Why do subclass skills cost 2 points

Doragren · June 19

Any good reason for that? Its so annoying

tomofhyrule · June 19

It seems like that was the devs' idea of a drawback to Subclassing, considering the power it brings.

Granted, I do think that an opportunity cost (which this is) is not a drawback - it only makes it harder for new characters to engage in the system and established players have no issue. See also the increased XP requirements.

If I had done Subclassing, I would not have put either of those opportunity costs on. I would also have allowed the trading off of all three skill lines and the taking of multiple lines from the same parent Class. In order to prevent the great power creep though, I'd have added a percentage nerf to all tooltips per number of skill lines from a different class (or a percentage buff to keeping multiple lines of the same class) so that running a pureclass build would not be so grossly underpowered compared to a subclass.

Poss · June 19

It’s the re-levelling of all the skill lines for me. Like, come on I’ve levelled them once, why have I gotta do them all again?

As for the double skill points, it’s to encourage you to buy the skyshards from the crown store 😂

Thorncrypt · June 19

Long-term players already have enough skill points or master craft writs to quickly level everything they need. New or on and off players now have a time sink they can spend another couple of hundred hours on for their 10+ characters.

Heren · June 19

It's just a way to have people stay in the game, it's nothing new in any MMO : they all want to retain players, and they all implement some level of grind. Same with inks, same with rare drops, same with delayed drops, and so on.

Maitsukas · June 19

Sometimes it is necessary to have drawbacks to get the full benefit of something, like most of the Mythic items.

I am not bothered by it, since I have all Skill Points available from PvE and there's plenty left to spare. And I'm not going to use all 20+40+40 points for Subclassed builds.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO · June 19

To sell skyshard unlocks from the crown store.

HalfDragoness · June 19

I believe that had this just been in the game from the start and everyone was on a level play field in term of time spent playing it would be a pretty strong drawback in itself.
However as a veteran player (in terms of time spent playing) A lot of my characters have enough skill points that it's not too much of an issue to subclass one skill line. Subclassing two skill lines though means hunting down another 40 or so skill points. The biggest drawback for me is the time it takes to level the subclassed skill lines to 50. getting from 1-45 is ok but the last 5 levels take so long because you need double the amount of XP.

In terms of player experience it can be annoying however in terms of game health I think it's a sensible idea. If people need more skyshards, skill points, and XP, they have to grind more content. This means more people doing public dungeons for the free skill point from doing the group event, doing more dungeon stories to get the first time completion skill point, doing random daily dungeons for the big XP boost.... etc. Of course some people pay millions to have someone else power level them but generally it forces more players to go to do more content, which in turn stops the world feeling devoid of other players. New players need help and if veterans are nearby grinding stuff there's a higher chance of the new and veteran player doing the same thing.

Four_Fingers · June 19

Well, they did give us a passive node in the green CP tree that reduces the time/xp to level new skills, don't overlook that.
I had extra green CP not being used anyway.

MJallday · June 19

they announced it months ago. why do you think a significant majority of people have been farming skill points?

i had c.80 on 14 chars before the update was released yesterday. i got prepped. no way was i being behind the curve.

PDarkBHood · June 19

I am finding, as expected, subclassing to be very expensive in terms of skill points. I added only one subclass for now, Night Blades Assassination line. The grind is fine, but I have noticed a side effect: I am constantly repairing my armor and it costs more now than before due to denting the armor more. I find the assassination skill line to be way more "up-close and personal" versus my usual barbarian route (2H sword with Stampede and Dizzying Swing skills), and receives way more damage than expected and costs double or triple the gold to repair it. I will look into the champion system to reduce the cost of repairs. I do like the red glow on my character with Grim Focus though, but it seems to disappear when I go from zone to zone, bug? Or does it say when fully leveled out, I am at Grim Focus level 2.

katanagirl1 · June 19

PDarkBHood wrote: »

I am finding, as expected, subclassing to be very expensive in terms of skill points. I added only one subclass for now, Night Blades Assassination line. The grind is fine, but I have noticed a side effect: I am constantly repairing my armor and it costs more now than before due to denting the armor more. I find the assassination skill line to be way more "up-close and personal" versus my usual barbarian route (2H sword with Stampede and Dizzying Swing skills), and receives way more damage than expected and costs double or triple the gold to repair it. I will look into the champion system to reduce the cost of repairs. I do like the red glow on my character with Grim Focus though, but it seems to disappear when I go from zone to zone, bug? Or does it say when fully leveled out, I am at Grim Focus level 2.

Could it be that you are now wearing medium armor instead of heavy or something like that? My medium armor characters have always had higher repair costs than my light armor wearing ranged characters, for instance.

PDarkBHood · June 19

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Could it be that you are now wearing medium armor instead of heavy or something like that? My medium armor characters have always had higher repair costs than my light armor wearing ranged characters, for instance.

Nope, same sets as before: 5 piece heavy (4xOrder's Wrath + 1x Slimecraw Visage heavy), and 2 piece medium Deadly Strike as belt and bracers.