Activated (slotted) abilities cancel when weapon swap?

bagaloko

First off, bugs and bumps aside, I'm having a great time playing ESO.

Personally I think 5 skills plus ultimate is bordering on too few skills. But how does it work?

I put mage light on one bar, then activated it. But as soon as I swapped bars, mage light was cancelled. This makes it a rather useless talent for my uses. I would like to have it up, then swap to the other weapon if I need to without having to re activate it when I swap back.

Do all abilities cancel when you swap weapon?
I get that if you have a destruction staff buff it will cancel when you take off the staff. But what about class skills?
The shield you get from heavy armor skill line seems to last through weapon swap. I am less sure about the lightning shield you get from sorcerer skill line though.

Also, it would be great if some abilities (at least those that are toggle on/off) could be used even while not slotted. Seems a waste to use one of the 5 precious buttons for a skill you only activate, then never use again.

Sharee

The limitation to 5 active skills is intentional. If you could activate magelight, then switch to other weapon bar without it deactivating, you would essentially have six active skills instead of five.

You need to figure out which 5 skills work best for you, then use those. It may make magelight useless for your uses, but someone else may have other priorities and use magelight in one of their configurations (for instance when he knows there's a nightblade lurking nearby)

Think about it. If you could have magelight up at all times without having to sacrifice one of the five slots for it, then the ability would become mandatory for PvP, and it would essentially render all stealth in the game useless.

Or in other words, the only reason why stealth is still useful with magelight available to everyone is the fact not everyone will be willing to sacrifice the slot for it.

crislevin

what I found, hopefully correctly, is that if you slot the same spell in both weapon, swapping weapon will not remove its effect.

Obviously, this would reduce the benefit of weapon swapping if you mean to use more abilities, but I guess super important abilities may worth slots in both weapon?

bagaloko

Thanks for your replies guys.
The thing about mage light sounds sensible. But my objection is that even though it's not on the weapon bar I have active, it's still slotted.
I have it on one bar, activate it, and change bars, and it should remain active.

For instance, the sorcerer spell Lightning Form has a 6 sec duration (more if you morph it). So, if you use the ability, which you have slotted in one action bar, then swap bars, does that cancel Lightning Form?

It seems to me that it doesn't. A huge difference between Lightning Form and Mage Light is that the first is on a limited duration while the second is toggle on/of.

I'm running heavy armor as sorcerer, and have one setup for ranged and one for melee.
For ranged setup I use the heavy armor skill Immovable for defense. It costs stamina, so I can keep my mana for nuke.
As melee I use Lightning Form for defense. It costs mana, and I use stamina for 2 hander attacks, along with a few instant cast sorcerer spells in the mix.

But, on rare occasions I need mad defense, and then I pop both Immovable and Lightning Form, and it does seem that I get both buffs even though I have one on each action bar.

LadyChaos

bagaloko wrote: »

For instance, the sorcerer spell Lightning Form has a 6 sec duration (more if you morph it). So, if you use the ability, which you have slotted in one action bar, then swap bars, does that cancel Lightning Form?

It seems to me that it doesn't. A huge difference between Lightning Form and Mage Light is that the first is on a limited duration while the second is toggle on/of.

It effects all toggled buffs, like Pets, Bound Armor, Ultimates etc. It appears temp buffs are not calculated the same, only toggled ones. I have not checked all the temp buffs as server offline /wink.

Vendrath

Any skills that are toggle on/off will only stay toggled on if you have it on both weapon loads. This works the same for things like the mages summons.

Skills that you cast and have a set duration will persist through weapon swaps for their full duration.

This is how ZOS intended it to work.

bagaloko

Yes, lady chaos. That's what I think too. A buff that has a set duration will remain even when you change weapons so that the slot the ability sits in isn't active.
A buff which is toggle on/off, such as mage light, will be cancelled when the bar in which it is slotted is no longer active.

If this is the way it works I have no objections. It sounds reasonable.

Rickael

Like I said in another thread why not "remember" what was toggled, so when you change the toolbar back it comes back. It would be the same thing that happens to summons when you go into the water, they go away (the 10% penalty remains) when you come out of the water it shows up again.

It could be the same with skills that can be toggled. Summons/effects go away, keep magicka penalty on (since summon/effect still active), switch back and summons/effects go back. Seems fair and simple to implement since it is already used when you go into water.

Aimeryan

Sharee wrote: »

The limitation to 10 active skills is intentional. If you could activate magelight, then switch to other weapon bar without it deactivating, you would essentially have 10 active skills instead of 10.

Just a little rewording for you.

I assume by "active" skill you meant anything that has a duration, so buffs, dots etc. You can have these active even if you switch bars; only toggles for some reason are restricted. You can have 10 of these in total (5 on each bar).

Actually, I don't know if there are that many "active" skills. A lot of skills are just used when you use them, no duration or anything. Lets take out the "active" thing then, it seems pointless. You can use 10 skills the same as whether they are on one bar or two (unless it is a toggle, for some reason).

Sharee wrote: »

The limitation to 10 skills is intentional. If you could activate magelight, then switch to other weapon bar without it deactivating, you would essentially have 10 skills instead of 10.

Basically, toggles are punished for no reason.

mook-eb16_ESO

When you toggle you activate your ultimate you choose different set of active skills . whilst ultimate is active choose k menu the drop the active abilities in to the slots that you want to use with your ultimate skill. If you are using bound or summoned familiars and want to continue using them whilst ultimate is active they must be in the same slots as when your normal weapon slots are active i.e ultimate is not.

Zewks

from the replies I couldnt tell...

Do toggles reactivate when you switch back to the bar with them? Or do you have to reactivate them again?