Some thoughts on Class Identity

purolator · December 2025

I had some thoughts about Class Identity and want to see what the rest of the player base thinks about them.

Add a new item slot called 'Class Item'
A magical focus for Sorcerer, a totem for Warden, holy symbol for Templar, a grimoire for arcanists, etc.

Have these items add distinct visual effects to the player and their class skills and bestow class mechanic altering effects.

Make it so you can only equip these class items if you have 2 or more of your base class skill lines equipped.

Make it so equipping a class item unlocks a new set bonus on each class set from infinite archive, kind of like a mastery set bonus. Again with a drastic and powerful class oriented benefit.

What do you guys think?

SilverBride · December 2025

purolator wrote: »

Have these items add distinct visual effects to the player and their class skills and bestow class mechanic altering effects.

If anything like this is added to my characters I'm done.

purolator · December 2025

Lol fair, so make the visuals an optional toggle on/off sort of thing.

SilverBride · December 2025

purolator wrote: »

Lol fair, so make the visuals an optional toggle on/off sort of thing.

That won't stop me from seeing other players' effects. Things are already too cartoony with all the loud flashy mounts and recalls. Please, no more.

purolator · December 2025

The glowing earnable Trials skins already drown us in cartoonish-ness and ruin any immersion. I was thinking something more along the lines of the class item being visibly equipped on your character in the same way you can see sheathed weapons and having them enhance the animation of class skills in some way.

kind_hero · December 2025

The problem is with balance, not with visuals, because those can be addressed easier with animation changes or styles.
When everyone picks the same multiclass combinations, like everyone has an arcanist beam, there is no more class diversity, there is no problem to solve with your class, you just follow the train.

In a class system, each class should have unique benefits that feel rewarding, like I can't vanish, but I have this powerful shield, or I can teleport, but I am not good at heals etc. Getting such a build right, and making it rewarding, is what made this game interesting until some years ago, when there was a lot of talks about "homogenization", "streamlining" etc to allow hybrid builds. People like options and sandboxy games, so now it's very hard to do a U turn and say, we redefine classes like this and that. It shows the devs don't really know what they want, and they had many takes on how to address these issues.

In my opinion, they'll never get it right, the cat's out of the bag, unless they do something dramatic like remove multiclassing, which is unlikely. The least I would like now, is a range of visual effects, so at least I could create a visual theme around my multiclassed and broken chars (btw, I switched back to simple class on my main).

In ESO classes don't bring unique useful things in a group that are memorable. Some people compared to WoW, where mages created portals to cities or food/water or a table with food, warlocks could summon a group of people, paladins had the invulnerability bubble etc. Maybe having such unique abilities tied to your class, and losing them if you multiclass would make some players stay in the class, but the choice must be rewarding beyond some situational perk.

purolator · December 2025

kind_hero wrote: »

The problem is with balance, not with visuals, because those can be addressed easier with animation changes or styles.
When everyone picks the same multiclass combinations, like everyone has an arcanist beam, there is no more class diversity, there is no problem to solve with your class, you just follow the train.

In a class system, each class should have unique benefits that feel rewarding, like I can't vanish, but I have this powerful shield, or I can teleport, but I am not good at heals etc. Getting such a build right, and making it rewarding, is what made this game interesting until some years ago, when there was a lot of talks about "homogenization", "streamlining" etc to allow hybrid builds. People like options and sandboxy games, so now it's very hard to do a U turn and say, we redefine classes like this and that. It shows the devs don't really know what they want, and they had many takes on how to address these issues.

In my opinion, they'll never get it right, the cat's out of the bag, unless they do something dramatic like remove multiclassing, which is unlikely. The least I would like now, is a range of visual effects, so at least I could create a visual theme around my multiclassed and broken chars (btw, I switched back to simple class on my main).

In ESO classes don't bring unique useful things in a group that are memorable. Some people compared to WoW, where mages created portals to cities or food/water or a table with food, warlocks could summon a group of people, paladins had the invulnerability bubble etc. Maybe having such unique abilities tied to your class, and losing them if you multiclass would make some players stay in the class, but the choice must be rewarding beyond some situational perk.

These are some perfect examples of the types of things that could potentially be added with class items, and the limit to Subclassing only one skill line in exchange for using a class item would bring the whole Subclassing system more in line.