It appears to be almost time for a combat meta shake-up in The Elder Scrolls Online. A forum post has unveiled a new PTS build which introduces some proposed changes to the way light and heavy attacks work in the game.
Previously, light attacks simply hurt things while heavy attacks restored resources. In this new build, light attacks now restore resources, with three consecutive light attacks providing the maximum benefit, while heavy attacks no longer restore resources but dish out more damage the longer the heavy attack button is held. Additionally, light attacks will deal less damage than they used to, and all attacks provide benefits when striking an enemy that is off-balance: light attacks grant five stacks of resource restoration, medium attacks (aka heavy attacks that are only held down a short while) deal more damage, while a fully-charged heavy attack deals more damage and stuns the target like usual.
This adjustment comes in the interest of narrowing the overall skill gap. While the devs believe mastery of weapons should still be something that players learn, they believe that the actions per minute gap between players is too wide. Additionally, the devs want to stop an over-reliance of weaving a single light attack in-between skill button presses, as well as remove the unintuitive mechanic of heavy attacks restoring resources.
Each weapon type provides different benefits, heavy attack damage output, and other adjustments, so players of ESO will want to check out the notes for the specific numbers. As for when these changes will go live, there’s no timeframe yet, as the devs are focused on improving performance to the live game.
