We've heard that with 1.6 some combat animations will also be getting improvements to make combat feel a little more realistic, less "floaty", so on and so forth.
I'd like to suggest that, with this animation review, the animation team go through and actually create unique combat animations for each weapon type.

What I mean by weapon type is: Swords vs axes vs maces vs daggers, so on and so forth. Each of these weapons, despite using the same skill tree, should have unique animations linked to them.

A dual wielder using a pair of daggers should have a completely different appearance and set of movements in combat than a dual wielder using a pair of hammers or axes. These weapons are designed to be used differently: Daggers are for stabbing, swords are for slicing, axes are for chopping, maces/hammers are for smashing.

Currently one of the complaints regarding animations in ESO is that some attacks look ridiculous when wielding certain weapon types. For example, using the rapid strikes attack for dual wield when equipped with a pair of axes or maces looks absurd - you commit to a series of jabs and stabs with the blunt end of a weapon that is not designed for stabbing. The animation looks fine for daggers, but even swords (which are potential stabbing weapons) look strange with the rapid strikes animation due to their larger size.

Similarly, when using 1h+shield, if you're equipped with a mace and use the puncture ability, you 'stab' the target with the blunt top of the mace. The animation really detracts from immersion in your chosen combat style.

Even combat stances need an overview in regards to what type of weapon you're using. Wielding two daggers is going to necessitate a different combat ready stance than wielding two hammers or axes. Wielding a two handed sword requires a different stance than the much-heavier maul or battleaxe.

Essentially, each weapon type for 1h/shield, dual wield, and two-handed needs to be seperated and have it's own set of unique animations and combat stances applied. Yes, this is a big task that's going to require a lot of motion capture and animator work, and probably no small amount of coding as well, but I think that it's worth the effort in the long run.



In addition, doing this now would make it much easier to add new weapon types to these trees in the future. If a player using 1h+shield already has different combat animations and stances when wielding a mace, axe, sword, or dagger, it's a natural step forward to add a new set of combat animations for, say, 1 handed spears to be utilized with the 1h+shield line. Now you're able to add an entire new weapon type to the game without having to add in new skill trees or try to balance new abilities: you just need to add the weapon models and animations, and your spears are now working with the 1h+shield skills.

The same goes for other weapon types. Flails and morning stars can be added to the 1h/shield or dual wield lines with their own animation sets. Polearms/Pikes can be added to the 2handed weapon line with their own animation sets. Undertaking these animation changes now is going to make it much easier on the devs in the future when they want to expand the weapon selection the game offers to its players.



Finally, while it's not as critical, the same measures can be taken for the different destruction staff types. Having unique animations between fire, frost, and lightning staves would probably help liven up the battlefield a bit more, and could even attract players into using the sub-optimal frost or lightning staff types rather than having everyone wielding fire staffs.

Just food for thought.