Separate Fire, Frost, Lightning Staves & Add a One-Handed Skill Line

mistermacintosh

Destruction Staves:

With the introduction of the Warden (which specializes in magic/physical & frost damage) and the changes to frost staves that allow them to be used as a tanking tool, I think it might be time to separate the staves into their own individual skill lines. I think this would not only allow them to function better and bring more diversity to magic builds, but it should also make them more enjoyable to use.

Some ideas:

Frost Staves - Add an actual blockade ability (like the zivkin use at dolmens) and also include morphs that increase damage for PVE DPS, which is a major area where frost staves fail.

Inferno Staves - Add that fire blossom ability that the orsinium trinimac cultists use that shoots out circles of fire aoe.

Shock Staves - You could add the AOE ability that the storm atros use, and give it the slamming animation the Pinnicle Factotum does.

And of course further diversify the passives that determine how these weapons function. Bottom line is to make the staves feel... more different... differenter?

Just a few ideas, but I think it’s enough to start with.

There are a couple of potential issues I’ve thought of so far… You’ll have to use more skill points if you want to use more than one type of weapon (crazy, right?). I think it would be worth the trade off for better skills.

There’s also the question of what to do with ele drain - get rid of it is my suggestion. Just make siphon spirit better. Everyone is choosing ele over siphon right now anyway, so what’s the point of having both? Healers are also limiting themselves with how many resto abilities they use because ele drain is mandatory for any high level content. If you really want any class to be able to heal, this might be a step in that direction…


One Handed:

I've also been thinking of what if might be like if a one-handed skill line were introduced. Why a one-handed skill line, you ask? Because casting magic abilities with dual wield looks stupid and fighting with one weapon looks equally stupid right now. If you don’t believe me cast radiant destruction with two weapons and block an attack with one. Looks dumb, right?

So an opportunity exists to create a skill line that makes this style of play not only look better, but function better and give the players more options for interesting builds.

I would approach it like this:

When you equip a one-handed weapon, the default is a basic swashbuckler-type dueling fighting style. You should start out with actives that allow you to do attacks like slash, parry, repost, etc.

Then once you get your one handed leveled you can buy morphs that allow you to do more complicated strokes for stamina (like a knock-back stun or execution) OR allow you to cast elemental/magic abilities like the templar's vampire’s bane from your off-hand.

You could also add passives that make one-handed abilities different, but competitive with dual wield and destruction staves. Maybe using a one-handed weapon gives you more damage, but destruction staves give you extra total magic. And for stamina users one-handed abilities could be that middle road between spin-to-win dual wield and give-me-a-minute-I'm-swinging two handed abilities, for players who like control and damage.

I’ve seen lots of folks running around wielding a single dagger or sword because they remember playing that way in previous elder scrolls titles. If you want to bring that back for us in ESO with a one-handed skill line that makes that style of play look better and more useful at end game, I’m sure there are plenty of folks who would appreciate it.

And not only is there a chance to bring back that nostalgia of previous titles, with the current tech there's also an opportunity to make the one-handed fighting style better than it has ever been in an Elder Scrolls game.