Weapon DPS and Class/WeaponSkills

Malakh · March 2014

It seems to me that most of the class skills due damage irrespective of the weapons being wielded... is that correct? And even the weapons skills themselves seem to do straight damage ... is that really so?

killedbyping · April 2014

Not realy.
Weapon skills are dependant on weapon dmg. Not sure if stamina play any role there.
But all the class skills dmg are magica dependant. Which is total nonses for some classes imho.
Like if you play Nightblade, you have to invest in magica in order for your class skill to do any signifcant damage.
Im pretty sure, that most of his abilitys like "Suprise attack" would not give any result wiht out a weapon "if this would be in real".
I dont see any logics there...

Bretentious · April 2014

So far as I can tell, that is correct. Class skills are magicka based and do damage based on your spell damage trait rather than your weapon damage trait, even when it seems counter intuitive for that to be the case.

As to whether the skills gained in Weapon Skill lines (like Dual Wield and Two-Handed) gain damage from your weapons or stamina improvements, I'm not sure. I would guess that they gain the stamina bonus (assuming that it's working, I've not noticed any weapon damage improvement by increasing stamina thus far) but not bonus from your actual weapons.

I would be curious to know if Fighters Guild skills also follow this pattern, as it would make little sense for them to based off magicka.

Castielle · April 2014

It definitely seems strange that all class skills are dependent upon Magicka. I wonder if this will change in a future update.

Cas

SuperScrubby · April 2014

If you can watch most of this video it provides some good detail on how it all works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_OIx7bp7g

He also has some other video's that give more insight on the game mechanics. Personally I dislike how the skill system operates, having to pump points into magicka for my melee dps to do more damage with class skills seems counterintuitive.

Teloran · April 2014

Skills scale with two things

1) The resource that the skill uses

2) Weapon damage if the skill is a weapon skill (even staff skills) OR spell power for all other skills.

On a related note, left click attacks all scale with weapon damage and stamina, even staff skills.

Edit: For proof of this and many other mechanics, see the ESO Unravelled videos on YouTube by Mystborn.

killedbyping · April 2014

SuperScrubby wrote: »

If you can watch most of this video it provides some good detail on how it all works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_OIx7bp7g

He also has some other video's that give more insight on the game mechanics. Personally I dislike how the skill system operates, having to pump points into magicka for my melee dps to do more damage with class skills seems counterintuitive.

Thank you. That video explain alot.
So it appears you have to invest into magika and spell damage in order to make your damage skills usefull in late game.
But in the same time, some NON class skills (like Warriors guild) may also utilize both stamina pool and spell damage or magica stat and weapon dmg.

I not sure it is corrilated with "you can play as you like" , more like you have to play as you have to

since you have to invest into different stats if you want to mix the things up. As the result you might end up to be sucky in both ways you tryed to develop.

enubis99 · April 2014

It makes me worry and wonder how viable would it be to stray from the "common" path. For example, a pure weapon skill based melee dragon knight. Or a heavy armor, two handed sword sorcerer? Sure fighting normal mobs is usually a breeze, but when we talk about 4 man instances... That's a whole other subject right there.

Shimond · April 2014

I haven't done the math myself but I have heard class skills scale better than the non class (weapon) ones. So from a min/max perspective ignoring all class skills and just doing the weapon ones would make you less effective as far as damage goes (obviously you have little choice with healing). I don't know how much less effective, or if that's even really true though.

Hilgara · April 2014

I've found you have to split your abilities between magic based and stamina based to keep up a continuous rotation at the ealy stages but eventually you get enough of both to maintain your rotation indefiantely. At that point I think it would be wise to start stacking health. A good rotation is Ambush->Big Hit (hold LMB for knockdown)-> Swallow Soul-> Blood Craze-> Shadowy Disguise then suprise attack. This spreads the cost between magica and stamina and with decent regen you can keep it up all day. I use medium armor which gives stamina bonuses so i will probably lean more towards magica until I have ebough to keep spaming my rotation then go for health.

enubis99 · April 2014

Yes but that is comparing against normal mobs. Then you end up doing normal weapon damage on bosses since they don't die as quick and pretty much 1 - 2 hit you. Even in the first dungeon.

killedbyping · April 2014

Might be a bit of off-top, but do any1 actualy saw SPELL DAMAGE enchants ?
It seems for me, that the only way to enchance your spell damage is to invest in magika. This also mean, that spell damage dependant skills can only be buffed by investing in Magika (well, max magika also contribute into dmg, but not as nearly as effective as spell damage).

Teloran · April 2014

killedbyping wrote: »

Might be a bit of off-top, but do any1 actualy saw SPELL DAMAGE enchants ?
It seems for me, that the only way to enchance your spell damage is to invest in magika. This also mean, that spell damage dependant skills can only be buffed by investing in Magika (well, max magika also contribute into dmg, but not as nearly as effective as spell damage).

Spell damage enchants are only available on jewellery as far as I know.

Kendaric · April 2014

enubis99 wrote: »

It makes me worry and wonder how viable would it be to stray from the "common" path. For example, a pure weapon skill based melee dragon knight. Or a heavy armor, two handed sword sorcerer? Sure fighting normal mobs is usually a breeze, but when we talk about 4 man instances... That's a whole other subject right there.

A actually play aforementioned dragonknight (all weapon/fighters guild skills) and it works ... somewhat. I suspect it will be more difficult to continue doing so as I raise in level and four man dungeons are probably not really doable with the character.
I definitely have to be extremely careful about picking my battles, as relying on only one resource will deplete it quickly, especially as block/dodge consume stamina as well.

Hilgara · April 2014

check your spell crit rating. for me its 0% so the class abilities that increas crit by a percentage shouldnt actually do anything

outlanderbz · April 2014

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outlanderbz · April 2014

Kendaric wrote: »

enubis99 wrote: »

It makes me worry and wonder how viable would it be to stray from the "common" path. For example, a pure weapon skill based melee dragon knight. Or a heavy armor, two handed sword sorcerer? Sure fighting normal mobs is usually a breeze, but when we talk about 4 man instances... That's a whole other subject right there.

A actually play aforementioned dragonknight (all weapon/fighters guild skills) and it works ... somewhat. I suspect it will be more difficult to continue doing so as I raise in level and four man dungeons are probably not really doable with the character.
I definitely have to be extremely careful about picking my battles, as relying on only one resource will deplete it quickly, especially as block/dodge consume stamina as well.

I was thinking about doing this myself. I have always played pure weapon type classes in games and was never a magic person. I picture a warrior with a sword and shield than maybe switch to a 2 hander for multiple enemies. that kind of style. I made a post the other day about how I feel despite all the choice the game really makes you use both weapon and class (magika based) skills.