The combat must never be changed and there is no reason except

Vanya · February 2021

Naturally balance changes are always on-going process. Putting at side...

ESO has the greatest combat of any MMO.

The ability to create your own Ultimate custom build since start ,no other game gives you such a way unless you mod TESV but I will not compare SP to Multiplayer game.
Any race,class can use any desirable weapon,removing restrictions adds more to realism and satisfaction
Such a wonderfully executed particle effects,in-combat sounds,animations and creative spells,creatures you can summon or physical abilities.
Diverse,fast,fluid combat ,Never feels as a grind It never feels extremely hard or super easy speaking strictly as new-average player.
1st-3rd person view switch is an fantastic implementation and you can see your gorgeous weapon us close.
You have based on your level of skill and timing dodge,block,avoid negative effects.
User Interface is masterfully created. The amount of skills or needless hints,bar,etc is mostly hidden. I hate that in other MMO's you have skill-bars hiding half of your screen.

Any oher MMO to comparison regarding Combat system in whole feels from Archaic era, out dated severelly. It has no in-depth I cannot understand why mortals complain always. Devs worked so hard to implement all that. You cannot expect to perfect, By Y'free's Hairy feet! Go ahead and play any other game and it will be a completely boring. ESO though released in 2014 was AHEAD o it time so is the combat as well.

ESO is so advanced in any part so its in combat too.

Tis lame to ask for more,truly. Playing with sorcerer now its a blast. I can get bored of it. Enjoying every second. More players should be grateful and complain less.

Rungar · February 2021

While I agree with the things you have said, it does not appear that you've fully explored it yet.

most people feel the same way, I believe, right up until they have to learn weaving by sitting in front of a dummy over and over and over again.

then they can either choose to learn it, avoid that content, play other roles or go play Final Fantasy, which is an otherwise vastly inferior game.

Coppes · February 2021

You can’t really say something is the ‘best of all’ as it’s subjective.

Koronach · February 2021

Actually I prefer some other games combat, but I'm older and I like strategic/thinking mans combat. Honestly I liked Final Fantasy 11 more than 14, now that had a lot of strategy, well till they killed the game making it easy mode. It wasn't a dps race while tank holds hate forever, nope. If you were careless you were pulling hate and paying for it. The game literally took good coordinated team work, almost too much. Only bad part was you needed people to help you do EVERYTHING just about. So if you were antisocial you would have a rough time.

CaptainBones · February 2021

I'm sorry but builds don't even hold up to vanilla Skyrim. In that game i can play as a proper mage with spells in hand, i can play a PROPER necromancer and raise corpses to fight for me, i can wear plate and have a sword in one hand and spell in the other and be a proper battlemage, vampire is actually good and in ESO the "build your own class" is limited. For example, most of what would be considered illusion magic is morphed into nightblade and if I'm a sorcerer playing as a warlock/daedric conjuration summoner i wouldn't be able to take advantage of spells/abilities locked in another class. Skyrim doesn't have this problem. You truly do build your own character in that game and ESO's system is basically the dollar store version. So it's not even as good as vanilla Skyrim never mind modded EnaiRim which is in another plane of existence.

In the MMO genre it hardly has much competition but there are those out there who don't like ESO's combat at all because of the bar-swapping. I have *** tons of keys on my keyboard yet i can only have a few abilities on a bar at a time and i have to keep swapping them which is rediculous imo. Sure, it's good for the console players who have limited buttons but I've got a whole keyboard so let me put all of my abilities on one bar. This is one of the good things about WoW. Yes, the animations are outdated and you don't have things like manual block but at least you don't have to keep swapping your bars to access more abilities. It's such stupid design imo. The perfect balance would be the animations and actual fighting mechanics with the ability to have all spells on one bar.

I've seen worse combat in games for sure but ESO is hardly the gold standard. As for class/builds, well, I think I've made my point with that. It's more restrictive than the SP games and while you aren't as limited as the classes in WoW, the classes in WoW have a lot more flavour to them and there's 13 of them as opposed to 6. They also have many abilities that you just wouldn't see in this game because for all of Blizzard's faults, they had more imagination when they designed their classes.

People boast about how much freedom you have but it's always the same cookie-cutter builds with the same sets used and 1:1 weapons and rotations. Doesn't matter how good the fighting is if the classes are so dull and you can only have a few buttons to press at a time without swapping your action bar.

I respect your opinion ofc. I just get slightly frustrated when it comes to stuff like this because as a massive TES fan I've always seen the huge amount of potential in this game. It had a great base to build off of and some things it get right (like questing) but i just feel that, especially lately, the devs have just been taking shortcuts at every turn. There's so many obvious things they could add or change to make this game better but it's like they're just ignore it unless it is detrimental like servers. It's like they're putting in as little effort as possible until TES 6 comes along and they can finally call it a day and it's sad.

amm7sb14_ESO · February 2021

CaptainBones wrote: »

I'm sorry but builds don't even hold up to vanilla Skyrim. In that game i can play as a proper mage with spells in hand, i can play a PROPER necromancer and raise corpses to fight for me, i can wear plate and have a sword in one hand and spell in the other and be a proper battlemage, vampire is actually good and in ESO the "build your own class" is limited. For example, most of what would be considered illusion magic is morphed into nightblade and if I'm a sorcerer playing as a warlock/daedric conjuration summoner i wouldn't be able to take advantage of spells/abilities locked in another class. Skyrim doesn't have this problem. You truly do build your own character in that game and ESO's system is basically the dollar store version. So it's not even as good as vanilla Skyrim never mind modded EnaiRim which is in another plane of existence.

In the MMO genre it hardly has much competition but there are those out there who don't like ESO's combat at all because of the bar-swapping. I have *** tons of keys on my keyboard yet i can only have a few abilities on a bar at a time and i have to keep swapping them which is rediculous imo. Sure, it's good for the console players who have limited buttons but I've got a whole keyboard so let me put all of my abilities on one bar. This is one of the good things about WoW. Yes, the animations are outdated and you don't have things like manual block but at least you don't have to keep swapping your bars to access more abilities. It's such stupid design imo. The perfect balance would be the animations and actual fighting mechanics with the ability to have all spells on one bar.

I've seen worse combat in games for sure but ESO is hardly the gold standard. As for class/builds, well, I think I've made my point with that. It's more restrictive than the SP games and while you aren't as limited as the classes in WoW, the classes in WoW have a lot more flavour to them and there's 13 of them as opposed to 6. They also have many abilities that you just wouldn't see in this game because for all of Blizzard's faults, they had more imagination when they designed their classes.

People boast about how much freedom you have but it's always the same cookie-cutter builds with the same sets used and 1:1 weapons and rotations. Doesn't matter how good the fighting is if the classes are so dull and you can only have a few buttons to press at a time without swapping your action bar.

I respect your opinion ofc. I just get slightly frustrated when it comes to stuff like this because as a massive TES fan I've always seen the huge amount of potential in this game. It had a great base to build off of and some things it get right (like questing) but i just feel that, especially lately, the devs have just been taking shortcuts at every turn. There's so many obvious things they could add or change to make this game better but it's like they're just ignore it unless it is detrimental like servers. It's like they're putting in as little effort as possible until TES 6 comes along and they can finally call it a day and it's sad.

I agree with this.

Any benefits of the combat system go out the window when all the different character combinations basically boil down to 3 builds: tank, dps, healer

The class you choose doesn't even matter, because it's not about the skills that go on your bar, it's about the effects on the bar.

Every DPS is a aoe dot, big burst, spammable, repeat.

Every tank is a taunt / debuff, cc, debuff

Every healer is a buff, hot, debuff, buff, hot

The only difference is the graphics fx of the ability that's used, but otherwise, anybody playing in a particular role will be expected to have specific abilities / effects, specific sets, glyphs, mundus, etc. and all that "variety" that the game offers is tossed out the window.

I recently created a new tank (my 3rd) and one of my guild mates asked me how I'm enjoying it. And I was like "Well, it's a tank, so it's the same as my other 2".

This game offers faux variety, not true variety. And while I understand due to balance it couldn't offer the full fledged customization as a Skyrim, or Morrowind or Oblivion, for a game under the Elder Scrolls IP, it could do a whole hell of a lot better than what we have.

Goregrinder · February 2021

CaptainBones wrote: »

I'm sorry but builds don't even hold up to vanilla Skyrim. In that game i can play as a proper mage with spells in hand, i can play a PROPER necromancer and raise corpses to fight for me, i can wear plate and have a sword in one hand and spell in the other and be a proper battlemage, vampire is actually good and in ESO the "build your own class" is limited. For example, most of what would be considered illusion magic is morphed into nightblade and if I'm a sorcerer playing as a warlock/daedric conjuration summoner i wouldn't be able to take advantage of spells/abilities locked in another class. Skyrim doesn't have this problem. You truly do build your own character in that game and ESO's system is basically the dollar store version. So it's not even as good as vanilla Skyrim never mind modded EnaiRim which is in another plane of existence.

In the MMO genre it hardly has much competition but there are those out there who don't like ESO's combat at all because of the bar-swapping. I have *** tons of keys on my keyboard yet i can only have a few abilities on a bar at a time and i have to keep swapping them which is rediculous imo. Sure, it's good for the console players who have limited buttons but I've got a whole keyboard so let me put all of my abilities on one bar. This is one of the good things about WoW. Yes, the animations are outdated and you don't have things like manual block but at least you don't have to keep swapping your bars to access more abilities. It's such stupid design imo. The perfect balance would be the animations and actual fighting mechanics with the ability to have all spells on one bar.

I've seen worse combat in games for sure but ESO is hardly the gold standard. As for class/builds, well, I think I've made my point with that. It's more restrictive than the SP games and while you aren't as limited as the classes in WoW, the classes in WoW have a lot more flavour to them and there's 13 of them as opposed to 6. They also have many abilities that you just wouldn't see in this games because for all of Blizzard's faults, they had more imagination when they designed their classes.

People boast about how much freedom you have but it's always the same cookie-cutter builds with the same sets used and 1:1 weapons and rotations. Doesn't matter how good the fighting is if the classes are so dull and you can only have a few buttons to press at a time without swapping your action bar.

I respect your opinion ofc. I just get slightly frustrated when it comes to stuff like this because as a massive TES fan I've always seen the huge amount of potential in this game. It had a great base to build off of and some things it get right (like questing) but i just feel that, especially lately, the devs have just been taking shortcuts at every turn. There's so many obvious things they could add or change to make this game better but it's like they just ignore it unless it is detrimental like servers. It's like they putting in as little effort as possible until TES 6 comes along and they can finally call it a day and it's sad.

After playing a multitude of MMORPG's since like 2004, I appreciate how little spells ESO has for you to worry about. Having 130 spells to worry about works alright in a Tab-target based MMORPG, but ESO has action based combat, where you have to aim with a crosshair in order to target a hit box, so I'd rather spend more time focused on aiming, movement, and positioning, and less time staring away from my character, just trying to find spell number 27 on my 5th action bar. Looking away from what your character is doing to find something on my UI can get you killed in ESO, so the less that will distract you from movement, the better.

I know some of you people like being tested on your memorization skills, such as memorizing 100 separate spells spread across 9 action bars. And if you are someone that loves that, then that is great. But some of us instead love being tested on our mechanical reactionary skills, and our ability to react rather than ability to memorize. Which is what I love about ESO compared to every other MMORPG on planet Earth. It has the best balance between memorization and reactionary mechanics. It has JUST ENOUGH abilities you need to memorize, but not enough to pull your focus away from dodge rolling, blocking, LOSing, animation cancelling, interrupting, etc.

I also understand that not every human has the reactionary mechanical skills required to master ESO's style of action combat, but I do and I love it. Probably why I also love CSGO, Valorant, PUBG, etc and play rec sports in RL. I LIVE for reactionary mechanical abilities! But If you really want an MMORPG that will test your memorization skills rather than your reactionary skills, has unlimited action bars and spells, then I'd suggest checking out Everquest 2. I ended up quitting EQ2 because I got to like level 92 and realized I had almost 7 bars with 12 rows full of separate abilities. I had to ask myself "Why?Just...why... For what?.." and eventually quit and have not been back since. But hey, you might enjoy it so check it out and have at it!

Lephrel · February 2021

It used to be the best combat.
Then they started pandering to less experienced players, they added ultimate cast times, removed block cancelling and nerfed bash cancelling into uselessness. It didn't stop there, they forced us into a proc set + 40k hp meta further removing skill from pvp...at this point the fun has been sucked out of combat completely.

Coppes · February 2021

Lephrel wrote: »

It used to be the best combat.
Then they started pandering to less experienced players, they added ultimate cast times, removed block cancelling and nerfed bash cancelling into uselessness. It didn't stop there, they forced us into a proc set + 40k hp meta further removing skill from pvp...at this point the fun has been sucked out of combat completely.

PvP is always fun at the start because everyone is basically at the same skill level. And everything is more simplistic.

As games get older, you’ll notice differences.

Vlad9425 · February 2021

Lephrel wrote: »

It used to be the best combat.
Then they started pandering to less experienced players, they added ultimate cast times, removed block cancelling and nerfed bash cancelling into uselessness. It didn't stop there, they forced us into a proc set + 40k hp meta further removing skill from pvp...at this point the fun has been sucked out of combat completely.

Yes the quality of combat has deteriorated over the years and it was done in favour of new and less experienced players however these same players are now getting destroyed by ball groups and organised groups anyway so ZOS has achieved absolutely nothing with all the nerfs.

ADarklore · February 2021

Try playing some of these MMOs on PC with a controller and trying to figure out how to use all those skills... or like I just did... played BDO on PS4 for a month and having to try and memorize all these combos- felt like I was playing Mortal Kombat again!! Which I hated MK because of the ton of combos you had to try to memorize.

Coming back to ESO after two years off, something has definitely changed in combat. Many times my lightning staff won't work- it doesn't seem to want to target enemies and will just sit there doing nothing... I have to activate a regular skill to get the staff to work again. Weird. BUT... I do appreciate the simplicity of ESO combat... and not having a fanatical 'rotation' that so many other MMOs have. I know in the past when I've said that ESO doesn't have 'rotations' players would yell and scream... and what I meant was that there is no 'absolute' rotation... meaning you don't HAVE TO do skills A, B, C, and D in order with no variation without losing DPS. In ESO, it's more forgiving, and while you definitely want to activate your buff skills first, that's pretty much the only requirement of ESO rotations IMO.

Nyladreas · February 2021

Lephrel wrote: »

It used to be the best combat.
Then they started pandering to less experienced players, they added ultimate cast times, removed block cancelling and nerfed bash cancelling into uselessness. It didn't stop there, they forced us into a proc set + 40k hp meta further removing skill from pvp...at this point the fun has been sucked out of combat completely.

You speak from my heart.

+ Personally, I'm sorry to admit that ZOS direction and today's PvP has turned me into a toxic PvP player & hate teller. That's how much I'm frustrated. I can't resist not to anymore.

Scardan · February 2021

Vanya wrote: »

Naturally balance changes are always on-going process. Putting at side...

ESO has the greatest combat of any MMO.

That is unlikely.

ESO has just typical MMO combat system, where you just press a dedicated button to use a spell or fighting technique and just click to use default attack. This system is present in maaaany MMOs, with different differences. For example, there is a global cooldown and you can skip animations, which favorably distinguishes the combat of this game from the combat of some kind of Fiesta Online. But the basic principle is the same.

There are other MMOs where combat is built differently, where you can even use the environment and beat enemies with everything that comes to hand.

Fighting in the ESO is not bad, but it is not the greatest out of all MMOs in the world. I would be neutral about the changes.W hy change something that already works and at the same time, I am not against changes.