ESO's Class Identity Refresh

robertlabrie · December 2

Probably already a bunch of forum posts about this already, but I'll throw my $0.02 onto the pile. All classes _shouldn't_ be able to do all roles. There should absolutely be some scenarios where they're ridiculously OP and others where they're weak. Frost based wardens should be weak against fire based bosses .... use your DK tank for that dungeon. Same goes for what's left of PVP after vengeance takes over: countering other builds should be "easy" with the right setup (that's weak to some other setup). It's too balanced. Everything is the same. The letter talks about a power fantasy but all the roles are basically mush. I walk around with a 1 bar lighting staff sorc just holding down left mouse button and watching everything melt. Turn it up to 11 and punish bad choices. We get 8 character slots for free and another 12 with crowns lots of room to experiment. Don't forget about races in the refresh either. Or I'm completely wrong and no one wants this. Either way, thought I'd share.

Spearblade · December 3

Agree and disagree. Game is too easy. I think few argue that. With the right CP and gear, I can afk in the open world, and not only be fine, but passively murder anything that attacks me- while afk. I think every class SHOULD be able to do every role, albeit differently. In your tank example, perhaps a sorcerer is reliant on damage shields to help mitigate incoming damage, and a templar is more paladin-like, with access to big heals in a "Lay on Hands" kind of fashion. Or a warden shares damage with their animal companion. Or a nightblade adopts a playstyle similar to WoW's blood death knight (basically siphoning). There are indoubtedly scenarios where each class would have a slight advantage over another, but all are definitely viable. Especially when played well.

Soarora · December 3

I have thought for a while that thematic damage would be pretty awesome. I think having it reflected on the players though wouldn’t be great. There are differences in utility between tank classes that make different classes ideal for different content, I don’t think people should be forced to use a certain tank in certain content to get around an increased damage taken debuff. Instead, the utility should drive the choices. That way, people can reasonably use their favorite class in every content but people with many tanks still want to choose class based on content. For example, I usually use sorc tank because its my main but I’ll use necro tank for necro res, ultgen, or auto-chaining ranged enemies. I use plar for knocking off the adds in FV HM and for a small amount of extra damage. I use arc for Bal Sunnar HM because last boss there has a mega healcheck and arc ult helps.

Silvains_Demon · December 3

To be honest, I just hope that the Necromancer gets an extreme make over. It could break that mold of solo/temp pet/perm pet. It could be a mix.

ESO_Nightingale · December 3

robertlabrie wrote: »

Probably already a bunch of forum posts about this already, but I'll throw my $0.02 onto the pile. All classes _shouldn't_ be able to do all roles. There should absolutely be some scenarios where they're ridiculously OP and others where they're weak. Frost based wardens should be weak against fire based bosses .... use your DK tank for that dungeon. Same goes for what's left of PVP after vengeance takes over: countering other builds should be "easy" with the right setup (that's weak to some other setup). It's too balanced. Everything is the same. The letter talks about a power fantasy but all the roles are basically mush. I walk around with a 1 bar lighting staff sorc just holding down left mouse button and watching everything melt. Turn it up to 11 and punish bad choices. We get 8 character slots for free and another 12 with crowns lots of room to experiment. Don't forget about races in the refresh either. Or I'm completely wrong and no one wants this. Either way, thought I'd share.

making specific specs feast or famine in specific encounters is such an incredibly bad idea i genuinely don't understand why i see the suggestion. zos already has a bad reputation when balancing, this wouldn't work well at all.

Major_Mangle · December 3

Nah, the old school trinity with certain classes being better/worse at things is something ancient that should stay in the past. Loath modern games who still push this trope. All classes should be able to fulfil any role to a certain level. They don't necessarily need to achieve it in the same way, and metas should exist, but god forbid that the garbage design of "holy trinity" ever becomes a thing in eso.

MincMincMinc · December 3

I'm just waiting to see if they keep the same boring copy and paste reskin skills on each class. Like how each class plays exactly the same. Wardens time their shalks, necro has Blastbones, nb has merciless......

Back in the day sorc was your timed lineup class
NB was your instant direct burst class
DK was your dot timer and CC class
Templar was your tank and spank ramp up class.

Sorc sustain was a deficit model where you built max stat pools and had little regen. So you would burn out and suffocate yourself if you were not careful.
Dk was all about ult gen and resetting the fights with ult while trying to keep up effects.
Templar was about building your house and draining bodies or giving resources to allies.
NB was about quick kills and diving in and out.

I think the game broke off once warden came around and had better burst than a sorc, except with the constant free regen model that required no thinking. At some point zos started gutting all playstyles to copy this model like how darkdeal was cut and changed to give resources over time. Regen in the game overall became easier to get. Once sustain is free for everyone players start bouncing between tank and damage metas over and over because there is nothing stopping or limiting either. Subclassing just exaggerated this because now people were lining up their copy paste timed burst skill with procs AND their subclassed timed skills.

To an older player like me I personally dont see the skill in tanking for 30s just to line up a simple predetermined timed proc combo. People 10 years ago used to make fun of other players for crutching on one trick meta combos instead of learning how to fight and burn down each other's resources.