Everything But the Bear

Carbonised

I have finally gotten around to leveling up my Warden, as a magicka based build, of course. I must say that purely from an aesthetic point of view, I like everything about it. I of course went with a Dunmer for my Warden, so all the Fetcherfly swarm, Cliffracers and Shalks really fit the theme very well. I also like all the vines, and especially the fungus heal, and the lotis flower and all the custom animations. Now if you hadn't nerfed ice staff from a DPs weapon to a semi-useless tank weapon, my Warden would feel really awesome.

BUT, there is one element that feels completely wrong to me, and that's the bear ultimate. While the rest of the animal skill line has clearly been modeled on a Morowind theme, the bear doesn't fit there at all. Not only does the bear look kind of ugly, but it also sticks out like a sore thumb. Once I've leveled up the skill purely for completion, I will stick to the Ice ulti or Healing forest or maybe just Ice destro ulti.

I can't fathom why you didn't make it more fitting for the theme, such as a Nix Ox summon, a Kagouti or some other Vvardenfell appropriate beast to match all the other Morrowind themed summons. There are no bears on Vvardenfell, or in any Morrowind zone at all. I know it's far too late to hope anything will be changed around, or that we at least get an alternative summon form, but I wanted to throw the feedback out there anyway. If you do add more classes in the future, I hope you stick to the theme so the class feels overall cohesive. The current Warden feels like a sort of Frankenstein's jigsaw puzzle, with Dunmer animal summons, a bear that sticks out, and then a Winter/Frost skill line. I don't see any frost or snow on Vvardenfell, quite the opposite actually.

DieAlteHexe

I rather like the bear although I think it's just a tad oversized.

Not familiar enough with the frost line, yet. I've plans for that on a baby warden that I'll be leveling for the new leveling stuff.

Carbonised

DieAlteHexe wrote: »

I rather like the bear although I think it's just a tad oversized.

Not familiar enough with the frost line, yet. I've plans for that on a baby warden that I'll be leveling for the new leveling stuff.

The bear itself wouldn't have been too terrible on a Warden type of class. But since they clearly modeled the Warden on the Vvardenfell specific flora and animals, the bear feels very much awkward in that mix to me. You can summon fetcherfly swarms, netches, shalk and cliff racers, all very specific Vvardenfell and Morrowind types of creatures, and the lotus is also very much tied to Dunmer and Morrowind (it's the floral symbol used on most of the Vvardenfell furniture pieces, especially the Hlaalu ones). And then you have a bear. When there aren't any bears or ursine creatures in Vvardenfell or Morrowind at all. I still think a Kagouti or Nix Ox or something like that would have been much more thematically appropriate.

DieAlteHexe

Eh, I guess I'm just not as much of a stickler as you are (that's not meant in a negative way). It matters little to me.

Now if they'd given wardens ponies or skeletons or daedra etc, then I'd be right there with you grousing.

I would not like either Kagouti nor NixOx but that's just a personal preference.

Mitrenga

Admit it, you just couldn't bear it.

Pheefs

I want my bear to be a wolf, is that SO wrong?

or maybe even an attack lizard ?
PLEASE?!?!?

& NixOx would be amazing, fear my giant DEATH FLEA!

stewhead2ub17_ESO

@Carbonised , I believe (and I could be in error here) but the Warden was originally considered as a class in the original release of ESO and didn't make the cut in the end, instead being further worked to coincide with the Morrowind release. Which is why I believe the companion pet is a bear.
I never considered that the skill line was so Morrowind centric but I think you raise a good point. Ultimately I would love to see some variety in what companions the Warden could summon (specific perhaps tied to the player's race).

Lynx7386

No, the problem is that wardens are based on bosmer lore and shouldn't be using morrowind themed pets at all.

Id love it if I had non-morrowind animals.

Replace the cliff racer with a hawk/eagle.

the shalks are ok but imo the base ability should deal fire damage, then make sub assault poison damage and summon assassin beetles and the magic morph lightning damage and summon thunderbugs.

The insect swarm should have a physical morph that summons a murder of crows instead. Growing swarm should be an expanding aoe over time like hurricane is for sorcs, maybe even centered on the player, would make it nicer for tanks.

The netch... Not sure what to put here, but I hate the jellyfish. I'd take a bird of some type, or a giant wasp, or a Spriggan, or even a nixad. Though come to think of it a little Spriggan restoring your resources would be pretty cool.

Also wish the bear had other skins: wolf, senche liom, etc.

Ajaxduo

If only the animals that were summoned were based on your race ^^

DieAlteHexe

Ajaxduo wrote: »

If only the animals that were summoned were based on your race ^^

That would be interesting!

navystylz_ESO

Lynx7386 wrote: »

No, the problem is that wardens are based on bosmer lore and shouldn't be using morrowind themed pets at all.

Id love it if I had non-morrowind animals.

Replace the cliff racer with a hawk/eagle.

the shalks are ok but imo the base ability should deal fire damage, then make sub assault poison damage and summon assassin beetles and the magic morph lightning damage and summon thunderbugs.

The insect swarm should have a physical morph that summons a murder of crows instead. Growing swarm should be an expanding aoe over time like hurricane is for sorcs, maybe even centered on the player, would make it nicer for tanks.

The netch... Not sure what to put here, but I hate the jellyfish. I'd take a bird of some type, or a giant wasp, or a Spriggan, or even a nixad. Though come to think of it a little Spriggan restoring your resources would be pretty cool.

Also wish the bear had other skins: wolf, senche liom, etc.

You're the kind of person who would mod a game and make it so much better. Because these are things that should have been done in the first place.

Unfortunately they put crows on a gear set.

Other things I'd change too. I like my Warden... but it's like they picked the most crappy animals to model after. Surprised they haven't come out with an ability reskin system and monetized it already... they way they release overpriced stuff to make money. That is something I would blow my money on. It's just jarring at times the hodgepodge throw together look of something skills.

Jhalin

Based on the tab for reskinning the bear with that collectors edition version, I'd say ZOS plans to introduce purchaseable reskins of the bear. Hopefully to something isn't a bear because you're 100% right, that thing is ugly.

Zamuro

^ yep. give the community a modding tools and they will make the game better than the developers themselves. because the developers dont listen to what the players want

Danikat

I suspect it's the other way around. As other people have said the Warden was originally planned for the base game's release and some aspects will have been decided then.

Then when they decided to release it with Morrowind they tacked on a loose Morrowind theme to some of the skills to make it seem more part of the expansion, but the stuff which they'd already decided on (including the bear) was left as it was.

Personally I'd prefer them to have stuck to a general Tamriel theme, maybe with animals from all over (or even better ones based on your race, but that wouldn't happen) rather than trying to make it look like they're associated with Morrowind when the connection begins and ends with the skill animations. But I guess they thought it made sense at the time.

EvilAutoTech

If you need it for immersion, bears do exist in Morrowind. Solstheim is part of Morrowind. There are even werebears there in the 4th era. Just sayin.

TelvanniWizard

Yeah, in the end they will be selling skins for that bear. Let´s say, 20 bucks or something like that to have nix ox or wolf companion.

Imryll

If there's a need for the animals to 'match," I' rather they kept the bear and based the other abilities on creatures from Valenwood. ;=) The warden's roots seem to me much more bosmer than dunmer.

Carbonised

I do agree that, starting all over again, it would have been more appropriate to go with more generic nature themes, such as hawks, wolves, senches and such. I don't necessarily agree that the Warden is inherently more Bosmerlike or tied to Valenwood. With the ice magic skill line I can see this just as well on a northern druid type of character, like a Nord summoning up wild animals and casting ice magic on their enemies.

However, ZOS obviously went with a more Morrowind theme, to tie in the class with the Chapter it was included in. And in that context, it seems like an easier job to simply change the model of one summoned animal (the bear), instead of changing around all the 5 other summons to match the bear.
Also, in this specific context, since I chose a Dunmer race for my Warden, all the other summons seems very racially appropriate, with only the bear sticking out.

So, in a fantasy wishing world, the summons would reflect the player race, with each race having different animals to summon. since this is merely wishful thinking, a more generic Warden summon focusing on the more "classical" animals would have made the most sense, but since they already tied it with Morrowind and Vvardenfell for other reasons, it would make the most sense at this point of time to change the bear to match the other 5.

And while I do see it can be somewhat awkward to have the current animal summoning skill line on, say, a Nord or an Altmer or Khajiit, it does at least have the benefit of not simply being a copy/paste of the classic DnD Druid or other such tropes. At least it does make the Warden animal summons feel rather unique and very Elder Scrolls-ey. For better and worse.

dodgehopper_ESO

In the same manner that the Bear could be turned gray it might be nice if we could reskin our pets. Hawks, Wolves, and Bears for a 'Nord' or 'Breton' themed Warden. Maybe even a Kagouti instead of bear for Dunmer and Argonian themes, etc. I like the Warden visual look however.