ZeniMax Online Studios is already looking ahead to Elder Scrolls Online’s Update 32, which is set to bring major combat changes to the game – specifically in the form of proc set balance and hybridization improvements.
“In Update 30 we introduced item proc set scaling, which aimed to lower the ease of access of ‘free’ damage and healing from them by ensuring you needed a base line of stats to make the set really stand out,” the studio says in a forum post. “While this did help significantly reduce the overbearing success of tanky builds utilizing damage-oriented sets, it also increased the amount of damage that glass cannon and more offensive-oriented builds did by a reasonable margin.” That problem is leading the studio to implement a “new rule set for offensive item sets that have low counterplay.”
“We’re also aiming our sights on reining in some of the power creep that’s been coming into the game as of late, particularly affecting PvE. The dominance of Critical hits in ESO is by no means new, and despite the reduction to the overall sourcing of it, we’re still seeing it win out by a significant margin when compared to other stats. Rather than outright nerfing Critical Chance or Potency (Damage and Healing) and hurting builds that aren’t really doing more than we expect, we’ve decided to move forward with a hard cap to Critical Damage and Healing. It is our hope that this keeps Critical Chance and Potency as viable and powerful stats but also helps open up other stat and build paths. Much like the Penetration stats, these will be important to prioritize up until a point, and from there builds will want to seek out other sources of power.”
The blog further outlines scaling changes to proc sets to allow them to crit, as well as the plan to make all item sets grant “hybrid” stats. “This means sets that grant Weapon Damage will now grant Weapon and Spell Damage, Spell Penetration will be Physical and Spell Penetration, and Spell Critical will be Weapon and Spell Critical,” the studio explains. “With this change, we hope to open up builds to new abilities and ideas, make the game more digestible and understandable to newer players, and empower you with choices when creating your dream build.” Min-maxers are definitely going to want to check out the whole piece.
