Do character classes ruin this game?

Cladius30 · October 2014

I truly think that character classes ruin this game. Why not just be a character and develop what skills and abilities you want to without having to be in a class. Yes you can do this to an extent but you are still stuck with your class abilities you are forced to build to level with the game content.

Leeric · October 2014

Nope. If this was the case then every eso game and mmo that has this system in place would be "ruining the game"

Halorin · October 2014

Ruin would be a strong word, but I think they are unnecessarily restrictive in the skill-based design they've worked towards. I think once spellcrafting comes out classes will be pretty moot, and it will become apparent that the four classes introduced were a short-sighted design that went about giving people a template the wrong way.

They could have made skill path suggestions and called those builds archetypes, much in the way Champions Online has 'classes' but allows for customization.

Inversus · October 2014

No, why would it ruin the game? Each class has a wide range of abilities and each can be built in various ways, I wouldn't say your class really restricts you.
It also means more variation in opponents in pvp and your own team in both pvp and pve.

Furthermore spellcrafting comes out soon, so this should fill some customisation gaps, if you consider there to be some.

Halorin wrote: »

I think once spellcrafting comes out classes will be pretty moot, and it will become apparent that the four classes introduced were a short-sighted design that went about giving people a template the wrong way.

Although there are occasional balance issues, classes don't really give you a template - each hold a variety of abilities which allow each class to be built in various different ways.
Furthermore I highly doubt spellcrafting will render classes 'moot', it will allow for further customisation however there will still be unique abilities in each class that I'm sure will still be essential.

Stx · October 2014

I would have preferred there not be any classes.

Instead of having class skill trees, we could have had weapon skill trees, armor, guild, magic schools, temple, faction trees, etc.

So instead of shadow/siphoning, we could have illusion/dark destruction trees. Instead of the sorc trees, we could have conjuration/destruction.. instead of templar trees, we could have restoration tree, temple of the divines tree, etc.

Honestly if they just took the list of skills from Morrowind and made them all into skill trees, then let us choose and fill them out in the same method we do currently, I think this game would be a lot better.

But to be fair, I do think the classes all have cool skills, which all fit into TES schools of magic(Dragon Knight is the exception, not sure why the hell they made that a primary class).

Evergnar · October 2014

Classes are a good thing but they are a bit lackluster currently. I'd rather see them tweak the current class abilities and continue to add non class abilities and passives that everybody can use (which from the sound of it that is their plan).

Tandor · October 2014

No.

R1ckyDaMan · October 2014

Abilities ruin the game for me more than classes, classes are in other tes games but mainly provide only passives.

But I hate having to play using a skill bar because normal sword attacks etc are plain rubbish.

MikeBob · October 2014

I don't think character classes ruin ESO.

While I tend to stick with 'traditional' archetypes/classes as much as possible with the toons I develop (call me old fashioned), I believe there's plenty enough flexibility in ESO classes to allow for most folks to get their creativity on - to a greater extent, in fact, than in most of the other games I've played.

ers101284b14_ESO · October 2014

No. They give you a good starting point but that's it.

Soloeus · October 2014

It would be cool to create a new class option:

1. All Classes have 3 Skill Lines.
2. Custom Class, thus has 3 lines.
3. The player will choose the 3 lines.

Question, would this be good or bad overall for the game?

Tamanous · October 2014

It would be 10 times worse if this were fully open skill. Every single min/max player would be running the exact same build in pve and the exact same build (or 2) in pvp. Seen it in every single open skill game I have ever played.

AlexDougherty · October 2014

Soloeus wrote: »

It would be cool to create a new class option:

1. All Classes have 3 Skill Lines.
2. Custom Class, thus has 3 lines.
3. The player will choose the 3 lines.

Question, would this be good or bad overall for the game?

Bad, at the minute the classes are balanced, but if people choose 3 skill lines, then they can create a class that unbalances the game.

PS. I like the games classes, they add a flavour to the skills you learn, and you can always ignore the class entirely and just use Weapon/Armour/Guild skills.

Inversus · October 2014

Soloeus wrote: »

It would be cool to create a new class option:

1. All Classes have 3 Skill Lines.
2. Custom Class, thus has 3 lines.
3. The player will choose the 3 lines.

Question, would this be good or bad overall for the game?

Every single person on the game would be a dksorc
my gosh

Also it would remove the interest of the classes and they'd really have to completely redo the skill lines, and the idea of the class skill lines, or it would be completely unbalanced - the end result would most likely be quite boring

dodgehopper_ESO · October 2014

I'm not going to say it ruins the game, but I would like to see the walls between classes knocked down. Everyone who played the previous 3 tes games knows you started out as a class which laid down the framework of your initial playstyle, but it did not mean you would always have to be that way. A Crusader (what I would consider a good template for Templar) started out one way, but could certainly end up as a wizard by end game if you wanted to.

eNumbra · October 2014

What Alex and inversus both said; the ability to go full custom like Skyrim allowed you to would imbalance this game heavily to a sort of DkSorc combo.

Elder scrolls class system wasn't always as loose as skyrim, which lacked classes altogether, Oblivion's classes had major and minor skills and Morrowind had major, minor and non-level able skills for every class.

Being able to essentially take the best of every class works in a single player game just fine, not so much in an MMO environment.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO · October 2014

To many abilities are superior to others. I feel it was a free for all, everyone in PvP would be using the same skills= lame. Limitations can be good, its just perameters to be creative with. The last thing this game needs is every player having access reflective scale, blazing shield, streak and cloak.

Shaun98ca2 · October 2014

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

I'm not going to say it ruins the game, but I would like to see the walls between classes knocked down. Everyone who played the previous 3 tes games knows you started out as a class which laid down the framework of your initial playstyle, but it did not mean you would always have to be that way. A Crusader (what I would consider a good template for Templar) started out one way, but could certainly end up as a wizard by end game if you wanted to.

This is essentially what we have. A Starting Template that adds flavor to how you play but does NOT dictate HOW to play.

You NightBlade can be caster with LA and a Staff casting Fireballs and Meteors or a HA Sword and Shield tank hold the front line.

Once Spellcrafting is released you stepping even further away from classes essentially making the chosen class moot as you can step even further away from the classes ability tree to create your build.

What the Template does for us really though is new players have a starting point. With that starting point its KINDA hard to make a bad build with the class abilities(obviously not impossible). It also helps further to make your character feel unique.