ZOS, Can we get longer buff uptime on scribed skills?

CaptainVenom · August 2025

I mean... most core buffs such as sorcery and prophecy only last for 10 seconds on scribed abilities, while most other abilities last for 20, 30, even 40 seconds. Right now, using scribing for buffing doesn't feel impactful: it actually feels clunky and not ideal.

Erickson9610 · August 2025

I agree. Why use Scribing skills if they give you lower uptimes on Major buffs?

Sluggy · August 2025

PvP Perspective Here: I think it's fine the way they are. Now that multiclassing is a thing we can opt out of entire skill lines that would normally cover a specific aspect of any well-rounded build but scribing can be used in it's place to fill that gap. As an example, I run three offensive skill lines and would otherwise have very limited access to a burst heal and no major armor buff. But with scribing I can cover that entire gap with just a single skill (healing soul in this case) - one that's actually better than healing staff's burst heal as well as most class alternatives and it has absolutely zero prerequisites unlike the other options (no weapon or skill lines are needed). So I think it makes sense that there needs to be a kind of trade off, otherwise you're just going to push the power creep even higher.

Thumbless_Bot · August 2025

Sluggy wrote: »

PvP Perspective Here: I think it's fine the way they are. Now that multiclassing is a thing we can opt out of entire skill lines that would normally cover a specific aspect of any well-rounded build but scribing can be used in it's place to fill that gap. As an example, I run three offensive skill lines and would otherwise have very limited access to a burst heal and no major armor buff. But with scribing I can cover that entire gap with just a single skill (healing soul in this case) - one that's actually better than healing staff's burst heal as well as most class alternatives and it has absolutely zero prerequisites unlike the other options (no weapon or skill lines are needed). So I think it makes sense that there needs to be a kind of trade off, otherwise you're just going to push the power creep even higher.

There is one prerequisite; healing soul requires the caster to be alone or the lowest health person within a spherical radius. If your teammates is on the floor below you in a bg and has lower health, the heal will go to them, even if you are looking at the two moons of nirn. Good luck with that.

YandereGirlfriend · August 2025

Big agree here.

Also to get some better permutation of the buffs across the various Scribing skills.

Like, why is Empower so restricted vs. Minor Resolve is available from basically every skill.

There is little, if any, discernible logic to it.

Freelancer_ESO · August 2025

Keep in mind the limitations of Scribing abilities are also what leaves openings for new abilities in the future.

Erickson9610 · August 2025

Freelancer_ESO wrote: »

Keep in mind the limitations of Scribing abilities are also what leaves openings for new abilities in the future.

New abilities will come regardless of how limited Scribing abilities are. I'm hoping we get additional Scribing abilities in the future though, including for skill lines which already have one.

Freelancer_ESO · August 2025

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Freelancer_ESO wrote: »

Keep in mind the limitations of Scribing abilities are also what leaves openings for new abilities in the future.

New abilities will come regardless of how limited Scribing abilities are. I'm hoping we get additional Scribing abilities in the future though, including for skill lines which already have one.

For people to want a new ability it needs to do something the existing abilities don't do or to do it better.

So, you will either need to power creep the new content rendering the Scribed abilities inferior or you will need to leave areas that the Scribed abilities aren't actually that good at to allow other abilities to shine.

Obviously, it doesn't necessarily feel great to need to use an ability every 10 seconds but, if you want to be adding classes/skill lines for the next two decades and not need to power creep like crazy you probably want Scribing to not be able to provide ideal implementations of every feature at least not without a significant cost (ex: Banner Bearer).

Erickson9610 · August 2025

Freelancer_ESO wrote: »

For people to want a new ability it needs to do something the existing abilities don't do or to do it better.

That's not true. People want new classes because of how different they play, look, and feel. People want new skills (Scribing or otherwise) to add new options into their builds.

Scribing skills are unique in that they add new skills to existing skill lines. They give you more options if you want to use existing skill lines, i.e. using Torchbearer instead of the other Fighters Guild skills to benefit from Fighters Guild passives. Not only is Torchbearer thematically a fun skill to use, it can also be useful for a variety of builds.

One day we might even get Grimoires for Class skill lines, and they may perform equally as good as the regular Class abilities in that line.

tsaescishoeshiner · August 2025

The recently standardized the Scribing buffs, but I think they should make exceptions for certain ones.

For example, Major Defile and Major Protection are honestly pretty long at 10 seconds, which is fine. Same with Major Expedition and Vitality.

But most other skills that give Major Prophecy/Savagery, Major Sorcery/Brutality, and Major Resolve last 20-30 seconds. It's so helpful that Scribing offers another way to get these buffs, but they don't last long enough to justify using many of the fitting combinations.

Necrotech_Master · August 2025

minor buffs on scribing i think are OK, as most of those are 20 (or 22 seconds on ulfsilds if you have the passives)

major buffs i agree are too punishing being only 10 sec, i feel like 20 seconds is definitely a good "bottom limit" for how long most of those last

in terms of regular skills you can get 100% uptimes of major dmg and major crit buffs purely by slotting some skills ON THE BACK BAR and dont even have to be used to maintain these buffs

if you want to use a scribe skill, most all of those are set up to basically replace a spammable (theres no "dot" focus script for say wield soul for example)

so while i like the idea of scribing, a lot of the use cases i see for it are too limiting to really make it useful