There are several other threads that detail this but:

1.) The higher your level the harder it is to hit a soft cap. It's easiest at levels below 15
2.) Wearing 7 pieces of the same armor and/or taking skills that increase regen can cause it.
3.) Items can like jewelry cause it.
4.) It's a reminder that you may be using an unbalanced build if you see it over a long time.
5.) Other games do it too, but most aren't nice enough to tell you about it.

So adding points to Magicka is not the issue? I can still do that? But maybe I should swap some of my light armor for heavy and take fewer magick regen skills?

I'm talking mostly about what should I do in the long run.

It's a collective concept.

For you, every bit of Magicka-adding piece of gear or attribute is collectively causing the Overcharge. It's just suggesting, that should you not like the Overcharge, you may want to step back a bit. Naturally this will be more easily done by swapping gear and such, and not attributes.

Once you level, the softcap will raise again and you can raise the skill some more (assuming you aren't happy with the softcap).

On a related note, you may try Magicka-reducing effects as well. For me as a Healer and having played through the PTS a bit, I found that Magicka as a stat was great as it increased your resource, but depending on a large resource wasn't nearly as effective as having high Magicka regen and Magicka-reducing attributes on my gear. For me, Magicka-reducing attributes to my gear is my go-to, followed by regen, then pure Magicka. Granted, some types of gear can only have one as an option and not all three.

EDIT: I noticed just now that your issue is Magicka Recovery, not Magicka itself, though it doesn't really change anything.

BTW, if I don't put any points into Stamina (which I don't need for my skills... maybe for the occasional sneaking and sprinting though...) will it cause a problem? Or should I occasionally stick a point into there as well? (In other words, if I split almost everything (points and gear) between health and Magicka, will it somehow be a bad thing?

Xezzu wrote: »

No, there's no "wrong", per se. It's more of a "How much do you want to be able to Block?" or "How much do you want to be able to CC break?" or those sorts of things. The Sorcerer also has an ability that consumes Stamina to replenish Health and Magicka, if I remember correctly.

I think it doesnt matter though because it drains a % of your mana per second.

Man, I have been researching this topic ad-nauseum for weeks now and I still can not wrap my head around it? Kinda new to MMOs (last one I played was GW1)... My issue is Armor. I am 2h/SwSh Heavy DK Nord. I don't want to wear medium or light armor I like looking like a death knight juggernaut, but this has a serious effect on my group dungeons because I am usually the designated tank. Especially when the Earthen Heart abilities raise armor and regen! Why cant they have a hard cap and let me be what I want so long as it is level appropriate while I "grow" into my stat? This becomes so frustrating that I just play with the cap on but I still do not understand how it effects my game play. I understand that overcharged stats level slower which is fine as a consequence for playing with the cap but is there a specific rate at which the return gets diminished?

There is a softcap and a hardcap both, basically the softcap is there to indicate that you character is leaning toawards a one dimensional build, which is not a bad thing in every case by any means.

I created the original post because I was new and I didn't understand overcharging either, but I kind of understand it now (not in a mathematical sense, but in an overall sense). It's not that you HAVE to replace a heavy piece with a light piece, and in fact, it might actually be better if you don't, depending on what your intent is. I think that some people are still in the place that I was before I started posting here.

The truth is that before you are overcharged, there's a one to one ratio of points in the stat to effective points in the stat. When you reach the OC level, it's no longer 1 to 1, but it might be 3 to 2 or 2 to 1 (as I said, I don't know the mathematics of it all). It's a concept that actually exists in other MMOs and rpgs as well, only they either have their own name for it, or they don't tell you about it. Or they might simply cap it (which is actually worse).

Remember also that level is taken into account, so while your stats may be overcharged at your current level, once you level, that may not be true. So instead of swapping armor, you can just sit it out, and make sure that you put your next skill point into something that is more constructive than merely increasing that stat. OR, if to your build, that stat is the be-all and end-all, you can ignore the fact that it is overcharged, and continue to put points into it. It may not give you the same return on investment that you would get from improving a different stat, but it's what you actually need to meet your goals (because it's not like you hit the cap, it's more like you no longer are getting a 1 for 1 return but maybe a 2 for 3 or 1 for 2 return, or whatever).

jimmulvaney wrote: »

So are you saying if I break the soft cap I still get minimal benefit BEYOND what my level already allows or is it diminshed up to what my level allows? For example...
Armor : 100/ 90 (I pass the cap by 10pts)
Do I still receive the full benefit of the 90 armor?
Plus a percentage of the additional 10pts?
If yes, then I can live with that no problem.

Also, I understand that leveling a stat takes longer when capped any idea how that works out?

Yes that is correct.

Not sure about the taking longer to level, I though that was just based on how many items of the type you are wearing + what ever percentage you have add with traits.


Basically what happens is you are wasting points in say Heavy armor when you could put on a piece of light and have you class skills cost less magicka or medium and get more crit.

It takes some time but there are ways to mix and match the types of armor to make it look really nice and still get the look you want and not gimp your character.