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New Class Masteries - only for pure classing?

  • Rev Rielle
    Rev Rielle
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    Class Masteries should only be available if you use all 3 pure class skill lines
    Class masteries are only being introduced to provide a mechanism to support purelcass play, making it more viable and balanced. As development have said; going forward the masteries are also going to be a relatively simple and effective way to adjust pure classes, making them stronger or weaker, to ensure relative rough balance overall is maintained.

    With these facts in mind we've been repeatedly told, I feel there is no question or debate; it will not be available for sublcasssing. That defeats the very - and only - purpose it will be introduced to address.
    If you can be anything, be kind.
  • YandereGirlfriend
    YandereGirlfriend
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    A reduced number of class masteries should be available if you use 2 of 3 pure class skill lines
    Rev Rielle wrote: »
    Class masteries are only being introduced to provide a mechanism to support purelcass play, making it more viable and balanced. As development have said; going forward the masteries are also going to be a relatively simple and effective way to adjust pure classes, making them stronger or weaker, to ensure relative rough balance overall is maintained.

    With these facts in mind we've been repeatedly told, I feel there is no question or debate; it will not be available for sublcasssing. That defeats the very - and only - purpose it will be introduced to address.

    I believe that they actually DID say that near-pureclassing access to (obviously a lower number of) passives was something that they were considering.
  • DenverRalphy
    DenverRalphy
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    Class Masteries should only be available if you use all 3 pure class skill lines
    Rev Rielle wrote: »
    Class masteries are only being introduced to provide a mechanism to support purelcass play, making it more viable and balanced. As development have said; going forward the masteries are also going to be a relatively simple and effective way to adjust pure classes, making them stronger or weaker, to ensure relative rough balance overall is maintained.

    With these facts in mind we've been repeatedly told, I feel there is no question or debate; it will not be available for sublcasssing. That defeats the very - and only - purpose it will be introduced to address.

    I believe that they actually DID say that near-pureclassing access to (obviously a lower number of) passives was something that they were considering.

    I missed that one. Source? I've watched the livestreams and I don't recall them expounding upon that. Only that the performance of the passives are to change as the refresh process progresses.
    Edited by DenverRalphy on March 16, 2026 10:43PM
  • Radiate77
    Radiate77
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    Get rid of them after the final Refresh.
    Dragon Priest [Restoring Light, Draconic Power, Grave Lord]
    Death Knight [Grave Lord, Winter’s Embrace, Siphoning]
    Pyromancer [Ardent Flame, Dawn’s Wrath, Earthen Heart]
    Summoner [Living Death, Grave Lord, Daedric Summoning]
    Ranger [Animal Companions, Green Balance, Shadow]
    Druid [Earthen Heart, Animal Companions, Stormcalling]
    Elementalist [Stormcalling, Winter’s Embrace, Ardent Flame]
    Dawnguard [Dawn’s Wrath, Restoring Light, Ardent Flame]
  • Freelancer_ESO
    Freelancer_ESO
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    I think at most they should be a temporary band aid.

    Personally, I think ZOS might want to pause and look over the design approach for the reworks and think about if it is really the best approach to take for the next couple years.

    The Dragonknight is the first reworked class. One of the potential passives that may be offered for the DK is giving you and your group within 28m Major Heroism, Major Protection and Major Berserk for 1 second per 10 Ultimate spent. That is an absolutely ridiculous amount of power for one passive but, it is also runs into the issue that it doesn't do much for you if somebody else is running it as well in a group with you with good ultimate uptime. It further hits the issue that one of the DK class sets grants Major Heroism so that set is of limited value if you have that passive. Part of the value of the DK skill Hearth and Home comes from it providing Major Protection which this passive will provide. Part of the value of Chains of Devastation is from providing Major Berserk which again this passive will provide.
  • Unified_Gaming
    Unified_Gaming
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    A reduced number of class masteries should be available if you use 2 of 3 pure class skill lines
    Having considered this a lot for PvP and also PvE, I think the idea is great overall! That said, I am worried they may sway it too much the other way and make subclassing not viable vs pure class.

    At present if you subclass you often use 1 skill line. Sometimes 2 for META or specialised builds. Assuming we use 1 subclass only you now add new issues.

    The new skill line must be:
    > As strong skill wise / passive wise as original skill line
    > Provide as much additional power/benefit as the class mastery passives you lose for subclassing
    > Provide the skill types/effects you need/are lacking

    If this is not the case then you end up being at a power imbalance vs a pure class. This then makes it harder to balance PvP or PvE as you need to assume people have a minimum power balance level. The work of subclassing could in turn be lost/gone if not considered well.

    Solution:
    Make each class mastery passive have a rank system:
    Rank I = base class. Always on but at say 20% of the full passive power.
    Rank II = Have 2 base class skill lines. Makes passives 50% of base power
    Rank III = Pure class. Makes passive 100% of base power.

    Thoughts welcome.

    Thanks,
    Dan
    Unified Gaming - creating a shared and Unified Gaming community.

    For some of the best and most up to date PVP builds around or useful tips and tricks from an experienced player for PvP and PvE, then check out my channel and consider subscribing if you want to see regular ESO content.

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCorbta-fAHKJcxJ6ExbtPwg/
  • Vaqual
    Vaqual
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    A reduced number of class masteries should be available if you use 2 of 3 pure class skill lines
    Having considered this a lot for PvP and also PvE, I think the idea is great overall! That said, I am worried they may sway it too much the other way and make subclassing not viable vs pure class.

    At present if you subclass you often use 1 skill line. Sometimes 2 for META or specialised builds. Assuming we use 1 subclass only you now add new issues.

    The new skill line must be:
    > As strong skill wise / passive wise as original skill line
    > Provide as much additional power/benefit as the class mastery passives you lose for subclassing
    > Provide the skill types/effects you need/are lacking

    If this is not the case then you end up being at a power imbalance vs a pure class. This then makes it harder to balance PvP or PvE as you need to assume people have a minimum power balance level. The work of subclassing could in turn be lost/gone if not considered well.

    Solution:
    Make each class mastery passive have a rank system:
    Rank I = base class. Always on but at say 20% of the full passive power.
    Rank II = Have 2 base class skill lines. Makes passives 50% of base power
    Rank III = Pure class. Makes passive 100% of base power.

    Thoughts welcome.

    Thanks,
    Dan

    In terms of fun and gameplay complexity this might be my favourite solution so far, but it doesn't look like all masteries will be scalable this way ,e.g., the Sorc one that just lets you trigger Blood Magic on any cast. So they'd need to make this slightly more scalable, for instance by adding cooldowns or downtimes that are only there for subclassed players.

    Edit for stroke posting.
    Edited by Vaqual on March 29, 2026 9:28PM
  • Ishtarknows
    Ishtarknows
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    Class masteries should be like the Class Scripts, only available to those of the base class. It shouldn't matter what other skill lines you're running.
    If you're a particular class but only use vampire skills or weapon skills you would be able to make use of the mastery - why?

  • randconfig
    randconfig
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    A reduced number of class masteries should be available if you use 2 of 3 pure class skill lines
    Do you think the new class masteries should only be available for pure classing - 2 if you are a pure class - or also for example 1 (with potential adjustments to scaling) if for example you have 2 pure class skill lines and only 1 sub class skill line in the kit?

    I think until all classes are reworked, only pure class should get the masteries.

    After all reworks, and class skill lines are more balanced, then subclassing will be very weak compared to pure class.

    I think at that point, allowing users of subclassing to take at least 1 class mastery would be okay.
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