New Life Styles: Winter is pretty cool!

Erickson9610

It's a pack of three ice-themed Skill Styles for only 2,500 Crowns! While I'm still on the fence about getting Summon Winged Twilight, Warrior (due to hardly playing my Sorcerer character) I figure I'd get better mileage from this pack because any of my characters can use these skills.

Here's a few screenshots I took of the skill previews:




Yes, I do find it humorous that there is an ice-themed Skill Style for a skill morph called "Ice Comet". What do you all think of these new Skill Styles?

sarahthes

I really like them. Considering buying them.

lardvader

Well if crowns will be on sale before they remove it I might buy it. I want the ice comet

fizzylu

Erickson9610 wrote: »

What do you all think of these new Skill Styles?

I like the bow one, but I would never buy that pack.

Djennku

lardvader wrote: »

Well if crowns will be on sale before they remove it I might buy it. I want the ice comet

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!!!

Crowns are on sale now!

SkaiFaith

I really like them, but I don't use any of those skills so... I would have bought them for cheaper, but 2.500 for something I won't use seems a waste.
Glad someone else enjoys them

TaSheen

Not my sort of thing (even though winter is my favorite season) - I don't like combat at all, and I'm pretty unimpressed with skill styles (and scribing) overall. I also don't use any of those skills.

TybaltKaine

I kind of wish these were earnable in game as well, as opposed to just being a crown store offering. It would allow me to feel as if I was actually using my preferred element.

LunaFlora

i love these Frosty skill styles too
perfect for my Wardens

opaj

I kind of wish they leaned even more heavily into the ice theme. Replace the arrows with icicles. Make Stampede leave jagged shards of ice shards. Maybe choose an ultimate ability that doesn't already have an ice morph.

ArchangelIsraphel

2,500 Crowns still seems extremely overpriced for only three recolors, especially given that weapons packs at that price point contain more reskins than this.

While they're pretty, I don't think they look vastly different from their original forms.

Also, Critical Charge's animation keeps bugging out. I was only able to preview it once before it wouldn't show at all.

Nord_Raseri

They are neat, but not $20 neat.

CalamityCat

I liked them in preview, but I wouldn't even consider paying that much. Not even for a pack of 10 skill styles... I also don't see why these are too special to just lock behind a quest or something in game.

The downside with skill styles like these is that some class skills (arcanist especially) can be so visually OTT that you can't even see your own skills. So unless I'm solo, there's little point in caring how my skills look!

I'm probably showing my age here, but I'd love an option in settings to switch to a really basic and muted set of skill styles so I can actually see what is happening and not have to wince whenever an arcanist's beam flashes at my face.

Cooperharley

Another one of those things for me personally - pretty cool! Especially for winter-themed RP outfits/transmogs and for ice wardens, but not a fan of them being crown store items. Would rather them be tied to new life festival earnings, especially since nothing changed this year (and has never changed with new life as far as i know). Happy for those that are happy though!

Happy holidays!

JiubLeRepenti

What do you all think of these new Skill Styles?

I think they aren't worth 2.500 Crowns, but that ZOS is right to keep selling them since some people keep buying.

ArchangelIsraphel

Cooperharley wrote: »

Another one of those things for me personally - pretty cool! Especially for winter-themed RP outfits/transmogs and for ice wardens, but not a fan of them being crown store items. Would rather them be tied to new life festival earnings, especially since nothing changed this year (and has never changed with new life as far as i know). Happy for those that are happy though!

Happy holidays!

This. It would have been nice to see some themed skill styles tied to traditional events, maybe for getting some sort of achievement related to the New Life Festival. Although the New Life Festival in general really needs more to revitalize it than just achievements. I'd like to see a continuation of the traditional parts of the event along side some new, unique things to participate in.

Erickson9610

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Cooperharley wrote: »

Another one of those things for me personally - pretty cool! Especially for winter-themed RP outfits/transmogs and for ice wardens, but not a fan of them being crown store items. Would rather them be tied to new life festival earnings, especially since nothing changed this year (and has never changed with new life as far as i know). Happy for those that are happy though!

Happy holidays!

This. It would have been nice to see some themed skill styles tied to traditional events, maybe for getting some sort of achievement related to the New Life Festival. Although the New Life Festival in general really needs more to revitalize it than just achievements. I'd like to see a continuation of the traditional parts of the event along side some new, unique things to participate in.

Considering ZOS recently added new content to the Witches Festival in the form of the Hollowjack questline and boss fight, I wouldn't be surprised if the New Life Festival received something similar by next year.

They could make a daily boss fight in the same vein as the Hollowjack boss fight, or maybe they could cover New Life traditions in other zones, including DLC zones.

While it doesn't make sense to have base game content direct the player to DLC content, it would be nice to see how the New Life Festival is celebrated in places like Northern Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, Summerset, and especially High Isle. At least we get to see the wayshrines decorated!

Vonnegut2506

I'm not spending crowns on overpriced skill recolors. I hope less and less people keep buying them so ZOS actually gives them a reasonable price, but pretty sure whales gonna whale based on how many red flappy birds I see.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Only 2,500 crowns? That's still too much for just 3 random skills. Seriously these prices for skill styles are way too overpriced. They shouldn't be at the same price as dlcs, mounts and such. Especially not when it's 1-3 of them.

For 2,500 crowns it should be a complete set with a new theme for whole skilltrees. Like making all sorcerers skills black, white or whatever instead of purple tinted. At minimum one whole weapon skilline etc.

What's even the point in these overpriced styles for just a few skills that aren't even used together? They should either be complete sets of several skills so you can change the whole look, not have it being a weird mix, or they should be a lot cheaper.

Erickson9610

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

I hope less and less people keep buying them so ZOS actually gives them a reasonable price

On the contrary, I hope more and more people keep buying them so ZOS is given incentive to keep creating new Skill Styles. We're not guaranteed to receive any more Skill Styles, and I doubt ZOS wants to change the price.

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Only 2,500 crowns? That's still too much for just 3 random skills.

How much should they be? I thought 2,500 Crowns wasn't a lot because I have a bunch of Crowns saved up for special occasions. I personally wouldn't buy Crowns just for these particular Skill Styles, but in this case I spent a few of the Crowns I already had on them because they looked cool and I can figure out which builds to put them on.

fizzylu

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

I hope less and less people keep buying them so ZOS actually gives them a reasonable price

On the contrary, I hope more and more people keep buying them so ZOS is given incentive to keep creating new Skill Styles. We're not guaranteed to receive any more Skill Styles, and I doubt ZOS wants to change the price.

Personally I'd prefer if they realized that giving people reasons to play the game to earn something they want can also make them money and help to keep an active playerbase. For example, I would never buy this pack.... but if they had made them earnable in some way, I would have renewed my sub and been actively playing the game to unlock them. Instead Zenimax isn't getting a dollar from me while I'm spending my time on, and recommending to people who ask me what would be good for them to play over the holidays, other MMOs.

Erickson9610

fizzylu wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

I hope less and less people keep buying them so ZOS actually gives them a reasonable price

On the contrary, I hope more and more people keep buying them so ZOS is given incentive to keep creating new Skill Styles. We're not guaranteed to receive any more Skill Styles, and I doubt ZOS wants to change the price.

Personally I'd prefer if they realized that giving people reasons to play the game to earn something they want can also make them money and help to keep an active playerbase. For example, I would never buy this pack.... but if they had made them earnable in some way, I would have renewed my sub and been actively playing the game to unlock them. Instead Zenimax isn't getting a dollar from me while I'm spending my time on, and recommending to people who ask me what would be good for them to play over the holidays, other MMOs.

I'm a little confused by this. There are things that are earnable in-game, like the new Haven of the Five Companions house that must be acquired with Event Tickets, which are earnable via the New Life Festival event.

I'm a little confused why New Life Styles: Winter isn't acquired from the event directly if it has "New Life" in the name, but this wouldn't be the first time we've seen New Life related things in the Crown Store.

So, yeah, there are earnable things in-game. Some things just have to be bought with premium currency. I'm pretty sure every MMO is like that.

Ruthless

cmon guys 25$ for 3 recolours ....

and the funds go to the new MMO while we get seasons...

fizzylu

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I'm a little confused by this. There are things that are earnable in-game, like the new Haven of the Five Companions house that must be acquired with Event Tickets, which are earnable via the New Life Festival event.

I never said there weren't any, I'm simply giving my stance on the choice to monetize these styles and how choosing to do so might not be as beneficial to Zenimax as they think. Again, I would never pay for those as I don't deem them worth the price since I probably wouldn't use the majority of them and don't want to support the heavy monetization they continue to push into this game (because let's be real; even if they did make little things like this earnable, they would still have plenty of money coming in).... BUT they could have given me a reason to play the game and reactivate my sub, since I can't go without it if I'm going to be on for more than an hour a day, during this event if they were earnable. So instead; I log on for maybe 10-15 minutes, get my event tickets for the new earnable house, and log out without giving the game a dollar and definitely not helping with the overall player count very much.

Erickson9610 wrote: »

So, yeah, there are earnable things in-game. Some things just have to be bought with premium currency. I'm pretty sure every MMO is like that.

Out of all the MMOs I actively play currently, this game has the most monetization and I can tell you now -- it's the only one that would have charged for something like these skill styles. The others would have made them a reward from their holiday event, which are already way more interactive and have far more to do in them than ESO's. And even if I did buy this pack, I would just buy it and logout.... and how's that really helping the game, players logging in only to throw some money at the game and then back out?

Erickson9610

Ruthless wrote: »

and the funds go to the new MMO while we get seasons...

As far as I know, ESO is a totally separate project from that other project. We don't know if funds from this project go to that other one, or if funds from that other one will go to this one.

Ruthless

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Ruthless wrote: »

and the funds go to the new MMO while we get seasons...

As far as I know, ESO is a totally separate project from that other project. We don't know if funds from this project go to that other one, or if funds from that other one will go to this one.

ESO has been making around 500K a day since it release, with the content we been getting it does not seam it goes towards ESO

We used to get 2 Zones 4 Dlcs
Then we got 1 Zone 2 Dlcs
Now we get seasons with nothing promised

Where does the money and dev time go ?

Erickson9610

Ruthless wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Ruthless wrote: »

and the funds go to the new MMO while we get seasons...

As far as I know, ESO is a totally separate project from that other project. We don't know if funds from this project go to that other one, or if funds from that other one will go to this one.

ESO has been making around 500K a day since it release, with the content we been getting it does not seam it goes towards ESO

We used to get 2 Zones 4 Dlcs
Then we got 1 Zone 2 Dlcs
Now we get seasons with nothing promised

Where does the money and dev time go ?

We already know that the ESO team is completely separate from the other team:

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

KromedeTheCorrupt wrote: »

Good suggestion and actually a great idea but no we will not get that from zos. Their new mmo is their only priority and hopefully it fails so they come back to us. I don’t see why we keep giving them money just to fund their new game when we can’t even play this one without disconnecting or lagging.

Just wanted to stop this before it goes any further. ESO has it's own team fully dedicated to its continued development. We have folks working on content releasing and QoL updates in a few weeks, for 2025 and 2026. Our other project has its own team, built specifically for that project. Folks on ESO are dedicated to the project and will continue to be.

We are updating the team as we get new info to work toward better stability. This is taking time and will continue to take some testing.

Lastly, let's not hope for project failure. That doesn't mean ppl can just be added to another project, because they were brought on for the new project specifically. That potentially means people losing their jobs and impacting their livelihood. Totally understand being frustrated at connection issues, but that doesn't mean you should then hope other project fails.

The money and development time for this game are still going to ESO. Besides, less quantity of content doesn't imply that the money is being siphoned elsewhere. While we do not know strictly how much money ESO has made this last year and how that money was budgeted, we can trust that ZOS is making the right financial decisions to keep this game around for the next 10 years.

peacenote

With three days left in the store on these, just adding my feedback in case ZOS is interested: I like the skill styles... a lot, actually... but they are too expensive so I refuse to buy them.

Yes, it's just "cosmetic" but something for ZOS to consider -- unlike mounts, pets, and skins, where you can use them without restraint on a character and it will not impact anything at all, those of us who are competitive with builds and abilities won't just use an ability to see the skill style. It makes it much less appealing of a purchase than other kinds of cosmetics. I especially like the Ice Comet skill but my ice-themed warden doesn't use this ultimate. (Or any of the abilities in this pack, for that matter).

Fwiw, I also really like the Red Twilight skill style but refuse to pay that much. And this is coming from someone who has bought multiple very expensive houses. But I can buy a house, and all my characters can use it, whereas this skill style pack I may never "get" to use based on my current builds, which therefore makes them feel especially over-priced (to me). I'm also aware that my build might change at any time if a skill is nerfed, making the purchase worthless in the future even if it's a skill I use today. I considered using seals of endeavor but that doesn't seem to be an option either. Really disappointing since "collecting all the skill styles" would be fun to do.

Erickson9610

peacenote wrote: »

With three days left in the store on these, just adding my feedback in case ZOS is interested: I like the skill styles... a lot, actually... but they are too expensive so I refuse to buy them.

Yes, it's just "cosmetic" but something for ZOS to consider -- unlike mounts, pets, and skins, where you can use them without restraint on a character and it will not impact anything at all, those of us who are competitive with builds and abilities won't just use an ability to see the skill style. It makes it much less appealing of a purchase than other kinds of cosmetics. I especially like the Ice Comet skill but my ice-themed warden doesn't use this ultimate. (Or any of the abilities in this pack, for that matter).

Fwiw, I also really like the Red Twilight skill style but refuse to pay that much. And this is coming from someone who has bought multiple very expensive houses. But I can buy a house, and all my characters can use it, whereas this skill style pack I may never "get" to use based on my current builds, which therefore makes them feel especially over-priced (to me). I'm also aware that my build might change at any time if a skill is nerfed, making the purchase worthless in the future even if it's a skill I use today. I considered using seals of endeavor but that doesn't seem to be an option either. Really disappointing since "collecting all the skill styles" would be fun to do.

I agree that I'll probably never use those particular skills in my practical builds — I'm not the kind of person to change my builds to include suboptimal skills that look flashy, but I respect the people who would.


Like others have said, I'd really like if Skill Style packs in the future were focused on just one skill line, but had a Skill Style for every skill within. Then I could consider whether to buy a Skill Style pack based on whether it covers a particular skill line that I utilize.

While I do see the advantage of variety packs such as New Life Styles: Winter, as people who don't use one skill line in the pack might actually use another (e.g., maybe some builds utilize Two Handed but not Bow), I think the main issue is that there aren't enough Skill Styles for a theme that may not be added to for a while. How long will it be until we get more New Life Styles that make other abilities ice-themed?


I know this is a controversial take, but I think it would be a fair tradeoff to have more Skill Styles included in a pack at the cost of the price of the bundle being increased. If a bundle included 6 abilities, one for the Ultimate and five for the active abilities, then it'd probably go for twice the price of New Life Styles: Winter, which only includes 3 abilities — so 5,000 Crowns for an entire skill line's worth of Skill Styles.

Maybe instead of bundles, individual Skill Styles could be bought, so we're not buying Skill Styles that won't fit into our builds. Summon Winged Twilight, Warrior is probably priced the way it is because it's both a pet skill and a long-requested feature — by contrast, I'd expect each of the three Skill Styles in New Life Styles: Winter to be sold individually at a third of the price of the bundle. That's probably around 850 Crowns per Skill Style, but at least we would save Crowns by not buying Skill Styles we won't use.

peacenote

Erickson9610 wrote: »

peacenote wrote: »

With three days left in the store on these, just adding my feedback in case ZOS is interested: I like the skill styles... a lot, actually... but they are too expensive so I refuse to buy them.

Yes, it's just "cosmetic" but something for ZOS to consider -- unlike mounts, pets, and skins, where you can use them without restraint on a character and it will not impact anything at all, those of us who are competitive with builds and abilities won't just use an ability to see the skill style. It makes it much less appealing of a purchase than other kinds of cosmetics. I especially like the Ice Comet skill but my ice-themed warden doesn't use this ultimate. (Or any of the abilities in this pack, for that matter).

Fwiw, I also really like the Red Twilight skill style but refuse to pay that much. And this is coming from someone who has bought multiple very expensive houses. But I can buy a house, and all my characters can use it, whereas this skill style pack I may never "get" to use based on my current builds, which therefore makes them feel especially over-priced (to me). I'm also aware that my build might change at any time if a skill is nerfed, making the purchase worthless in the future even if it's a skill I use today. I considered using seals of endeavor but that doesn't seem to be an option either. Really disappointing since "collecting all the skill styles" would be fun to do.

I agree that I'll probably never use those particular skills in my practical builds — I'm not the kind of person to change my builds to include suboptimal skills that look flashy, but I respect the people who would.


Like others have said, I'd really like if Skill Style packs in the future were focused on just one skill line, but had a Skill Style for every skill within. Then I could consider whether to buy a Skill Style pack based on whether it covers a particular skill line that I utilize.

While I do see the advantage of variety packs such as New Life Styles: Winter, as people who don't use one skill line in the pack might actually use another (e.g., maybe some builds utilize Two Handed but not Bow), I think the main issue is that there aren't enough Skill Styles for a theme that may not be added to for a while. How long will it be until we get more New Life Styles that make other abilities ice-themed?


I know this is a controversial take, but I think it would be a fair tradeoff to have more Skill Styles included in a pack at the cost of the price of the bundle being increased. If a bundle included 6 abilities, one for the Ultimate and five for the active abilities, then it'd probably go for twice the price of New Life Styles: Winter, which only includes 3 abilities — so 5,000 Crowns for an entire skill line's worth of Skill Styles.

Maybe instead of bundles, individual Skill Styles could be bought, so we're not buying Skill Styles that won't fit into our builds. Summon Winged Twilight, Warrior is probably priced the way it is because it's both a pet skill and a long-requested feature — by contrast, I'd expect each of the three Skill Styles in New Life Styles: Winter to be sold individually at a third of the price of the bundle. That's probably around 850 Crowns per Skill Style, but at least we would save Crowns by not buying Skill Styles we won't use.

I think the closest comparison is the weapon style packs, because again, based on build, you might never use a certain style. They are 2500 Crowns for one style of each possible weapon. We can use the Aetheriousbound Arms Pack as an example. You get ten styles and an outfit style token - so, 250 crowns per style if you consider the token to be free. And even then, once you apply a weapon style, you'll always see it (unless you put one style on front bar and a completely different themed style on the back bar) as opposed to a skill style which requires using the skill.

Therefore I partially agree with you. I agree the packs should be larger such that you are essentially certain to use one of the styles. However I don't think they should cost more than 250 - 300 a skill style, regardless of time it takes to make them. It's all about how they are used and the mileage we'll get as players when we buy them. Therefore a higher priced bundle, even with more options, would be too rich for my blood and I don't personally agree that this would make them more desirable. It is too much per skill style already.

Koshka

They are pretty awesome, but the price is too high for 3 random skills.
Would be better if this was a whole skill line redesigned around ice theme.