I built my characters around their Class. It's part of their lore. And being forced to compromise their lore because some fights are balanced around players getting literally every Iron Atro buff and wiping everything around with a kill sat has made Trials utterly unfun lately.

I do Subclass for my prog, but that doesn't mean I like it. At least my dungeon group is totally fine with me running a pure DK, and we still got all the trifectas (and now we have to wait over a year for the chance of more...). And as soon as prog is over for the night, I go right back to the Armory to take that off in disgust.

I can see how Subclassing is good for people who are used to the more open-ended nature of the TES mainline games. However, as an MMO where other people are around, there are some sacrifices that need to be made in the name of balance, and the Class system was one of them. Essentially removing Classes, as we saw in 2025, really drove a lot of people out of the game and made endgame frustrating for a lot of people who weren't in the "let me just use the mathematically most optimal thing" mindset. At least now we've got this Class refresh to try to balance that out a bit, but this really needed to have happened before opening the floodgates.

And the worst part is that we're unlikely to get more Classes until they're done, which would be in 2028 at the earliest. That's 5 years since Arcanist. Other games get new Classes pretty regularly, but ESO's stalled on that front... which is a shame since I have two backstories I'm dying to use. I desperately need two new Classes in the worst way.

I really think I'd have preferred a Class Change token instead of Subclassing. I also wouldn't have had a problem with Subclassing being introduced with the same restrictions as the Armory assistant... but the fact that Subclassing was dropped and then completely ruined my play because it made it possible for trials/PvP/etc. make such nitpicky demands and also made it so anyone who chose not to engage with the system hopelessly underpowered in comparison was just horrible. There are ways to add freedom to the game without actively making it a worse experience for a large percentage of the playerbase.

Radiate77 wrote: »

Don’t let your bias take hold, there are a number of reasons why population has diminished, and Subclassing brought many players back.

I’ve said it a million times now, look back on the year that the system came out, there was nothing new or flashy that entire year, just remixes of everything.

Yes, I saw dozens of players that "quit" return to at least parse, for the hey look at what I can do meme. Most didn't stay around for long, but some did. Sadly they always shoot themselves in the foot when they do something right it seems.

At the moment pure class. I don't have the desire or energy to level the others just yet but if I did it would probably be Necro and DK merging.. after grinding out all the class options.

Pure class for some of my characters, multiclass for others, depends on the history of the character, and partly on my mood. But mostly pure class so far.

I like both pure class and subclass, but it highly depends on context.

I'm someone who chases meta as much as I can to run trifectas and farm the latest dungeon motif pages, which is my main source of gold income. But I also adore TES thematics, so for most of my characters I try to build something thematic to the limit of viability.

But even though I do love pure classes for their themes and gameplay, they are sadly so underwelming right now that I can't justify running them in any sort of serious content.

The build I have the most fun with is my vampire build, which is composed by Assassination (I wish it could be Siphoning, but sadly too weak for DPS) + Grave Lord + Winter's Embrace. For a vampire build fantasy, I feel like this combo gives me way more than pure classes can, I built it for thematics but it can parse beyond 155k, which is acceptable, and can compete with beam builds very well even on AoE fights.

The only issue I have with subclassing is the meta it created. I hate that whenever I try to compose a setup for thematic purposes, I realize how few decent options we actually have. 99% of any decent setups you see will include Herald, Assassination, Aedric Spear, or Ardent; if your setup doesn’t have at least one of these lines, chances are it’s pretty weak.

Overall, I still think subclassing is great for the game, but it will only actually shine when they bring more combinations and pure classes to the same level. Diversity above power creep, always.

Subclassing in its current form just shouldn't be in the game. Much of what ails this game arises from subclassing. So I prefer pure-classing, but I'm not going to intentionally play a weaker character. So I play with subclassing. But I would prefer if subclassing was just not a thing all together.

Depends on my character.

As a roleplayer, some are pure as that is what would make the most sense for their dedicated training. Others multiclass to represent more diverse interests at the expense of not being as strong in that class fantasy as someone more dedicated.

I kinda ignore game mechanics / power level since I just solo these days and it really doesn't matter for what I do.

I used to hate subclassing, but now I'm really worried about what the class refresh is going to do to the Sorcerer class, and I suspect I'm going to have to rely on subclassing to stay true to my own character.

Radiate77 wrote: »

Don’t let your bias take hold, there are a number of reasons why population has diminished, and Subclassing brought many players back.

I’ve said it a million times now, look back on the year that the system came out, there was nothing new or flashy that entire year, just remixes of everything.

sub-classing brought players ?
for how long?

lets be real most that logged in just because sub-classing didnt stay around but 2 weeks and lots logged out after seeing they was going to have to lvl sub-skill in order to use skill they couldn't get because of skill points being x2 😂 , then the FUN was lost week or two and the rest left too ... sub-classing didnt bring anyone back to stay , but it has pushed a lot out ...

i myself dont mind sub-classing ( in its context ) but what was put into the game wasn't an finished product of an healthy and well thought-out version of sub-classing , where 2-3 skill-lines rule them all , but balance has always been eso downfall

having an healer/tank/dps set up pure class for every class for so long im stuck in my ways , tho i have done some sub-classing ( quest / achievement related ) i prefer pure class as it gave me more ways to play not just 20 toon with 3 skill-lines like it is with sub-classing

Elder Scrolls had always been about play how you want so the more freedom on choosing your destiny should always be put first!

What I ultimately want is different playstyles I can take through to endgame.

Before patch 35 and hybridisation we had some choices as there were some good options even if you didn't play meta. With subclass, every class is a beam.
There is no fun in this.

Subclassing is strong so currently I mostly use that. But I would like from the class rework that pure class is slightly behind subclassing but not much. And that it would be even stronger when subclassing just one skill line. Currently, to get the optimal build you want to subclass two skill lines. It would bring more variety if pure class, one subclass line and full 2 skill line subclassing would be close but of course slightly ascending the more you subclass. Like, if pure class gives you 94% of full subclass build damage, and subclassing only one skill line would give 97% of full subclass build damage. Something like that.

All of my builds were never using the full extent of the class skill lines. So, when Subclasses came around, I immediately swapped out the less/ totally underused ones for supplemental lines. In the end it worked out spendedly for all except my main girl.

She still isn't there and I hate it. Because that is where pure classing is really important. The main character. Your very own anchor to the fictional world.

Other, as I have to follow the meta for trials. Just do.

But on my other characters, the ones I just quest & play about with, have been having fun making different builds for my own amusement.

I generally liked to approach Elder Scrolls games from a primarily weapon based perspective.

In ESO, I generally mixed in some class abilities because they were necessary for effectiveness as class abilities were generally better than non-class abilities. (You hit some exceptions in areas such as restoration staff abilities beating class abilities)

With subclassing, the amount of class abilities that one needs to use to be effective increased as you now have access to all of the best class abilities.

The reworks to the classes will likely drive the need to run class abilities higher as they will likely be improved/offer improved synergies with one another.