Before I begin, I want to lay out my "credentials" for this game. I've completed most of the difficult content in the game outside of 12-man trial trifectas (Godslayer-like achievements); I've reached > 1700 CP on 2 accounts (PC-NA & PS4/5-NA); I've logged thousands of hours & spent more money than I'd like to disclose (big sadge) on this game. I've played just about every sort of content this game has to offer (PVE small group & large group activities, open world crafting/questing, RP, PVP BGs/cyro/IC, housing & so on); however, I'm definitely biased towards my love for the PvE side of the game, so keep this in mind. This list is meant to be a constructive discussion of how to edge out some of the rough points in ESO that current players, ex-players and spectators of the game have complained about. As always, I'm more interested in seeing what everyone else has for solutions for common issues, but wanted to start a common thread for a number of them. Also, obviously bugs and performance need to get fixed. There's no point coming to this thread and commenting on bugs and performance. Everybody and their cousins for generations to come knows they need to do that. This is for specific things. Please add to this list!! The list is in no specific order, just as things come to mind.
1. Fake tanking & long dungeon queues for DPS
What really lies at the root of this issue? Damage plain and simple. Why do people queue up as fake healers? Because they want to breeze through a random normal realistically with a lot of damage. Why do people queue up as fake tanks? For a faster queue. Why does the queue suck for dps? Because there are not enough tanks & there is a surplus of DPS. Why is this? This is subjective, but this thread is largely subjective and opinionated. It's because tanks aren't fun. Why is it that in ESO, as a tank your only job is to position mobs, CC mobs, keep taunt, and not die? Virtually every other MMO (WoW, FF14, New World, Lost Ark, etc.) has an issue of long queues as dps, but not nearly as bad as ESO. This is because tanks do absolutely no damage. Questing overland & killing overland mobs as a tank is miserable RELATIVE to playing a dps or even healer. It's meant to take longer, otherwise everyone would play tank, but having high-end dps reach > 100k dps and high-end tanks only do 10-15% of that is insane. Even for the average player, the most dps a tank is realistically going to achieve in standard or META tank gear is extremely low. Why not re-do the 1h & shield skill line to add higher damage tooltips?
This is a touchy subject from a PvP standpoint I suppose, but the META rn is tank-heavy regardless. Tanks shouldn't have any burst damage, but sustained dps for PvE content would be fantastic.
Puncture - deals X amount of damage each time you puncture, taunts them, and inflicts Major Breach. Why not add a bleed effect like you would think if you actually stabbed somebody with your sword?
Low Slash - deals X amount of damage each time you puncture, and inflicts them with Minor Maim. Same thing? Add a separate bleed that stacks with puncture.
Defensive Posture - this is a defensive ability, and shouldn't be changed (in my opinion fundamentally for the sake of this proposal)
Shield Charge - this ability rushes an enemy, dealing X amount of damage and stunning them for 3 seconds. Make this leave an AOE DOT on the ground similar to stampede, but make it do less damage (60-70% of stampede). Also, make this an AOE stun/group taunt that you can use to rush into enemies, but you have to be a certain distance away from them to use, so it cannot be used repeatedly.
Power Bash - hit an enemy with your shield dealing X damage, considered an interrupt. Make this apply another DOT of some sort.
Ultimately, what I would really like to see is tanks pulling a consistent 20-25k dps. For random normal dungeons, for doing pledges, for doing overland content, this will make SO many people want to play tank. You can achieve > 5-6x that on a dps character. Why not make it actually fun to play a tank? How do you level a tank? You either spam dungeons or you do overland content as a dps. What happens if you have 2 brand new players as your 2 dps in a dungeon? That dungeon is going to take FOREVER. Damage is king in this game. Give tanks more damage like literally every other MMO on the market.
2. Fake role queueing
This is a different discussion entirely from the previous one, but my solution here is to prevent you from being able to use the group finder to queue for a role that you are not. If you want to run 3 dps 1 healer, 3 dps 1 tank, or 4 dps group comps in a dungeon, form your own group with that intention. But if you're using a platform given to us by the developers like thr group finder, all new players and many current players expect to play with 1 tank, 1 healer and 2 dps. How do you fix this?? Utilize the skills advisor system - that thing that most of us turn off right when we make a new character. On a warden for example, there are 4 primary skill advisor templates:
Beast caller - role is damage, primary armor is light, primary stat is magicka
Savage stalker - role is damage, primary armor is medium, primary stat is stamina
Guardian of the wild - role is tank, primary armor is heavy, primary stat is health
Master herbalist - role is healer, primary armor is light, primary stat is magicka
IF you are a magicka-based (largely-based) DPS character, you should be forced to wear AT least 5 pieces of light armor. If you are labeling yourself as "beast caller" in this instance, the dungeon finder will know based on your armor and your skill advisor selection that you are a dps. You would then be UNABLE to queue as a tank or healer. Once you are queued, you are locked into this DPS role, you cannot change your armor or anything without unqueueing first and once you are in the dungeon, you must keep on that ratio of armor to prevent people from queueing as tank and then switching armor right when they teleport into the dungeon.
3. Seals of endeavor
This system was implemented as a way to create essentially a scapegoat for the finance department at ZOS to say, well you don't HAVE to purchase crown crates, you can earn them in game!! We all know how it really works. The mounts we all really want take close to 7-9 months (don't know the math exactly) to earn and that's if youre logging in daily and doing all the endeavors. #1, open up all challenges - you can complete 5/5 daily challenges and 3/3 weekly challenges. Why isn't this a thing? It doesn't "force" you to do anything. It would speed up this process pretty heavily as well.
I don't forsee this ever being changed, but thought i'd mention it quickly.
4. Class change token
I don't think a class change token is necessary once you understand what the root of the problem is. Before I explain my solution, I want to start off by saying this is **OPTIONAL**. There is no negative to doing this, only positives. It doesn't negatively affect anybody because you can keep things how they are if you are an alt-o-holic OR you can engage in this idea. The reason people want a class-change token is because they want to try other classes without having to level the over-grindy, over-tedious skill lines. Rather than completely revamping them, add more account-wide options to the players (OPTIONS). When you create a character, you should just have the option for account-wide progression OUTSIDE OF certain skill Iines - class skill lines, weapon skill lines, armor skill lines, and crafting skill lines.
Things that I would like to see being account-wide as an OPTION.
World skill lines (legerdemain, excavation & scrying, but NOT soul magic)
Guild skill lines (fighters guild, mages guild, undaunted, thieves guild, dark brotherhood, psijic) - you should have to do all of the associated quests/quest lines to unlock the account-wide option. You shouldn't be able to log in and have level 10 in fighters guild on a level 3 character, but once you complete the quests, it should go to 10 if you've reached that previously on your main
Assault & support skill lines (NOT alliance rank, just the skill lines)
Crafting research - I don't think this should be account-wide until you've researched all traits
Mount training - I don't think this should be account-wide until you've trained up to certain checkpoints (30% and 60% marks respectively in each line; I.e. once you hit 30% in speed on one character, all subsequent characters will be 30% and same goes for 60%) OR you can make this a gold sink similar to inventory space increases and bank space increases, but make it very expensive
5. Achievements
What's the point of these? Just bragging rights? I'm a dirty completionist so i've got well > 40,000 achievement points on my main. But outside of me writing that in this post, what's the point? Add a vendor where you get to purchase mounts, costumes, cosmetics, pets, etc. once you hit certain achievement point thresholds. Every 2500 achievement points, you unlock a new cosmetic item you can purchase only with gold and it's bind on pickup.
ESO YouTube Content Creator & Templar Tank/Healer Main