Add More Major Resolve Sources for PvP

Namacc · July 20

Current pvp builds are limited by major resolve choice - the best source is from class skills which means you will always have to pick a class skill line that contains major resolve. And because restoring light and storm calling are so good you see everyone using them.

If you don't choose a class skill line with major resolve you need to use mighty chudan as there are no better alternatives but have the opportunity cost of losing better monster sets such as bloodspawn or balorgh.

Existing sources of Major resolve outside of class skill lines other than chudan

Heavy Armor skill is used by block tank builds in pvp to be as tanky as possible by sacrificing all damage, movement etc. The snare is not worth it on other builds.
Mages guild balance is not worth using in pvp due to huge nerf to healing done and shield strength which can stack with other similar effects like jeralls, major and minor defile.
Psijic order mending spirit major resolve at 5 secs is too short for pvp and the caster doesn't get resolve - the ally does. Also, replaces light attack damage with a heal instead, so it's not worth it on pvp damage builds.
Scribing has no good source of major resolve for pvp because the highest duration is 10 secs which is too short on such an important buff and the skills that can have major resolve are better off with other buffs such as major vitality on healing soul. Some scribe skills can't have major resolve but do have minor resolve such as ulfsiid's contingency.

Suggestions
Add major resolve to:

Annulment and it's morphs at 20 secs
Evasion and it's morphs at 20 secs
Fighter's guild ring of preservation at 20 secs
Scribe skills that don't currently have major resolve such as contingency, increase duration of major resolve in Scribe skills to 20 secs up from 10 secs

Erickson9610 · July 21

I think each Class should have multiple sources of some buffs. For instance, Storm Calling and Daedric Summoning can both have a source of Major Resolve; no Sorcerer is guaranteed to have both skill lines, so options are welcome.

bmnoble · July 21

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I think each Class should have multiple sources of some buffs. For instance, Storm Calling and Daedric Summoning can both have a source of Major Resolve; no Sorcerer is guaranteed to have both skill lines, so options are welcome.

Think they are removing major resolve from Storm calling and replacing it with major or minor force instead. If there aim is for Dark magic to be the tanking line probably end up there in some form over Daedric summoning.

The_Meathead · July 21

Changing one Morph of the Heavy Armor skill to remove the snare would be nice.

The secondary skill could also be edited if necessary, but really - is the Break Free cost reduction really worth a massive snare, anyway?

i11ionward · July 21

The_Meathead wrote: »

Changing one Morph of the Heavy Armor skill to remove the snare would be nice.

The secondary skill could also be edited if necessary, but really - is the Break Free cost reduction really worth a massive snare, anyway?

In my opinion, all Armor skills (Heavy, Medium, Light) are, at best, very niche, and some morphs feel completely useless. It would be great if the developers seriously reworked these active abilities. Ideally, if at least one morph of each Armor skill granted Major Resolve, it would make them far more appealing and functional.

Orbital78 · July 21

Namacc wrote: »

Current pvp builds are limited by major resolve choice - the best source is from class skills which means you will always have to pick a class skill line that contains major resolve. And because restoring light and storm calling are so good you see everyone using them.

If you don't choose a class skill line with major resolve you need to use mighty chudan as there are no better alternatives but have the opportunity cost of losing better monster sets such as bloodspawn or balorgh.

Existing sources of Major resolve outside of class skill lines other than chudan
Heavy Armor skill is used by block tank builds in pvp to be as tanky as possible by sacrificing all damage, movement etc. The snare is not worth it on other builds.

Mages guild balance is not worth using in pvp due to huge nerf to healing done and shield strength which can stack with other similar effects like jeralls, major and minor defile.

Psijic order mending spirit major resolve at 5 secs is too short for pvp and the caster doesn't get resolve - the ally does. Also, replaces light attack damage with a heal instead, so it's not worth it on pvp damage builds.

Scribing has no good source of major resolve for pvp because the highest duration is 10 secs which is too short on such an important buff and the skills that can have major resolve are better off with other buffs such as major vitality on healing soul. Some scribe skills can't have major resolve but do have minor resolve such as ulfsiid's contingency.

Suggestions
Add major resolve to:
Annulment and it's morphs at 20 secs

Evasion and it's morphs at 20 secs

Fighter's guild ring of preservation at 20 secs

Scribe skills that don't currently have major resolve such as contingency, increase duration of major resolve in Scribe skills to 20 secs up from 10 secs

I think all the scribing buffs are way too short

Vaqual · July 21

If you deliberately decide to bring lines without Major Resolve, that is the tradeoff you make for what your chosen lines offer.

Eskibidus · July 21

I think every class should only have 1 single source for a specific buff(and not every class should have access to every buff).
I don't like the idea of balancing things with stronger options, and I don't like the overall increase in damage that the game is receiving, both in PVP and PVE.

BXR_Lonestar · July 21

You're forgetting the Warden Frost Cloak. That skill line is not particularly great, but you do get Frost Cloak which gives major resolve to you and your allies, or major resolve + minor protection for you, which are both good, Polar Wind is a nice burst heal with a HOT component, and even the warden projectile shield is useful. If you have a coordinated group, only one of you needs to run this, and it frees everyone else up to run something else. For instance, a player can choose to take this skill line for these buffs, and another one can choose to take the DK skill line with igneous weapons so everyone gets major resolve and major brutality/sorcery.

I thought this was the kind of issue that subclassing was supposed to resolve?

Namacc · July 22

i11ionward wrote: »

The_Meathead wrote: »

Changing one Morph of the Heavy Armor skill to remove the snare would be nice.

The secondary skill could also be edited if necessary, but really - is the Break Free cost reduction really worth a massive snare, anyway?

In my opinion, all Armor skills (Heavy, Medium, Light) are, at best, very niche, and some morphs feel completely useless. It would be great if the developers seriously reworked these active abilities. Ideally, if at least one morph of each Armor skill granted Major Resolve, it would make them far more appealing and functional.

I agree.

Isn't it funny that 2 of three armour skills lack the armor buff? xD

I get that it was probably done to encourage different playstyles
- Those in mostly light armor were squishy so got more defence from shields
- Medium was for increased movement and snare removal to maintain movement
- Heavy armour to be a tank.

but just feels outdated now in 2025.

Namacc · July 22

Orbital78 wrote: »

I think all the scribing buffs are way too short

I agree but for me depends on the buff.

I believe the intention was to make major buffs shorter duration because they are more powerful and have minor buffs as longer duration because they are weaker. This is a mistake. It should be different depending on what the buff is. Major buffs like brutality, sorcery, savagery, prophecy, resolve should be 20 secs like most sources not 10 seconds like they are now. Rare and powerful buffs like major vitality shouldn't be 10 seconds.

Namacc · July 22

Vaqual wrote: »

If you deliberately decide to bring lines without Major Resolve, that is the tradeoff you make for what your chosen lines offer.

Except it's not a good tradeoff. My point is that it's always better to use a class line with resolve rather than using a non resolve skill line with Chudan.

I am currently using animal companions, green balance and assassination on a dizzy 2h snb pvp build to be similar to warden pre subclass but with the added damage of using assassination (warden is a highly mobile class with mobile healing with vines + vigor).

Next patch, merciless is getting crit chance, so I don't need to use lotus and have a free skill slot for an armor buff skill but there isn't a good one outside of class.

So why in the next update would I use green balance with Chudan when I can use restoring light with bloodspawn/ balorgh?

Sure with green balance I would have higher healing per second due to vines, with major mending at low health + minor toughness
But with restoring light I can get major resolve with a hot and stamina sustain that continues through block and sprint, purge with group synergy to purge all negative effects, passives that increase healing and auto block for 2 secs every 15 secs at no cost.

Restoring light is clearly better. I just want a good source of major resolve outside of class, so more subclass combinations are competitively viable. Sacrificing using major resolve from a class line and using Chudan with green balance instead of using restoring light with bloodspawn or balorgh isn't a tradeoff - it's a downgrade.

Also, why is it that if a build lacks say a burst heal we can use healing soul to fill the gap but not major resolve through scribing or other skills?

Imo I think other sources of major resolve were left as intentionally bad to encourage us to use class sources to strengthen class identity.
Before subclassing if you saw black spikes on the back you knew it was a dk, a rune on the ground - a templar etc.
But now with subclassing class identity is dead, the only reason to use class source of major resolve is because they are the only good source.

MincMincMinc · July 22

Looks like OP already got to it. Just make the armor skills give major resolve. Not like people use them much anymore, so why not give them a reason that makes sense.

In PvP only problem is with hybridization almost nobody is running 5/1/1 or 5/2 anymore. Light armor generally comes out to match the damage of medium armor, except you are slower movement wise and susceptible to 50% of the damage in the game. Even with medium armor it can be possible to run 5 medium, but you will have to make up for the tankiness loss with some inefficient protective jewelry traits. Then the heavy armor skill is only usable for troll block tanks in pvp. For these reasons I would think armor skills should only require 3 or more of the armor slotted.

Armor skills and weapon skills have the same issue now with subclassing. Most of the time there is an equivalent skill from subclassing that you could take to accomplish the same goal, but with more passives.

Namacc · July 22

Eskibidus wrote: »

I don't like the idea of balancing things with stronger options, and I don't like the overall increase in damage that the game is receiving, both in PVP and PVE.

When subclassing was announced I was gonna quit but having played it the increase in damage is nice in pvp. Time to kill is low right now as it should be to encourage proper counter play. I can't comment on pve because I don't play it. I find it too boring. I only do pve to get gear for pvp.

Namacc · July 22

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

You're forgetting the Warden Frost Cloak. That skill line is not particularly great, but you do get Frost Cloak which gives major resolve to you and your allies, or major resolve + minor protection for you, which are both good, Polar Wind is a nice burst heal with a HOT component, and even the warden projectile shield is useful. If you have a coordinated group, only one of you needs to run this, and it frees everyone else up to run something else. For instance, a player can choose to take this skill line for these buffs, and another one can choose to take the DK skill line with igneous weapons so everyone gets major resolve and major brutality/sorcery.

I thought this was the kind of issue that subclassing was supposed to resolve?

I am not forgetting frost cloak. I main a 2h snb dizzy warden in pvp for 3 years.
Winter's embrace is not a good skill line in pvp. The only reason to use it is if you are building around the chill status effect.

Frost cloak does give major resolve and minor protection but minor protection can be easily gotten through scribing. Also, compare frost cloak to restoring light rune (major resolve + stam/ mag sustain every second and a HoT), the passives alone in restoring light are worth it giving general buffs to all heals, compared to winter's embrace with it's niche focus on frost.

Polar wind is not as good as healing soul which has a tooltip similar to honour the dead but can have major vitality and warden charm. The meta currently in pvp is stacking crit damage. Some sources of crit damage also increase crit healing, like medium armour which will push healing souls burst heal higher. I have seen 18k crit healing souls frequently. The highest I have gotten so far is 21.5k crit and that was with animal companions, assassination and restoring light. Polar wind is a noob trap.

The shield is useful but not necessary. Block, dodge and line of sight is enough.

As you say with coordinated groups they can use frost cloak to be more efficient with their skill selection. But that to me is a ball group. I don't play that way because of how ridiculous the current strength of ball groups are. I am discussing from a solo and small scale point of view.

Adding better sources of major resolve outside of class lines will enable greater build diversity and more competitively viable builds with subclassing. There's like 3000 possible subclass combinations, but how many of those combinations lack major resolve? Those combinations simply aren't worth using.

Vulkunne · July 22

OP, I think that is a wonderful idea. With subclass and all you'd think this would not be as much an issue, but it really is.

To be honest though, with subclass changes you have significantly more damage getting dealt by the meta players, which there are many. That said I doubt things like this will truly matter anymore. In Cyrodiil for exmaple, some of us are running around in full mitigation and getting killed almost instantly now. It's gone to hell in there, there's virtually no time to react, cloaking and shielding is fruitless, (so is health recovery and healing) and so it's made me not even want to go to Cyrodiil anymore for that reason. I should not need to bring a ball group with me to PvP in Cyrodiil.

Cyrodiil feels like another flavor of BGs now rather than how it used to be and over time I've learned to hate BGs too for same reason(s).

Desiato · July 22

I'll play devil's advocate by saying things like this should be an expected trade-off for sublassing in exchange for the benefits offered by replacing the skill line that offers this.

I think chudan and scribing are appropriate workarounds, but of course, they are also a tradeoffs. There have been a lot of strong pvp builds over the years that use chudan in exchange for more bar space.

Digibrax · July 23

I will just say this: Oakensoul

LittlePinkDot · July 23

Namacc wrote: »

Vaqual wrote: »

If you deliberately decide to bring lines without Major Resolve, that is the tradeoff you make for what your chosen lines offer.

Except it's not a good tradeoff. My point is that it's always better to use a class line with resolve rather than using a non resolve skill line with Chudan.

I am currently using animal companions, green balance and assassination on a dizzy 2h snb pvp build to be similar to warden pre subclass but with the added damage of using assassination (warden is a highly mobile class with mobile healing with vines + vigor).

Next patch, merciless is getting crit chance, so I don't need to use lotus and have a free skill slot for an armor buff skill but there isn't a good one outside of class.

So why in the next update would I use green balance with Chudan when I can use restoring light with bloodspawn/ balorgh?

Sure with green balance I would have higher healing per second due to vines, with major mending at low health + minor toughness
But with restoring light I can get major resolve with a hot and stamina sustain that continues through block and sprint, purge with group synergy to purge all negative effects, passives that increase healing and auto block for 2 secs every 15 secs at no cost.

Restoring light is clearly better. I just want a good source of major resolve outside of class, so more subclass combinations are competitively viable. Sacrificing using major resolve from a class line and using Chudan with green balance instead of using restoring light with bloodspawn or balorgh isn't a tradeoff - it's a downgrade.

Also, why is it that if a build lacks say a burst heal we can use healing soul to fill the gap but not major resolve through scribing or other skills?

Imo I think other sources of major resolve were left as intentionally bad to encourage us to use class sources to strengthen class identity.
Before subclassing if you saw black spikes on the back you knew it was a dk, a rune on the ground - a templar etc.
But now with subclassing class identity is dead, the only reason to use class source of major resolve is because they are the only good source.

Maybe they just don't want people to choose 3xDD skill lines without making a sacrifice?

I do think healing skill lines should have major resolve and not just restoring light.

I'm using Chudan right now because Assassination, animal companions and earthen heart skill lines don't have Major resolve. But I guess that's the sacrifice I have to make in order to be able to use fossilized unlockable stun and Corrosive armour with relentless focus and cutting dive.
I also have to use Night Mother's gaze just to get a reliable source of major breach.

Namacc · July 25

Desiato wrote: »

I'll play devil's advocate by saying things like this should be an expected trade-off for sublassing in exchange for the benefits offered by replacing the skill line that offers this.

I think chudan and scribing are appropriate workarounds, but of course, they are also a tradeoffs. There have been a lot of strong pvp builds over the years that use chudan in exchange for more bar space.

Except the benefits of sacrificing a major resolve line like restoring light or storm calling isn't worth it to use 1 extra skill and Chudan. Meta builds will have the bar space to get everything needed on 1 build, so Chudan is unnecessary. Meanwhile non meta builds need to use Chudan. Adding a universal major resolve will make non meta builds slightly more competitive by using a good monster set and open up more build diversity.

For example: I wanted to use fissure, dizzy, killers blade, a good source of crit chance that had a good duration (20 secs or higher) and was active on both bars. I tried using restoring light instead of green balance and got crit chance from contingency. I ended up switching back to green balance for lotus and for mobile healing because having to use mag every 12 secs on contingency for a buff like crit chance isn't worth it and the mobile healing is the way I've played warden for years. I later tested merciless and found that using two burst skills like fissure and merciless was great for time to kill so I had to use Chudan if I wanted to have dizzy, killers blade, crit chance, fissure, merciless and green balance. But now lack a set like balorgh to kill high resist, high hp tanks, or bloodspawn for faster ults in outnumbered and more resists.

Here's the thing tho. If I was using the more meta build (animal companions, assassination, restoring light) with surprise attack - a more meta spammable than dizzy then I wouldn't need killers blade and wouldn't of had to use Chudan because I don't need the barspace and have restoring rune.

A skill line like restoring light is better than any class healing line like green balance for pvp there really isn't a trade off. The skills and passives in restoring light eclipse any healing line.

This circles back to my request for a good universal major resolve. It makes less competitive/ non meta subclass builds like dizzy 2h snb animal companions, assassination, green balance more viable by enabling better monster sets and makes it so you're not required to use restoring light or storm calling to stay competitive.

Namacc · July 25

Digibrax wrote: »

I will just say this: Oakensoul

Reason I'm suggesting a universal major resolve is so non meta builds using chudan are more viable against meta builds using restoring light and balorgh, bloodspawn etc. Oakensoul is a less competitive option.

Not worth sacrificing 10 skills and 2 ults for 5 skills and 1 ult, especially now with all the skills we can get through subclassing or scribing. I understand some don't like to barswap or have accessibility issues. That's what oakensoul is for. But for anyone without those issues double bar builds are better.

Namacc · July 25

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Maybe they just don't want people to choose 3xDD skill lines without making a sacrifice?

I do think healing skill lines should have major resolve and not just restoring light.

I'm using Chudan right now because Assassination, animal companions and earthen heart skill lines don't have Major resolve. But I guess that's the sacrifice I have to make in order to be able to use fossilized unlockable stun and Corrosive armour with relentless focus and cutting dive.
I also have to use Night Mother's gaze just to get a reliable source of major breach.

Namacc wrote: »

Except the benefits of sacrificing a major resolve line like restoring light or storm calling isn't worth it to use 1 extra skill and Chudan. Meta builds will have the bar space to get everything needed on 1 build, so Chudan is unnecessary. Meanwhile non meta builds need to use Chudan. Adding a universal major resolve will make non meta builds slightly more competitive by using a good monster set and open up more build diversity.

This proves my point. No offense but this isn't a good build. You aren't using a set like bloodspawn to get higher ult gen. The time between your corrosives will be too long. If I was fighting this, I'd just turtle up during your corrosive and then afterwards I'd have like 30 - 40 secs or more to play offensive before your next corro. And if I was hit by your fossilize I'd break free and immediately roll dodge your relentless.

You don't need corrosive. You have enough burst with deep fissure, merciless, spammable and incap. And if you still wanted a unblockable stun, there's streak in storm calling along with major resolve source. Or even warden charm on healing soul.

No reason to use earthern heart with those lines and with storm calling or restoring light you can use balorgh for more pen, then you can kill anyone in 1v1. Why are you using nmg when you have access to animal companions deep fissure with major and minor breach?

You don't need fossilize anyway because you are using cliff racer or could use surprise attack - both of these can proc off balance. You can stun an off balance target with a medium attack. SA into medium weave relentless/ merciless with fissure and ult will kill almost everyone. And if you wanted it to be unblockable/ undodgeable either use healing soul with charm or streak.

I myself use dizzy off balance medium into db and merciless. I use warden charm for the combo to be unblockable and undodgeable. See for yourself if interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEN5NwUHzg8

Vaqual · July 27

You seem to be missing the point. It is much more likely that they will incentivise weaker lines, rather than providing further benefits to already over performing builds. It is not a concern whether something will be a good addition to your or generally high performing specs, when there are large discrepancies between skill lines. Chudan or no Chudan isn't a significant enough difference to make something non-meta and deserving of dev support.

madman65 · July 27

Not a Major or Minor Resolve:

https://eso-hub.com/en/sets?filters=4

https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/embershield

https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/jolting-arms

https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/lord-warden

https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/mark-of-the-pariah

Don`t forget the sets that will give you Armor, also Aegis does not work in PVP(I hope no one is using it). Sets like:

https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/iron-flask