I voted yes because it would make it easier to buff HA builds in PvE without breaking anything in PvP.
I doubt it will happen tho.

Noooooo!! I use ice instead of lightning on healer for a few reasons but one of those reasons is that in the heat of combat I accidentally medium attack more easily with channeled HAs.

Channeled heavy attacks are boring and make you look stupid in PvP.

Change them.

We like change in ESO.

(Sarcasm)Lol

If anything I'd do the opposite and make Ice do something more tank focused, like maybe a PBAoE channel that snares and roots on the last tick.

Give Destro staves a basic morph where you can choose whether it is the channeled or direct attack as basic config.

HA channeled all three ticks and vanilla duration of 2.3 seconds like Lightning (and Resto).
HA direct version 1 tick and 1.8 seconds duration.
Base damage and restore tuned to duration.
Passives and weapon abilities making the differences between the Destro staves.

My Ice Mage Warden would LOVE a channeled Heavy, the rotation would feel so much better.

50/50 split! impressive.

I think they should because i prefer how the lightening one feels to the 'windup'. I can handle it better in rotations. but apparently, to each their own!

Lets just not ask for more major changes

ArchMikem wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

There really isn’t a reason for fire and ice staves to have a channeled attack. An opinion of not liking the current animation isn’t a solid reason for such a change.

I also wonder where the idea that fire staves are less desirable. How many top raid builds use lightning instead of fire staves?

Most Mag whatevers use fire staves for the bonus damage done passive, not the Heavy Attacks. Rotations always light attack weave and if those end game players need to HA for resource recovery they use a Resto staff since the channel is faster.

Making an Ice Staff HA into a channel specifically would at the very least make it a lot less clunky to use with Ice Damage builds, if there wasn't any dps difference with the change.

First, OP suggested fire staves are used less than lightning which I called into question since I know people use fire staves since they do more damage.

To the point you make here,

1. any PvE build using a rstaff back bar for sustain is doing it because of the 30% added mag return passive, not the channel speed as that would be very much secondary. It would make so much more sense to use a shock-staff back bar for a pure DPS build instead of a rStaff if this was all about channel speed.

2. I doubt top DPS PvE builds use a rstaff back bar for resource sustain. I would have to see information supporting this change in builds even to begin to believe it. For PvP, yes, as it is common that mag PvP builds are hybrids. Granted, less optimal builds may use a rstaff back bar in PvE but it is not likely to be due to the channel speed. We should not change the game due to what less optimal builds use.

So again, I fail to see a reason to change the HA for fire or frost staves.

Would be visually appealing

I would like that. But the passives and bonuses to damage would have to be adjusted.

Fire and Ice might be the least used when it comes to PvE heavy attack builds, but outside of that they're used equally as much as lightning staves, if not more so, and have been for years in the various content that ESO provides. Inferno staff has been, and to a degree still is, a staple for ranged builds in PvE, while melee run daggers. In PvP, you'll find quite a lot of people still run frost staves due to mitigation (not quite so much these days as other options are generally better). Going back to PvE, tanks and healers commonly run frost staves.

I'm also a bit confused by what you are referring to as a channel. All heavy attacks technically have a channel time (this time varies depending on the weapon being used; ice: 1100ms, fire: 1500ms, lightning: 1500ms; while the cooldown is the same 700ms as light attacks). I assume what you're looking for is a channel which does damage over time (multiple ticks over the channel duration) rather than a single projectile at the end of the channel time? Or is it simply a change in animation while keeping the same effect?

Inferno and Ice Staves already have their pros/cons, there's no need to change them to be more like the lightning staff. Inferno Staff gives you all the damage in a single hit for better burst damage, while Ice Staves are a defensive option that proc useful status conditions for support roles. Why make everything just a different elemental version of the same thing (lightning staff)?

ArchMikem wrote: »

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

Inferno and Ice Staves already have their pros/cons, there's no need to change them to be more like the lightning staff. Inferno Staff gives you all the damage in a single hit for better burst damage, while Ice Staves are a defensive option that proc useful status conditions for support roles. Why make everything just a different elemental version of the same thing (lightning staff)?

Because as much as ZOS and others want to sell Ice as a Magicka Tank element, Frost Mage DPS is still very much a thing in the community.

Frost staves are good on other supports too (like Lonestar said)… healers but also brittledens. I don’t see why ice staves having a channel benefits brittledens at all, and I play one. I rarely, if ever, HA in group PvE, overland, or battlegrounds. The defensive style is also a pleasure to play… survive through things other dps can’t!