I'll say up front that I don't care about frost. I don't use frost on my warden at all. My warden is all about animal companions.

It would be nice to get rid of the requirement to slot the bear on both bars. I'm fine with the Vvardenfell theming but would be okay with them moving away from that. Also a good idea for Falcon's swiftness. I despise the two-bar mechanic in ESO, and one reason is the silliness of passives and such disappearing if you switch bars. And having to double-slot on both bars so things like bears don't disappear when you switch.

Honestly, all I care about is that they don't screw up or minimize animal companions.

Lystrad wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Why are people so quick to remove Physical damage over Magic damage for Sorc? I can't disagree more.

So there are two primary reason I see physical as the thing most likely to be stripped out. The first, is dark magic specifically. Yes, you could very easily just convert it to shock damage and be done with it but from a thematic standpoint there's nothing particularly dark about shock damage so it kind of makes more sense as the more nebulous magic type.

The secondary reason is because of the number of skills in the sorcerer skill lines that deal physical damage. There's 4. DK lost poison and had 3 abilities that dealt poison damage iirc so similar numbers there, and it should be noted that dragon knight also lost all of it's physical damage not just poison.

So keeping those things in mind is why I think the two most likely outcomes here from your list would be 2 and 3

What exactly is dark about magic damage? The answer is nothing, the dark part we recognise is from the purple crystals and glows the majority of those skills use which could easily turn into purple lightning for a more defined class look.. or stay the same purple as it already is, just deals Shock instead.

Don't even need to look very hard for what this would look like. The current crown crate features purple lightning via Khenarthi's Thunder Steed mount and pony pet. They're even releasing a purple skill style this year for Lightning Form. Can even look at the current class kit, Volatile Familiar and Tormentor both glow purple with their activations, deal shock damage passively, and even Familiar pulses purple aoe for Shock damage. Quote a single player that has ever complained about the visuals or functionality of those 2 abilities having purple + Shock damage.

If you wanted any signs as to the potential future of Sorcerer and what it could look like, those are it.

To me, all that makes much more sense than Magic damage, the most boring, generic element, that has nothing to do with Sorcerer's passive bonuses, visual identity, or "silhouette". Curse for example, I'd bet my future unborn child that it moves to Dark Magic, I could totally see it summoning a purple lightning bolt on expiration akin to Mages Fury.

Majority of Templar skills are holy that do Magic damage, yet we accept it because they're coloured yellow. Warden's Bear, Flies, Cliff Racer, and Shalks do Magic damage, but also Bleed and Poison, yet we accept them because they're blue. Numerous and countless examples of this. Magic damage is not the identifier, it was used as a supplement for years due to a lack of options that really matched.

Ask yourself why NB's Blood Magic line doesn't have a single skill with Bleed damage? Well it's because magic was generic enough to fulfill that fantasy at the launch of the game when Bleed damage didn't exist as a full fledged damage type, nor were they comfortable enough like they are with hybridization, to give martial damage for Magicka based skills.

From a fundamental gameplay standpoint, it makes more sense to have an even split of magical/martial damage, aka Shock/Physical OR pure Shock like DK. In no universe do I see Magic+Shock making any sort of logical sense for a better designed class, not only are they spitting on the grave of stamina players like they just did for DK, they're also making the class more difficult to balance by diluting half the abilities into not 1, but 2 magic types which defeats the purpose of simplifying the elements in the 1st place. You get weaker passives and abilities that could of applied Concussed like DK's Chain, Claw, or Breath, now have to be second guessed because it could also apply Overcharged instead. It adds complexity that isn't necessary or engaging.

To your second point, every single DK ability that dealt poison damage was just a recolored green version. Physical leap, same thing. Poop Fist is the only entirely unique ability, but everyone hated it. There's plenty of classes as I covered previously like Arcanist, Warden, or Nightblade that could better suit the Poison fantasy that ZOS eluded to vs the situation with Physical on Sorc, of which only Templar carries a great deal, but that class has a similar DK situation to poison with no unique physical abilities.

Sorcerer on the other hand has had Physical and Shock via Storm Calling with the passives Implosion(lost to homogenization) and Energized since year one of the game. Every single physical damage ability is distinct and unique from their magical countertypes. Clanfear has a different model and animations from Familiar, Hurricane different VFX, SFX, and radius than Boundless, Crystal Weapon and Bound Armaments are brand new abilities that don't look or function like Crystal Frag or Bound Aegis.

I'm not saying this is a battle of Magic vs Physical damage, there is plenty of unique abilities for both, it wouldn't make sense for Phys to replace Magic or vise versa, although at least Physical has a passive bonus. This is more a question of Magic vs Shock, and Shock wins that hands down.

Let's not forget they're trying to give real reasons to pure class, if they went Magic + Shock, why should someone interested in Dark Magic take Storm Calling when it doesn't give passive benifts for the abilities they like? Do we expect them to add Magic damage to Storm Calling? To that I'd refer to your initial comment that Magic damage doesn't belong there, even more so because at least Lightning has an obvious element. The alternative is to have Storm Calling use broad passives like Amplitude, instead of bonuses like DK's Burning, Fire, or DOT passive bonuses, but seriously why would we want them to dull down passives and abilities to move away from classes feeling distinct and unique to build or play?

Logically it just doesn't make sense to me to go that proposed direction. Either they go full Shock or Shock + Physical. I don't want to lose Physical, but I'd be happy to give it up if it meant a better designed class like DK's justification. I predict Magic damage is going the way of the dodo, potentially Physical too. Set your expectations now so you're not dissapointed is all I'm saying.

Ingel_Riday wrote: »

A stamina warden is a mixture of weapons and pet animals, like a ranger on steroids.

That's how I see my warden, so I'd hate to see them go full on with frost. That doesn't mean I want to see frost go. As you said, right now wardens have a choice. Hopefully that choice won't go away. If they want to make it frost/bleed, with bleed going to animal companions, that would be fine. I just don't want to see one choice obliterated.

THE WARDEN:

I think the Warden class should have skills that emphasize nature, for example: Air, Water and the Earth. Frost should be a morph to water. Also the Warden class needs other animal companions such as the Wolf, Eagle and the Bear, of course.

THE SORCERER:

I also believe the Sorcerer should have the "shock" fire and ice spells, as well as dark magic and the ability to summon familiars. The current familiars need major overhaul or refresh, and at least adding two new ones.

The Fire spell visual effects (VFX) or animations should be similar to the current "Shock" spell: mage's Fury VFX, fire falling down like rain upon the heads of the enemy(ies). The Fire Staff can be used instead of adding an extra skill line.

Also the Ice Staff can be used for the Ice spells instead of adding an additional skill line.

Dark Conversion and Daedric Tomb should be under the Daedric skill line.

Bound Aegis and Hardened Ward should fall under "Dark Magic skill line."

ALL Shields should be at least 10 seconds for the Sorcerer.

reazea wrote: »

So just buy some sigils of imperial retreat. Does the same thing and they're not expensive. Just a bit of AP.

How much is a bit? I'm pretty sure that for any player that does not PvP and goes to IC to just do the dailies (like me) it would not be feasible. I personally am not trying to protect telvar I'm getting in the process of preloading the dailies for the events. I'm trying to leave as quick as possible. So, I guess it will be blood porting via mobs from now on. There is no way I'm wasting my time by running to the base after each daily.