Should ESO offer classic skill animations as optional Skill Styles?

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

ESO has been updating skills and animations across all classes, which is exciting, but it can sometimes change visuals players have loved for years. This poll is about giving players the choice to keep classic skill animations as optional Skill Styles, alongside the new animations.

Having the ability to choose allows long-time players to preserve the identity and feel of their favorite class, while still letting new animations exist for those who prefer them. Supporting this poll helps show that player choice matters, and that classic visuals should be respected as part of ESO’s evolving game experience.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

I completely understand that ZOS has to make changes and manage updates across all classes, and the new animations are great in their own right. For many of us, it’s not about undoing that work — it’s about having the option to keep classic skill animations as a choice.

Being able to choose preserves the identity and feel of our favorite classes, while still letting new visuals exist for players who prefer them. Showing support for this poll is a way for us to give constructive feedback without asking anyone to remove their updates.

iyx · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

ABSOLUTELY

robwolf666 · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Yes, if only for the nostalgia for old timers like me who've gotten used to the old animations.

LunaFlora · January 13

i kind of doubt it is even possible to do.
Even if i wanted it, it feels like that is irrelevant.

the skills have been changed.
Fire Breath is now a channel similar to Fatecarver, you cannot revert it with a style as you would be missing a lot of fire from the skill.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

LunaFlora wrote: »

i kind of doubt it is even possible to do.
Even if i wanted it, it feels like that is irrelevant.

the skills have been changed.
Fire Breath is now a channel similar to Fatecarver, you cannot revert it with a style as you would be missing a lot of fire from the skill.

But for purely visual updates — like Dragonknight’s whip, coagulating blood, or spiked armor — the classic animations already exist in-game, work with all gear and animations, and don’t affect gameplay at all. These are exactly the kinds of animations that could easily be offered as optional Skill Styles, letting players keep the look they love while still having the new animations available.

I get what you’re saying, and you’re right that not every gameplay change can be reverted with a Skill Style. For something like Fire Breath, where the channeling and effect have changed, a full revert wouldn’t work.

But there are many instances where they would work

iyx · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

LunaFlora wrote: »

i kind of doubt it is even possible to do.
Even if i wanted it, it feels like that is irrelevant.

the skills have been changed.
Fire Breath is now a channel similar to Fatecarver, you cannot revert it with a style as you would be missing a lot of fire from the skill.

I'm also don't think that rig animation can be reverted to old style, but I guess it's possible with effect textures, like right now we have its different recolors.

WoW made some old skill style variants for players pissed with modern effects, and I dont see why we cant have this option in ESO. The more customisation - the better.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

iyx wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

i kind of doubt it is even possible to do.
Even if i wanted it, it feels like that is irrelevant.

the skills have been changed.
Fire Breath is now a channel similar to Fatecarver, you cannot revert it with a style as you would be missing a lot of fire from the skill.

I'm also don't think that rig animation can be reverted to old style, but I guess it's possible with effect textures, like right now we have its different recolors.

WoW made some old skill style variants for players pissed with modern effects, and I dont see why we cant have this option in ESO. The more customisation - the better.

For sure there’s some that just won’t work, but there’s also a lot that would work just fine and should really be an option instead of just taking away what we know and love

HazierBlue · January 13

No — I’m fine with only the new animation

Makes zero sense from a development standpoint and a waste of resources. The game is already held back by having to cater to old gen consoles. I imagine having double the number of animations would be disastrous for a game that is already struggling with performance.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

HazierBlue wrote: »

Makes zero sense from a development standpoint and a waste of resources. The game is already held back by having to cater to old gen consoles. I imagine having double the number of animations would be disastrous for a game that is already struggling with performance.

The key here is that we’re talking about existing animations that already work in-game. Offering them as optional Skill Styles wouldn’t double the number of animations in memory at once; it’s more like a toggle, where only the selected animation plays.Memory and CPU usage remain essentially the same as before — the toggle is purely visual.

Because these are purely cosmetic and already coded, tested, and compatible with all gear, it’s a low-risk change that wouldn’t affect gameplay or performance, but it would give players choice and preserve class identity.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

HazierBlue wrote: »

Makes zero sense from a development standpoint and a waste of resources. The game is already held back by having to cater to old gen consoles. I imagine having double the number of animations would be disastrous for a game that is already struggling with performance.

However I will agree with the old gen comment

Gabriel_H · January 13

Animations are loa

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

The key here is that we’re talking about existing animations that already work in-game. Offering them as optional Skill Styles wouldn’t double the number of animations in memory at once; it’s more like a toggle, where only the selected animation plays.Memory and CPU usage remain essentially the same as before — the toggle is purely visual.

Animations are all loaded into memory. They are not drawn from the server. They all sit client side.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Animations are loa

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

The key here is that we’re talking about existing animations that already work in-game. Offering them as optional Skill Styles wouldn’t double the number of animations in memory at once; it’s more like a toggle, where only the selected animation plays.Memory and CPU usage remain essentially the same as before — the toggle is purely visual.

Animations are all loaded into memory. They are not drawn from the server. They all sit client side.

They’re client-side, yes — but only the selected animation is instantiated and evaluated at runtime. Style variants don’t mean parallel animation logic or doubled workload; it’s a simple asset swap, similar to existing skill styles or cosmetic overrides. From an engine and performance standpoint, the impact is effectively negligible.

And if anything, using the older, more basic animations would be cheaper, not heavier. Fewer particles, less complex meshes, and simpler timing all reduce visual and rendering overheaDs

rothan117 · January 13

No — I’m fine with only the new animation

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Animations are loa

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

The key here is that we’re talking about existing animations that already work in-game. Offering them as optional Skill Styles wouldn’t double the number of animations in memory at once; it’s more like a toggle, where only the selected animation plays.Memory and CPU usage remain essentially the same as before — the toggle is purely visual.

Animations are all loaded into memory. They are not drawn from the server. They all sit client side.

And, yay, that would increase the install footprint even more having two sets of animations stored.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Oh no, not a couple of extra animations… clearly that’s catastrophic next to all the costumes, hairstyles, and emotes the game ships without a sweat.

Gabriel_H · January 13

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

They’re client-side, yes — but only the selected animation is instantiated and evaluated at runtime.

Nope. Toon animations are all loaded at runtime - how do you think you are seeing other people animations?! Other animations such as mob or say harrowstorms are loaded when you port into their zone.

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Style variants don’t mean parallel animation logic or doubled workload; it’s a simple asset swap, similar to existing skill styles or cosmetic overrides. From an engine and performance standpoint, the impact is effectively negligible.

Colour variants are not the same as animations.

Avran_Sylt · January 13

No — I’m fine with only the new animation

VFX? Sure.
Animations? Not if the channel duration of a skill has changed, and I'd want the route that allows for fastest experimentation for the team.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Gabriel_H wrote: »

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

They’re client-side, yes — but only the selected animation is instantiated and evaluated at runtime.

Nope. Toon animations are all loaded at runtime - how do you think you are seeing other people animations?! Other animations such as mob or say harrowstorms are loaded when you port into their zone.

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Style variants don’t mean parallel animation logic or doubled workload; it’s a simple asset swap, similar to existing skill styles or cosmetic overrides. From an engine and performance standpoint, the impact is effectively negligible.

Colour variants are not the same as animations.

Fair — animations are streamed for replication and mobs load when you zone in. Totally true. But local skill animations? They don’t get streamed, only one variant is ever instantiated, and the files are minuscule compared to costumes, pets, ads you fight, or mementos you happily run around with every day. So yes, technically correct… but also completely irrelevant.

Gabriel_H · January 13

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

But local skill animations?

Skill animations are not "local". All players see all other players animations - so to have changeable animations means that both animations must also be loaded into memory. There would then also need to be an additional check in the code so (for example) my toon knows which animation your toon is using.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Gabriel_H wrote: »

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

But local skill animations?

Skill animations are not "local". All players see all other players animations - so to have changeable animations means that both animations must also be loaded into memory. There would then also need to be an additional check in the code so (for example) my toon knows which animation your toon is using.

skill animations are stored as assets on the client. Only the currently active animation is instantiated and evaluated at runtime. Replication to other clients does not require both variants to be playing simultaneously — it simply sends the reference of which animation to play. The engine already handles dozens of cosmetic overrides, emotes, pets, and mounts using the same system, without duplicating runtime cost. Adding optional skill animation variants does not double memory usage or create significant CPU/GPU overhead. The extra network check to indicate which variant is playing is negligible — it’s just an integer or enum per player, which modern engines handle trivially.

Regardless without any server consequences given the choice to have our old skills additionally I struggle to understand why people would say no but each to their own

Gabriel_H · January 13

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

skill animations are stored as assets on the client. Only the currently active animation is instantiated and evaluated at runtime. Replication to other clients does not require both variants to be playing simultaneously — it simply sends the reference of which animation to play.

1) Runtime is when the game loads. So to have access to both, both need to load.
2) It's not about playing simultaneously - to play the animation it first has to be loaded. Not knowing which animation someone has means the game has to load both, so it can play one or the other.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Gabriel_H wrote: »

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

skill animations are stored as assets on the client. Only the currently active animation is instantiated and evaluated at runtime. Replication to other clients does not require both variants to be playing simultaneously — it simply sends the reference of which animation to play.

1) Runtime is when the game loads. So to have access to both, both need to load.
2) It's not about playing simultaneously - to play the animation it first has to be loaded. Not knowing which animation someone has means the game has to load both, so it can play one or the other.

Skill animations are fully handled by the client — loaded, instantiated, and rendered locally. The server only tracks skill usage and sends a small reference so other clients know which animation to play. It doesn’t matter how many variants exist on your client; only the one being played is instantiated and evaluated. Extra variants sitting on disk do not consume runtime memory or CPU/GPU until used. This means having multiple skill animations has no meaningful impact on client or server performance.

Gabriel_H · January 13

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Skill animations are fully handled by the client — loaded, instantiated, and rendered locally. The server only tracks skill usage and sends a small reference so other clients know which animation to play. It doesn’t matter how many variants exist on your client; only the one being played is instantiated and evaluated. Extra variants sitting on disk do not consume runtime memory or CPU/GPU until used. This means having multiple skill animations has no meaningful impact on client or server performance.

You are so close to getting it. Let me try get you over the line.

I load up my Templar - the game loads into memory all 54 animations for my Templar skills AND all 324 animations for all other class skills - because at some point i'm going to see another player cast one.

Those all sit in memory until the server tells my game which one to play. Doubling up those 378 animations means I now have 378 additional animations sat in memory just in case they need to be played.

It also means instead of my client being told a DK just cast skill X, the server now needs to check which variant of X the DK is using, and then tell my client a DK has cast skill X with variant A.

That's additional memory usage on the client, and additional server calcs. Now replicate that across the board for 12 people in a trial, or 900 people in Cyro. That's a lot of extra server calcs at a time when ZOS are seeking to reduce them.

Edit for clarity: Animation files do not sit on a disk waiting to be played - they are loaded into memory at runtime for faster access when needed.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Gabriel_H wrote: »

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Skill animations are fully handled by the client — loaded, instantiated, and rendered locally. The server only tracks skill usage and sends a small reference so other clients know which animation to play. It doesn’t matter how many variants exist on your client; only the one being played is instantiated and evaluated. Extra variants sitting on disk do not consume runtime memory or CPU/GPU until used. This means having multiple skill animations has no meaningful impact on client or server performance.

You are so close to getting it. Let me try get you over the line.

I load up my Templar - the game loads into memory all 54 animations for my Templar skills AND all 324 animations for all other class skills - because at some point i'm going to see another player cast one.

Those all sit in memory until the server tells my game which one to play. Doubling up those 378 animations means I now have 378 additional animations sat in memory just in case they need to be played.

It also means instead of my client being told a DK just cast skill X, the server now needs to check which variant of X the DK is using, and then tell my client a DK has cast skill X with variant A.

That's additional memory usage on the client, and additional server calcs. Now replicate that across the board for 12 people in a trial, or 900 people in Cyro. That's a lot of extra server calcs at a time when ZOS are seeking to reduce them.

Edit for clarity: Animation files do not sit on a disk waiting to be played - they are loaded into memory at runtime for faster access when needed.

Yes, clients preload animations for other players, but doubling variants adds only a few MB per animation and a trivial network flag. Only the active animation is instantiated and evaluated; everything else sits dormant in memory. The impact on client or server performance is negligible.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Honestly, this wasn’t a thread about server limits or performance — it was about what players want to see and enjoy in a game we’ve supported for years. Let’s leave the technical debate here and focus on the fun part: what people actually want to experience in-game.

Gabriel_H · January 13

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Yes, clients preload animations for other players, but doubling variants adds only a few MB per animation and a trivial network flag. Only the active animation is instantiated and evaluated; everything else sits dormant in memory. The impact on client or server performance is negligible.

And again: The game already has limitations because of memory. It also has performance issues because of server calcs. One extra calc is negligable - hundreds at the same time are not. ZOS are already limiting memory, and are already trying to reduce server calcs. That would run contrary to your claim it won't affect performance.

Pepegrillos · January 13

I can't remember where, maybe in the last combat Q&A, but I think I heard one of the combat devs said that they had to make new animations to fit the changes to some of these skills. I'm not sure if the old animations would fit the new stuff.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Gabriel_H wrote: »

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Yes, clients preload animations for other players, but doubling variants adds only a few MB per animation and a trivial network flag. Only the active animation is instantiated and evaluated; everything else sits dormant in memory. The impact on client or server performance is negligible.

And again: The game already has limitations because of memory. It also has performance issues because of server calcs. One extra calc is negligable - hundreds at the same time are not. ZOS are already limiting memory, and are already trying to reduce server calcs. That would run contrary to your claim it won't affect performance.

Last time I’ll reply as you’re taking away from the poll significantly now

Extra skill animation variants are almost invisible to the server — it only sends a tiny reference ID so other clients know which animation to play. The server doesn’t process or evaluate the animation itself, and only the active animation is instantiated on the client. Compare that to Cyrodiil’s new HoT system: the server has to check every player for multiple HoTs, track how many are active, and reduce healing by 50% after the third. That’s a per-tick, per-player, multiple times per second,scaling calculation that happens large PvP zones. In comparison, optional skill animations are trivial for both client and server, and have effectively no impact on performance.

MXVIIDREAM · January 13

Yes — I want the classic animation available as a choice

Pepegrillos wrote: »

I can't remember where, maybe in the last combat Q&A, but I think I heard one of the combat devs said that they had to make new animations to fit the changes to some of these skills. I'm not sure if the old animations would fit the new stuff.

Agree to a point but there’s a large amount that would obviously it’s skill subjective

Gabriel_H · January 13

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

MXVIIDREAM wrote: »

Yes, clients preload animations for other players, but doubling variants adds only a few MB per animation and a trivial network flag. Only the active animation is instantiated and evaluated; everything else sits dormant in memory. The impact on client or server performance is negligible.

And again: The game already has limitations because of memory. It also has performance issues because of server calcs. One extra calc is negligable - hundreds at the same time are not. ZOS are already limiting memory, and are already trying to reduce server calcs. That would run contrary to your claim it won't affect performance.

Last time I’ll reply as you’re taking away from the poll significantly now

Extra skill animation variants are almost invisible to the server — it only sends a tiny reference ID so other clients know which animation to play. The server doesn’t process or evaluate the animation itself, and only the active animation is instantiated on the client. Compare that to Cyrodiil’s new HoT system: the server has to check every player for multiple HoTs, track how many are active, and reduce healing by 50% after the third. That’s a per-tick, per-player, multiple times per second,scaling calculation that happens large PvP zones. In comparison, optional skill animations are trivial for both client and server, and have effectively no impact on performance.

Oh, I'm sorry if I'm introducing actual concerns and pointing out actual problems to the debate. Having a poll without understanding the subject in it's entirity makes the poll garbage. So, I'm going to point out again:

"Extra skill animation variants are almost invisible to the server" - having multiple options, where there were none before, adds server calcs
"only the active animation is instantiated on the client" - it's not. All animations are loaded into memory (instantiated)
"In comparison, optional skill animations are trivial for both client and server, and have effectively no impact on performance." - And again: The game already has limitations because of memory. It also has performance issues because of server calcs. One extra calc is negligable - hundreds at the same time are not. ZOS are already limiting memory, and are already trying to reduce server calcs. That would run contrary to your claim it won't affect performance.

tomofhyrule · January 13

They can't.

The whole point about redoing animations (as we saw with all of these and even the previous ones like Jabs and Flurry) is that the timing of the attacks changed. That means the animation needs to match the attack. Old jabs and new jabs attack different numbers of times and have a different animation length, so using the old version will not match the attack at all.

What you're really asking for is something like "I want to have a quick fire breath animation, and then have my character stand in a T-pose for 3.8 seconds afterwards since the attack is still going but the animation is done."

The Elder Scrolls Online

Should ESO offer classic skill animations as optional Skill Styles?

Should ESO offer classic skill animations as optional Skill Styles? 44 votes