Mage versus Warrior - are we playing the same game?

Hoamaii

I know it's not news really after all the threads we've read on that matter, but still I can't help sharing my experience.

I had never, ever, played a mage before in TES or in any other game, always a good old board & sword brave little heavily armored fellow. So I gave it a try here.

I just cannot believe the difference. I'm usually a pretty good warrior and I probably suck as a newbie mage - and yet, bosses where my warrior died 10 times, my mage breezes through with little or no health damage at all. I just sit at a distance, summon a couple of critters, wave my hands casting a few spells where my warrior got glued in spiders' webs and wham!.. done. Bad guys are dead. It almost feel like it's not the same game... Damn, my warrior just made it VR, I'm sure gonna run away from sorcerers and grab myself a staff!..

Sihnfahl

The difference is the skill lines and sets. Melee is actually quite decent in TES games because the skill lines don't munch on resources as much.

Also look at the abilities - when was the last time you worried about 'executing' something when it got under 25% health in Skyrim? You just swung your weapon and let the passives take over.

There's a lot more management in ESO... and stamina gets munched a lot faster.

MonkeyAssassin24

I agree it's not a problem of power (my dw and 2h characters can hit pretty hard), it's a problem of resources. I honestly think that one change that could very much help stamina focused characters is lowering the amount of stamina it takes to block and dodge. Even though you can already do this with medium armor and/or 1h+shield, it still just eats through stamina too quickly.

As a ranged character you don't nearly have to use these tactics as often as you can either interrupt with spells and kite as you still dish out damage whereas melee has to stay close in order to damage (you can kite but it's basically just running away). The only drawback I see in this is that it could affect pvp in a negative way unless they keep cc breaking the same cost.

SFBryan18

Real players in PvP won't give you the luxury that AI gives when using summoned creatures. The difference is obviously that the CQC character gets hit a lot more than the ranged character who avoids taking damage. Ranged combat is always strong in every game, including sniper rifles in FPS, but they are usually weak when confronted in a CQC situation. The AI just isn't very good at closing the gap.

jamie.goddenrwb17_ESO

Sihnfahl wrote: »

The difference is the skill lines and sets. Melee is actually quite decent in TES games because the skill lines don't munch on resources as much.

Also look at the abilities - when was the last time you worried about 'executing' something when it got under 25% health in Skyrim? You just swung your weapon and let the passives take over.

There's a lot more management in ESO... and stamina gets munched a lot faster.

Well really in other ES games you didn't have weapon skills, just a bunch of passives. You had light attack and heavy attack and that was it.

ers101284b14_ESO

Same game, yes. Same way, no

Hoamaii

SFBryan18 wrote: »

Real players in PvP won't give you the luxury that AI gives when using summoned creatures. The difference is obviously that the CQC character gets hit a lot more than the ranged character who avoids taking damage. Ranged combat is always strong in every game, including sniper rifles in FPS, but they are usually weak when confronted in a CQC situation. The AI just isn't very good at closing the gap.

Well, in truth, I'm having a lot more fun with my warrior. I doubt that I'll take my mage to VR levels...

But still, I'd love it if the stamina cost was lowered a bit 'cause the imbalance between the two is really too much. Warrior's perks empty the Stamina AND Magicka two or three times faster than Mage's perks do, using Magicka only.

Archaole

Honestly, without clannfear, being a sorcerer would be completely different for me. He acts as my tank while I sit back and cast spell after spell at clannfear's next meal

Sihnfahl

jamie.goddenrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Well really in other ES games you didn't have weapon skills, just a bunch of passives. You had light attack and heavy attack and that was it.

Yep, like I said. You either did a light attack, a heavy attack or, for melee, a moving attack for the stun / chance to decapitate.

It just depending on how long you held your mouse button for and if you moved during the wind-up.