You can see the radius in your skills/abilities tooltip, if that's what you're asking

"Allies" almost/always(?) includes yourself as well, with the exception that you can't trigger synergies off your own powers.

Nearby players is a 10m radius for my healing abilities anyway as a templar not sure if that's the same for the rest.

Hope this helps...

The following observations from my experience with many games like TESO may be of interest and use to you. The terms and rules that I describe are so common that I consider them conventional, the "default" when nothing to the contrary is disclosed by the game developers. Note that the following remarks apply to healing spells, too. Just substitute the word "healing" for "damage" in the statements.

(1) Customarily, "melee range" is 5 meters. It is the maximum distance between two characters over which a melee weapon can be used for an attack by one upon the other.

If a spell can be cast, or an ability can be used, upon a character beyond melee range, then its maximum range is always disclosed in its tooltip, such as 10 meters or 25 meters, etc. In TESO, the minimum range is effectively zero for every spell that has a maximum range.

(2) Most attacks affect only a single target chosen by the player. However, many spells and abilities have an "area of effect" (AoE). A spell, ability, or event that has an AoE can simultaneously affect more than one character, i.e., any character(s) which are present in the AoE while that AoE exists.

Referring to "nearby" enemies and/or allies ordinarily implies a spell, an ability, or an event which has an AoE. In that context, a "nearby" enemy or ally is within melee range of the center-point of an AoE (the center-point can be the character which cast the spell or used the ability).

For some such spells, the AoE is a circle, or perhaps a sphere. The radius of a circular or spherical area-of-effect is usually disclosed by its tooltip as a specific distance, such as 6 meters or 10 meters, etc. When a radius is not specifically disclosed, the implied radius is within melee range of the AoE center-point.

For other such spells, the AoE may be a square or rectangle. The specific dimensions of the area, such as 10 meters x 20 meters, etc. are disclosed by the tooltip. For some of these spells, the area always has one edge parallel to, and adjacent to, the space which the caster occupies, and is in the direction the caster is facing when the spell is cast.

(3) All damage inflicted by an AoE spell or ability may occur immediately. Usually damage is divided equally among all of the intended recipients that are within the AoE. If not, then the tooltip should disclose the amount applied to the principal target and the remaining amount that is divided equally among any others. However, if there is only one character within the AoE, then that character receives all of the damage which the spell can inflict.

(4) Alternatively, an amount of damage inflicted within an AoE may occur initially, then the same or a reduced amount of damage is inflicted at repeated intervals over a specified span of time. If so, the tooltip should also disclose the initial amount inflicted when the spell is cast, and disclose the amount inflicted at each interval, such as 0.5 seconds, until its duration expires.

.... TESO tooltips for AoE spells and abilities usually disclose the total damage which will be inflicted after the initial amount, and the interval of time afterward. So, the player must divide the total duration of the AoE by the amount of time for each interval to determine the number of times that ensuing damage is inflicted. Then divide the total inflicted over time by the number of times to get the amount per interval -- if it matters.

(5) Note that a spell or ability which affects only one character, i.e., its target, might inflict some damage immediately, followed by more damage at specified intervals of time until the duration of the attack ends.

(6) If the caster is the required target for a spell or ability (the target is "Self"), then there might be an AoE, for which the radius and duration, etc., are disclosed. Again, "nearby" enemies and/or allies are those within melee range, unless a different radius is disclosed for the AoE. Also note that, without a minimum range, the caster can be the center-point of the AoE for any spell that has a maximum range, but the caster will not be damaged by it.


One ambiguity in TESO tooltips is that the text states the amount of damage that is done in the AoE, but does not state whether (1) it is the total amount of damage, divided among all the affected characters, or (2) it is the amount of damage done to each character while it is in the AoE. Ordinarily, the player can only determine which of these two interpretations is in effect for a specific spell by observing what happens to the target(s) after it is cast, as follows:

(a) For the first case, each character in the area receives the stated amount of damage, but only once.

(b) For the second case, the specified amount of damage is inflicted on each character that is present, each time that damage occurs during the duration of the spell's AoE. So, a character can move out of the AoE to avoid further damage after suffering damage once, when the AoE initially took effect.

Shadowshire wrote: »

(1) Customarily, "melee range" is 5 meters. It is the maximum distance between two characters over which a melee weapon can be used for an attack by one upon the other.

If a spell or ability can be cast upon a character beyond melee range, then the maximum range is always disclosed in its tooltip, such as 10 meters or 25 meters, etc. In TESO, the minimum range is zero for every spell that has a maximum range.

Not completely true, for many passives and set procs (stamina) skills with a maximum range of 8m and all charges are considered melee. Every single target skill with a maximum range of more than 8m is considered a projectile.
Charges often have a minimum and maximum distance.

(2) Referring to "nearby" enemies and/or allies implies a spell, an ability, or an event which has an "area of effect" (AoE).

The radius of the area-of-effect (AoE) for a spell or ability that can simultaneously affect more than one foe is usually disclosed in its tooltip as a specific distance, such as 6 meters or 10 meters, etc.

When an AoE radius is not specifically disclosed, the implied radius is within melee range of the target. Note that usually the target for an AoE spell may be either simply a point on the ground, or a specific character.

There are some exceptions from this. The minor brutality buff from dks has no range stated in the discription, but you'll also get it when the dk is further away from you.

Kozai wrote: »

By "total amount of damage divided among all the affected characters" do you mean something like a tooltip saying an AoE does 5000 damage, so if there are 5 foes in it, each takes 1000 damage? I had never heard of AoEs working like that in a game, but I suppose it is possible. Or, from your example, do you refer to damage that repeats, say 5000 each 2 seconds, and by moving out of the AoE area after the first pulse, you may or may not still take the repeated damage?

If your aoe skill hits more than 6 targets, the damage will be reduced. 6 targets will get the full damage, 24 targets will take 50% of the damage and 30 targets will take 25% of the damage. Additionally secondary effects will only be applied to 6 targets.

I think "nearby allies" always means whatever allies light up in your group display. That has always seemed to work. It seems like 5m/15ft is about right and this is separate from your detection radius, I believe. Some abilities have a hard-set radius that can be expanded through morphing.. That's when it gets tricky.

I'm curious just how far an ally can be for them to be near. I've noticed line of sight has an impact at times too. That's some funky-monkey business right durr!

tony.augeb14_ESO wrote: »

From ZOS: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/235446/campaign-performance/p1

We have been making changes to abilities bit by bit to save calculation cycles on the server. Using the example of Hemorrhage, this ability would check an area around the size of a 2700 meter circle around the Nightblade which critically hit. The Hemorrhage ability would then apply a bonus (minor Savagery) to all allies in that area.

"All allies" can be 1 ally or 100 allies, but the ability system first needs to get ALL the entities in that area first...monsters, players, siege weapons, friend and foe, then sort that list out to find allies, then apply the bonus to them. Changing the ability to Group only cuts out a lot of sorting the server would have to do. That change has helped a little bit, but not a ton, so obviously we're still digging.

That circle of 2700 meter is actually a nice example of what kind of nonsense key data can hang on in a system if you do not structure an inbuild transparency.

This happens not only in software, but is also clogging and fogging normal bureaucratic company systems (red tape, quality handbooks, financial risk procedures). The overwhelming complexity of data & info made possible by big computer systems only makes this worse.


I very much doubt that many precise questions, that cannot be answered by the current tooltip, can also not readily, if at all, be answered by responsible employees of ZOS. And that is no shame IMHO !

The preventive action, the purifying principle is: "You see what you get & you get what you see"

For ESO:What would/could that mean ?

1. For the users: Tell on the tooltip in concise and simple wording what an ability does
2. For the users & the devs: Enable an expansion button on that tooltip, to mine down into an ability spec sheet
3. devs may talk about an ability only referring to that ability spec sheet, the master document that binds all.
4. For the coding people: The spec sheet is the top document of the internal ability coding sheet and coding people have to code accordingly.
5. For the testing people: they have to check if what has been coded is indeed what has been specified
6. Quality: they have to guard and assure that this process is adhered to.

If that 2700 meter would have been mentioned on such an ability spec sheet, where it belongs..... it would have been spotted in a very early stage, just by the principle of transparency & mining down.

Besides insufficient transpareny of tooltips, we need a Glossary. A glossary that makes toplevel glossary words in the tooltips fully consistent with the actual behaviour described in all the ability spec sheets.
An action to do this and clean up the tooltips can only be done AFTER you have these spec sheets....

and all what I said was not to teach or preach or shame ZOS !
We are improving and maturing

my 2 cents

To add to the vaguery, there are some tooltips that don't even bother saying nearby, yet include a radius.1 The effect from 2-piece Nerien'eth has a teeny tiny radius, and the mob basically has to stand still from time of proc to get the effect. However, the tooltip reads "create a Lich crystal that explodes after 3 seconds, dealing 7408 Magic Damage." No direct indication that the effect is location based.