Hello, I just started ESO a couple weeks ago. I've been trying out classes, races, following build guides, trying to absorb the information overload - I'm down for the challenge to learn a new game. But I just have to ask...why is everyone forced to use a staff??? Virtually every build guide I read, particularly for any magicka build, requires a staff. Or "on this bar I have these weapon/shield combos and on this other bar I have...a staff." Tanks, healers, support, damage dealers. Everyone must use the same weapon. The lowly staff. Particularly if you want to be viable on the top end.

Having played many fantasy role playing games since beta of Everquest, including many years of Skyrim, I've never played a game that forces every player to use one particular weapon. Thoroughly unimaginative if you ask me, not to mention immersion killing. You don't tank a boss mob with a staff. You don't backstab with a staff. You don't block massive attacks with a staff. Unless you are Gandalf. So is everyone just a glorified wizard in this game?

I simply don't get why that 2h piece of wood, that you get in the tutorial at level 1, is the end-all weapon for every single class, race, and play style combo. If you are going to program a vital game mechanic, as ESO has, called Destruction and Resurrection magic, and require that every single character use it or be gimped, why on earth would you force the use of one single weapon? In my opinion (which admittedly doesn't count) it would be much more immersive if the two game mechanics were not limited to a staff, but were an attribute you could apply to any weapon at all. For that matter, why have any other weapon in the game at all? If you must use a staff, what's the point of wasting all your programming resources and dev time on weapons that people will only consider secondarily, or end up turning into crafting materials?

I don't want to use a staff at all. And so I humbly ask the community...am I missing something? I want to go Sword and Board/2H sword with a tank. I want to dual wield and shoot a bow with a damage dealer. I want to sneak around and backstab opponents. I don't want to be a wizard. Wizards don't backstab, last time I heard.

Can someone suggest a potentially end-game (or at least close) build that doesn't use a staff at all and doesn't require me to put points into Destruction Staff? I really like every other aspect of the game so far, but this one is just rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe this isn't the game for me. Hoping for some encouraging (i.e. non trolling) responses.