Musclemagic

Word! I get that it's more realistic, and it's good for balancing PVP... but what if they did that in PVE? You level up your character, get awesome gear, make the perfect build for a fight..then every end-game dungeon is just playing chess? XD I agree, top players are always no-lifers, but the very top (emperor status) have got to be good on top of that. (I don't really get heated on the internet. We're good! lol)

Here's part of a conversation that Doczero and I had. I think some people might be wondering the same things: " which race passives (and why) would be best for my pve summoning sorc? I was hoping to build one weapon skilll line (morphed up) for high damage to go along with my cc and pets. I suppose it should be one of the destr staff type (not sure which one tho). What would be fun for me is to have a bow as second weapon just use dump my unused stamina. If I plan on keep all my pets out while at range I was thinking: 2.5 point per level into magicka 1.5 point per level into health 1 into stamina. once in game would tweek it depending if my health bar is always full dpot the .5 point into magicka for more spamming or stamina for more slealthing. I do believe what you said about passives being a be key, so that bring me back to the question for pve which race passives are best for a summoning sorcerer? thank you for any help or advice" "It depends a LOT on your playstyle. Do you have any idea what spells you plan on using? Since you're looking for heavy magicka on a sorce then you must be looking to overwhelm the opponent in which case I'd suggest a build like this: Bar 1: Resto Staff -Pet 1 -Pet 2 -Regeneration -Entropy -Force Siphon Bar 2: Destro Staff (I really think that through heavy attacks, dodge rolls, bracing, sprinting, sneaking, etc.. you'll have more than enough uses for stamina.) -Mages Fury -Daedric Curse -Magelight -Bolt Escape -Daedric Mines Keep your pets and magelight out whenever in combat areas, if you get opened on then use Regeneration, Entropy, and activate Force Siphon before switching to Destro Staff.. Once you switch to Destro staff then use Daedric Mines (maybe not if they're not melee--since they probably won't run into it unless you are really good at placing) and Daedric Curse right away, using Heavy Attack until they get caught in a Daedric Mine--which is when you'll use Mage's Fury because they take more damage when they're affected by a Dark spell. If they get too close use Bolt Escape. It's such a huge amount of damage output, enough self-healing, and if you build your class how you say you will then you should be able to pull it off really well (a lot of magicka). I'd definitely say you should be a High Elf, not only will the +%magicka synergize with your high MP really well but you get +lightning damage (your Mage's Fury will be your biggest killer). It's true that you don't have much utility or offensive defense, but your pets and magelight out will make you so beastly..it's a fair trade off. They take up a lot of barspace so if you want to use pets then that's the price you pay. I wouldn't recommend any cloth-armor user to not have magelight. It works on stealth AND invisibility. Like I said in the beginning..it depends on your playstyle. If you don't like only having the ability to escape, rather than the ability to CC or to tank, (or really chase for that matter--just get a horse that's 100% speed and you should be fine on chasing) then you might want to choose different abilities. I wouldn't worry too much about point distribution, it will be easy to get a feel for what you need for your character while leveling up. Can't go wrong with more MP though... so maybe instead of using Force Siphon (since 3% of low HP isn't much, and solid numbers are better if you're not high HP) you might want to throw magelight down there and then use an ability from the Destro Line. The destro passives are better for sorce's than the bow passives.. unless you don't want to heal at all, then throw out the Resto staff and put a bow in there, between the bow +sprint speed after dodge-roll and Bolt Escape you'll be able to outrun pretty much anyone when things get hairy. Bow on sorce is a good choice as well because you can encase and get bigger crits, if you're going to use a bow on a sorce then play a Khajiit for the +crit damage. I need more information though to really give you solid advice." Here's the thing though, there are so many unknown spells out there. The PVP ones are almost necessary (at least the passives are) in Cyrodiil, and the Vamp/Lycan ones (or whatever other infections they put in!) are probably going to have at least one ability that you'll want to use. At this point there's not much else you can really decide other than 1) What class playstyle I like most (pets - in your case - I'm guessing) 2) What weapons I want to use. 2.5) Armor choice. 3) What race is best with your weapon/class combo. Obviously you'll need to choose what armor..but if you're able to pick your class and weapon then the armor part should be an obvious pick at that point. Beyond those choices, exact skills are meaningless. To be honest I believe that the best class will be a siphoning nightblade with a resto staff..but then the passives that NB have access to aren't that great for a caster NB, and like we said..the passives are going to be the biggest game-changers because that's where all the synergy happens. At this point there's not much to really tell you, but it's still fun to theorycraft it. ps- Lightning or Frost staff will be best, I think there will be a lot of Nords so the Frost Staff might not be quite as good.. but because fire-damage is so common in ESO, that's the resistance that most people will have. I'm a fan of lightning, but Mage's Fury is already lightning so you might want to mix it up to Frost if you are using Mage's Fury (which every sorce should, that finishing power is amazing.)" Fire staff would be good just to lower resistances, lightning's kind of lame because it deals damage to two targets in a game where it seems that single-target is more functional unless you're tanking. There are a lot of self-critiques I would make on what I said even, just from scanning over it now... But it's all just fun to think about at this point! ^.^ TLDR: Best PVE race for Sorce that's magicka heavy = Altmer.

Some NB ideas (I know that these don't matter until we know what the Plague trees are) Khajiit - Crits do extra damage (solid number, not %, so MORE crits are better than bigger crits.) Medium Armor - More stamina regeneration, quicker movement, quicker kills and better utility. Unless you're tanking or just relying on health regen, medium > heavy. Dual Wield - Dual wield > 2H for this build for two reasons: More hits = more often crits, and, targets under 25% health take 20% more damage + assassin's blade/death stroke = you can finish people off like a boss. Strife - damage (always on) Cripple - slow (always on) Flurry - 6 hits (use after teleport-strike) Teleport Strike (closes distances or sets up flurry) Assassin's Blade (use when low) *Death Stroke (use when you have high enough ult to combo this into an assassin's blade for a kill) Bow - Stay stealthed a lot of the time so people won't know your general location when you open on them. weighted Shot - Interrupt Scatter Shot - Close KB/Slow Snipe - Fun, use first from stealth. Haste - Use before swapping to DW Summon Shade - Use once the enemy finds you. *Consuming Darkness Or, another cool NB would be to use that bow setup and then use Sword/Board instead of DW. In this case you'd use HEAVY armor and rely on health regeneration as well as HOT's from your Siphoning tree. It would be very tanky and sticky melee, fun to play. Sword/Board Defensive Posture Summon Shade Strife Low Slash Teleport Strike *Death Stroke Breton would be a good choice. Heavy armor. Resto Staff Haste (Incrs basic attack speed) Strife (Heal on DOT) Force Siphon (Heal on basic attacks) Entropy (Restore Magicka on DOT) Regeneration (Self-HOT) *Soul Shred

I'm so stoked for addons. I hope it's easy to port to PS4 since it'll nearly be the same code as PC now. I keep considering playing on PC instead of console, but I really want to be able to play on my couch instead of using a keyboard/mouse. I know I could get a controller for my PC but then I'd feel gimped.

That's a good idea, usually only one ultimate really fits a character's playstyle anyway. I wasn't being sarcastic at all. I really do wish it was possible; I like having less choices because it forces thoughts but I also think that if something's available for a slot then it shouldn't be constrained to one type of ability. I really didn't mean to offend you... If you're that touchy then not playing MMOs is a good idea. XD

I chose khajiit because if you get a high crit % and fast attacking class you can put out HUGE extra damage per crit.

It's the same reason that Diablo 3 plays with 6 abilities. It works best for console controllers. I do wish that we could put a regular ability in an ultimate slot, it would screw people over who don't use an ultimate. A whole resource gone to waste, using more of your magicka/stamina instead of having an epic game-changing ability to use strategically. I love being forced to make decisions! This is where theorycrafters trump in PvP.

While I disagree with Brad in the sense that I think ESO will have a bigger skill curve than most games.. I do agree with him that we can't know until it's live and people have end-game characters. In every game there is a skill curve though....so if you're good you'll still be better than the not-so-good players unless they can quantity > quality on you with items. The only real thing that will ruin this game for me, personally, is the siege weapons. Tanks/war-mount type things....such an IDIOTIC thing to put into a game that's 100% based on your character development... But, anyway, all that matters is if the game is F U N or not! If it requires a buttload of skill, that would just be a contribution to the fun factor. This game'll be cool, I know it'll have my attention for at least a few months.

More info please! lol

What game relies on skill these days?? XD Honestly though, this game is very skill based compared to most. Even in 1v1 your character setup is HUGELY important. Think of Cyrodiil as a giant 3v3v3 map in Starcraft..combined with the building of Diablo 3 characters..combined with the aiming of an FPS (almost, just with a bit of a target lock) that you can actually dodge attacks in, as well as activate synergies with companions?? This game is the bee's knees. There's no other game out there right now that takes as much "skill" at all!

idk if I agree entirely, there are so many niche's that each class can fill better than the next. Even changing one weapon or armor ability on one bar could change which class you should be using. NB for burst // DoT+HoT // sneak playstyle. Sorc for pets // burst // CC. DK is for any heavy armor user, passive health regen, passive tanking, better in melee range. Templar should only be your choice if you want to heal others and you don't want to only use a Resto Staff-- If you aren't in it to heal others, you're better off using another class. If you want to be a templar to self-heal then play a DK instead of Templar, their self-heals are the best. Templar is a good reaction based class, if you are an offensive player who likes to overwhelm the enemy then don't play a temp... I would actually say that templar is the best "trolling" class just to fuck with people.

This is similar to how I see it. Focusing fire is always the best way to deal with hard packs, starting with trash as long as the big guys are being tanked.. No matter how bad ESO wants to be different without relying on taunts and traditional aggro it's still going to have similar enough mechanics that we can predict how some things have to be...and yeah, definitely stacking will be the best. I'm really curious if multi-boxing will be allowed because with just 6 skills it could be very easy to make a very efficient multiboxing setup that could dominate pretty dang hard in ESO.. =

I read your post and I like your ideas, most if it we'll just need to wait and see how it plays out in end-game. My opinion- For 2h I would go Nightblade. 1h/shield tanking is best fit on a DK. I also really wouldn't recommend having two people similarly skilled on the same team, there's too much synergy in this game that you really should try to be diverse to overcome as many situations as you can. Utility Temp/Summoning Mage will most likely be the strongest 2 man group in PVE. I firmly believe this to be true. Irons point of wanting to have Stam and Magicka is a point well taken, at least enough to use the stat you use least up so it doesn't go to waste. My real concern is that between bracing, power attacks, dodge rolls, sprinting, stealthing, etc... if you wouldn't use all of it even at endgame during combat? Does it scale at all with how much you have, or is it constant--in which case it's unlikely we'd use it all just on those mechanics... This right there makes me re-think my strategy of using both staves.... I really get the feeling that at endgame through the gear's enchants (Well, unless it is entirely +stats and not +damage types or anything...) that I'll probably only be using one weapon's bar 80% of the time anyway.

Being more into either stamina or magicka, and not mixed in between (as much as possible) will be best. It wouldn't be, if the only stats were +X Magicka, +X Stamina, or +X Health... But it looks like a lot of the time it's going to be +X% of stam, mp, or hp. If you think about synergies at all, this is the most important thing. +20% of 150 is more than +10% of 125 and +10% of 125.. You get a lot more out of your stat buffs if you're a purebread. Even in this low of an example it's still almost 17% more effective (+30 stats rather than +25 from the %'s). If I was going 2h or 1h/shield DK (especially with Heavy) then I'd definitely go as minimally into Magicka as possible... Especially if you plan on having a pocket healer friend with you, rather than relying on your DK tanking as much.. It really does depend entirely on your build. I'd like to make a 100% stamina build as my next toon (in a long long time...after my 100% magicka!) Being as pure as possible is best, by a long shot...

Even as a full HP/Magicka build, you'll want some stamina for heavy attacks and sprinting/dodge-rolling (esp. if you're not in light armor). Even as full HP/Stam you'll need MP for some abilities, no matter how badly you want to avoid it..you're doing a huge disservice to yourself if you don't take some MP. I am trying to go 100% HP/Magicka on nearly a 1hp:2mp ratio. But, I believe that I'll absolutely require a bit of additional stam to not be gimped on the battlefield.

The strategy of this game will hopefully come from when we use our abilities, more than what abilities we have active. I think passives will be huge, keeping out Magelight/Summons/etc. while keeping maybe ONE offensive ability and ONE defensive ability might turn out to be the very best option in almost all situations. This would be due to the lack of being able to use abilities as frequently as desired.. The reason why I hope that it's like this is simply because without any cooldowns it would cause huge imbalances. Of course they need to scale things perfectly or else the difference will still be huge. Yes, certain abilities like Dragon Blood will cost a huge amount of our resources.. but I think it will play similarly (even at endgame) to that of the gameplay videos-- About one activated ability every 2-4 seconds seems right.

It must go up then, that's good to know-- first levels won't hurt your balance that much if you decide to change at like lvl 10 you'll still get a lot of stats to distribute. Is that only what you can enchant with enchanting? They said there are a ton of weapon/armor enchantments that come on them.. I think I heard that there are more than in Skyrim.. but this was a while ago so they probably changed it? Do you have a link to the interview? The Ultimate doesn't switch when you swap bars, does it? (from vids I've seen it doesn't appear to)

It's not BOP, but it's tiered so you need to earn the rights to wear it. But, it's awesome because you can trade with someone if they want to be a caster and you want to be a 2h--it'd be a fair trade as long as the staff and 2h were in the same tier!

It's quite a bit higher than those numbers, I think it's 20 per level + %'s/#'s from enchants and abilities(all passive, except for regeneration, it looks like.) That's a solid build, it's pretty much the exact build I'd use if I use a 2H. I'd be a khajiit though to synergize with the +crit dmg even harder. (And, of course, I wouldn't take shadowcloak--but we'll have to wait and see how worthwhile it ends up being.) Love it though, even if it's not going to get you a victory, that pinball thing sounds pretty epic! Haha

Yeah mate, I think Altmer will be perfect for your setup! That's pretty dope actually!

Can't find the interview, but Matt Firor said that the guild leader dictates the freedom of posts.

Right now Capcom has the smartest business model. Despite it being a huge project, AAA title, and widely advertised pre-launch, Deep Down will be a free to play online dungeon crawler. With the big-title competition at the best it's ever been, this is pure genius. People will still pay for content if they like the game. I think enough people will try it and be hooked instead of trying the games that cost them the money up front. Edit: I also like the Wildstar business model, being able to sell game-time to other players in the game is huge for people who can't pay-to-play, it's kind of a... play-to-play (?) model where the game-time's still purchased from them, just traded between other players if they choose... EPIC!

Not enough Ebonheart in it! Sell it in 5 years for $10,000. Success!

F^CK YEAH!!! I need a new board, this is epic!!

Can you play the game with that download, or not?