Just another example of dumbing the game down. Has removed a lot of variety from the game.

While I enjoyed it at first, we've reached a point where the "meta" playstyle is apparent for most classes and there is actually less variety than there was before.

There is absolutley 0 chance zenimax undoes the hybrid change though. With that in mind, I think they should look into;

1. Balancing the heals in the game. Cross healing is way too high, and self healing is slightly too high. Both are somewhat a result of the increased accessibility to healing brought about by the hybrid changes.
2. Buff some of the stamina things in the game. In general stamina seems to be underperforming in comparison to magicka right now, and most "meta" Stan setups are using more mag than stam skills on their bars.

I'm ambivalent. I think making ultimates scale to your max stat was great. Many of the other changes, I'm not totally sure about. It definitely has benefitted certain classes more than others.

Opened up more options builds for sure. I like the hybridization. However, issues lie within them clipping class identities over the course of ESO's life and there are only handful of sets that are useful and everyone uses the same sets on different classes as well in essence. Balance was already an issue pre-hybridization. So, I don't blame it on hybridization.

I'm also ambivalent because I can still run Stam or Magicka toons and they're not bad, they're still fun to play. I play stamblade like nothing changed and it's fine. Same with max Magicka sorcerer (though it's tough going on the latter, but I'm really rusty on that class). I have a Warden that is pretty much just a Stam warden, hybridizing didn't gain me enough to talk about with regard to that character. Really really fun to play, a beast in BGs.

Simultaneously I can play a templar more or less how I imagine a templar would play, similar to a paladin of other games. Support, tanky, bursty. Heavily armored with a weapon.

The bow sorcerer build is another build that to me seems really fun and impossible without hybridization...

I think the change exacerbated some of the homogenization issues the game already faced. Does this make theory crafting boring if ultimately every class appears the same except reskinned? In my opinion yes.

Some sets are just so obviously geared toward high offense/high defense in one package, but that's really all Oakensoul is a great example, an OP example, but markyn and magma are two decently balanced sets that put forth the same basic idea. Easy to run with that and so you get big groups with high health high resistance and can drop 7k spell damage dark convergence inside a negate, etc.

Is it a dumbing down? Maybe, maybe not.

Healing is an issue. I don't see why there should be stacking of the same hots. Separate hots, ok. That makes sense. Having four or so radiating regens active at once is kinda lame tho. Everyone run snow treaders, maelstrom resto, and what the hell is anyone gonna do to stop you from Healing Thru Everything while maintaining perfect position, ready to drop bombs.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO wrote: »

Hybridisation is really just simplification. It removes uniqueness from classes, playstyles and builds imo.

I want to agree so bad, but at the same time it IS closer to Elder Scrolls this way, where your character has no real limitations. It's been like that for me since Daggerfall 26 years ago.

Need more. Assuming ZOS is serious about it, there are gaps that need to be addressed to reach full "it doesn't matter mode".

Or....

Get rid of it. Go back to more diverse builds. Hybridization creates all sorts of imbalances.

- A "stamblade' can stack enough magicka to permacloak with no downsides.
- You can stack damage and put all points in health and still have enough mag/stam to feel no negative impact on damage or heals
- Everyone has over the top healing, heals need to scale of max mag/stam only. Damage needs to scale off wep/sp damage only, forcing trade offs in builds.
- and so on....

I am glad it is back. Makes builds much more interesting.

Really enjoying it. I used to always play 2 staffs (PVE) so the options to mix it up are great.

I've made comments to this effect before, but hybridization is the biggest mistake this game has ever made. It completely ignores fundamental principles that this game was designed around.

To quote myself:

[Hybridization] is fundamentally incompatible with the core game design! They've created a "have your cake and eat it too" meta with regards to players just taking the strongest abilities without any consequences. Having access to the strongest Stam abilities should limit the strongest Magicka abilities in some way and vice versa. The core game design balanced this by having the abilities scale off different stats so you could Min/Max but couldn't Max/Max. There is a reason why Max/Max-ing isn't a thing in games, ZOS has created that.

ZOS needs to admit that this has fundamentally broken the game and revert it.