A New Weapon For ESO "The Arcane Staff"

gilthief · April 2015

The arcane staff is a utility/support magicka based weapon for mages. I mainly had pvp in mind when i came up with the idea for this weapon but still a good addition for pve. Here are the five skills i haven't really given much thought for the morphs however so more ideas are needed same goes for the passives.

DETECT LIFE - instead of a buff like in previous elder scrolls games its a debuff that allows only the caster to see and target invisible enemies it should only last a short duration as to not completely prevent night blades invisibility but still balances out the almost perma invisible night blades in cyrodil ( a little side note pve needs more invisible/stealthy enemies especially if this skill or a skill like this is to be added)

MYSTIC SWAP - this skill simply swaps the location of the caster and their target. like vampires and their drain/feeding skill it cannot be cast on a target who has been targeted by this skill within around 10 seconds. This skill can be used to support allies to get nasty enemies away from them or offensively to force an enemy into your aoe fields e.g. fire rune, wall of elements.

MAGICKA TRANSFER - trade a small portion of your magicka and grant it to the ally within the area around you with the lowest amount of magicka. the amount of magicka your character loses should be minimal and the ally should receive at least double the amount of magicka your character lost. this goes well for someone with a high magicka pool to help healers and tanks to simply heal and tank for longer.

ARCANE GUARDIAN - a support skill that i think should be a toggle buff that causes the casters allies in the area around you to receive 20% less damage but the damage that is reduced is transferred to the caster and then halved ( for example if your ally receives 1000 damage they will only get 800 damage dealt to them and you would receive 100 damage) perfect for tanky spell casters who want to play a support role.

ARCANE TURRET - summons a small immobilized construct for lets say 15 seconds (kind of like the storm atronach) that each second will damage enemies at random with magic missiles enemies in the area of the turret will also have their magicka slowly drained. A good addition for sorcerer minion masters or for an anti magic skill

i really hope this get through to someone at zos so this weapon or a weapon like this is added to the game

TheShadowScout · April 2015

Personally I would much rather have different weapon choices for restoration/destruction magic then the old staves...

I'd love to have my sorceror cast his destro spells from some sort of focus instead of him having to lug a big ole staff around! I would like to see my templar herler cast her healing with a raised holy symbol instead a big pole! Or maybe have an option for a small wand instead... (D&D had those long before Harry Potter)
Of course... that would mean we'd need something to craft those foci, and this would be prefect for jewlery crafting, which sadly... isn't in the game at this time.

And then... I'd want more staff (and wand, and focus) flavors... remember all the staff effects you see in the game, but cannot use yourself? The "coldfire" of a necromancer, the "dark-purple" of a hedge witch/wizard, the red-black of an illusionist or Abner Tharn... why can't we have staves (wands/foci) like that too?

And come to think of it... there are some skills to go with those we don't have either, I think. The area-attack spell you see from some pyromancers (twin balls of fire that arc to an area and leave burning patches) or hedge witches (purple ball of energy that explodes on impact and shoots out some side attacks)? Or the cryomancer defensive ice wall?

pecheckler · April 2015

It may seem unoriginal, but sceptor. Could use it offhand with 1h weapon, or as primary, with shield or an additive effect offhand magicka item (spell book or orb or something similar).

Erotes · April 2015

I love the spell ideas you have but please for the love of all that is elder scrolls no more magic staves!! Magic (including the existing restoration and destruction) should be spell skill lines and not involve staves. Staff weapons should be blunt melee pole arms. Your spells should be in their respective magic school skill trees, like illusion or alteration.

I really really hope ZOS reworks the way magic works in this game when spell crafting comes out. we need the old schools of magic as individual skill lines. In order to prevent everyone from selecting BIS skills from specific spell skill trees, they should each require a large amount of skill points so it becomes a real investment for players who really want to master a certain school.

Chuggernaut · April 2015

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Personally I would much rather have different weapon choices for restoration/destruction magic then the old staves...

I'd love to have my sorceror cast his destro spells from some sort of focus instead of him having to lug a big ole staff around! I would like to see my templar herler cast her healing with a raised holy symbol instead a big pole! Or maybe have an option for a small wand instead... (D&D had those long before Harry Potter)
Of course... that would mean we'd need something to craft those foci, and this would be prefect for jewlery crafting, which sadly... isn't in the game at this time.

And then... I'd want more staff (and wand, and focus) flavors... remember all the staff effects you see in the game, but cannot use yourself? The "coldfire" of a necromancer, the "dark-purple" of a hedge witch/wizard, the red-black of an illusionist or Abner Tharn... why can't we have staves (wands/foci) like that too?

And come to think of it... there are some skills to go with those we don't have either, I think. The area-attack spell you see from some pyromancers (twin balls of fire that arc to an area and leave burning patches) or hedge witches (purple ball of energy that explodes on impact and shoots out some side attacks)? Or the cryomancer defensive ice wall?

I requested Lightening/Fire/Ice/Restore gloves to be added to the game as a craftable for the clother, to give them a weapon and I got flamed and told to go play Fable... If Spellcrafting is really not being working on anymore they need to add something else than staffs for elemental magic.

Erotes · April 2015

Spell rafting was put On a Back burner but I'm sure it is still coming...of course this is all speculation.

Anvos · April 2015

I'd say spear and crossbow should come before exploring something like an alteration or illusion staff.

TheShadowScout · April 2015

I'd want a spear/polearm skill line and crossbows added to the bow skills before my destruction/restoration magic ideas too.

Oh, and while we're at it, flails would be nifty to swing at your enemy, while slings (special attacks with alchemical "bullets" maybe?) would be a nice traditional ranged weapon too...

An unarmed skill line would be great too, though I for one would want that one to be at best half as effective as any "real weapon" skill line - to be used only for flavor, barroom brawns and the occasional arena champoinship fight...

But this thread is about the arcane tools of the trade, isn't it, and not all the others...

So... yes, it would have been nice if all the destruction and restoration spells were in their own skill line to be taken as wanted. But that's not how they set up the game, sadly, they bound them to staves since they went with the "class skill lines" model.
So in that spirit... I just want more visual options, which would require a lot less coding and playtesting then adding completely new stuff.
Like the other weapon lines have choices between swords, axes and maces for peoples visual preference, I too would like to have staves, wands and foci to make my spellcasters a little more diverse in style. The rest of the things I mentioned would be nice, but its the lack of varietee with the "every destruction caster / healer must carry a big staff" that vexes me most...

Seraphyel · April 2015

pecheckler wrote: »

It may seem unoriginal, but sceptor. Could use it offhand with 1h weapon, or as primary, with shield or an additive effect offhand magicka item (spell book or orb or something similar).

I like the idea. And I really like your idea.

ESO is missing a) Magical weapons and b) healer weapons (weapons is weapons + skill lines here).