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My Personal View on Armor & Weapon Changes - Open to Your Opinions
droscoe
Soul Shriven
Hello! I hope everyone is healthy these days. I returned to ESO a few weeks ago from a two-year hiatus. I've been enjoying it and I'm excited for upcoming changes. But I'm sincerely confused by the intended goal of the new changes. Specifically, it seems as though the game itself is not designed in a way to take advantage of their recent changes. Classes are static, thematic options, skill types are not evenly distributed and DPS/HPS scales with max stat without a way circumnavigating it. I'm open to your thoughts, however. I assume that I simply don't understand ESO
enough.
TL;DR - Why would I give up 6 active abilities, 5 passives from staff weapons to get just a couple meh physical weapon buffs? Why would I mix armor types if my role's proficiency is improved by homogeneity? Why would I use weapons and armor, that cater to other resource types, when my DPS and HPS scales to a different resource type?
Weapon Changes
Context - A player may use physical weapons and benefit from passives that bolster both weapon and spell damage. We will assume a magicka-focused player chooses to use a physical weapon instead of a staff.
Benefits
+ Depending on weapon type, you get a flat bonus to either Crit, Healing, Armor Pen, or Spell Damage.
+ You get the aesthetics of a popular hybrid RPG archetype (e.g. battlemage)
Costs
- You have 6 less abilities to use
- You have 5 less passives to proc and benefit from
This seems like a player would be relinquishing options (i.e. active abilities) for the reward of modest, passive stat boosts. Is it not an understatement to say that the costs outweigh the benefits? One who chooses to use physical weapons instead of staves has less options, which is counter to the intended goal, is it not? Are passive stat boosts worth 6 abilities and 5 passives?
To justify this, a new way of converting or scaling damage would need to exist in place of the current max-stat system.
Armor Changes
Context - By redesigning many armor passives to scale on the number of pieces worn, player can mix-and-match their armor for creative builds. We will assume a player chooses to mix armor types.
Benefits
+ Take advantage of multiple passives from different armor types. The strength of each passive is determined by the number of pieces worn.
Costs
- Classes have varying degrees of hybrid-viability. In both solo and group content, mixing stats and bonuses is a hindrance to not only DPS, but healing and tanking as well.
Would a tank take both Heavy passives and Light passives? What type of tank would? And if they did, their role as a tank is, by design, diminished. Is it not? I see these armor changes as an invitation to spread your skill points, but it would be sub-optimal to do so in most cases.
My Thoughts
In a traditional MMORPG that features the three archetypical RPG roles (i.e. the triad of Healer, Tank, DPS), a character's deviation from the optimal build determines the usefulness and viability for both solo and group content. One wouldn't need to min-max to see this in action. If you combine both the mixing of armor types and the use of a physical weapon instead of a Restro staff for example, you'll see a healer with less healing options. Having six less healing abilities and 5 less staff passives is surely inferior to having, say...a bonus of 248 spell damage, right?
These changes enables players to create....Frankenstein-like characters, made up of many parts from different trees. Ultimately, however, the effectiveness of any additional options hinges on the fundamental design of the game. I don't believe we have an an in-game environment that takes advantage of a scattering of skill-point investments.
Or...I'm wrong.
Edited by droscoe on March 6, 2021 11:00PM enough.
TL;DR - Why would I give up 6 active abilities, 5 passives from staff weapons to get just a couple meh physical weapon buffs? Why would I mix armor types if my role's proficiency is improved by homogeneity? Why would I use weapons and armor, that cater to other resource types, when my DPS and HPS scales to a different resource type?
Weapon Changes
Context - A player may use physical weapons and benefit from passives that bolster both weapon and spell damage. We will assume a magicka-focused player chooses to use a physical weapon instead of a staff.
Benefits
+ Depending on weapon type, you get a flat bonus to either Crit, Healing, Armor Pen, or Spell Damage.
+ You get the aesthetics of a popular hybrid RPG archetype (e.g. battlemage)
Costs
- You have 6 less abilities to use
- You have 5 less passives to proc and benefit from
This seems like a player would be relinquishing options (i.e. active abilities) for the reward of modest, passive stat boosts. Is it not an understatement to say that the costs outweigh the benefits? One who chooses to use physical weapons instead of staves has less options, which is counter to the intended goal, is it not? Are passive stat boosts worth 6 abilities and 5 passives?
To justify this, a new way of converting or scaling damage would need to exist in place of the current max-stat system.
Armor Changes
Context - By redesigning many armor passives to scale on the number of pieces worn, player can mix-and-match their armor for creative builds. We will assume a player chooses to mix armor types.
Benefits
+ Take advantage of multiple passives from different armor types. The strength of each passive is determined by the number of pieces worn.
Costs
- Classes have varying degrees of hybrid-viability. In both solo and group content, mixing stats and bonuses is a hindrance to not only DPS, but healing and tanking as well.
Would a tank take both Heavy passives and Light passives? What type of tank would? And if they did, their role as a tank is, by design, diminished. Is it not? I see these armor changes as an invitation to spread your skill points, but it would be sub-optimal to do so in most cases.
My Thoughts
In a traditional MMORPG that features the three archetypical RPG roles (i.e. the triad of Healer, Tank, DPS), a character's deviation from the optimal build determines the usefulness and viability for both solo and group content. One wouldn't need to min-max to see this in action. If you combine both the mixing of armor types and the use of a physical weapon instead of a Restro staff for example, you'll see a healer with less healing options. Having six less healing abilities and 5 less staff passives is surely inferior to having, say...a bonus of 248 spell damage, right?
These changes enables players to create....Frankenstein-like characters, made up of many parts from different trees. Ultimately, however, the effectiveness of any additional options hinges on the fundamental design of the game. I don't believe we have an an in-game environment that takes advantage of a scattering of skill-point investments.
- Classes have a random assortment of morph options. Some classes have several opposite-resource morphs, some classes only a couple.
- Not all classes the same number, or type, of abilities that can scale with highest resource attribute.
- Max-stat scaling
- There is no lore-friendly, in-game method of converting costs or scaling (e.g. Alteration passive skills in Mage's guild line, that can alter costs/damage scaling)
- Classes, themselves, don't all have the same type of abilities. No matter how many options you throw in the game, a hybrid-Templar Tank still doesn't have a health-based heal, for example. (not to focus on just the Templar, just making an easy example).
Or...I'm wrong.
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