Viable for a magicka class to not use a weapon?

Khaeon

Does anyone just use skills from their class or do you always use staff skills mixed in?

starkerealm

The destro staff has a few very nice abilities that are hard to give up, but... hypothetically? I think so. This can happen with Necros, Wardens, and (at least on one bar) DKs on the Stam side. Can it happen with Mag? I'm not 100% sure.

I have run a MagSorc in PvP with only one non-class ability on the bar, but, that's a PvP build so things are a little different.

Taleof2Cities

Viable for what content, @Khaeon?

Are you at least slotting a staff for the 2-piece bonus without using any skills?

Because you’d be gimping yourself out of a 2-piece bonus by not slotting a staff.

If you’re just doing solo overland content, it’s probably fine.

Most kinds of group content, however, your teammates are going to notice (if no weapon).

freespirit

I "accidently" went on a delve run on a baby character who had no weapon and none available from my bank(using banker assistant)…….

It was sadly only when my character started punching stuff that I realised I'd possibly overlooked something

Anyway turned out skills were enough to complete the delves

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

starkerealm

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

No, it's because they removed vet ranks

TheShadowScout

It's a resource management thing.
Yeah, easy and quick fights can be done with just firing off some skills. But longer fights, tougher opponents... well, you really may want to wave light attacks in for more DPS, and heavy attacks for resopurce recovery, and for that... you want a weapon that does this for you. And for magica characters, that's the staff.

And yeah, it would be really nifty to have some extra options there...
Like: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/371862/additional-weapon-skill-ideas-mk-ii/p1

starkerealm

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

No, it's because they removed vet ranks

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK

starkerealm wrote: »

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

No, it's because they removed vet ranks

You must be new here, vet levels levelled enemies in an area so if you were VR1 and went to a VR4 area you were dead... I loved the idea of levelled areas... it made the game hard but worth the grind... once you are cp 810 and make a new toon you could legit beat molag ballbag at level 3

MLGProPlayer

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

There is nothing to learn in overland PvE content. Enemies don't deal any damage. You deal a ton of damage.

haelene

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

There is nothing to learn in overland PvE content. Enemies don't deal any damage. You deal a ton of damage.

Well yeah, there's nothing for you to learn because you know how to play already. People who don't know how to play do not deal a bunch of damage and can/do get taken out by overland mobs. I see it all the time when I'm gathering mats.

starkerealm

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

No, it's because they removed vet ranks

You must be new here, vet levels levelled enemies in an area so if you were VR1 and went to a VR4 area you were dead... I loved the idea of levelled areas... it made the game hard but worth the grind... once you are cp 810 and make a new toon you could legit beat molag ballbag at level 3

Right... when the profile says "Joined: February 2014," that's exactly what it means.

Also, pretty sure you can't face Molag Bal at Level 3. I mean, the game won't stop you. It won't say, "no, you need to level up." But, between having to run through the entire Planemeld story, and then finish the Coldharbour main quest, I'd be surprised if you can do it before Level 15.

Incidentally, if you haven't leveled a character since Morrowind, they revised the XP curve dramatically, so, Level 15 now would have been around level 8 back before CP was a thing.

Of course, they didn't phase out the Silver and Gold zones when CP were added, that happened almost two years later.

You're also skimming over the nerf to Silver and Gold difficulty around 1.2 or 1.3. After that, you could absolutely jump a couple vet ranks in zones. It'd be brutal, but it was doable.

And, of course, none of this had anything to do with power creep.

But, yeah, I've only got around 20k posts on these boards, so clearly I'm new here.

WrathOfInnos

You would be missing out on 1335 Spell Damage just from holding any weapon, as well as 2 set bonuses, weapon traits, weapon enchants, and all the active and passive skills in that weapon line.

Probably not a big deal for questing, but for any group PVE or PVP content you would be making yourself noticeably weaker than everyone else.

D0PAMINE

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

No, it's because they removed vet ranks

Removal of vet ranks didn't make the game easy, level scaling made leveling up after their removal easy. There is a difference.

starkerealm

D0PAMINE wrote: »

DaNnYtHePcFrEaK wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I miss the days when stuff was actually hard!!

Some of that is power creep, but most of it is just we've learned a lot about how to play over the years.

No, it's because they removed vet ranks

Removal of vet ranks didn't make the game easy, level scaling made leveling up after their removal easy. There is a difference.

If I was going to defend RandomCaptializationKid, it's that there was a pretty significant difficulty nerf to the Silver and Gold content back around 1.2 or 1.3. You'll still see people pointing back at that and going, "yeah, the game was really cool back then, it was brutal, you'd defeat Molag Bal, get shuffled off to the next zone, and die to a mudcrab."

Okay, that may sound stupid, but it was actually good. Silver and Gold were brutally difficult back then. And if you wanted a challenge, they delivered.

Also some of the early quest bosses were pretty vicious. Halls of Torment was murder. Drosha and Gutripper were showstoppers for a lot of new players.

It was, kinda amazing. Kinda terrible. It took a good six months before they ironed out the experience so there was a consistent difficulty curve.

vibeborn

On my MagSorc, MagTemp (and possibly also MagNecro) I was told I must always slam my staff onto the ground to get a higher DPS which if I remember correctly is a destruction staff skill.

I was also told to do light/heavy attacks between using a magicka skill, so I can't let my staffs go

ghastley

Can you weave by hand?

I.e does a fist attack count as a light attack in your rotation?

unclesheosnephew

By level 7 you will have reached the necessary quests done to fight and yes beat Molag Bal. I should know I did it quite easily

starkerealm

unclesheosnephew wrote: »

By level 7 you will have reached the necessary quests done to fight and yes beat Molag Bal. I should know I did it quite easily

Cool, I haven't tried it. I was making a guess based on the amount of stuff that needs to be done in Coldharbour, though I might have been overestimating how much of the zone needs to be cleared to advance, simply because I tend to 100% Coldharbour because of the way quests tend to populate consequences down the line.