Typically in RPG-style games, classes provide a core foundation of skills and passives to give each a distinct playstyle with unique utility. In ESO however, the devs attempted to bridge the gap between the normal class system seen in most games and the classless or class-loose systems from the other Elder Scrolls games. The result has given us something where classes are more or less backdrops for the rest of our character's skills, with each class usually getting a single defining feature and not much else. Currently, we're seeing most meta builds run on average 4-5 class skills out of 12 total, which is honestly kind of sad when each class comes with 18 active skills to choose from. The community has brought this up several times, and the devs have noticed and started making changes; class spammables in particular have been highlighted as a major point where class identity falls short, as many weapon spammables - mainly Force Pulse and Rapid Strikes - were just statistically better than the class alternative. These changes shine a light on the dynamic between class abilities and those accessible to anyone, and it makes me question exactly what the relationship between these two should look like.

There are of a lot of considerations in balancing the two categories. For the most part, the community seems to view class skills as the main pillar for each build, with world skills being used to fill in for certain weaknesses within a class's kit, or to allow a class to perform a role it isn't regularly suited for. Unfortunately, we've seen how this theory plays out in practice, and the result has been that world skills define how a character plays and what role it performs, and only a few key class skills are used for their unique impact. This affects all roles fairly equally, though Dragonknights and Nightblades in particular have seen some recent changes that made their kits a bit more attractive for the DPS role. Other classes however, especially in the healer and tank roles, see most of their kit thrown out in favor of the more generally useful world skills.

This trend is caused by several factors; certain world skills being overpowered, class skills being underpowered, classes lacking synergy within their own skills (We are thankfully starting to see some improvements here), classes lacking unique and meaningful utility (The most impactful effects in the game come from world skills or item sets), as well as an ever-expanding list of required tools for each role that limits their choices in making builds. However, before those even begin to be addressed, I think it's important to determine exactly where we would like to end up in regards to this balance. If they were to make world skills truly the "filler" options to allow classes to flex to off-roles, then we lose the flexibility of the current skill system as the choice between good performance and meh performance leaves you with no real choice at all. If they maintain with having world skills and sets define a character's main role and performance, we lose class identity and start to see more builds that are just copies of each other. And we've seen the reactions from Warden players recently for if they try to tie classes to specific weapons (No judgment, I get it). So here I am, asking you all what you think is the "ideal" solution to this problem, or if you even see it as a problem at all.