MMO Noobie with 1 more basic question

Caroloces · May 2014

Hey,
I was thinking of throwing this one into my previous post, but I didn't want to overburden it with more ponderous questions.
This question deals with the allocation of abilities. I'm fascinated with using magic to promote the class skills of my templar character, but I'm also fascinated with using stamina to promote the weapon and armor skills of my character. Now that I'm past lvl 15 my 2 hotbars reflect that dual nature: 1 bar is lined up with the magic-based skills of templar class with destruction or restoration staff equipped; the other bar is equipped with stamina-based skills associated with 2-handed weapons. When I level up and I get a point to apply to my character's magic, stamina, and health abilities, I try to keep magic and stamina pretty equal, since I enjoy them both. However, (and here's the gist of my question) I have a sense that health should reign supreme, but I'm not sure how much higher the health should be than the associated abilities of magic and stamina. I'm finding myself keeping health about 2 points higher than magic and stamina, but I'm getting the uneasy feeling that this has been inadequate. So as a general rule, how much should be allocated to health in relation to the other 2 abilities, magic and stamina.
As a side note, I just recently watched a video which demonstrated a character build in which the player had put in 43 points for health, and 0 points for both stamina and magic, which I thought was somewhat extreme. But how do you tell?
Thanks in advance for any response.
Caroloces

Spryt · May 2014

As you level content does get harder so you can put more points in health to make it easier for yourself.

All stats health, magica and stamina have soft caps. That means after you get them high enough adding more points won't give you as big increase. I think you get 50% less.

I found with gear and runes it's way easier to reach the stamina and magica cap then health cap. So I just put all points in health. But it's really depends on how you want to play, what gear you use and what skills you choose.

Rosveen · May 2014

charles.cavanaughub17_ESO wrote: »

As a side note, I just recently watched a video which demonstrated a character build in which the player had put in 43 points for health, and 0 points for both stamina and magic, which I thought was somewhat extreme. But how do you tell?

It isn't extreme at this level. A very popular strategy is putting all points into health and fortifying another attribute with enchants. But for many builds this isn't the best option when leveling, so they wait until 50 to respec.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · May 2014

You also might want to consider mixing up your bars some. Weapon swapping is a bit buggy at the moment, sometimes taking a fair amount of time before you can switch and use a skill on the new bar. Have this issue. I had one healing bar and one dps bar. People could go from full to dead before i could effectively switch from dps to heal.

So i would probably put at least one stamina skill on the magic bar and one magika on the stamina. That way if you run out of magika/stamina and are in a pinch you arent stuck with just normal attacks. Even if it is just a utility to buy you some time to switch.

Chalybos · May 2014

I'm partial to going magica heavy, but then I've always believed in killing your target as quickly as possible, versus playing the outlast game. Sooner or later you end up either pulling too many mobs, or a roamer shows up, or a mob repos, so I'd rather be done with the target as quickly as possible. That requires fuel, in this case magica or stamina. Or, in the case of my NB's, both. I have just a couple points put into health on them, very heavy on magica, heavy on stamina for the Fighters Guild Silver Leash for the knockdown and potential one shot to undead & daedra. For my sorcerer and templar I'm following a similar pattern.

But I think it's also about your preferred playstyle.

Caroloces · May 2014

Quick question for Spryt: At about what point in your ascension of abilities do the soft caps appear? I seem to recall that 1 point in health pretty consistently gives you 15 more health points, and 1 point in stamina, magic gives you 10 points in those categories. It's been awhile since I looked at that carefully, so I may be off in those numbers.

Spryt · May 2014

Soft caps are different values for all stats. When you open the charcter window you can se the current value for each stat including any gear you may be using. If the stat shows a small orange arrow you have reached the current soft cap for that stat.

So it's hard to know how to place your points as you do not know what kind of gear you will have. Try using SoftcapInfo addon to see current cap and how close you are to it.

My advice is go with whatever you want as you level. When you get to 50 have a look at what skills and kind of gear you prefer to use. And maybe redo your attributes then.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · May 2014

It really all depends on enchants and food and point allocation. Since the cap goes up every level depending on how you stat and if you eat food and enchant you may hit it soon or not at all.

For example playing a magic heavy templar and sorc, i put all my points in magika and around level 20 i think i hit the soft cap. When you look at you character sheet the numbers will be orange so you know. But as soon as i leveled i was no longer at the cap. Sometimes putting 1 more magika would cap it again sometimes id have to change enchants to cap it. Im not really sure how much it matters leveling but it was something to aim for i suppose.

My basic goal was to cap magika and then enchant/food health.

On my nightblade i am running heavy split right now between magica and stamina. I have not ever been capped in either.

KariTR · May 2014

Back in beta, you were awarded 20 points of health per attribute point, so guides at that time usually recommended you stick everything into health and use enchants to boost your other stats.

Slowly we are moving away from this way of thinking and you will see several theorycrafters suggesting you put everything into your main (offensive) stat(s), despite soft caps.

At higher levels/level cap, you can respec or change enchants on your gear if necessary.

kirnmalidus · May 2014

I agree with the advice that you should blend stamina and magicka abilities. Each of your bar setups should have at least one of each.

Even if you don't put points into one or the other, you will still have a basic pool of it and you want to be able to use that in combat. This is best accomplished by having at least one active that draws from that pool available at all times and will give you much more flexibility in playing (oh crap I'm out of stamina and can't do anything isn't a spot you want to be in).

Caroloces · May 2014

When you do a respec, do you respec your character from scratch with your total skill points, or can you pick and choose (shift 1 or 2 from this, move it to that, etc.)?

Srugzal · May 2014

charles.cavanaughub17_ESO wrote: »

Quick question for Spryt: At about what point in your ascension of abilities do the soft caps appear? I seem to recall that 1 point in health pretty consistently gives you 15 more health points, and 1 point in stamina, magic gives you 10 points in those categories. It's been awhile since I looked at that carefully, so I may be off in those numbers.

The soft caps don't arise from attribute point allocation, these always add the same amounts (10 for magicka and stamina, 15 for health). You hit caps by stacking buffs--enchantments, passives, food, potions, gear-set buffs, armor traits. Maybe some others I forgot to mention. This keeps the buffs within a certain range; i.e., you still get the buff once you hit the cap, just not as much as advertised. A great buff might be reduced by the cap to a trivial one. The thing to do is to level up, which will raise the caps, and balance your gear a bit better.

You also have caps on all the regen and armor (resistance, mitigation) stats, too, which vary by level and are only influenced by buffs, passives and gear traits.

I hit the magicka cap, for instance, when I put a magicka increase buff on every piece of armor. When I took an increase-magicka potion, it had little or no effect. So I replaced a couple of the magicka enchantments with stamina ones, then the potions started working properly. So you should try to work close to the cap, without going over it, until you level to the next set of caps.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · May 2014

charles.cavanaughub17_ESO wrote: »

When you do a respec, do you respec your character from scratch with your total skill points, or can you pick and choose (shift 1 or 2 from this, move it to that, etc.)?

It is everything. The cost is 100 gold per skill point. So the more skill points the more cost. You do keep your progress in the skills though. So if you were to put points into them again they would be leveled right to where they were when you respeced.

Caroloces · May 2014

It is everything. The cost is 100 gold per skill point. So the more skill points the more cost. You do keep your progress in the skills though. So if you were to put points into them again they would be leveled right to where they were when you respeced.

So if I just wanted to shift some points from heavy armor into medium armor skills and leave everything else as is, I would have to take note of where my skill points were allocated and then put them all back where they were (except for the armor exchange). It seems like this is somewhat wasteful. Might it be better to have a base cost for the act of respeccing, and then additional costs for each skill point that was reallocated?

vyndral13preub18_ESO · May 2014

charles.cavanaughub17_ESO wrote: »

It is everything. The cost is 100 gold per skill point. So the more skill points the more cost. You do keep your progress in the skills though. So if you were to put points into them again they would be leveled right to where they were when you respeced.

So if I just wanted to shift some points from heavy armor into medium armor skills and leave everything else as is, I would have to take note of where my skill points were allocated and then put them all back where they were (except for the armor exchange). It seems like this is somewhat wasteful. Might it be better to have a base cost for the act of respeccing, and then additional costs for each skill point that was reallocated?

That is correct.

It has been suggested several times that i have seen, to let people just respec a skill line, and not everything. But that seems like a typical quality of life upgrade that gets pushed to the back burner at a games launch.

It would be cool though.