How exactly does the Altmer racial passive work?

Lephrel

I'm curious about the spell charge passive in the Altmer racial skill tree.

Spell Recharge: Restore 645 Magicka or Stamina, based on whichever is lower, after activating a Class Ability. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds. Reduces damage taken by 5% while you are using an ability with a cast or channel time.

Specifically I would like to know two things:

1. Do the maximum resource pools determine which resource is restored, or will you restore the resource that is currently lower?
2. If the resource with the lower maximum pool is restored, what happens if your resource pools have the same value? Do you get 645 magicka and stamina?

Thanks in advance!

Ratzkifal

It doesn't. It sucks!

Jokes aside, it is the maximum that determines which is restored. The phrasing in ESO is sometimes very confusing. It would be better if it said "After activating a Class Ability, restore 645 Magicka or Stamina based on whichever maximum is lower. Etc etc."

And I have no clue what happens if both have the same value. My guess is, the passive stops working or there is a hidden preference for one of them.

Lephrel

@Ratzkifal Thanks! Would be nice if restored the resource that is currently lower.

Ratzkifal

Lephrel wrote: »

@Ratzkifal Thanks! Would be nice if restored the resource that is currently lower.

Agreed, but ZOS didn't like that, they changed the passive because according to their standards a race can't have a bonus to damage AND sustain, even though Altmer were known in previous games to have the best magicka recovery. I get that it would break balance a little, but they could have given them anything else that's actually useful.

The whole Wrathstone update to racial passives was a mess. It did improve things overall but there were major screw-ups.
Argonians lost their resistance to poison, even though they are famous for being resistant to both poison and disease (to the point where it's even essential to the plot of some quests).
Bosmer lost their stealth bonus, even though they used to be the stealth race before TES5 and were only displaced by Khajiit because Skyrim had removed acrobatics and the Khajiit needed to be compensated. Yet ESO has acrobatics in the form of dodgeroll! And all of that because ZOS also insisted that no two races should share a passive, which is just dumb. If two races are known for being stealthy and then they can afford to share a passive, especially if the other passives are completely different.

Bucky_13

Lephrel wrote: »

@Ratzkifal Thanks! Would be nice if restored the resource that is currently lower.

My magsorc is altmer, I actually like that passive for 2 reasons. First, it works really well with the Dark Conversion skill to restore health and mag. And more generally, you do need stam on mag characters for blocking, dodging, break free and possibly sprinting. In PvP, the passive is even better as I don't have to worry as much about having enough stam most of the time.

For a non sorc, not sure how well it works, not as good I suspect. There are more worthless passives out there though (wood elf detection passive really stands out).

Lephrel

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Lephrel wrote: »

@Ratzkifal Thanks! Would be nice if restored the resource that is currently lower.

Agreed, but ZOS didn't like that, they changed the passive because according to their standards a race can't have a bonus to damage AND sustain, even though Altmer were known in previous games to have the best magicka recovery. I get that it would break balance a little, but they could have given them anything else that's actually useful.

The whole Wrathstone update to racial passives was a mess. It did improve things overall but there were major screw-ups.
Argonians lost their resistance to poison, even though they are famous for being resistant to both poison and disease (to the point where it's even essential to the plot of some quests).
Bosmer lost their stealth bonus, even though they used to be the stealth race before TES5 and were only displaced by Khajiit because Skyrim had removed acrobatics and the Khajiit needed to be compensated. Yet ESO has acrobatics in the form of dodgeroll! And all of that because ZOS also insisted that no two races should share a passive, which is just dumb. If two races are known for being stealthy and then they can afford to share a passive, especially if the other passives are completely different.

Oh I see. Well personally I don't really like racial passives anyways, because in most cases they prevent you from playing the build you like on with your favourite race.
But if those racial passives even go against TES lore, then I really don't see the point of them being in the game. Seems like their only purpose is to limit your choices.

StarOfElyon

The passive does help stamina sustain a little in pvp but it's only when you activate a class skill so that's a major drawback. When classes are so dependent on weapon skills and skill lines to fill gaps, that nullifies the passive. I compare them to Dunmer: how are the Dunmer not far superior?

They get spell damage, weapon damage, magicka, and stamina. Why would anyone choose an Altmer over a Dunmer in PVP?

Ratzkifal

StarOfElyon wrote: »

The passive does help stamina sustain a little in pvp but it's only when you activate a class skill so that's a major drawback. When classes are so dependent on weapon skills and skill lines to fill gaps, that nullifies the passive. I compare them to Dunmer: how are the Dunmer not far superior?

They get spell damage, weapon damage, magicka, and stamina. Why would anyone choose an Altmer over a Dunmer in PVP?

The 5% damage mitigation while channeling is great on a magplar using jabs, jesus beam or rememberance. It's the best part of the Spell Recharge passive in my opinion. 5% is quite a bit in PvP, but you gotta be a magplar or a vampire to make proper use of it, which is fair and actually gives each race a respective niche they can shine in.
If only the borderline-useless and lore-unfriendly part about "using Alteration magic to restore stamina" wasn't there at all. That is the justification ZOS gave us for that passive by the way, as if Alteration magic is somehow exclusive to Altmer and can't possibly be used by other races for the same effect. It's Alteration magic, not Altmeration magic!

zaria

StarOfElyon wrote: »

The passive does help stamina sustain a little in pvp but it's only when you activate a class skill so that's a major drawback. When classes are so dependent on weapon skills and skill lines to fill gaps, that nullifies the passive. I compare them to Dunmer: how are the Dunmer not far superior?

They get spell damage, weapon damage, magicka, and stamina. Why would anyone choose an Altmer over a Dunmer in PVP?

Unlike stamina regen who is nice in PvP, solo arenas and overland, magic damage is useless on an stamina character and the same with stamina damage for an magic one.

Now the extra Dunmer stamina is as useful om an magic build as the stamina regen on Altmer.

StarOfElyon

The extra stamina on a Dunmer is always there but stamina regen on an Altmer requires the use of a class skill.

zaria

StarOfElyon wrote: »

The extra stamina on a Dunmer is always there but stamina regen on an Altmer requires the use of a class skill.

This is true, however, any builds who don't have class skills in their rotation?
Yes probably some stamina builds but then you restore magic anyway.

StarOfElyon

zaria wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

The extra stamina on a Dunmer is always there but stamina regen on an Altmer requires the use of a class skill.

This is true, however, any builds who don't have class skills in their rotation?
Yes probably some stamina builds but then you restore magic anyway.

Yeah but when it's off cool down, why not have any skill proc it? Why does it need to be a class skill?

UntilValhalla13

When I compared both the dark and high elf racials, the difference was having either 125 extra magic or 1800ish stamina. That much magic is almost negligible, but that amount of stamina has saved me in vma flawless runs. I'll lowkey never make a high elf again. XD

StarOfElyon

UntilValhalla13 wrote: »

When I compared both the dark and high elf racials, the difference was having either 125 extra magic or 1800ish stamina. That much magic is almost negligible, but that amount of stamina has saved me in vma flawless runs. I'll lowkey never make a high elf again. XD

I know right. I made a thread a while back saying how the Altmer passives were underwhelming. I was mainly speaking in comparison to Orcs and Dunmer.