Musclemagic

.... I'm not thinking clearly right now apparently, haha! Good call! XD Neither is Irons. I don't feel so bad anymore. /cheer! Honestly though, Nuke, I wouldn't dedicate yourself to using that build quite yet. It'll definitely be good damage in PVE, but that was a really early build idea and I don't think it's that great of a concept anymore. What is it that you like about it? We can definitely make a better build for you then that if we know what you're looking for.

A few people I've talked to, and a few of you who are posting here, want to play a drain/survival NB. I think this build will do well for that: Argonian – NB – Bow/DW – Heavy Armor Bow- *Against Melee [*]Mark Target [*]Entropy [*]Strife [*]Cripple [*]Aspect of Terror DW- *Against Casters [*]Teleport Strike [*]Flurry [*]Immovable [*]Haste [*]Siphoning Strikes Ult- Consuming Darkness Mark Target + Entropy + Strife + Cripple + Terror = Amazing bar. Mark Target will make those spells do big damage (and increase the healing from Strife. Entropy → Strife will also incrs it's dmg.), and Terror will keep melee off you pretty well-especially with Cripple slowing them and you being able to dodge-roll into 50% incrs speed to stay away, forcing them to use a gap-closer. It's a Bow so you're able to do powered attacks without worrying about being CC'd by them if they're blocked (while at ranged anyway) (you could also use a Destro staff in this bar, but there's no point—no need to reduce enemy's resistances because Mark Target already does. [This is why Light Armor would be a waste as well, it's a low-cost build as long as you have high MPR (Magicka Points Regeneration) enchants, and the -enemy and +your own magic resistances doesn't benefit you at all because of Mark Target anyway.]) The DW bar is the cookie cutter, “Can't CC me, I stick to you easy, big burst, plenty of resources.†perfect bar for killing people in light armor. The only hole in the build is that you'll need to take a lot of MPR for bar#1 to work, and then Bar#2 doesn't need as much so bar#2 will be a little worst than if you were centered around it. But, honestly, Bar#1's not that MP intensive compared to most MP builds..so it shouldn't be too much of a disadvantage on Bar#2 at all really!

As pure damage caster, with all MP abilities, I'd recommend going high MP for sure. You'll still probably want Dark Exchange. You'll be able to take expensive spells and almost never have to use normal weapon attacks (that do less damage than spells).

Yeah, it's an easy remedy. That's what I was going to recommend but my phone apparently deleted it. Any reason you're going S&S over something else since this isn't a PVE build using Puncture? You don't get much survival from S&S really except shield stuff, which I'm sure helps but in PVP you'll get more survival from Resto and more damage from anything else. I feel like the only real highlight of S&S is Puncture, and only in PVE.

Based on rank 1 abilities, average spell cost is about 48. So, 3/48 = 6.25% extra casts (comparable to 7% extra regen). It really shines though when you use cheaper spells like Fury for 24. 3/24 = 12.5% extra amount of casts. Magicka Mastery's potentially really good, it just depends on how you use it though--like everything else.

Aha, I've been reading it wrong this entire time. Thank you!

For sure, there's no build that can beat every other build. As far as a "best" build for every individual situation, yes, there's always one build that is superior to the others by at least a slight margin. The best healer's temp, dk tank, nb single target, and sorc ranged dps. This level is where rock-paper-scissors will occur the most, but as the categories get smaller and smaller it increases the number of counters.. As we go smaller and smaller within each category, there is eventually a build that is the best possible for each individual situation. This means that there must be one build that performs adequately in the most number of specific situations (based on how frequent the situations happen, too). But, there's always a build that's the best build at countering the "best" build, as well, that's why it depends on the frequency of builds. As soon as something counters more total players than any other build, that build becomes the new best build..but when people start countering that build, then there's a new best build, and so on. This is why it's important to make notes on a variety of the best builds for specific niche's, because once we find out what the currently highest valued niche is--then that's the current best build and you want to be able to maximize your potential in that area. The best build also varies greatly on who you are partied with, like the best build for someone who's partying with 2 healing templars who both have Restoring Aura might be someone who relies on a ton of stamina attacks and is 100% focused on DPS. That said, there will also be a best 2-man group, best 3-man group, etc.. Just because something can be countered doesn't mean that it's not necessarily the best possible build for the mast majority of other things. In pvp you need to identify the problem and then formulate strategies, which is hard when you can only choose 5x2+1 abilities before you know what the specific problem will be... so once we identify a common obstacle in PVP that poses the most problems, the build we'll want to play is probably the specific build that counters that specific problem. Anyway, right now I'm livestreaming if anyone wants to come and leave a comment--I have no idea how it works on PS4. twitch.tv/musclemagic

The bigger question for me is, Will those power attacks from bows and destro staffs cause the player to be set off-balance when they get blocked? This makes no sense, but I'm assuming they must-for balance issues. I don't really care whether armor mitigates all damage or not, I think it should because otherwise someone in light armor might be the best tank against magic damage...and that's just not cool, tanks should tank, haha Anyway, I gotta go stand in line for an early PS4... stupid me and not pre-ordering...well, my buddy who works at Best Buy was going to preorder it for me with his discount but then he pussed out, so at least I have someone else to blame for the next 4 hours of freezing my butt off and having to poop. lol

The more I read about the combat system, the harder I think it will be to balance. There will definitely be discrimination in what does well in PVP and what does well in PVE. The thing is though...I LOVE PvP freedom even if it results in circumstantial imbalances!!!!!!!! I think it's what sets good planners apart from people who are just good players, and gives a higher skill curve on both a gameplay level but also a game-knowledge level. The higher the skill-curve of a video-game, the better the game is as long as casual players can still use it to get their kicks. There will be good players who are also good planners who will be at the top, for sure, and there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to be good, they can invest a lot more time and thought into getting better. It just makes people strive harder for greatness because it's more competitive, but the ability to achieve even greater greatness is here more than in most other games...and that right there is why I'm so taken by ESO already. I've been learning a bit of Platonian theory lately, mainly being written by Hayek, and I think that there's a lot to say about having individual freedoms and only having one's self to blame--giving you more overall satisfaction with the world--than when there's a lot of control and having the system (rather than yourself) to blame for any injustices. Anything that gives players things to exploit and such is just reality, some people are going to find ways to use the system to their advantage and I think there's nothing wrong with that. As soon as games stopped being okay with this, nobody has freedom because every character is the same after true balancing occurs. In WoW, every class has pretty much the exact same abilities.. Every ranged DPS = the same, every melee = the same, every healer = the same, every tank = the same, with very minor differences. 6 abilities works wonderfully to force people into a unique role. I can tell you guys, who might not have played Diablo 3, that 6 abilities is THE perfect number of abilities for strategic customization and strategic gameplay to come together. Also, in Diablo 3 I actually predicted the cookie-cutter-combos for all 5 classes before open beta, and they're pretty much still accurate to this day. So, to the people here who would argue that none of this early theorycrafting matters, that's not necessarily true. Edit: I'm not saying that there should be a huge difference in how well you can perform across the board if you choose to melee instead of ranged DPS or something...but I think that people need to realize that their "fun" builds won't be the "best" builds and that there are specific combos that utilize mechanics better than other combos would. I don't think some of you realize how important the build combos will be. Things like light/heavy attacks and block/dodge/mitigation will be standardized between everyone without much difference...so, unless you suck at using these basic standard actions, or they fail horribly at getting them even close to balanced between class/weapon choices, then these aren't going to be what determines how good your character is. The 6 abilities we get along with what gear we have equipped is definitely THE deciding factor in how your character will perform at the task at hand. And yes, obviously the skills will change a bit..like Weighted Shot will turn into Poison Arrow and then be able to get Weighted Shot VS more damage later..and the numbers will change a bit... but HOW the skills work isn't going to change much at this point. Anyway, this is why I am focusing so hard right now on all the skills while others of you don't think that they matter at this point. It's just my opinion, so it's fine to disagree, I just felt the urge to explain myself...probably to justify all the time I spend on here to myself...rofl. XD

I'm too much of an optimist, they're going to fix it all! a lot of those old interviews did have negative feedback, but I've heard other quotes from people who played it then and now who say things like, "It felt like a whole new game." (paraphrased). I wouldn't worry too much about it..even if it has issues at first then it'll be patched within a few months probably...hopefully. Since they're doing subscriptions I have even higher hopes for future fixes. Deep Down has such a genius payment method... Pay-to-progress but free to start means that everyone will try it (and that's important because the market's so saturated) and then it gives me high-hopes because if they are confident that people will pay for it after playing it, it's probably a pretty good game! It looks great, too, they worked really hard on their revealed content and I think it's going to pay off. It's unheard of for a big-brand to do it like this. You can tell a lot about a game by their payment methods. ZOS is obviously confident in ESO, giving the first month away for free. If ZOS had done what Capcom's doing with Deep Down then I would have even higher hopes, but it's hard to do that in an MMO... idk, pure speculation, but I hear you--everything I've heard about anything related to ESO so far has made me more and more excited for it!

The only assumption I personally made was that armor rating and magic resistance would have the same coefficients. Nothing else came from me personally. I'm not insecure about the accuracy of my math either, but of course I'm healthily skeptical of the accuracy of the numbers I used within those equations. I stated this before, the numbers could all be wrong. But, at least I'm searching for conclusions. This conclusion is reasonable, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. I appreciate skepticism, and I'm glad that people are aware that these number's aren't set in stone. If you're trying to give an opinion then emotion with no logic, credit, and without presenting other options, doesn't make for a very strong opinion. Yeah, I wish we had an answer to this (if armor = all damage). One support for it is that magic abilities can't be blocked, so blocking's for melee and resistances is for magic, but this creates some potential balancing issues for PVP vs PVE. I guess both ways creates balancing issues though... I wish beta would just go public already, but (as your expectancy vs reality thread suggests) it honestly must not be ready for public eyes yet. Haha, exactly! I only do this for entertainment, as I'm sure we all do at this point. I spend so much time thinking about this crap, lmao, it's ridiculous given how much it's bound to change still. I do plan on livestreaming though, so it might be an investment of time that pays off at least a little bit... of course I thought the same thing about Diablo 3 RMAH.. what a bust! XD

The numbers were right here: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Argonian_Resistance They're not there anymore, but I didn't just "pull it out of my behind." As I already wrote: It read that 750 resistances was equal to 26% mitigation at clvl 50. The leap of faith that I made was that resistances and armor share the same coefficient. Either the numbers could be wrong straight up or it might not apply directly to armor rating, so yes, it might not be accurate. But, the numbers seem pretty balanced, so I reckon it's not too far off--if it's wrong at all. Furthermore, nobody's going to build their entire strategy off of this. It just helps get an idea of armor-rating. When we have verified the actual armor-rating numbers, most builds won't change at all. The only way that builds would change based on new numbers is if ZOS has made it completely imbalanced--which I refuse to believe. I've had disclaimers in my prior posts about this already, that it may be completely wrong. Thusly, your comment is nothing but an inconsequential piece of misguided self-ignorance. At least I'm trying to put two and two together to progress our idea-bank. There's been a lack of information lately, so you could at least respect my endeavors to find conclusions (that are easily justified). But, instead, you write shit about someone that you don't even know, based on nothing. You might try a friendlier approach next time to state that you disagree, and then back it up with reasoning... If you are unable to see the benefit in this over things like, "I haven't seen it before! It's from his bumbum!!" then I'd suggest taking a few communication courses in argument building.

Yeah, I'm excited for an MMO where there's a lot of combat tactic. It's going to be bad ass. At first it will be a cluster of getting out of CC, blocking their power attack (that can't be cancelled--but can it be aimed away right before it goes off to make someone waste a block? Juking in ESO = discovered?), and then returning with another power attack when they are off balance...or, it will just be a bunch of light attacks. Another way it could go is that people will really only use ranged power-attacks and then light attacks with melee. Either way, I think they'll end up buffing melee power attacks at some point because of this mechanic. Edit: Nevermind, melee power attacks won't need a buff. I forgot that resistances would mitigate Destro staff(Making Mark Target into a probably very good spell for Destro users) damage.. and then as long as Bow's damage isn't as high as melee weapons, things should be pretty even.

I was playing PS4 today and I was like..jizzing so hard. Controller, graphics, speed... Perfect! I can't wait for Friday!

I wish we had a number on how much breaking free costs, because it's probably not much cheaper than keeping Immovable up. With Immovable it means you can't be interrupted through incapacitates though too, so for casting builds it's even more worthwhile. The - If you're using Flare in combat then you need to have that moment set up for sure, I think Spear Shards is the better choice for an actual DPS build on Templar. At least you can move while casting in ESO, so if you take Volley and morph it to cause targets to be rooted then it will be a decent combo anyway. I know cast-times suck, but Healing Ritual as Templar is fine because of Rune Focus/Immovable and Flare in my build is fine because it won't be used in the $hits very often. Anyway, when I initially asked, I really meant a build with Rune Focus + Flare on the same bar, it seems counter intuitive using something that reduces your damage with something that does damage... -25% to your Flare damage but then buffing the next attack by 40%? What do you guys think? Worth it, or do you think making a bar that uses both would ruin the rest of an otherwise functional build? In short: Try to fit Flare on a cookie cutter Resto Staff bar without taking too much away from the build.. I don't like anything that I've been able to come up with so far but I was hoping someone else would be able to.

I see where you're coming from, but I don't want this bar to be functional for survival or sustained damage--I only want it for fast damage. The way I see it, being able to dump all of both resources as quickly as possible into damage is the fastest way to deal burst damage. Do you see it differently? With that in mind, would you still recommend any replacements? If so, which skills would you change? Remember, I don't care about survival or sustained DPS, I just want to have maximum burst potential when damage is needed. I'll use the resto bar for surviving and helping the group survive when survival's needed. This whole build won't be for soloing except for very trashy mob grinding. YA FEEL ME BROTHA?! (Ahh... I'm hyper because I don't want to go to class.) XD

But, Blocking does consume stamina. Just a side-note.

Yeah, I love these new changes! (They're thanks to you btw, ) I really like Siege Shield on Resto. I think that in Cyrodiil ranged mitigation will be more important than close-quarters, so the 20% ranged/siege protection is nice on Siege Shield, but the passive MP regen is a huge amount as well. It had to replace either BoP, Immovable, or Rune Protection, so there was really no other choice besides BoP. idk, I might not need the extra regen, but if I'm using Rushed Ceremony instead of Healing Ritual then I'm pretty sure that in some battles that extra MP will save us. Yeah, haha, I chose the bow bar for spammable damage output with both MP+ST for both Single+AOE damage only: Single Target Spammable-- MP-Javelin, ST-Poison Arrow AOE Spammable-- MP-Flare, ST-Spray I really want 1 of each type, (AOE-ST, AOE-MP, Single-ST, Single-MP) and I really want them each to be spammable. Getting the biggest burst of damage in the shortest amount of time is my goal. While still following those guidelines, do you see anything I could change? (I want them all to have some ranged, too.) This leaves the build with 1 extra slot: In PvP I think Magelight will be nice to have around, and the +7% crit chance and -5%MP will improve my burst. In PVE I'm thinking Aura because it benefits the group more here, where Magelight is probably more beneficial in PVP. Right now it's a decent build for clearing Trash in PVE while soloing. Either I can kite a single target just from using Javelin over and over (maybe with a Spray once in a while for -50% speed) or I might be able to even kite a small group with -50% speed on Spray and then spamming Flare while they're slowed..they'd have to be a pretty easy group though if kiting's possible with just -50% speed on them... The ST regen from Aura will allow me to sprint further too, if I'm behind my group in a dungeon or just want to get somewhere quicker and can't get on my horse, especially when I activate it I should at least be able to sprint for a long ways. I'm almost thinking that I like having Aura out so much that I want it out all the time now... Haha XD In PvP I'd switch to Resto Bar as soon as there's a fight anyway. I just hope that a NB and a Sorc wouldn't be able to burst me down so fast that I couldn't switch to Resto and buff up.. With all the +MP stuff on this build I'm going to be built with over 60% of stats into Health, so I don't think I'll be that burstable. Thoughts?

I was on my phone when I thought of these swaps. I meant Arrow Spray, not Scatter Shot. I'd like to get your guys opinion on these bars compared to the bars from 2 posts ago: Breton Templar - 5 Light 2 Heavy (Enough MP to be stable in PVP and then all Power Enchants), Resto (Power), Bow (Power) Resto- Rune Focus Immovable Rushed Ceremony Purge (Cleansing Ritual-PVE) Siege Shield (Entropy-PVE) Bow- Magelight (Restoring Aura-PVE) Piercing Javelin Poison Arrow Solar Flare Arrow Spray Ult- Barrier (Nova-PVE) Resto bar with Siege Shield, Purge and Barrier will have a lot of extra MP regeneration. Hopefully just enough ST to keep Immovable up a lot. But, with all that MP regen, keeping Rune Focus up shouldn't be a burden at all.. Meaning that not only will I have consistent good mitigation but I'll have plenty of MP for spamming Rushed Ceremony rather than having to rely on Healing Ritual. When a situation calls for it, having Purge and Siege Shield are also very handy so it's not like it's a waste to take them. The bow bar is only to help burst down mobs when DPS is more important than healing. If it's a single target, spam Piercing Javelin/Poison Arrow until out of resources. If it's a group of enemies then spam Solar Flare and Arrow Spray until out of resources. I'd walk around with Bow bar out for Magelight and being able to burst things down possibly, but remember that your strength is in your Resto bar. I've tried making changes to the leveling bars as well, but I can't seem to improve on it without making leveling go slower.

It could just go down an odd x.x% per stat point per level, like in every game, and that's just what it ended up being at. Or, it could be that it adds up to 29 armor = 1% but the left-over is cancelled so the tooltip just reads 26% rather than 26.56 or w/e. There are a lot of other reasons it could be an odd %. But, I think you're correct. There could definitely be soft caps like in most other games. Their system sucks pretty bad if there's a soft cap before 25% mitigation so let's just hope it's ~25% (~720 armor= 1% every 29 points...but the last 1% would be 30 armor?) Meh.. idk, but I hope it is at least close to those numbers I calculated. If it is on a down slope then Heavy Armor would be even worse and I hope it's not the case. I hope there are no soft caps or caps at all, and they just balance it well without. I think it's possible, given the limited amount of Enchantment options and the Give/Take relationship everything has in this game.

I'm thinking of running a group of 8, it seems like the best number for efficiency without too much overlap. 2 of each class. Yeah, that's what I'm so stoked about on PS4- super easy voice chat with any random. Going to be epic to have this as a healer. It would be pretty cool to set these things up...your NB has 300 Ult and Death Stroke... Solar Flare an unsuspecting chump and watch them get to 50% in one hit and then be unable to heal because -75% healing, haha

I really really like Backlash, but yeah, they're kind of just wonky abilities in tier 3, haha Great call mate, if I am using Rune Focus enough to get the +100% buff then Purge is probably the better choice. The thing about this build is that I only plan on using it in group settings, so if someone's on me I have no problem getting out the Resto Bar because we can always benefit from it. Entropy might not be that strong, but I think the accumulation of it's effects is worth taking: the small MP. The small DoT. The small +damage on next attack. If I time it right with Solar Flare spamming then I think my calculations show I can cast it infinitely. More sustained, and then if I don't want sustained I just don't need to cast Entropy and I can spam Flares for burst. Single Targets I'd rather throw on Entropy and Sun Fire then drain ST with Poison Arrow and swap over and let me group handle the killing from there on..or just survive if it's 1v1. Haha, I like pissing people off and I don't think anyone will be able to take down that Resto bar in solo very easily.

Ah, I'm just going to use the first 3 abilities from each class tree on the most fitting bar I can put them. I just want to get leveling over with as fast as I can. Check out my new post on the Temp thread. Not sure of anything, but that's the word on the street.

Why? That #'s for lvl 50.

I fcuked up a lot of concepts in the OP. I'm also using the new skill sheet, so my ideas changed a bit. Here's an update on what I plan on playing: Breton Templar - 5 light 2 heavy (mp & power), Resto (power), Bow (fire- I think Fire's more damage, Shock will take away MP, Frost will slow. I just want extra damage, but power might actually be better in this case as well.) Resto- Immovable Rune Focus Blessing of Protection Cleansing Ritual (Purge, if Rune Focus gives the +100% to Healing Ritual) Healing Ritual Bow- Siege Shield Poison Arrow Sun Fire Entropy Solar Flare Ult- Barrier Bow bar: Keep Siege Shield up to help out group and self from taking as much damage. Against other groups, Entropy --> Solar Flare over and over. Against single targets, Entropy -> Sun Fire then Poison Arrow spam until you're out of Stamina. Barrier and Siege Shield on bar gives +20% mp regen, with Entropy there as well and being in Light Armor as a Breton you shouldn't have too much MP issues while spamming damage (either single-target or group). If at any time you come into melee ranged with enemies, switch to your Resto bar. Resto Bar: Keep Blessing of Protection on your allies every 8 seconds, instruct everyone who wants healing to stay within 12m. Cleansing Ritual should be up every 12s so that allies can activate it to remove debuffs. Apart from this, spam Healing Ritual. It's +100% healing because the people withing 12m radius are effected by Cleansing Ritual, this (and the other passive that reduces MP for Healing Ritual) is why Healing Ritual > Rushed Ceremony. Healing Ritual is 12m radius as well, meaning it always gets the 100% if Cleansing Ritual's up. When needed, use Rune Focus to keep from being interrupted. And use Immovable as often as ST allows to keep from being CC'd or pulled away from group. Even as Breton with Light armor and +10% from having Barrier, MP will be an issue with this build, so play conservatively. Ultimate: Barrier is just amazing, fitting in your role nicely for sticky situations. It lasts a long time, effects a lot of people, and absorbs a good amount of damage. It also gives you +10% MP regen. Although, if we can use 2 Ults, then I'd use Soul Strike on the bow bar and Nova on the resto bar because they're more appropriate for each bar specifically. While leveling: 5 heavy 2 light, MP enchanted. Resto- Puncturing Strikes Healing Ritual Cleansing Ritual Focused Charge Backlash Bow- Rushed Ceremony Sun Fire Piecing Javeling Solar Flare Poison Arrow Ult- Radial Sweep The reason I use 5 heavy while leveling is because I need to level up the passives for Heavy Armor. This build also uses 3 from each Templar tree, for even leveling + the Ult from Aedric Spear just to level it up quickly. Once I unlock the passives needed from each of the trees then I'll be able to use the final build.. unless the PvP trees require usage for leveling rather than just PvP combat. In which case I'd have to make a grinding build that has all 4 of them in it.