Are there good descriptions of class playstyles anywhere?

ModicaSolSolis

I've looked at builds, on the wiki, at class abilities, and I haven't felt like I've been able to find a good source of information on what each class plays like on the Magicka and Stamina side. Builds tend to focus on damage and numbers, wikis are too general, the class abilities don't tell me much since they exist in a vacuum.

Basically, I'm trying to find out how people would describe the class playstyles in action--like, for example, how the Stam DK differs from the Mag DK in terms of things like mobility, class roles, capability, etc. in a player's experience. Like, I'm not interested in what their DPS is, but how they get it there, or how they PVP but not how good they are at it and whatnot.

Any input?

DragonBound

ModicaSolSolis wrote: »

I've looked at builds, on the wiki, at class abilities, and I haven't felt like I've been able to find a good source of information on what each class plays like on the Magicka and Stamina side. Builds tend to focus on damage and numbers, wikis are too general, the class abilities don't tell me much since they exist in a vacuum.

Basically, I'm trying to find out how people would describe the class playstyles in action--like, for example, how the Stam DK differs from the Mag DK in terms of things like mobility, class roles, capability, etc. in a player's experience. Like, I'm not interested in what their DPS is, but how they get it there, or how they PVP but not how good they are at it and whatnot.

Any input?

Let me just share some info I learned so far.

Templar clearly the most powerful healing passives, but that does not mean other classes do not have its uses for healing, for example a dk can offer other buffs like stamina or mana leach to groups along with healing staff to be support and a more of a defensive healer. They can also easily be dps/healing within the same build as they only need magicka gear. Stam templar is kind of lackluster and at the bottom right now for pve from what I hear.

As a side note templars also get nice debuffs.

Sorcerers, your typical nuke house, clearly passives for dps, purely a dps class with one or two group buffs, stamsorcs are also really good and fun if your more into a battlemage playstyle, they can also have good crowd control along with great pets for off tanking in groups and solo play, they are the most mobile class in the game in my opinion, stamsorc is more ahead in mobility then magicka sorc though.

Dragon knight, obviously lots of tanking passives but they can also be really awesome dps along with nice abilities like reflect which is killer in pve and pvp. I think last I heard stam dks for dps where decent, and of course tank dks are amazing as always along with dps dks. Most abilities are fire based, keep in mind the stamina ones are poison based and not very many, but like many stamina classes there is usually a few other class abilities you can use for utility.

Night blades, I am not going to share much here as I have yet to play one, but I believe magicka and stamina are good, I know nightblades can make good tanks as well, they have some offheals for groups which is also nice, they base allot of abilities on burst dps and life leach.

Keep in mind you get to level up guild skills including undaunted and all of them have their uses depending if your magicka or stamina and all ultimates scale off your highest stat. And if your stamina there are lots of weapons to work on and choose from, magicka only gets staff but more class abilities to play with.

I hope this helped.

KochDerDamonen

Well the question gets even muddier if you bring PvP/PvE into the equation, but for PvE DD only...
All opinions here forward involve the environment of veteran dungeons, I make not comment on things being viable for trials, nor do I care what works in overworld PvE(everything, essentially). Additionally, I've sorted these based on my familiarity with the class. Templar most, Nightblade least.

All Magicka builds have the benefit of easy access to restoration staff skills and can pick up healing secondary, Sorcerers can even pick up tanking without heavy armor pretty easily. Stamina builds in general can pick up tanking without much of an issue but I'd recommend heavy armor, again sorcerers can do much without heavy armor (get into this later).

Templars: Magicka and Stamina are highly highly similar, both lean on jabs (first spell in aedric spear skill line) for single target and minor-aoe, both can offer the utility of stamina restoration to allies, both have easy access to Major Mending through extended/retribution ritual for improved heals, both offer Minor Sorcery to the group through Dawn's Wrath spells though only magicka really benefits from it, both have perfectly fine Critical Strike buffs from either jabs(stamina) or sun fire(magicka). Magicka Templar has the strongest execute in the game, Radiant Destruction. Simple rotations, high defensiveness, High healing, low mobility, low variability.

Sorcerer: Both forms have a distinct lack of class "spam" spells and are more utilitarian. Both have access to a morph of Lightning Form which gives them a constant AoE presence and movement speed, both can use Critical Surge to passively heal while dealing any kind of damage as long as it can critically strike. Both can offer Minor Prophecy to the group through casting Dark Magic spells, although only magicka benefits. Stamina Sorcerer is a huge AoE threat when considering Hurricane, Endless Hail(bow), and Steel Tornado(DW) as the strongest AoE spells in the game, and due to only needing their magicka pool for Critical Surge a Stamina Sorcerer can make use of Dark Deal to trade out excess magicka for health and stamina for intense sustaining power. Magicka Sorcerer has Crystal Fragments which is mildly unreliable as you have to proc it but it's certainly the biggest surprise burst in the game especially when you disclude ultimates, Overload can be used by either variant for a third spell bar although magicka can actually use the overload attacks for heavy damage and magicka restoration. Varied rotation difficulty, mediocre defense(ward for magicka is strong but a resource dump in many cases), high self-healing, high mobility, and currently the class with the most "pets" if that interests you.

Dragonknights: Both variants rely on strong focus on a single damage type (fire for mag, poison for stam) and loads of DoTs. Both are quite close ranged, even moreso than the Templars. Both have strong sustain for all resources thanks to Battle Roar(restore % of max resources based on ult cost on cast), both offer Minor Brutality to a group through earthen heart spell casts although only stamina benefits from it. With Corrosive Armor a stamina dragonknight can become essentially invincible for 8 seconds while also ignoring enemy resistances, magicka dragonknights benefit from even more fire damage synergies through racials and the fire destruction staff. Difficult rotations with high rewards, high defensiveness, okay self-heals, low mobility, constant DPS no even if pulled off their target a moment and above-average ultimate generation.

Nightblade: Both have the only class stealth boons in the game, both have intense resource sustain with Siphoning Strikes active, both have naturally higher critical chance, offers Major Savagery to self and group when they critically strike (with an assassination spell slotted) although only stamina benefits. Magicka Nightblade has insane ultimate generation and self/group healing prowess, Stamina has an obscenely simple rotation and lots of free space on their bars for out-of-class utilities. Variably difficult rotations, high(potential) defense, high healing OR nearly non-existant healing(stamina), HIGH mobility, can be built to be extremely forgiving to slip-ups and... well, I don't have all that much to say about Nightblades, they are on the bottom of my list after all

WhiteMage

There are a number of ways you can spec out each class, and while I have played all of them a bit, I'm really only in a position to talk about light armor magplars in a PvP setting.

Magplars will most commonly be seen in melee combat because of the amazing ability know affectionately as jabs. The idea here is to get into the fight with the class gap closer and jab your enemies into execute range, while able to fall back on a myriad of defensive skills. When up close, while using only jabs does suffice in many situations, using many AoEs, especially DoTs or other effects that can be used while jabbing, works to a much greater effect. Other skills to look out for are backlash and radiant destruction, which can be used to lay down excellent burst damage, at least when the opponent is not a Templar. Roots and pets are your enemy, but if the pets are jab-able, they can be used to heal you in unfavorable situations. Close quarter combat is ideal, without much space for opponents to escape the jabs.

On RARE occasion, you will encounter a ranged magplar. This spec has not been explored by a great many players, but they can be devastating if they are allowed to attack for 6-8 seconds. This spec takes advantage of the templar's "house" and is perfectly happy to stand in both the extended ritual and rune focus, and maybe even the volcanic rune. Doing so allows the magplar to take full effect from BoL, which is very useful when not relying on jabs for damage. The magplar will want to lay down sustain damage upon the enemy after applying backlash, and using a radiant destruction to coincide with the burst from the backlash. This burst can be powerful enough to kill a sorc through his shields in less than a second if everything goes perfectly. Melee opponents are far more troublesome in this spec, but are manageable if they cannot burst you. This spec prefers fewer opponents in a larger area due to its reliance on ranged single target damage.

ModicaSolSolis

KochDerDamonen wrote: »

Well the question gets even muddier if you bring PvP/PvE into the equation, but for PvE DD only.

All opinions here forward involve the environment of veteran dungeons, I make not comment on things being viable for trials, nor do I care what works in overworld PvE(everything, essentially). Additionally, I've sorted these based on my familiarity with the class. Templar most, Nightblade least.

[...]

This is immensely helpful. I'm currently leveling a Sorcerer as my first class. It's more or less a Magicka Sorcerer and I enjoy it immensely, in large part because of how much mobility I have and how much flexibility there seems to be in terms of what I can handle. I had been leveling a Magicka Templar, which I enjoyed a lot, but the Sorcerer just seems to have much more oomph, though I do miss the jabs.

I'm really intrigued by this Stamina Sorcerer, though. And my first character that I deleted long ago was a DK, had a good ol' time slapping people around with fire but I felt very one-note and immobile, less so than with the Templar even.

Nightblade is a non-starter for me, though. Just can't get into the class in the slightest. Never been a sneaky rogue-type, anyway.

Jitterbug

The most useless/useful answer is probably that all the classes can play all playstyles, some are just more effective than others.

Dragonknight, low movability
Magicka: fire
Stamina: poison and weapons

Sorcerer, high movability
Magicka: lightning and staves
Stamina: lightning and weapons

Templar, low movability
Magicka: sun and staves
Stamina: weapons

Nightblade, high movability
Magicka: dark magic and staves
Stamina: weapons

All of them can however be specced and played anyway you like, just not as effectively as the others. You need to figure out what you want to play like, and which class you think looks the coolest.

Sausage

They arent so black and white as you might think. The idea behind the concept is that it should keep player engaged with the game as theres more depth. This isnt Overwatch for example.

This is exactly the reason why we need more Weapons, as the Classes doesnt offer much, but Weapons could most definitely do so, yeah, when player start to play this game, he shouldnt think what Class/playstyle he prefer, he should think what kind of Weapon he wants to use.

KochDerDamonen

ModicaSolSolis wrote: »

KochDerDamonen wrote: »

Well the question gets even muddier if you bring PvP/PvE into the equation, but for PvE DD only.

All opinions here forward involve the environment of veteran dungeons, I make not comment on things being viable for trials, nor do I care what works in overworld PvE(everything, essentially). Additionally, I've sorted these based on my familiarity with the class. Templar most, Nightblade least.

[...]

This is immensely helpful. I'm currently leveling a Sorcerer as my first class. It's more or less a Magicka Sorcerer and I enjoy it immensely, in large part because of how much mobility I have and how much flexibility there seems to be in terms of what I can handle. I had been leveling a Magicka Templar, which I enjoyed a lot, but the Sorcerer just seems to have much more oomph, though I do miss the jabs.

I'm really intrigued by this Stamina Sorcerer, though. And my first character that I deleted long ago was a DK, had a good ol' time slapping people around with fire but I felt very one-note and immobile, less so than with the Templar even.

Nightblade is a non-starter for me, though. Just can't get into the class in the slightest. Never been a sneaky rogue-type, anyway.

Feel free to pm me here on the forums @KochDerDamonen on PC NA or DamonenKoch on PS4 NA if you ever have more questions then, I'm not captain of the experienced club but I've gotten around. If you're on PC I can especially help with crafted gear if you like

ModicaSolSolis

Jitterbug wrote: »

The most useless/useful answer is probably that all the classes can play all playstyles, some are just more effective than others.

Dragonknight, low movability
Magicka: fire
Stamina: poison and weapons

Sorcerer, high movability
Magicka: lightning and staves
Stamina: lightning and weapons

Templar, low movability
Magicka: sun and staves
Stamina: weapons

Nightblade, high movability
Magicka: dark magic and staves
Stamina: weapons

All of them can however be specced and played anyway you like, just not as effectively as the others. You need to figure out what you want to play like, and which class you think looks the coolest.

It's the question of "What do you want to play like?" that's the impetus behind this topic. Because I know all the classes can heal, tank, and DPS to varying degrees of success, but I don't know how they do those things, what the mindset or aesthetic is for each class fulfilling those roles when you get down to the gameplay and not just theorycrafting.

What would be most useful to me is knowing that (as a random hypothetical completely divorced from the actual game) the Mag Sorc's DPS style is built around sustained damage from various sources like pets versus the Stam Sorc's style of burst damage through weapons. Or that the Mag DK heals through substantially different means than the Stam DK, that sort of thing.

Cherryblossom

ModicaSolSolis wrote: »

I've looked at builds, on the wiki, at class abilities, and I haven't felt like I've been able to find a good source of information on what each class plays like on the Magicka and Stamina side. Builds tend to focus on damage and numbers, wikis are too general, the class abilities don't tell me much since they exist in a vacuum.

Basically, I'm trying to find out how people would describe the class playstyles in action--like, for example, how the Stam DK differs from the Mag DK in terms of things like mobility, class roles, capability, etc. in a player's experience. Like, I'm not interested in what their DPS is, but how they get it there, or how they PVP but not how good they are at it and whatnot.

Any input?

@ModicaSolSolis

I would suggest looking through the video's by @Gilliamtherogue he gives great information on all classes, explaining all their skills and how best to use them. Plus gives guides on all the other skill lines.

https://youtube.com/channel/UC1tq9cpMI7uzD7zRakve3nw

ModicaSolSolis

!!!

This is the kind of thing I was looking for, yessss

JWKe

You can essentially tell what the class is designed for by looking at the passive abilities in each of their skill lines. However, technically you could play any role with any of the classes.

Auros

@ModicaSolSolis When I returned to ESO after few years, I found some of the old sites up to date, kept very good information about the game and I am grateful to those people dedicated to keep the good work, so I believe they deserve a shout here: deltiasgaming.com/ tamrielfoundry.com/ sypherpk.com/ and others !!!

I am quite sure this thread will be moved by ZOS to Player help section anyway, but here are my 2 cents:

Read about the biggest changes: One Tamriel and level scaling. Choose your favourite weapon/skills you will enjoy later while grinding, then your answers will start to come: do the skills cost magica or stamina ... the rest you probably can guess - armor type ... etc.

Good reading and watching

P.S: I have the impression that in most MMOs due to the fact that ppl are getting bored of the repetitiveness of the game, most companies tend to ease content and we get our comfort of life thus our toons become stronger (we - lazier) and in the end all goes to DPS / out-heal in the end. This is my own impression. No more healers and tanks if we can DPS throught it faster than needed, no need for tanks etc... so everything becomes blurred.

Maybe the whole genre is simply evolving, I see no harm in it, time to move on. In ESO you can all you want, so pick what you like and ask yourself: do I like to do what I just have chosen?