Nah, this is accurate for TES vampirism.

It's considered a curse for a reason.

The more blood you drink, the more you embrace the vampirism but the less you have left of your humanity. This means getting more of the vampires weaknesses (Such as vulnerability to fire, reduced regeneration) but you get the benefits of vampiric bonuses (The higher tier passives and reduced costs for vampire skills).

This also includes more drastic shifts in appearance as you become more vampire and less [Whatever your race is]. Maybe a powerful Vampire adept in illusion magic could mask their appearance, but for the most part you undergo a physical change the more you feed the vampirism.

They could maybe stand to make the passives more enticing to utilize, though they did recently nerf Undeath because it was very popular due to how strong it was. In addition having the skills be more useful (Drain and Mesmerize are both kind of meh with Mist being somewhat janky) so their cost reductions would be more relevant.

Since the overall idea is that you trade off your regular abilities in exchange for vampire ones. Only in ESO's case you get 99% of what you care about at Stage 1 (The better Sneak and access to Eviscerate/Blood frenzy/Mist. With the Blood for Blood morph bypassing the need to care about its resource cost)

Taril wrote: »

Nah, this is accurate for TES vampirism.

It's considered a curse for a reason.

The more blood you drink, the more you embrace the vampirism but the less you have left of your humanity. This means getting more of the vampires weaknesses (Such as vulnerability to fire, reduced regeneration) but you get the benefits of vampiric bonuses (The higher tier passives and reduced costs for vampire skills).

This also includes more drastic shifts in appearance as you become more vampire and less [Whatever your race is]. Maybe a powerful Vampire adept in illusion magic could mask their appearance, but for the most part you undergo a physical change the more you feed the vampirism.

They could maybe stand to make the passives more enticing to utilize, though they did recently nerf Undeath because it was very popular due to how strong it was. In addition having the skills be more useful (Drain and Mesmerize are both kind of meh with Mist being somewhat janky) so their cost reductions would be more relevant.

Since the overall idea is that you trade off your regular abilities in exchange for vampire ones. Only in ESO's case you get 99% of what you care about at Stage 1 (The better Sneak and access to Eviscerate/Blood frenzy/Mist. With the Blood for Blood morph bypassing the need to care about its resource cost)

This is only accurate for Lamae Bal's blood strain, all other known vampire strains becomes more monstrous, stronger, and feral from not drinking blood. Vampires of the Cyrodiilic Order for example keeps themselves well fed because their strain of vampirism becomes almost unrecogniseable as vampires if they are well fed, making them able to blend in to society perfectly without illusions.

Taril wrote: »

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

This change to the way player vampirism worked in ESO was contended for a reason. In Oblivion and Skyrim you drink blood as a vampire to stay less feral. Even the Ravenwatch vampires in ESO work this way.

In Oblivion and Skyrim, it works the same as it does here.

The more you drink, the less of your humanity you have and the more powerful a vampire you are (With more and more physical alterations. More fire damage taken, more damage when in sunlight, less regeneration)

In Oblivion and Skyrim, the more you drink, the more of your humanity you have. You have weaker vampiric abilities, take less sun damage, look less disgusting, etc.

It was the other way around but ZOS flipped it to how it is now because they found people weren’t draining NPCs enough because at the time higher stages of vampirism were better than they are now.

I run stage 4 all the time on my main and it's been working well for me ever since Greymoor. The sprint stealth helps me avoid players in Imperial City or Cyrodiil, or trash mobs in PVE areas, and I account for the lack of health regen in my build

It's not a disadvantage, it's a trade off. Higher stage means more of the vampire passives become active, which are still at least somewhat decent despite nerfs. The health regen thing is also a complete non-issue and your healing isn't really limited in any other way. The increased skill costs are offset by reduced cost to the vampire skills, which is fine. Vamp even has an extremely strong ult gen skill. If you want vampirism but refuse to actually use any of it, that's on you.

VoxAdActa wrote: »

Tonturri wrote: »

Higher stage means more of the vampire passives become active, which are still at least somewhat decent despite nerfs.

Stealth speed, a little bit of damage resistance, and sprinting for 6 seconds turns you invisible. This is only a good trade for a few builds, mostly PvP builds. The damage resistance doesn't even cancel out the fire damage, which means the one type of damage you consistently need to resist isn't covered.

The health regen thing is also a complete non-issue and your healing isn't really limited in any other way.

So we need to make sure we have healing skills slotted, reducing our build options even further. Note that these healing skills will now cost 30% more.

The increased skill costs are offset by reduced cost to the vampire skills,

Which are mostly useless. Blood for Blood isn't affected, mist form is janky and a criminal act, mesmerize works about half the time (the game has a really hard time figuring out who is "facing you"), drain essence is both weak and a channel skill that blocks you from using any other skills during its duration. Blood scion only seems to be used when Blood Frenzy's health drain makes your life too low and you need a quick burst heal (the bat morph is mid and the "Stage 5 vampirism" morph is a joke).

If you want vampirism but refuse to actually use any of it, that's on you.

I'm sorry that I prefer skills with decent dps and that offer other benefits like major/minor buffs, and that I can use without looking over my shoulder to make sure some random justice NPC isn't standing behind me.

Vampire is, at best a lateral move as far as strength goes. But even that statement is dubious. Overall, vampires are weaker than mortals, and each stage of vampirism reduces overall strength. Stage 4 is *especially* weak. Unless you like running away from things, which isn't a point in favor of "strong."

7% damage reduction at half health isn't as OP as the passive was originally, but it's nothing to sneeze at either. It'd a solid midway point between minor and major protection and applies when it matters, and works on all damage types, so you come out ahead if you're taking something other than fire damage. The sprinting passive is actually 3 seconds, and having that access to stealth (plus mist form) also helps proc the 300 weapon damage.

If you're playing on the level of 'I have to slot healing skills because my health regen is reduced', I...don't know what to tell you, build wise. Base health recovery is, what, 300 or so? Maybe you'll get up to around 1k on a more durable DK with Elder Dragon and some racial passives. That's really only relevant for open world quest content. If vampire is what's making you suddenly slot a healing skill because you were relying on the health regen, you could just apply a leech enchant or something to a weapon. It's about as effective.

I can't speak for Blood for Blood, but it does seem to work in the UESP build editor - the cost reduction. Goes from 2.1k down to 1.7k. I'll grant you mesmerize though, I always hated that one, the ESO devs seem intent on putting weird requirements on skills sometimes in ways that the game doesn't seem equipped to properly handle in the first place. The ult is also meh, though I think it'd be fine with just a moderate cost reduction. For the other skills though, a heal, damage, and 15 ult? Or 30% of your entire stamina bar? Granted it's a long channel, but it's nowhere near as weak as you're making it out to be.

As I said, it's a trade off. It does have some issues, but it's also just not a straight up upgrade anymore. And that's fine. I actually use it a lot on my necromancer. I've never had any problems with the criminal acts, either - it just means I can't meander around cities spamming the skills, but I did a lot of questing while leveling another necro recently and never had any issues.

I have no way of knowing what content you do but Blood Frenzy's HP cost is very easily negligible almost everywhere. I've never even heard of anyone referencing it as something that could ever bring your health too low since it's entirely negated with ease.

It sounds like you just want a flat-out upgrade. Unfortunately this is an MMO, not Skyrim.

James-Wayne wrote: »

Your right some vampire lore does state this however lore also states you can't go in sunlight so let's change the game so you can't play during the day.

Lamae's Bal's strain of vampirism can walk in the sun without issues. Some strains get very weak in sunlight but can walk in it, and others go swoosh with fire in sunlight.

It all depend on which strain of the vampire disease someone have.

I'll admit, I only started playing a vampire for the Golden Pursuits. I've maxed out the skill line, bought all the active and passive skills, and have been putting it through its paces in solo PvE while chasing the other endeavors.

I don't see how Stage 4 is more powerful that Stage 3 (for example). But I'm inexperienced and it's likely I'm missing something or don't understand some key mechanic or synergy.

I like the stealth passive. That's handy and kind of fun.

but that's about the only one I use unless sumbuddy wants a bite.