tomofhyrule wrote: »A lot of people feared Subclassing would be like Hybridization - a system which is designed to give more flexibility, but in reality coerced people into running a specific setup unless they actively chose to nerf themselves.
Pure classes should not be underpowered compared to hybrids. If anything, the pure classes should have more raw power than hybrid classes.
The best way to do something like that would be to nerf all tooltips by some percentage if a character takes up a subclass. In that way, the player needs to choose between keeping the raw power of a single class, or reducing their power in exchange for more versatility.
As it is, the players can choose 'nothing changes' versus 'more power and more versatility,' which is not a reasonable choice. Even when subclassing in games like D&D, adding more subclasses is a way to give characters more options, but you do so at the expense of accessing the most powerful features of your original class.
tomofhyrule wrote: »A lot of people feared Subclassing would be like Hybridization - a system which is designed to give more flexibility, but in reality coerced people into running a specific setup unless they actively chose to nerf themselves.
Pure classes should not be underpowered compared to hybrids. If anything, the pure classes should have more raw power than hybrid classes.
The best way to do something like that would be to nerf all tooltips by some percentage if a character takes up a subclass. In that way, the player needs to choose between keeping the raw power of a single class, or reducing their power in exchange for more versatility.
As it is, the players can choose 'nothing changes' versus 'more power and more versatility,' which is not a reasonable choice. Even when subclassing in games like D&D, adding more subclasses is a way to give characters more options, but you do so at the expense of accessing the most powerful features of your original class.
This sums it up better than I have said it...
What's the benefit of playing a pure class, why continue doing that? Besides RP, you should have more power than a hybrid class, otherwise what is the point? Why have scribing too?
You have already nerfed lots of abilities, and cut from the fun they had, like ability x can only affect y targets, or z% less damage/more resources etc.
Each class felt powerful in its own way, because with time, you unlocked 1-2 class abilities that were unique and strong. Now, it is all a mess. People playing a purre class will feel like fools.
Listen to the feedback on this one, because there will be no coming back from this.
ball groups all have cloakDrSlaughtr wrote: »Instead you're going to let me have dragon leap on a night blade and ball groups all have cloak or all have negates. It's just silly.
What you are doing is very risky. Because subclassing, while fun, to me really feels like cheating. Like after doing everything in Skyrim, you install some Star Wars light saber/ force mod for a second playthrough.
Reginald_leBlem wrote: »anyone who wants to play a vanilla class gets completely left behind.
I get boring so quick; it is not as fun as play a different class alt.
tomofhyrule wrote: »Another related topic: the difference between a drawback and an opportunity cost.
A good system that makes people choose what to run will have benefits and drawbacks. “If you choose to take X, you will get benefit Y in exchange for drawback Z.” In that case, players will need to decide if Y is worth Z.
The new subclassing system seems to have an awkward version of that, where the drawback is “you lose one of your parent lines,” which for some classes is a much larger choice than others. The DLC classes in particular are strictly regimented into tank/heal/damage lines, so it’s extremely easy for an Arcanist DPS to say “I’m going to give up these lines that I don’t use anyway and in return I get a lot more power!”
The other thing that we have is an opportunity cost. That is not a drawback. Sure, it’ll take time to farm more skyshards to get the skill points (or less charitably, to buy them) and then grind master writs to level everything up… but what then? Once you have those chores done, then there’s no longer a decision of whether it's worth it or not. It’s like if they released the Oakensoul ring and said “instead of locking you to one bar, the drawback to using it is that you have to dig up the leads first.” Ok, but once you did that, you get all the power and no weakness.
I don’t think the ‘double skill point’ cost is necessary. It’s just a barrier to entry, but it will not affect the decision making for players who already have the skill points. And Subclassing needs to be given an actual drawback so it becomes something with a choice and not just “oh, just trade your unused trash lines for other lines that give only benefits!”
I will conclude by making a suggestion :
Spice things up:
Playing a "pure" class with three original trees shouldn't be unbalancing. Adding trees from different classes should "cost" something in exchange for the additional power. For example, reduce regen by 20-25% for each tree replaced, OR significantly increase the cost of each skill in these added trees.
Otherwise, frankly, seeing DPS at 200k and players even more immortal than they already were in PvP, I don't see where the fun will be.
tomofhyrule wrote: »As it is, the players can choose 'nothing changes' versus 'more power and more versatility,' which is not a reasonable choice. Even when subclassing in games like D&D, adding more subclasses is a way to give characters more options, but you do so at the expense of accessing the most powerful features of your original class.
tomofhyrule wrote: »I’ve been talking about subclassing with my friends since we found out about it, and we’ve always just had the big fear of balance. Of course it sounds fun and it’ll be great for people who just want to play their characters as mages who can pull out any skill and not be locked to class lines, but swinging too far only leads to balancing issues.
There are essentially two groups here: those who think Subclassing will make ESO an incredible and customizable experience, and those who think Subclassing will be the death of the endgame community. And honestly, both are right. And each group is coming from a different place, and we can see a lot of similarities between them.
The pro-Subclassing people tend to be those who play solo. They care about their characters as being able to be free to do whatever, and don’t really care about endgame content. The other side tends to be endgame players who see that Subclassing will lead to entirely too much power and will actually invalidate every setup except for a single set of three lines. They aren’t against Subclassing, but they are for keeping some semblance of balance.
There is one thing ZOS could do to satisfy both groups: allow Subclassing only in normal and overland instances, not in PvP or vet dungeons/trials. In that way, the players who want Subclassing (who don’t really do vet content or PvP, at least not on their RP characters) can go wild with it. Honestly, have fun with your fireball-casting, lightning-calling ice mage while blasting through the overland and the public dungeons. But then the endgame communities don’t need to see the balance get eradicated and all metas end up being even more damage from even tankier players and stupid amounts of DPS to skip literally all mechanics.
If we could have Subclassing restricted from leaderboarded content like that, I even think Subclassing should be even more permissive in normals. The double skill point cost is just an unnecessary barrier to entry, and it should only be a single skill point like everything else. I also think that you should be able to take as many lines from a class as you want and trade away all three of your parent lines. It’d be great for people to trade all three class lines for all three lines of another to finally have a Class Change in-all-but-name.
Please ZOS, consider keeping Subclassing as normal only, at least for the time being. It would still allow the players who want the flexibility to roleplay their characters how they want to still do so, but without making life miserable for endgame. ESO should not go out of its way to disenfranchise any of its players, and making a Subclassing-not-available-in-leaderboarded-content compromise would solve a lot of problems at once.
DrSlaughtr wrote: »The problem with this is that it ISN'T SUB-CLASSING. It is Multi-Classing. There is an massive difference.
You are letting people cherry pick skill lines to create cheeseball builds. You SHOULD have done actual subclassing. Introduce for each class 2 new skill lines that you could either use as as 4th skill line or to swap out one of your base 3. All of this nonsense could have been avoided.
Instead you're going to let me have dragon leap on a night blade and ball groups all have cloak or all have negates. It's just silly.
"Subclassing" (it's not subclassing as greatly pointed up here, it's multiclassing and without limits it's just stupidity) will exactly kill the endgame in trials and PvP if they will go the way they already started. They should right now refuse of nerfing class abillitites, set that ones they changed back, and think about just limiting skills power on apply for non-native classes. It's the only way to keep at least some balance somehow. If they will prolongue to move this way they move now it will be the sad and awful fatality for the gameplay and not the light you want to see for some reason.madmufffin wrote: »Subclassing isn't going to kill the endgame. It's going to raise the floor for a lot of people who haven't been able to take that step up and open up a whole new realm of possibilities for those at the top of the endgame. If your definition of the endgame is solely getting a checkmark on your Pithkas, then your definition is the issue and not subclassing.
gorynych_88 wrote: »"Subclassing" (it's not subclassing as greatly pointed up here, it's multiclassing and without limits it's just stupidity) will exactly kill the endgame in trials and PvP if they will go the way they already started. They should right now refuse of nerfing class abillitites, set that ones they changed back, and think about just limiting skills power on apply for non-native classes. It's the only way to keep at least some balance somehow. If they will prolongue to move this way they move now it will be the sad and awful fatality for the gameplay and not the light you want to see for some reason.madmufffin wrote: »Subclassing isn't going to kill the endgame. It's going to raise the floor for a lot of people who haven't been able to take that step up and open up a whole new realm of possibilities for those at the top of the endgame. If your definition of the endgame is solely getting a checkmark on your Pithkas, then your definition is the issue and not subclassing.
PS: Ideally if add this updates - it should be only 1 skill line allowed to change and not more, and some weakenings for abilities themsleves (like many people already offered in dedicated topics and here) but only when you use it on another class, not for the base ability. Caus it's the worst ever idea but x2 even - to break original unique class spells (that became usable again only last years after all the experiments with DoTs, weapon skill lines etc etc)... It means from the very start that you won't play pure classes as you played before even close and you could play ONLY with damn hybrids (out of running delves and quests ofc). Even when CP were reworked and any other changes of mechanics (even worst ones) for years weren't affect characters power that noticeable as it already seems will be this time. So I just wondered how changes like this could be even started by devs from straight breaking class powers and how some players can not understand these simple things.
madmufffin wrote: »Yet several scorepushing WR holding groups, tri prog groups, and hm prog groups are all excited to have new and refreshing gameplay to build strats around to change how they've approached certain content for years. But sure endgame is gonna die because damage went up