Add more skill slots

psycoprophet

Seriously this game is in need of more skill slots or another bar with 3 or 4 slots just for utility like skills like buffs/debuffs etc that's always present and doesnt swap when swapping to next skill bar. Having a bar with 2 or three buff or debuff skills and a defensive skill leaves the bar for 2 or so active skills and another bar for 5 active skills. Sry but having only 7 or 8 skills plus a ultimate for each seems really restrictive for a mmo. This game has a ton of skills but u can only have max 10 active skills if u use no utility skills lol and that's not even that many let alone no one does that. So u use three utility type skills and u run around with a whopping 7 skills in a mmo in 2019? This is obviously leaving out ults and la/sa's, I may be in the manority but just seems like for all the cool skills in the game we should be able to slot more

MincVinyl

The point is you have to optimize every aspect of your build. Otherwise there would be little diversity between players, and there wouldn't be choices that each player has to make. Imagine if everyone had access to every choice.
all dks could use Wings any time they come across a ranged opponent
all sorcs could streak away and Dark Deal
and so on

for instance
I dont use gap closers, so i save an ability slot that i can use for a buff.
maybe on one build I build for all movement speed so I dont need a snare removal
maybe drop a stun to add another time able damage buff/active

each choice adds importance to each ability slot, just like how you make choices when it comes to gear/weapons.

maybe dont slot two of the same type of ability, cant tell you how many times I've seen newer players running with 3 executes

psycoprophet

I get what ur saying but u could have 3 skill slots and use that arguement but doesnt change the fact the low amount of skills are very limiting and lead to repetitive combat that is un needed with the amount of skills available. And if we had 3 or so more active skills available I think I'd increase build deversity as a whole and as well as increase deversity between player builds not lower it. 12 skill slots in total is far to low for a mmo especially when devided among all skill type imo which is subjective of course

ketsparrowhawk

I like the limitations of the 10 + 2 slots. You have to sacrifice things in your build which means hardly anyone can have "everything".

That being said, I'd like to see the addition of just one more "utility" slot that is active on both bars. Maybe sorcs would put streak there.. NB's cloak.. Templars BoL, etc. Doubt it ever happens but would be cool.

MincVinyl

@psycoprophet
Way earlier in the game, the game was more active based, but everything has been dumbed down for casual players. The better players thrived, but people who couldn't keep up would get slaughtered. Easiest example is to look at tanking. Back in the day you used to be able to run an active sap tank that would die if you made the wrong choice. Now you see people run "tanks" that just hold block and spam a heal, or spam mist form 20 times till they die.

One of the only active based roles you are asking for is a true shield stacking sorc. (recently nerfed this patch with the strange shield nerfs) but essentially you run hardened ward, harness magicka, healing ward, and psijic passive ward. At any given moment you actively need to know how much you need to tank and what type of ward to use. Drop your shields and you die, otherwise you are tanky as ***. Damage comes in the form of a few timed abilities (frag, curse, force pulse/reach with a heavy attack, or overload). so not only is your tanking active, but your damage heavily relies on you being active, you cant just wait for passive dots to kill the person.

This is why there are alot of really good mag sorcs that kick your *** in, and alot of sorcs that just really really suck.

JinMori

The reason they don;t is because of console, that's it.

The you have to choose etc it's all bs, even with many other skill slots you still wouldn't be able to do everything.

In any case it's not like you have any real choice if you wanna be the best you can.

Some skillsets are just better than others.

Oakmontowls_ESO

The only thing I'd like them to add is a passive slot where you only get the passive effects of slotting the skill.

AcadianPaladin

I'd like to see skills that many players double bar as only being necessary to single bar. If my Matrairch was on either bar, she would remain summoned (I'd have to be on her active bar to cast her special ability). Things like Bound Aegis, Inner Light, the Warden's Falcon. Camouflage Hunter could give you their passive bonus all the time as long as they were on one bar. That right there, would open up things just a bit without adding more keys to fumble among during combat.

deepseamk20b14_ESO

JinMori wrote: »

The reason they don;t is because of console, that's it.

The you have to choose etc it's all bs, even with many other skill slots you still wouldn't be able to do everything.

In any case it's not like you have any real choice if you wanna be the best you can.

Some skillsets are just better than others.

As far as “because consoles”, I don’t 100% agree as I’ve played MMO’s like Final fantasy XI on PlayStation and you had way more than 12 skills. At least I remember there being lots more skills. It’s been a LONG time since I played it. Used a tiny keyboard attachment to type to other players but it wasn’t used for skills.

I honestly am fine with 12 slots. I’ve played games that had 40 skills on the bars and honestly, many weren’t used and you ended up doing Rotations anyways. The rotation was only a bit more complicated because skill cool downs meant you would use another skill in place of whatever skill was on cool down. Though complicated, not necessarily harder.

psycoprophet

Not saying add 40 skills just think adding two more slots on both bars would add so much more build deversity and eliminate the repedative gameplay. Just my opinion.

MashmalloMan

I'm quite happy with the limitation of 12 skills, but I've been a strong believer of adding a utility slot so builds can get rid of the requirement to slot certain abilities.

The ability in this slot doesn't change with weapon swapping. It can be activeley used and any passives tied to it are granted all the time. Pretty much every class has a skill like this and if they don't, there is always a universal skill available like Camo Hunter or Inner Light. These skills often times take up slots just to passively gain their bonuses.

Another option is to to characterize certain abilities as "Utility", these skills are the only 1's that can be slotted in this position, but if the player chooses to, they can still slot them anywhere on their normal bars. Warframe has something like this for mods that give extra sprtint speed, loot radar, etc. Their game originally didn't have those slots and were implemented later, but it made these underused abilities much more interested to choose from and build diversity went up. It's never too late.

To the whole console limitation arguement, controller utlimates are tied to 2 button presses with left and right bumper. The same can be done with a new utility slot, buttons like the emote button are also kind of useless, you can change it to be tied to the consumable wheel. It's a limitation only if you lack imagination. Tons of games have many more button presses then eso. This is just 1 new option.

The final option is to just make the slot passive, but I think that's very boring, that being said, many builds are double barring abilities like Flame Lash, Inner Light, Bound Aegis, Camo Hunter, Psijic Order, etc.

Now if you consider the current state of the game, then yes maybe a new slot wouldn't be the best, everyone would slot Inner Light and every mag build would have those bonuses + stealth detection. There is numerous ways to make it work, simply by changing the amount of passive magicka it gives to make other options more viable or a situation where CP or the overall dps potential of every build wasn't quite as high.

We've already seen this done in this patch with the nerf to dots. Things change and need to be evaluated against everything in the game instead of in a vaccum or the current context of the game. CP is set to have some changes down the pipeline, so if damage being too high is another argument, I think that's something that can easily be balanced at the time of introducing a mechanic such as this. The biggest benifit is to further build diversity, yet still keeping the restrictions in place that make choosing abilties with the limited bar space meaningful.

mocap

all hands for ability to slot regular skills in ultimate slot

psycoprophet

MashmalloMan wrote: »

I'm quite happy with the limitation of 12 skills, but I've been a strong believer of adding a utility slot so builds can get rid of the requirement to slot certain abilities.

The ability in this slot doesn't change with weapon swapping. It can be activeley used and any passives tied to it are granted all the time. Pretty much every class has a skill like this and if they don't, there is always a universal skill available like Camo Hunter or Inner Light. These skills often times take up slots just to passively gain their bonuses.

Another option is to to characterize certain abilities as "Utility", these skills are the only 1's that can be slotted in this position, but if the player chooses to, they can still slot them anywhere on their normal bars. Warframe has something like this for mods that give extra sprtint speed, loot radar, etc. Their game originally didn't have those slots and were implemented later, but it made these underused abilities much more interested to choose from and build diversity went up. It's never too late.

To the whole console limitation arguement, controller utlimates are tied to 2 button presses with left and right bumper. The same can be done with a new utility slot, buttons like the emote button are also kind of useless, you can change it to be tied to the consumable wheel. It's a limitation only if you lack imagination. Tons of games have many more button presses then eso. This is just 1 new option.

The final option is to just make the slot passive, but I think that's very boring, that being said, many builds are double barring abilities like Flame Lash, Inner Light, Bound Aegis, Camo Hunter, Psijic Order, etc.

Now if you consider the current state of the game, then yes maybe a new slot wouldn't be the best, everyone would slot Inner Light and every mag build would have those bonuses + stealth detection. There is numerous ways to make it work, simply by changing the amount of passive magicka it gives to make other options more viable or a situation where CP or the overall dps potential of every build wasn't quite as high.

We've already seen this done in this patch with the nerf to dots. Things change and need to be evaluated against everything in the game instead of in a vaccum or the current context of the game. CP is set to have some changes down the pipeline, so if damage being too high is another argument, I think that's something that can easily be balanced at the time of introducing a mechanic such as this. The biggest benifit is to further build diversity, yet still keeping the restrictions in place that make choosing abilties with the limited bar space meaningful.

This utility slot issue is exactly why I made post. If u had 5 slots for ur attack skills and 3 or 4 slots that were universal (dont swap) just for utility type skills build deversity would open up ten fold and make combat way less repedative

de_la_Dude

No.

Ksariyu

Alright, I guess I'll really be the black sheep here and be the guy that would rather have LESS skill slots rather than more (Though I think 10 + 2 is still fine).

I know one of the big things people are saying is that you need the option to use more skills, but I can't quite wrap my head around why. As it is, most DPS builds already contain A. Ground-based DoT and Single-Target DoT, B. Self-heal/Shields, C. Major damage or crit buffs, D. Minor Force, E. Spammable, F. Execute, G. Sustain of some form

So as it is, there's hardly a reason for support characters. Outside of Trials, healers are already useless, and tanks basically just use Puncture and then DPS themselves because there's no other real skills to use. Adding more skill slots would just make this even more of an issue.

Another major factor that sets ESO apart from other MMOs is the lack of skill cooldowns. In most other games where you have 30 slots, skills that may otherwise be less useful still get slotted to fill in a rotation. In ESO however, there's nothing stopping you from using Rapid Strikes ten times in a row, so why would you also slot Snipe?

What I would REALLY like to see are some changes to the skill designs themselves. For starters, NO PASSIVES ON ACTIVE ABILITIES. That's why we have passives in the first place. That alone would probably free up a couple slots for at least some people. Then add actual diversity to skills so not everyone is walking around with the same build with the only competition being a mirror build.

Aurie

ZOS' intentions aside, I guess it's all up to personal preference.

So personally I would prefer a far greater choice of exactly which ability I want to use at the time.

I know many people feel that would clutter the UI and create too much unnecessary choice, and would negate forcing the player to have to make choices (which is what a lot of people like about this system).

But if you come from other MMOs which have comprehensive ability bars it is quite natural, it's a lot more fun to be able to pick and choose between multiple abilities on the fly, and they don't actually take up much room on the interface. Those abilities you don't regularly use just get left off the abilty bars.

The ESO system feels very restrictive (even after several years). But I accept that this is the way things are done in ESO, and it is unlikely to ever be changed.

Grianasteri

The game is absolutely fine as it is with 10 skill slots and 2 ulti.

The only change I would consider would be the ability to NOT use an ulti, to instead slot another skill in that space.

ZeroXFF

While I would welcome more skill slots if it were to happen, there is still the issue with people just stacking more dots if it were to be allowed instead of utility skills like you suggest. The only way I see to make sure that those slots are filled with utility skills is to keep all dot durations so low that you do not have time to go through all the skills you have on your bars within one rotation. And with the recent trend of making dots last longer I don't see that happening.