Hey folks, as you all probably know most current skill trees have a
corresponding ultimate, with the weapon skills being the major exception. As this is certainly something that can be built on, I decided it might be worth giving it a shot.

This first thread is about introducing the series and is only about one weapon. I separated the skill-trees in order to make it easier to keep the discussion focussed on a single skill. The other ultimates are already drafted out but still need some refinement.

I want to point out that this series is aimed at the far future and aims to improve/change/discuss the suggestions. I only gave small hints at the animations themselves because I'm really bad at drawing, so the benefit would have been marginal at best.

I also want to emphasize the importance of an ultimate not just being another special skill, but actually feeling unique. This can measured by something called playmaking potential. That means an ultimate has to give its user the opportunity make a significant impact on the fight. Negate, especially in PvP, is a good example, if placed at the right spot at the right time, it can win you fights with 20+ participants on each side.

While this is only its potential, that does not mean that every use is that impactful, the idea is to promote the intelligent use of an ability.

To get the ultimates to match their skill-line, I looked at the passives and designed the abilities in such a way, that they either synergize with the existing passives or add to them in a meaningful way.

In the end these discussions can be separated into two sections. The first one is about the concept, how it fits into the game and brings a new dimension to the current skill line without going out of ist characteristics. The second one is about numbers, Riot Ypherion once said the following about a unit: "the damage, slow and damage shred(reduction) can all be tuned to anywhere from useless to ridiculously overpowered on a smooth gradient", and I think the same holds true for a lot of things in ESO.

This is about giving the developers a useful suggestion for weapon ultimates, yes it is very hard without testing, but I'll try my best to reduce the amount of testing needed to a minimum, so they can focus their energy on aspects we cannot help them with.

All numbers are based off a veteran rank 14 character on the 1.5.8 patch, with all stats around the softcaps (yes that's not easily doable but makes it easier to discuss the numbers). All numbers are non-crits.

Considering that there are both PvP and PvE in the game, it is important to make every single skill important in both parts.

So let's dive in with the first weapon…

Bow (Arrow of the Divines)

Passives:

• Long Shots: Bonus damage against distant targets
• Accuracy: Additional Weapon Critical
• Ranger: Reduced Stamina cost for Bow abilities
• Hawk Eye: Increased damage against vulnerable targets
• Hasty Retreat: Bonus movement speed after using Roll-Dodge

Those passives can be broken down to the following characteristics:

• Long Range
• High accuracy
• Agility

With these characteristics it gets pretty clear, that ZOS had the general fantasy archer in mind, who can hit a target from a far distance with maximum effectiveness and is good at evading damage through superior positioning and speed.
Unfortunately this skill is already in the game in the form of snipe and its morphs.

Another problem is the high numbers of snipe in PvP, meaning that implementing another damage intense skill would not add another dimension to the skill line.

This results in the conclusion that long range, good aim, high precision (high damage) are already fairly good represented in the game. While there are also two skills which contribute to agility, I think that they are only useful in certain situations and only allow the player to control the enemy, whereas the effect on the caster himself is rather small.

Additionally there is almost no kiting in the game at the moment (except from Bolt Escape), so I thought the bow might be the right spot to add it to.

So here's the skill at last:

Tooltip:

Sends an arrow, powerful enough to penetrate each and every armor, flying through the battlefield, knocking back all enemies in its path, dealing 650 physical damage and passively grants you a divine blessing boosting your battlefield mobility, which is doubled for a short duration after activation.

Facts (Active):

• Cost: 200 (50s cooldown with 1.6 ultimate generation)
• Cast time: none
• Range: 38m
• Doubles the bonus movement speed from the passive for 6s:
  • Melee target: 30%
  • Ranged target: 20%
• The arrow is a skillshot, meaning it is like a projectile AOE, it has to be aimed like an AOE but only has the are of effect of an arrow.
• The arrow flies through targets, meaning that it cannot be reflected, but will be affected by the alliance war skill that changes the path of projectiles, which will come in 1.6.
  
• Knocks targets back 10m (If the CC does not get applied the target takes 10% additional damage for 10s instead, 20% if affected twice, by two players)
• The knock-back is in the same direction as the arrow travels, i.e. the target gets knocked in the air if the arrow hits from below.
  
• If the arrow hits from above the target gets knocked down and recieves additional fall damage equal to a 10m fall as representation of the power of the knock-down
  
• The two versions of additional fall damage are also a compensation for the reduced AOE of the skill, when it gets used at a very large or very small angle
• The arrow has to actually hit the hitbox in order to have an effet, it's a skillshot so the smart-aim function will not help
• The skill can hit multiple targets at once so it is subject to the AOE caps

Facts (Passive):

• The permanent passive movement speed bonus depends on the weapon the attacked person is using:
  • Melee target: 15%
  • Ranged target: 10%
• The passive is activated by attacking an enemy with a bow attack (light/heavy attack or skill)
• Duration: 2s
• The passive movement speed does not stack
• The duration of the passive cannot be stacked (the buff falls off after 2s of not
  attacking, no matter how many attacks have been executed)

Some comments:
The 10% additional damage against CC-immune/blocking targets is to make it competitive with flawless dawnbreaker, it affects all the damage a target takes so it will be a huge DPS boost. The players are vulnerable to the 10% damage boost as well, otherwise the skill would be close to useless if it gets blocked, due to it's low damage.

The fact that it travels through units gives it insane playmaking potential, it can knock groups off ledges or dispatch the enemies formation, 10m is a lot so the displacement will be significant.

The fact that it cannot be countered by reflects gives PvP players a significant tool to work with, it is an ultimate though so it has to be used carfully.

The passive movement speed gives bow users a new tool to work with, it can either be used to kite melee players, who rely on gap-closers or as a PvE dps to make it easier to avoid red circles.

Pro's and Con's:

• + Huge CC and kiting potential allows for good positioning in combat
• + Gives a strong DPS to PvE groups and against CC-immune (≈rather tanky/hard to kill) players

• - Hard to get the maximum efficiency
• - The skill itself only deals rather low to medium damage
• - Easily visible cast animation -> all friends an foes will know what's coming when you use it, so they will prepare (I put it as a minus point because allies usually know when you use your ultimate anyway, and due to the importance of feeding the enemy as few information as possible; an enemy can't prepare against something he doesn't know is coming)