Overall, I like that ZOS has chosen to gate traits by limiting their sources - it should create an interesting market dynamic and provide players with new avenues to make gold (PvPers can now make money off of Bloodthirsty items, while PvEers will be able to sell Harmony pieces, and questers will get to sell Infused gear).

However, I'm not entirely pleased with the fact that Jewelry Crafting as a whole is going to be pay-gated, and the fact that you will need to buy Summerset to transmute items is a valid concern. That being said, I don't think any of these new traits will so vastly outperform the basic traits that this will prevent players from being able to complete content effectively - in other words, none of the traits I'll outline below felt so ridiculously overpowered during testing that they'd completely revolutionize the meta. They're fairly well-in-line with existing traits at the moment (usually within a few percentage points at most), and we still have plenty of time to test, so I wouldn't panic too much from that front for now.

Jewelry Crafting introduces 6 new Traits, plus the three core traits we've been accustomed to:

Arcane: Adds 870 Max Magicka

Healthy: Adds 957 Max Health

Robust: Adds 870 Max Stamina

Triune: Adds 435 Max Health, Magicka & Stamina

  • This is basically a Tri-Stat Enchant for your Jewelry, except as a Trait. Pretty nifty.

Protective: Adds 1,844 Physical & Spell Resistance

  • I don't like this Trait, it feels like a waste. We requested ZOS change this to something that would not already be something we easily cap out on as a Tank, like something along the lines of Block Mitigation, Healing Done or Healing Received. We'll see what happens when this hits PTS.

Swift: Increases Movement Speed by 10%

  • I love that we have a trait that provides utility but isn't necessarily a direct increase to combat stats. This trait is still restricted by the in-game movement speed cap, but it's nice and should be interesting both for combat builds and utility builds.

Harmony: Increases the potency of Damage, Healing, Recovery & Damage Shields granted by Synergies by 35%

  • We didn't really get a chance to test this thoroughly, but I think we could see a good use for it in meticulously-well-theorycrafted groups in both PvE and PvP where Synergy use is maximized.

Infused: Increases the potency of this item's Enchantment by 60%

  • On paper, this seemed like it could be broken. However, In PvE with Damage glyphs, it actually didn't perform much better than existing traits for raid-debuffed DPS parses (within 1-2%). Where this trait becomes interesting is with things like Cost Reduction enchantments - the effective cost reduction granted by one piece with the Infused trait works out to ~600 Regen-Equivalent, which is massive. Running three Cost Reduction Glyphs on Infused Jewelry along with the Alteration Mastery set, I was able to get my Force Pulses to cost about ~800 Magicka per cast, although damage was pitiful.

  • I see this trait as being incredibly useful for newer players, players with low CP, or players with resource management issues - one Infused Cost Reduction piece should be enough to fix most resource issues in PvE DPS scenarios, without having to sacrifice too much damage.

Bloodthirsty: Increase all damage you do to the target when it is below 25% health by 20%

  • This trait, again, seems a lot better on paper than it is in practice. You give up a lot of damage by choosing this trait for the first 75% of damage in a fight, but the damage you do during the last 25% is beyond bonkers. Gilliam was regularly getting Killers Blade crits over 100K on raid-debuffed dummies, plus all other damage he was doing was also buffed. The actual parse values were slightly ahead of both Robust and Infused, but he said it felt a bit like it might just be a "dummy-cheese" situation. We'll need more testing here to see how viable this is.

  • As far as PvP goes - I'm not sure how I feel about this trait. On one hand, the damage is ridiculous, but on the other hand, burst is already ridiculously strong in no-CP and in group play in Cyrodiil. This trait may help you out if you struggle to finish players off, but it also means you'll be losing significant damage for the first 75% of an enemy player's health. I intend to play a lot more with this on the PTS to see how practical it'll actually end up being for the average player.

Balance Changes/Base Game Optimizations

Okay, seriously, HOLY SHIT there's a lot of good stuff in here. The balance changes are honestly what shocked me the most - as one of the other testers mentioned when we were on-site, this is really the first time in several patches where all of our characters actually feel like they're getting better, not nerfed or falling behind. That's not to say there aren't nerfs here, I'll outline them below - but there's a lot of huge updates that I'm stoked for. Without further ado, I'll just outline everything that we discussed below.

Overall Adjustments

True Multi-Core CPU Support is coming in Update 18.

  • The distribution of your load balancing should now be relatively even across all cores and threads for your CPU. ESO still remains mostly CPU-bound, but they've removed the artificial cap on threads, so you should be able to notice some hopefully impactful client-side performance gains by tweaking your settings when Summerset drops. I admittedly have no idea how this will affect consoles, nor if there will be a way to adjust your settings in-game or if this will be an automatic optimization, so stay tuned for more updates from ZOS in the coming weeks on this one.

Two-Handed Weapons (2H, Bows, Staves) now count as 2 set items, not one.

  • I'm not fucking with you, this is really happening. This is massive. It opens a ton of possibilities, and has me really excited. Coupled with Jewelry Crafting, we could really begin to see a lot of interesting (and probably, at least in some cases, stupidly strong/broken-feeling) builds, both in PvP and PvE. Early parses on the Dev Server were showing that the traditional DW/Bow builds were still outperforming 2H/Bow and Bow/Bow, but both were still significantly improved and actually viable. Gil pulled a parse with his 2H/Bow that was only 3-4K behind the DW/Bow, and Bow/Bow was, somewhat shockingly, similarly close. With more testing, we might actually begin to see some real PvE-viable builds when Update 18 drops. Where this change really shines, though, is for staff users - Magicka builds, consider this your biggest buff. 5/5/2 Combos with full uptime are now possible. This should be exciting.

Night Mother's Gaze & Sunderflame now grant Major Breach/Fracture as their 5 Sets - and no longer stack with the same buff.

  • This basically turns both of these sets into solo sets, and takes them out of the PvE Trials rotation. On paper, this felt like it'd be a massive nerf to Stamina users in Trial groups, but based on parse data from our initial testing, it may not necessarily be as bad as we first thought. We still suggested to Eric that he adjusts one of these sets (or possibly redesign Hircine's Veneer) to still offer at least one stacking penetration buff/debuff set of some sort - so we'll wait and see what happens.

Snares have been reworked (but still no Major/Minor System, sadly) - all snares and CCs should have a duration that reflects its potency (larger snares will now generally be much shorter, while small snares last longer).

  • It's. . .some. . .progress, I guess. We gave Eric and the team an earful about needing a Major/Minor system here, since the problem with snares isn't really the potency or duration, it's the way they all stack uniquely and are expensive to purge/remove. He seemed receptive to the feedback, I'm still hopeful that it'll happen in a future patch, but I definitely wouldn't expect anything here with Summerset.

Empower has been completely redesigned - instead of granting 20% more damage to your next attack, it now only affects your next Light Attack, but increases its damage by 40%, up from 20%.

  • Good change. Reduces the already ridiculous burst potential of some builds while promoting better weaving of skills, and should be an overall damage buff for most players.

Deadly Cloak has had its damage reduced by 40%.

  • This is a noticeable nerf, but it's hard to say whether it will really ruin the skill. Stamina builds are still pulling insane damage in parses with it slotted and used, and this skill was more useful for the mitigation than its damage anyway. More testing needed.

Overall Class Balance focused heavily on making all classes more viable in each role - Tank, Healer, DPS.

  • Overall, I think the team made significant progress, but there's still potentially some adjustments that need to be made. I'm happy with the adjustments, though.

Class Balance

Dragonknights

Combustion - now restores Magicka/Stamina when attacking a target afflicted with a status effect.

  • Great change, will help with sustain, especially for MagDKs. Curious to see how often this procs in regular gameplay.

Cauterize now has a 28m radius.

Obsidian Shield now has Major Mending on the base morph. Igneous Shield grants a larger shield, while Fragmented Shield increases the Major Mending duration by 2 seconds.

Empowering Chains now grants 2 stacks of empower, up from 1.

Ash Cloud is now a burst heal, while the other morph remains a damage skill.

Reflective Plate now removes all snares from the caster. It does not grant snare immunity.

  • This is a good change, and I know a lot of DKs will be upset that there is no snare immunity here, but Eric's concern is that giving both the removal and immunity could make DKs way too strong in PvP. His concern is valid, but I still asked him to monitor this closely and consider adding it in a future patch if DKs still find themselves struggling with movement.

Stone Giant now grants Minor Ward.

Obsidian Shard's healing has been buffed slightly.

Templars

Healing Ritual has had its cost increased by 60%, because fuck Templars, amirite?

  • Just kidding - while the cost was increased by 60%, it's also now an instant cast ability. No, I'm not kidding, it's an instant cast, and they haven't messed with the healing numbers [yet], this is a HUGE change. And it could potentially overperform, especially with Cost Reduction on Infused jewelry or higher-regen builds. They'll monitor this closely, but it's a big change and I'm mostly happy about it.

Hasty Prayer now grants Minor Expedition for 5s.

Rushed Ceremony's main heal remains the same, but the secondary heal has been nerfed by 30%.

Honor of the Dead now does the same healing over 6s, down from 8s.

  • Nice little buff, should make this morph more enticing.

Solar Disturbance now applies Major Maim to the target and the debuff remains on the target for 4s after leaving the area.

  • Very nice buff to Nova, particularly in PvP where we're dealing with such a movement-heavy group meta.

The damage from Burning Light has been increased slightly.

Solar Flare now grants Empower on the cast, rather than only if you hit the target.

Enduring Rays - the 2s duration increase granted by this passive now also applies to the healing debuff from Dark Flare, and also properly grants an extra tick to Solar Barrage.

Puncturing Sweeps has had its healing slightly increased.

Nightblades

Strife and its morphs have had their costs increased to be in-line with the cost of Force Pulse.

  • Meh, it's a nerf, but it was probably needed. We'll deal with it, fellow Nightblades, don't worry.

Manifestation of Terror now has a 2s arm time, down from 3s.

Soul Siphon (Ultimate) now has a 28 meter range, up from 15 meters.

  • WOW, this is a massive, massive buff. This could overperform, so the team said they'll be monitoring it closely - but if you're a Nightblade Healer, learn to use this ultimate. This is huge.

Debilitate now restores 100% of the Magicka spent on the cast if the target dies, up from 50%.

  • This seems somewhat unnecessary of a buff to me, but I admittedly don't use this morph very often, so at least it gives us a reason to think about using the skill. Needs more testing.

Dark Cloak (Morph) no longer grants invisibility, and instead instantly heals the caster for 32% of their maximum health and also grants Minor Protection. The base skill and Shadowy Disguise morph remain unchanged.

  • This is a huge buff to Nightblade tanks, and shouldn't have any real adverse effects on most PvP Nightblades who can continue running the other morph. Good change. I like it.

Consuming Darkness (Ultimate) now grants 12 seconds of Major Protection to up to six allies, even after they leave the area.

  • Thank GOD, Veil finally has a somewhat useful morph for group PvP now. This is a solid buff all-around, not just in PvP, I'm pleased.

Twisting Path has had its damage nerfed slightly.

Shadow Image no longer requires a target to be cast.

Dark Shades is now Dark Shade, and the shade now applies Minor Maim to all targets in a radius around the shade via a spinning AoE cleave.

Malevolent Offering is now a burst heal, not a HoT. The damage-over-time effect remains as the cost, and it can still kill the caster if they don't manage their health properly.

  • Good change, Nightblades basically have a riskier Breath of Life-ish heal now, to go along with DKs having Ash Cloud changed in a similar fashion. Healer diversity will be improved this patch.

Sorcerers

Lightning Flood has had its damage increased by 15%.

Summon Atronach & the non-Greater Morph (that I completely forgot the name of because literally no one ever uses it) have had the health of the summoned Atro increased by 70%, which will potentially make the Greater morph a less-obvious choice.

Hardened Ward has had some number tweaking - Hardened Ward's damage shield has been reduced while Conjured Ward and Empowering Ward have been buffed. The shield stength difference between Hardened Ward and Conjured/Empowering Ward is now only 10%.

Rune Prison's stun duration is now 5 seconds, up from 2.5s.

Rune Cage now always does damage to the target, even if they break free.

Daedric Mines and its morphs have had their cost decreased by roughly 1,000 Magicka.

The base morphs of all summoned pet skills now also have a usable skill that the pet can use. The morphs simply augment the pet or skill in some manner.

Bound Armor is no longer a toggle. When activated, increases the amount of damage the caster can block by 20% for 3 seconds. In addition, Bound Aegis now grants both Minor Resistance buffs, while Bound Armaments now increases your Light Attack damage by 11%, but not your Heavy Attack damage.

  • This is going to a big buff for most Sorcerers overall, but especially to Tanks. 20% more mitigation is huge, even if it's only for 3s. The additional effects are interesting, but the fact that this is no longer a toggle means you don't need to have the skill double-barred anymore, which is great for most builds.

  • Thank you to Shimmer for saving me from my own terrible handwriting here, I definitely didn't want to get this one wrong.

Persistence - this passive now reduces the cost of your next cast ability by 15% after you successfully block an attack.

Wardens

Arctic Wind's initial heal has been increased by 20%.

Nature's Grasp now grants 3 Ultimate to the caster once the HoT completes.

Bursting Vines now instantly grants the caster 10 Ultimate when cast on an ally below 60% health.

  • The build we tested at ZOS had no internal cooldown for this Ultimate gain. After our feedback (which basically consisted of "HOLY SHIT THAT'S BROKEN AS FUCK"), the team said they'd add an internal cooldown. Alas, we'll need to wait until the PTS to see what happens.

Frozen Gate now does a small amount of damage.

Crystallized Shield's cost has been increased roughly 15%.

The buffs granted by Subterranean Assault have had their duration reduces to 5s, down from 10s. Additionally, Subterranean Assault now only grants Major Fracture. The Deep Fissure morph now grants Major Breach for 5s, but no longer stuns one target.

Conclusion

Overall, I was mostly pleased by the balance changes the team presented. A few things still need to be looked at, and we spent many hours giving them feedback about various pain points, features and changes we'd like to see implemented, etc., but overall my outlook for this patch is mostly positive. There was a lot more that we discussed (and saw) that I unfortunately can't talk about today, so please remember that the contents of this post are in no way comprehensive.

The Summerset Chapter feels excellent, and I don't think there will be many grumblings this time around about a lack of things to do for the price - $30 seems fair, but I'll let you decide how you feel about that when everything hits the PTS. The Psijic Order skill line worries me somewhat, but I'm less apprehensive now than I was when it was first announced. Jewelry Crafting will be a contentious subject due to the paywall, but purely from a system-design standpoint, I like what I've seen. Cloudrest will be a fun Trial, and in my opinion should prove more enjoyable than Asylum and Halls were for most players.

We'll see how the next few weeks go, but for now - I remain cautiously optimistic.

submitted by /u/Ixtyr
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Workshop Wednesday - Give Crafting Tips, Offer Services, Help Your Fellow Crafters!

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 02:00 AM PDT

Hey folks,

Welcome to Workshop Wednesday, a community-building, regularly occurring thread on the subreddit!

Workshop Wednesday is a thread aimed at all things crafting, from sharing tips and knowledge, providing assistance, or offering crafting services to others.

Got a way to get more of those pesky crafting mats into your inventory? Have a rare recipe you're willing to produce for others? Just want to help with crafting as a whole? Let the community know here!

Crafting is a deep system in The Elder Scrolls Online with multiple professions, so be sure to participate in the thread whether you're a crafting novice or a master at sweetroll baking.

Please keep in mind the 'no personal attacks' rule in our sidebar, disagree respectfully with others, and know that a repeated or seemingly obvious bit of knowledge may not be obvious to everyone.

In addition, please be careful about posting in-game information about your account name/characters for conducting crafting business. We recommend contact information be shared privately to keep your account secure.

We look forward to your contributions!  

I was programmed to write posts automatically by /u/Woeler. If you have any questions or suggestions about me or my posts, please contact him.

submitted by /u/The_Dwemer_Automaton
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On the hunt for Shere Khan.

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 12:08 AM PDT

My first day in The Elder Scrolls online :)

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 11:28 PM PDT

Well.. I did it. i finally pushed myself over the line and purchased Teo. When i first logged in i was so hyped because this was one of those games i didn't research heavily before buying it. so for me it was a jump in the unknown. i started making my character and found myself in a black panther like khajiit which i made a Nightblade. It runs really smooth and feels nice to play. The first couple of minutes into the game I was like "hmmm the combat seems boring for a rogue like character let me make a mage" and after that the same with the mage... so I did the same as i did with wow and GW2 and said to myself. STICK WITH 1 CHARACTER ! And so as said so will be done. I started enjoying my Khajiit more and more. The rogue like game play combined with a little role play (Hood on missions and slow walking like a badass) is absolutely amazing. i stumbled across a quest line about the Scarlet Judge and it was sooo good. I can't wait to delve deeper into this game to see what more it has to offer. I'm at the part that the Archbishop guy thing did the thing with vivec. (No Spoilers :3).

TLDR: This game is really different then other mmorpg's and makes you feel like the whole world reacts in a different way depending on your play style. I Love It :D

submitted by /u/Tony026
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Finally....

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 01:18 AM PDT

[News] The Elder Scrolls' Summerset Isle has come a long way in 24 years

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 08:49 PM PDT

It is a beautiful day to be a cat.

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 02:48 PM PDT

With Summerset, 2H Weapons and Staves will count as 2 item sets!

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 08:15 AM PDT

By the Divines!

Just saw this on /u/Woeler 's video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKhBwAHusIc

This may be a bigger game changer than jewerly crafting.

EDIT: Keep in mind that this is pre PTS, things may change.

EDIT 2: Also bows.

submitted by /u/Fzzle
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The whole new start with a new chapter thing kinda irks me.

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 01:02 PM PDT

So it's been confirmed that there will be a new starting experience for Summerset, which is cool if you have alts - but it kinda bothers me, especially where new players are concerned.

The storyline of Summerset is a continuation of the events in Morrowind/Clockwork City, yes? Then imagine this. A new player buys the game in whatever's the newest bundle, that at least includes Summerset + Morrowind. Since Summerset is installed, they'll start there, and assuming it's like Morrowind, the main quest for the chapter will probably be right in your face.

So, our hypothetical new player will likely play through the Summerset questline before Morrowind or the original game's questlines, playing them out of order.

It's not exactly obvious which order the quests go in, since you can do any of them at any time. On my first character I already played a few DLCs out of order because I didn't know there even was an order.

I understand having a fresh start changes things up, but I can't be the only one who sees the flaw in this, right?

submitted by /u/Relori
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I have been at this game for a long time and only just got this...

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 01:07 AM PDT

Cyrodiil Updates for Update 18

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 09:19 AM PDT

Getting into the game..

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 02:48 AM PDT

I currently am a level 38 Dragonknight I believe (not logged on in a while) done main quest, im onto Cadwells silver etc etc.

I cant get into the game. I dont know how to craft, get into dungeons, level fast to 50 or anything. I really want to as an avid fan of the Elder Scrolls games but i just struggle.

Any tips?

Edit: i should probably mention i have all the dlc other than a few dungeons, and have played through Orsinium and Morrowind, great expansions!

submitted by /u/TheGirlThatLived
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if the cyrodiil changes go through in the Summerset patch, it could be the start to a more competitive ESO

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 10:58 AM PDT

I think if ESO can start to bring in a larger PvP playerbase, they can increase the longevity of the game. PvP is huge for a lot of players, and if they feel that a game has quality PvP, it will last a good while.

submitted by /u/ElvisDimera
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Had this in my head since Summerset was announced.

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 08:07 AM PDT

[media] Summerset Class Changes

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 07:12 AM PDT

Help me become a vampire

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 04:00 AM PDT

I have been trying for a very long time to become a camper and I'm starting to get fed up of it now a guy offered to turn me for 8k but as soon as I gave him the money he logged out so could someone plz help me become one

submitted by /u/Webhead55
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[Discussion] So can I sell all my jewelry stockpiles?

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 10:02 PM PDT

From a recent youtuber post discussing that jewelry mats will come from a new resource node, is it safe to empty my bank/house storage? Deconstruction will not yield anything of value?

submitted by /u/DivinityCat
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[Discussion] Which dye-unlocking achievements are easiest to unlock dyes early?

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 03:35 PM PDT

Stuff I can just go do in quick succession to get more colors? I like the colors I have right now, honestly (black and purple) but I want more variety.

submitted by /u/Materia_Girl
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Hail to all ice staff tank and their the glorious future!!!!! (Playtest event based)

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 03:24 AM PDT

When everybody see Sunderflame as rubbish now, it will becomes one of the best combo set to ice staff tank. Combined with the change of two handed set count and jewellery crafting, ice staff tank will become more power than before.

1 ice staff + 3 jewellery= full Sunderflame set

With 1 heavy attack, a Sunderflame ice staff tank can

Taunt 1 target

Grant shield

Grant magicak

And provide Major Fracture to target

Sexy YO!

submitted by /u/danielpang32
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I’d like to see an EQ style “bazaar”

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 12:53 AM PDT

Old school MMO players will know what I mean but for those who don't let me explain.

In the original Everquest with the introduction of the Luclin update they gave us a bazaar area. This was a huge hall full of market stalls where anyone could walk in and set up a stall to sell their goods - you also had to man the stall it wasn't NPC driven, many people would just set up a stall overnight or if they were going afk for a while.

I'm pretty sure they also added a system whereby people could enter the bazaar and then use a search function to see what people were selling, you then had to go to that person at their market stall to make the purchase.

I feel like this would be a good compromise between the current guild seller system which I feel is clunky, awkward and time consuming and a full blown auction house which is just too easy.

It would also allow anyone to sell stuff instead of just those in a guild with a merchant and would perfectly fit into the world of ESO.

The downside of course is that it would devalue the status of owning that guild merchant and may cause the economy to imbalance as you'll no longer that the large quantities of money flowing out of the game in the form of guild merchant auctions.

Just my thoughts, what are yours?

Thanks,

CoyneDawg

submitted by /u/CoyneDawg
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With the event on its way, what are the best dailies to do solo?

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 02:48 AM PDT

Pros and Cons of Magplar?

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 02:08 AM PDT

Also how does it fair against other classes? I'm looking for a good damage dealing class.

submitted by /u/_praisethesun_
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Just started this with my sister. First Mmo ever. Loving jt

Posted: 03 Apr 2018 06:15 AM PDT

I built a new computer last year and gave my old pc to my disabled sister, who then put 900 hours in Skyrim. She isn't able to get out and do too much with her immune disease. We were talking about games to play together and she asked about Eso.

She said "I love the world, the races, the stories. I don't care if it plays different"

So I bit the bullet and bought 2 copies. Absolutely loving it so far. I've always dodged Mmo because they seemed overly complicated, but this feels right at home after playing other Elder Scrolls games.

That said, what should we spend our 500 crowns we get for starting the game on? Save them for a Dlc? Find a cheap outfit?

I could buy a crown case in hopes of a mount? Having a basic horse seems boring.

I'm eager to dive into this game

submitted by /u/milkmanyeti
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Where are the werewolves?

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 04:37 AM PDT

Looking for some info on becoming a werewolf. If anybody can point me in the right direction that would be great!

submitted by /u/fleshandfury
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[PC] Solo Player Class with Chance to go Dungeons/PvP?

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 04:32 AM PDT

Hey guys,

so I want create a new Character in ESO, so I wounder which Class can solo everything with ese?

I heard a Caster is super strong followed by a Templar, is that true?

For Group Play, I want heal or at least be a welcome DPS.

submitted by /u/enaske
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Multi-core performance update with Summerset!!

Posted: 04 Apr 2018 04:17 AM PDT

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