New to elder scrolls. Need some regarding the mechanics in general

TrickyTrifecta · August 2015

I've done my research and it is still a bit confusing. So hopefully someone can point me in the right direction or provide some basic knowledge.

I'm a dark elf sorcerer. Level 22.

I really like 5 of the moves and use them almost exclusively: Crystal Fragments, Velocious Curse, Endless Fury, Boundless Storm, and Overload. I have others (wall of elements, encase, grand healing, unstable clannfear), but I barely use them compared to these 5 moves.

My thinking so far has been to center on these moves, not wasting any skill points on trying other moves (I've alread respec'd once to get rid of some moves I didn't use) and instead use those points towards passives and buffs. I have purchased Mage's light and morphed it to Inner light and I've purchased Surge (just unlocked). I have both buffs slotted on all 3 bars.

My questions:

1. Which abilities will Inner Light increase? Basically every move that uses magicka? What about Overload? Any impact?

2. Which abilities will Surge increase? Just standard strong and quick attacks coming from my destruction staff? Or, will it also work with Wall of Elements and other active abilities tied to the destruction staff? Will it increase the power of the Overload ultimate?

3. Will these 2 synergize in any way for the Overload ultimate? Overload is in the Storm Calling tree, so I assume it behaves like a spell. However, it is a substitute for a weapon, so does it also behave as a weapon? (I'm trying to determine what works and what doesn't work on my 3rd ability bar when overload is activated)

4. Can someone please point me in the direction of a good comprehensive combat reference for the elder scrolls universe? I have no idea what Crit% is for instance.

Johngo0036 · August 2015

Hi,

question 1: Yes it increases all magicka damage as it also increases you max Magicka
question 2: All heavy and light attacks, NOT any skills(Rather use structured Entropy from the mages guild)
Question3: it counts as a heavy or light attack, therefore surge should increase it, as would magelight and structured entropy
Question4: this is the most difficult question to answer as there are some in these forums that i have read but made no sense to me,

pepperybrine · August 2015

4. I think it is how much of your strikes are crits, crits do extra damage, so if I have a crit% of 20, 20% of my hits are crits

TrickyTrifecta · August 2015

Ok so overload is magicka based? Even though it doesn't utilize my magicka?

Is it perhaps that it is magicka based but utilizes the ultimate bar instead?

I appreciate the responses. And if anyone knows of a good online reference to the technical details of combat and stats in eso that would be awesome. If there isn't one, there should be!

leepalmer95 · August 2015

TrickyTrifecta wrote: »

Ok so overload is magicka based? Even though it doesn't utilize my magicka?

Is it perhaps that it is magicka based but utilizes the ultimate bar instead?

I appreciate the responses. And if anyone knows of a good online reference to the technical details of combat and stats in eso that would be awesome. If there isn't one, there should be!

Any magicka skills or staff line skills dmg is based of your maximum magicka + your spell power, so increasing them both increases your dmg with those skills and weapons.

The opposite is true for stamina skills and stamina based weapons such a bows, 2 handed, sword and shield, dual wield etc... there dmg is based of max stamina + weapon power.

Now theres two crit chances, weapon crit and spell crit, its the same again all magicka based skills + staff use spell crit, and all stamina based skills + the weapons use weapon crit.

The only thing that ignores this is ultimates, so make the game more balanced and to make sure popular ultimates aren't restricted to one type of build ultimates scale of whatever is the highest, so if you magicka, spell power and crit is higher it'll scale of that, similarly if your stamina, weapon power and weapon crit is higher it will scale off that.

It's why ultimates such a soul strike, meteor and dawnbreaker still do higher dmg whether a stamina build uses them or a magicka does because they scale of a the higher stat. Despite dawnbreaker, soul assault and meteor doing magic dmg.