Is ESO combat design average MMO style?

AvalonRanger

"Is ESO combat design average MMO style?"

ESO is my first MMO, and may be last MMO for me also.
So, I don't have much knowledge of MMO standerd.

I used to be beta test player in before launching day of 2014.
When I was in those days, I thought why dev team kept forcing us to do such a
"Nintendo family computer age game" in 2014.

In 2025, 10 years later now, the combat is still ancient bullet sponge game.
(Mixing "Thunderbolt[Raiden]" and "Dragon Quest" )
Despite of great ElderScrolls story experience, I hate every combat aspect of ESO.
Feel like keep using old antique black table phone instead of smart phone in 2025.
(No skill tree, No environmental based game design, meaningless level design, aim bot style ESO combat)

Because I was used to play "FarCry" style game in 2014 already.

Is all MMO game just like ESO? Or ESO is inferior version MMO?

Rungar

they are all pretty much the same bro. Use skills, block and dodge. ESO's is actually better than most. At least initially.

Orbital78

Older MMO's tended to use tab target auto combat with a lot of skills on bars. ESO's is a lot more interactive, but is probably becoming more of the standard these days moving forward. MMO's older formulas grew stale, I mean WoW is still around but I don't think those styles can keep up long term.

KiltMaster

IMO, no. ESO's combat is one of the reasons why I keep coming back and haven't left. Can't find anything like it. It feels more dynamic and active instead of tab target and DOT.

JeroenB

Below is what I'd written initially, but looking at the comments posted in the intervening time, it sounds like I'm doing someting wrong in ESO


Depends on what you mean by "MMO". Opinions probably differ on definitions, but I think the following is reasonable for an impression:

ESO is a Western MMORPG in the WoW-lineage, alongside Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the like. These all have fundamentally the same combat control mechanism with rows of individual abilities that you activate.

Neverwinter Online is a Western MMORPG almost all ways, but has more of an ARPG-style combat control system.

Black Desert Online is in many ways similar to a Western MMORPG in aesthetics and feeling (or at least it did years ago, I think it's gone more Korean-style weird modern outfits now), with some interestingly different features, but IIRC had a 'spectacle-fighter'-style combo-based combat system like many Asian games which didn't suit me personally.

Then there's ARPGs with varying levels of MMO-like features, like Diablo III/IV, Lost Ark, and Path of Exile, which obviously have a different viewpoint and control system.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were still sprite-based 'pre-WoW' MMORPG servers alive, like Ultima Online and Ragnarok Online.

Freelancer_ESO

The combat is similar to other MMO titles but, ESO has some significant differences compared to some of the other MMO titles I've played.

The primary differences that ESO has compared to the majority of other MMO titles I've played are: bar Swapping, lack of Cooldowns, light attack weaving, limited separation between damage and healing, and a higher focus on buff management.

If you like that stuff, ESO is probably above average when it comes to combat for an MMO.

If you don't like that stuff, ESO is probably below average when it comes to combat for an MMO.

Personally, I generally liked the combat sounds/visuals of the other MMO titles that I have played a bit more than ESO but, that falls more towards personal preference...

Erickson9610

ESO's combat is sort of like a hybrid between MMO combat like WoW and action RPGs like TES V: Skyrim.


To compare it directly to Skyrim, you have your Ultimate ability which is a parallel to the Shout/Power ability you select in Skyrim. Funnily enough, ESO's implementation of Werewolf is very similar to Skyrim's — you activate a Power/Ultimate (that can only be used once per day or costs a lot of Ultimate) to transform, and you can feed on slain enemies to extend the transformation. Also of note is how the default keybind on PC for using a Shout/Power is "Z", which is the sheath/unsheath weapon button in ESO, while the default keybind for using an Ultimate is "R", which is the sheath/unsheath weapon button in Skyrim.

Light and Heavy Attacks work similarly between ESO and Skyrim, except Heavy Attacks restore resources in ESO, while they deplete resources in Skyrim — there was an overhaul to Light/Heavy Attacks planned for the Greymoor Update which was going to make it more similar to Skyrim, but the overhaul was canceled and moved to a Mythic item coming in Update 46.

Skyrim doesn't really have "abilities" the way ESO and other MMORPGs do. The closest parallel would be wielding spells in your left or right hand — in ESO, you always have a weapon equipped, but you activate an ability to use those sort of spells. So, it's actually better than in Skyrim because you don't need to unequip your weapon to use magic.

Pepegrillos

If you read opinions outside of the ESO-sphere, you'll quickly notice that ESO's combat is usually singled out as an (if not the main) example of what bad combat looks like in MMORPGs. The usual reasons given are: it's floaty and there is weaving/animation cancelling. This doesn't even touch on the hybridization and standardization of recent years, probably because you'd have to be a regular player of the game to notice how that has played out.

Desiato

ESO combat is light years ahead of most MMOs. The old EQ/WoW paradigm is pretty awful to me in 2025.

It's unfortunate that eso combat gets worse every year. It was SUCH a rush the first few years because players could die fast if they weren't sharp in both PVE and PVP. It's a snoozefest today in comparison. Like the heavy attack cue is so long in most cases now, it's actually absurd. I remember having to stay focused on the enemy animations to avoid a lot of one-shots.

Because of this, the kind of player who would actually appreciate the fast, fluid, high apm fundamentals of eso combat is often repulsed by how ridiculously easy it is.

I believe a time will come when its fundamentals will be implemented by another dev to good effect.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

MMOs generally fall into 2 categories,
1. Tab target
2. Action combat

ESO kind of sits between the 2 which is why I enjoy it - but also why some don't.

Tab target combat is often more static and pure rotation based whereas action combat is usually a lot more reaction and aiming based with less skill complexity.

sans-culottes

AvalonRanger wrote: »

"Is ESO combat design average MMO style?"

ESO is my first MMO, and may be last MMO for me also.
So, I don't have much knowledge of MMO standard.

I used to be beta test player in before launching day of 2014.
When I was in those days, I thought why dev team kept forcing us to do such a
"Nintendo family computer age game" in 2014.

In 2025, 10 years later now, the combat is still ancient bullet sponge game.
(Mixing "Thunderbolt[Raiden]" and "Dragon Quest" )
Despite of great ElderScrolls story experience, I hate every combat aspect of ESO.
Feel like keep using old antique black table phone instead of smart phone in 2025.
(No skill tree, No environmental based game design, meaningless level design, aim bot style ESO combat)

Because I was used to play "FarCry" style game in 2014 already.

Is all MMO game just like ESO? Or ESO is inferior version MMO?

Desiato wrote: »

ESO combat is light years ahead of most MMOs. The old EQ/WoW paradigm is pretty awful to me in 2025.

It's unfortunate that eso combat gets worse every year. It was SUCH a rush the first few years because players could die fast if they weren't sharp in both PVE and PVP. It's a snoozefest today in comparison. Like the heavy attack cue is so long in most cases now, it's actually absurd. I remember having to stay focused on the enemy animations to avoid a lot of one-shots.

Because of this, the kind of player who would actually appreciate the fast, fluid, high apm fundamentals of eso combat is often repulsed by how ridiculously easy it is.

I believe a time will come when its fundamentals will be implemented by another dev to good effect.

“High APM” is just button spam dressed up as depth.

ESO is a bit of an outlier. Most action MMOs, like New World, mediate their combat with cooldowns, aim, or resource constraints. ESO replaces those with animation canceling and buff timers, which creates speed but not substance.

What’s often mistaken for fluidity here is just a race to refresh dots and keep up light attack weaving—less strategy, more mechanical obligation.

If the highlight of ESO combat is how fast people used to die, then the system was never deep. It was brittle.

Pixiepumpkin

sans-culottes wrote: »

AvalonRanger wrote: »

"Is ESO combat design average MMO style?"

ESO is my first MMO, and may be last MMO for me also.
So, I don't have much knowledge of MMO standard.

I used to be beta test player in before launching day of 2014.
When I was in those days, I thought why dev team kept forcing us to do such a
"Nintendo family computer age game" in 2014.

In 2025, 10 years later now, the combat is still ancient bullet sponge game.
(Mixing "Thunderbolt[Raiden]" and "Dragon Quest" )
Despite of great ElderScrolls story experience, I hate every combat aspect of ESO.
Feel like keep using old antique black table phone instead of smart phone in 2025.
(No skill tree, No environmental based game design, meaningless level design, aim bot style ESO combat)

Because I was used to play "FarCry" style game in 2014 already.

Is all MMO game just like ESO? Or ESO is inferior version MMO?

Desiato wrote: »

ESO combat is light years ahead of most MMOs. The old EQ/WoW paradigm is pretty awful to me in 2025.

It's unfortunate that eso combat gets worse every year. It was SUCH a rush the first few years because players could die fast if they weren't sharp in both PVE and PVP. It's a snoozefest today in comparison. Like the heavy attack cue is so long in most cases now, it's actually absurd. I remember having to stay focused on the enemy animations to avoid a lot of one-shots.

Because of this, the kind of player who would actually appreciate the fast, fluid, high apm fundamentals of eso combat is often repulsed by how ridiculously easy it is.

I believe a time will come when its fundamentals will be implemented by another dev to good effect.

“High APM” is just button spam dressed up as depth.

ESO is a bit of an outlier. Most action MMOs, like New World, mediate their combat with cooldowns, aim, or resource constraints. ESO replaces those with animation canceling and buff timers, which creates speed but not substance.

What’s often mistaken for fluidity here is just a race to refresh dots and keep up light attack weaving—less strategy, more mechanical obligation.

If the highlight of ESO combat is how fast people used to die, then the system was never deep. It was brittle.

Well said.

I personally find ESO's combat to be the worst of any MMORPG I have played. People accuse tab targeting of being static, going through a rotation.....and man they could not be farther from the truth.

In PVP, I was insanely more acrobatic and mobile on my hunter in WOW than I am on any class in ESO. Secondly tab targeting is mocked, but at least there is variation in the gameplay. No class encounter plays the same. Where as in ESO every classes defense plays the same. Shield, block, break free, dodge roll. And offensively its all about back bar buffing, maintaining buffs, spammable, heal/shield/execute. They all play the same here.

The combat variety in ESO is simply, none. It all plays the same.

New World has a much much much better action combat. The weapons feel visceral (real) and are not revoled around buffing (although combos can be set up). The rifle in that game is amazing and even the fire staff is a ton of fun. The audio and visuals in that game complement each other extremely well.

Star Wars, tab target. For me, was similar to wow. Playing a jedi or sith and leaping through the air...well only does the dragon leap come close in ESO, but its still a far cry.

ESO has amazing housing. That is why I am here. The combat does not pull me in. The monetization does not pull me in. Character creation and outfits are sublime, too bad it costs 15 bucks to unlock a second outfit slot.

But the idea that ESO has amazing combat, makes me think folks have not really experienced the gamut of what exists.

AvalonRanger

OK. Thanks folks for giving me MMO information.

So, according to major opinion, ESO is based on average MMO game concept.
That means ESO will become my first MMO and last MMO. Each time I hear combat
BGM starting in ESO, my heart go to deepest depth of the sea. Every combat of ESO is
so painful, dull, boring, nonsense, disgusting always. Simply it's not cool. Without
ElderScrolls IP, then I didn't buy this game in 2014.

But...

Just I want to know "2" issue. If ESO is average MMO style game....

Q1, Why MMO combat is not cool at all. And, why it keeps staying ancient fossil gaming style?

Q2, Some MMO fan say, "GuildWar2 is better MMO than ESO". Why?

Vaqual

I love the combat in ESO. Being able to use basic weapon attacks at will between casts is something that I have always wished for in older MMOs. I like that certain attacks can be effectively bodyblocked and that positioning really matters. While there are many animations that I am not exactly a fan of, most of the combat feels grounded and not too ludicrous (unlike GW2, FF14 or New World Greatswords etc., which are absolutely cringeworthy).
I think they found a good blend between the single player TES games, where spell swapping often felt tedious but action was good, and the classic ability based MMO formula, where the pacing is often more cooldown based and less situational.

Anumaril

ESO's action combat design was pretty innovative back when the game released. Back then (heck, even still today) a lot of MMOs used tab-targeting, which is far inferior to action combat in terms of getting you invested in the "action" of a fight, not to mention immersion. Then there's also secondary mechanics that also impact combat, like dodging, sprinting, and sneaking, all of which were not the industry standard either.

But these days action combat is very much the norm, at least from the new MMOs I've seen on the market. So I can understand it feeling a bit stale for some people. Yet for an MMO I don't know what more we could get (aside from a huge evolution like VR combat).

It's pretty clear that the ESO team tried to make the game's combat reminiscent of the single-player TES games, with action combat, broadly free-aiming abilities/attacks, sprinting, etc. But the "aimbot" thing you mentioned was necessary because otherwise it would be virtually impossible for a ranged player to land a hit in fast-paced (PvP) combat. It's one thing to practise a bit in Skyrim and learn to land hits on a moving dragon, but it's another to fight a player spinning around you and weaving behind every obstacle known to man. So simplifying things like projectiles was a sacrifice they needed to make for gameplay.

Other combat mechanics like targeted injury (which isn't available in single-player TES games, but people tend to add with mods) also wouldn't have made sense because the game was designed to play in zoomed-out third-person perspective, where targeting individual limbs is next to impossible. Sure, you can play in first-person (that's how I like to do my questing/world content for immersion), but do a single dungeon and you realise that everything was designed around seeing the entire battlefield, not just what's in front of you.

sans-culottes

Anumaril wrote: »

ESO's action combat design was pretty innovative back when the game released. Back then (heck, even still today) a lot of MMOs used tab-targeting, which is far inferior to action combat in terms of getting you invested in the "action" of a fight, not to mention immersion. Then there's also secondary mechanics that also impact combat, like dodging, sprinting, and sneaking, all of which were not the industry standard either.

But these days action combat is very much the norm, at least from the new MMOs I've seen on the market. So I can understand it feeling a bit stale for some people. Yet for an MMO I don't know what more we could get (aside from a huge evolution like VR combat).

It's pretty clear that the ESO team tried to make the game's combat reminiscent of the single-player TES games, with action combat, broadly free-aiming abilities/attacks, sprinting, etc. But the "aimbot" thing you mentioned was necessary because otherwise it would be virtually impossible for a ranged player to land a hit in fast-paced (PvP) combat. It's one thing to practise a bit in Skyrim and learn to land hits on a moving dragon, but it's another to fight a player spinning around you and weaving behind every obstacle known to man. So simplifying things like projectiles was a sacrifice they needed to make for gameplay.

Other combat mechanics like targeted injury (which isn't available in single-player TES games, but people tend to add with mods) also wouldn't have made sense because the game was designed to play in zoomed-out third-person perspective, where targeting individual limbs is next to impossible. Sure, you can play in first-person (that's how I like to do my questing/world content for immersion), but do a single dungeon and you realise that everything was designed around seeing the entire battlefield, not just what's in front of you.

It’s always interesting how “action combat” functions less as a design descriptor and more as a kind of liturgical refrain in ESO discourse. The idea that this system is immersive because it’s not tab-targeting misses the real question: what kind of engagement does it actually produce?

Yes, ESO has free aim, dodge roll, and light attack weaving—but these are surface-level mechanics. Beneath that, the combat loop is often defined by internal cooldowns, soft-lock aim correction, and an obsessive rotation of buffs that only persist for 10 to 20 seconds at a time. If that’s “action,” then it’s action in the same way refreshing your antivirus software every 15 seconds is action.

As for balance, the real trade-off here isn’t between immersion and usability. It’s between accessibility and depth. The aimbot-style projectile correction wasn’t added for PvP realism. Rather, it’s a bandage on a system that prioritizes visual spectacle over mechanical integrity. What ESO ends up with is a floaty, frenetic model where responsiveness masks the absence of weight.

That’s not inherently bad. But let’s not pretend it’s revolutionary either. Plenty of games offer actual action combat. ESO offers an MMO that gestures at it. FromSoftware built an empire on real-time combat with no need to sermonize about “action” at all.

zaria

Orbital78 wrote: »

Older MMO's tended to use tab target auto combat with a lot of skills on bars. ESO's is a lot more interactive, but is probably becoming more of the standard these days moving forward. MMO's older formulas grew stale, I mean WoW is still around but I don't think those styles can keep up long term.

This, the classical is the WOW tab targeting, usually using mouse to move like in strategy games.
ESO playes much more like Oblivion I say except selecting an ability uses it not selecting it for use.
Rotation is important in pretty much any MMO, you use an buff, put down AoE, perhaps an debuff then an damage over time before the spamable.
Make me wonder, with the spell maker in Oblivion remastered could you mod in cast on use of 1-8 for rotation 😺

Dino-Jr

ESOs combat is more interactive, mobile, and free form then other mmos I have played.

The combat being fast, rythm based, and constantly interactive without cooldowns besides ultimates is basically the reason why I play the game.

Desiato

sans-culottes wrote: »

“High APM” is just button spam dressed up as depth.

It is only "spam" if one chooses to spam the same ability over repeatedly, which would be an example of poor play.

Decent ESO players execute deliberate rotations contextually. The actual shortcoming is not spam, it's that combat can become too procedural. Fortunately, most groups are so chaotic that dynamism is normal.

It is only in highly structured groups that combat becomes completely procedural, but this is after a long process of trial and error.

Even though it is so easy, I still get a lot of satisfaction from the ESO combat by executing smoothly and essentially competing with myself to improve.

Though we say rotation like it's completely static, in reality rotations are usually composed of many sub rotations, particularly in PVP. It is really gratifying to smoothly combine subroutines in the moment while reading and reacting with only a split second to make a decision.

Anumaril

sans-culottes wrote: »

It’s always interesting how “action combat” functions less as a design descriptor and more as a kind of liturgical refrain in ESO discourse. The idea that this system is immersive because it’s not tab-targeting misses the real question: what kind of engagement does it actually produce?

What it produces is infinitely more engaging than tab-targeting combat like World of Warcraft or any of those other old MMOs. In an action combat system you've got to aim (relatively speaking), move your camera, you can cast spells while moving, sprint to catch-up with an enemy, etc.

This just doesn't compare to other styles of combat. Is it perfect? No. But I'd definitely call it unique and innovative for MMOs (especially when it first released, now it's more the industry norm), as well as a more engaging step-up from the old standard of tab-targeting.

As an aside, I don't even know what a "perfect" combat system would look like. I guess it depends on the person. VR combat would probably be the absolute ideal in my case, to maximise immersion. I suppose that's why action combat feels so much better to me than tab-targeting, because it sucks you into the flow (i.e., immersion) of combat a lot more.

Rungar

eso has the most flexible combat system. You have a wide variety of things to slot and ways to equip. No other mmo can match these systems. Even the 1 second gcd is a great system as this idea is sound.

it comes apart when excessive weaving, buffing and cancelling is required to do damage. its overkill, and has always limited this game. People want to play the game not mash buttons as fast as they can. it was already great with the 1 second gcd...It dont work for most players and dont work for pvp due to latency. This is why outside these forums the combat system is considered one of the worst.

let it be a lesson in reasonability. You can go too far with something.

Legate_Lanius

While it's enjoyable to tailor your build and have options, the core combat is rather clunky between animations and movements. Guild Wars 2 is not target-based aswell but the combat there is way way smoother.

If they managed to do something similar here it would fix a lot of things, like the complaints about the combat. But it won't happen.

Major_Mangle

The combat system is the main reason I play ESO and not other MMO's. The quests, the lore in ESO is incredibly mediocre (the world building and housing is good) compared other MMOs so the combat is what keeps the game somewhat unique.

The day they change the fundamentals of the combat is the day I'm out.

Thysbe

Rungar wrote: »

eso has the most flexible combat system. You have a wide variety of things to slot and ways to equip. No other mmo can match these systems. Even the 1 second gcd is a great system as this idea is sound.

I disagree - played all the DD classes and specs and it´s always the same - a spamable 2-5 Dots you have to keep up and if you want to go for high DPS its the same skills repeating in every DD. The difference between the classes is neglible as well as range combat is basically dead since u35 - it´s 1 camp, daggers are the to go weapon for years now.

This point comes up so often but in truth the only wide variety you have is in Roleplay builds were 20-30k more or less don´t matter. The variety in more demanding PVE is close to zero.

Arcanist is awful with the beam - what is fast and flexible about that? I mean its fun to use it and try to find optimal angle to get as much cleave as possible, but its very static gameplay.

In Wow you have high Damage burst skills you have to use knowingly in the right situation, there are trade offs between the classes - rouges made ultra high damage but were hard to play and squishy as medium armor classes right in front of Boss melee cleave. And to clear a mythic trial you need all those different classes with their different strenghts and buffs.

GW2 is way faster and more fluent than ESO, same for throne and Liberty - where I enjoyed combat so much. Since everything was weapon bound you could easily reskill a character. Bow/Staff felt awesome, Hurricane in big scale PVP was a blast. Dungeons were fast paced with punishing mechanics. Loved it but it was too PVP focused with all dominating professional guilds for my taste.

I am in the "I stay for housing" camp too.

Rungar

Thysbe wrote: »

Rungar wrote: »

eso has the most flexible combat system. You have a wide variety of things to slot and ways to equip. No other mmo can match these systems. Even the 1 second gcd is a great system as this idea is sound.

I disagree - played all the DD classes and specs and it´s always the same - a spamable 2-5 Dots you have to keep up and if you want to go for high DPS its the same skills repeating in every DD. The difference between the classes is neglible as well as range combat is basically dead since u35 - it´s 1 camp, daggers are the to go weapon for years now.

This point comes up so often but in truth the only wide variety you have is in Roleplay builds were 20-30k more or less don´t matter. The variety in more demanding PVE is close to zero.

Arcanist is awful with the beam - what is fast and flexible about that? I mean its fun to use it and try to find optimal angle to get as much cleave as possible, but its very static gameplay.

In Wow you have high Damage burst skills you have to use knowingly in the right situation, there are trade offs between the classes - rouges made ultra high damage but were hard to play and squishy as medium armor classes right in front of Boss melee cleave. And to clear a mythic trial you need all those different classes with their different strenghts and buffs.

GW2 is way faster and more fluent than ESO, same for throne and Liberty - where I enjoyed combat so much. Since everything was weapon bound you could easily reskill a character. Bow/Staff felt awesome, Hurricane in big scale PVP was a blast. Dungeons were fast paced with punishing mechanics. Loved it but it was too PVP focused with all dominating professional guilds for my taste.

I am in the "I stay for housing" camp too.

its still the most versatile on a player basis. I agree the content design is generally bad and pushes overly dps centric builds rather than well rounded characters.

Pixiepumpkin

Thysbe wrote: »

I am in the "I stay for housing" camp too.

With World of Warcraft coming out with housing at the end of the year, wife and I are going to give it a shot. The only reason she does not play wow is due to housing.

I hope its as good as it looks. Blizzard is pretty good at polishing mechanics.

If ESO did not have good housing, I'd have little reason to play this game.

Solvar

I've played a lot of Guild Wars 2. A lot of the skills there are target based - in fact, there are a fair number which will basically say 'you need to have a target to use this skill'. And the unfortunate fact is that if you use any form of auto targeting, it basically sucks, and the big fights (where you actually care about efficiency tend to have lots of extra creatures about).

In some ways, I like the simpler/more flexible combat of ESO. GW2 have 10 skills (actions) for combat, but the first 5 are determined by your weapons, and of the other 5, one is your healing skill, one is your elite (ultimate), which leaves 3 other ones.

But this is certainly preferential. As I get older (don't we all), my reflexes are not getting any faster, and while some complain about ESO being too slow (and thus easy to block/dodge/move from attacks), I found with GW2 that more often I'd just be a tenth of a second too slow to react, or not able to identify the few safe areas on a battlefield covered in AoE in time. And more and more, to make things challenging, GW2 made it so if you miss that dodge/movement, you are dead (or nearly so such that the next attack takes you down).

One thing is that every MMO is going to have real time combat, but necessity. If you don't want the real time combat, then single player games can be a good choice. But I think one would really need to try the different games and see what they like and it would be hard to make blanket statements.

spartaxoxo

A lot of MMOs have less dynamic combat and skill expression than ESO.

The reason for such a drastic gap in the lowest power of the playerbase and the highest -- and frankly it's one of the highest, if not the highest gap I have personally seen in an MMO --- is because skill expression actually matters a great deal.

SeaGtGruff

ESO is also my first— and so far my only— MMO, so I have no experience with combat in other MMOs.

But comparing ESO’s combat to other TES games, I enjoy it a lot. It’s great to be able to assign specific actions— attacks, defenses, heals, buffs, debuffs, etc.— to specific keys and then directly fire them off at will.

The quickslots wheel can be tricky, since you must select which quickslotted action or item you want to use before you can actually use it, but it’s handy once you get the hang of it.

One thing I haven’t tried yet is using a game controller instead of mouse and keyboard. It looks like most PvP streamers use a game controller, and the combat does seem to be designed with game controllers in mind.

blktauna

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

But the idea that ESO has amazing combat, makes me think folks have not really experienced the gamut of what exists.

No it just means we disagree with you.

I've played Diablo, NeverWinter, still play SWTOR and now Ashes of Creation. Their PVP mechanics all suck.

Cooperharley

Erickson9610 wrote: »

ESO's combat is sort of like a hybrid between MMO combat like WoW and action RPGs like TES V: Skyrim.


To compare it directly to Skyrim, you have your Ultimate ability which is a parallel to the Shout/Power ability you select in Skyrim. Funnily enough, ESO's implementation of Werewolf is very similar to Skyrim's — you activate a Power/Ultimate (that can only be used once per day or costs a lot of Ultimate) to transform, and you can feed on slain enemies to extend the transformation. Also of note is how the default keybind on PC for using a Shout/Power is "Z", which is the sheath/unsheath weapon button in ESO, while the default keybind for using an Ultimate is "R", which is the sheath/unsheath weapon button in Skyrim.

Light and Heavy Attacks work similarly between ESO and Skyrim, except Heavy Attacks restore resources in ESO, while they deplete resources in Skyrim — there was an overhaul to Light/Heavy Attacks planned for the Greymoor Update which was going to make it more similar to Skyrim, but the overhaul was canceled and moved to a Mythic item coming in Update 46.

Skyrim doesn't really have "abilities" the way ESO and other MMORPGs do. The closest parallel would be wielding spells in your left or right hand — in ESO, you always have a weapon equipped, but you activate an ability to use those sort of spells. So, it's actually better than in Skyrim because you don't need to unequip your weapon to use magic.

As someone who is currently going back and playing through Skyrim because I'm bored in ESO, the werewolf feels INSANE in skyrim lol you just run around shredding entire towns and feel beyond powerful. ESO's werewolf is super weak and it's bizarre that the devs have said absolutely nothing. Same for vamp. I'd love a pure vamp and pure werewolf character but they're incredibly weak