2h is not a physical weapon anymore

Lapin_Logic · March 11

With the new animation reworks the 2h has lost identity as a physical attack weapon, the glowing and swirling auras make it feel too much like a magical attack or spellcasting focus.

I don't want to be forced to play a battle mage, a mild after image as the weapon carves is fine, Red blooms and glowing body shields no thank you.

Please can we have a "Skill style" that just removes all glowing nonsense please, My dumb barbarian has no place casting spells, he would probably blow his head off while picking his nose.

Vulkunne · March 11

Yep, I agree. It was one of the first things I noticed on PTS. I liked the old animations alot better.

I'm not even sure why they bothered trying to fix something that wasn't broken. It just doesn't make sense.

Thumbless_Bot · March 11

Well, it's a video game so it never was a physical weapon... just sayin'

But the new skills are, imo, terrible. They look like animation from a game from a discount rack at Game Stop

Lapin_Logic · March 11

Vulkunne wrote: »

Yep, I agree. It was one of the first things I noticed on PTS. I liked the old animations alot better.

I'm not even sure why they bothered trying to fix something that wasn't broken. It just doesn't make sense.

I think the overall was a good intentioned attempt to fix clunky or hard to weave/bar swap skills, It's a shame because I like some of the new animations, just not the particle effects and glowing stuff.

Another gripe is the sounds feel like I'm swinging my giant hammer into blancmange rather than a crowd of people in steel plate armor.

Pcgamer · March 11

Lapin_Logic wrote: »

With the new animation reworks the 2h has lost identity as a physical attack weapon, the glowing s and swirling auras make it feel too much like a magical attack or spellcasting focus.

I don't want to be forced to play a battle mage, a mild after image as the weapon carves is fine, Red blooms and glowing body shields no thank you.

Please can we have a "Skill style" that just removes all glowing nonsense please, My dumb barbarian has no place casting spells, he would probably blow his head off while picking his nose.

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

Lapin_Logic · March 11

Pcgamer wrote: »

Lapin_Logic wrote: »

With the new animation reworks the 2h has lost identity as a physical attack weapon, the glowing s and swirling auras make it feel too much like a magical attack or spellcasting focus.

I don't want to be forced to play a battle mage, a mild after image as the weapon carves is fine, Red blooms and glowing body shields no thank you.

Please can we have a "Skill style" that just removes all glowing nonsense please, My dumb barbarian has no place casting spells, he would probably blow his head off while picking his nose.

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

"Grug is simple man, Grug hit thing with heavy stick"

SeaGtGruff · March 11

My suspicion is that the glowing effects are meant to give added emphasis to the chosen skill style. If that's the case, maybe the devs could just add "clear" styles that make the effects invisible? That way, players who don't want the effects can more or less "turn them off" (without actually turning them off, since they'd still be there but would be "invisible"), while players who enjoy adding different style colors to their skills can continue to enjoy their colorful attacks.

As for the animations themselves, I've been enjoying them. At first I didn't know what to think, because I haven't been on the PTS in a few years, hadn't known what to expect, and was taken aback by the changes. But I quickly got used to them. Most of the time, I use heavy attacks and "medium" attacks-- or heavy attacks which aren't fully charged. And while I occasionally alternate between two skills, or rotate through three or more skills, I normally just "spam weave" using a single skill and heavy or medium atracks, depending on the situation-- one skill for single-target attacks, and another for multiple-target attacks. But if my Stamina resources are high enough, I may spam the same skill between light attacks for greater damage, and I've been liking how Uppercut and its morphs feel when spammed between light attacks.

As far as the swirling effect around my character when using Cleave and its morphs, I believe that's supposed to represent the damage shield you gain when using the skill. I think it was depicted as a sort of spherical bubble of particle effects before, so there was always a visual effect, and it doesn't matter to me whether it's a spherical bubble or swirling band of particles. The swirling band does have more distinctiveness, to help differentiate the Cleave damage shield from any damage shield gained through other means.

Anyway, adding a "clear" skill style might be one possible way of letting players "turn off" the particle effects.

Lysorris · March 11

They added a lot of glowy VFX in part to fix combat. Visual feedback is very important, before most weapons had none. I think this, red-orange colour fits well to 2h weapon. They want you to feel, hear and see every move your character makes. I really disliked most of the weapon skills before due lacking visual feedback, I should see that I actually used a skill, before I wasn't sure if I did something or not. For me these changes work great. But I totally understand that for many they might be an overkill.

ViggyBoi · March 11

Eh, I think it looks neat

WerewolfMoonHunter · March 11

Lapin_Logic wrote: »

With the new animation reworks the 2h has lost identity as a physical attack weapon, the glowing s and swirling auras make it feel too much like a magical attack or spellcasting focus.

I don't want to be forced to play a battle mage, a mild after image as the weapon carves is fine, Red blooms and glowing body shields no thank you.

Please can we have a "Skill style" that just removes all glowing nonsense please, My dumb barbarian has no place casting spells, he would probably blow his head off while picking his nose.

I don't see an issue. The 2h attacks and skills still feel heavy and physical.

NeoniKa · March 12

It's truly sad. It's becoming increasingly difficult to create a build without absurd lighting effects. This is starting to look more and more like a mobile arcade game and further from the spirit of Elder Scrolls. If they keep destroying the few skills we have left without childish effects, soon we'll have nothing left at all.

SilverBride · March 12

My DK uses four 2H skills in her rotation. Rather she used to because there is no way I'm playing with this light show in my face.

mdjessup4906 · March 12

New stampede looks cool. Like im swinging the sword and not trying to drive it into the ground like an idiot.

Alaztor91 · March 12

While I don't have an issue with the actual new animations(as in, the movement of the weapon and how your character wields it), I find that the orange weapon trails are far too pronounced now when compared to the old ones.

Having a flashier animation for stuff like Berserker Strike or Momentum makes sense since you aren't going to spam those skills anyways, but for stuff like Uppercut or Reverse Slash it's too much.

SilverBride · March 12

It's not the animations I have an issue with either. It's the red and orange lights. I hate bright lights. Please give us a way to remove those and I will be fine with the animations.

And aren't we supposed to be getting a way to toggle effects off, or turn them down? Hopefully we will get that sooner rather than later.

Sluggy · March 12

Lysorris wrote: »

They added a lot of glowy VFX in part to fix combat. Visual feedback is very important, before most weapons had none. I think this, red-orange colour fits well to 2h weapon. They want you to feel, hear and see every move your character makes. I really disliked most of the weapon skills before due lacking visual feedback, I should see that I actually used a skill, before I wasn't sure if I did something or not. For me these changes work great. But I totally understand that for many they might be an overkill.

Yeah but it's having the opposite effect for me. They've done an amateurish job with a lot of it, putting emphasis on the wrong parts of the animation or in many cases, emphasizing everything. If everything has emphasis, nothing does.

Dswing is a great example. I'll admit that the old animation was goofy but it matched the point of contact. The emphasis was placed exactly at the point you landed a hit. The new version doesn't do that. Even testing against a dummy, it's hard to tell if it is landing half the time. I can't even imagine how impossible it must be to tell when in an actual fight against opponents that are fighting back and sounds and effects are everywhere.

The sounds are obnoxious as hell too. Again emphasizing everything is missing the point. And that's what they do. There's like four or five massively overprocessed sounds that don't seem to represent anything other than 'you've cast a skill now' followed by another rather ambiguous sound that means... something? Hit? Miss? Both? Who knows? The mixing and EQ is so poorly done you can't really pull one sound out of the noise to confirm anything.

And then there's cleave. What am I swinging? Nun-chucks? Where's the swish of the wind across my blade? Where's the chunky clunk of gritting into meat and metal when it hits?

I'll admit that many of the old skills were bad. Flying dagger is a great example of zero feedback. Whirling blades isn't great either (and the animation on that looks goofy af) but rending slashes has always been a prime example of how it should be. Thrive is a perfect example of what not to do. Confirming a hit with that has always been tricky and you know why? Because it emphasizes the wrong things at the wrong times.

Overall, I could probably get used to the new animations and timing. But the particle effects are ridiculous and the sound design is just slop. Overall it's jingling keys for babies. Meant to hold the attention of those with little attention span to begin with.

Soarora · March 12

Of the 2hander skills I use:
- Momentum looks awesome because my weapon is red and the glow is red. Coincidentally go together. If my weapon wasn’t red, probably wouldn’t like as much.
- Crit charge/stampede is nice, feels better to weave.
- Carve feels a lot worse. I do NOT feel like I’m hitting enemies. Minimal screen shake and no thunk sound, just a big light show.

MissNoir · March 12

Everything just turns more glowy, sparkly and exploding in this game now, sadly.

Gabriel_H · March 12

They are no more over the top than Dual Wield or S&B. /shrug

SilverBride · March 12

MissNoir wrote: »

Everything just turns more glowy, sparkly and exploding in this game now, sadly.

This is true and I'm having a hard time understanding why.

Many of us have asked for a way to block the loud bright explosions of light but they keep making more of these, and now changed 2H weapons to include these lights, too, but why? This doesn't help with combat and new animations don't need lights.

We really need a way to block these lights that are invading more and more of our game and ruining the experience for many. Where is the toggle to decrease these that we have been told about? I hope it comes soon because my DK is unplayable as it is now.

FlameDark · March 12

As part moth, I actually like all the glowy sparkly things in the game. But I can see that some people might find them a headache. I wouldn't want them removed, but giving players a choice on how sparkly their attacks are would be a great middle ground.

Gabriel_H · March 12

SilverBride wrote: »

Many of us have asked for a way to block the loud bright explosions of light but they keep making more of these, and now changed 2H weapons to include these lights, too, but why? This doesn't help with combat and new animations don't need lights.

While I very much want a way to turn down others effects in the game, that doesn't apply to my own effects. The new ones are easier to see, are clearer, and in my view more subtle in their execution than some of the older blinding effects.

Context For Those Who Don't Know:

The over-abundance of effects in the game cause me physical pain. I'm suffering today because of a cursed run in vOC that meant doing the 1st boss fight 3 times. I've literally been wearing an eye patch all day today because of it.

Feljax · March 12

I, for one, love the new 2H animations. Hoping to see similar ones for the other weapon skill lines.

SilverBride · March 12

Gabriel_H wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Many of us have asked for a way to block the loud bright explosions of light but they keep making more of these, and now changed 2H weapons to include these lights, too, but why? This doesn't help with combat and new animations don't need lights.

While I very much want a way to turn down others effects in the game, that doesn't apply to my own effects. The new ones are easier to see, are clearer, and in my view more subtle in their execution than some of the older blinding effects.

The new ones are worse for me. They are so big and bright and exploding and right in my face. I purposefully do not purchase or use anything that includes flashes of light, but these new animations on SKILLS that my player RELIES ON for her build took that option away from me. This is a very bad trend that is not only annoying but also painful for many.

Lapin_Logic · March 13

Feljax wrote: »

I, for one, love the new 2H animations. Hoping to see similar ones for the other weapon skill lines.

Nobody is suggesting you shouldn't like them, or that they don't look cool (for a battle mage)

It's just if the game is playing your way, and in Skyrim and oblivion I could swing my hammer like in real life with no magical confetti 🎊 poofs exploding from it, because it is a lump of metal on a stick, then that *should* be the base version and then the "cool" effects are a skill style.

But since it is already in the game now, I will settle for a "No VFX" skill style given (hopefully complementary) at the first patchable opportunity.

xylena · March 13

Other games have VFX intensity sliders, ESO is long overdue for this.

JimT722 · March 13

Everything in eso kinda feels like a battlemage imo. The warrior archetype doesn't really exist.

Major_Toughness · March 13

They look so much better now. Way more fluid yet distinguished.

Major_Toughness · March 13

Gabriel_H wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Many of us have asked for a way to block the loud bright explosions of light but they keep making more of these, and now changed 2H weapons to include these lights, too, but why? This doesn't help with combat and new animations don't need lights.

While I very much want a way to turn down others effects in the game, that doesn't apply to my own effects. The new ones are easier to see, are clearer, and in my view more subtle in their execution than some of the older blinding effects.

Context For Those Who Don't Know:
The over-abundance of effects in the game cause me physical pain. I'm suffering today because of a cursed run in vOC that meant doing the 1st boss fight 3 times. I've literally been wearing an eye patch all day today because of it.

Sounds like you have an underlying health condition you should get help with. Doesn't sound normal or healthy.

Maybe try turning down brightness, gamma, contrast etc to wash out the effects for you.

GloatingSwine · March 13

mdjessup4906 wrote: »

New stampede looks cool. Like im swinging the sword and not trying to drive it into the ground like an idiot.

The smash into the ground was kinda what was supposed to generate the AoE though. Plus the new sound effect isn't as meaty.

(I don't like the screen edge distortion on new Stampede).

Ratzkifal · March 13

This is a visual clarity issue. Stuff like recognizeable glows don't matter much in PvE or in the singleplayer games, but in PvP this stuff is actually quite important. You want to know what your enemy is doing.
Sure, we can talk about making the VFX more subtle on these skills. Especially Brawler/Carve is a bit much for what it does if you ask me. But it sounds like you want to completely remove any VFX and just have the raw, "realistic" weapon movement without "visual clutter", when it's that visual clutter that helps you recognize abilities better in the midst of all the action. It's usually the subtle abilities that are the most deadly in PvP.

As a rule of thumb, the more dangerous an ability is, the more highlighted it should be.
And that goes for both magic and physical.