Lets take a look at the changes for the Oakensoul Ring in the new ESO (The Elder Scrolls Online) update Lost Depths DLC. The update launches on August 23 for PC and September 6 for Console (PS/XBOX). One Bar Builds often use the Oakensoul Ring because it makes these setups very powerful, but will they still use it with the Lost Depths DLC?
Currently on the live server the Oakensoul Ring looks like this:
The new version that will be on the Lost Depths DLC will look like this:
That’s a lot of text, lets take a look at the table below to easily see what’s changed with the ring. The changes are marked in orange.
| U34 High Isle Chapter | U35 Lost Depths |
|---|---|
| Major Berserk | Minor Berserk |
| Major Brutality | Major Brutality |
| Major Courage | Minor Courage |
| Major Force | Minor Force |
| Major Heroism | Minor Heroism |
| Major Prophecy | Major Prophecy |
| Major Protection | Minor Protection |
| Major Resolve | Major Resolve |
| Major Savagery | Major Savagery |
| Major Sorcery | Major Sorcery |
| Minor Endurance | Minor Endurance |
| Minor Fortitude | Minor Fortitude |
| Minor Intellect | Minor Intellect |
| None | Minor Mending |
| None | Minor Slayer |
| None | Minor Aegis |
| None | Empower |
You can see that some of the Major buffs have turned into Minor buffs and the developers also added a few new buffs like Minor Mending, Minor Slayer, Minor Aegis and Empower. Empower also got a huge change with this new update and now increases heavy attack damage by 80%!
Here is a quick list of all the buffs that the new version has in case you don’t know what exactly these buffs do.
- Minor Berserk – Increases all damage done by 5%
- Major Brutality – Increases Weapon Damage by 20%
- Minor Courage – Increases Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 215
- Minor Force – Increases Critical Damage by 10%
- Minor Heroism – Grants 1 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds
- Major Prophecy – Increases Spell Critical chance by 12%
- Minor Protection – Reduces damage taken by 5%
- Major Resolve – Increases Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948
- Major Savagery – Increases Weapon Critical chance by 12%
- Major Sorcery – Increases Spell Damage by 20%
- Minor Endurance – Increases your Stamina Recovery by 15%
- Minor Fortitude – Increases Health Recovery by 15%
- Minor Intellect – Increases your Magicka Recovery by 15%
- Minor Mending – Increases Healing Done by 8%
- Minor Slayer – Increases damage dealt in Dungeons and Trials by 5%
- Minor Aegis – Decreases Damage Taken in Dungeons & Trials by 5%
- Empower – Increases Heavy Attack damage by 80%
Is this a nerf or buff to the Oakensoul Ring?
This ring is meant to provide more accessibility to the game, especially for newer or less experienced players in ESO. For endgame players the Oakensoul Ring definitely took a hit, because all the unique Major buffs are usually hard to get (Major Heroism, Protection, Berserk, Courage and Force). The Minor versions of these buffs are a lot easier to get and therefore the ring won’t be that compelling anymore. However, for the playerbase that the ring is intended for, you could make the argument that it is actually stronger than before, but why?
New players often don’t have access to all these buffs because they don’t have good buff uptime or they don’t know what skill provides what buff. They also don’t have optimized groups that provide high uptime on the strong buffs. Having one ring provide all these buffs with a 100% uptime is a blessing for new players, it makes the game a lot more accessible.
Especially the newly added Empower buff that now increases heavy attack damage by 80% is going to make one bar heavy attack builds even more popular. Heavy Attack builds are also often the perfect choice for new players because they play a lot slower than other builds (Heavy Attacks take long to charge).
One Bar Builds will definitely stay popular among newer players and thanks to this ring they will deal a lot of damage.
