Azureblight + Pyrebrand + vMA 2H | Update 44 Gear Changes | ESO Patch Notes

[@skinnycheeks]

EDIT: Update to Azureblight here, it is better than we originally expected: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJqliZKQfKxnntk

[@MashMalloman]

I'm convinced the developer that loves unfun nerf hammers like this is the same person that convinced the company not to hire a certain someone because they would be out of a job pretty quickly.

[@turtle-bot3049]

Wouldn't surprise me, there's always political BS like this from such existing employees who feel threatened when a talented employee is potentially being hired (or starts working there).

[@meganaxelia]

They don’t play their own game. It’s like a circle of literal morons that consult upon themselves about how to balance the game.

[@miketerzis7468]

Sooo ... -2 good sets out of 10 that everyone is using in endgame . Thanks devs u definitely know what u are doing:) now everyone can run the same 8 sets instead .

[@Paul-yc5dc]

I think it's hilarious, we're getting rid of the current meta for even more toxic meta

[@SHUTDOWNCB21]

I wish there was someone out there that zos could hire to help with these kinda things on eso

[@zivofir1082]

Nah last time they hired Gilliam, we spent 7 years hybridizing things. Hire on more youtuber and we'll spend another 7 years doing some other thing again

[@MrNPC]

Looks like Stormfist and Azure are going in the deconstructor.

[@js9720]

aaaaand pyrebrand XD

[@Wh1sk3yJack]

Ah, every time I think about playing ESO again, Skinny is here to remind me of why I stopped in the first place. You're a legend.

[@skinnycheeks]

lol anytime!

[@aretrograde7745]

Nerfs of this magnitude drive people away from the game. Wish they would respect that.

[@cookingkoalas1380]

I was about to come in and say the exact same thing. ❤

[@Yarsig]

Especially since I just got done farming Maelstrom, (imo, some of the worst content in the game) for my Merciless Charge for my arcanist.

[@wolf_z1335]

Def!... I uninstalled after 9 years when they first announced these nerfs

[@poopikins]

They respect whales and crowns. Nothing else. It's really that simple.

[@greenebronze]

Same, after 6 years I’m done. I’m tired of the constant nerfs and changing things that don’t need to be changed. Why won’t they just pull back and fix all the bugs and issues first? 🤔 It’s been nice getting away from ESO for a few months now.

[@alonzoaoz1599]

that pyrebrand nerf is wayyy too heavy handed

[@09godofwar]

Wish we dk can unite and get the developers to un nerf pyrebrand

[@GoochMuncher6969]

It really makes it seem that they knew it was competing with relequen, let people farm it to boost Infinite Archive metrics. Then immediately nerfed it afterwards to not touch their precious trial set

[@PrimeHunter3195]

Heavy handed nerfs and ZoS go together like Skooma and Khajiit.

[@stephenchirila5056]

​@@09godofwarNah man ,at this point I'm just deleting my DK ,I have 0 hope left

[@pato9467]

Is the Nerf mainly for pve or both? Because want to farm it for pvp

[@turtle-bot3049]

Just to note, azureblight kept it's complete removal from PvP, so ball groups return to being completely uncounterable once more (unless they are completely unskilled). Honestly, the dev who was in charge of the combat balance changes of this patch really needs to take a good long hard look at whether they are a good fit for the team/game or maybe they should step aside for someone else, because the changes this patch are at best completely out of touch and at worst a complete arrogance and egotistical middle finger to everyone.

[@ZephioGaming]

It’s the same dev that forced u35 and lost 30% of the playerbase with a single patch

[@The.Nasty.]

Good to see ya, thanks for the update!

[@defsyfe]

The pyrebrand nerf is terrible. Finally there was a reason to get in IA and really grind some stuff. Makes no sense.

[@kingindy]

This update has my gf happy. I started on my backlog of single player games this weekend and she's impressed that now I can properly pause when she wants to converse. I'm also saving going to be saving on the ESO+ monthly fee. Good job ZOS!!

[@nothinghereligma3363]

That’s so messed up because I had to work to get those sets for my dragon knight. But hey, at least sorcery is good. That 15% damage increase is really good.

[@jordangreen7567]

They just don’t want us to feel powerful in this game, and I’ll never understand why. 😢

[@09godofwar]

wish we can nerf ZoS paycheck then they will probably stop nerfing our fun and our game

[@honorabilis1]

maybe they are proactively trying to kill the game so they can make a new game

[@09godofwar]

@@honorabilis1 you got a point

[@minikilla3568]

@@honorabilis1I think someone said the same thing about the Saints Row series…..no need to see where that ended

[@BeKind1Love]

Stop buying crown crates

[@Tophflyingboar]

Played eso everyday for years. The pyrebrand nerf was my last straw. What a dumb reason to loose a paying player.

[@richardpowell1425]

I didn't farm it because I was waiting 6 months to see if they nerfed it. They did, and now they have nerfed it a second time.

[@AJadedSoul]

Good to have you back hopefully, and yes we understand your frustration with ZOS.

[@fablewars]

Been playing on console for the past 7 years pretty consistently but ESO is making it hard to keep playing. Have stopped for now and started playing New World. Really enjoying my experience with it. Especially the gear system.

[@lich8546]

You're not allowed to have fun.

[@Bumbum_Inspector]

I'm the most upset about the Stormfist nerf. This was my go-to monster set for my bow builds...

[@ESOLeroyJenkins]

Yup, i love it for mine too.

[@thomasjefferson3449]

Out of all the things to fix. Wallet closing!

[@richardpowell1425]

This theory explains all ZOS nerfs over history: watching to see how many people have farmed certain sets. When most people have farmed it and the farming slows down, nerf it hard.

[@brettmb1000]

that's an interesting take - when a set is farmed out, nerf it.

[@Robotom44]

You're not wrong

[@thevalkyri]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but normally - there's a Coral to replace a Siroria - or whatever. Where is it this time? This is the problem now, compared to every then - there is no replacement, there is nothing new to farm to replace them, it's just a nerf, not a redirection to a new meta.

[@richardpowell1425]

@@thevalkyri Good point. Maybe that is coming in the next paid chapter and we haven't seen it yet. Maybe players will go and farm existing sets that have gone higher up the power rankings because of the nerfs.

[@thevalkyri]

@richardpowell1425 , doesn't make sense. If they have nothing to gain and no one to appease, there's no reason to do it. They'll lose a lot of players between now and March when next year's content comes out. That directly contradicts anything that's good for them.

[@jarlbalgruuf8375]

They’re literally just driving the nails into their own coffin at this point.

[@austinseph1]

I left years ago and like to check in once a while to see if they are actually doing good stuff for the game. It's been 4 years and I have yet to hear good news.

[@Gurakaaa]

Uugh. These freaking heavy-handed nerfs and the fact that new expacs feel like more of the same(Only new dungeons, trials, armors,weapons, and quests... and MAYBE a new minor mechanic every few years) is why I've stopped playing this game. I watch it from afar, but honestly... I don't think I'm returning anytime soon. It makes me sad because I love the Elder Scrolls universe, but I hate what these devs are doing to the game.

[@randomperson2160]

I am convinced that these people are really trying to kill the game.

[@bradwilson4387]

I think you might be on to something

[@IvanThink]

Love the video, thanks for it. Going to voice my opinion as a casual player: Zenimax, I don't want to keep swapping sets just because you think it has too much potential. Azureblight now has lost its single target use-case, so if I don't move unto something else, it is deadweight in a 5-piece set bonus sense, not to mention the special visual effects not working either. This goes against my positive first impressions of ESO being a game that has a great magnitude of sets with many agnostic capabilities. This becomes less and less the case when you make changes like this. Artists and designers worked hard to make these sets what they initially were, and with a few schizophrenic balance decisions the set has lost it's utility for something that I can just use without having to worry about whether it will be useful or not under specific scenarios. I DON'T WANT TO CARRY AROUND 10 GEAR SETS AND SWAP BETWEEN THEM FOR BASIC CONTENT, BECAUSE YOU RE-WRITE THE RULES FOR GHOSTS.

[@PiterTheSailor]

ZOS as usual is doing good job with getting rid off old players. Soon they will kill that game. Doing class sets was great idea, I dont want to play,as I like. When I chose NB, I should play as a ganker, not brawler. And every class should be overpowered in their class identity,but weak in other aspects

[@dcub6251]

Every patch I check these videos to see if I want to come back, and each time I confirm my decision to stay away. This game, and most games/studios, are in such a sad state these days.

[@WillieWoods-lr9dm]

Eso wont be getting my 15 bucks next month and months to come R.I.P.

[@bos0078]

Already canceled , im fed up with them releasing Unfinished Contened , Scribing and Archives specially

[@yNier98]

Thanks for the great explanations

[@skinnycheeks]

yep. and they already have the tool to do it: "while battle spirit is active." Easy condition to add to sets to make them balanced well for each mode.

[@JoshuaDaigle]

It’s been a while since I’ve played, good to see Zos hasn’t changed…

[@giannianonymous]

I just rearranged my entire Plaguebreak character and replaced it with Azureblight. Awesome.

[@thevalkyri]

My partner (an avid PvPer) swears the reason Azureblight got nerfed was because the ball groups were complaining about it. Not sure how true that is, but as you said - why let us have it for so long then yank it without giving any other options? Ball groups are the entire reason I DON'T PvP, and these nerfs are really making me not care about playing ESO at all anymore. I still have my DB core, but once that either succeeds or falls apart, then I'm likely done. They put their attention and effort into all the wrong places - and you're 100% correct, if an update doesn't make people excited, then it shouldn't happen. A few ball groups are excited, now that they can't easily get blown up by half a dozen players wearing Azureblight, literally no one else is.

[@ejhathaway97]

Rule 1, anytime anything comes out op in pvp, the nerf hammer sand glass gets flipped and initialized. Happy as a dk main I didn't farm Pyrebrand at all, however suks to be right.

[@murderycatdoll1380]

Fckn hell....😢 Pyrebrand really sounds rough. 😮 Actually almost anything sounds bad again. 😂

[@meganaxelia]

I still am absolutely lost for words that the developers gutted Wardens’ burst heal Arctic Blast. We are literally the only class with no damage-scaling class burst heal; we have to stack health with Polar Wind now… or buy the DLC for Healing Soul…

[@cozen22]

Thanks for the video and explanations. Love your content. Unfortunate patch incoming

[@JLawL]

I left ESO for no other reason than their balance team seems to believe that destroying sets to the point of no longer being valuable to even keep in the bank is the best way to balance OP sets. Even WoW doesn't nerf things this hard. GW2 hasn't nerfed a set to the point of being unusable once in the history of the game. ESO's numbers are dropping. Eventually they'll understand that changing PVP battlegrounds isn't the problem.

[@Chris-gr7ll]

They're setting up for the next power creep drop to make sure the next stuff slaps harder than what we have. Gotta keep us grinding and spending. Such a shame, I love this game but I hate the way it's managed.

[@EricLeisenring]

I try to keep up-to-date as I would like to return to the game one day, and I was hoping the PVP expansion would do it. Narrator: "It did not." After watching this I am afraid I will have to wait until next year. I am not holding my breath.

[@imperialsect4257]

The devs in this game are just brain dead.

[@ACamaroGuy]

Let's change it from Update to Downgrade.

[@BLVCKSCORP]

"Look how they massacred my boy..." (NB gankers)

[@kinglewieiii310]

They might as well just give up on creating new sets. The cycle of new sets being overturned, just to be nerfed into irrelevancy the following patch seems like a waste of manpower to create them in the first place. Pretty dumb.

[@infantry7575]

So out of 14 class sets, the Pyrebrand is the only class set that doesn't crit. Lol. Zos at their best. Just nerf everything already.

[@randomperson2160]

I just pray that 1000s upon 1000s of people complain and decide to not spend money on crowns, crafting bag, or other purchases. Developers have a mindset that you are going to play the game the way I want you to play it and if you don't, we will force you to play it that way.

[@richardpowell1425]

There is no real way to complain. There is no one listening at ZOS and they have set up bots to respond. So what is the point if they don't hear you?

[@antonionb1464]

They killed my son

[@austinseph1]

I played ESO for years and like to stop in to see if the devs have decided to start making positive decisions for the health of the game that might entice me to return. Not surprised to see more reasons to stay away.

[@Zivuzx]

Hi new player to ESO just started playing 2 months ago I'm a level 50 CP309, I'm glad I kept my 5 pieces of Azureblight I knew the devs will buff it sooner or later so I'm gonna use it again in pvp.

[@Thiniking]

I thank you for yet again confirming that leaving ESO was the way to go. So much nerfing every single patch. I got so disappointed in spending time every time to get sets to gold level only for some random patch nerf it to the ground. Never going back to a game where devs are a no fun nerf police. Found Throne and liberty and it's soo much fun. Hope it doesn't go the same route of nerfing every patch like ESO.

[@wasteland-werewolf]

See you in about 2 or 3 months.

[@FlashesSoccer011]

There is no way a development studio can be THIS incompetent. Nothing is more threatening to this games future than ZOS is. They literally make the same exact mistake every single patch, and players tell them to stop, and then they scramble to make us come back. I will never understand why anyone still desicates any time to this game. ESO has two years at most before its dead. ZOS will make sure this game dies.

[@richardpowell1425]

ZOS behaviour is not a mistake or an accident. It is a business strategy. I'm not sure how they think this is a good strategy, but undoubtedly their goal is to increase revenue. Maybe they make money by churning veteran players out of the servers and getting new players who are prepared to pay some crowns to build up their characters.

[@ErrorCodeF41L]

Run2 accounts with yearly plus subs. Both just ran out and unless they make some massive changes before this goes live I highly doubt ill even play one

[@merpins]

Zos needs better balancing devs. Someone like Skinny. Weird.

[@richardpowell1425]

That depends. If the devs are given the goal of shaking things up to get more activity happening in the game, then that is what they are doing. Personally I think it is only the almost constant events that create any activity in the game.

[@dexterdarkly7828]

Just got the last peice I needed for pyrebrand. Fantastic. Why do we bother.

[@Cooperharley0204]

This combat team actually has brain damage I swear man

[@AD88884]

Any thoughts about good alternatives to Stormfist? To be honest, pretty disappointed with a lot of the upcoming nerfs. It's like the devs don't even play their own game

[@mannyo2909]

Fun is clearly frowned upon in ESO

[@osheadavis]

Still upset about Plaguebreak.

[@Getsum725]

Lol fr same here

[@skinnycheeks]

same lol

[@greenebronze]

Same 😢

[@ЯрославСуський]

About pyrebrand They can made something with heavy attack bonus. It was useless before and still stay...

[@cptbtwth]

I like checking your coverage of the game. Stopped two years ago because of so many balance decision like this disrespecting people game time. Someday they ll learn

[@dadshirt6681]

bizarre game studio i wish i fell in love with a different game man

[@MrFbm111]

I won’t be missed but this is exactly why I quit playing. The constant bullshit changes.

[@jahloveinfla]

I see Skinny, i click

[@Kronosxviii1]

I just wanna enjoy my necro when the patch hits, we're getting more corpses. :3

[@ХристоМартунковграфЛозенски]

Last patch we already got a few buffs (e.g. the Skeleton Archer/Arcanist giving Major Brutality and Sorcery, the Totem has nice debuffs too) and I hope they continue on this path in the next patch. As for the corpses, it's what a necromancer stands for. You work with corpses. You raise them or use them to empower you.

[@tuigg8]

Now make blastboney boy and the other companions across the board of all classes like warden and sorcerer immune to damage by players in pvp areas

[@Caluurion]

Azureblight is my favorite stam set and this just reaffirms that I'm going back to a magic based dps playstyle, nobody ever wants to wear the reaper with me anyways and now nobody will for sure haha

[@thrashhhhh]

Quit at U35. Came back this month and the game is dead. ZOS hates you and hates this game.

[@BBRocker75]

By Azura, Mephala and Boethiah: ZOS RUINED STORMFIST! Okay Mr Cheeks, Which is now the best monster set option to replace Storm?

[@honorabilis1]

selene then zaan

[@ESOLeroyJenkins]

@@honorabilis1this is the way

[@BBRocker75]

@@honorabilis1 Selene? Oldie but goddie. 👍👍👍

[@Robotom44]

@@BBRocker75nerf incoming

[@honorabilis1]

@@BBRocker75 ya if using a monster those 2 prob the best for pve, but then most just use x1 slime with mythic

[@Freekyeight]

it is very sad the devs do not how to balance things correctly and instead just decide to nerf stuff to the ground because of their incompetence and/or laziness

[@frankenstein4968]

Nerf dozer complete all fun destroyed buy more crowns to support our idiocy

[@IROPP4I]

The vicecannon of venom set always annoyed me the most. Really cool potential. But then they made it so hard to proc that It can only be done on nightblade THEN made the proc pull you out of invisibility every 2 seconds. Make it make sense. RIP PYREBRAND YOU WERE THE ONE FOR ME

[@KpK1Cioby]

They did the same with HA and with arcanshit soon enough. All they had to do was reduce the maximum dmg the beam did to like 300% dmg max maybe but have it still do the same dmg on single target, reducing overall leaves them broken for AOE but weaker in single, which means they will get nerfed again. ZOS can't fix or balance. 10 year old bugs still there. Lmao I just made a nice sorc build with the stormfist with the regen that it gives and giga damage proc ... now nerfed. Typical. The only good thing they did was the beacon or bacon set, where you would lose dmg and gain hp then lose hp while using atro, that was stupid.

[@chaoticwings3436]

I kind of wish they would buff similar sets that could work better for different classes like one that is more geared for dk, nb, etc. whenever there is a set that is over performing rather than just over nerfing that one set and calling it a day. For every nerf there needs to be at least 3 sets that are buffed that could perform a similar function. We need more choices not less especially with the 750+ sets in the game.

[@vossboss220]

Aaaaaand that's why I didn't waste my time farming pyrebrand...

[@wisherevenshade4059]

I dunno, I think the pyrebrand nerf was it for me.

[@Endlessfairytale]

So I now have 1.3 seconds to turn down the volume before Tarnished animation hits?

[@remysaturn]

Idk how to dps in the first place but I am outraged

[@kevinlavoie8248]

Wow!... Being a DK main I was looking forward to getting around to trying pyrebrand... I've taken some time off due to Boredom of the every day grinds but infinite archive and this set was an eventual plan once I was ready to get back to it.... Now yeah no thanks probably about to cancel eso plus and I'll play if I can't find anything better to do lol

[@williamwilliams4538]

If I may suggest have a look at new world pretty good MMO

[@elry1286]

game dying without content - lets nerf everything

[@me-me9ic]

Why the scribing spells banners reduce sustain ?

[@imnotgivingmynametoamachin7507]

God im sick to death of ZOS

[@steveng5322]

Azure Blight got nerfed because of pvp.

[@_allthatjazz_8667]

I can live with this,but shadowy dis toggle bs i cannot

[@sos9286]

I just hate how with every single nerf they give us nothing to compensate. Like with the maelstrom 2h nerf I lost 12k dps and yet it's still the arena set I parse the highest with. I understand that it was nerfed due to people abusing the set with Flurry, but they could have easily changed it to only have the added damage applied to the first damage tick of multi hit abilities. But nah they just take the worst route that blanket nerfs everyone while still having it be the best option to parse with.

[@Soawano]

You would think zos would have learned after what happened in U35...guess not

[@fobtasz4693]

I love how salty and calculated you're again. Welcome back gamer!

[@samuraichicken2315]

The problem with ESO is that sets are overpowered: the top tooltips in a game should be from class skills. A BiS set that increases your damage by 10% getting nerfed to 8% won’t break anyone’s build or suddenly make it unviable in combat.

[@noty2673]

just commenting for the algoritm, thank you for the video.

[@ducksmoker8491]

Ah yes, nerf the fun sets only .001% of people use

[@GoochMuncher6969]

Stormfist catching strays lmao

[@skinnycheeks]

lol pretty much

[@geosurf9064]

Stopped playing about a year ago after the HA lightning staff nerfs was thinking about coming back but i see they haven't changed on their balancing.

[@daroniousmaximus]

Favorite ESO'er

[@PsykoSockPuppet0510]

Instead of nuking a new good set, just buff some older no longer used sets to give us more viable options instead of everyone going for the one thing.

[@julienchevalier6360]

is azureblight patch effective? i still have the old writing... with 180% at max

[@me-me9ic]

I felt that vma 2h nerf HARD on my builds :(

[@ryanb6994]

I was so excited to farm for a new dk set a few months back that was actually good! Now, it was just a waste of time and is irrelevant. My disappointment is immeasurable

[@make514]

Im convinced that devs are greating problem they can later offer solution. How convinient it would be if new sets would fill the void azure left behind? Gives people more reasons to buy that new dlc dungeon once it comes out.

[@MrThekingoflord]

to be honnest... i'm always dreading any upcoming update! they nerf everything whithout taking notes from players, they do updates only to nerf!

[@bjones5911]

So with the changes to VMA 2H would it be more beneficial to run daggers or 2H now?? Dps wise

[@richardpowell1425]

This is ridiculous. vMA weapons were the go-to in the game for years and now they are getting toned down one-by one.

[@IngvarGWT]

Pyrebrand is such a painfull hit. Like azure was overused for a long time, it’s understandable. Aaand it will still be probably usable in some situations. But please lol allow class sets actually be BIS, lol, it makes so much sense.. If pyrebrand was at least doing rele dmg ~ + like 10-20% more, that would ve been great (so slight nerf to what it can do now, which is a little OP). But noo, we gotta destroy it. And notice that IA sets are a pain to farm, it takes a long time. Stormfist - was destroyed for no reason at all, barely anyone was using it lately anyway. Its absolutely crazy…

[@aussie-elders]

You mentioned the Azure nerf came out of nowhere but just wait for a patch or two and you will see why they made this change, it happens every patch... something is coming :)

[@MASTERmw100]

Cope