Zenimax has just released Update 23 Scalebreaker, and it’s time once again for our breakdown of the changes coming with this quarterly update. Scalebreaker will be changing many many Skills within the game, and I cannot honestly remember the last time so many changes were made to so many Skills at once. So for this article, we’re going to be focusing mainly on those, while covering any other major changes.
Elder Scrolls Online Scalebreaker Breakdown: One of the Biggest Overhauls Yet
Before we get into theSkills, let’s jump into one major change that should make a lot of people happy, and that is toUndaunted Pledges. Or more specifically Pledge Keys, and what they can be used for.
Undaunted Key Improvements
With theScalebreakerUpdate, Undaunted Keys will now be located in the currency tab and no longer take up valuable inventory space. You can also now spend your keys directly via a store with the three pledge masters (Urgarlag Chief-bane,Glirion the Redbeard,Maj al-Ragath) in a number of ways which are as follows:
These changes should improve players odds of getting exactly what they need more easily, and should save many many Pledge Keys from being wasted. Also, adding them as a currency is a nice change and frees up inventory space, which is always valuable.
Skill Lines for Alternate Characters
With the Scalebreaker Update, completing a skill line on one character now unlocks the ability to purchase that achievement and skill line on other characters from theCrown Store. Once unlocked for a character in this manner, the chosen skill line immediately advances to its maximum rank. All abilities contained within the purchased skill line arrive unranked, allowing you to advance and morph the skill as you see fit.
This new Crown Store offering is located under “Upgrades -> Skill Lines” in the Crown Store. Currently, the following skill lines are available with Update 23, withThe Psijic Order,Soul Magic,VampireandWerewolfskill lines becoming available in a future update.
I’m sure I’ll make good use of this addition, as some of these Skill Lines are grindy as hell, but I’m sure there are many players out there that think this is a bad move on Zenimax’s part. It is definitely borderline pay-to-win, and makes it more likely that future Skill Lines will be made grindy intentionally to sell them in the Crown Store to Alternate Characters.
Scalebreaker Skill Changes
As mentioned above, Skill Changes and tweaks are the ultimate focus of this Update, besides the addition of the two newDungeons. In this section we’ll take a look at what all these are, and how they will impactElder Scrolls Online.
Necromancer
Bone Tyrant
Grave Lord
Living Death
Just looking over theNecromancerchanges, what they’ve done is essentially increased the cost of many Abilities dramatically, but also raised their effectiveness dramatically. This should result in better overall performance inPvP, where you need burst damage and healing, but should increase the amount of sustain needed to maintain your rotation in PvE.
Dragonknight
Ardent Flame
Earthen Heart
Dragonknightswill see some improvements in some areas and nerfs in others, making their overall changes mostly a wash. Probably the biggest nerf, however, was toPetrify, which now costs about 40% more. That’s not a small amount, but will really affect PvP more than PvE.
Nightblade
Assassination
Nightbladehealing was improved in this Update, but several of their damage dealing abilities were nerfed. Probably one of the biggest nerfs was to Mark Target, which now only counts as one negative effect. PvP Nightblades often overwhelm their target with negative effects, making cleansing them all nearly impossible. However, this change will help those jumped by them, and will make them a little less deadly.
Dark Magic
Daedric Summoning
Storm Calling
Sorcerersoverall got a bit of a buff. Many of their pets were nerfed, though their cost is reduced, so it’s not as bad as it could have been. Crystal Frags instant procs will deal roughly the same damage and will cost 600 Magicka less, which is a huge decrease. Their Damage Shields, though slightly less effective will cost about 800 Magicka less, making it a boost overall. Bolt Escape will now Stun through block and will cost less Magicka on successive uses, making it more easily spammed.
Aedric Spear
Dawn’s Wrath
Restoring Light
Templarscame out about the same as they were before the Update. Spear Shards had its damage nerfed, after just having it buffed in the last Update, so that’s a shame. The devs continue to tinker with Eclipse, and still have not made it into anything particularly useful. Cleansing Ritual got a huge boost to healing, but also a large cost increase, and it was already expensive. This will help PvE players, but harm PvP players who may need to cleanse multiple times to remove many effects.
Animal Companions
Green Balance
Winter’s Embrace
Wardenscome out pretty much unscathed. Several nerfs and buffs, but they pretty much follow the same theme of the rest of the Update which is increased effectiveness at increased cost.
Two Handed
Two Handed was buffed in terms of overall damage, but Rally was nerfed HARD. Berserker Strike is now an AoE, and a powerful one at that. Will it compete with Dawnbreaker? Unlikely. Critical Rush damage was increased by 10%. Executioner had its multiplier increased to 400% from 350%. Axe bleeds now tick every one second instead of 2, boosting their damage by 24%. Rally no longer has a heal over time, and you must make it the full 20 seconds of the duration in order to gain 100% of the heal potential of this Skill. You can still reuse it early for healing, but it will be less effective than it used to be. This should shake up PvP a bit to say the least.
One Hand and Shield
Overall there are a lot of changes to this Skill Line, but none will really affect how it’s played too much. The changes to Power Bash may make it viable in PvP once again, but it would have to be tested to see. I’m not happy with the Ransack change, as there are many many ways to gain Minor Protection now, and this will be wasted. Defensive Posture is an interesting change, giving a tank a Stamina Damage Shield in a pinch and increased Block mitigation. However, I don’t see many people using it except for the passive, since there are Magicka Damage Shields, and you may regain Magicka while holding Block.
Dual Wield
Dual Wield was buffed overall, and I suspect this was due to the fact that Bleeds no longer penetrate all Resistances. They now have a teleport ability in Flying Blade, which is an improvement, and just about every skill had its damage increased. Time will tell how this shakes out, but I don’t anticipate the same level of effectiveness, even with these changes that were seen before this Update.
Bow users shouldn’t see too much difference after this Update. Scatter Shot had its cost increased by nearly 30%, but also comes with increased damage. Volley had its damage nerfed, though the cost reduction will make this more bearable, and it can be morphed to further boost damage. Snipe had its damage increased, and Poison Arrow was changed, but remains very similar.
Destruction Staff
Destruction Staff users may or may not be happy with the changes in this Update depending on how they play. Destructive Touch will no longer have a CC attached to it unless you wish to lose the damage over time it does, and since this was buffed by 167%, that seems unlikely. Force Shock was buffed to deal more damage and increase the chance of Status Effects being applied, which is great. Wall of Elements will now do less damage but will last longer. In addition, the Unstable Wall of Elements was buffed by 94%, making it a viable alternative to Elemental Blockade.
Restoration Staff
The Restoration Staff line got a MAJOR overhaul. First off, Force Siphon will likely now become a meta skill as it has no cost or cast time, allowing continuous healing on all those attacking a Boss, and the Siphon Spirit morph adds Magicka Steal as well. Grand Healing will now not be spammable but will be a true AoE skill, and only one can be active at once. This will increase the challenge of healing a group, as often you could just spam Healing Springs for the win, in both PvE and PvP. Regeneration was nerfed into the ground, and if you thought you spammed it a lot before, be prepared to do so even more now. The duration has been cut to 10 seconds, it now it only targets one ally, and costs 20% more Magicka. The saving grace is that the old Mutagen morph has been rolled into a new one that hits 2 additional targets. Still, you’ll need to cast this twice every 10 seconds…
Light Armor
Medium Armor
Heavy Armor
The Armor abilities come with some interesting changes this Update. Annulment was tweaked but should function relatively the same, though it seems you will gain less Magicka return than before. Evasion got a nice buff in duration, making it much more useful. Immovable Brute and Unstoppable both seem extremely intriguing. You could theoretically reduce your Break Free cost to a very low number between Way of Arena, Heavy Armor and the Warlord Champion Skill. And with Immovable you should be able to Block so much damage you might be unkillable. I can’t wait to see how that affects PvP…
Soul Magic
Soul Strike has been absolutely destroyed by this Update. It’s main use was to burst down hard to kill targets in PvP, and now that its duration is extended 2 seconds and cost raised by 75 Ultimate I can’t think of a single person who will use it. The changes to Soul Trap are interesting, however, and it can deal either Physical or Magic Damage based on your Stats. Its damage was increased per tick by 161%. It may actually be viable in some builds now.
Vampires in ESO will get a bit of a boost in this Update. Bat Swarm has had its cost reduced by 25 Ultimate, and its damage increased by 20%. In addition, Mist Form had its cost reduced by about 15% at base with about a 20% overall reduction as it ranks up. This should make using it a bit easier in PvP.
Werewolves saw some significant changes in this Update. First up the heal from Hircine’s Bounty was nerfed, and now does 37.5% of your Max Health instead of 45%. Infectious Claws had its cost increase slightly, and is now more front loaded with the initial hit dealing more damage, and the DoT dealing less. Brutal Pounce now deals full damage to all targets hit, and Roar has a larger radius and cost. Probably the biggest change was that Light and Heavy Attacks have been nerfed in damage but increased in range. This should help hits connect in PvP, but is less useful for PvE. Additionally the Pack Leader morph no longer gives Bleeds on Light Attacks, but does make your Direwolves untargetable and unkillable.
Fighters Guild
The changes to the Fighters Guild line are not particularly significant, though there are many. Silver Leash was increased in cost, which really sucks for tanks as this Ability was already taxing on Stamina. Perhaps the best change here was that Lightweight Trap got a major cost reduction, allowing to use this Ability for less Stamina. I don’t expect these changes to effect much gameplay wise.
Mages Guild
The Mages Guild really only saw one significant change, and that is to Entropy. This will now deal 220% more damage, making it a decent DoT and will not heal you by default. The Degeneration morph will also grant Magicka each time you Light Attack a target with this effect applied, making it a modest form of sustain. I fully expect to see this morph make its way into the meta.
Undaunted saw a big change in Necrotic Orb, which will no longer allow multiple Orbs out at once. I’m actually a fan of this change because as a healer it isn’t exactly the most fun thing in the world to just spam Orbs over and over, and should allow healers to have some more varied gameplay. In addition, players can activate multiple synergies from one Orb, so it’s not as much of a nerf. Additionally, Inner Fire had a HUGE cost reduction which Tanks will absolutely love.
Some decent changes here with this Update. Caltrops has been shifted more to a utility skill than a DoT with increased Snare and reduced damage. Additionally, the Razor Caltrops morph now applies Major Fracture, so I expect to see this run much more. Rapid Maneuver got a huge Stamina cost reduction, which is great. Vigor has been redesigned to be a strong self heal or a group heal only, so players will have to choose which works best for them. This should make small packs of Stamina players easier to kill in PvP, and potentially make Stamina healing more viable.
The gist of the changes here are that the number of players affected by some of the skills has increased to “support” larger group play, which is great. Many of the Skills had huge increases or decreases in cost, but many of these Abilities are not used overly often, so I doubt this will have much of an impact on PvP overall.
Final Thoughts
While there are a ton ofSkillchanges with the Scalebreaker Update, I think after you look through ALL of them (and there are a lot), you will realize that the general gameplay of ESO remains mostly the same. There were numerous cost and damage tweaks, but out of all the skill changes it was a small percentage that were drastically effected.
However, probably the most notable role affected here is the healer.Healing Springshas been changed, and healers will not be able to rely on it as their go to.Mutagenwill need to be cast twice as often, which will further tax healer resources, making Magicka Recovery more important than ever. And,Necrotic Orbis now a one out at a time deal, meaning they won’t be able to spam them. This should translate to more meaningful and skilled gameplay for this role, which frankly I for one am happy about. Healing is easy, and has traditionally been more about the gear you are wearing, than mastering any sort of rotation. This should change significantly with this Update.
Lastly, I do think many metaBuildswill shift after this Update, and probably more so than in recent Updates. Many morphs have more meaningful options, making it tough to decide just which you’ll want to use, particularly when it comes toWeapon Skills. I look forward to seeing what people come up with, and if anything it should at least create some change in a game that tends to hold the meta for a good amount of time.
Stay tuned for moreElder Scrolls Onlinecontent as we cover the new Scalebreaker Update and what Builds you can make now!
