3rd skill bar for every class?

Dawnblade

aliyavana wrote: »

I think the amount of abilities was to compensate this game was since development was planned to go on console. I wouldnt mind a platform segregation where pc gets more buttons for more combat variety and console remains the same for balance purposes

I enjoy the different style of combat with the rolling, bashing, blocking over typical PC MMO combat (it isn't better - just different, and it's fun for me to do something different from time to time), but I don't care for the simple 5 skill button bar flipping console button masher animation cancelling combat (I play on a PC with a keyboard - not a console).

I'd love to see the game let me make use of actual key binds for individual skills as well as individual UI elements and non-combat actions, but I don't see them doing the amount of development it would require to provide a more PC focused offering of ESO for those of us on the PC (which is a shame - I think the PC versions would have been much more successful if the UI and combat felt like it was designed for a PC, not ported from a console design).

sphane

Yes 1 third bar For the horse... Tired to have a flex skill to put/remove rapid manouver.

idk

T4T2FR34K wrote: »

To open up the game a little more...is it time?

p.s. I say that because after watching this 1.5 million gold tourney, some of the fights got really stale with the same skills over and over...just curious what you think...

Adding another skill bar would not have much of an affect on that, probably none.

So, no, it is not time. WoW's system does not make their fights more interesting.

SugaComa

I'd like to see a mounted skill line ... Skill you can use while mounted

Izaki

I think that a 3rd ability bar would be really cool as it would indeed open up another aspect of combat, but then again i don't know how it would be manageable. And we would definitely need more skills in class skill lines.

Bam_Bam

Would like to see bigger choice of morphs and that the morphs are split evenly between stamina and majika options - so base skill then 2 stam morphs and 2 mag morphs.
I would NOT increase the number of skills you can use - if you need a 3rd bar, you prolly need to L2P.

T4T2FR34K

Bevik wrote: »

I used to play Lineage 2. When I stopped it I could use 4 skill bars with 12 skills, consumables, special things on the bars. It was a click and press game but still. At the moment they have 5 skill bars, even more skills, special things. You can have also buffs long term, short term, self buffs also, a lot of classes. That depth in there still amazes me. You can even have macros. So sad they turned that to a pay to win game.

When I started ESO it felt like this game is made so simple so everyone can play it. Still feels like it but if you take your time you still have lots of variation how you want to build your chars. This game is a lot more casual friendly. Lineage 2 is a hardcore grind MMO, Korean not a surprise.

Anyway so system like you can have with a sorcerer's Overcharge can be good, so you can have your 2 main skill bars and 1 extra which can be for some special events like makes you damn strong for 10 seconds or so or the more enemy you kill during that special skill bar the more time you can use it. Will make grinding a breeze could be good to pop it up during the raid. I would like to see more buff, more debuffs from classes aswell. Maybe some kind of auras which applies for the whole group but comes from the class not from a set or skills(passive can be).

Yeah, this game is simple...I grew up on DDO (not neverwinter), the characters customization and combat is bar-none...the only downfall is no PvP, so here I sit.

jnelson1182

that's one thing I'm not liking about this game so far is the skill bar, I definitely think they should allow plays more control of how many skill bars we can have on our screen without switching back and forth. it'd help alot with the fact that we are not just limited to one skill line.

T4T2FR34K

jnelson1182 wrote: »

that's one thing I'm not liking about this game so far is the skill bar, I definitely think they should allow plays more control of how many skill bars we can have on our screen without switching back and forth. it'd help alot with the fact that we are not just limited to one skill line.

There is a way around this, but only on PC...they have addons like "Dressing Room" (I use this one) and it will let you set up multiple skills/weapons & armor sets...so you can ride around with your sneaky/horse gear/skills...roll up on a fight and switch to your tank gear/skills...get pushed back into a keep and switch to your siege gear/skills and when you get bored of cyrodill you can put on your speed gear/skills and go farm mats.

This is only a Band-Aid tho, because what I want is to see more in depth combat, not the same 2-3 attack skills and the rest utility...an additional bar and hell, maybe the ability to have a third weapon set equipped to justify it would add so much more to the game...PvP & PvE.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

I would just be happy if I did not have to double slot buffs and pets. Seriously, who's bright idea was that anyway?

Rex-Umbra

3rd bar would be nice.

troomar

If everyone would be able to use 3 bars, then I want 5 bars on my sorcerer. And two additional stackable shields. You know, balance.

Bryanonymous

I don’t like the idea. There aren’t many skills to choose from, so the limited slots force players to make sacrifices. The more slots, the less sacrifice. However, I would not be opposed to an ultimate ability added to one of the world skill lines that might be similar to overload. Just keep in mind that while sorcs have the overload choice, they also have a skill line where 3/5 abilities must be on every bar to remain active.

Maura_Neysa

I don’t really use it on my stamsorc and I think it would be too OP on Wardens and DKs who have more situationally useful skills then the other classes. It fits Sorcs because they have several skills that are required on every bar to stay active

Ajaxandriel

Tasear wrote: »

No that's the sorc thingy.

Except you cannot simply swap back to bar2 from bar1-ultimate. So ...no.

Anyway, the whole swap thing is aweful
It may be a mandatory feature for console alas....

Loc2262 wrote: »

The current system (no cooldown, limited skill slots) is what makes ESO's combat system what it is. Changing it to an extent as proposed here would mean totally changing the way combat works in this game. So, no please. I'd like to play ESO and not WOW or Nox Online.

Now i think you have really weird tastes, the gameplay in ESO is terrible. Elitist, obscure, lag-sensitive, ChampionPoint-sensitive, falsely free and creative, but practically inefficient in so many aspects... We only enjoy it because it makes amazing animations
Let's be honest. I play WoW also and it's just *better* ...funner, clearer, richer, more efficient... I'm so sorry for ESO

DeadlyRecluse

Having to make choices about what skills are available to your character at any given time is an integral part of ESO building and has been since the beginning. This would dilute that considerably--as much as I'd like to run a handful of skills I currently don't have room for, I don't want to see skill selection and bar management be a thing of the past.

starkerealm

QuebraRegra wrote: »

STO on consoles uses a system where you can set skill behaviors to automatically trigger (ie. heal me when I'm below 75% health, enable sheild when first entering combat, etc.). There's a quite a bit of customization available in the system to get additional skills integrated into combat with limited controller buttons.

This assumes that the consoles are the limiting factors... which I suspect is true.

On PC you can set your ship weapons to autofire. last time I played (which, judging by the 9500 Zen I'd accrued during my absence) was around 1.5 years ago, you couldn't set abilities to autofire, those required keystrokes. Makes sense for consoles, however.

Ragnarock41

I don't even have skills to put on a third bar...

Tapio75

I would say its a time to remove all class barriers and instead, handle class skills like any other skill line available to anyone with passives. It will balance itself out in couple more meta builds but most importantly, it will open more ways to play the game as you want without any need to concern yourself with efficiency. If you survive, it should be enough at least in solo play and in groups, as long as content is done in reasonable time, nobody should have anything to complain. The competitive players can have their own competitive fun naturally but pugs should never be considered "Efficient/competitive" gaming.

I would like to have "buff ba# for buff skills which has has an assignmed keymap which then casts all buffs in the buff bar. Buffs would be few and perphaps pets should be here as well. Buff bar should not have more than 3 slots, 2 might be enough... Remember, that bar would consume huge amouts of magicka, i think that would prevent it being a spammable protection bar.

Eocosa

I would be a bit leery of this, and not just how it would be a struggle on console or in lag.

My main issue is I don't think it would do much of what you're hoping for. Instead of more abilities and unique builds we would see people simply stack more buffs on themselves.

Maybe you had a good clutch spell to use and so skipped out on inner light, well now you can have both!

Some people definitely have the motor skills to take advantage of an extra bar, but I would see most people just stacking more buffs on it (well passive things), summonable pets, inner light, bound armaments, etc.

Eventually all you will have really done is have the current builds just with more stats and maybe 1-2 extra abilities. Inevitably a "best" rotation comes out and that's what most people move to.

Instead of a straight extra bar, I would love for them to buff/tweak what we currently have to encourage more choice to promote skill diversity.

WrathOfInnos

A third bar could get confusing, would you cycle between 3 with one button? Or would it be like the Sorc overload bar, which is very clunky to use in combat.

I would rather just see a 6th skill slot added to the bar. Or at least a change so that things do not need to be slotted on both bars (bound armor, pets, passives like inner light and expert hunter).

Jarryzzt

1. In general, adding more skill bars in an MMO is not a good idea because:

a) More skill bars means more skill combinations and builds that must be balanced against each other.

b) More skill bars means a larger gap in performance between hardcore and casual players.

c) Specifically for consoles, more skill bars means more buttons or button combinations needed to control the switching.

2. Adding more skill bars, skills, et cetera may well not fix the OP's issue of "some of the tournament fights [getting] really stale with the same skills over and over". In fact, likely quite the reverse.

Competitive PVP, and presumably this is what the OP is talking about, is generally about finding the few "best in show" combinations and training the hell out of them. In fact, this principle extends well beyond MMOs - to MTGs, tabletop, et cetera. In a large, competitive tournament setting, especially with "stuff" on the line (in-game currency, cards, whatever), you are very likely to end up with a meta that focuses on 2-3-4-5 builds or build types, with 90%+ of the top tier participants sticking with that meta. [And then once in a while you'll get a Zvi Mowshowitz coming in with an off-the-wall deck no-one had thought of that utterly breaks the game. But these people are rare, by definition.]

In other words, in a 3-bar ESO PVP tournament you'd still have "stale fights" with people using "the same skills over and over" - you are just making the rotations more complicated.

3. Arguably, some class subtypes do not have enough skills to fill up a whole third bar. Meaning - yes, in principle there are enough, but many skills/morphs do not actually fit together in a rotation. E.g. a DW Stamblade wouldn't put two sources of Major Brutality into a rotation (because...why??), a Stamsorc wouldn't have any Dark Magic skills (because...why??), et cetera.

I can see a number of builds that could expand into 2.5 bars, but three? Fifteen active skills?!! Really, pet-based Sorcerers would be the only ones loving the three-bar rotation (pull out both pets and the armour/weapons summon and still have room for a full active rotation). [Oh, wait, did I just discover the 3-bar meta?..]

---

Bottom line - no. Just - no.

Sheezabeast

You unlock your 2nd bar at level 15, when do you propose a 3rd bar would be unlocked at, max level?

Uviryth

Lets face it, something like that will never happen, because the game is playable on consoles too. And every game you can controll with a GamePad needs to be kept simple. There is only so much you can do with that ancient outdated method of controlling videogames.

LadyLethalla

I have wanted a third bar just for PvP for a long time.

Tapio75

Uviryth wrote: »

Lets face it, something like that will never happen, because the game is playable on consoles too. And every game you can controll with a GamePad needs to be kept simple. There is only so much you can do with that ancient outdated method of controlling videogames.

Sadly that ancient form of controlling videogames is more popular than ever since the gamers dont have the required skillset anymore to learn complicated playstyles.

Would be nice to put a D&D rulebook in front of typical "skilled" mmo player and tell him/her to start playing Wizard. Not to mention dual classed stuff. I wonder how they would see D&D balance as that is greatly different than what MMO "balance" is.

Maura_Neysa

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

No that's the sorc thingy.

Except you cannot simply swap back to bar2 from bar1-ultimate. So ...no.

Anyway, the whole swap thing is aweful
It may be a mandatory feature for console alas....

Loc2262 wrote: »

The current system (no cooldown, limited skill slots) is what makes ESO's combat system what it is. Changing it to an extent as proposed here would mean totally changing the way combat works in this game. So, no please. I'd like to play ESO and not WOW or Nox Online.

Now i think you have really weird tastes, the gameplay in ESO is terrible. Elitist, obscure, lag-sensitive, ChampionPoint-sensitive, falsely free and creative, but practically inefficient in so many aspects... We only enjoy it because it makes amazing animations
Let's be honest. I play WoW also and it's just *better* ...funner, clearer, richer, more efficient... I'm so sorry for ESO

WoW is so graphicby inferior, mind numbingly linear, and good luck catching up to your friends if the started before you. Elder Scrolls and Star Wars Galaxies both have done "leveling" and skills right. Yes the both played near enough the graphics edge to cause issues, but its so much better than playing with 10 year old graphics and insultingly hyper gender body forms.

Hurtfan

Twohothardware wrote: »

A lot of the skills and combat as a whole could use an overhaul but we definitely don't need a third skill bar. It's hard enough on a laggy server to bar swap let alone need to swap through three.

This, swapping between 2 bars in PvP can suck at times due to lag. If that wasn't an issue, I'd be down with another skill bar.

jnelson1182

the switching between back bar and front bar during combat was probably the toughest thing I had to get used to in game, I understand why they have to keep bars like they are especially for consoles but still think it'd be nice if they could add another bar, maybe not a total weapon swap cuz idk if having a 3rd weapon would be useful to anyone.

JamuThatsWho

Play a Sorc.
Problem solved.