[Suggestion] Offhands for Two-Handed, Bows, and Staves

Jah

I'm no expert at this game, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that Dual Wield provides more benefit than other weapons, even for spell casters. This is because a weapon in each weapon slot gives more weapon/spell damage than weapons that take both weapon slots (with equal level and no passives). Having two weapons allows an additional trait for sets, an additional enchant, and the final passive in the dual wield tree even grants 5% damage (if wielding swords) on top of that. This is not a complaint about dual wielding though, but rather a lack with other weapons.

What I'm proposing is that new offhand items be added to the game that compliment the weapons listed in the title. Examples include a scabbard for two-handed weapons, quiver for bows, and spell book for staves. All three of those can be shown on the back, too, which is neat. Either these offhands can provide no damage, but just allow an additional trait and enchant, or the weapon damage on these weapons can be lowered to be in line with one-handers, with the offhands granted equal damage. I believe this would better equalize all weapons.

I suppose this would take a lot of work, and so it's not likely to happen. Also, people don't seem to like my ideas. But I think it would be cool. It'd allow magicka users to use a staff instead of dual wield and still get that extra bit of spell power, along with the extra trait and enchant. Plus the benefit of ranged light/heavy attacks for ultimate building and resource return. The biggest thing here is the additional trait for sets though.

thisisScoMan

I like these suggestions.

I've often thought about the little differences with 8 vs 9 set pieces when I'm crafting armor & weapons.

I never thought about all the other stuff though. I just thought it would be good if the set piece covered both hands rather than just the 1.

But I like the idea of scabbards, quivers etc. Add a different look to the character.

finalkingdom

that would be pretty cool. its kind of annoying that you have to use melee weapons on a caster just beacause it give more spell power than a staf. and lets say that playing a pure sorcerer and having to dual wield melee weapons just feel strange.

willklippsteinb14_ESO

im sorry, but a 2-H weapon shouldn't have an off-hand, makes no sense, just up its stats, secondly, Bows are crappy dps, just up their stats, thirdly, Staves should grant more spell dmg then DW swords (sadly this is not so) Up the bonus to spell dmg from staves. And your fine... id defiantly agree that they are unbalanced, However adding off hand weapons for everything when they could just change the stats of the weapons in general.

Vangy

willklippsteinb14_ESO wrote: »

im sorry, but a 2-H weapon shouldn't have an off-hand, makes no sense, just up its stats, secondly, Bows are crappy dps, just up their stats, thirdly, Staves should grant more spell dmg then DW swords (sadly this is not so) Up the bonus to spell dmg from staves. And your fine... id defiantly agree that they are unbalanced, However adding off hand weapons for everything when they could just change the stats of the weapons in general.

Staves do grant more DPS than DW. DW just provides a higher spell power number but you lose out on weaving damage, resource return, ultimate generation and things like wall of elements. DW is only used by sorcs on overload bar only, and certain PVP burst builds that do not need to weave. Generally speaking, in terms of sustained DPS, staves are faaaaar better than running DW.

Jah

willklippsteinb14_ESO wrote: »

im sorry, but a 2-H weapon shouldn't have an off-hand, makes no sense, just up its stats, secondly, Bows are crappy dps, just up their stats, thirdly, Staves should grant more spell dmg then DW swords (sadly this is not so) Up the bonus to spell dmg from staves. And your fine... id defiantly agree that they are unbalanced, However adding off hand weapons for everything when they could just change the stats of the weapons in general.

I think you're kind of missing the point. It's not just about damage stats from the weapons. It's about allowing another trait and enchant for 2 handers, bows, and staves. You can get 10 traits from all your armor (7 armor + 3 jewelry) plus 1 trait from 2-handers, bows, and staves or 2 traits from dual wield and 1 hand+shield. Adding an offhand item to pair with 2-slot weapons would allow any build to have a total of 12 traits instead of some only having 11. The offhand item would be more flavor than weapon, which is why I recommended scabbard (which a 2-hander would reside in while sheathed), quiver (would add some graphical flair to bows), and spellbook (some games have a caster-type character with a giant spellbook on their back, though it could also be carried in offhand slot since your left hand is empty with staff).

TheShadowScout

Two-handers have an advantage in damage.
Staves and bows have an advantage in range.
Those advantages are balanced by not having an second item for trait and set piece count.

If they got an offhand item, the powers that be would need to do some rebalancing, give out some advantage to S&B and dual-wield to keep the balance intact... since that would likely be a hassle with playtesting and rebalancing, and not net them any additional profits to justify the effort, I kinda doubt they would go for it...

Jah

I just realized that I said that set bonuses come from traits rather than crafting or drops. Oops lol.

But yeah, I know they'll never go for it. Too much work and no profit in it.

Browiseth

Jah wrote: »

I just realized that I said that set bonuses come from traits rather than crafting or drops. Oops lol.

But yeah, I know they'll never go for it. Too much work and no profit in it.

What do you mean, "no profit in it"? It isn't the fact that perhaps these weapon types are intended to be balanced to be comparable to dual wield and its' unique perk of...um...Dual wielding?

But yeah. It's probably just got something to do with corporate cynicism.

clocksstoppe

I've done intensive testing and DW is slightly weaker than staves on casters. The extra damage and the passive aren't as powerful as you would expect.