New player on combat

Lighthope · August 11

Tried out ESO a long time ago. Internet connection was bad so couldn't play it.

Better internet now, so decided to give ESO another try.

Combat is...I'm not sure. Am I missing something? It seems to be cast spell, light attack, cast spell, light attack, cast spell, light attack, wash rinse repeat. (Throw in a heavy attack as necessary.)

Stuck me as really boring.

Am I missing something?

I know, keep the dots going, then your main attack spell, light attack, etc.

Is that it?

MMO experience is only WoW, GW2, FF14, and this.

Sluggy · August 11

Lighthope wrote: »

Combat is...I'm not sure. Am I missing something? It seems to be cast spell, light attack, cast spell, light attack, cast spell, light attack, wash rinse repeat. (Throw in a heavy attack as necessary.)

I mean, I think you've distilled down pretty much every single video game combat system ever made right there.

One thing to keep in mind is that the combat system was designed pretty much entirely around the concept of PvP and while that has more-or-less been relegated to third class citizenship in this game by this point a lot of the DNA still exists from that. That vast majority of PvE content in this game is simply too trivial to require any kind of thought or effort when engaging with combat and the little that does require it (mostly DLC on veteran difficulty) still mostly boils down to a mere case of optimizing for highest possible damage in shortest possible amount of time.

Navaac223 · August 11

If you think dealing damage is boring, try tanking : you still have to weave light attacks but you also have to taunt, keep yourself alive, block heavy attacks, keep track of the boss mechanics, debuffing the enemies, interrupting... but most importantly : stack.

Stacking enemies can take a while to master, I find it pretty satisfying to create new strats to stack the adds fast, especially when unpullable ranged adds get involved.

The main problem with tanking is that it's only really fun in hard content. That's why a lot of people think it's basically just blocking and taunting every 15 secs, but once you start using stagger (from a skill called stone giant), trample (for ultimate with major heroism), casting ults at the right time to buff the group, proccing major maim/cowardice... it starts getting interesting

colossalvoids · August 11

The higher you go on a content ladder the more things you'd be doing essentially, if you're just starting out you indeed probably don't need much but la mobs to death running around, throwing an occasional aoe, spammable or a heal if really desperate. PvP is a good source of going straight into utilising your kit fully but that leap might turn you away for different reasons like knowledge/skill gap etc. it's also not in a best state currently, to say the least.

albertberku · August 11

To answer the question frankly, you are right and you are not missing anything. ESO combat gameplay cant stand a chance near GW2 combat gameplay, one of the best in the industry. More you get into it, more you realise how badly it is designed and managed. Or at least lets say it feels like it is not their main attention point.

ESO appeal is at their state of art atmosphere and world creation.

Lighthope · August 11

albertberku wrote: »

To answer the question frankly, you are right and you are not missing anything. ESO combat gameplay cant stand a chance near GW2 combat gameplay, one of the best in the industry. More you get into it, more you realise how badly it is designed and managed. Or at least lets say it feels like it is not their main attention point.

ESO appeal is at their state of art atmosphere and world creation.

Thank for for that very honest assessment.

I tried a couple dungeons and combat was extremely boring, so I understand what you are saying.

I ended up uninstalling. Maybe I'll try again another time in the future, but combat isn't engaging enough to be fun.

MincMincMinc · August 12

Lighthope wrote: »

Tried out ESO a long time ago. Internet connection was bad so couldn't play it.

Better internet now, so decided to give ESO another try.

Combat is...I'm not sure. Am I missing something? It seems to be cast spell, light attack, cast spell, light attack, cast spell, light attack, wash rinse repeat. (Throw in a heavy attack as necessary.)

Stuck me as really boring.

Am I missing something?

I know, keep the dots going, then your main attack spell, light attack, etc.

Is that it?

MMO experience is only WoW, GW2, FF14, and this.

PvE has generally always beeen boring on the weave side of things where its just a preset combo you could basically macro

PvP was always generally more involved having to make weaves and combos on the fly that could change each second. However, eso used to have more emphasis on weaving and the player input side of things. Now a days you basically have been power crept to have every buff in the game so different skills and weaves all feel the same. Having a high enough base regen pool combined with inflated buffs made players good at weaving and sustaining not stand out anymore. Early days eso used to also have more varied playstyles:

Sorc would have high pools with low regen. So streak was needed to peel away and "come up for a breath" after diving. Youd be vulnerable in this time period.
Templar used to have to stand its ground which is why it had so many ground places and aoes combined with the heals
NB used to sustain off hit chance
Weapons had their own playstyles aswell like 2h used to have a unique dizzy that was longer cast time and more of a rewarding skill shot to weave. Now it is just a boring guaranteed low damage basic skill
Sword and shield used to have its own block and bash weave for damage that paired with reliable cc and debuffs
Dual wield used to be more about quick hits and dots, but for the most part the skills have been eclipsed by class skills gaining more and more "slotted" passives. So why take an out of class dot skill when you could take an inclass dot skill that gives you 5% more crit just for slotting a skill from that line?

Vaqual · September 1

If you are ok going off meta, ESO offers truly unparalleled build crafting. Active interrupts, blocks and non-ability bound stun breaks offer further combat depth compared to GW2. I played GW2 for a long time, clearing all raid CMs until strikes dropped and reaching Legendary Division in sPvP while I was most active. Combat in ESO felt clunky to me in the beginning, but I like it much more than GW2 combat now and I have not returned for years (tried once, but the love is gone). In ESO you can really customize your character, as you envision him or her to be like in no other game. The meta adoration in ESO is almost comical, which can make pugging quite the painful experience, but I can't say that it was any better in GW2 at the time.
My personal recommendation: Beat the game with your build and your character. You can decide how you experience the game.
Overland quest content is trivial as it is everywhere else, but soloing or low-manning group content can be a nice challenge if meta comped raids/trials are too formulaic for you. Same goes for PvP, but of course - as everywhere else - you are going to encounter tryhards and personalities with fragile egos.