ESO Update 50 PTS Patch Notes - Combat Changes & Reworks
These are the ESO Update 50 PTS patch notes and official ZOS follow-up summaries, reorganized around combat and build impact. The merged view is the current tracked picture, while the week buttons let you separate Week 1 notes, Week 2 notes, Week 3 notes, Week 4 notes, and ZOS summary posts.
ZOS After Week 1
ZOS said they were reading Class Mastery feedback and were aware some classes were behind, some were ahead, and some support and tank values felt too low.
ZOS listed several Werewolf items after Week 1: Claw Fury animation issues, missing female Werewolf audio, missing Insatiable Hunger audio, Transformation skill style icons, Feral Cruelty rank 2, glowing markings feedback, and the feet distortion issue.
ZOS said they would watch Cyrodiil queue times and population flow after Update 50 launches. They also listed Veterancy UI feedback and a preview UI error for Week 2.
ZOS was tracking unusually high Light Attack critical hits on Vestige Difficulty and unusual item set behavior with Challenge Difficulty. Both were tied to combat calculations.
Week 2 Patch Notes
v12.0.1 did not add new combat balance numbers. It mainly added the Sheogorath questline, Whitestrake's Mayhem testing, and bug/polish fixes.
v12.0.1 did not change Werewolf damage, sustain, or morph values. The notes only added animation, audio, model, timing, and temporary inverse kinematics fixes.
UI, tooltip, preview, rank icon, and reward display fixes only. No balance notes.
Hotbar, locked skill line, tooltip, animation, dodge, block, and UI fixes only. No balance notes.
ZOS After Week 2
ZOS says Empower is planned to go from 70% to 100% in Week 3, with the damage bonus no longer applying while the effect holder has Battle Spirit. ZOS also said Velothi is not getting increased in that same pass.
ZOS says Week 3 will take a pass on Class Mastery values and effects, mainly bringing Necromancer and Nightblade up while gently toning Sorcerer down.
ZOS says Week 3 will fix the issue where multiple Aerie's Cry users attacking the same target did not all get the set bonus properly. The DoT should stack between multiple wearers after that fix.
ZOS says Week 3 has Werewolf power and visual follow-up coming. The final numbers are not known until the Week 3 patch notes land.
ZOS says Challenge Difficulty Light Attack critical hits and unusual item set behavior will be fixed in Week 3. healing from Bolt Escape and its morphs is also planned for Week 3.
General
Fixed an issue where Light Attacks could become stuck in the ability queue when there were multiple attempts to Light Attack while using an ability with a cast or channel time. This should resolve the issue where your character could become stuck in what appeared as a Heavy Attack animation when using these abilities and attempting to weave rapidly.
Player pets have had their defensive capabilities updated to account for the ever growing power scaling updates for player abilities.
- Pets' 85% damage reduction against area and over time effects has been updated to also include any proc based damage. This is purely a PvP centric adjustment.
- Updated the damage limit pets have to never take more than 33% of their Max Health in a single attack, rather than 45%.
Corrupting Pollen's debuffs now sorts closest to area center, instead of targets missing most health.
The following effects now update per tick instead of on area enter:
- Bahraha's Curse's damage
- Budding Seeds's heal
- Caltrops and morphs' snare
- Cleansing Ritual and Extended Ritual's heal
- Companion's Grave Grasp
- Energy Orb's heal
- Hand of Mephala's snare
- Healing Springs and morphs' heal
- Hearth and Home's snare
- Pestilent Host's damage
- Plague Slinger's damage
- Reconstructive Domain's heal
- Refreshing Path's heal
- Renewing Undeath's heal
- Revealing Flare and morphs' reveal
- Ring of Preservation's heal
- Shadow of the Red Mountain's damage
- Thurvokun's damage
- Trapping Webs and morphs' damage
- Winterborn's damage
Fixed an issue where some bonuses that granted "damage done to monsters" were multiplicative with other damage bonuses, instead of additive. Affects the following:
- Ansuul's Torment: Also adjusted this set to 6% damage done to monsters, increasing to 18% for 30 seconds after interrupting, rather than 7% and increasing to 14% for 10 seconds after interrupting.
- Bahsei's Mania: Increased this set's bonus to 12% max, up from 10%.
- Empower
- Shadow Cloak
- Tide-Born Wildstalker
- Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet
Updated the values to the following effects after fixing their previous multiplicative effectiveness;
- Tide-Born Wildstalker: Increased to 15%, up from 12%.
- Bahsei's Mania: Increased to 15%, up from 12%.
- Ansuul's Torment: Increased to 7% and 21% after interrupting, up from 6% and 18%.
- Empower: Increased to 100%, up from 70%. Empower no longer grants its bonus effects if Battle Spirit is active, to correct interactions with passives such as Forceful and Tri Focus in PvPvE situations.
- Born From Shadow: Increased to 15%, up from 10%.
Lastly, a note about the PTS cycle in general. After hearing some of the feedback from reducing PTS from 5 weeks down to 4 weeks, we went back and worked out some of the obstacles to get back to 5 weeks. So, we are bringing back the 5-Week PTS cycle with this PTS and next week will be the last week of PTS. As we are working toward Crossplay, that may bring up some new hurdles and potentially take PTS back down to 4 weeks. But we will update everyone if that becomes an issue. Thanks again for your overall feedback on this issue.
Empower: Increased this bonus to 150%, up from 100%.
We're bumping up Empower to hit power levels similar to its previous ceiling as a multiplicative bonus. Due to the order of operation changes, we are unable to get this effect to be multiplicative in the same fashion as it used to be, as Damage_Done_To_Monsters was applied very late in the calculation when it was unintentionally multiplicative. This meant that stacking huge bonuses elsewhere in the calculation also inherited a bonus - which was creating widely variable damage values. While our goal with changing the calculation was not to nerf every case that used those effects, it was necessary to prevent some of those swingy power differences that weren't accounted for.
This value should get closer to the same levels of power when looking at more optimized scenarios, while also generally buffing the effect for non-optimized characters. Due to the nature of order of operation changes and how they interacted with other effects, we can't get to a case where we reach the same exact levels of power as before, since that part of the calculation has been completely moved.
Existing multiplicative bonuses that are intentional happen to the base calculation of a skill, before other bonuses, so converting this to a bonus like that would actually decrease its power in this situation – as Heavy Attack builds typically scale most effectively due to flat damage increases inheriting other bonuses, which Empower still applies to.
Fixed an issue where the buff from Continuous Attack would drop in the vicinity of the Lowland Bandit Camp.
Class Abilities
Arcanist
Herald of the Tome > The Unblinking Eye
Decreased the stacks this Ultimate can achieve to 12 (the natural cap of 1 cast), down from 20. Introduced a cooldown to stack generation, preventing cases where multi-casting this Ultimate would allow them to generate stacks faster than the intended rate. Note that multi-casting this Ultimate is expected to have each cast inherit the highest stacks (they do not each have separate stack counters for the same caster, as none of the game's stacking effects do).
While this is a nerf to the ceiling of damage, in reality the vast majority of use cases will never feel these changes. These are specific adjustments to quell some insanely high damage productions in special cases where you're able to have more than 1 Languid Eye active at a time.
Dragonknight
Draconic Power > Dragonfire Breath
Engulfing Dragonfire: This morph can now apply the passive to the first enemy hit, up to once every 4 seconds.
Ardent Flame > Lava Whip
This morph no longer grants increased damage done after consuming all charges, as we have recontextualized damage into the Class Mastery system.
Ardent Flame > Lava Whip
This morph no longer grants increased damage done per stack, as we have recontextualized damage into the Class Mastery system.
Ardent Flame
Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs could cause desyncs to your resources if repeatedly cast while already active and while a cost per tick ability was active. These abilities will now begin to restore resources after a 350ms delay rather than instantly because of this fix.
Ardent Flame > Core of Flame
This morph now heals you for 15% of your Max Health per tick, rather than 12-15% of your missing Health per tick. Adjusted the rank up progression to 1.1% healing done per rank (0.15495 at rank IV).
Ardent Flame > Searing Strike
Fixed an issue where this morph's rank up progression always returned as max rank, rather than properly building up to the max bonus effect.
Ardent Flame > Searing Strike
Fixed an issue where this ability and the Incinerate morphs' damage were not considered direct damage in some cases.
Ardent Flame
This ultimate's visuals now correctly ends at the same time as the ability actually ends when using in tandem with the Elf Bane set.
Draconic Power
Fixed an issue where this ability and the Fleetstep Wings morphs' knock back and stun effects were unintentionally treated as proc events.
Earthen Heart > Earthspike Mantle
This ability now tracks the duration of the bonus damage, rather than the damage over time effect with Combat Timers settings, to alleviate the issue where killing targets with the damage over time effect active would result in the timer to be wiped. Fixed an issue where this morph's effects did not all inherit Elf Bane's duration extension, resulting in other cases where Combat Timers could produce confusing results.
Earthen Heart > Earthspike Mantle
Updated the animation for this ability and the Volcanic Ward morph to align better with the style and language of the abilities, and to offer more variation from the damaging morph.
Necromancer
Bone Tyrant
Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs did not work properly with effects that treated targets as a corpse, such as Bone Armor, Nobility in Decay, etc.
Nightblade
Assassination (Passive)
This passive now grants 1|2% Critical Chance per Nightblade ability slotted, rather than 1.25|2.5% Critical Chance per Assassination ability slotted.
While we won’t be updating passives always ahead of a class’s refresh schedule, small targeted changes like this can help us correct some of the dominant behaviors ahead of time while opening more opportunities for other builds to have a chance to shine. This should help pure class Nightblade a smidge, while also toning down slightly how dense the power is here. We don’t expect this to drastically shake things up, but it fits our needs and is helping two birds with one stone.
Warden
Green Balance (Passive)
This passive now restores 125|250 Magicka and Stamina to you when healing any target with a Green Balance ability, rather than restoring 138|277 Magicka or Stamina, whichever is higher, whenever you heal an ally with a Green Balance ability.
Green Balance (Passive)
This passive now activates on Overhealing done, rather than healing done, at the behest of you all.
Winter's Embrace > Sleet Storm
This ultimate now grants 4% damage done per stack, up from 2%. This bonus decreases to 1% per stack while Battle Spirit is active.
Winter's Embrace
Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs teleport could prompt a Break Free activation, despite not being able to be canceled. This will prevent the Champion star, Slippery, from wasting itself, and should save those with gunslinger showdown DRAW! reaction times from wasting Stamina on something that provides no benefit. It will however, continue to provide Crowd Control Immunity after the pull occurs.
Winter's Embrace (Passive)
This passive now disables its damage done bonus to Chilled if you are wearing Shattered Paths Signet.
We're targeting a very specific combination here as we've seen this mythic introduce some unhealthy power spikes with very specific builds. As we continue to balance other aspects of the game we'll come back and monitor if we need to iterate on this interaction to make it less punitive.
Dual Wield
Fixed an issue where Whirlwind and its morphs were missing some visual effects, most notably when paired with certain skill styles. Fixed an issue where Chaotic Whirlwind's visual effects did not properly apply to the Whirling Blades morph.
Class Mastery
Class Mastery is a new system that grants powerful passive effects for characters that have maxed all 3 of their native class skill lines and are not actively subclassing. Each class gets a unique "Class Mastery" skill line with 5 passives. You get 2 Class Mastery Points to spend (not Skill Points). Activating subclassing in any capacity automatically refunds and disables Class Mastery.
ZOS has stated this system is highly iterative and will see significant changes over time, especially as the class refresh continues.
Dragonknight
Upgrades Landslide to also grant 1% potency to damage and healing done, and damage shield strength per stack.
"Potency to" means this bonus applies to the base calculation of these events, causing it to become multiplicative with other bonuses.
Upgrades rank 2 of The Storm Voice to also grant 1 Health, Magicka, and Stamina per ultimate spent for 10 seconds.
This passive now has a 15 second delay before the recovery bonus activates, in efforts to correct the cases where the recovery was wasted.
Upgrades your Dragonknight damage over time effects that apply to enemies (Searing Strike, Dragonfire Breath, Burning Talons, Shatterspike Mantle) to apply a unique 12 second damage over time effect on enemies whenever the triggering abilities end. This damage effect stacks up to 12 times, increasing by 25% damage per stack past 1 (up to 275%).
"End" in this case means naturally expiring, being recast early, or being cleansed. Base damage is 10.5% of your Weapon or Spell Damage and 1% of your Max Magicka or Stamina per tick.
Increases the amount of damage you can block by 6% every second you remain Bracing, up to 30%. Blocking has a 20% chance to restore 500 Stamina, up to once every 250ms.
Upgrades rank 2 of The Storm Voice to also apply Major Berserk and Protection for 1 second per 15 Ultimate spent to you and group members within 28m of you.
Templar
Causes you to heal for 8% of your Max Health every second that Sacred Ground is active. If you are at full Health after the heal, you generate 2 Ultimate while in combat. Sacred Ground will also be able to activate while you are inside the area of your Nova or Spear Shards, or while Radial Sweep or Solar Barrage are active.
: Fixed an issue where the Ultimate from this passive could fail to apply when meeting its conditions due to a race condition with Sacred Ground refreshing.
Causes you to gain a Damage Shield for 6 seconds, up to once every 6 seconds, while Sacred Ground is active. The shield absorbs up to 20% of your Max Health and grants 300 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery while active. If the shield breaks, you gain 10 Ultimate.
Upgrades rank 2 of Illuminate to grant the affected group members 300 Weapon and Spell Damage, increasing to 600 for you.
Upgrades rank 2 of Burning Light to increase your damage done with Templar abilities by 1250 (625 against players) for 3.1 seconds after activating.
Increased the damage bonus of this passive to 1500, reduced to 750 against players, up from 1250, reduced to 625 against players.
Note: This is wrong in the patch notes. The actual value is 1400.
Increases the amount of damage you can block by 20% while stationary and causes you to gain Sacred Ground while Bracing.
Sorcerer
Upgrades rank 2 of Blood Magic to also activate off any ability with a cost, excluding cost per tick abilities, and to also restore 2% Magicka and Stamina upon activation.
Fixed an issue where this passive did not trigger off many abilities that did not require a target.
Upgrades rank 2 of Exploitation to also activate off any Sorcerer ability, and to grant you 1% Weapon and Spell Damage for every 1750 Max Magicka or Stamina you have, whichever is higher, for 10 seconds.
This harkens to an ancient passive (Implosion). Causes your damaging attacks to have a 1% chance for every 1% missing Health the target has, to trigger an additional hit of Shock Damage (31.5% of the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage), up to once every 200ms.
This chance is further reduced for every permanent pet you have active. The calculation is % chance (based on 1% for each missing Health) divided by 1 + the number of permanent pets you have active. 1 pet = 1% chance for every 2% missing Health. 2 pets = 1% chance for every 3% missing Health.
This passive now has a base 1% chance to activate in addition to its 1% increase for every 1% missing Health the target has. Increased the cooldown to 500ms, up from 200ms, to reduce how powerful this passive could be, especially on non-pet builds. This should lower the crazy ceiling by a decent chunk, while also tightening the gap between pet and pet-less builds.
Implosion: Increased this passive to be a 5% base chance of triggering, up from 1%. Reduced cooldown to 300ms, down from 500ms.
Note: ZOS says "Implosion" here, but this refers to .
We're walking back some of the nerfs to this passive to account for more realistic setups and content, while gently increasing the base chances of applying.
Causes you to gain a damage shield that absorbs 30% of your Max Health for .5 seconds anytime you begin to activate a Sorcerer ability or an ability with a cast time. If the shield fails to break, you grant you and your group members 3% Weapon and Spell Damage for 20 seconds.
Increased this passive’s Weapon and Spell Damage bonus to 6%, up from 3%.
Causes your damage shield abilities to grant an additional damage shield to the target for 3 seconds that absorbs up to 15% of their Max Health as damage, scaling with 25% of the higher of your Max Magicka or Health. Targets also gain 150 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery for 4 seconds.
Increased the Tri Recovery bonus from this passive to 225 for 12 seconds, up from 150 for 4 seconds.
Nightblade
Upgrades rank 2 of Hemorrhage to have a chance equal to your Weapon Critical chance to grant you 2 Ultimate, up to once every 3 seconds.
Increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by up to 1250 and reduces your damage taken by up to 12%, both based on your target's missing Health.
Note this works for any effects that scale with Weapon and Spell Damage, meaning it can increase damage against low health enemies, increase healing against low health allies (including yourself), and reduces damage taken from low health enemies.
Increased this passive’s maximum Weapon and Spell Damage to 2500, up from 1250, and damage reduction to 20%, up from 12%. Both values are halved against targets with Battle Spirit.
: Reduced this passive’s bonus to Weapon and Spell Damage to 2000, down from 2500. This will reduce its effect against targets to Battle Spirit to 1000, down from 1250.
Increases your Critical Damage and Healing by 15% (7% against players). It also increases your maximum potential Critical Damage and Healing by 25%, meaning it adds to the normal cap of 125%, bringing it to 150%.
Increased this passive’s bonus to Critical Damage and Healing Done to 25%, reducing to 5% against targets with Battle Spirit, rather than granting 15%, reduced to 7% against targets with Battle Spirit. Increased the Critical Damage and Healing maximum to 35%, up from 25%.
: Reduced this passive’s Critical Damage and Healing maximum to 30%, down from 35%.
Causes you to dodge incoming attacks for 1/3rd of a second when activating a Nightblade ability while Bracing. Dodging any attack through any means causes your attacker to take 5% increased damage for 5 seconds.
This passive’s damage taken effect now lasts for 20 seconds against monsters.
Upgrades rank 2 of Transfer to double the ultimate you gain from it (4, up from 2) while also granting the nearest 4 group members 250 Magicka and Stamina and 1 Ultimate upon activating.
This passive now grants 2 Ultimate and the Magicka and Stamina to all group members, rather than granting 1 Ultimate and the resources to only 4.
Necromancer
Upgrades rank 2 of Corpse Consumption to also grant a stack of Nothing Wasted for 12 seconds every time you consume a corpse, up to 10 stacks max. Nothing Wasted increases your Max Health and Weapon and Spell Damage by 2% per stack. If the stacks reach their full duration, they instead lose 3 stacks and refresh, rather than losing all stacks.
Upgrades rank 2 of Corpse Consumption to mark the closest non-player enemy to you with death's touch for 6 seconds whenever you consume a corpse, which allows you to use a corpse consuming ability against them. This can occur once every 2 seconds. Consuming or replacing this effect triggers rank 2 of Death Gleaning.
This passive now also forcibly triggers rank 1 of Corpse Consumption's Ultimate (5), ignoring its cooldown, in addition to its existing effects.
Upgrades rank 2 of Reusable Parts to also grant Lord of the Cycle for 25 seconds, increasing your damage done by 1% for every 1% more current Health percent you have compared to your enemy. This bonus caps at 25% (12% against players).
If you have 75% current Health, and your enemy has 50%, you would gain 25% damage against them (12% if they are a player).
This effect now grants potency to damage done, rather than damage done, making it apply to base damage calculations, or multiplicative in simpler terms. Reduced the bonus against players to 10%, down from 12%.
Grants you a 1% chance when taking damage to restore 10% Health and 5% of your missing Stamina, up to once every second. This chance increases by 1% for every 1% missing Health you have.
If you have 50% Health, you'd have a 51% chance to activate this passive when taking damage.
This passive now has a base 10% chance of activating, up from 1%. Note that the calculation for this passive also occurs after taking damage, meaning your remaining Health % will add to this 10%, making it trigger significantly more than before.
Activates when directly healing a target below 50% Health, which allows you to use a corpse consuming ability against them within 10 seconds. Consuming or replacing this effect grants the target 2 Ultimate. This effect can occur once every second.
This passive now triggers when you heal a target at 66% Health or lower, up from 50%. This passive now passively increases the duration of Major Vulnerability sources you apply by 50%, rather than granting 2 Ultimate to the target that the living corpse effect was removed or replaced on.
Warden
Warden's current passives are highly generic and number focused while we work on the Class Refresh experience for the class. Expect these to change in tandem with that effort when it comes!
Upgrades the Chilled status effect to also apply Major Brittle for 2 seconds upon application.
Fixed an issue where this passive could fail to apply Major Brittle in some cases, namely with certain ability interactions that used AoE 2.0 tech.
Increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 333 for each status effect your target has on them, up to a max of 1665. Note this can also apply to friendly targets!
Upgrades Bond with Nature to also trigger off activating Winter's Embrace abilities, and causes the effect to grant you 15% Weapon and Spell Damage for 10 seconds if you are at full Health after the heal.
Reduces your damage taken by 3% for every status effect on your attacker, up to a maximum of 15%.
Upgrades rank 2 of Nature's Gift to grant the healed target Major Heroism for 4.5 seconds and an additional 250 Magicka and Stamina.
This passive now grants you and group members Major Heroism for 3 seconds and 125 Magicka and Stamina, rather than granting the healed target Major Heroism for 4.5 seconds and 250 Magicka and Stamina.
Arcanist
Upgrades your Arcanist Ultimates to immediately generate 3 Crux upon activation, while also granting 666 Weapon and Spell Damage for 15 seconds after activating.
Upgrades rank 2 of Implacable Outcome to also generate 3 Crux upon activation, and to grant 300 Weapon and Spell Damage for 25 seconds, up to once every 15 seconds.
This passive no longer causes Crux to reapply or generate while out of combat. The previous issue caused you to never be able to lose Crux by decaying anymore.
Upgrades rank 2 of Fated Fortune to also increase your damage done by 30% (15% against players) for 7 seconds.
Upgrades Fatewoven Armor to also grant 1 Ultimate and 300 Magicka and Stamina when you take damage, increasing by 100 Magicka and Stamina per Crux you have, up to once every 2 seconds.
This passive now inflicts Minor Cowardice on the attacker and Major Vitality to you and your group for 4 seconds, while granting you 1 Ultimate per Crux you have, rather than granting 1 Ultimate and 300 Magicka and Stamina, increasing by 100 Magicka and Stamina per Crux you have.
We've heard the feedback that this passive felt flat and unimpressive, granting bonuses that Arcanist tanks don't really need. We've put more emphasis on the selfish aspect by buffing the potential Ultimate you gain, while adding more utility with the named effects.
Enables you to generate a Crux when you heal or overheal a total of 750000 Health while in combat.
This passive now grants you and group members Major Force for 10 seconds when it activates. Increased the activation threshold to 100k Health healed or overhealed, up from 75k, to account for the new power it can grant.
We're hesitantly adding a powerful bonus activation here, offering a named effect that groups normally build and coordinate around aggressively. This won't necessarily add power across the board, but it will help your group potentially run other ultimates or item sets if you can manage to keep fate in your hands.
Werewolf
The Werewolf experience has been updated alongside the Combat Refresh initiative, updating almost all of its combat effects in some capacity. At its core, we've made sweeping changes that should align towards making the transformation more fluid, easier to sustain and manage, with more overall potential build craft and support.
From week 1, we've seen a lot of good feedback and fair criticisms on the combat side of things, so we're making our first pass here. The big things we're trying to improve are making sure the experience feels powerful in PvE, while being less oppressive in PvP. A lot of the adjustments you'll see will gently nudge up damage in PvE, while toning back some of the most problematic stuff in PvP but utilizing differencing duration effects or values based on the context.
- We've heard some of the feedback on cleave damage feeling low - which is largely intentional. It should be up considerably from previous updates, but the Werewolf is less about area devastation, and more about single target hunting and burst.
- We've also seen some desire for ranged capabilities for tanks, and while we'd love to find something that makes sense both thematically and with the kit they have, range doesn't align with the experience of Werewolves. Many of the suggestions of spawning direwolves to attack and taunt an enemy also lack a suitable home to be built in a performant manner, but we are aware of these wants and we'll continue to investigate solutions.
- Something we could investigate sooner is making Pounce and morph's work with Deafening Roar's taunt upgrade - causing them to also taunt if cast while Blocking (which we'd need to update them to be able to do as well). While they aren't able to be used stationary from a range, they are a form of range that would let you quickly jump back and forth between enemies before clumping them up.
New Mechanics
Added a new "Prowl" mechanic, which replaces Crouch while transformed. Prowl costs 5130 Stamina to activate, and grants 6 seconds of 66% reduced aggression radius (enemies will require you to be closer to them before they notice you and attack) and Stealth Detection (this is equal to the same strength as a detection potion). There is a 3 second cooldown on activating Prowl to prevent excessive Stamina loss.
Prowl does not have a unique animation, but instead overrides your character posture to begin to sniff around it. This will blend out while attacking.
Added a "Slaughter" mechanic, which is a new synergy that becomes active against targets that you would normally be able to use Blade of Woe or Vampire Feed against. You'll have to experiment to see for yourself what it all entails, but it is largely meant as a fun-first experience, rather than an in combat decision making tool. It is quite potent in the higher difficulties of challenge mode however!
The unique bar that activates while in Werewolf form has been reworked to house a new mechanic, called "Fury". Fury is a unique resource that generates from activating Werewolf abilities while in combat. It stores up to 1000, and each ability activated grants 15 at base. Fury does not decay, but leaving Werewolf form will result in losing all built-up Fury. Morphs and passives both can expedite the amount of Fury generated or can even add more forms of generating it. While you have 1000 Fury, your Ultimate ability will be replaced with "Rampage." Activating Rampage drains all Fury and grants you a 20 second window of increased power, increasing your Movement Speed by 20%, damage done by 15%, and removes the cost of all Werewolf abilities, including the Transformation. Activating Rampage will temporarily disable your ability to activate the Werewolf Transformation again, to create the sensation of loss of control to this inner beast, as well as making it harder to accidentally activate and immediately lose the effect if you input the button multiple times and de-transform.
Werewolf Transformation
This Ultimate and its morphs have been largely reworked in regards to how they function to cast and manage. These Ultimates now only require 100 Ultimate to activate but will continue to drain 100 Ultimate every 10 seconds while they are active. Failing to have 100 Ultimate when the cost per tick occurs will forcibly de-transform you. The cost to maintain transformation is now completely disabled outside of combat, to help mitigate the need to constantly engage in combat. Ultimate generation is no longer disabled while transformed, making it the primary method of sustaining your form.
Completely rescripted the backend of the transformation, resulting in all Werewolf effects and passives to only apply while Transformed and a college dissertation level of data structuring changes, rather than applying permanently and constantly checking if you're in Werewolf form. This should have no observable changes in behavior (unless called out otherwise in further sections), and is largely non-player facing and only aims at helping cut down on combat calculations for Werewolf characters (we saved 15 whole effects, which is a new record). However, if you experience issues where you lose access to passives or other effects while in Werewolf form, please let us know!
Transforming into a Werewolf no longer increases your Maximum Stamina by 30%. Instead, all Werewolf abilities that scale with Stamina or Magicka will now be 30% more dense in their scaling, allowing for similar levels of combat power as before, without the added bonus of having a deeper resource pool.
Reduced the Poison damage taken while transformed to 10%, down from 25%.
Werewolf Stamina costing abilities (aside from the core combat mechanics such as Block, Bash, Dodge, or Prowl) now cost 1/3rd of their ability category counterpart, rather than costing 25% more. This was done to help open more potential build opportunities for non-Stamina damage dealers to utilize Werewolf, while also adding to the sensation that this Ultimate is a transformation that makes you more powerful in some capacity. The cost is now almost exclusively on maintaining the form, rather than the form and your normal resources - helping simplify its combat loop and letting you focus while the beast is unleashed.
Werewolf combat actions no longer see a 15% damage increase in their scaling. We'll cover this more in each ability, but fear not, Werewolves are stronger than they were before in most cases with some other adjustments.
Werewolf Light Attacks no longer have their base damage capped at 4813 like other Light Attacks, in efforts to help add more potential damage while transformed.
This morph now grants Major Berserk while transformed. Updated the Bleed from this morph to apply on Light and Heavy Attacks, rather than only Light Attacks. The Bleed now appears to stack up to 5 times in total and upon reaching 5 stacks, the 1 second delay will be removed, allowing you to deal much more consistent damage while sticking to a target. Stacks do not augment damage or duration. The Bleed no longer fails to reapply if it is already active, meaning the first few Light Attacks will result in a damage decrease, while drastically increasing beyond. Reduced the duration of the Bleed to 3 seconds, down from 4. Reduced the damage scaling by ~35.5% on the Weapon and Spell Damage and ~16% for the Magicka and Stamina. Heavy Attacks in this form no longer create an area of effect in a cone around the target. This morph now also improves Devour, which will be explained in the passive section.
This morph's Bleed now lasts for 4 seconds with 1 second delay against monsters (partial reversion to pre-PTS), up from 2s with a 1s delay. Against players, it will last for 1 second after a 1s delay.
This morph now increases the amount of damage you can block by 30% and grants Major Protection while transformed, rather than a unique 10% damage reduction. It continues to spawn 2 direwolves and grants you and nearby group members Minor Courage. This morph also improves Rampage to Enduring Rampage, which adds 4000 Health recovery to the base effects.
Adjusted the attack speed of the direwolves to happen at a more consistent pace, rather than going in between erratically fast and slow attacks. Fixed an issue where the damage of the direwolves did not dynamically scale with your offensive stats. Fixed an issue where the damage done was missing rank up progression built in, resulting in a 3.3% damage increase. Added some minor variance to their attacks so they do not perfectly attack in unison, making them feel less like a hive mind entity and more like wolves fighting in a pack.
There's a lot to unpack here so we'll start with our overall intentions and design philosophies. Our goals for the Werewolf refresh are relatively simple: improve the user flow of entering, sustaining, and playing as a Werewolf, while updating it to something that has more build potential. The experience is meant to be different from other combat options, while still being familiar enough to approach and play.
Originally, the form introduced many stipulations that acted as overrides to rules, while the updated form should instead feel like augments to the rules. Rather than overriding your Ultimate and disabling that mechanic completely while introducing a new one - it now hooks into the existing Ultimate loop while also gaining access to an Ultimate-level ability while transformed. Additionally, there are many more added effects that help reduce the high demand and stress of sustaining Werewolf, such as the out of combat cost removal, the new Rampage effect, and a few other hidden effects we've added for you to find (is anyone hungry?).
All these changes hopefully culminate into a more liberating transformation, rather than a limiting one. To improve the build diversity side of things, we're also looking at a few core interactions to see where the existing limits were created.
Originally, Werewolf was incredibly Stamina focused, as abilities costed an exorbitant amount of Stamina and the transformation granted a unique bonus only to Stamina. Despite their abilities mostly dynamically scaling, this created a lopsided experience that made playing as a Stamina build vastly superior, which made the transformation even less accessible for build types. We've shifted away from both of these stipulations by significantly reducing the Stamina drain of active Werewolf abilities (the focus is now on sustaining the form, rather than the form AND abilities) and instead baking the power of that massive Stamina increase into the stat scaling of their abilities - meaning both Magicka and Stamina are effectively increased by their original amounts, without the added effects of actually adjusting your character stats.
We've also looked at morph engagement and tried to improve the split between the two dominant build focuses: full on aggression builds, and bruisers - more "chonky", survivable, damage dealers. Morphs now have more stark differences between what they do for the most part, either granting more outright damage production, adding utility or survivability upgrades, or adding more mechanical complexity to their base abilities.
Our other focus for the Werewolf refresh was the combat flow of what it means to play as a Werewolf. The Werewolf's ability bar override removes the access to bar swap - which introduces a more digestible, but ultimately, simpler combat flow. This is often seen as a positive and a negative, and we've looked at what these abilities closely to try and retain the good parts of that simplicity while also working on trying to flesh out a bit more depth to improve the negative aspects.
At its core, the Werewolf experience is still pretty straight forward; being a big, brutal, bad ass. Jumping into the fight, prioritizing speed and aggression, and chasing your prey with relentless attacks are all still here. However, we've re-evaluated some of our original stipulations to these abilities to try and make them a bit more user friendly, while also trying to ensure each button press has more than 1 context in which you'd want to use it. In some cases, such as Pounce, that means completely dividing the ability to 2 separate states: when targeting far away enemies it swaps to the gap closer ability, and when targeting enemies in melee range it becomes the melee damage over time ability - both the same abilities as before, but with a more dynamic experience that gives you what you need in the context of the moment.
Other abilities, such as Roar, now have multiple outcomes that cover a larger array of effects to offer more utility and reasons to press the button. Roar continues to operate as your primary crowd control, while also being a support function by housing the Feeding Frenzy synergy, and still having solo play application by granting you Blood Hunger, an effect that amplifies some of your other Werewolf abilities. These updates should all help improve your overall combat effectiveness, while adding some additional nuance and mastery to the experience.
Abilities
These abilities and their morphs now dynamically update themselves based on your distance from your target, rather than requiring you to activate Pounce and then locking you into activating Carnage for 5 seconds after. Pounce is only available when you are greater than 7 meters to a target, while Carnage takes over when you are 7 meters or closer to a target. Note that this will result in only Carnage displaying on your hot bar when you hover over it outside of the skill system. Your skill book will always display Pounce. Reduced the cost of Pounce and its morphs to 1071, down from 4016. Adjusted the damage of Pounce to .63 Weapon or Spell Damage and .078 Magicka or Stamina, rather than .7875 and .075. Reduced the cost of Carnage and its morphs to 995, down from 2008. Adjusted the damage per tick to 0.095455 Weapon or Spell Damage and .0118182 Magicka or Stamina, rather than .098438 and .009375. Increased the base duration to 12 seconds, up from 10.
Increased the radius of these abilities to 7 meters, up from 5. Brutal Carnage's damage over time now stacks up to 3 times, increasing by 10 seconds per stack, rather than granting stacking Weapon and Spell Damage when hitting enemies.
This morph now grants 200 Stamina each time either portion of the ability deals damage, rather than granting 100 Stamina and 1 second of Werewolf timer. Whenever either version of this morph deals damage, it will also trigger Fury generation (in addition to the Fury generated for activating it), up to once every 4 seconds. This allows Feral Pounce to generate it twice per cast, and Feral Carnage to generate Fury up to 3 times over its duration.
We're making this ability and its 2 forms significantly more straight forward to use by having them automatically update to the effect you need in the moment. When you need to close the distance, the Pounce variant of the ability will take over and allow you to leap to your enemy, while the Carnage variant will be available when you're within melee range of your foe. We're also slightly adjusting the morph differences to be less about raw damage versus utility and going into two forms of utility, both of which have the potential for damage. Brutal Pounce and Carnage remain better for area of effect damage and Carnage saves on global cooldowns, letting you experience a more simplified rotation (especially helpful if you plan on using one of the reworked morphs of Rending Claws), while Feral Pounce aids in Stamina management through block and helps you activate Rampage more frequently, which grants a large damage steroid.
Reduced the healing of this ability by 8%. Reduced the cost of this ability and its morphs to 4320, down from 5737. This ability and Hircine's Rage now restore 10% of your Max Stamina, increasing by 1% for every 1% current Health you have (up to a maximum of 20% Stamina) after the heal, rather than granting 2700-3000 Stamina if you were at full Health before the healing went off.
Reduced the healing of this morph by ~19%. This morph now increases the Stamina restored to 12% of your Max Stamina at base, increasing by 1% for every 1% current Health you have (up to 24% Max Stamina). This morph now adds Major Vitality while slotted, rather than granting Minor Fortitude and Endurance for 20 seconds after activating.
This morph now heals based on your Offensive stats, rather than Max Health. The healing is ~17% weaker than a traditional burst heal such as Rushed Ceremony. This morph now increases your damage done and taken for 12-15 seconds by up to 12%, based on how high your current Health percent is, rather than applying Major Berserk and increasing your damage taken by 10-7% for 10 seconds if you were at full Health while casting. This morph also generates double Fury on activation and adds Minor Berserk while slotted.
We're toning down how much raw healing this ability and its morphs can do while simultaneously adding more purpose to the button press for resource management for tanks or in PvP encounters. Now rather than being a binary heal vs restore, it will grant both, and will reward you in similar situations - granting more resources while at higher Health. Hircine's Fortitude sees a decrease in the initial healing, but gains the potential to be healed significantly more while in groups or using other effects and morphs, helping out the tankier paths, while Hircine's Rage continues to focus on the offensive nature but with a healthier balance as both the bonuses and the punishments degrade as you weaken while also healing more effectively for damage dealers.
Hircine’s Bounty
Hircine’s Rage: Increased the duration of the damage done and taken effect to be 17-20s based on rank, up from 12-15s. This was done to help make the effect more natural to keep up with other effects.
This ability and its morphs now have a 350ms cast time before they apply their effects to help better line up their animations to their outcomes, fixing issues where you would be feared before even seeing an animation. Increased the radius to 10 meters, up from 7. Reduced the cost to 1071, down from 4303. This ability and its morphs now apply a stack of Blood Hunger for 30 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. Blood Hunger empowers Gnash (previously Piercing Howl) and Claw Fury (previously Claws of Anguish) to deal additional damage. These abilities no longer apply Terrified (this is effectively an easier to use form of that mechanic, with more interplay within their kit). This ability and its morphs are now home of the Feeding Frenzy synergy, rather than being placed on the Howl of Despair morph. Feeding Frenzy is granted to up to 12 nearby allies for 10 seconds within the radius of your Roar. Feeding Frenzy now lasts for 30 seconds, up from 20, and increases damage done by 6% instead of granting Empower (the synergy continues to grant Minor Force as well).
This morph now applies Major Maim and Cowardice to enemies hit for 12-15 seconds, rather than Major Breach and Minor Maim for 7-10 seconds. The passive slot for this morph now grants Major Evasion and Minor Protection, rather than Major Protection (as this was moved to Pack Leader). Purchasing this morph will automatically upgrade your Gnash and morphs (the rework of Piercing Howl) to also taunt the enemy if the ability was cast while Bracing, making taunting more deliberate and less dangerous compared to the previous slot passive of Heavy Attacking to taunt.
This morph now also applies Major Courage to you and 11 nearby allies for 20 seconds, allows you to use your own synergy, and grants 2 stacks of Blood Hunger on cast, rather than increasing the speed of your Heavy Attacks by 33%.
We're making Roar and its morphs the home of the Feeding Frenzy synergy in efforts to make the effect more easily accessible, while also adding a little incentive to bringing the pack to groups with the unique damage bonus. Additionally, we're improving the Terrified mechanic into Blood Hunger, which can now stack for multiple uses, helping reward a more diverse rotation in PvE and PvP, while also being easier to use at a baseline. Blood Hunger isn't completely exclusive to Roar either, as the effect can now be referenced by other morphs, for those who are looking to sink their teeth into more complicated rotations. This should help keep the Werewolf experience simpler, but with some added forms of mastery for those who find themselves hungering for more.
This ability and its morphs have been completely reworked into a melee (7m) driven double bite attack, rather than a 10m projectile howl attack. The ability now scales with .525 of your Weapon or Spell Damage and .065 of your Magicka or Stamina twice, rather than a singular 1.3125 and .125 scaling attack. The initial hit deals Physical Damage, while the second hit deals Bleed Damage. Both attacks have a 10% chance of applying their respective status effects. The second hit happens after .4s (no cast time, so it can be animation canceled with no loss) and deals 200% bonus damage to targets under 25% Health. If 1 or more stacks of Blood Hunger are active, the initial hit deals 25% bonus damage and 1 stack is consumed. Reduced the cost of this ability and its morphs to 765, down from 2869.
Reduced the execute scaling of this ability and the Rip and Tear morph to 175%, down from 200%. Bloody Gnash retains the 200%.
Gnash: Reduced the execute scaling of this ability and Rip and Tear’s second hit to 125%, down from 175%, to further the damage delta between morphs to reinforce Bloody Gnash as the pure damage morph.
This morph now adds a 50% chance when benefiting from Blood Hunger to not consume a stack. This morph also upgrades the 2nd hit to always apply the Hemorrhaging status effect. This morph no longer increases damage done against Off Balance targets or reduces in cost as it ranks up.
This morph upgrades the 1st hit to always apply the Sundered status effect, as well as inflicting Major Breach to the target for 12-15 seconds. The second hit heals you for .271163 of your Max Health (and ranks up by 1.1% per rank) if it hits. Blood Hunger's 25% increase applies to both the base hit and the healing effect for this morph. This morph no longer grants access to Feeding Frenzy, as it has been moved to Roar.
Werewolves have finally learned to put their jaws to use with this new spammable, rending flesh from their foes with a much more brutal two part attack - gone are the days of angrily yelling your opponents to death. Gnash operates as both your standard fare single target spammable and an execute both in one, helping make up for the Werewolf's bar space deficit while leaning into their fantasy of masters of the hunt. A hunter who cannot finish off their prey often returns empty handed after all. This helps Werewolves become significantly more terrifying to low health foes, while giving them reason to stick closer to their enemies and make use of their speed boosts in melee range. The morphs once again split with more diversity, granting two utility driven effects that can both lead to more damage, but with more of an option between damage or survivability. The previous iteration of "terrified" has also been reworked to Blood Hunger, which has slightly more interaction across their kit, while also being easier to use.
This morph now longer gains the 25% bonus damage with Blood Hunter, but retains the increased healing effect. Reduced the base healing value by ~43%.
We're toning down how much damage and healing this morph offers compared to week 1 of PTS, since this morph was both out damaging the other morph and adding too much self-survivability to the Werewolf kit.
Rip and Tear: Increased the base healing of this morph by ~33% to add some density back to this morph, as the execute nerfs will reduce its kill potential.
This ability and the Claws of Life morph have been adjusted to deal Physical Damage on their initial hit and Bleed Damage for their over time effect, rather than dealing Disease Damage on both hits. Reduced the initial hit's Weapon and Spell Damage scaling by 20%, and increased its Magicka and Stamina scaling by 4%. The damage over time now lasts for 10 seconds, down from 20. Increase the Weapon and Spell Damage scaling by ~92% and the Magicka and Stamina scaling by ~150%. This ability and its morphs now have a target cap of 6, rather than hitting all enemies. The initial hit now has a 15% chance of applying Sundered and the damage over time has a 5% chance of applying Hemorrhaging, rather than the initial hit applying Diseased and the damage over time having a 1%.
This ability and the Bloodclaws morph now last for 6 seconds against players. The duration against monsters remains untouched.
This morph has been reworked into a channeled attack that deals direct Physical Damage over 4.8 seconds, hitting up to 6 enemies closest to you in a 7m cone with a 90 degree arc up to 13 times. Claw Fury generates Fury and a stack of Blood Hunger, up to once every second while dealing damage with the ability. Claw Fury scales with 0.488093 Weapon or Spell Damage and 0.060431 Magicka or Stamina per tick, and increases by 25% for each stack of Blood Hunger you have. When Claw Fury ends in any capacity, all stacks of Blood Hunger are removed.
This morph now heals for 40% of the initial hit damage done, rather than not healing at all on the initial hit. The damage over time now heals you for ~6.2% of your Max Health when damaging an enemy, rather than healing you for 66% of the damage done. Adjusted the rank up progression to 1.1% for the initial hit and 1.1% healing done for the healing from the damage over time.
We're generically buffing this skill to now be a full power area effect attack and damage over time effect, rather than reducing the damage of the area effect from the damage over time. As such we're gently peeling back some of the cleave damage of the initial hit, while greatly increasing the damage over time potential in all capacities, so this ability feels more like 2 separate abilities, rather than 1 blended ability.
Werewolves have finally also washed their damn hands, moving them away from Disease damage in the kit, instead focusing in on Physical and Bleed to help make a more savage and brutal experience. Additionally, we're splitting the morph diversity to either add more healing for both damage and bruiser builds and a rework morph that functions similarly to something like Engulfing Dragonfire, helping Werewolves who'd rather focus on cleaving foes down. Claw Fury is slightly weaker than the traditional Gnash focused build in single target, but comes out ahead in encounters with multiple enemies packed together.
Passives
This synergy now has a minor grace period for movement, allowing you to move slightly before and after activating it without causing the cast to be interrupted. Note that this grace period is NOT the same as the resurrection ability update that lets you move while casting it, and instead exists to give a small amount of time to let your momentum end if you cast it while moving. Increased the healing per tick to 20% of your Max Health, up from 8% (resulting in a 100% Heal over the total duration, up from 40%, or a 150% increase). Each tick now grants 15 Ultimate, rather than 3 seconds of Werewolf timer. Activating this synergy will disable the cost to maintain Werewolf Transformation for 12 seconds, rather than disabling the cost of maintaining only while channeling it. This passive will also trigger Fury generation each tick if you are a Werewolf Berserker, even if you are outside of combat.
This passive's bonus to Heavy Attack resource restore now only occurs at rank 2, as it is largely irrelevant for most play styles after the cost reduction changes and cuts down on performance.
This passive now increases the amount of Fury you generate by 5|10 per source, rather than adding 3|5 seconds to your Werewolf timer when dealing damaging, up to once every 6 seconds.
Just a simple name change that updates the name away from implying the actual Bloodmoon is happening every week.
Increased the amount of Weapon and Spell Damage granted from this passive to 16|33%, up from 9|18%.
Fixed an issue where this passive did not apply its Weapon and Spell Damage bonus at rank 2. This passive now has reduced effectiveness against targets with Battle Spirit, reduced to 5|10%, down from 16|33%.
Feral Cruelty: Reduced this passive’s bonus to Weapon and Spell Damage to 12|25%, down from 16|33%. The values against targets with Battle Spirit remain the same.
This passive now works by reducing the Ultimate cost of maintaining Werewolf form, rather than reducing the timer drained every second. The percentages are the same as before and works identically.
This might be a place we iterate based on feedback, as we understand that this passive is vital to allowing Werewolves to indefinitely sustain their forms, but requires utilizing the Pack Leader morph or playing with up to 3 other Werewolves (or playing with a Pack Leader) to really gain effectiveness from. We're cautiously optimistic that the other sweeping changes to Werewolf form sustain will be enough to keep the core experience a case where sustaining form is something you feel spurred to do, but with far more grace than before, so let us know your thoughts.
This passive now has been gently buffed for non-maximum group sizes, primarily focused on helping the lone wolves. This passive now reduces the cost of remaining in Werewolf form by 8|16% + 8|16% for every transformed Werewolf or Direwolf in your group, including yourself, up from 10|20%.
This means in solo, your cost reduction will be 16% or 32%, up from 10% or 20%, while still being higher at every additional integer increase, but also retaining the same maximum value of 40|80% at 4 total targets.
Visuals and Audio
- Polished various Werewolf locomotion and Slaughter animations.
- Fixed a visual issue with the Power of the Daedra buff from Dark Anchors on the new werewolf models.
- Updated the Werewolf markings based on player feedback. Originally, these markings were intended to provide an obvious differentiation between the Werewolf Transformation morphs outside of the dire wolves present on the Pack Leader morph. The markings still function as a source of differentiation between morphs, but have now also been tied to the Rampage ability to provide better visibility on the ability's functionality. The following changes have been implemented:
- The markings will now only become visible when Rampage is ready to cast. Once Rampage has been cast, the markings will remain visible until Rampage is over.
- You can build up Rampage and leave combat to have the markings remain visible outside of combat.
- The intensity of the Berserker morph markings has been decreased.
- A blue version of the Pack Leader markings has been added to the base Werewolf Transformation ability to provide consistent mechanical clarity for Rampage.
- The markings will now only become visible when Rampage is ready to cast. Once Rampage has been cast, the markings will remain visible until Rampage is over.
- Improved the jump animation for the Werewolf based on player feedback.
- Polished up various Werewolf audio cues and animations.
- Fixed an issue where the Infectious Claws animation would occasionally pop back to idle.
- Werewolves will now properly use the grappling hook model.
- Reworded the Hircine’s Rage tooltip so it is easier to understand.
- Fixed issues with the right-handed Bloodclaws video effects.
Scribing
These scripts have been renamed to Class Flourish to avoid confusion with the Class Mastery system (they do not require you to have Class Mastery active).
This script now causes charmed enemies to walk to the center of the area, rather than to follow the caster. This was done in an effort to try and mitigate the frequency this charm could force enemies through terrain.
Item Sets
New Item Sets
The Prowler's Talisman is a new kind of mythic that is available to everyone. It is not found in antiquities. Rather, you can acquire it by going through the new Thieves Guild storyline. It can be equipped at any level, and its power increases as you complete associated content. The stats listed here are for the baseline Talisman.
- While Battle Spirit is inactive, bracing while crouching turns you invisible for 10 seconds. This can occur once every 45 seconds.
- Increase your chances of successfully Pickpocketing by 5%.
- On dealing Critical Damage, increase your Max Magicka and Max Stamina for 10 seconds, up to 1900 at 10 stacks.
- On dealing non-Critical Damage, increase your Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery for 10 seconds, up to 160 at 10 stacks.
- Either effect can occur up to once every 1 second.
This item is now flagged as unique.
Class Sets
This set now increases your damage done by 10%, rather than only damage done with Animal Companion skills by 10%.
This set can now stack between multiple users, correcting the conflicting design the set originally stated. Apologies to all the PvPers out there, as this means you can have multiple dive bombing birdos on you if multiple attackers wear this set. We'll keep an eye on how frequently this happens, as the audio is quite loud.
Updated the damage of this set to Disease damage, rather than Magic damage. This is purely a mechanical change as the visuals remain the same. This set now always triggers the Diseased status effect. We've also seen the request to make this set be treated as a class effect - which we can't do - because it already is.
Updated the damage proc from this set to be considered a class ability. This should help the set scale with a few more interactions, namely a few Templar specific ones. The Weapon and Spell Damage from this set now persists for 10 seconds, up from 6, to help improve its uptime in actual combat.
Adjusted the damage and healing bonuses while no permanent pets are active and Battle Spirit is active to 7%, up from 5%.
Increased the damage of this set by ~37.5%. This set now grants 200 Weapon and Spell Damage for every Monolith active.
Reduced the Weapon and Spell Damage granted per Monolith to 100, down from 200.
Updated this set to interact with (a new Class Mastery for DK), rather than being based off generic damage over time effects. Decreased the damage of the damage over time proc by ~31.4%. Decreased the damage of the area effect proc by ~26.1%. Heavy Attacking now removes up to 3 stacks of or your Pyrebrand, rather than up to 3 damage over time effects. Adjusted the bonus damage effect to 25% per stack (up to 300% at max), rather than 20% per damage over time effect, up to 60%.
Increased the cooldown of Wildfire generation to 12 seconds, up from 2s.
Week 1's changes dramatically increased the power ceiling of this set, making it effectively best in slot in all cases. While we're okay with making class sets contextually incredibly powerful, this was a bit too far ahead. This will also correct some of the behaviors we've seen with Werewolf passes, allowing us to balance the experience better there without having it become too powerful with this interaction.
This reduction won't affect a pure class damage over time build on Dragonknight much, but it will lower its effectiveness with other builds - which we'll keep an eye on, as we've heard the sentiment with certain builds like Flamecarver Engulfing Dragonfire.
Pyrebrand: Reduced the cooldown of generation from this set to 10s, down from 12s, to ensure that it can very slowly build up to the maximum over the course of a fight, and to add a small bit of power back to the set across the board.
Adjusted this set's 3 piece bonus to Critical Chance, rather than Max Magicka. This set's 5 piece bonus now increases the damage and healing and reduces the cost of Siphoning abilities by 15%, down from 21%. Draining Ultimate from this set now increases your damage done by up to 12% based on how high your current Health is, for 12 seconds.
Increased the duration of the new damage bonus to 20s, up from 12s.
This set now also increases damage done with status effects by 40% while worn and generates a Crux when the set activates.
This set now stacks up to 30 times, down from 40, making it easier to reach the maximum potency sooner. Increased the Magicka Recovery per stack to 21, up from 12, helping offset the penalty of this set over the course of a fight while retaining the highs and lows of the sustain draw. Wrathsun at maximum stacks now increases the damage done of Templar skill line abilities by 25% (10% against players), rather than the damage scaling of Dawn's Wrath abilities by 25%.
Fixed an issue where this set's Magicka Recovery could appear to become stuck on your character in the character sheet - this was purely a visual error.
We've also seen the feedback that this set is still lagging behind, namely in PvE. Unfortunately this is a larger issue we don't have time to iterate on within U50, but we'll certainly keep it in mind when the Templar refresh rolls around.
Dungeon Sets
Fixed an issue where this set's bonus duration was not properly reflected in tooltips.
Adjusted this set's 2 piece to Critical Chance rather than Max Stamina and 4 piece to Weapon and Spell Damage rather than Stamina Recovery. This set's 5 piece now also grants 6% damage done while in Werewolf form.
Mythic Items
Fixed an issue where this set did not properly disable slot passives of Ultimates it override.
This set's bonus damage done effect with status effects is now reduced based on the number of permanent pets you have. The value is divided by 1 + the number of permanent pets you have; so at 1 pet it would be halved, at 2 pets it would be reduced to 1/3rd, and so on. This is additive with the player target reduction as well.
We're toning down how strong this mythic can be in ultra niche cases by targeting the relative problem space; pet builds, and especially ones that utilize Feral Guardian.
This set now only reduces in power when Feral Guardian or its morphs are active, rather than any permanent pet.
Overland Sets
This set now grants triple Ultimate generation (18) while in Werewolf form, rather than 6.
Companions
Fixed an issue where the Critical Chance from this passive did not work.
PvP Sets
The following sets have received changes to their non "keystone" bonuses (meaning their single stat lines like 2-4 piece bonuses) to better align with what their keystone bonuses are, as well as to improve on overall hybridization where it fits.
- Affliction
- 3pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Stamina).
- 4pc: Offensive Penetration (was Stamina Recovery).
- Blunted Blades
- 3pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Stamina).
- Coup De Grace
- 3pc: Offensive Penetration (was Stamina Recovery).
- Crest of Cyrodiil
- 2pc: Critical Resistance (was Stamina Recovery).
- Dark Convergence
- 2pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Magicka).
- Elfbane
- 2pc: Critical Chance (was Max Magicka).
- 5pc: Updated tooltip to include Dragonknight Standard.
- Farstrider
- 3pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Stamina).
- Galerion's Revenge
- 3pc: Critical Resistance (was Magicka Recovery).
- Hew and Sunder
- 2pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Stamina).
- 3pc: Offensive Penetration (was Max Stamina).
- Impregnable Armor
- 2-4pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Health, Magicka, and Stamina).
- 5pc: Reduced to 986 Critical Resistance (was 1650).
- Indomitable Fury
- 2pc and 3pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Magicka).
- Knight Slayer
- 2pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Magicka).
- Leki's Focus
- 3pc and 4pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Stamina and Stamina Recovery).
- Light of Cyrodiil
- 3pc: Critical Chance (was Max Magicka).
- 4pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Magicka).
- 5pc: Now reduces the cost of any ability (was only Magicka abilities).
- The Morang Tong
- 3pc: Critical Chance (was Max Stamina).
- Phoenix
- 2pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Magicka).
- 3pc: Critical Resistance (was Magicka Recovery).
- Rallying Cry
- 3pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Magicka).
- 4pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Critical Chance).
- 5pc: Starts at 986 Crit Resist, loses 50/target (was 1650, losing 83/target).
- Robes of Transmutation
- 2pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Magicka).
- 3pc: Healing Done (was Magicka Recovery).
- 5pc: 1363 Crit Resist for 4s (was 1400 for 5s).
- Sentry
- 2pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Stamina).
- Shared Pain
- 2pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Stamina).
- 3pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Stamina).
- Shield Breaker
- 2pc: Critical Chance (was Max Stamina).
- 3pc: Offensive Penetration (was Stamina Recovery).
- Siegemaster's Focus
- 2pc: Critical Resistance (was Max Stamina).
- Spell Strategist
- 2pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Magicka).
- Tracker's Lash
- 3pc: Offensive Penetration (was Max Magicka).
- Vicecannon of Venom
- 2pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Stamina).
- 4pc: Critical Chance (was Stamina Recovery).
- Vicious Death
- 3pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Magicka).
- Warrior's Fury
- 3pc: Weapon and Spell Damage (was Max Stamina).
- Wizard's Riposte
- 4pc: Critical Resistance (was Magicka Recovery).
This set now also applies Minor Enervation to enemies hit, to live up to its namesake.
Challenge Difficulty
A new opt-in system for you to tailor your difficulty experience is available. From the Character Select screen, you can choose between three additional difficulties which will be applied in overland encounters, story instances, delves, and public dungeons (Dungeons, Trials, Arenas, Infinite Archive, and Night Market are exempt). Once selected, monsters will do increased damage to you and you will do reduced damage to them but you will gain more experience and gold for your effort.
Adjusted calculations for Challenge Difficulty, so the experience is more consistent across gear sets and positive/negative effects.
Adventurer - This is the current Challenge Difficulty and default within the game. There is no associated effect, and all rewards are as they are now. If you like how Overland currently operates, then this is the difficulty that is right for you.
Seasoned - You will take 100% more damage from monsters and do 20% less damage. You will receive 50% more gold and 20% more experience from monsters.
Master - You will take 300% more damage from monsters and do 50% less damage. You will receive 100% more gold and 75% more experience from monsters.
Vestige - This will be the most difficult option at launch. You will take 600% more damage from monsters and will deal 80% less damage. You will receive 200% more gold and 100% more experience from monsters.
PvP Veterancy
The PvP Veterancy System has been added for all warriors of Tamriel! This new system rewards players who participate in Cyrodiil, Imperial City, and Battlegrounds with unique cosmetics, titles, consumables, perks for Vengeance and more!
v12.0.1 only added Veterancy UI, tooltip, preview, rank icon, and reward display fixes. No new balance notes. Source: Week 2 Patch Notes
- To access the Veterancy system, navigate to your Campaign selection/Scoring UI and you will find a new tab for Veterancy.
- Within the Veterancy UI, you'll be able to scroll through the entire system to see the rewards you can earn.
- Some rewards are granted automatically like Vengeance Perks, while others must be claimed like items.
- Various permanent titles will be earned through Veterancy as well at Ranks 50+ which can be set anytime just like regular titles.
- Some titles will return from season to season to get a chance to re-earn them, where others will be dedicated to the Season. For example, in Season 1 of Veterancy, the titles Brutalist and Sovereign are tied to this season alone while other titles like Striker can be earned in every Season.
- Temporary titles and a new HUD element in your target panel will be applied while in Veterancy zones to show your current Veterancy Seasonal Rank. This will be where the CP level normally would be displayed.
- Veterancy progresses through AP and (to a lesser amount) XP gains in any Cyrodiil campaign, Battlegrounds, or Imperial City.
- There are 100 ranks to Veterancy.
- At the max rank of Veterancy, you will earn a repeatable reward.
- Veterancy has an average duration of 6 months, or 6 "30 day" Cyrodiil Campaign durations, after which a new PvP Veterancy Season will begin.
Vengeance Campaign
With Update 50, Vengeance will be up full time as a campaign to select for your Cyrodiil battles. As a reminder, this campaign has modified abilities, loadouts, unique perks and a higher population cap (3x the cap of normal Cyrodiil campaigns) to allow for truly large scale battles! This campaign will be a 30 day duration campaign.
v12.0.1 only fixed Vengeance hotbar, locked skill line, tooltip, animation, dodge, block, and UI issues. No new balance notes. Source: Week 2 Patch Notes
Other Campaign Changes
- Perks earned through the Veterancy System will be available to apply to your Loadouts while in Vengeance.
- New Loadout Skill lines have been added to give even more options for your build while in Vengeance. There are 6 new abilities per Loadout for Soldier, Vanguard, Battle Medic, and Scout, that lean into the playstyle of those loadouts.
- Gray Host will also be available, however Ravenwatch, Icereach, and Blackreach will be getting closed down.
- We will be monitoring population as always to see if campaigns need to be re-opened or added as U50 goes live and populations settle down a few weeks after launch as usual.
Tamriel Tomes
New Features
- You are now able to swap between multiple owned Premium Tamriel Tomes, progress multiple Tomes with Challenges, and use Tome Points to obtain unlocked rewards on any owned Tome.
- The end of Season experience has been added to the game. This includes the end of Season rewards auto-claimer, the ability to roll over up to 2,000 Tome Points to a future Season's Tamriel Tome, and any excess Tome Points beyond the 2,000 cap will be converted to Gold after the auto-claimer has finished.
- You can now obtain additional rerolls for Weekly Challenges by spending gold. This is in addition to the five free Weekly Challenge rerolls every week. The initial cost is 500 gold, increasing up to a maximum of 10,000 gold with subsequent use. This cost resets back to 500 gold every Tuesday after the weekly reset.
- Upon reaching the "Bonus Pages" (the un-numbered pages at the end) of a Tamriel Tome, you will unlock additional repeatability for Weekly Challenges. Your new Weekly Challenges can be repeated twice as many times.
User Experience
- The Tome Point and Premium Tome Token currencies have new icons.
- A "Claim All" hotkey has been added to the Challenges screen.
- KBM users can click on Challenges to claim Tome Points in addition to using the keybinding.
- Various fixes for previewing items within a list of Rewards.
- Fixed an issue where the number of Challenge Reroll currencies could appear differently when looking at different UI screens.
- Performed a consistency pass to make sure Tamriel Tome and Golden Pursuit hotkeys were the same.
Combat Refresh Visuals
Werewolf
- New werewolf models have been implemented for both male and female player characters.
- The new werewolf models are roughly 20% larger than the previous model.
- Ashen, Black, and White skill styles have been added for the Werewolf Transformation ability and its morphs. These skill styles will be earnable in-game via the new Dynamic Encounters system.
- Piercing Howl is now Gnash, a new biting ability for all Werewolves to enjoy.
Dragonknight
- Added in Emerald Green skill styles for Dragonknight's Dragonfire Breath, Searing Strike, and Magma Armor. These will be available via the Style Master.
- Added in a skill style for Dragonknight's Molten Weapons that does not include a weapon override. This will be available for free via the Gold Coast Bazaar.
- Updated the animation for Dragonknight's Earthspike Mantle to read as more outwardly "aggressive" through a more dramatic silhouette change.
Visual and Audio Bugfixes
- When crouching, combat animations now play whenever your weapons are drawn instead of just when you are in combat.
- Fixed an issue where certain hairstyles would "float" while you have your weapons drawn.
- Adjusted the FX for Dragonfire Breath and its morphs to be more performant in an effort to prevent them from being randomly culled while in use.
- Fixed an issue where the visuals for Incinerate would fail to appear if the ability killed the target and ended combat immediately.
- Fixed an issue where the Molten Weapons animation would not cancel properly while using Dual Wield or One-Handed and Shield.
- Fixed an issue where third person staff animations would stutter when returning to idle after using Petrify or its morphs.
- Fixed an issue where the Molten Weapons visuals were appearing during dialogue cameras with NPCs.
- Fixed an issue where the Molten Weapons FX were unintentionally remaining visible while casting other abilities.
- Fixed an issue where the damage shield audio for Earthshield Mantle and Ferocious Leap's Nocturnal skill style was missing.
- Fixed an issue where the damage shield audio for Magma Shell was not playing correctly for targets other than the caster.
Quality of Life Improvements
Guild Mail
Guild Mail is an extension of the in-game mail system designed to connect and update Guild members at every level. The ability to send Guild Mail is initially limited to Guild Leaders. Leaders can allow members of other ranks to send Guild Mail as well by setting permissions on the Guild Ranks tab. You may choose to send a mail to all ranks, several different ranks, or one specific rank. All Guild Mails will expire 14 days after sending, and guilds can only have 5 active Guild Mails at a given time.
Mages Guild Transmute Stations
Transmute Stations have been installed at Elden Root, Stormhaven, Mournhold, Leyawiin, Wrothgar, Skingrad, Vivec City, Necrom, Alinor, Rimmen, Gonfalon Bay, and Eyevea.
Path to Adventure
A new personal Golden Pursuit Campaign designed to provide guidance and rewards to new and returning players who have not acquired the Level 20 Accountwide Achievement. The campaign helps guide them from getting a mount more quickly, to gathering skyshards, upgrading their bag, exploring zones and taking on quests. It also features a new "Hint" feature for when you aren't sure what to do next.
Exemplary Item Deconstruction
You can now deconstruct your exemplary items or sell them for gold.
Daily Quest Limit Cap Increased
The cap on daily quests per character per day has been increased from 50 to 100.
Companion Experience Rate Improvements
The amount of experience your companion gains from combat has been doubled at each rapport level. Your companion will level more quickly, particularly at higher rapport levels.
Vampire & Werewolf Quest Improvements
- All players (who are not currently either a vampire or a werewolf) can now take the quest starters from the Crown Store.
- The gold cost requirement to get cured in-game by a Priest of Arkay has been eliminated.
- Added lines if you wish to flirt with either Azisa or Firralthel.
- World-building improvements and updated VO to clear up some Molag Bal vs Lamae Bal inconsistencies.
AFK Timer in Character Create
The AFK timer in the character creation screen has been increased from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
Motif Sourcing Information
Sourcing information (where possible) has been added to all motifs, both in the book and chapter descriptions. When perusing Motifs in the Crown Store, you can now see where they are sourced in-game.
Updated Text on Character Select
The "Back" button on the Character Select Screen has been renamed to "Logout".
Achievements
There are 58 Achievements in total planned for Update 50 totaling 1050 achievement points, with 4 new titles and 7 new dyes.
New Titles
- "Superior Thief" - completing the "Exonerator" achievement.
- "Battle-Scarred" - completing the "Give No Quarter" achievement.
- "Vestige of" - completing the "The Drums of War are Sounding" achievement.
- "Freerunner" - completing the "Around the Ouroboros" achievement.
New Dyes
- Mad God's Berry - "Madness Catcher" achievement.
- Anu White - "Seasoned Monster Slayer" achievement.
- Brassy Brass - "Seasoned Construct Slayer" achievement.
- Vinebeard Green - "Seasoned Nature Slayer" achievement.
- Boethian Ash - "Seasoned Daedra Slayer" achievement.
- Brigand Brown - "Seasoned Humanoid Slayer" achievement.
- Draugr Flesh - "Seasoned Undead Slayer" achievement.
Achievement Reorganization
- Achievements for prologues have been organized into the DLC or Chapter they were associated with under a new sub-header "Prologue."
- Dungeon achievement sub-category "Trials" has been converted to a major category. Public dungeon achievements have been moved from "Dungeons" to "Exploration."
- All previous specific group content released in a DLC or Chapter such as a Trial has been moved under "Trials."
- Arenas such as Maelstrom Arena can now be found in a new major category.
- A new category "Recent Seasons" shows all recently added achievements for the season.
- Achievements are listed from normal difficulty to veteran, top to bottom. All achievements earnable exclusively in veteran group content will use "veteran" in their description.
- All dungeons, trials, and arenas are listed in alphabetical order.
Collectibles
- Costume: Quen's Heist Attire - "Exonerator" achievement.
- Emote: Sheogorath's Blessed Cheese - "Daedric Taste Tester" achievement.
- Furnishing: Handbill: Battlereeve Urcelmo - "Freerunner for the Battlereeve" achievement.
- Furnishing: Handbill: Lady Arabelle Davaux - "Freerunner for Lady Davaux" achievement.
- Furnishing: Handbill: Holgunn One-Eye - "Freerunner for Old One-Eye" achievement.
- Motif: Koldane Cartel - available from new Thieves Guild Daily Quest Coffers and Thieves Guild Heists.
- Outfit: Alessian Rebel - acquired by completing Dynamic World Events.
- Pet: Shivering Isle Tomeshell - "Madness Catcher" achievement.
- Player Home: Rogue's Refuge - "Get Away from It All" achievement.
- Skill Style: Blood Scion, Coldharbour - "Skill Stylist: Blood Scion" achievement.
- Skill Style: Werewolf Form, Black / Ashen / White - earnable via Dynamic Encounters.
- Skill Styles (Style Master): Magma Armor Emerald Green, Searing Strike Emerald Green, Dragonfire Breath Emerald Green.
Fixes & Improvements
Alliance War & PvP
- Sigil of Imperial Retreat can now be used in or out of combat. Using it now actively removes and prevents any form of stealth or invisibility for 8 seconds.
Housing
- Three new homes available: Rogue's Refuge (Classic, achievement-earned), Dancing Waters Wellspring (Notable), and Star-Gazer's Vigil (Notable).
- 46 new furnishing plans sourced from Glenumbra and Summerset Reward Coffers.
- 15 new furnishings from Home Goods Furnisher in Daggerfall.
- 13 new furnishings from pickpocketing NPCs in Glenumbra.
- 7 new achievement furnishings from Achievement Furnisher in Daggerfall.
- 5 new furnishings from Antiquity Leads in Glenumbra, including a new Armory Station.
Audio
- Large-scale audio mix modernization is in progress. Sound levels may be different from what you are accustomed to.
- Cyrodiil guards now have audible footsteps.
- Fixed Altered Ornaug Mount sounding like a Mind Shriven Horse when rearing up.
- Fixed Beast Personality roar animation missing sounds with certain polymorphs.
- Prisoner's Rags item set no longer plays a sound effect when sprinting.
Companions
- Adjusted Mirri's Hidden Treasure Bag so gold does not receive passive gold bonuses.
Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where the game could use the wrong GPU if the integrated GPU reported more VRAM than the discrete GPU.
- Declining a ready check after a Tales of Tribute match now requires a short wait before re-queueing.
- PC monitors should now display friendly names in the display selection list.
- Fixed a few situations where client settings could be unexpectedly reset to defaults.
UI
- Added sound effects for queuing and leaving queue for Cyrodiil and Imperial City.
- Long group names in Group Finder UI will now be truncated to prevent overlap with role icons.
- Installing an add-on dependent on an unavailable add-on no longer causes a perpetual installing state.
- Fixed an issue causing some add-ons to use more memory than required.
- Fixed an issue that allowed addons to deconstruct companion gear.
- Various gamepad UI fixes for Champion Point screen, friend list, mail, and skill respec.
Quest Fixes
- Clockwork City: Fixed "The Most Complicated Machine" soul gem retrieval blocking issue.
- Greymoor: Fixed "Problem Growth" simultaneous interaction causing double increments.
- High Isle: Fixed "The Lost Symbol" allowing both punishment options if Isobel was unsummoned.
- Solstice: Fixed "Tides of the Heart" crash when zoning into PvP from dream state.
- Coldharbour: Fixed "Soul Shriven in Coldharbour" break free tutorial locking with Slippery champion trait.
- Various companion quest fixes for "Beyond a Veil of Twilight," "Paths Out of Darkness," and others.
- Scribing: Added a skip option to "A Study in Discipline" if you don't wish to subclass.
- Numerous other quest pin, dialogue, and progression fixes across multiple zones.
THANKS FOR READING
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This fix will result in the affected effects to be reduced in power when used in tandem with other percent based damage bonuses. While we've gently increased some of the affected effects, some of these remain untouched until we get more data on average value impacts (since the change in power was dependent on what other bonuses were being ran in tandem), which we can rectify during PTS or in a future update if necessary.