Thoughts on Light Attack Weaving Amid ESO's Exciting 2026 Roadmap

frogthroat · January 20

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

This feels like a perfect moment to politely revisit light attack (LA) weaving, a mechanic that's been a staple but one I've always hoped could be refined for broader accessibility and fun.

I don't really get what your idea of refining weaving is. How would you refine it? Not removing it, that's not what you suggest, right?

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

For context, LA weaving originated as a form of animation canceling—an unintended exploit where players clip light attacks into skills to bypass recovery animations, boosting DPS significantly. While it's now a core meta technique, it turns smooth, immersive combat into a precise, twitchy rhythm that disrupts fluid animations and demands sub-second timing.

Well, the origins are irrelevant after ZOS has embraced it and even on loading screens it explains how it works.

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

I love ESO's action combat (even more than Destiny 2's gunplay in some ways), but weaving often feels like a chore rather than an engaging flow.

Then don't do it. It's not mandatory unless you are scorepushing and especially after Velothi and arcanist beams it's more and more optional.

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

More importantly, it creates barriers for players with physical challenges. Folks with arthritis, tendinitis, or other hand/musculoskeletal issues have shared how the rapid inputs exacerbate pain or make it outright unfeasible, limiting their DPS and group viability. Addons and controller aids help some, but not everyone.

I don't think LA-weaving is going to be the biggest challenge in the content where LA-weaving starts to matter a lot. Not everyone has to get Swashbuckler Supreme.

LA weaving is not magic. It gives a small boost to your damage, less now than before, but you can absolutely clear even difficult content without ever weaving a single time.

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

The good news? Perfect weaving isn't required for most content. Many players clear all trials, dungeons, and arenas with solid but imperfect rotations—top parses are really just a hyper-competitive niche, not the norm, I mean just Imagine if ZOS leaned into the 2026 class updates to make high DPS more achievable through smart design: better baseline skill synergies, optional weaving bonuses.

LA weaving already is optional. Especially after Velothi and Arcanist class. What does it take away from you when other people use LA weaving?

If you are in a situation where your group leader demands LA-weaving, you are most likely in a prog trial group and have already agreed to optimise your build to the very last enchant on your gear and morph on your skill bar. Otherwise, I doubt anyone is going to tell you to weave or else.

frogthroat · January 20

Orbital78 wrote: »

unless they know you play DK or Necro well.

In my prog trial group we have a Warden main with bear ulti. He's often, if not the #1 dps, at least quite high on the list.

Sometimes you get these people who have played their class for 10 years and can outparse even the current meta.

Orbital78 · January 20

frogthroat wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

unless they know you play DK or Necro well.

In my prog trial group we have a Warden main with bear ulti. He's often, if not the #1 dps, at least quite high on the list.

Sometimes you get these people who have played their class for 10 years and can outparse even the current meta.

I don't doubt it, it is rarer but I have met wardens that out DPS many.

exiars10 · February 23

Of course ESO minority who managed to do properly initially just bug is in its own bubble and defend it

.
The worst mistake devs did was to cater to them.

Outside the bubble, ESO is the most notorious for the worst combat in any MMO.
Just go read anywhere outside bubble in the last 10 years, and it's almost always that the combat is the ranked as the worst aspect of the game.
It goes like this "I would play ESO / I tried it but combat is horrible" or similar adjectives.

For me personally, combat is mostly terrible (LA weaing is just one part), and that doesn't include just playing as DD - tanking is even worse. Probably the worst aspect of game (excluding hundreds bugs) for me.

Frayton · February 23

I parse high enough to complete trial trifectas, but I despise LA weaving bc it can be so janky and feels disruptive to a rotation especially with skills that have a cast time. I know some people view it as a talent flex and will defend it to the death, but I always saw it as just a necessary evil if I wanted to get on a roster for the hardest content in the game.

I was glad when ZOS introduced other ways to get high damage that wasn't so focused on LA perfection, not just bc I hate LA, but bc I saw more players try endgame raiding.

I hope ZOS gets rid of it altogether.

Last'One · February 23

Well, it’s as simple as you said. LA weaving takes advantage of an “unintended exploit”, essentially a bug related to animation canceling. If the developers ever fix this, a very large portion of the player base will complain, because they’ll realize their DPS is ultimately the same as that of newer or more casual players. And since this is a very big issue for ZoS, no one is likely to change it. Toxicity, gatekeeping, and everything surrounding DPS have effectively become part of ESO.

The Elder Scrolls Online isn’t really about fun, immersion, or the rich lore the series is known for anymore.
It’s about logs, Hodor, and the endless DPS race.

Paramedicus · February 23

Discussion about LA weaving in 2026? Do you guys have a to-dumb-down list before ESO dies?

LA weaving, as poopy as it is, adds another layer of skill to the game.

And when people complain about combat in 2026, it's about its low cool factor, floatiness, the feeling of little impact when pew-pewing something, the almost zero satisfaction when something dies (it sometimes happens in optimized groups where you meld mobs.. though it happens much too late in the game -> it's unavailable to new players),

BTW did anyone note how much annoying CC is in the older content? This doesn't help either.

Frayton · February 23

Paramedicus wrote: »

floatiness, the feeling of little impact when pew-pewing something

Are there certain skills or weapons you're referring to? I can't think of any that feel floaty except that weird dual wield animation where it looks like you're just waving your arms around, and a resto staff but it's a resto staff.

I know weaving and some skill casting can look out of sync if that's what you mean, but for the most part, floaty or little impact is not an issue that comes to mind when I think of ESO combat.

ToddIngram · February 23

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

Northwold · February 23

ToddIngram wrote: »

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

And once you get the skill, you get arthritis. It's genius.

Orbital78 · February 23

Northwold wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

And once you get the skill, you get arthritis. It's genius.

Gaming devices can alleviate it some.

Paramedicus · February 23

Frayton wrote: »

Paramedicus wrote: »

floatiness, the feeling of little impact when pew-pewing something

Are there certain skills or weapons you're referring to? I can't think of any that feel floaty except that weird dual wield animation where it looks like you're just waving your arms around, and a resto staff but it's a resto staff.

I know weaving and some skill casting can look out of sync if that's what you mean, but for the most part, floaty or little impact is not an issue that comes to mind when I think of ESO combat.

Most of the skills and weapons. There is not much oomph-factor. It is like playing shooter with water guns

James-Wayne · February 23

I can't stand the weaving, on a ping of 300+ it just creates rubber banding and stuck animations. They should reduce damage from light attacks and increase damage on skills.

CameraBeardThePirate · February 23

Northwold wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

And once you get the skill, you get arthritis. It's genius.

My guy you either need a better mouse, a more ergonomic grip on your mouse, or are spamming click way too fast if you think weaving is going to give you arthritis. Realistically you shouldn't be clicking more than once a second, and you arent going to be clicking any more than something like a fast paced FPS game.

CameraBeardThePirate · February 23

James-Wayne wrote: »

I can't stand the weaving, on a ping of 300+ it just creates rubber banding and stuck animations. They should reduce damage from light attacks and increase damage on skills.

They literally already did this. Use Velothi and don't light attack weave if your ping prevents it.

cyclonus11 · February 23

I've never been able to LA weave successfully due to lag/latency/etc. so I only tank for group content. It feels like it's dependent on having the absolute best connection and the best rig money can buy if you want to be competitive in DPS.

I also experience fun stuff like hitting jump to try and jump over a river only to fall into the river and jump a few seconds later. Thank goodness for swimming mounts!

Ruthless · February 24

LA is the glue of eso combat

Northwold · February 24

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

And once you get the skill, you get arthritis. It's genius.

My guy you either need a better mouse, a more ergonomic grip on your mouse, or are spamming click way too fast if you think weaving is going to give you arthritis. Realistically you shouldn't be clicking more than once a second, and you arent going to be clicking any more than something like a fast paced FPS game.

All I can say to that is wait and see.

exiars10 · 9:22AM

As I said, combat bubble.

ToddIngram wrote: »

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

Yes, unique in the worst possible way.
In every gaming community especially MMO, ESO combat is consistently ranked as the worst.
Go read when somebody type "Should I try ESO as is just 5 USD on sale?" in gaming communities, it is quickly killed by bad combat comments.
Game only survived because of TES name, One Tamriel update, and consoles launch (no MMO competition). Any other game would otherwise died quickly with combat like that.

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

I can't stand the weaving, on a ping of 300+ it just creates rubber banding and stuck animations. They should reduce damage from light attacks and increase damage on skills.

They literally already did this. Use Velothi and don't light attack weave if your ping prevents it.

New players don't have Velothi, once they try combat they just bail out.
Heck, even I who again play for some time, didn't have it until two days ago because of drop rates.
And it's super / heavily time gated behind Scrivener's Hall.
Basically solution is super heavily gated (money + a lot of time and rng) instead to be accessible.
And another solution is "just use beam" Arcanist which is PvE DD P2W class for me and I refuse to create him despite owning Necrom.

cuddles_with_wroble · 1:08PM

one thing i havent really seen brought up is that if we remove weaving than what do we replace it with? sure it looks buggy and awful and it makes the combat loop needlessly complicated for no reason... but its also so baked into the game that if you outright removed it than the game would look really weird unless you reworked every single animation and made skills flow into combos one after another instead of being individual casts

Rungar · 1:22PM

cuddles_with_wroble wrote: »

one thing i havent really seen brought up is that if we remove weaving than what do we replace it with? sure it looks buggy and awful and it makes the combat loop needlessly complicated for no reason... but its also so baked into the game that if you outright removed it than the game would look really weird unless you reworked every single animation and made skills flow into combos one after another instead of being individual casts

Id wager most dont do that and its a limiting factor in how long some play the game. There are builds in the game now that dont rely on weaving and they work just fine, they usually just arent competetive.

if i were to fix it though i would make light and heavy attacks slottable skills that rely on conditional status effects. So if you put a status on an enemy these attacks would have more oomph and high efficiency if your built for that specific status effect.

status effects usually have a very short window in eso so it would be a beautiful and skillfull marriage. Less mindless busywork, more exploiting openings.

cause effect---> exploit effect while you can.

Heronisan · 1:31PM

exiars10 wrote: »

As I said, combat bubble.

ToddIngram wrote: »

Light attack weaving is an integral part of ESO combat system. It makes ESO unique, and that's a good thing.

There is supposed to be a skill gap between those who've put the time in to learn the system and those who haven't.

Yes, unique in the worst possible way.
In every gaming community especially MMO, ESO combat is consistently ranked as the worst.
Go read when somebody type "Should I try ESO as is just 5 USD on sale?" in gaming communities, it is quickly killed by bad combat comments.
Game only survived because of TES name, One Tamriel update, and consoles launch (no MMO competition). Any other game would otherwise died quickly with combat like that.

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

I can't stand the weaving, on a ping of 300+ it just creates rubber banding and stuck animations. They should reduce damage from light attacks and increase damage on skills.

They literally already did this. Use Velothi and don't light attack weave if your ping prevents it.

New players don't have Velothi, once they try combat they just bail out.
Heck, even I who again play for some time, didn't have it until two days ago because of drop rates.
And it's super / heavily time gated behind Scrivener's Hall.
Basically solution is super heavily gated (money + a lot of time and rng) instead to be accessible.
And another solution is "just use beam" Arcanist which is PvE DD P2W class for me and I refuse to create him despite owning Necrom.

New players also dont have 2 bars, and theres not a single overland, normal dungeon or any other content new players dabble in that requires la weaving, even regular vets. They are so far away from playing content where la weaving is needed its absurd. They dont even know la weaving is a thing when they first try combat. What new players complain about is floaty combat, which would require a full rework of the combat system. So would "fixing" weaving.

Weaving barely counts for ur total dps anymore, and that is for 100k+ parses, for a new player it would be microscopic, good players do it because, why not? Pressing a la before a skill gives u a slight bonus, Might aswell fire of a la and get that ult gen.

New players dps is also so bad la weaving is the last thing they would need to work on

Heronisan · 1:47PM

cuddles_with_wroble wrote: »

one thing i havent really seen brought up is that if we remove weaving than what do we replace it with? sure it looks buggy and awful and it makes the combat loop needlessly complicated for no reason... but its also so baked into the game that if you outright removed it than the game would look really weird unless you reworked every single animation and made skills flow into combos one after another instead of being individual casts

The people asking for removal of la weaving seem to often not understand the combat in this game.

In othermmos like throne of liberty or wow the "light attack" happens automaticly while u only press skills.

Do they want the same here? If u ask me that would look stupid and does not fit the combat design of eso at all, and what about heavy attacks now? How does this auto attack differentiate between this, it would also be very annoying if u where locked onto a mob, and want to attack another, i tried throne of liberty, they do it like this, its very annoying having to target switch ur auto attacks lock on. It does not flow well on console.

Do they want light attacks to be on the same gcd as a skill and treat it more like a skill? This again, must be comming from someone who barely set foot into vet dungeons, if done like this, LA would still be a part of ur rotation, u just do it on gcd instead of before a skill. It changes nothing but massively slowing down combat.

And what about sets like relequen, and others where la weaving is needed to keep up bonuses? Are u now gonna spend a stupid amount of time getting to the full 5 piece bonus? At end game this would not work. It would also affect some classes harder than others, and channeled builds would outperform pretty heavily.

Asking for changes to la is a massive overhaul of rebalancing so much at this point for nothing, or changing the game to something else

illutian · 4:33PM

I think they need to remove the ability to animation cancel to gain DPS/HPS.

I grow tired of dying in ~1.9 seconds (according to Improved Death Recap) from 4 separate active attacks.
I grow tired of watching a person jumping around while perfectly executing weaving. -- Suspicious.
I grow tired of watching a single person take on 9 others and kill each of them, one by one.

...I miss Cyrodiil during the days of early launch, when no one knew what Weaving was and fights were good ol' fashion slugfests.

Note: I think you should be able to cancel out of an action. But it shouldn't gain you anything but the ability to do another action instead.

PS: Yes, I also weave. -- I've gone through two mice because of it. RIP Left Clicky :'(

Frayton · 5:04PM

cuddles_with_wroble wrote: »

one thing i havent really seen brought up is that if we remove weaving than what do we replace it with? sure it looks buggy and awful and it makes the combat loop needlessly complicated for no reason... but its also so baked into the game that if you outright removed it than the game would look really weird unless you reworked every single animation and made skills flow into combos one after another instead of being individual casts

I think the steady move away from it that ZOS has already done is the right direction.

sarahthes · 5:11PM

illutian wrote: »

I think they need to remove the ability to animation cancel to gain DPS/HPS.

I grow tired of dying in ~1.9 seconds (according to Improved Death Recap) from 4 separate active attacks.
I grow tired of watching a person jumping around while perfectly executing weaving. -- Suspicious.
I grow tired of watching a single person take on 9 others and kill each of them, one by one.

...I miss Cyrodiil during the days of early launch, when no one knew what Weaving was and fights were good ol' fashion slugfests.

Note: I think you should be able to cancel out of an action. But it shouldn't gain you anything but the ability to do another action instead.

PS: Yes, I also weave. -- I've gone through two mice because of it. RIP Left Clicky :'(

You know most of the time the LA weaving isn't for dps these days right? It's for ult gen or building stacks for merciless or a proc set or to proc enchantments.

illutian · 5:58PM

sarahthes wrote: »

-snip-

You know most of the time the LA weaving isn't for dps these days right? It's for ult gen or building stacks for merciless or a proc set or to proc enchantments.

Aren't those all DPS increases? xD

Artanisul · 10:49PM

xylena wrote: »

Desiato wrote: »

I love LA weaving in ESO combat. Contrary to your description, I think it is incredibly fluid.

So it is completely intentional that animations can be preempted.

Same, and we "animation cancel" in the real world all the time. A baseball player can check his swing to avoid a strike call, or abort his pitching windup to pick off a baserunner. Imagine the physical world if we literally couldn't stop or change movements once we began them.

lol
If you weaving would stop the effect of the skill you would have a point. "checking your swing" doesnt stop you from landing the skill and allow you to swing another home run like it does in ESO.....silly.......