Will the spell customisation system finally break the stereotype of MMORPG mages?

Alharion · April 24

Here usually, I like to play a mage in RPG, but in MMORPG this class is sadly and too often attributed to this sad stereotype of "such element = such role" and this is extremely depressing that this class is summarized to this sad fatality...

I would so like to make a DPS Ice to make dps with DPS actions and not systematically actions planned to play tank. So, will this system finally break this tiring stereotype of mages?

Erickson9610 · April 24

There are already plenty of ways to play with ice magic as a damage dealer — notably with the Warden class, and using Destruction Staff skills with an Ice Staff equipped. Some abilities in other classes and skill lines may deal ice damage, but they may or may not visually look quite like ice.

Scribing allows you to make some of the Grimoire skills deal ice damage, but keep in mind that not all Grimoires can use the ice damage type script. Presuming we get more Grimoires in the future, we'll definitely have more sources of damage dealer ice abilities going forward.

I'd say that generally speaking, Restoration magic is the only kind of magic that's relegated to a particular role or purpose, being healer/support. You could try to be a damage dealer with a Restoration Staff, but you'd have a better time switching to a Destruction Staff instead.

Nerouyn · April 24

Many, many, many, many MMOs before now have given us many many many many different kinds of mages.

ESO also isn't the first MMO to offer some kind of spellcrafting.

Ryzom, which launched all the way back in 2004 had it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryzom

All player actions are built of components called stanzas. Each stanza defines one of the action's effects, costs, or usage restrictions. Players may assemble actions out of any legal combination of stanzas their character knows.

Also like single player TES games, no classes and a completely open skill system.

That said I am glad to see ESO finally introduce it and it's one of the reasons I'm back playing now.

Danikat · April 24

I don't know what other MMOs do (except GW2 where you'd have the opposite problem, elementalists of all builds need to use all the elements to be effective), but as @Erickson9610 said in ESO you can definitely have a DD warden using ice skills.

You can't just use ice skills of course (I don't think any class could have an effective build with just 1 or 2 skill lines) but you can use several ice skills and an ice staff.

I think scribing is also going to allow us to change the colours, possibly the theme of some skills, which might help too, but you don't need to wait for dedicated ice reskins to make an ice mage.

Nerouyn · April 25

Danikat wrote: »

You can't just use ice skills of course (I don't think any class could have an effective build with just 1 or 2 skill lines) but you can use several ice skills and an ice staff.

Depends on what content you're talking about, but some classes could very easily play the game using just a single line.

Even with (over time) a lot of damage having been added to their ice line, wardens can still pump out sufficient damage using just their beast line to play most content. I tried that myself this morning just to see.

Danikat wrote: »

I think scribing is also going to allow us to change the colours, possibly the theme of some skills, which might help too, but you don't need to wait for dedicated ice reskins to make an ice mage.

That would be styling which is being introduced at the same time as scribing but I've watched the PTS videos of those and it's more limited than I had expected.

The devs have picked out of a small selection of abilities and added single colour variants for them, like the destruction staff elemental blockade, can now be purple, which will please sorcerers but probably not other classes.

And I'm guessing they'll want us to pay per ability and per colour and possibly also per character for everything beyond that.

Alharion · April 25

Erickson9610 wrote: »

There are already plenty of ways to play with ice magic as a damage dealer — notably with the Warden class, and using Destruction Staff skills with an Ice Staff equipped. Some abilities in other classes and skill lines may deal ice damage, but they may or may not visually look quite like ice.

Scribing allows you to make some of the Grimoire skills deal ice damage, but keep in mind that not all Grimoires can use the ice damage type script. Presuming we get more Grimoires in the future, we'll definitely have more sources of damage dealer ice abilities going forward.

I'd say that generally speaking, Restoration magic is the only kind of magic that's relegated to a particular role or purpose, being healer/support. You could try to be a damage dealer with a Restoration Staff, but you'd have a better time switching to a Destruction Staff instead.

except that, in reality, this is largely an ‘illusion’, and even if some spells do allow you to focus on damage, some spells are barely usable for a good rotation and others are undeniably designed for defence. Which is quite ironic when you think about it when you see ‘Ice’ in destruction, because in reality ice is mainly designed for defence...

In the future, I sincerely hope that the sticks in TESO will allow for more choice than is currently the case, I really hope that one day we'll be able to really go for either tanking or DPS (FOR REAL) or something else and not just be directed in one specific direction. That's something I'd really like to see evolve in TESO and I'm sure it can, given the flexibility the game allows with all classes being able to play any role, whereas many other MMORPGs don't allow that.