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Update 1.6.2; Comprehensive class ability list and ways to balance the game and increase diversity
Atarax
✭✭✭
EDIT: I am abandoning this thread as I needed more space, thread is now here:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/151998/update-1-6-2-comprehensive-class-ability-list-and-ways-to-balance-the-game-and-increase-diversity?new=1
TL:DR
Post contains a full list of abilities as of 1.6.1 (will be updated for 1.6.3)
Also, balancing seems to be taking resources away from new systems such as spellcrafting and is likely an unwinnable battle, unless classes are homogenized, as long as classes are restricted to 1 per character; an easy solution to ensure long-term balance and give players more options for build diversity would be to have players be able to unlock a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class at 20/40/60 champion points. Otherwise, additional balance changes, such as those listed here, are probably still needed (and I only suggest buffs, not nerfs and use the approach that a build using non-class abilities should be as good as any class-based build). Devs may want to implement several of these ideas either way, just because they solve problems and in many cases would make the game more fun.
P.S. holy Solar Flare & Radiant Destruction Batman, Templars are getting some love this patch.
/TL:DR
The Long Version
Firstly, thank you to the devs for all the hard work and effort that is going into patch 1.6. In many ways it is an improvement over what we had before, in some ways less so. This post is made to give people comprehensive information on the current state of class balance in 1.6.2, and a forum to discuss balance and what we'd like to see in the game going forward. The post is organized as follows:
I put this thread together initially as a consolidated source with base #s on all abilities so people not on PTS can see what is coming down the pipeline. However, in doing so, it seems like it is a good platform for starting a civil discussion around class balance.
As such, the purpose of this thread is to not only document, but also discuss balance in general, offer a simpler way to reach the same goal, and also discuss class-specific abilities present on PTS for build 1.6 with the intent of seeing that classes are balanced in line with the following guiding principles: in order to have a hopefully civil and fruitful discussion of where people would like to see the game go.
After giving this (obviously) lots of thought, I am of the opinion that devs should consider taking the following steps from here:
List of Suggested Changes
The alternative is to continue to spend resources on balancing, which seems to have taken resources away from new systems (spell-crafting), skills, and abilities. I'd rather have perfect balance (everyone has access to the same abilities, and can create their own builds), and a growing list of abilities to choose from, than inherent dis-balances and dev resources being eaten up chasing complaints.
The problem inherent with having classes is that, unless they're all accessible on a single character, you give yourself an equation that is nearly impossible to balance without homogenizing classes. In which case, why have classes at all? You also force players to create alts if they want access to X ability. I know there are a lot of players that like making alts, I personally like focusing on one character. It should be possible to accomplish the same things regardless of this preference. Allowing access to all abilities on a single character doesn't prevent alts, but restricting access forces players to create alts to access certain abilities.
As such, and as mentioned above (and below), I think it is in the best interest of the game and players going forward for the Devs to simply allow players to open up each of the other classes on their characters after reaching a certain level of achievement. The trick is ensuring that players can do so while engaging in the gameplay they want, whether it be questing, PvP, raiding, dungeon delving, exploring, crafting, grinding, etc. with no one type of play giving an advantage over the others. The Champion system (assuming XP gain rates per hour invested in each style of play are tweaked to be equivalent) offers a perfect platform for this. You can have a new class unlock at 20/40/60 Champion Points, then your alts can do the same.
My initial thought was that you could unlock a class upon reaching 50, then 1 class each for completing Cadwell's Silver, and Cadwell's Gold. That corresponds nicely with the idea that you're sort of reliving each of the other Alliance's from the start. Unfortunately, such an approach would force players into doing ALL the content on ALL alts, over and over, if they want to have a level playing field. Many people will not want to repeat the content, or even do it the first time. The Champion System is great in that it provides a mechanism for people to accomplish the class unlocking once, and have it be available on all alts.
People who like alts or just want to play a single class, should note, just because you have access to the class, doesn't mean you need to spend points in it. You can play only one class per toon if you like. I'd like to play differently.
I hope Devs ultimately choose to open up classes as I propose, if not, then there is still balance work to be done.
In designing any system or project it is first important to define what success looks like, and the criteria that the project should be measured against. Otherwise, you may end up with a system or project that sounds good on paper, but is fragmented in reality and doesn't ultimately work well in practice. So, under the assumption that these are the guiding principles for ZOS, I'll try to help.
The devs have indicated their goals for balance are along the lines of the following, and ultimately I'll suggest some changes that would be in line with these principles:
Much of the balance discussion here is based on the assumption that ZOS (and most players) would like the game designed around the principles indicated above. In fact, there are some games (ex. TSW, where there are no classes and any single character can learn all active and passive abilities, but can only use a few at a time, and you see a huge variety in builds, including situational builds, and great character diversity, and some pretty amazing teamworking and little whining or class bashing as a result) that go even further in implementing these principles, and the balance is well-done. Hopefully this thread will introduce information people may not be aware of, and ultimately lead to an even more enjoyable game than we have now.
Thus, apart from some discussion on how balance is approached in other games, the discussion is mostly focused on class balance. It will not address balances between weapons. There will be some discussion of Stamina & Magicka in the context of the abilities, but the overall balance of Stamina vs Magicka vs hybrid largely goes beyond this thread.
If you wish to comment on this thread, I humbly request that your comments be in the spirit of helping ZOS make ESO as enjoyable as possible for everyone, not to give unfair advantage to any one class.
Lastly, before I get into the long post, I'd like to thank @SpAEkus for all the help, and for identifying a useful Add-on for purposes of compiling data for the thread.
Edited by Atarax on 16 February 2015 14:48 http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/151998/update-1-6-2-comprehensive-class-ability-list-and-ways-to-balance-the-game-and-increase-diversity?new=1
TL:DR
Post contains a full list of abilities as of 1.6.1 (will be updated for 1.6.3)
Also, balancing seems to be taking resources away from new systems such as spellcrafting and is likely an unwinnable battle, unless classes are homogenized, as long as classes are restricted to 1 per character; an easy solution to ensure long-term balance and give players more options for build diversity would be to have players be able to unlock a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class at 20/40/60 champion points. Otherwise, additional balance changes, such as those listed here, are probably still needed (and I only suggest buffs, not nerfs and use the approach that a build using non-class abilities should be as good as any class-based build). Devs may want to implement several of these ideas either way, just because they solve problems and in many cases would make the game more fun.
P.S. holy Solar Flare & Radiant Destruction Batman, Templars are getting some love this patch.
/TL:DR
The Long Version
Firstly, thank you to the devs for all the hard work and effort that is going into patch 1.6. In many ways it is an improvement over what we had before, in some ways less so. This post is made to give people comprehensive information on the current state of class balance in 1.6.2, and a forum to discuss balance and what we'd like to see in the game going forward. The post is organized as follows:
- A full list (screenshots) of all class abilities & morphs in 1.6.2
- A comparison, point by point, of all classes
- A discussion of how balance is achieved in other games (including other Elder Scrolls Games) so people can be informed of the options and some of their ramifications
I put this thread together initially as a consolidated source with base #s on all abilities so people not on PTS can see what is coming down the pipeline. However, in doing so, it seems like it is a good platform for starting a civil discussion around class balance.
As such, the purpose of this thread is to not only document, but also discuss balance in general, offer a simpler way to reach the same goal, and also discuss class-specific abilities present on PTS for build 1.6 with the intent of seeing that classes are balanced in line with the following guiding principles: in order to have a hopefully civil and fruitful discussion of where people would like to see the game go.
After giving this (obviously) lots of thought, I am of the opinion that devs should consider taking the following steps from here:
- Ensure players earn equivalent XP toward champion points per hour invested while "playing how they want," whether it be questing, PvP, raiding, dungeon delving, exploring, crafting, grinding, etc. with no one type of play giving an advantage over the others.
- Further allow players to effectively "build their own classes" through the Champion system such that players can unlock each of the other classes, and use them on a single character (including alts) one class every 20 champion points (which roughly corresponds to the exp gained by doing Cadwell's Silver & Gold); game is balanced because any character can eventually access any ability
- ^may require that there be a Cyrodiil for new players with no champion points
- Refocus the dev resources currently spent on balance instead on bringing in new skills and abilities through new guild lines, spell-crafting, etc.
- AND/OR Implement the following list of changes:
List of Suggested Changes
[Still Analyzing]
Affecting All:
Affecting All:
General Mechanics:
-Ensure experience points gained per amount of time invested is approximately equivalent regardless of play style (ex. Crafting, PvP, Dungeons, Questing, Exploring, Raiding, Grinding)
Rationale: 1) Players like different styles of play and shouldn't be penalized for doing so (i.e. "play as you want") 2) if one mode of play generates clearly superior experience gains, everyone will engage in that game play once the Champion system goes live.
-Give everyone the ability to map a key such that when held down, causes Ground Targeted AOE abilities to instantly fire at the location of the target, or if no target is present, instantly fire at the feet of the caster
Rationale: Makes ground targeted AOE abilities (such as Sorc lightning splash) function similarly to point blank aoes 2) sometimes the game bugs out and it's hard to drop the ground targeted AOEs
-For abilities such as Shield Charge, Ambush, Critical Charge, etc. that cause players to charge a target, 1) increase range to 28 meters across the board and 2) cause them to fire and carry the player to maximum range in cases where a) they have no target selected (allowing them to be used for escape purposes) or b) where the target is out of range (allowing them to be used for chase purposes)
Rationale: 1) Gives all classes an equivalent / counter to Bolt Escape (which can be reverted to its original, pre-nerf cost) 2) gives additional functionality to these abilities, making them more useful and fun 3) gives everyone a bit more mobility 4) If I can lunge 25 yards AT someone who might stab me with a sword, why can't I lunge 25 yards into an open field of daisies?
-Only allow one damage shield to be active at a time, new damage shields cast will only apply if they will provide more mitigation than the mitigation remaining from the existing shield
Rationale: 1) Damage shield stacking shouldn't be possible 2) Will promote teamwork as people will be more likely to communication around avaialable damage shields and who should be casting them, freeing up ability slots for other players 3) with changes suggested, it's possible that there will be a lot more damage shields flying around, so chances are people will prefer higher mitigation over increased duration
-Make crafting writs reward points toward alliance ranks; also incorporate Undaunted-focused crafting writs that give Undaunted skill
Rationale: 1) Players contributing to writs are, according to the lore, contributing to the war effort (or the undaunted guild) 2) Gives those players who spend time crafting a way to keep up with PvP / undaunted progression and earn the achievements / skills to some extent, even if it's slower 3) some of the balance suggestions I give below make use of the Alliance and Undaunted skill lines
-For any class passive that reduces costs of ALL abilities either 1) give to everyone 2) restrict to class-specific abilities and balance those appropriately or 3) remove from the game
Rationale:
Ultimate changes:
-Align ultimate costs & effectiveness such that all classes have a 225, 125, 50 cost ability with similar effectiveness
-Remove all class passives that affect ultimate costs or increase ultimate generation
-Make triggering ALL abilities generate 2 ultimate every time you trigger the ability (as long as you're in combat)
Rationale: 1) levelizes ultimate generation and costs across classes 2) speeds up generation somewhat from where we are now 3) frees up passive slots for more interesting class-specific passives
New Undaunted Ultimate: Face Your Fear:
Active changes:
-Change Trapping webs & morphs: align cost and damage of the base ability with Searing Strikes (412 damage + 1320 over 10.5 seconds) , have it spawn spiders on cast (rather than be a synergy) but make the 795 damage be damage over time as indicated; if recast, does the direct damage component (412 damage) and refreshes duration of dot and spiders without interrupting ticks or attacks (and resummons a spider if it's not there); one morph adds a poison dot from spiders (magicka), the other can cause Fear and is stamina-based.
Rationale: 1) gives a spammable, non-class or weapon-locked, non-execute, single-target DPS ability (Sorcerer's rejoice!) for both Magicka and Stamina builds 2) gives a Stamina-based way for people to generate Fear 3) Gives everyone access to "pets" 4) summoning spiders is cool. 5) Sorceres can still have their pets on top of this (and still use Crystal Shards), other classes have other abilities that can be spammed alongside this to up DPS.
-Guard and its morphs ----> change to "Raze the Keep" (): AOE reduce armor and spell resistance
Rationale: 1) Guard seems lackluster for an end-tree ability, I can only really see using it on my DK after I pop Magma Armor. 2) Gives all classes access to 3) Will further incentivize people to not clump up in PvP 3) helps all classes solo places like Craglorn a bit easier
New Soul Magic Ability: Soul Rend (execute style)
New Soul Magic Ability: Soul Mend (heal)
Entropy change: Give Major Sorcery & 100% chance to heal
Passive Changes
Soul Magic
-Reduced ultimate cost
-Generate ultimate when using abilities
Undaunted
-Reduced ability costs
-Spell resistance
Dragonknight:
-Ensure experience points gained per amount of time invested is approximately equivalent regardless of play style (ex. Crafting, PvP, Dungeons, Questing, Exploring, Raiding, Grinding)
Rationale: 1) Players like different styles of play and shouldn't be penalized for doing so (i.e. "play as you want") 2) if one mode of play generates clearly superior experience gains, everyone will engage in that game play once the Champion system goes live.
-Give everyone the ability to map a key such that when held down, causes Ground Targeted AOE abilities to instantly fire at the location of the target, or if no target is present, instantly fire at the feet of the caster
Rationale: Makes ground targeted AOE abilities (such as Sorc lightning splash) function similarly to point blank aoes 2) sometimes the game bugs out and it's hard to drop the ground targeted AOEs
-For abilities such as Shield Charge, Ambush, Critical Charge, etc. that cause players to charge a target, 1) increase range to 28 meters across the board and 2) cause them to fire and carry the player to maximum range in cases where a) they have no target selected (allowing them to be used for escape purposes) or b) where the target is out of range (allowing them to be used for chase purposes)
Rationale: 1) Gives all classes an equivalent / counter to Bolt Escape (which can be reverted to its original, pre-nerf cost) 2) gives additional functionality to these abilities, making them more useful and fun 3) gives everyone a bit more mobility 4) If I can lunge 25 yards AT someone who might stab me with a sword, why can't I lunge 25 yards into an open field of daisies?
-Only allow one damage shield to be active at a time, new damage shields cast will only apply if they will provide more mitigation than the mitigation remaining from the existing shield
Rationale: 1) Damage shield stacking shouldn't be possible 2) Will promote teamwork as people will be more likely to communication around avaialable damage shields and who should be casting them, freeing up ability slots for other players 3) with changes suggested, it's possible that there will be a lot more damage shields flying around, so chances are people will prefer higher mitigation over increased duration
-Make crafting writs reward points toward alliance ranks; also incorporate Undaunted-focused crafting writs that give Undaunted skill
Rationale: 1) Players contributing to writs are, according to the lore, contributing to the war effort (or the undaunted guild) 2) Gives those players who spend time crafting a way to keep up with PvP / undaunted progression and earn the achievements / skills to some extent, even if it's slower 3) some of the balance suggestions I give below make use of the Alliance and Undaunted skill lines
-For any class passive that reduces costs of ALL abilities either 1) give to everyone 2) restrict to class-specific abilities and balance those appropriately or 3) remove from the game
Rationale:
Ultimate changes:
-Align ultimate costs & effectiveness such that all classes have a 225, 125, 50 cost ability with similar effectiveness
-Remove all class passives that affect ultimate costs or increase ultimate generation
-Make triggering ALL abilities generate 2 ultimate every time you trigger the ability (as long as you're in combat)
Rationale: 1) levelizes ultimate generation and costs across classes 2) speeds up generation somewhat from where we are now 3) frees up passive slots for more interesting class-specific passives
New Undaunted Ultimate: Face Your Fear:
Active changes:
-Change Trapping webs & morphs: align cost and damage of the base ability with Searing Strikes (412 damage + 1320 over 10.5 seconds) , have it spawn spiders on cast (rather than be a synergy) but make the 795 damage be damage over time as indicated; if recast, does the direct damage component (412 damage) and refreshes duration of dot and spiders without interrupting ticks or attacks (and resummons a spider if it's not there); one morph adds a poison dot from spiders (magicka), the other can cause Fear and is stamina-based.
Rationale: 1) gives a spammable, non-class or weapon-locked, non-execute, single-target DPS ability (Sorcerer's rejoice!) for both Magicka and Stamina builds 2) gives a Stamina-based way for people to generate Fear 3) Gives everyone access to "pets" 4) summoning spiders is cool. 5) Sorceres can still have their pets on top of this (and still use Crystal Shards), other classes have other abilities that can be spammed alongside this to up DPS.
-Guard and its morphs ----> change to "Raze the Keep" (): AOE reduce armor and spell resistance
Rationale: 1) Guard seems lackluster for an end-tree ability, I can only really see using it on my DK after I pop Magma Armor. 2) Gives all classes access to 3) Will further incentivize people to not clump up in PvP 3) helps all classes solo places like Craglorn a bit easier
New Soul Magic Ability: Soul Rend (execute style)
New Soul Magic Ability: Soul Mend (heal)
Entropy change: Give Major Sorcery & 100% chance to heal
Passive Changes
Soul Magic
-Reduced ultimate cost
-Generate ultimate when using abilities
Undaunted
-Reduced ability costs
-Spell resistance
General:
-Shifting Standard tooltip states that it reduces Ultimate Cost when it no longer does, please fix
Ultimates:
Shift Dragon Leap (and rebalance) to an ability (see Movement below for more reasons for this), and replace with a 50 ultimate cost single target damage ultimate.
Nightblade:
-Shifting Standard tooltip states that it reduces Ultimate Cost when it no longer does, please fix
Ultimates:
Shift Dragon Leap (and rebalance) to an ability (see Movement below for more reasons for this), and replace with a 50 ultimate cost single target damage ultimate.
-Dark cloak & morphs to absorb 4 projectiles for 4s or give damage shield
Sorcerer
-Critical Surge Morph: change to restore Magicka & Stamina on Critical hits
-Streak morph to absorb 4 projectiles 4s
Templar
-Streak morph to absorb 4 projectiles 4s
The alternative is to continue to spend resources on balancing, which seems to have taken resources away from new systems (spell-crafting), skills, and abilities. I'd rather have perfect balance (everyone has access to the same abilities, and can create their own builds), and a growing list of abilities to choose from, than inherent dis-balances and dev resources being eaten up chasing complaints.
The problem inherent with having classes is that, unless they're all accessible on a single character, you give yourself an equation that is nearly impossible to balance without homogenizing classes. In which case, why have classes at all? You also force players to create alts if they want access to X ability. I know there are a lot of players that like making alts, I personally like focusing on one character. It should be possible to accomplish the same things regardless of this preference. Allowing access to all abilities on a single character doesn't prevent alts, but restricting access forces players to create alts to access certain abilities.
As such, and as mentioned above (and below), I think it is in the best interest of the game and players going forward for the Devs to simply allow players to open up each of the other classes on their characters after reaching a certain level of achievement. The trick is ensuring that players can do so while engaging in the gameplay they want, whether it be questing, PvP, raiding, dungeon delving, exploring, crafting, grinding, etc. with no one type of play giving an advantage over the others. The Champion system (assuming XP gain rates per hour invested in each style of play are tweaked to be equivalent) offers a perfect platform for this. You can have a new class unlock at 20/40/60 Champion Points, then your alts can do the same.
My initial thought was that you could unlock a class upon reaching 50, then 1 class each for completing Cadwell's Silver, and Cadwell's Gold. That corresponds nicely with the idea that you're sort of reliving each of the other Alliance's from the start. Unfortunately, such an approach would force players into doing ALL the content on ALL alts, over and over, if they want to have a level playing field. Many people will not want to repeat the content, or even do it the first time. The Champion System is great in that it provides a mechanism for people to accomplish the class unlocking once, and have it be available on all alts.
People who like alts or just want to play a single class, should note, just because you have access to the class, doesn't mean you need to spend points in it. You can play only one class per toon if you like. I'd like to play differently.
I hope Devs ultimately choose to open up classes as I propose, if not, then there is still balance work to be done.
In designing any system or project it is first important to define what success looks like, and the criteria that the project should be measured against. Otherwise, you may end up with a system or project that sounds good on paper, but is fragmented in reality and doesn't ultimately work well in practice. So, under the assumption that these are the guiding principles for ZOS, I'll try to help.
The devs have indicated their goals for balance are along the lines of the following, and ultimately I'll suggest some changes that would be in line with these principles:
- "Play how you want"
- Maximize potential build diversity
- Ensuring all player characters have a level playing field as a baseline so that skill and theorycrafting matter more to success than class choice
- Buff, not nerf, in order to achieve these principles
- Ensuring all player characters can, one way or another, accomplish the same things, regardless of class choice
- Making things "fun" for those of us who wish to see the game balanced in-line with these principles
- Striving to ensure groups will be indifferent to the class of the player when forming groups and willing to take on anyone who can perform the needed role (dps, heals, cc, hybrid, or tank)
- Preserving a unique class identity while not giving any class a significant advantage over any other class
Much of the balance discussion here is based on the assumption that ZOS (and most players) would like the game designed around the principles indicated above. In fact, there are some games (ex. TSW, where there are no classes and any single character can learn all active and passive abilities, but can only use a few at a time, and you see a huge variety in builds, including situational builds, and great character diversity, and some pretty amazing teamworking and little whining or class bashing as a result) that go even further in implementing these principles, and the balance is well-done. Hopefully this thread will introduce information people may not be aware of, and ultimately lead to an even more enjoyable game than we have now.
Thus, apart from some discussion on how balance is approached in other games, the discussion is mostly focused on class balance. It will not address balances between weapons. There will be some discussion of Stamina & Magicka in the context of the abilities, but the overall balance of Stamina vs Magicka vs hybrid largely goes beyond this thread.
If you wish to comment on this thread, I humbly request that your comments be in the spirit of helping ZOS make ESO as enjoyable as possible for everyone, not to give unfair advantage to any one class.
Lastly, before I get into the long post, I'd like to thank @SpAEkus for all the help, and for identifying a useful Add-on for purposes of compiling data for the thread.
50 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking
1
-
Atarax✭✭✭Full list of all abilities (both active, with morphs, and passive), by class, as of build 1.6.1
[WILL UPDATE WHEN 1.6.3 HITS, I AM TIRED]
In order to provide as close to an apples-to-apples comparison as possible,values will be given as indicated via the tooltip (and under the assumption that the tooltip reflects reality) for a VR14 as follows:
1) No skill points allocated to any active abilities
2) 1 point invested in all class passives
3) No points invested in any attributes or non-class abilities
4) No gear equipped
5) No abilities slotted
[Note to ZOS, it appears some tooltips may not be reflective of the 10x increase]
DragonknightArdent Flame
Ultimate Dragonknight Standard
Morph 1: Shifting Standard
Morph 2: Standard of Might
Active Abilities
Active 1: Fiery Grip
Morph 1 Empowering Chains:
Morph 2 Extended Chains:
Active 2: Searing Strike
Morph 1 Unstable Flame:
Morph 2 Burning Embers:
Active 3: Fiery Breath
Morph 1 Burning Breath:
Morph 2 Engulfing Flames:
Active 4: Lava Whip
Morph 1 Molten Whip:
Morph 2 Flame Lash:
Active 5: Inferno
Morph 1 Flames of Oblivion:
Morph 2 Sea of Flames:
Passives
Kindling
Warmth
Searing Heat
World in Flame
Draconic Power
Ultimate: Dragon Leap
Morph 1 Take Flight:
Morph 2 Ferocious Leap:
Active Abilities
Active 1: Spiked Armor
Morph 1 Hardened Armor:
Morph 2 Volatile Armor:
Active 2: Dark Talons
Morph 1 Burning Talons:
Morph 2 Choking Talons:
Active 3: Dragon Blood
Morph 1 Green Dragon Blood:
Morph 2 Coagulating Blood:
Active 4: Reflective Scale
Morph 1 Reflective Plate:
Morph 2 Dragon Fire Scale:
Active 5: Inhale
Morph 1 Deep Breath:
Morph 2 Draw Essence:
Passives
Iron Skin
Burning Heart
Elder Dragon
Scaled Armor
Earthen Heart
Ultimate: Magma Armor
Morph 1 Magma Shell:
Morph 2 Corrosive Armor:
Active Abilities
Active 1: Stonefist
Morph 1 Obsidian Shard:
Morph 2 Stone Giant:
Active 2: Molten Weapons
Morph 1 Igneous Weapons:
Morph 2 Molten Armaments:
Active 3: Obsidian Shield
Morph 1 Igneous Shield:
Morph 2 Fragmented Shield:
Active 4: Petrify
Morph 1 Fossilize:
Morph 2 Shattering Rocks:
Active 5: Ash Cloud
Morph 1 Cinder Storm:
Morph 2 Eruption:
Passives
Eternal Mountain
Battle Roar
Mountain's Blessing
Helping Hands
Nightblade
Assassination
Ultimate: Death Stroke
Morph 1: Incapacitating Strike
Morph 2: Soul Harvest
Active Abilities
Active 1: Assassin's Blade
Morph 1: Killer's Blade
Morph 2: Impale
Active 2: Teleport Strike
Morph 1: Lotus Fan
Morph 2: Ambush
Active 3: Blur
Morph 1: Mirage
Morph 2: Double Take
Active 4: Mark Target
Morph 1 Piercing Mark:
Morph 2 Reaper's Mark:
Active 5: Grim Focus
Morph 1: Relentless Focus
Morph 2: Merciless Resolve
Passives
Master Assassin
Executioner
Pressure Points
Hemmorage
Shadow
Ultimate: Consuming Darkness
Morph 1 Bolstering Darkness:
Morph 2 Veil of Blades:
Active Abilities
Active 1: Shadow Cloak
Morph 1 Shadowy Disguise:
Morph 2 Dark Cloak:
Active 2: Veiled Strike
Morph 1 Surprise Attack:
Morph 2 Concealed Weapon:
Active 3: Path of Darkness
Morph 1 Twisting Path:
Morph 2 Refreshing Path:
Active 4: Aspect of Terror
Morph 1 Mass Hysteria:
Morph 2 Manifestation of Terror:
Active 5: Summon Shade
Morph 1 Dark Shades:
Morph 2 Shadow Image:
Passives
Refreshing Shadows
Shadow Barrier
Dark Vigor
Dark Veil
Siphoning
Ultimate: Soul Shred
Morph 1 Soul Siphon:
Morph 2 Soul Tether:
Active Abilities
Active 1: Strife
Morph 1 Funnel Health:
Morph 2 Swallow Soul:
Active 2: Agony
Morph 1 Prolonged Suffering:
Morph 2 Malefic Wreath:
Active 3: Cripple
Morph 1 Debilitate:
Morph 2 Crippling Grasp:
Active 4: Siphoning Strikes
Morph 1 Leeching Strikes:
Morph 2 Siphoning attacks:
Active 5: Drain Power
Morph 1 Power Extraction:
Morph 2 Sap Essence:
Passives
Catalyst
Magicka Flood
Soul Siphoner
Transfer
Sorceror
Dark Magic
Ultimate: Negate Magic
Morph 1: Suppression Field
Morph 2:Absorption Field
Active Abilities
Active 1: Crystal Shard
Morph 1: Crystal Blast
Morph 2: Crystal Fragments
Active 2: Encase
Morph 1: Shattering Prison
Morph 2: Restraining Prison
Active 3: Rune Prison
Morph 1: Rune Cage
Morph 2: Defensive Rune
Active 4: Dark Exchange
Morph 1: Dark Deal
Morph 2: Dark Conversation
Active 5: Daedric Mines
Morph 1: Daedric Tomb
Morph 2: Daedric Minefield
Passives
Unholy Knowledge
Blood Magic
Persistence
Exploitation
Daedric Summoning
Ultimate: Summon Storm Atronach
Morph 1: Greater Storm Atronach
Morph 2: Summoned Charged Atronach
Active Abilities
Active 1: Unstable Familiar
Morph 1: Unstable Clanfear
Morph 2: Volatile Familiar
Active 2: Daedric Curse
Morph 1: Daedric Prey
Morph 2: Velocious Curse
Active 3: Summon Winged Twilight
Morph 1: Summon Restoring Twilight
Morph 2: Summon Twilight Matriarch
Active 4: Bound Armor
Morph 1: Bound Armaments
Morph 2: Bound Aegis
Active 5: Conjured Ward
Morph 1: Hardened Ward
Morph 2: Empowered Ward
Passives
Rebate
Power Stone
Daedric Protection
Expert Summoner
Storm Calling
Ultimate: Overload
Morph 1: Power Overload
Morph 2: Energy Overload
Active Abilities
Active 1: Mage's Fury
Morph 1: Mage's Wrath
Morph 2: Endless Fury
Active 2: Lightning Form
Morph 1: Thundering Presence
Morph 2: Boundless Storm
Active 3: Lightning Splash
Morph 1: Liquid Lightning
Morph 2: Lightning Flood
Active 4: Surge
Morph 1: Power Surge
Morph 2: Critical Surge
Active 5: Bolt Escape
Morph 1: Streak
Morph 2: Ball of Lightning
Passives
Capacitator
Energized
Disintegrate
Expert Mage
Templar________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AEDRIC SPEAR
Ultimate: RADIAL SWEEP
Morph 1: EMPOWERING SWEEP
Morph 2: CRESCENT SWEEP
Active Abilities
Active 1: PUNCTURING STRIKES
Morph 1: BITING JABS
Morph 2: PUNCTURING SWEEP
Active 2: PIERCING JAVELIN
Morph 1: AURORA JAVELIN
Morph 2: BINDING JAVELIN
Active 3: FOCUSED CHARGE
Morph 1: EXPLOSIVE CHARGE
Morph 2: TOPPLING CHARGE
Active 4: SPEAR SHARDS
Morph 1: LUMINOUS SHARDS
Morph 2: BLAZING SPEAR
Active 5: SUN SHIELD
Morph 1: RADIANT WARD
Morph 2: BLAZING SHIELD
Passives
PIERCING SPEAR
SPEAR WALL
BURNING LIGHT
BALANCED WARRIOR
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DAWN'S WRATH
Ultimate: NOVA
Morph 1: SOLAR PRISON
Morph 2: SOLAR DISTURBANCE
Active Abilities
Active 1: SUN FIRE
Morph 1: VAMPIRES BANE
Morph 2: REFLECTIVE LIGHT
Active 2: SOLAR FLARE
Morph 1: DARK FLARE
Morph 2: SOLAR BARRAGE
Active 3: BACKLASH
Morph 1: PURIFYING LIGHT
Morph 2: POWER OF THE LIGHT
Active 4: ECLIPSE
Morph 1: TOTAL DARK
Morph 2: UNSTABLE CORE
Active 5: RADIANT DESTRUCTION
Morph 1: RADIANT GLORY
Morph 2: RADIANT OPPRESSION
Passives
ENDURING RAYS
PRISM
ILLUMINATE
RESTORING SPIRIT
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RESTORING LIGHT
Ultimate: RIGHT OF PASSAGE
Morph 1: REMEMBRANCE
Morph 2: PRACTICED INCANTATION
Active Abilities
Active 1: RUSHED CEREMONY
Morph 1: HONOR THE DEAD
Morph 2: BREATH OF LIFE
Active 2: HEALING RITUAL
Morph 1: RITUAL OF REBIRTH
Morph 2: LINGERING RITUAL
Active 3: RESTORING AURA
Morph 1: RADIANT AURA
Morph 2: REPENTANCE
Active 4: CLEANSING RITUAL
Morph 1: PURIFYING RITUAL
Morph 2: EXTENDED RITUAL
Active 5: RUNE FOCUS
Morph 1: CHANNELED FOCUS
Morph 2: RESTORING FOCUS
Passives
MENDING
FOCUSED HEALING
LIGHT WEAVER
MASTER RITUALIST
Edited by Atarax on 16 February 2015 02:5150 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking3 -
Atarax✭✭✭Class Comparisons (Part 1/4)
[UPDATING NOW]
Class Comparisons
TL:DR
I break down the various abilities into buckets and compare them against each other, then make suggestions on how to level the playing-field, usually favoring making various abilities available in the guild or alliance skill-lines (so you can give everyone access to equivalent abilities instead of having to tweak the classes without) over class-specific changes.
/TL:DR
Please note, the balance changes suggested here are only needed if Devs do not open up all classes on a single character. If the Devs decide to open up the classes on a single character through the Champion system as I suggest, then this conversation is no longer needed. In fact, the Devs could implement even more unique class abilities and differences in abilities between the classes, and still maintain balance, as everyone would ultimately be able to access all active and passive abilities, making the system (but not neccesarily individual builds) balanced.
This section is meant to serve as a baseline for balancing the system assuming classes remain restricted to 1 per character. I compare all 4 classes against each other to assess their relative access to buffs, debuffs, dps (on paper), ultimate generation, ability costs, damage mitigation, healing, utility, mobility, etc. I also have a section for each class indicating suggested changes to bring them in line with the "best in class" one way or another (note, as this approach will be in-line with the principles in the first post, this would likely result in all classes being more powerful than they are now, so there would probably need to be changes to NPC health and abilities, and PC health to compensate).
If a class does not have similar functionality, but can access an ability through some other unrestricted (i.e. not Vampire, Werewolf, or weapon) skill line, then it will be listed and considered in the context of balance. To the extent possible, I make recommendations to buff universal abilities over class abilities in these cases since everyone can access them. The goal here is to make abilities more attractive overall, to increase the options and trade-offs for players when deciding their builds.
It is only the things that other classes can't do that become an issue for class balance. This is what makes some class Passives so inherantly disbalancing in the long run to the extent that they can affect non-class abilities and are not available to all player characters. Presumably, with Spellcrafting, we'll be able to design spells that do the same things as the class abilities, so only passives would be gated and be an issue.
Devs will probably need to increase game difficulty overall if they implement all of this.
Comprehensive List of Possible Balance Changes by Class (if balancing continues as it's headed)
Affecting All:General Mechanics:Dragonknight:
-Ensure experience points gained per amount of time invested is approximately equivalent regardless of play style (ex. Crafting, PvP, Dungeons, Questing, Exploring, Raiding, Grinding)
Rationale: 1) Players like different styles of play and shouldn't be penalized for doing so (i.e. "play as you want") 2) if one mode of play generates clearly superior experience gains, everyone will engage in that game play once the Champion system goes live.
-Give everyone the ability to map a key such that when held down, causes Ground Targeted AOE abilities to instantly fire at the location of the target, or if no target is present, instantly fire at the feet of the caster
Rationale: Makes ground targeted AOE abilities (such as Sorc lightning splash) function similarly to point blank aoes 2) sometimes the game bugs out and it's hard to drop the ground targeted AOEs
-For abilities such as Shield Charge, Ambush, Critical Charge, etc. that cause players to charge a target, 1) increase range to 28 meters across the board and 2) cause them to fire and carry the player to maximum range in cases where a) they have no target selected (allowing them to be used for escape purposes) or b) where the target is out of range (allowing them to be used for chase purposes)
Rationale: 1) Gives all classes an equivalent / counter to Bolt Escape (which can be reverted to its original, pre-nerf cost) 2) gives additional functionality to these abilities, making them more useful and fun 3) gives everyone a bit more mobility 4) If I can lunge 25 yards AT someone who might stab me with a sword, why can't I lunge 25 yards into an open field of daisies?
-Only allow one damage shield to be active at a time, new damage shields cast will only apply if they will provide more mitigation than the mitigation remaining from the existing shield
Rationale: 1) Damage shield stacking shouldn't be possible 2) Will promote teamwork as people will be more likely to communication around avaialable damage shields and who should be casting them, freeing up ability slots for other players 3) with changes suggested, it's possible that there will be a lot more damage shields flying around, so chances are people will prefer higher mitigation over increased duration
-Make crafting writs reward points toward alliance ranks; also incorporate Undaunted-focused crafting writs that give Undaunted skill
Rationale: 1) Players contributing to writs are, according to the lore, contributing to the war effort (or the undaunted guild) 2) Gives those players who spend time crafting a way to keep up with PvP / undaunted progression and earn the achievements / skills to some extent, even if it's slower 3) some of the balance suggestions I give below make use of the Alliance and Undaunted skill lines
-For any class passive that reduces costs of ALL abilities either 1) give to everyone 2) restrict to class-specific abilities and balance those appropriately or 3) remove from the game
Rationale:
Ultimate changes:
-Align ultimate costs & effectiveness such that all classes have a 225, 125, 50 cost ability with similar effectiveness
-Remove all class passives that affect ultimate costs or increase ultimate generation
-Make triggering ALL abilities generate 2 ultimate every time you trigger the ability (as long as you're in combat)
Rationale: 1) levelizes ultimate generation and costs across classes 2) speeds up generation somewhat from where we are now 3) frees up passive slots for more interesting class-specific passives
New Undaunted Ultimate: Face Your Fear:
Active changes:
-Change Trapping webs & morphs: align cost and damage of the base ability with Searing Strikes (412 damage + 1320 over 10.5 seconds) , have it spawn spiders on cast (rather than be a synergy) but make the 795 damage be damage over time as indicated; if recast, does the direct damage component (412 damage) and refreshes duration of dot and spiders without interrupting ticks or attacks (and resummons a spider if it's not there); one morph adds a poison dot from spiders (magicka), the other can cause Fear and is stamina-based.
Rationale: 1) gives a spammable, non-class or weapon-locked, non-execute, single-target DPS ability (Sorcerer's rejoice!) for both Magicka and Stamina builds 2) gives a Stamina-based way for people to generate Fear 3) Gives everyone access to "pets" 4) summoning spiders is cool. 5) Sorceres can still have their pets on top of this (and still use Crystal Shards), other classes have other abilities that can be spammed alongside this to up DPS.
-Guard and its morphs ----> change to "Raze the Keep" (): AOE reduce armor and spell resistance
Rationale: 1) Guard seems lackluster for an end-tree ability, I can only really see using it on my DK after I pop Magma Armor. 2) Gives all classes access to 3) Will further incentivize people to not clump up in PvP 3) helps all classes solo places like Craglorn a bit easier
New Soul Magic Ability: Soul Rend (execute style)
New Soul Magic Ability: Soul Mend (heal)
Entropy change: Give Major Sorcery & 100% chance to heal
Passive Changes
Soul Magic
-Reduced ultimate cost
-Generate ultimate when using abilities
Undaunted
-Reduced ability costs
-Spell resistanceGeneral:Nightblade:
-Shifting Standard tooltip states that it reduces Ultimate Cost when it no longer does, please fix
Ultimates:
Shift Dragon Leap (and rebalance) to an ability (see Movement below for more reasons for this), and replace with a 50 ultimate cost single target damage ultimate.-Dark cloak & morphs to absorb 4 projectiles for 4s or give damage shieldSorcerer-Critical Surge Morph: change to restore Magicka & Stamina on Critical hitsTemplar
-Streak morph to absorb 4 projectiles 4sEdited by Atarax on 16 February 2015 14:1250 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking1 -
Atarax✭✭✭Passives Comparisons Part 2/
Passives Comparison
Dragonknight:-Increases the damage of flame abilities' burning effect by 33%/66%Nightblade:
-Damaging enemies with Ardent Flame abilities also reduces their movement speed by 15%/30% for 2/4 seconds
-Increases duration of Fiery Breath, Searing Strike, and Dragonknight Standard Abilities by 2/3 seconds (and their damage increased by 3% for the second point)
-Increases the damage of flame-based aoes by 3%/6%
-Block an additional 5%/10% damage
-Increases healing received by 6%/12% while a Draconic Power ability is active
-Increases health recovery by 2%/5% for each Draconic Power ability slotted
-Increases Spell Resistance by 1000/2500
-Increases duration of Earthen Heart abilities by 10% / 20%
-Activating an Ultimate restores Health, Magicka, and Stamina in amounts increased by 35%/70% of the Ultimate's cost.
-Activating an Earthen Heart Ability grants 1/2 additional Ultimate and gives Minor Brutality to all allies within 30m, increasing Weapon damage by 5% for 10/20 seconds.
-Activating an Earthen Hearth Ability restores 2%/5% stamina-Increase Weapon and Spell Damage while invisible or stealthed by 5%/10%, plus stealthed attacks stun for 100% longer (unless they're running magelight, which everyone in PvP likely will be).Sorcerer:
-Killing an enemy with an Assasination ability (Death Stroke, Assassin's Blade, or Teleport Strike), restores 712/1428 Magicka over 6 seconds
-Increases Critical Strike Rating for each Assassination ability slotted current bonus 0/0.
-Increases Critical Strike damage by 5%/10%; successful critical hits give nearby allies Major Savagery (Weapon Crit increases by 629) for 10/20 seconds.
-Increases stamina regeneration by 15%/30%
-Activating a Shadow Ability (Shadow Cloak, Veiled Strike, Path of Darkness, Aspect of Terror, Summon Shade) gives you Major Ward and Major Resolve (increases Spell resistance and Armor by 5120 for 2/4 seconds, duration increased for each peice of Heavy Armor Equipped)
-Each Shadow Ability slotted increases your Max Health by 2%/3%
-Increases duration of Shadow abilities (Shadow Cloak, Path of Darkness, Aspect of Terror, Summon Shade) by 8%/15%
-Drinking a potion gives you 6/12 Ultimate (seriously? you're joking right)
-Increases Max Magicka by 4%/8% while a siphoning ability is slotted.
-Increases the effectiveness of your Healing by 2%/3% for each Siphoning Ability (Soul Shred, Strife, Agony, Cripple, Siphoning Strikes, Drain Power) slotted
-Activating a siphoning ability grants 1/2 additional ultimate with a 6 second cooldown, while gaining ultimate (seriously? the only class with a 6 second cooldown on a passive that gives increased ultimate generation for using actives?)-Reduces Magicka and Stamina costs for all abilities by 3%/5%Templar:
-Hitting an enemy with a Dark Magic ability (Negate Magic, Crystal Shard, Encase, Rune Prison, Dark Exchange, Daedric Mines) heals you for 4%/8% of Max Health (so approximately 1,600 health per cast for a 20,000 health character).
-Increases duration of Dark Magic abilities by 10%/20%
-Activating a Dark Magic ability ability (Negate Magic, Crystal Shard, Encase, Rune Prison, Dark Exchange, Daedric Mines) grants Minor Prophecy to nearby allies, increasing Spell Crit by 629 for 10/20 seconds.
-When one of your summoned creatures is killed or unsummoned, you're restored for 10%/20% of your Max Magicka. (a bit "meh")
-Reduces the cost of Ultimate abilities by 8%/15% (this is unbalancing to the extent that it affects non-Sorc ultimates, which it currently does).
-Increases your Health recovery by 10%/20% when a Daedric Summoning ability is slotted.
-Winged twilight deals 5%/10% more damage, Familiary and clannfear gain 10%/20% movement speed, and Storm Atronach's attack range is increased by 15%/30%
-Increases Magicka Recovery by 5%/10%
-Increases damage of Storm Calling abilities (Overload, Mages' Fury, Lightning Form, Lightning Splash, Surge, Bolt Escape) by 3%/5%-Increases damage bonus for critical strikes 5%/10% and damage against blocking targets by 5%/10% if an Aedric Spear ability (Radial Sweep, Puncturing Strikes, Piercing Javelin, Focused Charge, Spear Shards, Sun Shield) is slottedAnalysis:
-Increases amount of damage blocked from melee attacks by 7%/15%
-Gives 25% chance to do 218/437 extra Magic Damage any time you use an Aedric Spear ability (Radial Sweep, Puncturing Strikes, Piercing Javelin, Focused Charge, Spear Shards, Sun Shield)
-Increases Weapon Damage 3%/6% and Spell Resistance 1000/2000
-Increases duration of Dawns Wrath abilities (Nova, Sun Fire, Solar Flare, Backlash, Eclipse, Radient Destruction) by 10%/20%
-Activating a Dawn's Wrath ability (Radial Sweep, Puncturing Strikes, Piercing Javelin, Focused Charge, Spear Shards, Sun Shield) grants 1/2 Ultimate. This can only occur once every 0 seconds.
-Activating a Dawn's Wrath ability grants nearby allies Minor Sorcery (increases Spell Damage by 5%) for 10/20 seconds
-Reduces Magicka, Stamina, and Ultimate ability costs 2%/4%
-Increases effect of Restoring Light abilities (Right of Passage, Rushed Ceremony, Healing Ritual, Restoring Aura, Cleansing Ritual, Rune Focus) by up to 5%/10%
-Increases healing effects of Restoring Light abilities by 15%/30% for allies within Rite of Passage, Cleansing Ritual, and Rune Focus areas.
-Increases duration of Restoring Aura by 10%/20%, Healing Ritual Grants 1/2 Ultimate for allies under 60% health, Channeling Rite of Passage grants a 6500/12500 bonus to Armor and Spell Resistance.
-Increases resurrection speed 10%/20%, resurrected allies return with 50%/100% more Health, and gives you a 50% chance to gain a soul gem after resurrection.The biggest problem with the existing balance in the long run (assuming that classes aren't opened up as I propose, and spell-crafting will allow the construction of active abilities that do the same things as class abilities) are passive abilities that have an effect on abilities OUTSIDE the class. When a class-restricted passive affects ALL abilities, it gives that class an unbalanced advantage over other classes in that area when using non-class abilities. The list of these abilities, and suggested changes, is as follows:
Dragonknight Passives:
-Increases the damage of flame abilities' burning effect by 33%/66%
Fix:
-Implement a passive (in Soul Magic since there's an open spot? Call it "Soul Power?") that increases all damage over time effects (which may need to be balanced to compensate) by 33%/66% and replace this passive with something that affects only Dragonknight Abilities or does not create disbalance (ex. gives DKs an ability they otherwise lack access to)
Rationale: 1) Coupled with Dark Elf racial passives, this can result in disbalanced fire damage over time. 2) Gives Dragonknights an advantage over other classes when using non-Dragonknight flame-inducing abilities
-Increases the damage of flame-based aoes by 3%/6%
Fix:
-Add this passive to Mages guild passive Mage Adept (a somewhat lackluster passive as it is now) and have it effect whatever the damage type is of the staff equipped and replace the DK passive with something that only applies specificaly to DK abilities that can be balanced
Rationale: Similar to X, 1) provides disbalanced fire aoe damage for Dragonknights on its own
-Block an additional 5%/10% damage
Fix (only buff approach needed): Combine with the block portion of Templar passive Piercing Spear and move to Fighter's Guild passive Intimidating Presence (an otherwise medicore passive) such that it increases block mitigation for all attacks for everyone by 7%/15%; replace the Templar passive with a Templar-ability-specific passive, and the DK passive with a DK-ability-specific-passive.
Access to Buffs / DebuffsArmor buffs
Minor Resolve: Small increase to physical resistance (960 Armor).
All:
Ultimate:
-Sturdy Horn (War Horn Morph) 250 cost, 30 second duration: Increase Max Magicka, Health, and Stamina for you and your allies by 15%, Aggressive Horn morph gives Major Force for 8 seconds, the other morph gives Minor Ward and Minor Resolve, increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 960 for 36 seconds.
Dragonknight:
-Stone Giant (3591 Magicka), morph of Stonefist Ability, grants Minor Resolve for 16.5 seconds + does 494 damage & 3.3 second knock down to a single target
Nightblade:
Active:
-Blur and morphs (3351 Magicka cost, 26s duration): Gives Major Evasion (20% Dodge chance); morphs give Minor Resolve (960 Armor) for 20s, or Major Expedition (40% movement) for 4s
Sorcerer:
-Bound Armor (3962 Magicka, toggle): Grants Minor Resolve (960 Armor) and increases Max Magicka by 5%; Bound Armaments makes it cost Stamina and increase Heavy Attacks by 11% and increase Max Stamina instead, Bound Aegis morph also grants Minor Ward (960 spell resistance).
Major Resolve: Larger increase to physical resistance (5120 Armor).
All:
-Immovable ability and its morphs (13.5s+duration, 4309 Stamina cost), gives Major Resolve & Major Ward, increasing armor & spell resistance by 5120 and immunity to knockback and disabling effects for 5 seconds. One morph reduces break free cost with more heavy armor equipped, the other increases duration.
Dragonknight:
Active:
-Spiked Armor ability and morphs (duration 20 seconds, cost 2872 Magicka): Gives Major Resolve & Major Ward, plus a 146 damage reflection, and either a 786 aoe dot or 10% Max Health damage shield on activation
Nightblade:
Passive:
-Activating a Shadow Ability (Shadow Cloak, Veiled Strike, Path of Darkness, Aspect of Terror, Summon Shade) gives you Major Ward and Major Resolve (increases Spell resistance and Armor by 5120 for 2/4 seconds, duration increased for each peice of Heavy Armor Equipped, up to 175% or 11 seconds in full heavy)
Sorcerer:
-Lightning Form and its morphs (instant cast, 15s duration, 3339 Magicka cost): Gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), also does 84 PBAOE dps; Thundering Presence morph increases duration to 20s, Boundless Storm morph gives Major Expedition (increasing move speed by 40%) for 6 seconds.
Templar:
-Rune Focus and its morphs (instant cast, self, 15s duration, 1646/940 cost): gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), effects dissipate after 8s if you leave the rune area; Channeld Focus morph recovers 120 Magicka every 0.5s while near rune, Restoring Focus morph gives Minor Vitality (8% incoming healing).
Reduce Armor debuffs
Minor Fracture: Small decrease to target’s physical resistance.
Major Fracture: Larger decrease to the target’s physical resistance (5120).
All: None, other than weapon skills
Dragonknight:
Active:
-Burning Breath (stamina morph cone AOE ability, radius 10m, cost 2394 stamina, 8 second duration); does 940 flame damage over duration and gives Major Fracture (5120 Armor reduction).
Nightblade:
Active:
-Mark Target & morphs (single target, 2394 Magicka, 50m range, 20s/27s duration); afflict enemy with Major Fracture & Major Breach (reducing Armor and Spell resistance by 5120), if the enemy dies, you are restored for 40% of your Max Health; Piercing Mark increases duration and lets you see targets that stealth, Reapers Mark gives you Major Berserk, increasing damage by 25% for 5 seconds.
-Veiled strike surprise attack morph (2394 Magicka / stamina, 5m range, instant): does 822 Magic / Physical damage + stuns and sets enemy offbalance for 4.3 seconds when attacking from stealth / invisibility; surprise attack morph afflicts enemy with Major Fracture (5120 Armor debuff) when attacking from stealth / invis, concealed weapon gives 22% movement speed while stealthed / invis
Spell Resistance buffs
Minor Ward: Small increase to spell resist (960).
All:
Ultimate:
-Sturdy Horn (War Horn Morph) 250 cost, 30 second duration: Increase Max Magicka, Health, and Stamina for you and your allies by 15%, Aggressive Horn morph gives Major Force for 8 seconds, the other morph gives Minor Ward and Minor Resolve, increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 960 for 36 seconds.
Dragonknight:
-Reflective Plate ability (morph of Reflective Scale) 3351 Magicka cost: gives Minor Ward for 20s, plus reflects 4 projectiles over 4 seconds.
Nightblade: None
Sorcerer:
-Bound Armor (3962 Magicka, toggle): Grants Minor Resolve (960 Armor) and increases Max Magicka by 5%; Bound Armaments makes it cost Stamina and increase Heavy Attacks by 11% and increase Max Stamina instead, Bound Aegis also grants Minor Ward (960 spell resistance).
Major Ward: Larger increase to spell resist (5120).
All:
-Immovable ability and its morphs (13.5s+duration, 4309 Stamina cost), gives Major Resolve & Major Ward, increasing armor & spell resistance by 5120 and immunity to knockback and disabling effects for 5 seconds. One morph reduces break free cost with more heavy armor equipped, the other increases duration.
Dragonknight:
Active:
-Spiked Armor ability and morphs (duration 20 seconds, cost 2872 Magicka): Gives Major Resolve & Major Ward, plus a 146 damage reflection, and either a 786 aoe dot or 10% Max Health damage shield on activation
Nightblade:
Passive:
-Activating a Shadow Ability (Shadow Cloak, Veiled Strike, Path of Darkness, Aspect of Terror, Summon Shade) gives you Major Ward and Major Resolve (increases Spell resistance and Armor by 5120 for 2/4 seconds, duration increased for each peice of Heavy Armor Equipped, up to 175% or 11 seconds in full heavy)
Sorcerer:
Active:
-Lightning Form and its morphs (instant cast, 15s duration, 3339 Magicka cost): Gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), also does 84 PBAOE dps; Thundering Presence morph increases duration to 20s, Boundless Storm morph gives Major Expedition (increasing move speed by 40%) for 6 seconds.
Templar:
Active:
-Rune Focus and its morphs (instant cast, self, 15s duration, 1646/940 cost): gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), effects dissipate after 8s if you leave the rune area; Channeld Focus morph recovers 120 Magicka every 0.5s while near rune, Restoring Focus morph gives Minor Vitality (8% incoming healing).
Reduce Spell Resistance debuffs
Minor Breach: Small decrease to target’s spell resist.
Major Breach: Larger decrease to target’s spell resist.
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade:
Active:
-Mark Target & morphs (single target, 2394 Magicka, 50m range, 20s/27s duration); afflict enemy with Major Fracture & Major Breach (reducing Armor and Spell resistance by 5120), if the enemy dies, you are restored for 40% of your Max Health; Piercing Mark increases duration and lets you see targets that stealth, Reapers Mark gives you Major Berserk, increasing damage by 25% for 5 seconds.
Sorcerer:
Templar:
Damage Taken buffs
Minor Protection: Reduces damage taken by 8%
All:
Circle of Protection (7053 Stamina cost, 10 second duration, 5 meter radius): AOE hotspot, morphs give either Major Fortitude or do aoe fear + 397 damage to undead and daedra in the area
Dragonknight: none
Nightblade: none
Sorcerer:
Ultimate:
-Suppression field morph of Negate Magic (207 cost 225 base, 10.4s duratiion, 8m radius, 28 meter range, ground target, instant cast) stuns (silences in the case of PCs) everything in the area and dispells enemy placed effects; Suppression Field morph provides allies with Minor Protection (8% damage reduction), while Absorbtion Field gives Major Expedition, Fortitude, Intellect, and Endurance (increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina regen 20% and Movement speed 40%) for 12 seconds.
Major Protection: Reduces damage taken by 30%
Other: Reduce damage taken by x% (stacks)
Dragonknight: Standard of Might (Ultimate) 17%
Dodge buffs
Minor Evasion: Increases dodge chance by 5%
Major Evasion: Increases dodge chance by 20%
-All: Evasion and its morphs (3830 Stamina cost, 20 second duration), also removes and grants immunity to snares for up to 3.5 seconds or increases duration for each peice of medium armor equipped.
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade:
Active:
-Blur and morphs (3351 Magicka cost, 26s duration): Gives Major Evasion (20% Dodge chance); morphs give Minor Resolve (960 Armor) for 20s, or Major Expedition (40% movement) for 4s
Reduce Damage debuffs
Minor Maim: Reduces target’s damage dealt by 15%
All: none
Dragonknight:
-Choking Talons (morph of Dark talons ability): 3591 Magicka cost, 4 second duration, AOE with 477 damage + Impale (795 damage) synergy, gives Minor Maim (15% damage reduction) to all enemies in the area for
Nightblade:
-Aspect of Terror & morphs (3351 Magicka, 6m/3m radius): fears two enemies for 4.3 seconds, Mass Hysteria Morph gives Minor Maim (15% damage reduction) and 50% movement speed reduction for 4 seconds after recovering, Manifestation of Terror plants a trap and makes the fear AOE.
-Summon Shade & morphs (2394 Magicka , 28m range, 16.2s duration, instant cast): summon a shade to attack enemy, deals 238/318 Magic Damage per Second and causes Minor Maim (reduces enemy damage by 15% for 4 seconds)l Dark Shades summons 2 shades, doubling damage, Shadow Image summons an archer shade which does increased damage from range and lets you teleport to the shade.
Major Maim: Reduces target’s damage dealt by 30%
Damage on Next Attack buff
Major Empower: Increases damage of next attack by 20%
All: Might of the GUild (Mage's Guild), gives Empower when any Mages guild ability is used
Dragonknight: Active: Empowering Chains (morph of Fiery Grip)
Nightblade: Active: Ambush (morph of Teleport Strike)
Sorcerer: None
Templar:Active: Solar Flare and its morphs (1.1s cast time/instant, single target/aoe, 28m range, 2822 Magicka): does 1252 Magic Damage and grants Empower (20% damage increase for next attack); Dark Flare morph infects enemies with Major Defile (40% incoming healing reduction) for 6.6s, Solar Barrage Morph does 491 to all enemies and makes the ability instant cast (wow).
Weapon Damage buffs
Minor Brutality: Increases weapon damage by 5%
Dragonknight: Mountain's Blessing passive causes any earthen heart ability to grant 1/2 additional Ultimate and give Minor Brutality to all allies within 30m for 10/20 seconds.
Major Brutality: Increases weapon damage by 20%
All: none
Dragonknight: None, but see Molten weapons buff (40% increase to Heavy Attack damage, the only class in the game with said buff)
Nightblade:
Active:
-Drain power and morphs (2872 Magicka / stamina, 20s duration, 8m radius: deals 400/484 damage aoe and gives Major Brutality (increase weapon damage 20% for 20 seconds); Power Extraction morph increases damage and scales off of stamina, Sap Essence Morph gives Major Brutality and Major Sorcery (20% increase to weapon damage & spell damage) and heals Nightblade and nearby allies for 198+20% more for each enemy hit.
Sorcerer:
-Surge and its morphs (instant cast, 20s duration, 4452 Magicka cost): gives Major Brutality (20% weapon damage increase), while active, critical strikes heal you for 40% of damage done; Power Surge morph also gives Major Sorcery (20% Spell Damage), while Critical Surge causes attacks to heal for 50% instead of 40%.
Other: Increase damage of Heavy Attacks by x%
Dragonknight: Molten Weapons and Morphs increase Heavy Attack Damage by 40% for 8.8 seconds, instant cast, 3830 Magicka (great for 2 hander builds with Momentum).
Spell Damage buffs
Minor Sorcery: Increases spell damage by 5%
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade: None
Sorcerer: None
Templar:
-Activating a Dawn's Wrath ability grants nearby allies Minor Sorcery (increases Spell Damage by 5%) for 10/20 seconds
Major Sorcery: Increases spell damage by 20%
All:
-Entropy and its Morphs (28m range, 12s duration, 1436 Magicka Cost): deals 721 Magic Damage over 12 seconds and returns 224 Health plus an additional 224 every 6 seconds, and gives Major Sorcery, increasing Spell Damage by 20%; one morph causes weapon attacks to have a 15% chance to return 100% of damage as Health, the other increases Max Health by 5%
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade:
-Drain power and morphs (2872 Magicka / stamina, 20s duration, 8m radius: deals 400/484 damage aoe and gives Major Brutality (increase weapon damage 20% for 20 seconds); Power Extraction morph increases damage and scales off of stamina, Sap Essence Morph gives Major Brutality and Major Sorcery (20% increase to weapon damage & spell damage) and heals Nightblade and nearby allies for 198+20% more for each enemy hit.
Sorcerer:
-Surge and its morphs (instant cast, 20s duration, 4452 Magicka cost): gives Major Brutality (20% weapon damage increase), while active, critical strikes heal you for 40% of damage done; Power Surge morph also gives Major Sorcery (20% Spell Damage), while Critical Surge causes attacks to heal for 50% instead of 40%.
Templar:
Critical Damage buffs
Minor Force: Increases critical damage amounts by 15%
Major Force: Increases critical damage amounts by 40%
All:
Ultimate:
-Aggressive Horn (War Horn Morph) 250 cost, 30 second duration: Increase Max Magicka, Health, and Stamina for you and your allies by 15%, Aggressive Horn morph gives Major Force for 8 seconds, the other morph gives Minor Ward and Minor Resolve, increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 960 for 36 seconds.
Weapon Critical Chance buffs
Minor Savagery: Increases weapon critical chance by 3%
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade: None
Nightblade:
Major Savagery: Increases weapon critical chance by 10%
All:
-Expert Hunter: 2872 stamina, 15s duration, gives Major Savagery and +4% (15% versus Daedra) chance to deal 795 Magic Damage; morphs restore 750 stamina per attack against undead and daedra, or do 1193 more damage to undead and daedra in stealth.
Dragonknight:
Active:
-Flames of Oblivion (Inferno ability morph): toggle ability, also gives Major Prophecy
Nightblade:
Passive:
-Hemmorage: Increases Critical Strike damage by 5%/10%; successful critical hits give nearby allies Major Savagery (Weapon Crit increases by 629) for 10/20 seconds. (Most likely mitigated in PvP)
Socerer:
-None
Templar:
-Biting Jabs morph of Puncturing Strikes (1.1s channel time, cone AOE, 8m radius, 2571 Magicka/stamina cost): strikes 4x for 117 Magic Damage each, nearest enemy takes 140% additional damage and is knocked back on the last hit; Biting Jabs morph gives Major Savagery (2099 Weapon Crit) and scales from Stamina, Puncturing Sweep morph heals for 40% of damage done (approximately 200 per enemy)
Spell Critical Chance buffs
Minor Prophecy: Increases spell critical chance by 3% (629)
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade: None
Sorcerer:
Passive:
-Exploitation: Activating a Dark Magic ability ability (Negate Magic, Crystal Shard, Encase, Rune Prison, Dark Exchange, Daedric Mines) grants Minor Prophecy to nearby allies, increasing Spell Crit by 629 for 10/20 seconds.
Major Prophecy: Increases spell critical chance by 10% (2099)
All:
-Magelight and its morphs: Toggle ability, 5% Magicka Reduction, plus gives Major Prophecy (increase Spell Crit by 2099) morphs either make it a 2% Magicka gain, or allow you to see stealthed or invisible players, reduce stealth attacks against you by 50%, and prevents being stunned by stealth.
Dragonknight:
-Inferno (ability) and its morphs, toggle ability, also can give Major Savagery
Nightblade:
-None
Sorcerer:
-None
Templar:
-Sun Fire and its morphs (instant cast, single target/3 targets, 28m range, 2352 Magicka): does 494 damage, snares for 40%, and does 597 damage over 5.5s, also gives Major Prophecy (spell crit up 2099, how long?); Vampires Bane morph increases damage over time to 864 over 7.7 seconds, Reflective Light morph causes ability to affect 2 additional targets.
Healing Done buffs
Minor Mending: Increases healing done by 8%
Major Mending: Increases healing done by 30%
All:
Dragonknight:
-Igneous Shield (Obsidian Shield ability Morph), 3591 Magicka, 22 second duration + gives nearby allies a 1314 damage shield (100% increase for caster)
Healing Taken buffs
Minor Vitality: Increases healing taken by 8%
All:
-Bone Shield and its morphs (3351 stamina cost, 6 second duration): Gives 30% of Max Health damage shield to you, Allies can activate Bone Wall synergy, giving a 60% Max Health damage shield for 10 seconds and affecting up to 4 allies; one morph gives 30% damage reflection for the caster, the other gives Minor Vitality (8% increase to healing received) to allies from the synergy.
Dragonknight:
Active:
-Coagulating Blood (morph) ability 20s duration, 3830 cost, (also heals 33% of missing health and gives Major Fortitude for 20% health regen).
Nightblade:
Active:
-Swallow Soul Strife morph (1211 Magicka cost, 28 meter range, 10s duration, instant cast): does 740 Magic Damage, healing Nightblade for 25% of the damage inflicted every 2 seconds; Funnel Health morph heals two allies as well, Swallow Soul gives Minor Vitality (8% increase in healing received)
Sorcerer: None
Templar:
-Channeled Focus morph of Rune Focus (instant cast, self, 15s duration, 1646/940 cost): gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), effects dissipate after 8s if you leave the rune area; Channeld Focus morph recovers 120 Magicka every 0.5s while near rune, Restoring Focus morph gives Minor Vitality (8% incoming healing).
Major Vitality: Increases healing taken by 30%
Reduce Healing Taken debuffs
Minor Defile: Reduces target’s healing taken by 15%
Major Defile: Reduces target’s healing taken by 40%
Dragonknight: Dragonknight Standard (Ultimate) and its morphs, AOE
Reduce Max Health debuffs
Minor Mangle: reduces target’s max health by 10%
Major Mangle: reduces target’s max health by 40%
Health Recovery buffs
Minor Fortitude: increases health recovery by 10%
Major Fortitude: increases health recovery by 20%
All:
-Blood Alter & its Morphs:
-Balance, Equilibrium Morph, exchanges 2623 Health for 1055 Magicka, and gives Major Fortitude for 17 seconds, but prevents self-healing for 4 seconds.
-Circle of Protection (7053 Stamina cost, 10 second duration, 5 meter radius): AOE hotspot, morphs give either Major Fortitude or do aoe fear + 397 damage to undead and daedra in the area
Dragonknight: Dragon Blood ability and its morphs 20s duration, 3830 cost, (also heals 33% of missing health and gives Minor Vitality or Major Endurance with morphs).
Nightblade: None
Sorceror:
Active:
-Absorbtion Field morph of Negate Magic (207 cost 225 base, 10.4s duratiion, 8m radius, 28 meter range, ground target, instant cast) stuns (silences in the case of PCs) everything in the area and dispells enemy placed effects; Suppression Field morph provides allies with Minor Protection (8% damage reduction), while Absorbtion Field gives Major Expedition, Fortitude, Intellect, and Endurance (increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina regen 20% and Movement speed 40%) for 12 seconds.
Magicka Recovery buffs
Minor Intellect: Increases magicka recovery by 10%
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade: None
-Summon Winged Twilight (1.5s cast time, 6293 Magicka cost, permanent): Winged Twilight's attack deals 557 shock damage +15%, Summon Restoring Twilight causes pet to grant Minor Intellect (10% Magicka Regeneration) to allies, while Summon Twilight Matriarch will cause pet to heal you for 1049 damage when low(35%) health, but only once every 30 seconds.
Major Intellect: Increases magicka recovery by 20%
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade: None
Sorcerer:
Ultimate:
-Absorbtion Field morph of Negate Magic (207 cost 225 base, 10.4s duratiion, 8m radius, 28 meter range, ground target, instant cast) stuns (silences in the case of PCs) everything in the area and dispells enemy placed effects; Suppression Field morph provides allies with Minor Protection (8% damage reduction), while Absorbtion Field gives Major Expedition, Fortitude, Intellect, and Endurance (increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina regen 20% and Movement speed 40%) for 12 seconds.
Stamina Recovery buffs
Minor Endurance: Increases stamina recovery by 10%
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade:
-Grim Focus, Relentless focus morph (2934 cost, 20 second duration): 8 light and/or heavy attack stacks to turn into Assassin's Will, firing for 1478/1594 Magic Damage, also grants Minor Berserk (8% damage buff); Relentless Focus morph gives Minor Endurance (10% stamina regen), Merciless Resolves gives Assassin's Will more damage + a 40%, 5s, snare
Major Endurance: Increases stamina recovery by 20%
All: None
Dragonknight: Green Dragon Blood ability 20s duration, 3830 cost, (also heals 33% of missing health and gives Major Fortitude).
Nightblade: None
Sorcerer:
Ultimate:
-Absorbtion Field morph of Negate Magic (207 cost 225 base, 10.4s duratiion, 8m radius, 28 meter range, ground target, instant cast) stuns (silences in the case of PCs) everything in the area and dispells enemy placed effects; Suppression Field morph provides allies with Minor Protection (8% damage reduction), while Absorbtion Field gives Major Expedition, Fortitude, Intellect, and Endurance (increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina regen 20% and Movement speed 40%) for 12 seconds.
Movement Speed buffs
Minor Expedition: Increases movement speed by 10%
All:
-Rapid Maneuver and its morphs (7182 Stamina cost, 22 second duration, 20 meter radius): Grants Major Expedition and Major Gallop, increasing Movement Speed & Mounted Speed by 40%. Also makes you immune to snares and immobilizations until you attack. One morph removes all ssnares and immobilizes, the other grants Minor Expedition, giving 10% move increase, after attacking.
Major Expedition: Increases movement speed by 40%
All:
-Rapid Maneuver and its morphs (7182 Stamina cost, 22 second duration, 20 meter radius): Grants Major Expedition and Major Gallop, increasing Movement Speed & Mounted Speed by 40%. Also makes you immune to snares and immobilizations until you attack. One morph removes all ssnares and immobilizes, the other grants Minor Expedition, giving 10% move increase, after attacking.
Dragonknight: none
Nightblade:
Active:
-Blur and morphs (3351 Magicka cost, 26s duration): Gives Major Evasion (20% Dodge chance); morphs give Minor Resolve (960 Armor) for 20s, or Major Expedition (40% movement) for 4s
-Path of Darkness & morphs (3112 Magicka, 10.8 second cast, frontal cone); does 45/58 Magic Damage every 0.5s to enemies on path, and gives Nightblade Major Expidition (40% move speed) while on path; Twisting Path increases damage and area, refreshing path heals allies and Nightblade for 63 every 0.5s.
-Cripple and its morphs (instant cast, 28m range, 8s duration, 2872 Magicka Cost): steals 40% movement speed from enemy and returns it as Major Expedition (40% increase), deals 1405 damage over 8s; debilitate morph returns 2520 of magica cost if target dies while affected, Crippling grasp morph does 238 Magic Damage and is immobilized on cast.
Sorcerer:
Ultimate:
-Absorbtion Field morph of Negate Magic (207 cost 225 base, 10.4s duratiion, 8m radius, 28 meter range, ground target, instant cast) stuns (silences in the case of PCs) everything in the area and dispells enemy placed effects; Suppression Field morph provides allies with Minor Protection (8% damage reduction), while Absorbtion Field gives Major Expedition, Fortitude, Intellect, and Endurance (increasing Health, Magicka, and Stamina regen 20% and Movement speed 40%) for 12 seconds.
Active:
-Lightning Form and its morphs (instant cast, 15s duration, 3339 Magicka cost): Gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), also does 84 PBAOE dps; Thundering Presence morph increases duration to 20s, Boundless Storm morph gives Major Expedition (increasing move speed by 40%) for 6 seconds.
Major Gallop: Increases Mounted Speed by 40%
All:
-Rapid Maneuver and its morphs (7182 Stamina cost, 22 second duration, 20 meter radius): Grants Major Expedition and Major Gallop, increasing Movement Speed & Mounted Speed by 40%. Also makes you immune to snares and immobilizations until you attack. One morph removes all ssnares and immobilizes, the other grants Minor Expedition, giving 10% move increase, after attacking.
Ultimate Gain
Minor Heroism: Increases Ultimate gain by 1
Major Heroism: Increases Ultimate gain by 3
Damage Increase buffs (new)
Minor Berserk: Increases all damage done by 8%.
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade:
Active:
-Grim Focus & morphs (2934 cost, 20 second duration): 8 light and/or heavy attack stacks to turn into Assassin's Will, firing for 1478/1594 Magic Damage, also grants Minor Berserk (8% damage buff); Relentless Focus morph gives Minor Endurance (10% stamina regen), Merciless Resolves gives Assassin's Will more damage + a 40%, 5s, snare
Major Berserk: Increases all damage done by 25%.
All: None
Dragonknight: None
Nightblade:
Active:
-Mark Target morph (single target, 2394 Magicka, 50m range, 20s/27s duration); afflict enemy with Major Fracture & Major Breach (reducing Armor and Spell resistance by 5120), if the enemy dies, you are restored for 40% of your Max Health; Piercing Mark increases duration and lets you see targets that stealth, Reapers Mark gives you Major Berserk, increasing damage by 25% for 5 seconds.
Sorcerer:
Ultimate:
-Summon Storm Atronach and its morphs (184 cost 200 base, 18s/25s duration, 28m range, 6m radius, instant, ground target): Summons storm atronach that deals 795/819 Shock Damage in an aoe and stuns for 3 seconds and attacks the nearest enemy, allies can activate Charged Lightning, giving the ally and the atronach Major Berserk, increasing their damage by 25% for 8 seconds; Greater Storm Atronach morph increases damage 15%, duration, and health; Summon Charged Atronach morph does aoe attacks.
Other: Increase damage done by x%
Dragonknight: Standard of Might (Ultimate) 17%)
Bound Armor (3962 Magicka, toggle): Grants Minor Resolve (960 Armor) and increases Max Magicka by 5%; Bound Armaments makes it cost Stamina and increase Heavy Attacks by 11% and increase Max Stamina instead, Bound Aegis also grants Minor Ward (960 spell resistance).
Other: Increase damage from (type) by x%
Dragonknight: Engulfing Flames (cone AOE magicka morph) increases damage enemy takes from flame by 7%
Other: Increase damage of (type) abilities by x
Dragonknight: Molten Whip, increase damage of Ardent Flame Abilities by 70
Damage reduction debuffs (new)
Minor Maim: Reduces the damage your target can do by 15%.
Major Maim: Reduces the damage your target can do by 30%.
Self-Healing
All (excluding resto staff):Actives:Dragonknight:
-Entropy and its Morphs (28m range, 12s duration, 1436 Magicka Cost): deals 721 Magic Damage over 12 seconds and returns 224 Health plus an additional 224 every 6 seconds, and gives Major Sorcery, increasing Spell Damage by 20%; one morph causes weapon attacks to have a 15% chance to return 100% of damage, the other increases Max Health by 5%
-Blood Altar & its morphs (3830 Magicka, 8 meter radius, 33 second duration, 1.5 second cast time), gives Major Fortitude (20% health regen), allies can also use Blood Funnel synergy to heal for 40% of Max Health; one morph gives increased duration, the other causes the synergy to heal for 62%.
-Vigor and its morphs (2394 Stamina, 10 meter radius): Heal self and allies for 1104 over 5 seconds; one morph increases healing to self to 1458, the other increases radius to 15 meters.Ultimates: NoneNightblades:
Actives:
-Burning Embers (ability, Magicka Morph): Heals 30% of damage inflicted when effect ends
-Flame Lash (Lava whip ability morph): Heals DK for 740 when targeting an off-balance enemy, plus stuns for 2 seconds, and sets enemies off-balance when hitting stunned or immobilized enemies
-Dragon Blood ability and its morphs: 3830 cost, restores 33% of missing Health, and gives Major Fortitude (20% Health Regen buff) for 20 seconds, and either Major Endurance (20% stam regeneration) or Minor Vitality (8% increased healing received) for 20s.
-Inhale ability and its morphs: 3591 cost, heals 248 health from up to 3 nearby enemies, and deals 408/491 damage (plus possibly interrupt) or restores 17% of damage done as Magicka
-Passives:
-Activating an ultimate restores Health, Magicka, and Stamina increased by 35%/70% of Ultimate costUltimates:Sorcerer
-Hidden Refresh: Consuming Darkness (200 ultimate, 5 meter radius, 13 second duration, instant cast): reduces damage to you and allies by 30% and reduces enemy movement by 70%, low health allies can activate Hidden Refresh synergy, granting invisibility and healing them for 2790 over 4 seconds; bolstering darkness morph increases damage mitigation on NB to 60%, Veil of Blades does 184 damage every 0.5 seconds.
-Soul Siphon: Soul Shred (150 ultimate, 6m/15m radius, 3.5s duration, instant cast): deals 1193 damage to nearby enemies, an ally can activate Soul Leach to steal 1074 Health; Soul Siphon morph increases radius, eliminates damage but heals everyon for 1193 damage + 397 every 0.5s, Soul Tether stuns enemies for 4.5 seconds and adds a 198 health/damage siphon to all nearby enemies in addition to initial damage.
Actives:
-Assassin's Blade and morphs (5m/15m range, 1675 Magicka/Stamina cost): 412 damage, causes 300% more damage to low health targets; Killer's blade morph makes it cost stamina and heals for 17% of Max Health if target dies within 2 seconds, Impale morph increases range.
-Mark Target & morphs (single target, 2394 Magicka, 50m range, 20s/27s duration); afflict enemy with Major Fracture & Major Breach (reducing Armor and Spell resistance by 5120), if the enemy dies, you are restored for 40% of your Max Health; Piercing Mark increases duration and lets you see targets that stealth, Reapers Mark gives you Major Berserk, increasing damage by 25% for 5 seconds.
-Path of Darkness & morphs (3112 Magicka, 10.8 second cast, frontal cone); does 45/58 Magic Damage every 0.5s to enemies on path, and gives Nightblade Major Expidition (40% move speed) while on path; Twisting Path increases damage and area, refreshing path heals allies and Nightblade for 63 every 0.5s.
-Swallow Soul Strife morph (1211 Magicka cost, 28 meter range, 10s duration, instant cast): does 740 Magic Damage, healing Nightblade for 25% of the damage inflicted every 2 seconds; Funnel Health morph heals two allies as well, Swallow Soul gives Minor Vitality (8% increase in healing received)
-Leeching Strikes morph of Siphoning Strikes (toggle): reduces Weapon and Spell damage by 25%, each basic (light or heavy) attack heals 3% Magicka and Stamina and has a chance to restore 15%, Leeching strikes also heals 2% Health, Siphoning Attacks gives all attacks a chance to restore 15% Magicka and Stamina.
-Power Extraction morph of Drain Essence (2872 Magicka / stamina, 20s duration, 8m radius: deals 400/484 damage aoe and gives Major Brutality (increase weapon damage 20% for 20 seconds); Power Extraction morph increases damage and scales off of stamina, Sap Essence Morph gives Major Brutality and Major Sorcery (20% increase to weapon damage & spell damage) and heals Nightblade and nearby allies for 198+20% more for each enemy hit.Ultimates: NoneTemplar
Actives:
-Dark Exchange and its morphs (4 second channel): heals 1044 Health and 948 Magicka (Stamina) per second for 1544 Stamina (Magicka) per second; Dark Deal morph switches Magicka & Stamina cost/restore, Dark Conversion drains less Stamina.
-Surge and its morphs (instant cast, 20s duration, 4452 Magicka cost): gives Major Brutality (20% weapon damage increase), while active, critical strikes heal you for 40% of damage done; Power Surge morph also gives Major Sorcery (20% Spell Damage), while Critical Surge causes attacks to heal for 50% instead of 40%. (I hear there is an internal cooldown, intended or not, on this healing)
Passives:
-Blood Magic: Hitting an enemey with a Dark Magic ability (Negate Magic, Crystal Shard, Encase, Rune Prison, and Daedric Mines) heals for 4%/8% of Max HealthUltimate:Analysis
-Rite of Passage and it's morphs (4s channel time, targeted area, 20m radius, 4s duration, 123 cost, 125 cost base): Heal allies for 986 every second, cannot move while channeling, but gain immunity to all control effects; Rememberance morph reduces damage to allies in the area by 20%, Practiced Incantation morph increases channel duration by 2s.
Abilities:
-Puncturing Sweep morph of Puncturing Strikes (1.1s channel time, cone AOE, 8m radius, 2571 Magicka/stamina cost): strikes 4x for 117 Magic Damage each, nearest enemy takes 140% additional damage and is knocked back on the last hit; Biting Jabs morph gives Major Savagery (2099 Weapon Crit) and scales from Stamina, Puncturing Sweep morph heals for 40% of damage done (approximately 200 per enemy)
-Purifying Light morph of Backlash (instant, single target, 28m range, 6s duration, 1646 Magicka / Stamina cost): Stores all damage taken for 6s, then releases for 36% increased damage (max 3660); Purifying Light morph reduces damage to 33% increase base, but heals everyone in the area for 266 health every 2 seconds for 6.6s, Power of the Light morph changes to Stamina-based and inflicts Minor Fracture (reducing armor 960) for 6s.
-Eclipse and its morphs (instant cast, 28m range, 5.5s duration, 3998 Magicka): puts target in a sphere that reflects all single target spells back at them for 5.5s; Total Dark morph heals the caster for 596 for each spell reflected, Unstable Core morph causes target to do 397 damage aoe when the effect ends.
-Radiant Destruction and its morphs (2.5s channel time, 28m range, 3.3s duration, 3998 Magicka cost): does 1598 damage over 2.8s and 300% increased damage to low health targets; Radiant Glory morph heals player for 20% of the damage inflicted, Radiant Oppression deals up to 40% more damage in proportion to Magicka.
-Rushed Ceremony and its morphs (instant, area, 28m range, 3998 Magicka): heals self or ally for 1232 Health; Honor the Dead morph restores 15% of ability cost every 2 seconds for 8 seconds when cast on a low health target, Breath of Life morph heals up to 2 additional allies for 596.
-Healing Ritual and its morphs (2s cast time, area, 10m radius, 3292 Magicka cost): heals everyone for 1642 and self for 30% more; Ritual of Rebirth reduces cast time to 1.7s, Lingering Ritual heals an additional 409 after 8s.
-Repentance morph of Restoring Ritual (instant cast, self target, area, 12m radius, 16.5s duration, 3057/0 Magicka cost); while slotted, gain Minor Fortitude, Minor Endurance, and Minor Intellect, increasing Health, Stamina, and Magicka Regeneration by 10%; activate to grant allies Major Fortitude and Major Endurance (increasing health and stamina regen by 20%) for 16.5s; Radiant Aura morph increases radius, Repentance morph restores 795 health and stamina to allies for each corpse in the area and has no cost, but removes option to buff allies with Major Fortitude and Major Endurance.
-Cleansing Ritual and its morphs (instant, area, 12m radius, 3292/2587 Magicka cost): cleanse self from 1 harmful effect and heal allies for 138 every 2s for 12s, allies can activate Purify, removing harmful effects and healing them for 596; Purifying Ritual reduces cost and removes 2 harmful effects from the Templar, Extended Ritual morph increases duration to 16s.
Healing Others
All:-Vigor and its morphs (2394 Stamina, 10 meter radius): Heal self and allies for 1104 over 5 seconds; one morph increases healing to self to 1458, the other increases radius to 15 meters.Dragonknights:
-Necrotic Orb and its morphs (4069 Magicka cost, 5 meter radius, 10 second duration): does 113 aoe damage and ally can activate the synergy, causing the orb to explode for 795 Magic Damage (or healing themselves for 795 health or Magicka depending on morph) and restoring the ally for 395 Magicka over 10 seconds, plus additional Magicka based on the number of enemies hit.-NoneNightblades:Ultimates:Sorcerers:
-Hidden Refresh: Consuming Darkness (200 ultimate, 5 meter radius, 13 second duration, instant cast): reduces damage to you and allies by 30% and reduces enemy movement by 70%, low health allies can activate Hidden Refresh synergy, granting invisibility and healing them for 2790 over 4 seconds; bolstering darkness morph increases damage mitigation on NB to 60%, Veil of Blades does 184 damage every 0.5 seconds.
-Soul Siphon: Soul Shred (150 ultimate, 6m/15m radius, 3.5s duration, instant cast): deals 1193 damage to nearby enemies, an ally can activate Soul Leach to steal 1074 Health; Soul Siphon morph increases radius, eliminates damage but heals everyon for 1193 damage + 397 every 0.5s, Soul Tether stuns enemies for 4.5 seconds and adds a 198 health/damage siphon to all nearby enemies in addition to initial damage.
Abilities:
-Path of Darkness & morphs (3112 Magicka, 10.8 second cast, frontal cone); does 45/58 Magic Damage every 0.5s to enemies on path, and gives Nightblade Major Expidition (40% move speed) while on path; Twisting Path increases damage and area, refreshing path heals allies and Nightblade for 63 every 0.5s.
-Funnel Health Strife morph (1211 Magicka cost, 28 meter range, 10s duration, instant cast): does 740 Magic Damage, healing Nightblade for 25% of the damage inflicted every 2 seconds; Funnel Health morph heals two allies as well, Swallow Soul gives Minor Vitality (8% increase in healing received)
-Power extraction morph of Drain Essence (2872 Magicka / stamina, 20s duration, 8m radius: deals 400/484 damage aoe and gives Major Brutality (increase weapon damage 20% for 20 seconds); Power Extraction morph increases damage and scales off of stamina, Sap Essence Morph gives Major Brutality and Major Sorcery (20% increase to weapon damage & spell damage) and heals Nightblade and nearby allies for 198+20% more for each enemy hit.-None:Templars:Ultimate:
-Rite of Passage and it's morphs (4s channel time, targeted area, 20m radius, 4s duration, 123 cost, 125 cost base): Heal allies for 986 every second, cannot move while channeling, but gain immunity to all control effects; Rememberance morph reduces damage to allies in the area by 20%, Practiced Incantation morph increases channel duration by 2s.
Actives:
-Backlash and its morphs (instant, single target, 28m range, 6s duration, 1646 Magicka / Stamina cost): Stores all damage taken for 6s, then releases for 36% increased damage (max 3660); Purifying Light morph reduces damage to 33% increase base, but heals everyone in the area for 266 health every 2 seconds for 6.6s, Power of the Light morph changes to Stamina-based and inflicts minor fracture (reducing armor by 960) for 6s.
-Rushed Ceremony and its morphs (instant, area, 28m range, 3998 Magicka): heals self or ally for 1232 Health; Honor the Dead morph restores 15% of ability cost every 2 seconds for 8 seconds when cast on a low health target, Breath of Life morph heals up to 2 additional allies for 596.
-Healing Ritual and its morphs (2s cast time, area, 10m radius, 3292 Magicka cost): heals everyone for 1642 and self for 30% more; Ritual of Rebirth reduces cast time to 1.7s, Lingering Ritual heals an additional 409 after 8s.
-Repentance morph of Restoring Ritual (instant cast, self target, area, 12m radius, 16.5s duration, 3057/0 Magicka cost); while slotted, gain Minor Fortitude, Minor Endurance, and Minor Intellect, increasing Health, Stamina, and Magicka Regeneration by 10%; activate to grant allies Major Fortitude and Major Endurance (increasing health and stamina regen by 20%) for 16.5s; Radiant Aura morph increases radius, Repentance morph restores 795 health and stamina to allies for each corpse in the area and has no cost, but removes option to buff allies with Major Fortitude and Major Endurance.
-Cleansing Ritual and its morphs (instant, area, 12m radius, 3292/2587 Magicka cost): cleanse self from 1 harmful effect and heal allies for 138 every 2s for 12s, allies can activate Purify, removing harmful effects and healing them for 596; Purifying Ritual reduces cost and removes 2 harmful effects from the Templar, Extended Ritual morph increases duration to 16s.
Magicka Restore
All:-Heavy attacks with staves restore MagickaDragonknight:
Ultimate:
-Barrier and its morphs (12m radius, 30 second duration, 250 ultimate): Gives 4101 damage shield; Reviving Barrier heals everyone for 2919 over 30 seconds, Repleneshing Barrier gives 4 Ultimate and 119 Magicka each time a barrier expires/is destroyed.
Abilities:
-Equilibrium and its morphs: trade 2623 health for 1055 Magicka, but prevents you from healing yourself for 4 seconds, one morph reduces next spell cost by 25%, the other gives Major Fortitude
-Annulment morph: Light Armor ability Annulment, morph, gives you 238 Magicka gives you 238 + 3% Magicka for each spell restored up to 3x
-Combustion / Healing Combustion / Magicka Combustion: Necrotic Orb and its morphs (4069 Magicka cost, 5 meter radius, 10 second duration): does 113 aoe damage and ally can activate the synergy, causing the orb to explode for 795 Magic Damage (or healing themselves for 795 health or Magicka depending on morph) and restoring the ally for 395 Magicka over 10 seconds, plus additional Magicka based on the number of enemies hit.Actives:Nightblade:
-Sea of Flames: restores 112 magicka if the fireball kills an enemy (weaksauce)
-Draw Essence: restores 17% of damage done by the ability as MagickaActives:Sorcerer:
-Siphoning Strikes and morphs (toggle): reduces Weapon and Spell damage by 25%, each basic (light or heavy) attack heals 3% Magicka and Stamina and has a chance to restore 15%, Leeching strikes also heals 2% Health, Siphoning Attacks gives all attacks a chance to restore 15% Magicka and Stamina.Ultimate: None (other than buffs)Templar:
Actives:
-Dark Exchange and its morphs (4 second channel): heals 1044 Health and 948 Magicka (Stamina) per second for 1544 Stamina (Magicka) per second; Dark Deal morph switches Magicka & Stamina cost/restore, Dark Conversion drains less Stamina.-Channeled Focus morph of Rune Focus (instant cast, self, 15s duration, 1646/940 cost): gives Major Resolve and Major Ward (increasing Armor and Spell Resistance by 5120), effects dissipate after 8s if you leave the rune area; Channeld Focus morph recovers 120 Magicka every 0.5s while near rune, Restoring Focus morph gives Minor Vitality (8% incoming healing).
Stamina Restore / Regeneration
All:-Heavy Attacks with melee weapons & bows restore StaminaDragonknight:
-Expert Hunter: 2872 stamina, 15s duration, gives Major Savagery and +4% (15% versus Daedra) chance to deal 795 Magic Damage; morphs restore 750 stamina per attack against undead and daedra, or do 1193 more damage to undead and daedra in stealth.Ultimate: NoneNightblade:
Active:
-Green Dragon Blood ability (3830 cost): gives 20s Major Endurance buff with 20% Stamina Regeneration (on top of healing 33% of missing health and giving 20% health regen buff)
Passive:
-Helping Hands Passive: Activating any Earthen Heart ability restores 2%/5% StaminaUltimate: NoneSorcerer
Active:
-Grim Focus Relentless Focus morph (2934 cost, 20 second duration): 8 light and/or heavy attack stacks to turn into Assassin's Will, firing for 1478/1594 Magic Damage, also grants Minor Berserk (8% damage buff); Relentless Focus morph gives Minor Endurance (10% stamina regen), Merciless Resolves gives Assassin's Will more damage + a 40%, 5s, snare
-Siphoning Strikes and morphs (toggle): reduces Weapon and Spell damage by 25%, each basic (light or heavy) attack heals 3% Magicka and Stamina and has a chance to restore 15%, Leeching strikes also heals 2% Health, Siphoning Attacks gives all attacks a chance to restore 15% Magicka and Stamina.
Passive:
-Refreshing shadows passive: gives 15%/30% stamina regenUltimates: None but buffsTemplar: Analysis
Actives:
-Dark Exchange and its morphs (4 second channel): heals 1044 Health and 948 Magicka (Stamina) per second for 1544 Stamina (Magicka) per second; Dark Deal morph switches Magicka & Stamina cost/restore, Dark Conversion drains less Stamina.
Cost Reductions
Fear
All:-Trapping Webs and its morphs (3112 Magicka Damage, 28 meter range, instant cast), does 497 Magic Damage and reduces Movement Speed by 50% for 8 seconds, allies can activate the Spawn Broodlings synergy, dealing 795 Magic Damage and summoning 2 spiders for 15/20 seconds: one morph makes the spiders last longer and gives them a poison ability, the other causes fear.Dragonknight:
-Circle of Protection (7053 Stamina cost, 10 second duration, 5 meter radius): AOE hotspot, morphs give either Major Fortitude or do aoe fear + 397 damage to undead and daedra in the area-NoneNightblade:Ability:Sorcerer: Templar:
-Aspect of Terror & morphs (3351 Magicka, 6m/3m radius): fears two enemies for 4.3 seconds, Mass Hysteria Morph gives Minor Maim (15% damage reduction) and 50% movement speed reduction for 4 seconds after recovering, Manifestation of Terror plants a trap and makes the fear AOE.-NoneAnalysis-Nightblades are the only class that get access to a reliable fear against non-daedra
Fix:
-Change Trapping webs & morphs: align cost and damage of the base ability with Searing Strikes (412 damage + 1320 over 10.5 seconds) , have it spawn spiders on cast (rather than be a synergy) but make the 795 damage be damage over time as indicated; if recast, does the direct damage component (412 damage) and refreshes duration of dot and spiders without interrupting ticks or attacks (and resummons a spider if it's not there); one morph adds a poison dot from spiders (magicka), the other can cause Fear and is stamina-based.
Rationale: 1) gives a spammable, non-class or weapon-locked, non-execute, single-target DPS ability (Sorcerer's rejoice!) for both Magicka and Stamina builds 2) gives a Stamina-based way for people to generate Fear 3) Gives everyone access to "pets" 4) summoning spiders is cool. 5) Sorceres can still have their pets on top of this (and still use Crystal Shards), other classes have other abilities that can be spammed alongside this to up DPS
-Nightblade fear should also be reduced in cost to match, and have the Minor Maim apply to all enemies (to match DK) instead of just the ones feared.
Stealth / InvisibilityAll:
-Stealth
-Invisibility potions
Dragonknight:
-None
Nightblade:
-Shadow Cloak and its morphs (2.7s, 3591 Magicka): Grants invisibility for 2.7s, Dark Cloak morph purges up to 4 damage over time effects, Shadowy Disguise ensures next attack is a crit. Can also trigger Shadow Barrier passive, increasing spell and armor resist by 5120.
Sorcerer:
-None
Templar:
-None
Reveal stealth / invisibilityAll:
-Any aoe ability which catches the stealth / invisible player in range will break them out of stealth
-Revealing Flare and its morphs (instant, target aoe, 30m range, 10m radius, 4309 cost): Reveals stealthed enemies in the area, and they cannot return to stealth for 8 seconds; one morph causes revealed enemies to take 1284 flame damage over 10 seconds, the other creates a revealing hotspot for 5 seconds.
-Magelight and its morphs: Toggle ability, 5% Magicka Reduction, plus gives Major Prophecy (increase Spell Crit by 2099) morphs either make it a 2% Magicka gain, or allow you to see stealthed or invisible players, reduce stealth attacks against you by 50%, and prevents being stunned by stealth.
Pets
All:Active:Dragonknight:
-(requires synergy activation) Trapping Webs and its morphs (3112 Magicka Damage, 28 meter range, instant cast), does 497 Magic Damage and reduces Movement Speed by 50% for 8 seconds, allies can activate the Spawn Broodlings synergy, dealing 795 Magic Damage and summoning 2 spiders for 15/20 seconds: one morph makes the spiders last longer and gives them a poison ability, the other causes fear.-NoneNightblade:-Summon Shade & morphs (2394 Magicka , 28m range, 16.2s duration, instant cast): summon a shade to attack enemy, deals 238/318 Magic Damage per Second and causes Minor Maim (reduces enemy damage by 15% for 4 seconds)l Dark Shades summons 2 shades, doubling damage, Shadow Image summons an archer shade which does increased damage from range and lets you teleport to the shade.Sorcerer:-Unstable familiar and its morphs (6293 Magicka toggle): Summons familiar to fight at your side, familiar does 159 Shock damage +15%; Unstable Clanfear morph changes summons to Clanfear, which does 238 Physical Damage plus an additional 15% and can tail swipe enemies in the area; Volatile Familiar causes Familiar to explode when killed, dealing 20% of Max Magicka as damage and stunning enemies for 2 seconds.Templar:
-Summon Winged Twilight (1.5s cast time, 6293 Magicka cost, permanent): Winged Twilight's attack deals 557 shock damage +15%, Summon Restoring Twilight causes pet to grant Minor Intellect (10% Magicka Regeneration), while Summon Twilight Matriarch will cause pet to heal you for 1049 damage when low(35%) health, but only once every 30 seconds.-NoneAnalysis:-Sorcerers are the only class with "permanent" pets, however Nightblades can also resummon their pets; both sets of pets deal roughly the same damage (NB can summon 2 shades to come close to matching Twilight damage); Templars and Dragonknights are left out in the cold.
Fix:
-Change Trapping webs & morphs: align cost and damage of the base ability with Searing Strikes (412 damage + 1320 over 10.5 seconds) , have it spawn spiders on cast (rather than be a synergy) but make the 795 damage be damage over time as indicated; if recast, does the direct damage component (412 damage) and refreshes duration of dot and spiders without interrupting ticks or attacks (and resummons a spider if it's not there); one morph adds a poison dot from spiders (magicka), the other can cause Fear and is stamina-based.
Rationale: 1) gives a spammable, non-class or weapon-locked, non-execute, single-target DPS ability (Sorcerer's rejoice!) for both Magicka and Stamina builds 2) gives a Stamina-based way for people to generate Fear 3) Gives everyone access to "pets" 4) summoning spiders is cool. 5) Sorceres can still have their pets on top of this (and still use Crystal Shards), other classes have other abilities that can be spammed alongside this to up DPS.
-Nightblade pet damage should be upped just a little bit, and the Trapping Webs pets similarly aligned.
Edited by Atarax on 16 February 2015 14:0950 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
Fordd✭✭✭Wow, thats alot of work you put in here. Thank you!Fordd / Ford Trucks
VR14 Templar (AD)
VR14 DK (AD)
Decibel Heals3 -
Atarax✭✭✭Wow, thats alot of work you put in here. Thank you!
No worries, I'm planning to make some suggestions on tweaks to abilities, and want to make sure I've got a handle on where all the classes stand currently before I go spouting my usual nonsense.
Edited by Atarax on 16 February 2015 14:1150 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
Atarax✭✭✭Fruity_Ninja wrote: »Nice work Atarax!
Thanks! I added in all Nightblade morphs, and about half of the DK morphs (still working on leveling skills so I can see the rest... will do Sorc after that, then templar, so maybe in two weeks I'll have all morphs and be able to comment on more).
I'm also going to edit in a couple comments on Ultimate generation across classes as I think I have enough data there to make a meaningful analysis.
Edited by Atarax on 1 February 2015 13:4150 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
Atarax✭✭✭@Atarax
I just loaded a new Templar last night, do you want input or do you want to see them for yourself. I should have the morphs opened before tomorrow's PVP event or earlier.
If you could help give the data for Templar morphs that would be awesome (same goes for anyone else that wants to help this initiative).
Edit: commandeering space as the class comparison is too long.
Approaches to Balance in Various Games
This section is meant to provide additional information on various possible approaches to balancing characters as seen in other games (note to ZOS, please let me know if you want me to remove the references to specific games). The approaches can broadly be categorized as follows:- Jack of all trades, master of... all trades.... (just not all at once)
- The Oprah Approach ("You get a stun, you get a stun, everybody gets a stun!")
- The original WoW Approach ("How much stuff can I get done in an equivalent period of time")
That said, ZOS obviously needs to have an approach that is unique to The Elder Scrolls, but ultimately works well.
As can be seen in the comparisons post, there are still several points that could be balanced further. That said, It seems clear that lots of players would like new content, and focusing resources on balance instead of on new systems players would like to see, such as spell-crafting, or new guild and skill lines, may cause players to lose interest.
After giving this of thought, I am of the opinion that devs should simply say balance is good enough in 1.6, and, instead of balancing classes against each other further, just open up all 4 classes on every character through use of the Champion System. So players can choose a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class at 20/40/60 Champion points, and be able to invest skill points in any of the active and passive abilities in any class they have access to.
They may need to tweak here and there at the edges still, or may decide one day to do another big revamp, but opening up the classes gives them, and the players, more flexibility. It also would likely lead to a more healthy player community as we've seen in other games (which I get into below). It is also in the spirit of the previous Elder Scrolls games (where you could eventually max out everything if you put in enough time and effort), and would be unique in the MMORPG space.
Now for approaches (note, I chose a few example games people may be familiar with, I've played many more than just these):
Jack of all trades, master of... all trades.... (just not all at once)
There are several games on the market now (or in the past) that take a more "sandbox" approach and basically let players do whatever they want on a single character. Every single character can ultimately access all abilities. And yes, there are MMORPGs that do this, and when done right, it works great. Some examples are as follows:FInal Fantasy
Class-based system, but you can switch classes freely and ultimately max out all classes on a single character, you can also utilize some class abilities cross-class, but there are restrictions on which abilities you can use.
Pros:- Players can swap roles when needed (ex., no healer available, let me change to my healer build)
- Players can change their mind down the road and decide to focus on a different class, without having to start an entirely new character
- Promotes teamwork
- Effin cartoon world
- It takes forever to level classes, and once you've leveled your main class, you don't have quests to do, so you're stuck grinding events over and over as you level up each class, very tedious
The Secret World
No classes, there are 255 abilities to learn, and you learn actives and passives. You eventually learn all abilities on a single character. You build a "Deck" of 7 active and 7 passive abilities, which you can change on the fly as long as you're out of combat.
Pros:- Amazing diversity in player builds, you really can "create your own class" (Want to be a healer that does crazy damage with an assault rifle? How about a DPSer that can buff party dps through the roof? How about a tank with a hammer, that can heal yourself and your party? Or a tank with a sword and that does crazy dps? You can do all of them, on a single character)
- Great flexibility, if you need a given ability for a certain encounter, or your tank friend isn't online, change your deck
- Promotes teamwork: When starting hard dungeons, players often spend a few moments asking who's slotting what key abilities, the level of cooperating is great
- Very little whining or cries for nerfs on the forums
Cons:- Very confusing system for new players or those coming from games like WoW
- The limit of 7 actives and 7 passives is a bit too restrictive
- They've added in a bunch of time-consuming character advancement systems that force you to play in certain ways (ex. scenarios) to advance your characters /bye
Horizons / Istaria
You can learn all classes (with the exception of the split between bipeds and dragons) up to (when I played) level 50, as you level additional classes, you gain further levels, so your character level caps out at 250 or some such (I forget, it's been more than a decade since I played). You can utilize some cross-class abilities depending on which class you have "active" at the time.
Pros:- Able to eventually master all of your biped or dragon abilities on a single character
- You can change roles and classes to meet the needs of the situation
- Classes have unique identities
- Waaaaay too many classes, and each class/sub-class pair levels separately, which becomes a tedious grind
- You can't use a class to full effect unless that is your active class
The Elder Scrolls (not Online)
Given enough time and effort, historically in Elder Scrolls Games, you could max out all stats, learn all spells and abilities, and then play your character however you wanted on that day. Skills increase through usage.
Pros:- Awesome feeling once you've maxed out your character
- You can truely "play how you want"
- No need to start over (although people do to try different choices in storyline etc.) if you want access to a given ability, you just play a while and learn it.
- You can switch your equipment and what spells/weapons/skills you're using to help you bit difficult encounters
- Can do all content on one character
- None (other than perhaps being able to trivialize content, but that can be balanced by increasing mob difficulty and AI)
The Oprah Approach ("You get a stun, you get a stun, everybody gets a stun!")
Some games take the approach of having restricted classes, but they seek to balance them by homoginizing core mechanics. For example, everyone gets a stun, everyone gets an interrupt, everyone gets aoe damage abilities, etc. While it is possible to balance this way, the end result is that you either need to homoginize classes entirely, or you still end up with disbalance, and rants on the forums and cries for nerfs. Examples are:SWTOR
Classes, but every class gets some of the same key functionalities.
Pros:- Somewhat better balance than games like WoW (at least when I played WoW)
- Classes still have some identity
- Certain abilities are still gated, which means if I want to stealth, I need to roll an alt with a stealth class, if I want to be a healer, I need to roll a healer alt
- If you can't find someone with a certain needed class, your group isn't happening
- Classes seem kind of bland
- There are always balance issues, still, years later
The Elder Scrolls Online
Restricted classes that gate some active and passive abilities, but you also have access to a pool of skills and abilities from outside the class that allow you to play various roles. Classes also share similar abilities and access to buffs / debuffs.
Pros:- Players are able to adjust build somewhat based on circumstances if they have enough skill points
- Players can play any "holy-trinity" role (healer, dps, tank) regardless of class
- Several of the key mechanics (ex. stealth, healing, roots) are availabile in one form or another regardless of class
- Classes have a unique identity
Cons:- While improving, there are still some wide gaps in balance, particularly in cases where only one class gets access to a certain kind of ability; this is pronounced with class passives that have an effect on non-class abilities.
- There are certain skills that only certain classes can do, which, for raid groups, means that you have to have that class in some cases, or the raid won't be successful
- There are abilities that only some classes get, so if you want that ability, you must roll a character of that class
- Classes are pigeonholed into certain styles of play (ex. Nightblades in PvP have to rely on stealth mechanics to succeed)
The original WoW Approach ("How much stuff can I get done in an equivalent period of time")
Many games adhere to the "class-based" system approach, with a vengance. Classes are very distinct, and play very differently. The Devs then spend years on balance using metrics such as, "how many mobs can this build kill per hour vs. this build." Years later, they still don't have balanced games last I checked.WoW
Still the largest subscriber base out there, so they have the resources to throw at balance. However, their success now isn't so much a testament to class-based systems being good, it's a testament to humans being adverse to change, and them having an approachable, easy, game before other (better) games, such as ESO, came out. WoW has distinct classes that can all dps fairly equally, but after that play very differently. Classes are further defined by the talents they choose.
Pros:- Unique class identity
- Easy to get a group if you're a healer
Cons:- Horrible game balance when I last played (it's been a while, so maybe this has improved)
- Many many abilities are gated behind classes, and there are some roles that are limited to only certain classes (ex. only paladins, priests, and druids can heal) so I need to start an alt of that class to not only access X ability, but also to play Y role.
- Forums are pretty toxic
- Effin cartoon world
Rift
While less restrictive than WoW, this is still a class-based system with the added bonus that you can, to some extent, design your own class by using sub-classes within each branch.
Pros:- Unique class identities
- Some ability to respec to play different roles
- Better class balance than WoW, but worse balance than ESO in my opinion
- Abilities are still gated behind class walls, which prevents you from using X ability unless you play Y class.
- Too many classes and overlap
- Effin cartoon world
Edited by Atarax on 16 February 2015 14:1250 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
SpAEkus✭✭✭✭Great, I wanted to load one more anyway to strip out the goodies.
Edited by SpAEkus on 1 February 2015 14:040 -
Atarax✭✭✭Fantastic, you just gave me back a bunch of hours of my life. I am in your debt.50 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
SpAEkus✭✭✭✭@Atarax
Stop what ever you are doing for this.
I just went back in and realized I already have an Addon that already shows every morph and passive opened.
Just get HarvensImprovedSkillsWindow Addon
I have screenshots of every thing for Templar. Do you want me to spoiler post the screenshots and let you edit your 1st post or do you want me to post the text for you?
1 -
Atarax✭✭✭@SpAEkus
Thanks, question though. Does this work and have correct information for 1.6 morphs? Many of the morphs have been changed in 1.6.
Would be great to just use screenshots actually as they provide better formatting if this addon is giving the correct information.
I'll also double-check after work tonight.50 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
Wolfenbelle✭✭✭✭✭@Atarax
I just loaded a new Templar last night, do you want input or do you want to see them for yourself. I should have the morphs opened before tomorrow's PVP event or earlier.
Speaking of tomorrow's PvP event, @ZOS_GinaBruno, I would love to participate, but it takes place too early in the day in my time zone. I will still be at work. It would be great if the devs can arrange sessions in several time zones in the U.S. and elsewhere, so as many players as possible can help with PvP tests. (And maybe consider having devs run some dungeons to test PvE content?)
Anyway, back to this thread's subject, @Atarax what outstanding work you're doing on behalf of the community. Thank you so much. I've bookmarked this thread so I can read and study it in depth as you add more information.
0 -
Pyatra✭✭✭Unfortunately Overload is a strange example as the activation cost is almost meaningless. So here's a better break down that is impossible to infer from the tooltip/description of the Ultimate. It's really how much you store up to use since it is a toggle and ultimate storage is capped at 1000. Minimum activation cost only allows for 2 Light attacks with or without cost reduction. Heavies are channels but they are somewhat subpar, so just doing LAs.
After testing, the Ultimate reduction turns a 25 cost light attack into cost of 22 and any remainder is unusable until hitting minimum the threshold again of 57 (after reduction passive).
Exact ultimate buildup for the cost reduction to actually give you extra shots is:
1 LA at 256 Ultimate
2 LA at 585 Ultimate
3 LA at 1012 - cap is 1000 but we can assume you built some up by then.
Edit Note:
For Single Target DPS at VR levels you actually loose 1 second of DPS when you activate, you would have to have at least 4 LA attacks or 88 Ultimate to Catch up to you lost DPS. Activating before a fight alleviates the DPS lost obviously.
Hopefully this helps people who don't play Sorcs to understand this unique little ultimate.Edited by Pyatra on 2 February 2015 06:551 -
Atarax✭✭✭@SpAEkus
Thank you so much for pointing out that Add-on. It will save so much time. Confirmed, the add-on will show the appropriate tooltip in 1.6.
I think in the interest of conserving space, we can just name the ability, morph 1, and morph 2, and do one screenshot that shows all three, for example:
Skill line: Aedric Spear
Ultimate: Radial Sweep
Morph 1: Empowering Sweep
Morph 2: Crescent Sweep
[Screenshot of the mousover that shows all three]
Active 1: Puncturing Strikes
Morph 1: Biting Jabs
Morph 2: Puncturing Sweep
[Screenshot of the mousover that shows all three]
etc.
I can probably upload for all classes tomorrow after work with this format, but if you want to reformat the Templar spoiler you posted along these lines, that would be appreciated as well and I'll copy/paste. I don't expect you to, and you've been a huge help already, but if you choose to you're more than welcome. Note if you do, some web browsers do not support spoiler within spoiler, which is why I did 1 spoiler for each class.
@Pyatra
Thanks for that insight. Very important to keep in mind when we get to the dps and damage/resource discussion. I had only focused the ultimate gen comments on absolute numbers for activation, but I'll be sure to add this type of info in somewhere and welcome any other comments you have.Edited by Atarax on 3 February 2015 16:5750 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
SpAEkus✭✭✭✭@Atarax
Hey no problem I can work on that. But I need to see one of yours first so I know exactly how you want to crop the screen shot.
I'm thinking you want to crop down to just the individual Popup and put
M M S
or
M
......S
M
Just link one to how you want it and I'll follow that.Edited by SpAEkus on 2 February 2015 13:321 -
Atarax✭✭✭@SpAEkus
Fair enough. I was thinking we could use the screenshot as it pops up straight from the add-on, nothing too fancy. What you have for Radial Sweep (Aedric Spear --> Ultimate Morph Spoiler) seems fine?
M
MS50 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
SpAEkus✭✭✭✭@Atarax
Well some of those have different layouts depending on the popup size.
I will still need to crop down to the popup to get them lined up properly. And of course there's no way to remove some of the fade through from the GUI.
I think the centering of the Base skill is more intuitive? And just gonna leave the size at that, since we're using Spoilers and not direct to page?
Edited by SpAEkus on 2 February 2015 15:260 -
Atarax✭✭✭@SpAEkus That works too, was trying to save us both time, but I'm much lazier, and you're way more dedicated than I am
I'll start doing screenshots of the DK abilities and work my way down now.50 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
seanvwolf✭✭✭✭I don't agree with the suggestion outlined above.
By this reasoning, everyone should have the very similar class skill effects and costs all across the board. This makes for really boring gameplay. I want my characters to feel absolutely different from each other. Balancing is only a thing when you are trying to match unlike things. If they are alike, then no balancing needs to be done as they are inherently balanced.1 -
Atarax✭✭✭I don't agree with the suggestion outlined above.
By this reasoning, everyone should have the very similar class skill effects and costs all across the board. This makes for really boring gameplay. I want my characters to feel absolutely different from each other. Balancing is only a thing when you are trying to match unlike things. If they are alike, then no balancing needs to be done as they are inherently balanced.
Okay, thanks for sharing your opinion.
Edit: DK finished! Nightblade next.
Edit 2: I initially asked to keep the thread on topic, but I'm rethinking things as I'm going through abilities. Feel free, opine away.Edited by Atarax on 3 February 2015 16:5050 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0 -
r.jan_emailb16_ESO✭✭✭✭✭I appreciate the amount of work you put in, but I disagree with some of your conclusions.
For example, you can not compare Ultimates (or any skill, basically) by just looking at the costs or the passives towards cost reduction/ulti generation: DKs for example get ressources back when using ultimates; this adds a lot of value to their ultimates, that other classes do not have access to (while other classes have different measures to cope that). On the other hand, sorc overload works different than any other ultimate; you can charge it up to 1000 and every attack costs a bit.
You really need to take all those things into account when saying wether an ultimate is "better" or "worse" than another or thinking about soutions to fix the problems that might not exists in the way you see it.Lairgren | DC Dragonknight - August Palatine
playing for eXile
I'm done, CU somewhere else.0 -
Atarax✭✭✭@SpAEkus Thanks mate, I'll look for changes in the patch notes as well and see if anything's changed and update tomorrow. I thought I'd give people something to look at during the patch.
Edit: Note, I had to change methodology somewhat for expediency. I've captured screenshots with only 1 point invested in each passive. No attribute points allocated, no gear, nothing slotted.
@r.jan_emailb16_ESO
Yep, I agree. I think @Pyatra made a similar comment, and I think my response already covered this as well. The only balance-related comment so far relates to the rate of generation versus activation cost. "Which ability is more effective" is beyond the scope of that section, and I'd also note, it's possible for the Devs to balance on the other side to make sure that one ability doesn't greatly underperform another given the same rate of generation and cost.
Patience please
This is still a work in progress. We're still trying to get all the info up on all abilities. Once I get into comparisons of abilities feel free to point out any additional considerations I've missed.
Edit: Nightblade done. Sorc next.
Edit: Sorc done. Time to see if patch notes are up, then crash.Edited by Atarax on 3 February 2015 17:5150 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking1 -
SpAEkus✭✭✭✭@Atarax
Ok Here's Templar ready to copy.
TEMPLAR
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AEDRIC SPEAR
Ultimate: RADIAL SWEEP
Morph 1: EMPOWERING SWEEP
Morph 2: CRESCENT SWEEP
Active Abilities
Active 1: PUNCTURING STRIKES
Morph 1: BITING JABS
Morph 2: PUNCTURING SWEEP
Active 2: PIERCING JAVELIN
Morph 1: AURORA JAVELIN
Morph 2: BINDING JAVELIN
Active 3: FOCUSED CHARGE
Morph 1: EXPLOSIVE CHARGE
Morph 2: TOPPLING CHARGE
Active 4: SPEAR SHARDS
Morph 1: LUMINOUS SHARDS
Morph 2: BLAZING SPEAR
Active 5: SUN SHIELD
Morph 1: RADIANT WARD
Morph 2: BLAZING SHIELD
Passives
PIERCING SPEAR
SPEAR WALL
BURNING LIGHT
BALANCED WARRIOR
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DAWN'S WRATH
Ultimate: NOVA
Morph 1: SOLAR PRISON
Morph 2: SOLAR DISTURBANCE
Active Abilities
Active 1: SUN FIRE
Morph 1: VAMPIRES BANE
Morph 2: REFLECTIVE LIGHT
Active 2: SOLAR FLARE
Morph 1: DARK FLARE
Morph 2: SOLAR BARRAGE
Active 3: BACKLASH
Morph 1: PURIFYING LIGHT
Morph 2: POWER OF THE LIGHT
Active 4: ECLIPSE
Morph 1: TOTAL DARK
Morph 2: UNSTABLE CORE
Active 5: RADIANT DESTRUCTION
Morph 1: RADIANT GLORY
Morph 2: RADIANT OPPRESSION
Passives
ENDURING RAYS
PRISM
ILLUMINATE
RESTORING SPIRIT
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RESTORING LIGHT
Ultimate: RIGHT OF PASSAGE
Morph 1: REMEMBRANCE
Morph 2: PRACTICED INCANTATION
Active Abilities
Active 1: RUSHED CEREMONY
Morph 1: HONOR THE DEAD
Morph 2: BREATH OF LIFE
Active 2: HEALING RITUAL
Morph 1: RITUAL OF REBIRTH
Morph 2: LINGERING RITUAL
Active 3: RESTORING AURA
Morph 1: RADIANT AURA
Morph 2: REPENTANCE
Active 4: CLEANSING RITUAL
Morph 1: PURIFYING RITUAL
Morph 2: EXTENDED RITUAL
Active 5: RUNE FOCUS
Morph 1: CHANNELED FOCUS
Morph 2: RESTORING FOCUS
Passives
MENDING
FOCUSED HEALING
LIGHT WEAVER
MASTER RITUALIST
1 -
Atarax✭✭✭
Effort.
Thanks SpAEkus, I've added into the main post. I'll try to post overall thoughts on game balance tomorrow. Then go back into generating the comparisons.
Edited by Atarax on 7 February 2015 02:2150 Bosmer Nightblade
50 Breton Sorcerer
50 Dunmer Dragonknight
50 Imperial Templar
50 Khajit Nightblade
50 Imperial Dragonknight
50 Altmer Sorcerer
50 Argonian Templar
Discussions of Interest:
Class Balance in 1.6
Quest Choices
Request to Reinstate Night's Silence and Dark Stalker stacking0
