News From ESO Live – Update 7

ESO Live Episode 21 featured Eric Wrobel, the Lead Combat Designer at ZOS. He gave a bit of a preview to some of the combat changes which are coming in the next major update.

The next patch is 2.0.13 and will be rolled out next week. This patch includes minor bug fixes and tweaks. So far there is no exact date for Update 7 which includes the changes listed below.

More news is expected on July 17 which will include news about the Imperial City.

Please note that these are not patch notes, so they are subject to change. All info is from ESO Live Episode 21 which can be viewed here.

Quick News: VR 16 will come with Update 7.

When blocking you won’t have any Stamina Regen.

Dodge Roll will have increased cost by 33% if you use it twice in a row.

More tweaks and changes to skills.

Battle Spirit (Cyrodiil Buff) will reduce damage, healing and damage shields by 50%.

Racial Passive tweaks.

VR 16 Is Coming

In Update 7 Veteran Rank 16 is going to be introduced to ESO.

ZOS states that the removal of Veteran Ranks is still a goal but is going to be more of a long term goal as there are numerous changes to items that would have to be made before Veteran Ranks could be fully removed.

ZOS do recognise, however, that Veteran Ranks are not popular due to the time it takes to level up. In response to this there are a number of changes which are going to come out in Update 7 concerning XP gain in the Veteran Ranks.

Veteran Ranks will require 15% less XP to level up.

Veteran Ranked quests will give 50% more XP.

Public Dungeons will give double the XP gained.

All activity in Craglorn will give 20% more XP.

Cyrodiil Changes

Eric recognised that the time to kill in Cyrodiil has become too short and reactive gameplay is becoming difficult as death is becoming much quicker.

In response, changes are being made to Battle Spirit – the Cyrodiil buff – to reduce damage, healing and damage shields by 50%.

This is like giving everyone 200% more Health in Cyrodiil and was done to increase the time of battles and allow players to use defensive abilities and have time to react to being attacked.

Skill Changes

There are going to be numerous changes to Skills in Update 7 including Class and Weapon Skills. ZOS are also considering another free respec due to the changes.

The following are changes which are planned for Update 7.

Dragonknight

Stonefist and morphs range increased to 28M.

Obsidian Shard (Stonefist morph) deals less damage but heals an ally.

Battle Roar will scale resource returns based on your Max Health, Magicka and Stamina.

Nightblade

Shadow Cloak fixes are coming. Attacks like heavy attacks and charges won’t remove invisibility even if they are cast just before you go into stealth. Area of effect attacks will still remove Shadow Cloak.

Grim Focus will only require 4 light attacks to activate Spectral Bow.

Templar

Focused Charge now has no delay after casting it like the other gap closer charges.

Rushed Ceremony animation is quicker.

Honor The Dead Magicka return will trigger instantly if target is below 70% Health.

Sun Fire is getting a faster animation / travel speed.

Sorcerer

Bolt Escape is being changed so that it will cost 50% more if you cast it in a row. This will now stack! So the cost will increase by 50%, then 100%, then 150% and so on.

Lightning Form is going to have a Stamina morph which deals reasonable damage to nearby targets and uses Stamina to cast.

Mage’s Fury execute damage increased by 10%.

Dual Wield

Flying Blade will give Major Brutality which increases Weapon Damage by 20%. This is to bring Dual Wield in line with Rally (2H).

Bow

Volley will have a longer duration.

There are a lot more changes to abilities incoming with Update 7. In general the developers want to balance abilities and also balance between Magicka and Stamina choices.

Eric also stated that melee abilities should deal more damage as they are close range and are often caught up in area of effect attacks, etc.

Racial Passives

Eric mentioned that small tweaks to the Racial Passives are coming in Update 7 but more major changes are being held off until a Race change feature is available to players.

Argonian: Restore more Health, Magicka and Stamina after drinking a potion.

Nord: More Max Health.

Khajiit: More Weapon Critical.

Orc: Gain 4% increased damage with melee attacks replacing 6% additional charge attack damage.

Mundus Stones

ZOS are improving the balance of Mundus Stone buffs. The Mage (Magicka) and The Tower (Stamina) will remain the same but the others will improve.

The Mundus Stone which increases Health Regen is changing to increase Stamina Regen instead.

Dodge Roll

Dodge Rolls will cost 33% more Stamina if you perform them in quick succession.

This is to stop spamming Dodge Rolls and is similar to Bolt Escape. I believe that this will stack, so it will go 33% then 66% and so on. There will be a glowing indicator to show that you are effected by the increased cost.

Block Casting

This is a major combat change to reduce block casting (holding down black while attacking): when you are blocking you will no longer have any Stamina Regeneration.

Potions and Skills will still restore Stamina but your normal Stamina Regen will be nothing. This will majorly effect tanks in PVE as well.

Eric mentioned that internal tests showed that current content is going to be possible to complete with this change. It might take some time to adjust, however!

Taunts

Taunt immunity will only apply to monsters which are effected by multiple players Taunts.

This means that two players can’t each take turns at Taunting the enemy but will allow a single tank to keep Taunting the enemy over and over. So if only one player is Taunting then the monster will not become Taunt immune.

You can check out the current Taunt system over here. At the moment if you Taunt a monster three times in 12 seconds the monster becomes Taunt immune and future Taunts have no effect.

Nirnhoned Trait

This trait will only effect the piece of gear that it is on, rather than your total Spell Resistance. This is more of a bug fix than a change but it is very welcome!

You can watch ESO Live Episode 21 over here on Twitch.