Is it time to finish hybridisation by merging Magicka and Stamina resources?

moderatelyfatman

I would like it if people stop for a moment before voting and consider the following points as to why this could be a good idea:

1. Sustain is currently a non-existant issue outside of PvP
Currently stamina and magicka only really applies to the main spammable that the player has selected. Pretty much every other build now picks from both categories resulting in no real sustain issues in PvE since hybridisation, and crazy heal stacking in PvP.
By pooling back into a single resource, the combat dev team (with a lot of good planning and design) can force players to make hard but interesting choices between different builds depending on what is best suited for that encounter (e.g. single target damage, AOE or sticky DoTs) based on their sustain.

2. True Class Freedom
You can literally have any skill you want on your build since they all draw from the same resource.

3. Simplification of the build process (for newer players) without loss of build complexity (for experienced ones)
This sounds like a contradiction but nearly every new player goes through a process of having no idea which morph to pick or where to put their ability points. Most of them end up incorrecty boosting all three resource pools and then struggling for dps down the track.

Erickson9610

Stamina and Magicka are core gameplay elements of TES games. Hybridization already makes abilities scale off the higher of your stats, and I think that's enough.

Anumaril

No

I understand the bait, but class freedom — a staple of every TES game — is not equivalent to removing one of the three core resources from the game.

moderatelyfatman

Yes

Anumaril wrote: »

I understand the bait, but class freedom — a staple of every TES game — is not equivalent to removing one of the three core resources from the game.

No three, two. Health will still be a separate stat.

Zodiarkslayer

No

This should never be a thing.
I wouldn't want to play eso, if the three core stats get removed, merged or changed. They are a part of the Elser Scrolls identity.

Toanis

No

Power, Crit and Penetration being separated into Weapon- and Spell- versions that have the same value makes no sense anymore, but Magicka and Stamina are still separate resource pools.

Hybridisation just changed the game from only tanks, to everyone being able to make good use of both resource pools without gimping themselves. It's not that complicated to handle three resource bars, just give it a try.

And no, they're not the same. Magicka is still full after sprinting to the combat, you still need to save some Stamina in case you need to dodge roll, and you should still priorize the resource for which damage types you get the best buffs

Silaf

No

It was actually better before so i rather ZOS revert it.

Anumaril

No

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

No three, two. Health will still be a separate stat.

Read my comment again, but slowly.

ceruulean

ZoS can finish weapon/spell damage hybridization but keep resource sustain unhybridized. That way you can build into 1 type of sustain, and be pure mag/stam, or build for both types. It would also give you extra ways to differentiate the 600+ useless sets. Right now you have sets like Wretched Vitality that give you oodles of sustain with no tradeoff

Tandor

No

Not everyone follows hybridisation, there are lots of different ways of playing the game for a variety of reasons and playstyles. In a predominantly role-playing game with an established lore and core structure like ESO it's important to maintain all options by keeping things as varied as possible, only a very small proportion of players will be overly worried about things like meta builds.

Generally speaking, the more a game is trivialised the less I enjoy it.

HatchetHaro

No

I do not think merging them is a good idea. That being said, I agree that hybridization is incomplete.

Rather than making abilities scale their power off of the highest of your Stamina and Magicka, I'd rather see it scale off of a combination of both resources, so people can assign points into their attributes as they please rather than have a "worst-in-slot build" situation with 32 points each into Stamina and Magicka.

When it comes to merging stats, I'd actually like to see Weapon Damage and Spell Damage combined into just one stat. Most sources in the game already specify an equal combination of both of them, so why not just simplify it down into one? Same goes for Weapon/Spell Critical, Major and Minor Sorcery/Brutality, and Major and Minor Prophecy/Savagery.

The_Meathead

No

I feel like Hybridization was a mistake and wound up (predictably) being Homogenization to a large extent. Subclassing seems likely doomed to the same end result.

That said, they also never quite saw Hybridization fully through and there ARE things that need completing since it's obviously staying. Merging STA and MAG, however, is not on that list.

Heren

Merging stamina and magicka should only be a first step though, then this single ressource should also be entirely removed !

reazea

I don't know. On paper OP has a good idea. On the other hand, ZOS would be in charge of making these changes and they have a history of implementing good ideas in a way that flops. At this point I almost wonder if ZOS shouldn't just implement some form of vengeance mode on the entire game and officially tell us the game is in maintenance mode.

Desiato

No

I knew this was coming. They won't be happy until all actual gameplay is eliminated and then players can truly play how they want!

thorwyn

If there is just one resource, it's not hybridization by definition.

kargen27

No

"This sounds like a contradiction but nearly every new player goes through a process of having no idea which morph to pick or where to put their ability points. Most of them end up incorrecty boosting all three resource pools and then struggling for dps down the track."
and then a week later they figure it out and use their free respec. Then they get to chose their path by putting points where they want.
Also I don't want roll dodging to take away from my supply of resources for attacking. Sure I know stam builds deal with that but doesn't mean my main characters want to. If you take away another choice all you are doing is narrowing what will be accepted as end game builds. PvP would get even more silly than it is now with the prevalence of META builds everywhere you go.

Castagere

I think what they should have done was give the player either a magic or stamina morph choice for all abilities. I think they even have one ability that works off of both. To me, this would have been real player choice. They have a couple that do this, so why leave out all the other abilities with this choice? I guess just another oversight with ZOS.

wolfie1.0.

Let's remove health as a resource first. Ain't no one playing eso concerned about their health.

Destai

Yes

I would mainly like to know if they’re considering it done.

Aside from that, there’s not much more hybridization that want to see. Maybe condensing spell and weapon power/damage, that’s all I can think of right now.

Rungar

I actually like hybridization for class skills because it lets you use your full class regardless of resource and your not hamstringed into weapon skills if you play a stam character so even though some complain about it i think it was a net benefit for all players.

i dont think though that mag and stam should be combined though. You need both those resources for different things.

Morvan

No

Even with hybrid scalling, resources still somewhat define your skill setup choices, you can't just pick whatever skill you like, you need to be able to sustain them, and that's basically what still set mag and stam builds apart, even if it's a small difference like a spammable.

Getting rid of that would basically mean the few remaining differences between builds would simply disappear and everyone will be running the exact same stuff, leading further into homogenization, which has been a pain point for a while.

ESO doesn't need further simplification, building is already simple enough as it is, and as others mentioned, attributes are one of the most characteristic things of TES franchise.

Hybridization needs to be completed, but not by merging resources, what they should actually merge are all spell/weapon specific buffs, maybe merge those stats as a whole, and rework class unique group buffs.

moo_2021

No

I want a reverse of the hybridisation.

frogthroat

No

The current mag/stam sustain works fine for off resource if you use the skills wisely. I have highly optimised builds where I have some off resource skills to maximise damage and there I need to be very mindful not to cast them too often, otherwise I have no resources. I like this. Gives a feeling of success when you play just at the edge of your off resource sustain.

With the current hybridisation you can play around with the skills and choose some off resource skills, but not too many. If the resources were combined, only one combination would prevail. Now we can have some different, whether to load up mainly stam or mainly mag skills.

The hybridisation brought us very similar set setups. Mags can use stam sets and vice versa. But all DDs use mainly medium armour now. That is a slight setback in my opinion. It homogenised the builds a bit too much when it comes to sets. But the skills, those I like. You can go all mag or all stam, like before, and then your other resource is meaningless - a wasted resource. But with hybridisation you can use both resource pools effectively.

And no, combining the pools would not be "without loss of complexity for the experienced" - on the contrary. It would mean one meta build per class. That's it. It would do for the skills what the current hybridisation already did for the sets. We could effectively remove all the different morphs in that case and have just one per skill.

RealLoveBVB

Eww, don't get such ideas to ZOS, else they think players want this, same as subclasses.

BXR_Lonestar

No

No. Stam and Magika are core elements of TES games and so its not going anywhere. But I agree that hybridization needs to go, so IMO, its time to get rid of it and go back to making a choice between mag spec and stam spec.

LunaFlora

No

no, Stamina and Magicka are used for different things.

and i think that should remain

manukartofanu

Yes

Why not take it even further and merge all attributes into one — health? When both healing and damage depend on health, we’ll finally achieve the perfect meta of unkillable, self-healing tank-DPS hybrids.