The Elder Scrolls Online: Update 17 Brings Greater Teamwork and Tactics to ESO’s Combat

Update 17 is live and it brings a host of changes in your favorite The Elder Scrolls Online game. Of the most important are those in the combat system which will now emphasize more on tactics and teamwork.

Ability Synergies are now going to be easier to use so that they can be better put to good use by a team; every ability that triggers a Synergy will now be displaying a clear visual indicator, for example a column of light and once used it will disappear.

The visual indicator will also show how much time your team has before the corresponding synergy disappears, making it far easier to understand when and how to use it, boosting your group’s fighting and surviving chances! What is more, the game’s developers will introduce a removal of the damage cap for area-of-effect abilities in order to make groups take care of their spacing! Everyone inside the radius of an AOE ability will now receive full damage, so watch out!

Blocking is designed to be an absolute must in the game, whether you are a hardcore tank or a casual player; unfortunately, the Stamina Block Cost was quite unbalanced making it too high for regular players and close to insignificant for seasoned tanks. In order to face that problem, the base Cost will now be lowered and the effectiveness of Block Cost enchantments reduced making it easier to use for regular heroes; an experienced tank using block enchantments will not be affected much but will still have to change their tactics, even a little! So, Block more, Block often!

Update 17 will also have an effect on PVP; abilities that have a cast time will now have a reduced penalty when moving, making them easier to use; they can be interrupted as usual but they can be casted again after a short time period and this time they will be uninterruptible! In this way, casters and interrupters will need to adjust their tactics and use their abilities accordingly, adding a new take in PVP combat.

In order to promote group coordination and consistency in PVE combat, Heavy Attacks will no longer remove the the Off Balance debuff from bosses; in this way, every group member can utilize them. This will promote strategic thinking and put the whole mechanism in good use as every team member will have an obvious choice between using a high-damage ability or a Heavy Attack for resources. Note that a Heavy Attack to an “Off Balanced” boss will now earn you almost double the resources but the boss itself will be immune to it for a given time period after the Off Balance effect ends.

Combat in The Elder Scrolls Online evolving! To learn more, please visit the Official Site