How many skills active at one time would you like?

Raynekatt

We've all been seeing the discussions regarding this and there have been some very good points made on both sides. I'm curious, and you may be too, just how many people feel a certain way on this. So let's get some numbers together from those that frequent the forums!

Izzban

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

While it's nice to ask for things, it would be even better if players knew what it would entail to get the things they want.

7 skills + 1 Ulti would require a complete balance pass for all skills and all PVE content. Basically you are asking for them to shift focus from things they are working on now to re-do a years old design decision. The amount of work to implement this staggers me, and I don't understand why those asking for more hotbar skills can't see it.

If you do not believe the above is true, then consider this. Would you feel it unfair if you were PVPing and your enemy had 7 +1 skill slots while you had 5+ 1? I suspect the answer is yes, and the reason is because the opponent is more powerful. You can't just make all players more powerful across the board. Not while maintaining PVE balance. This doesn't even take skill synergy into account.

There is more involved than just slapping two more skill slots on the hotbar.

Imryll

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

Granted, making hard choices is hard, which is rather the point of the current system. I think that ESO gameplay differs more from other games than is immediately apparent and that the learning curve can feel steep, but the rewards are there once you've spent time with it.

Psionyxz

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

When I first started playing I felt like it was too little. Coming from other MMO's where you could literally keybind all 50+ of your moves, this game felt restrictive. Now I feel like one of the things that makes this game different is that you have to manage active bar space.

Just like inventory management where you have to determine what is worth taking with you and what isn't, you need to do the same thing but with your skills.

I feel that in the long run this will separate a good player from a great player. Being able to choose from all the active abilities to come up with a unique build that synergizes well will be a trait others begin to look for.

Gameplay mechanics balancing aside. I feel like this is what the developers were going for. They didn't want this to be another WoW ripoff and I think that what they've done here is fairly unique. (Although iirc I think Guild Wars has a similar scheme)

Being limited to 5+Ult isn't a bad thing, it's just different. Consider it another hurdle to overcome to becoming a better ESO player.

JonathanJeweet

Other - Please explain.

I don't have a problem with having only 5 activated skills and an ultimate, it would just be nice to also be able to slot some sustained abilities seperately. If for example I would have Bound Armor in my bar, it feels kind of overly-limiting to take 10% of magicka and still take up space on my activated skills.

Stautmeister

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

JonathanJeweet wrote: »

I don't have a problem with having only 5 activated skills and an ultimate, it would just be nice to also be able to slot some sustained abilities seperately. If for example I would have Bound Armor in my bar, it feels kind of overly-limiting to take 10% of magicka and still take up space on my activated skills.

The point still stands, mages get that ability. DKs get a weapon dmg buff but on activate They would have to rebalance everything.

NextGame

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

Izzban wrote: »

While it's nice to ask for things, it would be even better if players knew what it would entail to get the things they want.

7 skills + 1 Ulti would require a complete balance pass for all skills and all PVE content. Basically you are asking for them to shift focus from things they are working on now to re-do a years old design decision. The amount of work to implement this staggers me, and I don't understand why those asking for more hotbar skills can't see it.

If you do not believe the above is true, then consider this. Would you feel it unfair if you were PVPing and your enemy had 7 +1 skill slots while you had 5+ 1? I suspect the answer is yes, and the reason is because the opponent is more powerful. You can't just make all players more powerful across the board. Not while maintaining PVE balance. This doesn't even take skill synergy into account.

There is more involved than just slapping two more skill slots on the hotbar.

This post is ill construed and I will point out why.

1) It would not require any balance pass as the 2 extra skills draw from your existing stamina and mana pools anyway, it would only serve the give the player a little more flexibility and reduce the need to basically spam their current 5 skills.

2) If other players have 7+1, why wouldn't you?, its not like the idea is to give every played except for you additional skill slots.

3) There's is nothing involved beyond slapping 2 more skill slots on the hotbar.

Tankqull

10 skills + 2 Ultimates - Don't want to swap weapons to use them!

my main problem with the current system is the weapon switch delay wich forces (me a as a healer) to redundant skill choices to be able to react in time properly wich aswell neglects weaponchoices. pet sorcs are highly handicaped due to having pets slotted multiple times.
so what i would like to see is just a merge of both weapon bars into one while weapon switches are only handled in background enabling and disabling skills that can or cant be used with the current weapon choice. and everything would be fine from my pov. the current system ranges class dependent from ok to horrible.

Raynekatt

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

I'm curious about those talking about extra slots being too much and messing up the balance. How does the weapon swapping effect that view point?

One could swap between magic damage and stamina damage skills creating a system of overbalanced that is not necessarily suitable for all character designs (ex: the summoners out there lose their pets when swapping bars so not quite as viable). Is this not creating the exact situation being discussed above as to why extra slots are not suitable? Would not removing weapon swapping and providing a few extra slots solve this issue?

ex0.f00kb16_ESO

Other - Please explain.

I Think 5 + 1 is fine but it would be awsome to save 3-5 Templates for the Abilitybar, for diffrent situations Like PVP, Dungeons, PVE cuz its kind a anoying rearanging the Toolbar after doing for example PVP

cubansyrusb16_ESO

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

I don't mind the 5+1 at all.

I would not object to a "Buff" key like the ultimate key or one for "Training" purposes.

Training slot idea

The reason I say a training one is because I don't use ardent flame skills, to put them on my existing bar is a waste of space. This does not mean I don't want to level the class though as I like everything to be maxed out.

This Training slot (6th) would not be useable but it would gain experience equal to 1 skill slot.

Raynekatt

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

ex0.f00kb16_ESO wrote: »

I Think 5 + 1 is fine but it would be awsome to save 3-5 Templates for the Abilitybar, for diffrent situations Like PVP, Dungeons, PVE cuz its kind a anoying rearanging the Toolbar after doing for example PVP

Not sure how you feel about add-ons, however I've seen that Wykkyd has several and one seems to allow for this. Might be an idea to head over to the Add-on section for more details on it and links to one of the many that provide it as download.

GreasedLizard

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

One extra for toggle mode and one for buff

No need to rebalance jack. Still 5 + ult for actual combat moves

Chiefwilliams

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

In my opinion I think the way it is works perfectly for a lot of the reasons most people have mentioned but for me personally the main reason I wouldn't want more is because movement in this game is like a first person shooter which uses a lot of my keybinds that I would use for abilities in other games like wow and even gw2. If even one more ability was added. It would be difficult for me to run and stretch my finger way across my keyboard to hit 7 or anything passed T G B because I use an ergonomic keyboard lol. But that's just what I'm comfortable with

Tuinslang

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

This system makes you think more of the style you wish to play, which I really like. I think the way it is now, is perfect.

tengri

I don't want nor need more than 5+1 on the bar at the same time - but I need a
few more easily configurable and hot-key switchable templates.

You know, one layout for combat, one for support, one anti-daedra, one anti-mudcrap, one for training, one for... I dunno... just for the fun of it.
I know, I know, there are already addons for that kind of stuff. Tried some. Not yet satisfied, this one needs to go into the vanilla client.

Maybe something like another radial menu where you can configure and easily switch through 4 skill layouts for each of the two weapon sets.

Armitas

Other - Please explain.

I think it would be nice to have the option to place a 6th regular skill instead of an ultimate. So that you can have either 5Sills and 1Ultimate, or 6Skills no Ultimate. Otherwise i'm ok with it as is.

Sharee

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

I like it the way it is. It promotes variety - there are millions of possible combinations of skills on the bar. I'm very much looking forward to figuring out some awesome combo no one ever thought about and kicking your ass with it

Sharee

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

[double post, thanks forum ]

thakaptin

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

I like it how it is. I spent way too much of my life mastering the 8 million abilities of WoW and binding them all all over my keyboard with modifiers and macros and multi button mice..... I really like that I can play a game of this genre and not have to deal with more abilities than I have open buttons for. I have 6 abilities to keep up with and 2 filler moves on my mouse buttons to pass the time while bars fill back up. It makes for a more laid back experience which is what fantasy RPG's should be to me. If I wanted to play a super fast paced action game, I'd throw in Titanfall.

Mercutio_Montague

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

NextGame wrote: »

Izzban wrote: »

While it's nice to ask for things, it would be even better if players knew what it would entail to get the things they want.

7 skills + 1 Ulti would require a complete balance pass for all skills and all PVE content. Basically you are asking for them to shift focus from things they are working on now to re-do a years old design decision. The amount of work to implement this staggers me, and I don't understand why those asking for more hotbar skills can't see it.

If you do not believe the above is true, then consider this. Would you feel it unfair if you were PVPing and your enemy had 7 +1 skill slots while you had 5+ 1? I suspect the answer is yes, and the reason is because the opponent is more powerful. You can't just make all players more powerful across the board. Not while maintaining PVE balance. This doesn't even take skill synergy into account.

There is more involved than just slapping two more skill slots on the hotbar.

This post is ill construed and I will point out why.

1) It would not require any balance pass as the 2 extra skills draw from your existing stamina and mana pools anyway, it would only serve the give the player a little more flexibility and reduce the need to basically spam their current 5 skills.

2) If other players have 7+1, why wouldn't you?, its not like the idea is to give every played except for you additional skill slots.

3) There's is nothing involved beyond slapping 2 more skill slots on the hotbar.

This Post is ill constructed and I will point out why

1) yes it would require a balance pass to put 2 extra skills. by you logics they could give us another 50skills on our hot bar and it wouldn't require a pass cos they drain from you stamina and mana pools. Your missing out a couple of things from you line of thought. Stamina and mana regen. plus the potential juggling of using them both at the same time potienally allowing a good player to hop from one to the other at will while the other recharges . This will negate your point about draining from pools. if you wondering which player does that kind of thing. your speaking to one.

2) This leads me to my second point. ignore my first one for a sec let's go back to the drawing board. it's not about mana or stamina. it's the power of synergy. The power of the player does not grow by a linear rate with regards to the hot bar skills. It at least grows by double. adding synergy means you probably have a steeper increase but you'll have to consult with zenimax for those stats.

However I know it is at least double cos think about it by add 2 more slots your not just adding 2. your adding 4. Think about why. I'll leave that to you to figure out.

3.) I agree her point about other players having 7+1 and you only having 5+1 was a bit erm...but still I agree with her overall logic. maybe she was just tired and just finding it hard to understand why you all can't see the road block ahead and just keep screaming "go faster go faster!!!!"

4) there is a lot involved beyond slapping 2more skill slots on the hotbar. I encourage all you arm chair developer to go out and get into the gaming industry cos i'm really tired of see mis thought out notions being given as fact.

Loctite

10 skills + 2 Ultimates - Don't want to swap weapons to use them!

I think that we should go to 8 skills and one ultimate, I think that we need to have utility as well and primary skills in the same bar, currently you are very focused on one dimension of combat, with all of the skills out there and having the resource I think that an 8+1 would be suitable over the smaller 5+1.

Personally I would love to have as many binds as possible, players should be able to decide how many bindings they want, and the end of the day we all have to have one hand on a mouse and the other on a keyboard.

Memnock

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

NextGame wrote: »

Izzban wrote: »

While it's nice to ask for things, it would be even better if players knew what it would entail to get the things they want.

7 skills + 1 Ulti would require a complete balance pass for all skills and all PVE content. Basically you are asking for them to shift focus from things they are working on now to re-do a years old design decision. The amount of work to implement this staggers me, and I don't understand why those asking for more hotbar skills can't see it.

If you do not believe the above is true, then consider this. Would you feel it unfair if you were PVPing and your enemy had 7 +1 skill slots while you had 5+ 1? I suspect the answer is yes, and the reason is because the opponent is more powerful. You can't just make all players more powerful across the board. Not while maintaining PVE balance. This doesn't even take skill synergy into account.

There is more involved than just slapping two more skill slots on the hotbar.

This post is ill construed and I will point out why.

1) It would not require any balance pass as the 2 extra skills draw from your existing stamina and mana pools anyway, it would only serve the give the player a little more flexibility and reduce the need to basically spam their current 5 skills.

2) If other players have 7+1, why wouldn't you?, its not like the idea is to give every played except for you additional skill slots.

3) There's is nothing involved beyond slapping 2 more skill slots on the hotbar.

I completely agree with you , NextGame . I see now downside to having 2 more skills on each weapon loadout. Honestly , i think that the people who are so adamant against this idea , are afraid that if they add just a little more , then it would become WoW or something like that , but again that would not happen , with just 2 more skills being added , having 2 more skills would not require more balancing , since the abilities are still using the same resource pool and stats that the 5 existing ones are using , it would just open up the possibility of having more varied builds and of not having to go into your skill book every time you want to try a new combination , it will still happen obviously , but it would be more rare , and it would help us focus on the world , dungeons , pvp and pve stuff , more , instead of having to go through a dungeon , and noticing that , hmmm... i maybe should have slotted 1 AOE besides my single target stuff , but oh wait , i can't do that , because , the build for the single target has a certain flow , that i would mess up if i swapped one for some AOE. This is just an example of course , but the list can go on.

@Mercutio_Montague i don't have game developing experience , so i may not see what you are talking about with regards to the resource swaping while the other one is regenerating , but correct me if i am wrong : doesn't this happen already ? You can already place both melee and magical weapons and skills on both your bards or on separate bards , and with a simple swap go and fulfill the same role , but from a different perspective , as an example of what i mean by this , would be jugling the damage between bow abilities untill stamina is depleted and then switching to a destro staff and magic ; and talking to my guildies , i see alot of them actually using melee weapons that in support for spells , and viceversa , so... this is already happening from my point of view.
All that would be added with 2 more skills per weapon loadout , would be to have more versatility and more options in how you go and approach a play style like that

markusloveFTM

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

5 skills + 1 Ultimate. You have to understand that that is the mechanics of Elder Scrolls Online. If you think of almost every other MMORPG, you basically have unlimited mana and all your abilities have cooldowns so you need a *** load of spells. Also, your auto attacks are literally worthless.

On Elder Scrolls Online, your Magicka/Stamina runs out very quickly, and you can spam your abilities if you really wanted to; so you don't really need more abilities.

I understand that you're not used to having to really consider what abilities to have on your hotbar, and neither was I; but I like it. It does make each character unique, because not everyone has every single possible ability on their hotbar for a certain situation. People have to choose what they have and what they think will work best for them, meaning that everyone you play against is unique.

Memnock

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

Again i ask , how would that change if you add 2 more ? seriously every thread and response to adding 2 more skills , is a comparison to other MMOs that have an entirely different way of going about combat. Yes you don't have CDs on skills , yes you have to manage your resources , and think ahead and think about what role you want , but having 2 more skills per weapon loadout , would mean only having more options , with the skill bar restriction that is at the moment in place , i am already seeing clones of myself running around in dungeons , Crystal Fragments is almost on every sorcs skill bar , along with fury and to some extent , Lightning form as well ; having more slots , would allow us to play around with more varied combinations.

Raubrey

7 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Wish there was just space for a little more...

6 slots would suit me fine but 7 would be optimal in my opinion -- and I have no argument against those who want more, but I would probably not utilize that many.

To start, I play a melee Nightblade and think the class is more demanding of abilities, depending on your build. If you're a bowblade you may not have issue but a melee blade, to me at least, is a different beast -- I feel like a gimped sorc at times, one with little cc and no familiar/summon and I'm not tanky.

DPS is my main defense and offense -- which is one reason I chose the class. I also chose it for stealth but I have no room for these abilities and decided to go siphoning. :-/

Still...

The main reason I think 7 would be better is for skills that mostly help allies -- so for grouping I have no room for them and if I make room I will be sacrificing one of my go-to DPS , DPS+heal or even CC (limited as they are) abilities.

As a melee nightblade I focus heavy on my abilities. I gave up shadow completely to finally narrow what I use into 5 slots. This already reduces my effectiveness.

I am OK with that (simply because of my magicka pool) but I still find it limiting. At most I can use 1 2-H (weapon) ability unless I want to give up Silver Bolts (morphed) --which I won't -- I don't use a bow or staff at this point and that is my ranged attack/daedra & undead smasher etc.

One of my rotations is something like this (I pull from stamina and magicka --why I don't use teleport strike, at least for now).

Critical Strike
Funnel Health
KillerBlade
Silver Bolts
and then Agony for CC or whatever I really need.

I used to use Uppercut but it is too slow for my style as a main rotation. I have it slotted on weapon swap but wish I had room for it in the aforemention rotation though.

But again, my concern is more for grouping/ally-friendly abilities.

I think I'll be less effective when/if I include them -- at least with my play style. I suppose I can drop Agony -- my escape card-- and just hope I don't need it if the CC'er or the rest of the group wipes .

I'm only LV 17 -- so the limitations will be felt even more when I can access higher tier abilities.

P.S. I am not a WoW or console player and use a simple 5-button mouse. I am a native mouse clicker (both in EvE and Swotor and my SP games, if able) I admit so am looking at other gaming mice and would get it worked out.

I could shift over 1 key, so that "E" is my movement key base. I did that for another game and once I got used to it, it was effective.

Then, there is soul trap...yeah right.

8skyfaller

Other - Please explain.

9+1.

5+1 seems inadequate to me as we have to contend with guild and world skills, too. Choice without the 'bandwidth' to be expressive isn't much of choice.

3 for class skills (including the decision to use an Ultimate or not)
2 for weapon skills
2 for armor skills
2 for guild skills
1 for world skill

nhisso

10 skills + 2 Ultimates - Don't want to swap weapons to use them!

It's so sad that "leave it as is" is winning. Wow. Simple mindedness rules the day among today's gamers. Too much over whelms their little minds I guess Pretending there is strategy involved in it is hilarious.

Shaun98ca2

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

Of course nobody can see the harm in just 2 more abilities. Lets take a look at 2 abilities

Sorcerer 2 summons inceases Health Regen 20% that's a lot.

Templar Well Restoring aura gives health and stamina regen + more self healing

DragonKnight increases health regen by 4% increasing healing received plus you can choose the 2 abilities that give self healing and one that self heals and damages foes.

NightBlade you can increase your max magicka by 4% and max health by 2% and the magicka increase is also self healing ability.

This may not SEEM like a lot to you but it would make your character MORE powerful in combat and the game would need to be entirely rebalanced. There is NO reason to add more ability slots 5 is enough that's how all the beta testers made it to end game with the 5+1 set up.

5 slots = 5 situations ......its up to you to decide what each slot is to be used for.
As for asking for more slots no matter how many your asking for somebody else wants more if your given what your want why not somebody else who wants 10 or 12. The line is drawn at 5 for a NUMBER or reasons.
1. It fits for the use of the WASD keys anything past 5 is very difficult for MOST people to use
2. The way the game is set up 3 abilities is MORE than enough to fulfill a role.
3. Weapon swap gives you the opportunity to fulfill a second role that's why there is the 2 second delay.

I wouldn't mind a template save as long as it takes 5 seconds to load outside of combat.

Shaun98ca2

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

nhisso wrote: »

It's so sad that "leave it as is" is winning. Wow. Simple mindedness rules the day among today's gamers. Too much over whelms their little minds I guess Pretending there is strategy involved in it is hilarious.

OR your simple minded you cant understand the complexity and brilliance of the current system if you weren't so simple minded you would see why a majority wants it the way it is.

Ragnar_Lodbrok

5 Skills + 1 Ultimate - Leave it as is!

The people have spoken, take your wow 500 skills and shove them. The majority like the skill and challenge and diversity this offers.