Cooldowns and ESO

LMar · January 2018

As far back as I can remember ESO has tried to avoid cooldowns in combat and skills so that combat feels more Elder Scrolls-y and more quick paced. Sustain was drawn back a little in Morrowind in order to make the combat more fast paced and in order to have a choice between sustain and burst like the original concept was meant to be.

Therefore if the combat starts heading into cooldowns on specific skills now it seems like we are deviating from the stated plan of action. ESO's combat has so far (I think) avoided all those pop ups in other MMOs, stuff like "You cannot use that yet" "You just used that skll" "Ability on Cooldown" etc etc. Those kind of things take away from the game, from immersion and the feeling of Elder Scrolls universe.

Can we think of different ways of balancing combat or whatever without having cooldowns on abilities or stuff like that? And please for the sake of Mara do not start putting pop-ups like "Can't use yet!" on stuff like Power Lash or "Can't perform that action now!".

Thanks,
A concerned guar

WatchYourSixx · January 2018

You can still use any ability at any time. You just can't get a proc for a replacement ability more than once every 3 seconds. How is this any different from only being able to use a spectral bow every 5 light attacks? Or only getting a insta-cast frag from casting other abilities? What about channeled abilities that don't have any damage until the end of the channel? Or a heal that you have to charge for 1.2 seconds? Or a skill that only damages targets at the end of 6 seconds or 3.5 seconds or after 12 seconds?

Would it be wrong to say that we have indirect cooldowns on many abilities? That is, they are unable to perform their damage or healing instantly in some form or another? It's not a cooldown in the typical sense, but it's not like you can't continue to flame lash whereas if I wanted to spam curse I have to wait 3.5 seconds or 6 seconds just for it to deal damage.

Not saying i agree with their design choices, just that the problem you describe isn't even close to abilities with cooldowns that prevent you from using that ability. Power lash is not a skill, it is a damage component of a skill. Remember that.

Now, where they ACTUALLY introduced cooldowns this patch is the fact that if you get interrupted while casting, you can't cast that ability for a short amount of time. (Can't think of the actual duration) I might be remembering that bit wrong so someone can verify it...

LMar · January 2018

That is why I didn't specifically mention skills until the very end in fact. I agree with your assessment (eg replacement abilities as you nicely put it ) but if suddenly we start getting pop ups when you get interrupted like "Can't do that yet" "Can't do that yet" "Can't do that yet" then we are heading into that realm of the other MMOs which are nothing like ESO. Some people have stuck with ESO because of the different feeling it gives. I saw videos of other MMOs where you can't even see your character because they are surrounded by a cloud of "Ability on cooldown", "Can't use that yet", "You just used that" and so on.

It is also never early to give feedback on features that you want or do not want to see

DDuke · January 2018

LMar wrote: »

That is why I didn't specifically mention skills until the very end in fact. I agree with your assessment (eg replacement abilities as you nicely put it ) but if suddenly we start getting pop ups when you get interrupted like "Can't do that yet" "Can't do that yet" "Can't do that yet" then we are heading into that realm of the other MMOs which are nothing like ESO. Some people have stuck with ESO because of the different feeling it gives. I saw videos of other MMOs where you can't even see your character because they are surrounded by a cloud of "Ability on cooldown", "Can't use that yet", "You just used that" and so on.

It is also never early to give feedback on features that you want or do not want to see

You don't get such messages with Power Lash, your character simply uses Flame Lash instead. When the cooldown is over, the icon turns back to Power Lash (assuming you're targeting an Off Balanced enemy).

It's basically the exact same as on Live, except you get to use it every 3 seconds instead of every 5(Off Balance from Flame Lash cooldown)-7(Fossilize "cooldown") seconds.

They did add what you're describing though, to Fossilize & Rune Cage. You can no longer use those skills against CC immune targets, the icon just stays grey & doesn't work.

They added these in Clockwork City update a couple months ago. Personally I don't mind that, if anything that helps you conserve magicka when you're not wasting time casting skills that do nothing on CC immune targets because you miscalculated CC immunity, or someone used an immov pot or something.

LMar · January 2018

So far we have avoided such messages yes. And I hope it remains like that. Let's keep ESO special

Yolokin_Swagonborn · January 2018

Cooldowns, cost increases, and other such limitations were not necessary when resources and damage were kept under control by softcaps. But since the champion system is causing so much powercreep, we see these restrictions sneaking into gameplay.

Those of you who have played another MMO like guild wars 2 can see how much less immersive and fluid combat is with cooldowns.

But the controls have to go somewhere. If people can use the champion system to patch gaping holes in their builds by adding extra sustain, extra damage, and other things without the tradeoffs required by getting those advantages from gear, then we will continue to see both damage and utility sucked out of class skills to reign in power creep.

ESO had such a unique combat system, one that encouraged resource management. But this stack damage and burst meta has destroyed that, and thats why we keep seeing cooldowns and suggestions for cooldowns.

ArtOfShred · January 2018

LMar wrote: »

They did add what you're describing though, to Fossilize & Rune Cage. You can no longer use those skills against CC immune targets, the icon just stays grey & doesn't work.

This kind of bothered me for a sec at first but then I realized its actually kind of nice. No ability to accidentally cast these abilities against a CC immune target and waste resources. Not that it's overall much of a problem but every once in a while if you've got a lot going on you can pretty easily miss someone being CC Immune.