2021 NEEDS a new class.

pod88kk

Our how about a full year of fixes of bugs and performance issues...... wouldn't that be splendid

phantasmalD

Raideen wrote: »

Yes. I would love a new class and I would love to see the old classes given a class fantasy rework that allows players to perform in the highest content without needing skills from skill lines.

Skill lines appeal to the min max player who is looking to push the envelope. But game content should never be balanced around this or it pushes everyone into specific builds (which is what we see today).

Classes appeal to the class fantasy player who wants to feel like they are playing out the archetype of that specific class. Because classes are "sold" as part of the reason to play the game, it's important that all of them and all roles within them meet the expectations of the highest content in game (which is NOT what we see today).

It appears to me that at a fundamental level, skill lines and classes are at odds with each other. You don't need skill line abilities if the class plays out as content requires, and "classes" lose their class personality when you start using a bunch of skill line abilities to create an overachieving abomination of a build (I dont use this in disparaging terms, but rather how a class no longer feels like a class with certain builds that use skill lines heavily).

This isn't quite true. There are definitely extraneous skills that muddle class identities BUT weapon skill lines aren't like that. Weapons are highly synergistic and in fact are required to properly live out class fantasies. In classic p&p RPGs this would manifest as your character having a proficency in certain weapons/armor thanks to his class.

In ESO this dynamic was mainly reduced to visuals but there is one stat that still forms synergy: range. Most skills have a range that is generally for a single skill line, aka one hand+shield are mostly 5m while Bow skills are all 20+.

And this is where a gap in weapon-class synergy is. Because take DKs (the flagship class of this problem, but this also applies to nightblades), they are a heavily front-lined flame/venom wielding monks. Their average range is ~8.5m, their skillset is pretty much begging for a melee ranged magicka weapon (either Dual-wielding magicka or 1hand+rune) or hand-to-hand for stamina. Something that straight up doesn't exist in ESO atm, making it impossible to truly live out their innate class fantasy.

So in this case it's not the min-maxers who suffer from a lack of skill line, but those who actually want to live out the class fantasy that is presented in visual storytelling and flavour text.

And yeah btw, to anyone who wants a monk class: that's pretty much what DK is. Just look at their animations, they are all acrobatic, martial arts-y moves (like their emblematic whip for exmple: a straight up 360 spin around) or skills that harness the power of your inner soul/the world/people around them.
And if that isn't enough evidence, just check out their description: These skillful masters-at-arms use the ancient Akaviri martial arts tradition of battle-spirit, and wield fearsome magic that pounds, shatters and physically alters the world around them. Straight up tells you that they are martial artists who manipulate the energy of the world.

Just check out D&D's description of Monks, you can pretty much find the equivalent of most DK skills on there and can even recognize certain key phrases.

LadySinflower

Here's the thing. Yes, we absolutely need bug fixes more than anything else in the game. But ZOS has committed to this "new chapter every year, everything is part of the new chapter" concept and they appear to be sticking to it. They want people to pay a decent sized chunk of change for the new chapter, and they want to attract new players with it. They aren't going to risk a year's worth of sales on a title like "Gates of Oblivion: All the bug fixes you've been waiting for." Obviously the title wouldn't be that blatant, but you get the point. They "have to" bring in a new class, skill lines, game system, or whatever to generate enough interest to sell the chapter. Bug fixes will be in addition to whatever else they come up with. And probably secondary to it as well. Just like they'll let most game issues linger but will immediately fix anything wrong with the crown store, bug fixes will (again) take a back seat to the potential revenue-generating of whatever is part of the new chapter.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

VampireLordLover99 wrote: »

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

Xerge wrote: »

No.

new guilds with skill lines. yes.

That would be boring

A new class would be boring.

Most people do not want to level a new class.

Adding in options that change how our current classes are played are 110 times more beneficial to the game and its CURRENT player base.

Well a skill line give you what ? An hour or 2 of content
New charater give you much more play time for your money

RecktrithiusOediphitry

If anything, we need class change token first, new class second.

Wifeaggro13

proteinexe wrote: »

TL;DR - Classes bring people back to the game and there's no good reason not to introduce on to 2021.

First off, I'd like to preface this by mentioning that I've been monitoring all the forum posts which mention next year's patch, seeing the opinions and sway of peoples hopes for next year's patch. The core topic which is always brought up (other than performance) is whether or not they'll add a new class to next years Chapter. I fundamentally believe that it is in ZoS's best interest TO make a new class, and here's why:

"They should add a new skill line, not a class"

Looking back on the 5 previous chapters, the most hype has always come from the class-based chapters. Morrowind was extremely hyped, but this was partially due to us being allowed to indulge on the nostalgia element of Morrowind, but the introduction of the Warden started a snowball effect where everyone in the community was dabbling in theory-crafting and talking about how they could fit a warden into their current gameplay. I for one returned DUE to Morrowind. I had been out of the loop since a year into the game (I think everyone can think back to the state of ESO at launch), and the concept of a new class drew me back into the game. When I came back to the game, I was surprised to find the guild which I was previously in thriving, and through speaking to them on discord, it was revealed that the majority of returning players were there to try out Warden. This is fundamentally why I'm making this post, to stress the point that classes are one of the core driving forces which make the game thrive, and have a tendency to bring back old players (which we're in dire need off).

The one thing that boggles my mind about the forum thread is when people neglect the concept of a new class due to balancing but then all in favour for the implementation of new weapons and skill lines.. pardon? Forget the positives of a new skill line v. a new class. The damage control and balancing if they screwed up a new skill line compared to a new class is incomparable. The skill lines that have recently been added are lets face it, lackluster in comparison to what we can expect from this update if a skill line is introduced rather than a class (no shade aimed at Psijic or Vampire). A standalone class, no matter how broken, can be fixed with tweaks, not having any impact on the rest of ESO except the class itself. Screwing up a new skill line and making it viable for every class means any tweaking can make the skill-line broken in favour of 'X' class but now useless to 'Y' class. The balancing of a potential new skill-line would mean ZoS would cater for 12 potential class-builds (the stam/mag for each class). If you're complaining about ZoS's ability to balance a single class, why would it be a good idea in the current stage of ESO to add a potentially broken skill line which affects every class? This isn't a rhetorical question, I'd genuinely like to know if I'm missing the point here.

My final point on this is I'm not trying to 'one or the other' this, I'd love for both a skill line AND a class to be added, but that would be a cluster-*** of broken builds to put it lightly.

"They need to balance other classes first"

I 100% agree. But to neglect the idea of a new class because of the current class hierarchy of 'broken' is in my opinion flawed. ZoS are currently balancing as we discuss. The buff/de-buff changes was a great idea. Some classes (biggest culprits; warden and necromancer), crutched on buffs and de-buffs in both PvP and PvE to obtain free damage or tankiness. Although the class kits make them strong, they've ultimately been hit fairly hard by this nerf. It's almost as if ZoS specifically targeted this nerf around classes which were over-performing : )
ZoS are always striving to make balances to the game, but it must be understood that a game as intricate and complex as ESO will mean any changes the devs make creates a butterfly effect, and with content creators solely looking for the BiS class/setup, there'll always be a build or class or skill which will be abused. To NOT add a class due to balancing would mean a class would never be added.. a bit of a drastic statement, and I understand some classes have ridiculous features (10% damage mitigation for Necros..), but believe it or not, ZoS aren't monkeys that slap a keyboard and eat salt for breakfast (or are they..?), they're employees of a multi-million pound business who probably have extensive experience in this field. I feel that we as the players can sometimes be in serious violation of the 'backseat driver' idiom.

"All the other classes cover any future classes"

This to me is a redundant statement. ALL the classes can do everything, this is how ZoS designs a class, to be a swiss army knife of Tamreil. All the classes have class kits to support tanking, healing and damage dealing, as well as a substantial ability to participate in PvP. What people really mean is all the current classes cover the THEME of any future classes. Nightblade being the rouge/assassin/hunter/darkmage, and so on (I shan't list them all, but you get the idea). But if you allow my interpretation, then we can 100% slot a new class in. Bard for instance is a theme which isn't even touched on currently, let alone a; monk, battlemage, engineer. For instance, a forum user created a whole new unique class called the 'engineer', and reading through, there are some great standalone skills which don't mingle with any other classes. Here's the link: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/544786/my-concept-eso-chapter-bronze-legion-includes-zone-map-new-class-item-sets-and-plot-points/p1

My personal favourite concept for a new class is the battlemage. A militant class with a strong influence on offensive support. I feel like there'll be a limit to the amount of classes which ESO can have without stepping on other classes toes, but we're nowhere near that limit currently, and I hope there'll always be brainstorm-ers looking to expand on the class list of ESO.



Cause for concern.

My one cause for concern about this up and coming update is simply COVID. The current Markarth update was great! Really nice story and some good systems implemented, but the bugs were above what is usually expected. I put this down to COVID, as it's probably a lot harder to test the patch when everything is so up in the air. I worry for next year's chapter, and the amount of content that they can reliably put in the game. But ultimately, I'm sure this'll be cleared up in late December/early January with an official statement about the direction of ESO.

Although I just wrote a fairly extensive forum thread on the the hopes of a new class being introduced to 2021 ESO, the jokes on me due to the fact that they've most likely already prepared and are in the final development stage for the chapter coming to 2021, class or not. BUT, I feel that the need for a new class needed to be stressed. I'd love to know the communities thoughts, and thank you for reading.

Why there is really only 1 friggin role in this game. DPS. All adding class would do is reset the dps meta which they do anyway

Syiccal

No we need balance of the other classes and between mag and stam first

SgtNuttzmeg

They have way too much on their plate currently. We already know this year will be light on content. Let's be realistic and give them the time they need to get their house in order. No need to demand new classes. What we will likely see is a new skill line.

stefj68

new class, new race and new weapon lines (like wands)

SRASinister

stefj68 wrote: »

new class, new race and new weapon lines (like wands)

Or unarmed combat too though wands could be good. Would like a new pvp gamemode, alliance, or map but I highly doubt that would happen

eso_lags

proteinexe wrote: »

TL;DR - Classes bring people back to the game and there's no good reason not to introduce on to 2021.

First off, I'd like to preface this by mentioning that I've been monitoring all the forum posts which mention next year's patch, seeing the opinions and sway of peoples hopes for next year's patch. The core topic which is always brought up (other than performance) is whether or not they'll add a new class to next years Chapter. I fundamentally believe that it is in ZoS's best interest TO make a new class, and here's why:

"They should add a new skill line, not a class"

Looking back on the 5 previous chapters, the most hype has always come from the class-based chapters. Morrowind was extremely hyped, but this was partially due to us being allowed to indulge on the nostalgia element of Morrowind, but the introduction of the Warden started a snowball effect where everyone in the community was dabbling in theory-crafting and talking about how they could fit a warden into their current gameplay. I for one returned DUE to Morrowind. I had been out of the loop since a year into the game (I think everyone can think back to the state of ESO at launch), and the concept of a new class drew me back into the game. When I came back to the game, I was surprised to find the guild which I was previously in thriving, and through speaking to them on discord, it was revealed that the majority of returning players were there to try out Warden. This is fundamentally why I'm making this post, to stress the point that classes are one of the core driving forces which make the game thrive, and have a tendency to bring back old players (which we're in dire need off).

The one thing that boggles my mind about the forum thread is when people neglect the concept of a new class due to balancing but then all in favour for the implementation of new weapons and skill lines.. pardon? Forget the positives of a new skill line v. a new class. The damage control and balancing if they screwed up a new skill line compared to a new class is incomparable. The skill lines that have recently been added are lets face it, lackluster in comparison to what we can expect from this update if a skill line is introduced rather than a class (no shade aimed at Psijic or Vampire). A standalone class, no matter how broken, can be fixed with tweaks, not having any impact on the rest of ESO except the class itself. Screwing up a new skill line and making it viable for every class means any tweaking can make the skill-line broken in favour of 'X' class but now useless to 'Y' class. The balancing of a potential new skill-line would mean ZoS would cater for 12 potential class-builds (the stam/mag for each class). If you're complaining about ZoS's ability to balance a single class, why would it be a good idea in the current stage of ESO to add a potentially broken skill line which affects every class? This isn't a rhetorical question, I'd genuinely like to know if I'm missing the point here.

My final point on this is I'm not trying to 'one or the other' this, I'd love for both a skill line AND a class to be added, but that would be a cluster-*** of broken builds to put it lightly.

"They need to balance other classes first"

I 100% agree. But to neglect the idea of a new class because of the current class hierarchy of 'broken' is in my opinion flawed. ZoS are currently balancing as we discuss. The buff/de-buff changes was a great idea. Some classes (biggest culprits; warden and necromancer), crutched on buffs and de-buffs in both PvP and PvE to obtain free damage or tankiness. Although the class kits make them strong, they've ultimately been hit fairly hard by this nerf. It's almost as if ZoS specifically targeted this nerf around classes which were over-performing : )
ZoS are always striving to make balances to the game, but it must be understood that a game as intricate and complex as ESO will mean any changes the devs make creates a butterfly effect, and with content creators solely looking for the BiS class/setup, there'll always be a build or class or skill which will be abused. To NOT add a class due to balancing would mean a class would never be added.. a bit of a drastic statement, and I understand some classes have ridiculous features (10% damage mitigation for Necros..), but believe it or not, ZoS aren't monkeys that slap a keyboard and eat salt for breakfast (or are they..?), they're employees of a multi-million pound business who probably have extensive experience in this field. I feel that we as the players can sometimes be in serious violation of the 'backseat driver' idiom.

"All the other classes cover any future classes"

This to me is a redundant statement. ALL the classes can do everything, this is how ZoS designs a class, to be a swiss army knife of Tamreil. All the classes have class kits to support tanking, healing and damage dealing, as well as a substantial ability to participate in PvP. What people really mean is all the current classes cover the THEME of any future classes. Nightblade being the rouge/assassin/hunter/darkmage, and so on (I shan't list them all, but you get the idea). But if you allow my interpretation, then we can 100% slot a new class in. Bard for instance is a theme which isn't even touched on currently, let alone a; monk, battlemage, engineer. For instance, a forum user created a whole new unique class called the 'engineer', and reading through, there are some great standalone skills which don't mingle with any other classes. Here's the link: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/544786/my-concept-eso-chapter-bronze-legion-includes-zone-map-new-class-item-sets-and-plot-points/p1

My personal favourite concept for a new class is the battlemage. A militant class with a strong influence on offensive support. I feel like there'll be a limit to the amount of classes which ESO can have without stepping on other classes toes, but we're nowhere near that limit currently, and I hope there'll always be brainstorm-ers looking to expand on the class list of ESO.



Cause for concern.

My one cause for concern about this up and coming update is simply COVID. The current Markarth update was great! Really nice story and some good systems implemented, but the bugs were above what is usually expected. I put this down to COVID, as it's probably a lot harder to test the patch when everything is so up in the air. I worry for next year's chapter, and the amount of content that they can reliably put in the game. But ultimately, I'm sure this'll be cleared up in late December/early January with an official statement about the direction of ESO.

Although I just wrote a fairly extensive forum thread on the the hopes of a new class being introduced to 2021 ESO, the jokes on me due to the fact that they've most likely already prepared and are in the final development stage for the chapter coming to 2021, class or not. BUT, I feel that the need for a new class needed to be stressed. I'd love to know the communities thoughts, and thank you for reading.

people will always say they need to fix things before they add new things. I find this to be a bit out of touch. If they stopped a a year of DLCs all together then i could agree but if theyre going to still do a chapter and DLCs then theres no reason not to have a class.

And tbh, im fairly certain they will. They have had a new class every other year since morrowind so were due for a class. and im sure zos knows how much people would want a class related to one of the classes in oblivion.

But maybe not, they said theyre going to be toning back "systems" which is a big mistake imo. Trust me, im a solo pvp player and ive been complaining about performance since before morrowind but they already gave us a year of dedicated performance fixes and things only got worse. Now they want to do the same thing at the cost of a new class? Or spellcrafting? or whatever system they would have added? Idk, i want them to fix things more than anything else but im not optimistic about it.

Paradisius

I personally dont like the idea of leveling a whole new character and abandoning all the progress I made on said character to try out a new class (And with no class change token in the game, itd be even worse If I actually like the class but wouldnt like refarming content) But I have to agree with the statement that classes bring in an influx of both new and returning players.

However, with how the Necromancer released, Im skeptical as to how good itd be in the long term to add more classes. Sure, Necro made everyone hype on the reveal stream and for a small time on release. But it was a broken buggy mess that took nearly an entire year to become stable. If a new class would add a similar case, id much rather a new weapon/guild/world skill line that would be less likely to mess up (Less skills, no need to invent new mechanics like the Necro summons and corpse mechanic that was broken in its first year)

This is of course not even mentioning how new classes interact with the current roles and skilllines, and how much of a balancing mess it can lead to, and while a new universal skill line can cause imbalance, every class can use it. On the flipside, not everyone can be a Stamcro

Raideen

I would like to see a lot of things, new classes, new weapons (especially for magicka.....DOUBLE especially for magicka), but regardless of what they offer for this next year, I just hope it is strong enough to keep players around and grow the player base.

Grianasteri

It will have been over two years since the last new class - Necro... if they do release a new one, it will be well over due.

One of ESOs strengths is its constant evolution and new content.

Either they release a new class, or they need to release a new skill line, and the community in general is agreed we need a new magica weapon skill line as this is long overdue and there is a massive disparity in what Stamina has available compared to Magica in terms of weapon skill lines.

I find the, no we need bug fix/performance improvements, crowd really quite annoying any time anyone suggests anything new or a development etc.

EVERYONE knows we need those things, but the answer is not to just stop doing everything else. Its different dev teams anyway. This is not in any way a mutually exclusive situation. So please consider just engaging with ideas folk have instead of droning on like a broken record about bugs and performance. WE GET IT, EVERYONE GETS IT (apart from Zos apparently).

A ps about character slots

Oh and ps on this, we need more character slots, in fact that is probably the single most frustrating thing that is holding back my ESO enjoyment right now, an inability to make and level new characters. It is serious enough to threaten my continued participation in ESO full stop. Theory crafting, creating and levelling new characters is one of the biggest areas of enjoyment I have in ESO. Ive not had it for about 2 years now, unless I delete a character. Note that other similar games offer 50 or 100 character slots - ESO offers 18 max and you have to pay for most of them - this is unbelievable and the dev excuses are just that, excuses.

MaleAmazon

ESO doesnt need to make a new class.

IMO they should upgrade the current classes though. Preferably with some new skills that would differentiate players. Right now it is basically (class x (stam / mag choice)) = character.

Ocelot9x

I'd rather hope oblivion gates to be a pvp area with high rewards like imperial city but meta defining, like a map the size of the reach with a main strongholds per faction who can be raided and op sets that require a lot of grinding/pvp and extremely difficult world bosses like trial level.

A new class would be cool but it's definitely not what the game needs at the moment, especially for veterans. Running the exact same content with different skills is fun just for the first month and it won't appeal people who likes to play with one main

joerginger

As long as achievements still aren't account wide, yet another new class would be an abyssmally bad idea.

SgtNuttzmeg

I want them to hold off on a class. I think based on how poor the Markarth release was and how much work they have on their plate it just isn't realistic. They are still facing the challenges of covid. A new weapon skill line however would be realistic.

Sarannah

Don't think there is a new class which would bring something new into the game, like necromancer or warden did.

I would like to see something like a rebirth system. Where we keep our progress/achievements/skillpoints, but start at level one again. Maybe something offered by Azura, as a reward. Where in the rebirth we can pick a different class, or upgrade our existing class with one skillline from another class. A skillline which we can manually pick. Allow us to rebirth multiple times(only at level 50), where each time we can replace the skillline we choose in the previous rebirth, to another skilline. Or simply remove the extra skillline, and change our base class. This gives players an endless progression system, and allows players to change how their base class plays drastically with some really neat added options.

lucky_Sage

Spellcrafting would bring way more hype than a class the announced they were doing spell crafting I believe before console launch got pushed back because how complex it was and then a new team came in and put on back burner but now with the standardized abilities the balance for them wouldn’t but to big of a issue. Which is one of the reason I think they did the standards. This would almost complete the game of all playstyles other ham they would need a melee magical weapon and maybe add pole arms and cross bows then zos wouldn’t have to add much of anything in class and skills
https://youtu.be/A0al01e7ClE

Darktrox

I hope they bring something cool, I'd hate to go back to FFXIV. it's so boring, the gear treadmill, the slow combat, etc.

QuebraRegra

Buddy_Cactus wrote: »

They should fix the game before they add anything else that will divert manpower. Adding more stuff that will be broken to the already broken stuff isn't the answer. Get to work on lag, class balance, broken quests and falling through the world and then consider adding something new.

I'm back after a rather long hiatus and catching up... My skills don't seem to fire reliably anymore. Is this from the recent client server changes they made to the game?

yes, the underpinnings of the game need some serious work... LOL when the ara chat bug started tweaking out last night. I thought that was fixed YEARS ago!?!?!

Bug fixes with all resources to be sure (they took in something like $93 million on this game last year!!!).. But hey what ever happened to 1h&rune? Mag characters need an option other than staves.

QuebraRegra

lucky_Sage wrote: »

Spellcrafting would bring way more hype than a class the announced they were doing spell crafting I believe before console launch got pushed back because how complex it was and then a new team came in and put on back burner but now with the standardized abilities the balance for them wouldn’t but to big of a issue. Which is one of the reason I think they did the standards. This would almost complete the game of all playstyles other ham they would need a melee magical weapon and maybe add pole arms and cross bows then zos wouldn’t have to add much of anything in class and skills
https://youtu.be/A0al01e7ClE

They talked about that so long ago, yet they still can't balance, or even make vanilla work right....

coop500

Yes I would LOVE another class, pretty pleaseeee ZOS?
Or a new Beast race, either one! We got lots of elves and humans but only two beast races.

Katahdin

Hard no for me

Every time they made a new class, they stole things from (ie nerfed) other classes.
As someone said early on in the thread, Warden and Necro are already top classes in PVP, we dont need another one

Besides the have already said they will not be adding any more character slots

cmetzger93

I do not want a new class. I want something to use with my existing characters. I will never not want spellcrafting even if it were to take the form of skinning abilities so that not everyone has a clanfear or twilight matriarch

Lugaldu

As mentioned , I would like to have a "Dwemer Scholar" class with the possibilities for the use of mechanoids in the fight.

Josira

coop500 wrote: »

Yes I would LOVE another class, pretty pleaseeee ZOS?
Or a new Beast race, either one! We got lots of elves and humans but only two beast races.

yes,I would love a new beast race too,but a race alone would just be minimal effort,and not worth buying a whole chapter.
If said race had different modal stuff that required reworking all the motif's to work with it spesifically? then yeah. then the effort put in is worth the chapter.
If they added Lilmothit's or Tsecai or however you pronounce it,and Igma,then it would be a chapter well worth it. that wont happen though. I get the feeling at most we'll see a skill line. if the quality of Greymore is anything to go by for the future,then a passive skill line like the dark brotherhood or thieves good dlcs..meaning...yeah. minimal effort max price.
Im hoping more for a Dwemer Artificer Class,or a Swashbuckler/Monk with Water Magic class. But...dont have my hopes up after how terrible in quality Greymore was. Botched Revamp with reused animations and poor mechanics and art. And a Mobile game with two passive skill lines that take up unnecessary amounts of skill points to utilize. hoping this year is better but dont get your hopes up.

Josira

QuebraRegra wrote: »

lucky_Sage wrote: »

Spellcrafting would bring way more hype than a class the announced they were doing spell crafting I believe before console launch got pushed back because how complex it was and then a new team came in and put on back burner but now with the standardized abilities the balance for them wouldn’t but to big of a issue. Which is one of the reason I think they did the standards. This would almost complete the game of all playstyles other ham they would need a melee magical weapon and maybe add pole arms and cross bows then zos wouldn’t have to add much of anything in class and skills
https://youtu.be/A0al01e7ClE

They talked about that so long ago, yet they still can't balance, or even make vanilla work right....

Also if they did add spellcrafting....well..remember jewellery crafting?
Yeah it would be a deliberate grindfest. one that will either be forgotten entirely in time,or mandatory and a constant roadblock in anyone's way who want to enjoy the game.

Uvi_AUT

I dont think we need a new class.
What we need are new skill-lines that do anything besides being fluff. Most importantly we need more Caster-Weapons. Staff is boring.