Kahnak wrote: »

"Play like you want!!! But if you wanna do dmg YOU HAVE TO USE daggers or/and greatswords."

No, you definitely don't. Statements like this are totally unhelpful to the conversation and lack any kind of nuance. Stop basing your opinions off of ESO content creators.

If you want to do max damage, you need to use DW/2H in trials. If you take range weapon, you will still stand in melee distance during trial raids, because group stack together and melee DDs need melee distance. It is also easier for healing tank.
Some exceptions exist, like first boss in vKA, first boss in vMoL or activities like orb killing, but its minority of encounters

You just have to open your eyes and you can't miss that at least 95% of the magika players are running around with daggers and swords. Whether this is a healthy balance, everyone must decide for yourself. I say that‘s not.

peacenote wrote: »

Yea, no one is forced to do anything, but part of the reason I have made so many characters over the years is that it was fun for me to have so many setups and I could explore different weapons. I would have the "best" set up for mag and stam and that would look different.

It is kind of lame that working towards the "best" means working towards the same gear for the bulk of my characters now. I would rather the complete opposite actually. An optimal class/playstyle for all the weapons so I could have one of each. The variety of pre-hybridization gave me more to do in game, personally.

I remember back when front bar swords were BIS for templar healers and it was so very annoying. I rejoiced when it was changed and am bummed that this type of play is back. At least with the constant change we will probably get our staves back, eventually.

It was backbar templars, for weapon dmg. You still used resto staff on your front bar. I used to heal with 1h & shield on back bar. I those were healthier times, imo. Because you were still spec as magicka, despite the weapons you were using. You really were just making use of the passives of those weapons.

I am like you, I have like 12 characters, because I wanted to play different races in different classes that uses different weapons. This meta is really killing my interest. What I've always liked about playing ESO is it's diversity, and before despite of people crying that you have to have BiS to be able to compete, it was definitely more diverse than today's meta. How is having a unified build diverse?

When they first teased being a hybrid, I was excited for it. Because it was supposedly another way of you playing the game, not the ONLY way for you to play the game and remain relevant.

Kahnak wrote: »

No, you definitely don't. Statements like this are totally unhelpful to the conversation and lack any kind of nuance. Stop basing your opinions off of ESO content creators.

You don't seem to understand. It's not only because ESO content creators thinks it's the best way to do it. It has nothing to do with that as well. If anything the only thing content creators are really doing is explaining things to you how the game works. You don't seem to understand how the game reads what you and your characters stats do. The reason why 2H and daggers and medium armor works now, is because the game no longer look at which of your stats has the higher value. And while running staves on dungeons still has it's place in most trials it's just not as relevant.

Also you keep on saying here that "most" players don't run fully optimized groups. I've been playing ESO since 2015 and most of the groups and guilds I am in are fully optimized group or strive to optimized themselves. Yes, I get it there are also groups that I have been in that aren't optimized, but they're also not that ignorant of what they lack. And for the most part they either know what they need to do to adjust their build or they ask for advice. "I promise, that portion is much smaller than you think." you said this... can you give me an exact number or are you just guessing?

Shadesofkin wrote: »

I outright refuse to have my DK using daggers or 2h...I'm playing a caster and by the 8 I'm going to wield a staff. But I am also more than willing to admit, I'm losing some dps from it...I'm going to suffer from lower parses in those instances...I'm just ok with that for the time being. If I can hit 80+k then I'm more than willing to be the sacrificial lamb in instances where we have to have a person run into portals or chase adds, and I'm good with that.

That all being said...I really really really really really (5 reallys) hate the homogenization of weapons which brought back martial weapons on caster builds, and I consider it a tragedy.

HAHAHA! Best respond in this post. I like your honesty and integrity. And as much as I love my Dunmer magDK (who by the way uses staves *ehem), I do want to play other races too on other classes. You are right though, knowing how ZOS can be very stubborn, I'll just play my characters as it is now. Because if as much as ZOS can be stubborn, we all know how they can be very erratic as well. Let's hope they bring back diversity in this game.