The Elder Scrolls Online » Discussions


New Weapon Skill Lines

  • March 20, 2019

    So this actually requires extra explanation because the full title for this discussion was originally "Would it be interesting to have an extre Skill Line (or Skill Morphs) for weapon types that provide Magicka/Stamina lines for skills that would normally be Stamina/Magicka based" but that's still kind of half confusing and too long. Basically, would it be cool to see Magicka Morphs/Skills for Archery, Dual-Wielding, Two-Handed etc. and Stamina lines for Destruction/Restoration Staff Skills?

    There are two ways that it could work I suppose. Morphs or just entire Skill Lines. For the first, it's just adding a third and fourth morph to the current skills keeping them more or less the same but changing the stat and maybe providing more flexibility. Not going to dictate how you approach the question but the idea here would be adding two Magicka/Stamina Morphs to the skills that don't currently have them. The second option is just seperating them into two distinct skill lines with unique Passives and Skills. So you would have Dual-Wielding (Magicka) and Dual-Wielding (Stamina) as two completely seperate options with no crossover. 

     

    Either way, I think it's something fascinating to think about. Without dictating thoughts, I just think it could be interesting to play a Pure Magicka Dual-Wielder, and even justifying it could be a really cool discussion. Share your thoughts below, feel free to structure it however you want but I have added a few questions you can use as a base :)

    1 - Do you like the idea hypothetically? If so, would you try to encourage the change if Zenimax announced the ideaa?

    2 - Would you prefer additional Morphs or unique Skill Lines?

    3 - What are some unique changes to skills that you would make if the system changed to follow this idea? 

  • Member
    March 21, 2019

    1 - Do you like the idea hypothetically? If so, would you try to encourage the change if Zenimax announced the idea?

    Yep!

    2 - Would you prefer additional Morphs or unique Skill Lines?

    Yep!

    3 - What are some unique changes to skills that you would make if the system changed to follow this idea?

    Yep!

    Basically "yep!" to anything which would add diversity to weapon skills. I had a little rant about this a while ago, think I have ranted since, more than happy to rant again. ESO consistently adds new, exciting, and quality content that just keeps getting better and better, but the one area I think needs an overhaul soonish is the subject of this topic. To be fair, my knowledge of the game's system isn't good enough to say if such an overhaul would work and remain balanced. I mean, imagine a magicka character using a bow and laying down magicka-based morphs of Endless Hail, Poison Injection etc and then bar-swapping to a flame staff to add Wall of Elements to those AoEs in addition to their own class skills? It could mean that any magicka morph to the bow skills would have to be completely different to any of the skills in that tree, that's to say a whole new skill line for magicka bow-users in order to keep it balanced which would be your second option of "seperating them into two distinct skill lines with unique Passives and Skills. So you would have Dual-Wielding (Magicka) and Dual-Wielding (Stamina) as two completely seperate options with no crossover."

    Failing that, if such a system couldn't work just new weapon skills like crossbows and spears for stamina characters and wands or spells for magicka characters could add some diversity at this point. As I said, my knowledge of game balance isn't quite up to the task of being able to concisely write down a seamless and perfect answer, but I feel that the game needs to evolve in that area especially now another class is on the horizon. To play a stamina Necromancer but need to rely on the same weapon skills as every other class seems a bit of a shame when we could play a primal sort of character from a society like the Reachmen and use spears instead.

    The most exciting thing to come from the ESO Summerset chapter in terms of diversity was the Psijic Order skill line and its Imbue Weapon/Elemental Weapon skill, for me. That one skill added just something extra I could do that is both useful and felt like a breath of fresh air. However, its a bit of a pain to get (note to self: need to see if there's an addon which adds Psijic Rifts to the map) so I often put it off and don't enjoy it until much later in the game, if at all. So I guess more Guild or World skills like that might do the trick if we don't get any more weapons. I'm not sure what excatly now that we have Imbue Weapon, but another skill we can slot which has an effect on the weapon we wield would add just a bit more diversity and uniqueness to each character we play.

  • March 21, 2019

    Basically "yep!" to anything which would add diversity to weapon skills. I had a little rant about this a while ago, think I have ranted since, more than happy to rant again. ESO consistently adds new, exciting, and quality content that just keeps getting better and better, but the one area I think needs an overhaul soonish is the subject of this topic. To be fair, my knowledge of the game's system isn't good enough to say if such an overhaul would work and remain balanced. I mean, imagine a magicka character using a bow and laying down magicka-based morphs of Endless Hail, Poison Injection etc and then bar-swapping to a flame staff to add Wall of Elements to those AoEs in addition to their own class skills? It could mean that any magicka morph to the bow skills would have to be completely different to any of the skills in that tree, that's to say a whole new skill line for magicka bow-users in order to keep it balanced which would be your second option of "seperating them into two distinct skill lines with unique Passives and Skills. So you would have Dual-Wielding (Magicka) and Dual-Wielding (Stamina) as two completely seperate options with no crossover."

    My assumption is that it's always easier to talk about ideas than it is to implement them but I 100% understand where your coming from The Weapon Skills, while actually pretty good in my opinion (they provide unique playstyles and have pretty solid skills with great morphs) feel a bit stale once you've played them for a bit, and it honestly does feel like it reduces how unique a character can feel, especially (in reference to your rant/discussion) in relation to Stamina Builds that especially in the early game have to run their Weapon Skills.

    Failing that, if such a system couldn't work just new weapon skills like crossbows and spears for stamina characters and wands or spells for magicka characters could add some diversity at this point. As I said, my knowledge of game balance isn't quite up to the task of being able to concisely write down a seamless and perfect answer, but I feel that the game needs to evolve in that area especially now another class is on the horizon. To play a stamina Necromancer but need to rely on the same weapon skills as every other class seems a bit of a shame when we could play a primal sort of character from a society like the Reachmen and use spears instead.

    I think that's an awesome option that I hadn't even thought of. Which is sorta strange since I'd normally be all over any excuse to recommend Spears as a weapon :P Oh and the others...sure other weapons. I think for me the big one here is that it's a lot easier to figure out how to do for Stamina weapons but Magicka...wait no that's easy too. Bound Weapons, just...Bound Two-Handed? Dunno, but you get the idea I hope? Bound Weapons could easily work as Magicka variants of weapons and possibly have a unique function by not being physical weapons so you have to summon them before/during combat to make use of the weapon. Obviously they'd have long durations but you could add the weakness of them being impossible to use if your Silenced (so if your caught off guard it could make that a viable mechanic), but you could also give them a bit of power maybe...

    Dunno, just a thought but it's something interesting which I think the Weapon Skills lack at the moment. 

    Another possibility...would breaking Staffs into distinct lines work? Imagine having Fire, Lightning and Healing Staves as Magicka varients and Frost and... Drain? Decay, some sort of 'darker Restoration staff' as Stamina varients. Provides a bit more variety, allows for some far more interesting abilities (I have an issue with the Staff line for some reason, just find it boring). 

    Eh, just random thoughts but the point is that I think new weapons could be really interesting to add at this point.

  • Member
    March 21, 2019

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    My assumption is that it's always easier to talk about ideas than it is to implement them but I 100% understand where your coming from The Weapon Skills, while actually pretty good in my opinion (they provide unique playstyles and have pretty solid skills with great morphs) feel a bit stale once you've played them for a bit, and it honestly does feel like it reduces how unique a character can feel, especially (in reference to your rant/discussion) in relation to Stamina Builds that especially in the early game have to run their Weapon Skills.

    It's always possible it's a purely personal peev. From casual glances at the official forums now and again, most people seem to feel it's the magicka classes which are worse off - their choices of weapons being pretty two staves. So like as not I'm in a minority but I'm pretty sure I'm right all the same :p I like the feel of mag classes in that they do feel more distinct and they seem to be easier to use, so I think there is an imbalnce in favour of magicka somewhere that needs addressing. Like you say, though, easier to talk than to come up with something really constructive.

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    I think that's an awesome option that I hadn't even thought of. Which is sorta strange since I'd normally be all over any excuse to recommend Spears as a weapon :P Oh and the others...sure other weapons. I think for me the big one here is that it's a lot easier to figure out how to do for Stamina weapons but Magicka...wait no that's easy too. Bound Weapons, just...Bound Two-Handed? Dunno, but you get the idea I hope? Bound Weapons could easily work as Magicka variants of weapons and possibly have a unique function by not being physical weapons so you have to summon them before/during combat to make use of the weapon. Obviously they'd have long durations but you could add the weakness of them being impossible to use if your Silenced (so if your caught off guard it could make that a viable mechanic), but you could also give them a bit of power maybe...

    Dunno, just a thought but it's something interesting which I think the Weapon Skills lack at the moment. 

    Another possibility...would breaking Staffs into distinct lines work? Imagine having Fire, Lightning and Healing Staves as Magicka varients and Frost and... Drain? Decay, some sort of 'darker Restoration staff' as Stamina varients. Provides a bit more variety, allows for some far more interesting abilities (I have an issue with the Staff line for some reason, just find it boring). 

    Eh, just random thoughts but the point is that I think new weapons could be really interesting to add at this point.

    Bound weapons would be cool to see, that's a good idea! That shouldn't be too hard to balance, surely? Staves being boring is pretty accurate imo :D And that's really the source of my slight annoyance becuase I like class skills and magicka characters feel more unique because they use more of them than their stam counterparts, so a bound weapons skill line would make mag classes very appealing to me... As long as they balance that with an equal appeal for stamina characters, as I've noticed there seems to be more mag dps chars than stam dps. Not sure where I was going with that last sentence, I had a point but lost it while typing.

  • Member
    March 23, 2019

    Having magicka morphs for the stamina based weapons would also fit perfectly into TES; a world where we've always had characters that use both blades and spells. If we were to try and create a battlemage or spellsword in ESO our only option would be to create a hybrid build which splits its resources between magicka and stamina, unfortunately this puts them at a disadvantage when compared to a pure magicka or stamina build. So having the option to play this sort of character and still have it be as vialable in all types of content would be amazing.

    On a bit of a tangent, I would also love to see a One Handed skill line that is focused around just using one weapon with an empty hand, which would be great for duelist or spellsword style characters.