Morph System Rework: An Easy Way to Shake Things up

Stamicka

One thing I would like to see this year is a slight change to the morph system. This could have many benefits for the game, including more class identity, better build diversity, possible performance improvements, and a much needed shake up.

The Current Morph System
The current morph system seems to mainly be designed for progression reasons, but it quickly becomes tedious as you become a veteran player. Unmorphed versions of skills are always worse than their morphed counterparts. This is likely to give the player a feeling of accomplishment as they level. A skill starts at rank 1 and levels to rank 4, and the morph follows this same pattern. Sometimes the rank 4 version of a skill is much better than the rank 1 version, and sometimes they don't seem to be different at all. Additionally, leveling a skill to rank 4 takes different amounts of time depending on the skill. The result is that usually morphing a skill and leveling it to rank 4 feels tedious (and often not worth the trouble). Some simple changes can make this system much better.

My Proposition
I think the devs should turn the current unmorphed versions of skills into useful abilities and remove the rank system. This way, once you unlock a skill you will have 3 options to choose from instead of two. Players will no longer have to purchase a skill, level it, and then choose a morph. They will just choose between 3 options upon purchasing the skill (this will have a hidden benefit of giving us more skill points). The removal of the rank system will also make things less tedious and grindy.

The benefits
Having 3 options for every skill would be a welcomed shake up. It would allow for more playstyle options for each class and even improve balance between classes if implemented well. It could also solve a lot of the class homogenization that players have been feeling lately. Lastly, when looking at ESO logs it looks like the different ranks of a skill are registered as different abilities. (For example rank 1 force pulse seems to be a different ability than rank 4 force pulse under the hood). Of course the devs know more about this than I do, but there could be performance improvements that result from removing this system.

Thanks for reading.

Castagere

I'm up for any change to the morphing skills. So sick and tired of one race being weaker in either magic or stamina. I know it's like this in the lore of the race but ZOS doesn't follow the racial lore either.