ESO News July 2015
Hello! The month of July was quite big in terms of ESO news. The PTS got Update 7 and the Imperial City DLC on July 28 and since then there has been a lot of discussion about the new items, new mechanics and new content. In case you missed anything I’ll try to cover the big news here along with any less known changes and news like the tweak to light armor values on the PTS.
Update 7 / Imperial City On PTS
You probably would have seen this bit of news – it has been all over the forums, Reddit and even in the game client. Update 7 will arrive on the live servers on August 31 for PC/Mac and September 15/16 for consoles. In the meantime the update the new DLC will be available on the Public Test Server (PC/Mac) so that it can be tested with actual players. It has been out for over a week now and already numerous bugs and crashes have been detected, reported and (hopefully) fixed.
As you can see there is a lot of new content and items! There was also a lot of changes to skills and abilities which can be found in the Patch Notes Summary. There is also currently a competition on the PTS for collecting the most amount of Tel Var Stones and you can check that out over here on the forums. You can also read our Imperial City DLC Report for some more information on how we experienced the new DLC on the Test Server.
Light Armor Buff
There hasn’t been a lot of undocumented changes so far, however a notable one popped up yesterday. In Update 7 the values for Light Armor is being changed to 50% in relation to Heavy Armor. It is currently at 25%.
This means that a Heavy Armor item will be at 100%, a Medium Armor item will have 75% of the armor compared to Heavy and a Light Armor item will have 50% of the armor comped to Heavy.
So say, for example, that I have three helms – one Light Armor, one Medium and one Heavy – all at the same level and quality. The Heavy helm might give 1000 Armor / Spell Resistance. The Medium helm would then give 750 Armor / Spell Resistance. The Light helm would give only 500 Armor / Spell Resistance. In the current live version of ESO that Light Armor piece would only give 250 Armor / Spell Resistance.
Race / Appearance Change
There is no real news on these two much requested features apart from a quote on the forums stating that both features are being implemented in the future – most likely as an item for sale in the Crown Store.
ZOS_JessicaFolsom:
This is something we’re actively working on (well, the ability to change character appearance), along with race change. We don’t have an ETA or specifics on exactly how it will be implemented, but it is something we’re working on.
Collectibles Update
This was posted on the forums in response to questions and concerns about the nature of collectible items in Update 7.
ZOS_JessicaFolsom:
We’d like to provide a little insight and clarification on the upcoming changes to collectibles.
Currently, collectible trophies work differently for those obtained via fishing versus those obtained via monster kills. Fishing trophy collectibles grant the associated achievement upon item pick-up, whereas monster-kill trophy collectibles grant the associated achievement upon use. This difference was resulting in a high volume of bug reports and feedback in which players thought the collectible trophies were broken. That combined with the availability being limited by level-range prompted us to make the system more intuitive and uniform.
That’s where the upcoming changes come in.
So what do those changes consist of? Here’s a short list.
- All collectible trophies will now grant the associated achievement when the item is first looted.
- Monster trophies will always drop off appropriate level monsters for your character. A game-wide audit was done to make sure that no matter what level you are, there is always a place you can go to work on collecting the trophy you are looking for.
- Collectible trophies can no longer be banked and traded to another character.
Upcoming Fixes
Coldharbor Siege
A fix for the bugged Coldharbor siege weapons is coming in Update 7. At the moment these weapons don’t display the correct animation for enemy players resulting in them being hit without their knowledge. On the PTS this is fixed.
Set Items Bug
The set items bug on the PTS is also being fixed. This was a bug where players could receive the set bonus even after equipping different items. This bug was often used to gain two Mundus Stones from the Twice Born Star set while also equipping other sets. This will be fixed on the next PTS patch.
Silver Leash
The Silver Leash bug where players can pull enemy players into instant death in the Imperial City is being fixed in the next PTS patch.
Battle Spirit Effect
There is currently a problem on the PTS with a number of abilities being effected twice by the Battle Spirit effect. Funnel Health, for example, is having its damage reduced by 50% and then also its heal reduced by 50% again. Steadfast Ward is not applying the damage shield debuff correctly either resulting in a better damage shield than intended. ZOS knows about these problems and have fixes in the works so let’s hope these are fixed before August 31 when IC goes live.
New Crown Store Items
There are a few new costumes available on the Crown Store. You can take a look at the official post here. There is also a new limited edition mount available – the Clouded Senche-Leopard shown below. This mount is available from August 13 to August 17 2015.
Clouded Senche-Leopard
