The final patch for The Elder Scrolls Online before the Lost Depths expansion launches on August 22 is now available on the public test server. Update 8.1.4 implements some noteworthy adjustments to certain items, as well as some combat abilities.
Before anything, the developers are testing some tech to support the upcoming Battlegrounds weekends. Players will be restricted to Battlegrounds to a game mode featured each day of this week, which may be any of the following:
- Domination
- Deathmatch
- Capture the Relic
- Chaosball
- Crazy King
Players can only queue up for the featured game mode and nothing else. Furthermore, competing in the Battlegrounds grants an additional 25% Alliance Points (AP) during the match.
Anyway, Update 8.1.4 brought changes to certain items in The Elder Scrolls Online. The Crushing Wall set now increases the damage of the Wall of Elements by 1,250. This is a fundamental change because it used to increase the damage done by the player’s light and heavy attacks against enemies encased in their Wall of Elements by 1,358. According to the developers, the reason is to remove the more intense skill interaction of this set and make it comparable in power and requirements to other Maelstrom sets.
For the Powerful Assault armor set, the duration of the five-piece bonus is increased to 15 seconds, and its radius is increased slightly to 12 meters, up from 10.
Update 8.1.4 also implements tweaks to combat abilities, and some of them can be found below:
- By popular request, the raid target dummy now has Elemental Catalyst active on it to help improve the accuracy of results for both Magicka and Stamina-focused team compositions.
- Ardent Flame
- Molten Whip (Morph): Increased the duration of Seething Fury to 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds, to help it be easier to keep up with the new duration timers of Fiery Breath and Searing Strike.
- Assassination
- Impale (morph): This morph now also increases the execute scaling to 330%
- Shadow
- Twisting Path (morph): Increased the damage this morph deals by approximately 50% to help it stand out a bit more.
- Surprise Attack (morph): This morph’s guaranteed Critical Strike now can only occur once every 4 seconds, to prevent it from adding too much-sustained burst
- Daedric Summoning
- Daedric Prey (morph): Increased the bonus to your pets’ damage to 45%, up from 20%.
- Dawn’s Wrath
- Radiant Destruction: Increased the base damage of this ability and its morphs by approximately 23% to ensure it stands up to execute abilities when looking at their ability to be more frequently weaved with.
The full patch notes can be found here.
