Why only 6 abilities at a time?!!

Brimsurfer

So why can we use only 6 abilities at a time? In pre-launch interviews Devs were talking about how they want to give freedom to players and stuff....... now they restrict us to only 6 abilities, this doesn't make sense. Its not freedom at all.

We should be able to use as many abilities as we like (just like some of the other major MMOs out there). If a player wants to use only a few abilities then its up to them but most of us would like to use all the abilities available to us, at least all the players that I know would like to be able to use all.

Please remove this restriction of using only 6 abilities at a time. Give us a big long customisable toolbar and anyone who wants to use just 6 abilities can only go for 6 but the most of us who want the whole repertoire to be available will be able to use all our abilities. Lets turn this game into FUN.

Thanks

dmaker

I suspect it might have something to do with consoles and gamepads.

Kunni

Erm, weapon swap?

Brimsurfer

Kunni wrote: »

Erm, weapon swap?

what of it? you can swap weapons as many times as you like it. you can set separate toolbars to different weapon sets. Its no big deal.

nerevarine1138

It has nothing to do with consoles.

It's to force you to use strategy in your loadouts and to help create unique builds. It prevents you from having a screen full of fancy looking abilities that you never use. It's a design choice, and it's a dead horse. Kindly stop beating it.

Orizuru

I really hate it when people say, "other MMOs have it". So what? Instead of saying that, why not create a compelling argument for why you need more toolbar slots?

If everyone had what you want though, there wouldn't be much difference between two players of the same class. Sure, we would start out different, but once we've both leveled up to 50 and earned 300+ skill points we would all be pretty much the same. Limited toolbar slots help to keep each player unique from the rest of the players who chose the same class as you.
+

Brimsurfer

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

It has nothing to do with consoles.


It's to force you to use strategy in your loadouts and to help create unique builds. It prevents you from having a screen full of fancy looking abilities that you never use. It's a design choice, and it's a dead horse. Kindly stop beating it.

With due respect, we will have more strategy and options if we had the whole repertoire available to us. Having six abilities at a time, severely restricts the strategy or strategy choices.

If its a design choice then its a bad design choice and it will destroy the game.

Give us a big customizable toolbar and let us use all abilities ......and like I said anyone who likes to play with only 6 abilities at a time, and likes the current design, can slot only six abilities in that toolbar, but most of us would have freedom to use our skill repertoire as we see fit.

Kunni

"what of it? you can swap weapons as many times as you like it. you can set separate toolbars to different weapon sets. Its no big deal."

That's exactly my point... weapons swapping effectively gives you another 6 abilities to play with. Why would you need a screen full of buttons?

SirAndy

You get another 6 at level 15 when you unlock weapon swap.
In my experience, 12 slots is just about right ...
;-)

nerevarine1138

Brimsurfer wrote: »

With due respect, we will have more strategy and options if we had the whole repertoire available to us. Having six abilities at a time, severely restricts the strategy or strategy choices.

If its a design choice then its a bad design choice.

Give us a big customizable toolbar and let us use all abilities ......and like I said anyone who likes to play with only 6 abilities at a time, can slot only six abilities in that toolbar, but most of us would like to have freedom to use our skill repertoire as we see fit.

More options is not the same as more strategy.

Having only 12 (it's 12 with weapon swap) abilities at a time forces you to choose the best abilities for an upcoming fight. You don't end up with a giant wall of buttons where you only ever push 3-4 regularly. It's not about "liking" to play with a more limited set of abilities, it's about forcing you to make choices that matter.

Look at WoW. That's what they're trying to avoid. This way, there's no such thing as a "rotation," and it doesn't homogenize the builds.

Brimsurfer

Legitimacy of what I am asking is apparent in the answer of this question;

If we had the freedom of using the whole repertoire, of our skills, as we see fit. Would you still consciously restrict yourself to 6 abilities to give yourself a false sense of uniqueness?

If your answer to this question is 'No', then what I am asking is totally justified and makes complete sense.

Please remove this senseless restriction.

P.S. Btw every character would still be unique, even if they use same abilities, its inherent in every players' individual play style.

Auric_ESO

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

It has nothing to do with consoles.

It's to force you to use strategy in your loadouts and to help create unique builds. It prevents you from having a screen full of fancy looking abilities that you never use. It's a design choice, and it's a dead horse. Kindly stop beating it.

like neveravarine said its a design choice. With no CD and having to manage your pools and what skills you put on your bar and when those are slotted then earn xp for that skill line it becomes its own mini game, strategic decisions on what you slot for the game play you like best. Just because YOU dont like the design doesnt mean it should be changed.

nerevarine1138

Brimsurfer wrote: »

Legitimacy of what I am asking is apparent in this question;

If we had the freedom of using the whole repertoire, of our skills, as we see fit. Would you still consciously restrict yourself to 6 abilities to give yourself a false sense of uniqueness?

If the answer is No, then what I am asking is totally justified and makes complete sense.

Because if we had access to all abilities at the same time, we'd do exactly what I described above: use 5-6 regularly, and keep the others for special situations only.

The game is designed to limit you in order to force tactics. Period. It's not an artificial limitation just for fun or because consoles have fewer buttons. It forces you to make choices and make them count.

Auric_ESO

Brimsurfer wrote: »

Legitimacy of what I am asking is apparent in this question;

If we had the freedom of using the whole repertoire, of our skills, as we see fit. Would you still consciously restrict yourself to 6 abilities to give yourself a false sense of uniqueness?

If the answer is No, then what I am asking is totally justified and makes complete sense.

I see waht you are saying but we just disagree, I like the way it is, you dont.

nerevarine1138

Brimsurfer wrote: »

P.S. Btw every character would still be unique, even if they use same abilities, its inherent in every players' individual play style.

Just like every destro Warlock in WoW has a totally different rotation and ability loadout and... oh, hang on. Well, like every retribution Paladin has... well, now wait a moment. Ok, now every enhancement Shaman... dammit.

Brimsurfer

No one is forcing anyone (who likes the current design) to use more abilities. So if we have the ability to use all our skills at all times, people can still use 6 abilities and not a skill more, it will be totally up to you......just don't slot more abilities, leave the slots empty, restrict yourself, because that's how you like it.

Hell, you can use only 4 skills rather than 6, to make it even more unique and challenging experience for yourself. Use only 2 if you like and get a blast out of the game...... that'll make it even more unique and challenging. But I like all the skills to be available for use at any time , so i'll be able to use all, if this restriction is removed ...... and this is what freedom is.

Got my point?

SirAndy

Brimsurfer wrote: »

Got my point?

Yepp, got your point. You want ESO to be a "spam buttons until mob dies" kinda game with no need to use your brain and Talos forbid, any hint of applied tactics.
Got it!

nerevarine1138

Brimsurfer wrote: »

No one is forcing anyone (who likes the current design) to use more abilities. So if we have the ability to use all our skills at all times, people can still use 6 abilities and not a skill more, it will be totally up to you......just don't slot more abilities, leave the slots empty, restrict yourself, because that's how you like it.

Hell, you can use only 4 skills rather than 6, to make it even more unique and challenging experience for yourself. Use only 2 if you like and get a blast out of the game...... that'll make it even more unique and challenging. But I like all the skills to be available for use at any time , so i'll be able to use all, if this restriction is removed ...... and this is what freedom is.

Got my point?

Again, this is not about us wanting to artificially raise the difficulty level. The developers have designed a game where everyone (yes, even you) has to make smart tactical decisions about which abilities are on their bar before going to a fight.

This is not WoW; get over it.

Brimsurfer

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Brimsurfer wrote: »

P.S. Btw every character would still be unique, even if they use same abilities, its inherent in every players' individual play style.

Just like every destro Warlock in WoW has a totally different rotation and ability loadout and... oh, hang on. Well, like every retribution Paladin has... well, now wait a moment. Ok, now every enhancement Shaman... dammit.

And yet somehow a large population in WoW still fails at high level raid content and yet some excel at successfully clearing all the content and shine at everything what they do. Players are inherently different !!!

Characters are not unique, its the person who is controlling it. Your character having the same abilities as another character doesn't mean that you are the same as the other person controlling that other character. You will still do things significantly differently.

And mind you, having access to fewer abilities at a given time, will induce more similarities between different characters of the same class than differences.

MaxBat

I've never played WoW for any amount of time longer than it to me to be killed right off the bat, but this is Elder Scrolls Online, right? And in every single Elder Scrolls Game there was a limit on "hot keys." Most of them I think were eight.

So, look on the bright side: now, with weapon swap, we have 12!

PBpsy

It is specifically tailored to funnel everybody into using the same cookie-cutter builds they find on the cookie-cutter build sites so that the game is awesomely balanced and diverse. This is the same reason respecing cost so much. You should make sure that you go find the nice cookie cutter build figured out before you start the game otherwise you will have to speed a lot of gold and time changing into one.

So in short it is to make people strategize ,plan ahead and encourage build diversity.

nerevarine1138

Brimsurfer wrote: »

And yet somehow a large population in WoW still fails at high level raid content and yet some excel at successfully clearing all the content and shine at everything what they do. Players are inherently different !!!

Characters are not unique, its the person who is controlling it. Your character having the same abilities as another character doesn't mean that you are the same as the other person controlling that other character. You will still do things significantly differently.

And mind you, having access to fewer abilities at a given time, will induce more similarities between different characters of the same class than differences.

Yes, plenty of people have shown that they can't press 1, 2, 3 in order. That's not a "unique playstyle". Your ability choices in this game are what make you different, and you will already find that people are not homogenizing their builds instead of finding their own unique loadout that works for them.

gilgalahad1313

Simple answer is it makes you think and plan your encounters. If you know (just pulling an example out of my nethers) that you're fighting creatures immune to fire and you have skills that are fire based, you need to switch to cold or lightning. That applies to weapons as well as skills and magic. This isn't a game for people who couldn't be bothered to plan.

Crumpy

Answer = consoles. That surely is the only reason. I don't think it's for tactical play like some people seem to think.

Brimsurfer

having access to fewer skills at a time will lead to more similarities among the characters than differences. In five months time we'll all be playing the same character, with fewer options.

Its kinda like having two arms but using only one, having two legs but using only one. This restriction is unreal, I feel handicapped.

People defended GW2 when it came out, for its design choices and the same people quit the game in less than a month.

Remove this artificial restriction, allow us to play the game the way we want to play it. Give us the freedom that you promised in pre-launch interviews!!

And then if someone wants to use fewer abilities, they can just do it in their own game.

nerevarine1138

Crumpy wrote: »

Answer = consoles. That surely is the only reason. I don't think it's tactical like some people seem to think.

Oh yeah, remember how Guild Wars 2 was a console release?

Limited action bars are not a new concept.

Gwarok

Brimsurfer wrote: »

We should be able to use as many abilities as we like (just like some of the other major MMOs out there).

Anything more than a mouth and a handful is such a waste.

Crumpy

This is what I tell my girlfriend!

nerevarine1138

Brimsurfer wrote: »

having access to fewer skills at a time will lead to more similarities among the characters than differences. In five months time we'll all be playing the same character, with fewer options.

Its kinda like having two arms but using only one, having two legs but using only one. This restriction is unreal, I feel handicapped.

People defended GW2 when it came out, for its design choices and the same people quit the game in less than a month.

Remove this artificial restriction, allow us to play the game the way we want to play it. Give us the freedom that you promised in pre-launch interviews!!

And then if someone wants to use fewer abilities, they can just do it in their own game.

Well, the game was in a private beta for months, and builds didn't become homogenized.

WoW, on the other hand, has every character of the same build/class using exactly the same rotation.

Brimsurfer

Crumpy wrote: »

This is what I tell my girlfriend!

In this scenario I think more is always better

PBpsy

Brimsurfer wrote: »

having access to fewer skills at a time will lead to more similarities among the characters than differences. In five months time we'll all be playing the same character, with fewer options.

Exactly.Most people will always go for the most viable build and will tend to stay there. People do not like change and once they find something that works well in many situations will stick to it especially if experimentation is difficult or punishing. I have personally didn't change my build in 20 levels. Even though i would like to try some other stuff I don't since my build would simply not work as well. I also see the same builds all over the place.

The fact that once a couple of levels there is one boss for which i have to change one my damage abilities for a heal or DOT Is not much tactics in my opinion.