Underperforming Skill Lines

MurkyWetWolf198

From a PvE perspective, 3 skill lines in particular see almost no use in any role. They are:
1. Draconic Power
2. Shadow
3. Dark Magic
While they see some usage in PvP, they serve almost no niche in PvE. Here’s why:
1. Draconic Power. This skill line is currently designed to offer a ton of survivability tools for tanking, which isn’t actually bad. However, tank meta in ESO really focuses on being a source of buffs and debuffs for the group, and Draconic Power is entirely selfish. I would like to see something on this skill line that would fix that, and provide group utility rather than just selfish survivability.
2. Shadow. This skill line suffers for 2 reasons: it’s too selfish for tanking (similar to Draconic Power) and it’s too weak for damage dealing. To make it more viable for tanking, add useful group buffs (such as AoE minor berserk on Shadow Image or something). To make it more viable for damage dealing, give Twisting Path a synergy (like Lightning flood). Also, Shadowy disguise cannot be used with some abilities due to restrictions around invisibility. While that’s likely necessary, I would like to be able to get the 10% dmg done to monsters even if the invisibility fails. Let the skill cast, but the invisibility portion fail, if possible.
3. Dark Magic. This skill line wants to be pure utility, which is why it still sees a bit of usage in PvP. However, there’s no real niche for that type of utility in PvE meta. To fix this, I propose adding some damage utility to some of the skills. Let both morphs of Crystal Shard provide an armor debuff. Let Rune Cage provide a unique damage buff (like Stone Giant’s Stagger). Sorcerers have had a place in PvE meta as buff bots for a long time, and I think this skill line should play into that.
These are just suggestions, and the important thing I want to emphasize is why these skill lines all fail: they are selfish. They need to contribute to the group, through either buffs or more damage, to catch up with other options available via subclassing

MurkyWetWolf198

Also, the passives need a lot of work.
To name a couple:
Dark Veil is completely stupid and should be scrapped.
Exploitation is a joke compared to its counterpart, Hemorrhage.

madmufffin

Dark Magic needs to be treated as the utility/heal line for Sorc and get reworked as such imo. Swap frags and surge so that a cool dps skill can actually see some play in the game and then fully rework the passives. Having no usable active skills for PVE means that Dark Magic needs a TON of work that it simply won't get. Having the shade give major maim or something would be a pretty cool easy change to at least add some functionality to the Shadow line to make it more tank oriented.

MincMincMinc

Passives in general need to be rebalanced and distributed. We have skill lines offering like 20%+ damage bonuses vs skill lines offering cost reductions

Distribute and balance passives evenly and then start working on active abilities.

BasP

I definitely agree. Now that Nightblades have lost the extra Weapon/Spell Damage from Grim Focus, it would be especially nice to see the Shadow skill line get a buff for damage dealers. That would both make up for the lost damage pure Nightblades deal and make the skill line more desirable for subclassing.

MurkyWetWolf198 wrote: »

Also, the passives need a lot of work.
To name a couple:
Dark Veil is completely stupid and should be scrapped.
Exploitation is a joke compared to its counterpart, Hemorrhage.

Don't forget Elder Dragon, since Health Recovery might be the worst stat in the game. I'd personally like to see this be changed into a DPS buff, since the skill lines a couple of damage abilities and 0 passives for damage dealers, but I suppose that it could be changed to provide a good buff for a group instead.

s3dulo

Make. Dark. Exchange. Instant. Cast.

Sorc has no instant burst heal. Making Dark Exchange instant would go a long way to improving that skill line. It needs more than that but it would be a great start.