I think morphs should be relooked at still........

Nicholaii · January 2017

I have read a lot of different forums already in regards to morphs and why they should add a second level to morphing and why they shouldn’t. I know that there was some forums about class morphs and other ideas of morphing so I thought I would share my own ideas on skill morphs. For me I think the morphs should be completely revamped to begin with. (Yes I know how much work the Devs would have to do, and I know it would probably happen, but I just wanted to see if others shared my same thoughts or not. So my idea for morphs is this:

First I think the 1st Tier Morphs should change to where you can morph most of your abilities including weapons (I’ll get to that later) for either Magicka or Stamina. (Now before some people roll their eyes, I ask you please keep reading to see why). So for this reason I think that a lot of abilities could add a lot of personalization and customization to each player more so than it does now which would then leads into what the 2nd Tier Morphs would be. And if the abilities can’t or should absolutely not be morphed to stamina from magicka then the ability would lean more between morphing it as a PVP or PVE ability.

Now for the 2nd Tier Morph: For all magicka abilities I think each abilities should give the option to morph them to either proc Fire, Frost, Shock, or Magic Damage; and have the abilities colors and possibly animations change for each different type of damage output. My example of this are as follows:

Dragon Knight flame whip – Morph to lightning whip, ice whip or flame whip that does X amount of specific magic damage and heals X amount over X seconds. (something like that)

Sorcerers summon Atronach – Morph to summon Storm Atronach, Fire Atronach, Frost Atronach, or Air Atronach (Magic Damage)

I mainly think of Sorcerers and Dragon Knights because I think this is where you could really get a lot of variance in how people play their characters. For some abilities I know that it wouldn’t make sense or work to change it from Magic, Frost, Fire, or Shock damage. So for these abilities it would just change maybe the mechanics around a little bit. My only reasoning for wanting to be able to add additional morphing to change the damage type only because honestly Sorcerers should be able to be the masters of the elements and use a plethora of different types of magic output and I really thinking Daedric Summoning could be a lot better and diversified then what it is now. I also think Dragon Knights themselves should be more than just either fire or poison. I think their abilities could be like how in Skyrim (I know this is an MMO and not Skyrim so please bear with me.) But in Skyrim the dragons were not just fire or poison but there were also frost dragons and lightning dragons as wells. I think it could definitely be lore friendly.

So now for the stamina morphs: I feel as though if we did this Magicka users would have a large variety of customization and there would be a lot of different builds going around than just the usual builds, but where does this leave stamina users?. Well for this reason I think that if you are able or choose to morph an ability to stamina the 2nd Tier Morph should then be a choice of:

A heavy physical attack, a lower poison attack and a long poison over time, or a medium physical attack with a mild bleeding effect in the end. I think this would diversify a lot of what stamina uses like so if you are a poison buff you have options for you, if you are a heavy hitter, you have options for you as well.

I think this would also go good with stamina weapon abilities as well. (Granted I love brawl with its damage shield, simply because I use it all the time to solo group bosses and what not) but I do think that this is what the abilities need to be in order to morph them.

Now I know that some abilities can’t just always be frost, fire, or shock damage and I understand that completely so I’m sure there could be some abilities that would just change the mechanics such as:

Nightblade Summon Shade – 1st Tier Morph Magicka Shade or Stamina Animal Companion: Magicka 2nd Tier Morph options could be summon multiple shades or an archer shade as it is already) (Stamina 2nd Tier Morph options would be to change the animal companion to bear, wolf or such)

Sorcerers Summon Clannifer – 1st Tier Morph Magicka Clannifer or Stamina Spriggan: (Magicka 2nd Tier Morph options could be change Clannifer Abilities) (Stamina Options could be that it heals you or attacks for you)

Dragon Knight Stonefist – 1st Tier Morph Magicka or Stamina Morph: (Magicka 2nd Tier Morph is similar to how it is now either heavy hit or heals) (Stamina options could be that it hits heavy physically or hits medium damage while heals you) *(I know that some are thinking how does that work for stamina to heal you but if you have ever been in the Military then you have heard the term “rub some dirt on it” when you get hurt, also I really think regardless this should be a stamina ability because I have seen Trolls grab boulders out of the ground and throw them at me and I’m pretty sure they aren’t all that much into Magicka, just saying)

Lastly (Thank you for reading this through I’m sorry it is so long) for weapons abilities I mentioned adding a Magicka morph to them as well. Now I know that a lot of people wouldn’t like this as how can you make a weapon magicka it is all physical and I completely agree, however for some that love to be in close quarters fighting but love using magicka I think that ZOS should be able to incorporate if that the ability morphs into Magicka, that their passives can be switched to benefit whatever pool is higher either magicka or Stamina so that if you want to be a Magicka Two Hander then it won’t hinder you in your damage output, and you aren’t limited to having to have a destructive staff because they benefit magicka users more.

I understand that my ideas aren’t perfect but for me when I play I love seeing different players playing different builds and still being able to enjoy themselves. I’m not asking for every ability to be the same or nerf every ability that all classes have but to simply make it more to fit personally into what each character/race/or class is. This I think would make it more diversified and allow players to continue to learn their class all over again, and I would be really cool to see the different builds people could come up with. And if anything I could easily see 2nd Tier Morphing used as a more of a cosmetic change than an actual ability change, if people are too worried about the balancing issues. Which I can understand, anyways that was my thoughts, I would love to hear what other players think if this would happen. Again sorry for the long thought. Sorry Templars I didn’t include you at all, I haven’t really played a Templar to think about what morphs should change with them.

andreasranasen · January 2017

Always appreciate new and fresh ideas. The Spriggan summon for stam sorcs sounds dope.

SameMeteor26 · January 2017

I agree with the statement that there should be a choice of a stamina or magicka morph.

davey1107 · January 2017

Lots of good ideas here. ZoS probably can't make a sweeping change like this, but they could start to move a little in this direction.

One slightly less labor intensive change might be adding a third morph to abilities. If this were done, I would suggest that the designers be required to offer a resource alternative morph for any ability that currently has two morphs running off stam/mag. Sure, there's a logic to having snipe morph into two stamina abilities, but a magic bow shot that runs off magika isn't that ludicrous.

One reason I'd like this done is that I have characters that feel boxed in by being a magic/stamina build, like my stam sorc. Most of his class skills are out, so he feels more cookie cutter than I'd like. And I find myself wanting a few more class skills for my stam Templar.

Nicholaii · January 2017

That's exactly what I would like to see, I know this would be a lot of work to change the morphing abilities around but even just adding more morphs would be a step in the direction. I love see different combinations of skills and abilities used for play which adds so much more depth to ESO. Magic weapon abilities could be something that adds more diversity in weapons choice for classes.

TheShadowScout · January 2017

I think the idea of morphing everything to either stamina or magica is a foolish thing. it makes no sense whatsoever, only caters to the min/maxxer crowd who want the extra effectiveness.

I mean, stamina represents brawny musclepower, and magica represents mystical mindpower... now show me where mystical mindpower makes you swing an axe harder or brawny musclepower makes you cast bigger spells!

This is especially true for weapon skills - I would much rather see them work on ways to make balanced builds viable again (like, say... adding a "diminishing returns" scaling to attribute points as well, so people who put all their points in one stat would not be getting as much return from it... thus giving one who has Everything in stamina only a, say, 30% advantage over someone who has balanced their stats equally over all three stats, thus making the balanced build competetive since that one would also have the other stat and health to put against the higher damage of the pure stamina build - right now, the gap is far larger)
And of course, also add more weapon skills: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/259011/additional-weapon-skill-ideas/p1 - so people can have more fun with those!

Now, back to skills in both morphs... sure, -some- class skills are kinda in between, a mix of magic and muscle (like, summoning a magical weapon and then striking your opponent with it, red daggers, holy spears, burning whips, whatever) - those I think truly deserved the option of a stamina morph... but not the purely magical spells, nor would the brawn-powered weapon lines deserve a magica morph.

The "morph for a different flavor" thing is also something I am not so keen on; I'd much rather see more skill lines (or skills added to existing skill lines) instead... want to summon a flame atronatch? Add a extra skill for it somewhere.

But then I would say this, seeing how I often mention my desire for additional class skill lines: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/240186/class-morph-idea/p1
Additionally, adding more morphs to existing abilities may be more of a hassle to code then just adding new skill lines, so... more effort for ZOS, and less return, since they can not as easily be locked behind a DLC (and lets face it, they will want to see some extra profit if they go and do some extra work)

The_Protagonist · January 2017

Nicholaii wrote: »

I have read a lot of different forums already in regards to morphs and why they should add a second level to morphing and why they shouldn’t. I know that there was some forums about class morphs and other ideas of morphing so I thought I would share my own ideas on skill morphs. For me I think the morphs should be completely revamped to begin with. (Yes I know how much work the Devs would have to do, and I know it would probably happen, but I just wanted to see if others shared my same thoughts or not. So my idea for morphs is this:

First I think the 1st Tier Morphs should change to where you can morph most of your abilities including weapons (I’ll get to that later) for either Magicka or Stamina. (Now before some people roll their eyes, I ask you please keep reading to see why). So for this reason I think that a lot of abilities could add a lot of personalization and customization to each player more so than it does now which would then leads into what the 2nd Tier Morphs would be. And if the abilities can’t or should absolutely not be morphed to stamina from magicka then the ability would lean more between morphing it as a PVP or PVE ability.

Now for the 2nd Tier Morph: For all magicka abilities I think each abilities should give the option to morph them to either proc Fire, Frost, Shock, or Magic Damage; and have the abilities colors and possibly animations change for each different type of damage output. My example of this are as follows:

Dragon Knight flame whip – Morph to lightning whip, ice whip or flame whip that does X amount of specific magic damage and heals X amount over X seconds. (something like that)

Sorcerers summon Atronach – Morph to summon Storm Atronach, Fire Atronach, Frost Atronach, or Air Atronach (Magic Damage)

I mainly think of Sorcerers and Dragon Knights because I think this is where you could really get a lot of variance in how people play their characters. For some abilities I know that it wouldn’t make sense or work to change it from Magic, Frost, Fire, or Shock damage. So for these abilities it would just change maybe the mechanics around a little bit. My only reasoning for wanting to be able to add additional morphing to change the damage type only because honestly Sorcerers should be able to be the masters of the elements and use a plethora of different types of magic output and I really thinking Daedric Summoning could be a lot better and diversified then what it is now. I also think Dragon Knights themselves should be more than just either fire or poison. I think their abilities could be like how in Skyrim (I know this is an MMO and not Skyrim so please bear with me.) But in Skyrim the dragons were not just fire or poison but there were also frost dragons and lightning dragons as wells. I think it could definitely be lore friendly.

So now for the stamina morphs: I feel as though if we did this Magicka users would have a large variety of customization and there would be a lot of different builds going around than just the usual builds, but where does this leave stamina users?. Well for this reason I think that if you are able or choose to morph an ability to stamina the 2nd Tier Morph should then be a choice of:

A heavy physical attack, a lower poison attack and a long poison over time, or a medium physical attack with a mild bleeding effect in the end. I think this would diversify a lot of what stamina uses like so if you are a poison buff you have options for you, if you are a heavy hitter, you have options for you as well.

I think this would also go good with stamina weapon abilities as well. (Granted I love brawl with its damage shield, simply because I use it all the time to solo group bosses and what not) but I do think that this is what the abilities need to be in order to morph them.

Now I know that some abilities can’t just always be frost, fire, or shock damage and I understand that completely so I’m sure there could be some abilities that would just change the mechanics such as:

Nightblade Summon Shade – 1st Tier Morph Magicka Shade or Stamina Animal Companion: Magicka 2nd Tier Morph options could be summon multiple shades or an archer shade as it is already) (Stamina 2nd Tier Morph options would be to change the animal companion to bear, wolf or such)

Sorcerers Summon Clannifer – 1st Tier Morph Magicka Clannifer or Stamina Spriggan: (Magicka 2nd Tier Morph options could be change Clannifer Abilities) (Stamina Options could be that it heals you or attacks for you)

Dragon Knight Stonefist – 1st Tier Morph Magicka or Stamina Morph: (Magicka 2nd Tier Morph is similar to how it is now either heavy hit or heals) (Stamina options could be that it hits heavy physically or hits medium damage while heals you) *(I know that some are thinking how does that work for stamina to heal you but if you have ever been in the Military then you have heard the term “rub some dirt on it” when you get hurt, also I really think regardless this should be a stamina ability because I have seen Trolls grab boulders out of the ground and throw them at me and I’m pretty sure they aren’t all that much into Magicka, just saying)

Lastly (Thank you for reading this through I’m sorry it is so long) for weapons abilities I mentioned adding a Magicka morph to them as well. Now I know that a lot of people wouldn’t like this as how can you make a weapon magicka it is all physical and I completely agree, however for some that love to be in close quarters fighting but love using magicka I think that ZOS should be able to incorporate if that the ability morphs into Magicka, that their passives can be switched to benefit whatever pool is higher either magicka or Stamina so that if you want to be a Magicka Two Hander then it won’t hinder you in your damage output, and you aren’t limited to having to have a destructive staff because they benefit magicka users more.

I understand that my ideas aren’t perfect but for me when I play I love seeing different players playing different builds and still being able to enjoy themselves. I’m not asking for every ability to be the same or nerf every ability that all classes have but to simply make it more to fit personally into what each character/race/or class is. This I think would make it more diversified and allow players to continue to learn their class all over again, and I would be really cool to see the different builds people could come up with. And if anything I could easily see 2nd Tier Morphing used as a more of a cosmetic change than an actual ability change, if people are too worried about the balancing issues. Which I can understand, anyways that was my thoughts, I would love to hear what other players think if this would happen. Again sorry for the long thought. Sorry Templars I didn’t include you at all, I haven’t really played a Templar to think about what morphs should change with them.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

I see some very good and original ideas here, can have these relayed to the developers for consideration please.