An Idea: Tier 2 Morphs.

Skullstachio · July 2023

When looking at abilities and ultimates (particularly wardens as I perform pretty well with wardens better than the others, even better than the arcanist.) I find myself pondering, is there more that could be done to bring up classes a bit more, so an Idea just came to me when thinking about past game titles I played (Cursed Treasure 1 & 2) thats when I thought about "Tier 2 Morphs" for abilities and ultimates, could there be something like that in ESO as well?

We already get to choose one out of the two morphs when we max out the base ability, but what if there were more morph choices to choose from when maxing out the tier 1 morphs? There would be three "tier 2 morph" choices, but you would only be able to choose one of the two yet again as the tier 1 morph you choose (i.e. Wild Guardian or Eternal guardian in this case.) would dictate which choices you would be given. In other words, the tier 2 choices given are dependent on the tier 1 morph chosen.

To clarify what tier 2 morphs would entail:

there are 3 choices, one of the two you get to choose will depend on the morph chosen previously but there are a total of three.
one tier 2 morph choice is a hybrid that has a combination of the tier 1 morphs and what its functions are can change depending on the tier 1 choice made while retaining the most significant effects of both tier 1 choices at once.
another tier 2 morph choice is more magical centered, and "may or may not" alter the way the ability functions entirely.
the last tier 2 morph choice is more centered on its martial concept and make it a very powerful choice compared to the other two but may or may not have some drawbacks, significant increase to its ultimate costs may be one such drawback.

I listed an example below listing feral guardian, wild guardian and eternal guardian, but also included some concepts for tier 2 morphs, the Stone-Lore Guardian (hybrid), the Spirit Guardian (Magic based choice, alters it significantly), and the Ursauk Guardian (Martial based Choice, has greater power and effectiveness, with a few drawbacks.)

Feral guardian (base ultimate ability)

Rouse a grizzly to fight by your side. The grizzly swipes at an enemy, dealing X Magic Damage, and sometimes swipes all enemies in front of it, dealing X Magic Damage and stunning them for 2 seconds. Once summoned you can activate Guardian's Wrath for 75 Ultimate, causing the grizzly to maul an enemy for X Magic Damage. Deals 100% more damage to enemies below 25% Health.

Eternal Guardian (tier 1 ultimate ability morph)

Rouse a grizzly to fight by your side. The grizzly swipes an enemy, dealing X Magic Damage, and sometimes swipes all enemies in front of it, dealing X Magic Damage and stunning them for 2 seconds. Once summoned you can activate Guardian's Wrath for 75 Ultimate, causing the grizzly to maul an enemy for X Magic Damage. Deals 150% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. The grizzly respawns when killed, once per minute.
New: the grizzly instantly respawns when it dies. Increases the amount of bonus damage done to low health targets.

Wild Guardian (tier 1 ultimate ability morph)

Rouse a grizzly to fight by your side. The grizzly swipes at an enemy, dealing X Bleed Damage, and sometimes swipes all enemies in front of it, dealing X Bleed Damage and stunning them for 2 seconds. Once summoned you can activate Guardian's Savagery for 75 Ultimate, to maul an enemy for X Bleed Damage. Deals 100% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. The damage has a higher chance to apply the Hemorrhaging status effect.
New: the bear now deals bleed damage. and has a quintuple chance of applying the hemorrhaging status effect.

If Wild/Eternal Guardian was Chosen:
Stone-Lore Guardian (tier 2 ultimate ability morph)

Rouse a Stone-Lore grizzly to fight by your side. The grizzly swipes at an enemy, dealing X Bleed Damage or X Magic Damage, and sometimes swipes all enemies in front of it, dealing X Bleed Damage or X Magic Damage and stunning them for 2 seconds. Once summoned you can activate Guardian's Will for 100 Ultimate, to maul an enemy for X Bleed Damage or X Magic Damage. Deals 150% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. The Stone-lore Grizzly respawns when killed, once per minute. The damage has a higher chance to apply the Hemorrhaging status effect or Overcharged Status Effect.
New: The Stone-lore Grizzly instantly respawns when it dies. Increases the ultimate cost and the amount of bonus damage done to low health targets. the Stone-lore grizzly now deals either bleed or magic damage dependent on the previous morph choice. and has a quintuple chance of applying the respective hemorrhaging or overcharged status effects.

If Wild Guardian was Chosen
Ursauk Guardian (tier 2 ultimate ability morph)

Rouse a Mighty Ursauk to fight by your side. The ursauk swipes at enemies in front of it, dealing X Bleed Damage, and sometimes swipes all enemies in front of it, creating a shockwave that travels 10 meters, dealing X Bleed Damage and stunning them for 2 seconds. Once summoned you can activate Guardian's Rage for 150 Ultimate, to maul an enemy for X Bleed Damage and dealing 50% of damage done to all enemies within 5 meters of the target. Deals up to 200% more damage to enemies below 50% Health. The damage has a higher chance to apply the Hemorrhaging status effect.
New: rouse a powerful Ursauk to fight for you, it's basic attacks hit all enemies in front of the Ursauk and its Swipe attack causes radial shockwaves. Once summoned, activate Guardians rage to Maul an enemy and damage targets near it, guardians rage also deals ramping bonus damage to targets below 50% health.

If Eternal Guardian was chosen
Spirit Guardian (tier 2 ultimate ability morph)

While slotted on either bar, Rouse an invulnerable spirit grizzly to fight by your side. The grizzly swipes an enemy, dealing X Magic Damage, and sometimes swipes all enemies in front of it, dealing X Magic Damage and stunning them for 2 seconds. While summoned, you can activate Guardian's Embodiment, transforming into a Bear and replacing your light and heavy attacks with new stronger abilities. Light attacks become swipe attacks that deal X magic damage to an enemy up to 7 meters away. Heavy attacks Become a Swipe attack that hits all enemies in front of you for X Magic Damage and stunning off-balance enemies for 2 seconds. While in bear form, you and your grouped wardens class abilities deal 10% more damage, 10% more healing, buffs from class abilities last 10% longer and debuffs you apply last 10% longer, allied wardens can only be affected by one instance of guardians embodiment.
Attacks deplete ultimate until you run out, or the ability is toggled off.
New: No longer has an activated ability to maul targets or Increases the amount of bonus damage done to low health targets. Summon an invulnerable, untargetable spirit bear that deals less damage while slotted on either bar. Activate to Transform into a Bear at will, augmenting your light and heavy attacks and granting you and allied wardens amplified class abilities.

On a more accurate note: If every active/ultimate ability had tier 2 morph options, it could be a great idea, maybe not, but it should be thought upon as it may raise both the floor/ceiling in terms of a power fantasy, if considered, starting with class abilities would be nice before working it in every other one like the weapon skill lines, world skill lines(vampire/werewolf), etc. but I do wonder if anyone else thought of a similar thing for Elder Scrolls...

MindOfTheSwarm · July 2023

Tier 2 morphs would essentially mean 4 more options for every skill. ZoS are unlikely to do this. It would be easier to simply add a third morph to existing skill, which in turn would be still a lot of work. It is far easier to simply add non/class skill lines that give us new offensive options and open up build diversity. We have enough class options but very little outside of this.

Mesite · July 2023

I often wonder what Ember means when she says 'I've been waiting for ages to try out this spell' and I'm thinking, you only have a few skill bars, there can't be that many new spells to try out.

I think this should be rolled out to companions too. So Ember gets more spells to try out.