So I once made a post suggesting the Sword-singers being the next class in ESO. My god did the player branch of the fun police descend upon that one.

I also made one about a one-hand and spell weapon style. That one was more well received but less popular.

So while I was doing a certain quest in the newest dlc zone The Reach I got an idea. Why not combine the two ideas?

So here it is. A weapon skill made to be versatile, ideal for hybrid builds, and is Shehai themed. I think it would be really cool if it could do a little bit of everything the other weapon styles can do but not quite as well.

The item that would go into your weapon slot would be an idol, totem, or trinket, that you then focus your soul or willpower through to conjure a Shihai. Its stats will basically work like any other weapon. Enchantments will either work differently with it or you'll slot a Essence rune in the item instead. Light and heavy attacks will not randomly proc an enchantment effect.

Your Shehai weapon skill abilities will be augmented further depending on your choice of Essence rune or enchantment. Doing so will reduce the base damage it does however. A few examples could be the elemental essence runes changing the damage to fire, shock, or ice and applying Burning, Concussed, or Chilled to enemies when hit (or on chance of hit). Choosing the damage shield rune would make your Shehai abilities apply a small damage shield to you each use like the 2h line's Brawler or a stronger one if a buff ability is used. The rune ZOS would have to be most careful with would be the oblivion damage rune, for obvious reasons. I'm thinking that one should reduce the damage even more than the other ones. I think you guys get the idea for what runes would do.

The appearance and how your Shehai functions will depend on your class and which weapon style you use. In the same UI interface you'd use to slot your rune you could also choose from any weapon style you currently know. If you choose say...Ebonshadow Bow your Shehai would then take the shape of and use the light and heavy attacks of a that bow. How some of your abilities work would also be effected by this. Your spammable direct attack ability would become an arrow for example.

Since this is a "spirit weapon" your Shehai would only have the shape of the weapon style you choose. It would have a slightly transparent ethereal look to it and become a color that matches your class. Dark red and/or black for nightblades for example. Perhaps its appearance could be changed further depending on the rune you use. Like dark red and/or black flames comming off the weapon if using the fire damage rune.

When it comes to which stats the abilities use I think it would be dope if they always used the highest resource and highest damage stat. That would keep it flexible and allow for better options when it comes to morphs.

I'm sure this idea for a weapon skill would be a nightmare to code and that many meta players would skip it because it wouldn't be as strong as the current existing weapon abilities but imagine the fun things you could do with this. Hybrid classes could become competitive. You could make a true spell sword type build and not suffer as much for it. If you're into staves you wouldn't be limited to fire, frost, and shock.

Anyways, just throwing ideas against a wall here to see what sticks. I'm sure the fun police will descend upon this like they do with most posts about new content but at least we're trying right?

Dear fun police, instead of just shutting this down and calling it a stupid idea why not suggest some alternative ideas you have? Let's keep this post constructive ya?