Musclemagic

In this game, more than most, I think there will be a huge gap between how effective a character is in certain situations. I feel that the following is a pretty good representation of how the top-tiered players will look (There will be a lot of exceptions, where people playing them aren't built as well as they could be. This, again, is for the elite. Average players will want to do their own thing and they'll be just fine!): Templar should be best for group PVE and group PVP, and not just for being able to throw out heals on occasion. They are extremely versatile while still having great DPS potential. Dragonknight is best for tanking or best for max dps. A lot of the time these characteristics will be great in PVP, but these two specialties will shine definitely shine brighter in PVE. Mage will be the best for Solo PVE due to Summons. Having a pocket-tank is priceless while soloing. As long as you have mana, you should never lose in a PVE fight. You can lock someone down while your pet tanks another. 2v1 and you'll never even be targeted. They are also going to be great to have in group PVP after they've unlocked more of their upper abilities. Nightblade should be the best for solo PVP all-round. The utility they get is too great. While they might not be maxed out in CC like a Mage, have as wide of a spectrum as Templars, or be as niche as DKs, you will not see a nightblade coming and they will come fast. If things turn sour for them it's an easy get-a-way. Obviously this is a very early assessment and things could change substantially. This is only how things currently appear to look.

Yeah, the numbers and the small details will change for sure but since these are just the starting attributes of the skills I don't think they'll change a whole lot. It gives people a lot of ideas anyway.

Magicka only Mage. I think that a Nightblade works better for this than a Mage does, but I tried to make it work as best I could. [*]ACTIVES – Destro Staff Ability Bar: Weakness to Elements- Surge- Encase- Lightning Splash- Mages Fury- Resto Staff Ability Bar: Regeneration- Entropy- Lightning Form- Guardian Circle- Bound Armor- Ult: Negate Magic- [*]PASSIVES – Dark Magic: Unholy Knowledge- Blood Magic- Persistence- Exploitation- Daedric Summoning: Power Stone- Storm Calling: Capacitor- Energized- Disintegrate- Expert Mage- Light Armor: Evocation- Recovery- Spell Warding- Prodigy- Concentration- [*]WHILE LEVELING – You might want to have the following skills to make leveling faster (and unlocking your new abilities quicker by balancing your bars more evenly): Unstable Familiar- Winged Twilight- Dark Exchange- +The other three passives from Summoning. While leveling I'd replace Lightning Splash with Unstable Familiar on the Destro Bar. On the Resto Bar I'd replace Bound Armor with Dark Exchange, Guardian Circle with Winged Twilight, and Lightning Form with Mages Fury. Mages Fury would then be on both bars, but it seems to be your best damaging ability, and that's more important for leveling than endgame.

Bracing costs something, "Reduces cost of bracing by 3% per piece of armor" (Heavy). I think it's probably Stamina cost. The armor enchantments are going to be awesome, I think this is the main reason why people will wear different types of armor at once! Imagine a -15% stamina cost for Dodge on your Medium boots but you are a PURE tank so you have the rest of your gear as +X% healing, -X% damage taken, increase armor by X, and then you even have some Light armor on you for Increased magical resistances. I think the only way they'll make this work is if they make certain armor weights (light medium heavy) have SPECIFIC characteristics that only they can get. On top of SLOT specific enchantments that you can only get for that slot. If it's how I think it is, I love it so much I could...ahh.. I just came.

That's funny, I'm doing the exact same thing right now (starting in morrowind and playing through with the same class!) I personally am having troubles playing morrowind though right now, it's just too cheesy looking back on it, haha! My take on ESO Armor: If you want to take get more Heals and take less melee damage use heavy armor. If you want to have more Stamina and get more mobility use medium armor. If you want to have more Magicka and get more spell resistance use light armor. Heavy armor can add slight melee damage. Medium armor can increase Sneaking/Crouching efficiency. Light armor can increase spell damage. I honestly think that heavy armor needs a buff to the melee damage right now, otherwise it just doesn't look that great unless you plan on being a pure PVE tank. Medium armor Stam increase is probably enough to outdamage people in Heavy armor, and at the same time the mobility it adds is super amazing. Full Light armor seems to add the most damage of them all. The biggest problem that I have with armor is that you get a set bonus if you have 5+ (6 with shield I guess) pieces of one armor weight. The reason why this is a problem is because it pushes people away from using what they want. I personally would love to mix Light and Medium to balance my Stam and Magicka regeneration. Edit: Yeah, Heavy armor you can "Brace" better. But Medium armor you can DODGE better. No damage > less damage.

Max Bow DPS (by far the best for Bow PVE if that's what you want to do)-- Medium Armor, Bow, Templar. Scattering Shot Piercing Javelin Sun Fire Solar Flare Snipe *Rite of Passage You can only use Scattering Shot within 7m, so Piercing Javelin right after Scattering Shot to push target even further back. Sun Fire to slow them and then solar flare. If they are further than 20m then get a snipe in for the 40% extra damage! Rite of Passage is such an awesome heal. I'm not sure yet how long it takes to get Ult up to 150 but it's a huge heal.

That'd be too much, haha. I doubt it. If you look at the Nightblade leaked skills on these forums it shows a Spell Level next to it, but no spell level next to the passives. I take this to mean that they can't be leveled, but who knows? I think it's more about strategically placing your skill points into them. "Is it worth putting a point into this instead of morphing that or getting this new active?" And, because a lot of the passives are essentially useless if you're not using a certain setup, I feel like they should stay how they are. I mean, you can eventually get enough skill points to get ALL of them... but you don't need to because some won't benefit your build. This is a huge part of what makes building characters so interesting: The passives you choose matter a ton when you're matching them with your actives. This is why a DK Fire staff in light armor has the most damage output, not because loading the skill bar with a bunch of damage abilities does the trick, but because when you have the MOST AMOUNT of passives that directly affect you..while other characters might only get 3 or 4 from their whole Class that directly helps them. Most the armor passives seem hellamazeballs though, I'm glad they're making it a big deal..cause in Skyrim it wasn't at all.

I WANT TO BE A MEDIUM ARMOR EQUIPPING, BOW WIELDING, MAGE. Let's make it work: Bow Abilities: Snipe Mage Abilities: Surge Bolt Escape Repulse Encase Ultimate Ability: Overload To me this would be the most fun class to play. If you come across someone who can counter you pretty well then just run away (nobody can catch you!) The only problem is that it's so Magicka heavy for a build that you'll want a lot of Stamina on. I don't think all the +magicka and +stam regen will be enough to make up for the huge cost of Snipe when you catch someone unawares you'll want to blow your load on them..and you'll have a small load..and she'll be disappointed. A good 2nd weapon for this build would be Dual Wield or a Resto Staff. Dual wielding would be good to finish people with, and good for fighting mages who are doing too much damage output to you to counter if you don't feel like running away. A resto staff would be good if you would prefer to run away, heal up, and then get the tactical advantage and snipe their asses down. ps- Use a bow with Lightning enchant on it to gain bonuses from mage's lightning passives.

Haha, awesome man! I wish I knew exactly what I wanted to play. It'd save me so much headache! I can't play a game unless I know I'm min/maxing as much as possible, and since it doesn't look like you can respec later or anything except for re-morph abilities...well I want to do it right the first time. I know I'll have open beta to fuck with everything at a nearly finished level, but I don't think that'll be long enough to decide for me. =( /wrist.. Jesus tits I'm obsessive. Edit: It does really really look like all the passives you unlock will always be active without a limit (as long as you meet the conditions, of course.) This is insane.

We pretty much do know all of that. http://www.twitch.tv/bethesda/b/439743009 Skip to 0:48:50. The only thing we don't know are the racials for AD and Daggerfall, and exactly how the passives are slotted. So the only speculation we'd do is that based on the video it looks like you can only have one of your Class skill tree passive abilities active at one time. And for now the only thing missing would be AD and Daggerfall racials. All the other information (when things unlock, etc.) is available from beta leaks. How your active abilities are slotted, etc. I mean.. the guy in yesterdays official gameplay video was level 16 and he barely had anything unlocked--so I think having a beginning talent calc wouldn't be trivial at all + whoever makes it can update it as more info is released. Anyone else interested in making one--or should I start? XD

Those of you who are looking for skill values and descriptions, please visit our ESO skill database. _________ Guide to designing your ESO character before you start playing: Step 1) Choose your class. Choose which Ultimate you like the most! Every class has 12 passive abilities nd 15 active abilities to choose from. If you choose your passives and actives you can make any of the classes come pretty close to what you want it to be in the end, so choosing this based off of 1 out of the 9 Class Ultimates that won't change makes the most sense. If you can't decide which ultimate you like, then make a list of the all 4 classes 12 passive abilities, and see what combinations you can come up with that appeals to you the most. Then, as you play, use abilities from the Skill Tree that has the move of those passives and you will unlock them quicker. Step 2) Choose your weapon. Look at the Passive abilities that you can choose for that weapon. Just like for Active Class abilities, all weapons are able to perform similarly by morphing the Active abilties, so Passive abilities are what is important here. Step 3) Choose your armor. Look at the passive abilities that you can choose from for each armor type and decide which one synergizes best with class and weapon passives. Step 4) Choose your 2nd weapon. You'll probably want at least one Range weapon to be able to utilize the game's Stealth ability, by attacking from a distance while still unseen. If your first weapon choice is either a destro or resto staff then I'd recommend taking the other staff (resto if you took destro, destro if you took resto) as your second weapon. This way you can go pure Magicka instead of putting points into Stamina (because Class abilities all cost Magicka). On the other hand if you take a melee weapon or a bow you still need to put points into Magicka because your class abilities use it, so in that case it is still okay for you to choose one of the staves as your secondary weapon. But, choosing another phsysical weapon will be better because you can balance Mag/Stam accordingly for your primary and it will work well still for your secondary weapon choice. Step 5) Choose your race. Each race gets an active ability and four passive abilities. Some races get +% XP towards certain skill trees, increased healing taken, increased fire damage given, increased weapon power, etc. passive abilities. So you really do want to choose your race last. If you chose it first you might get +15% to Bow experience, yet you might never want to use a bow. In that case it would either persuade you into using a bow, which isn't cool, or you wouldn't get the 15% bonus for one of the skills you do have that you could have gotten if you already knew what you wanted to play as. Step 6) Choose your active abilities. Do you want to Nuke, DOT, HOT, AOE, Single Target Heal, CC, Anti-CC, Maximize Mobility, Tank, etc.. Or, do you want to be a hybrid of two or more of those? Well this is where choosing your abilities comes into play. They will end up being dramatically more refined to your desires in the end than they are in the beginning, but the general message of the abilities is there. Remember that you need to use abilities from the sections that you want the passives from, or you'll never unlock those passives. Step 7) Play! The options are practically endless, so don't take too long trying to decide (like I have). Just play the game and you can always start leveling up something else after you're more experienced in the game! Here are links to the currently known skills: http://eldersouls.com/topic/4146-eso-templar-mage-armor-weapon-skills-leaked/ http://eldersouls.com/_/elder-scrolls-online/news/eso-dragon-knight-fighter-and-mage-guild-skills-leaked-r145 http://eldersouls.com/_/elder-scrolls-online/news/eso-beta-nightblade-skills-leaked-r152 Post what you plan on playing here: http://eldersouls.com/topic/4427-minmax-combos-very-early-theorycrafting/ Good luck! www.facebook.com/MusclemagicPS4 Someone should really make an ESO character calculator.. Maybe I should.. XD

dark elf passive: Dynamic (Incrs maximum magicka and stamina by 6%) Apparently racials are getting boosted. The video clearly shows 6% instead of 3%.

"Equip additional _____ spells to increase this skill's advancement." So, if you want more Assassination skill than Siphoning, just put those skills on your skillbars and then combat will auto-level those up for you. Or, perhaps it's "on use" but the wording when you mouse-over a skill tree.. kind of says otherwise. I personally like this more than using the ability, it makes leveling up skill trees way more user-choice friendly.

I am just so fucking excited about being able to also go into all three of the talent trees at once for your chosen class! Nightblade can take Mark Target to remove targets resistances and then take the siphoning magic damage abilities..all the while you can grab Invisibility or whatever you want from Shadow. So many cool options in this game! Now I need to rethink everything because of this!!!

I agree with you, something about healing doesn't seem that inticing in this game. I think the utility needs to be more powerful, speed boost your target when you use a single target heal or something like that. I think it does look fairly well rounded though? I mean you could always choose to put the point into the nuke-heal instead of the AOE heal. Plus, the single-target heal makes it cost 68% less magicka so it's probably the better choice anyway. You can always use your HOT and other AOE (with the bigger self-heal) instead of morphing your only nuke-heal into an aoe? XD Stam/Mag regen, dispels, immune to interupts and take less damage.. I think Light Temps are a pretty cool breed, but there's just something lackluster about them. Like I said before, they need a bit more flavor in the form of utility or people won't really be playing them. I don't want to go, "I HATE YOU! YOU DON'T LIKE HPRIESTS IN WOW!!" (lol..WoW).. but... I do have to disagree about holy priests not being fun in WoW! Haha! My friend (demo lock) and I (hpriest) were the top demo/hpriest on US for two seasons during Cata. Not saying much, since there's not many others and we were only about 2300, but it truly was the most fun I've ever had in WoW! I think it was better for RBGs too as designated tank healer because Wings and because of the speed boost on bubble utilities were gorgeous. Sure less absorbs but idk, my rating made me satisfied with rbg performance, haXD!

No need to wait for youtube, this went online minutes after the gameplay part finished. If anyone's still interested in watching it they can see it here: http://www.twitch.tv/bethesda/b/439743009 Skip to 40 minutes to get to the gameplay. Before that is blank (old cinematics) and then after that you eventually get into talks with a little bit of Q&A that don't give any additional details worth mentioning. I would totally mention things if they were worth it, lol. The gameplay part with commentary is pretty freaking sweet though, I'm more stoked than ever!

This is the first build I'll test in beta...Bitches can steal my shit if you want! Musclemagic— Restoration Staff Frost Destruction Staff Light Armor Altmer Resto Staff: Regeneration - Heal + HOT Siphoning Strike - Gain Magicka/Stam when you hit target Force Siphon - Gain Health when you hit target Entropy - DOT + Magicka over time. Strife - DOT + Health over time. Frost Staff: Cripple - Leech Enemy Speed Annulment - Protection Against Casters Wall of Elements - Protection Against Melee Weakness to Elements - Offensive Debuff Impulse - Damager *Soul Shred - Damage, Stun, and potential Life Steal.

Yeah man, I'm going to be U-streaming from day 1 of open beta on PS4! I love how easy it'll be to upload video clips of badassery as well to my facebook page. I think in the beginning it's going to set you up pretty close to how you want your character to be.. and then the morphs will mostly be like, "Do more damage VS utlity." "Single target vs Multi target." etc.. So, all the shit I post really might pay off for some people. You'll still only have the 6 abilities at any one time. Q looks like Mounting, E looks like weapon swapping (and swapping to your new bar in the process), R looks like potion. 1-6 are the abilities.. which yeah, would be way nicer if you could use 6 buttons on your right hand for that instead of dealing with them all with keyboard. Honestly, if I play it on PC, I'm just going to plug in an Xbox controller anyway! I'll lose some control, but unless I'm PvPing at the time I care more about comfort. I'm thinking more and more about that Dunmer Firestaff Ardent Flamer: The potential for damage is too nuts, but I don't know what I'd couple it with. I guess the obvious choice is a Resto staff..but predictable things bore me. A 2H build in Medium armor is what I'd really ENJOY playing the most.....the synergy with anything else doesn't appear to be there though. I mean yes, this stuff is minor compared to what weapon/armor enchants will do to our character (probably) but it still counts! I don't want to get a bunch of Medium armor that increases my Bow damage and have my 2H be the backdrop...I love me some mad 2H berserker power! B-POWER!!! Looking at the passives is more important than looking at the actives. In case anyone else is trying to figure out what looks like it'll synergize well.. Look at the passives a lot more than the actives. The actives will all morph in the direction you want. Not enough utility on a direct damage spell? Adding some on your next morph is probably possible.

Morphing abilities changes things SO dramatically! These builds I'm posting look like good starting points (in my opinion anyway) but when things start morphing..oh man.. I cannot WAIT to come up with the build I'm going to play once all the late Beta content is released!!!! 8 more months of drooling.......... *drool drool drool*...... Did anyone else pause the vid while he was showing a couple of the morphed abilities?!!! It changes the game SO much it's ridiculous(ly awesome!!!!) Much love to Zenimax and Bethesda Softworks.. for real.

Okay, it's now confirmed that when you swap weapons you also swap to a new skill bar! This is amazeballs!! We have access to 10 ability slots + Ult now rather than just 5+Ult. With this in mind, I made a Siphoning build: Restoration Staff, Dagger/Shield, Light Armor, Siphoning, RACE. Resto: Cripple-- Steal your targets movement speed and deal damage over time. Strife-- Deal damage then heal for % of damage done over time. Entropy-- DOT and restores your Magicka over time. Force Siphon-- Allies gain 2% health when attacking, you gain 50% additional health when attacking (3%.) Regeneration-- Heal nearby ally for 5, heal for an additional 20/20s. Dagger/Shield: Agony-- (1.5s cast) Stun enemy for 16s and deal DOT. (Stun breaks from other damage.) Shield Charge-- Charge target and stun for 2s (this stun would allow you to cast agony) Power Bash-- Disorient Target for 12s Low Slash-- Snare target 60% and reduce target's damage by 20% for 10s. Siphoning Strike-- Restore Magicka/Stam from basic weapon attacks. *Soul Shred-- Damage/Stun nearby enemies, allies can activate it to do a lifestealing attack. Reasoning: With Force Siphon active on the target, a dagger will heal you faster than any other weapon. With Regeneration and Strife healing you passively at the same time you will be self-healing a lot of damage. At the same time your Entropy will be gaining you Magicka, Cripple will give you run speed and slow the target, and all the while the target will be taking heavy hits from all your DOT ticks. You will be fairly hard to damage when you have your Dagger/Shield out, and if multiple targets come then you can Power Bash one and Agony the other, rendering two targets useless while you kill the third. Low Slash and Cripple keeps them in range (and doing less damage), but if they escape then you can always Shield Charge to get on them again, this is required in PvP (a way to catch the filthy runners!) Siphoning Strike toggled to increase your Magicka/Stamina gained per hit along with your Health being healed per hit = Awesome. It would be hard to beat someone who is designed to kill you quickly, especially a melee dps (dual wield assassin with medium armor would be the hardest to win against I think). But I think you should be able to kite them well enough that they will end up being the dead ones! And like I said, if they end up needing to retreat after not being able to catch you.. Shield Charge their ass. Honestly, 2v1..3v1..4v1.. If they balance this build to be decent in 1v1 then it'll definitely be THE BEST BUILD IN THE GAME for fighting multiple targets. You can incapacitate two targets at a time and then put your DOTs that heal you up on anyone that's left. Suck their run speeds and kite them to death. Beat healers out by never running out of Magicka, this is a very efficient build that uses low amounts of Stam on a need-only bases for the 4 stamina consuming abilities with your Dagger/Shield out. And check this out, because you will be able to utilize your magicka and stamina VERY well... You get a shitload of attributes to slot into Health. That 3% heal per dagger attack is going to heal for a ton. And, just to top it off, potions are 20% more effective because you're a Siphoner. I personally LOVE that passive so much that it's the main reason I'll play a Siphon class. Another thing is that this build probably won't be used by many people-- It's kind of elusive. So if you like being unique and shit, you probably won't use this because I came up with it, but this is a very appealing and interesting option!! Like I said before, if Siphoning or Summoning turns out to be any good, that will probably be my main...and this build could just do it!

I thought he liked Khajiit.. Turns out he wishes the tail was on the front?

I always have my shirt off.

For anyone using a Destruction Staff, plan on using a Restoration Staff as well. Anyone using a melee weapon, plan on using a bow as well. If you plan on using a magic weapon and a melee weapon you will SEVERELY gimp yourself because your health will be much lower due to improper stat allocations. I'll explain: Every class uses Magicka for spells and Stamina for dodge rolls, bracing, sprinting, etc. But, the amount of Stamina used for Dodge rolls/Bracing/Sprinting is minimal compared to the amount you'll use for your abilities. It's IMPOSSIBLE to optimize your character for casting if you've got a ton of Stamina for when you're melee, and vice versa you can't optimize your character to melee if you've previously optimized your character for casting. If you have allocated enough stats to be efficient at all in both at the same time, you WILL be getting one shotted like a little bitch all day long. Edit: Unless you plan on only using something for the passives! In which case having 1h/shield passives are good for adding 5% total damage, 50 armor, etc etc. Dual Wield is good for finishing people and gaining passives through weapon types slotted. 2H passives make you apply burning/chilled/shocked effect 100% of the time from your destruction staffs. Etc.! This actually adds a whole lot more depth than I even thought at first. Plus, if you're using a melee weapon it's nearly impossible to get off a sneak attack (unless you're playing as Shadow.) So, you'll really want to have a bow in order to use Snipe from a distance while you're still stealthed anyway! Choosing to just use one weapon will severely gimp you as well, even if your armor and stats are optimal for it. There is always a time when switching to the shield would be better than dual weilding, or using a bow to increase your mobility to get away instead of using your 2H and dying.. Switching from that Destro Staff to a Resto Staff will save your ass while you're running---no matter how much +Damage you have to destruction from your gear's enchantments. I was dillying with a Storm Calling/Bow using Mage-- Surge for passive increased weapon power, bolt escape (stun and teleport = epic), weighted shot against casters, scatter shot against melees, and snipe. Just an extremely defensive build that builds up Ult, gains a tactical advantage, and then sneaks/snipes/owns people with electrified arrows.... Well... that was cool beans and all but what other weapon could I pair this with? None. Bolt Escape is the only really nice Storm Caller ability for PvP and it's useless if I was going to be melee, and I am not able to go Resto or Destro staff because all the stats I'd have in Stamina for my Bow skills would be a complete waste. This is the ONE&ONLY Class/Weapon combo where I think you're better off not using any other weapons or it'd actually weaken your character. (btw, you'd use Medium armor for that build, if anyone fancies it.) Edit: Of course, if you want to just go a bit more offensive then taking something else to replace things on your bar would be good. You don't need an interrupt and a knockback while you're pve'ing either so this would just be PvP since Snipe would be more effective there anyway. Just more for you guys to think about! I have no life right now if you didn't notice.

Being able to hold two weapons and you can instantly swap between is fuckin GENIUS! It's verified that when you swap weapons you get access to 6 new ability slots! (well..5+UIt) Long live ZENITHESDA!

Based on how hard it was for me to deside what to play, I think they're doing a really good job on balancing. As the game stands now, this is what I'll be playing. It probably won't change, either. Medium Armor. 2H Mace. Assassination Nightblade. The passives all work quite well together to give me good mobility and damage. I chose mace for -80 enemy armor because I think I'll have more trouble against other melee classes than I will against casters. I'll keep Momentum and Haste activated. Use Critical Charge and Teleport Strike to close distances. Uppercut to stun target once I reach them with Critical Charge, or after Teleport Strike's stun finishes. (If Mark Target works against Armor and not just Magic Resistance then I'd use that and use a sword instead of a mace. That would be amazing to use on a medium armor wearer, who doesn't have as much armor and doesn't have as much magic resistances.) !Death Stroke ultimate for finishing move. I know it's not the best, but I like 2h's and I like mobility. The best class for PvP will definitely be a Restoration Staff Dark Mage in Light Armor. Let me know what you guys are tentatively going to play! I'm done posting for a bit, but I'll be reading. Once there are new leaks I'll do a few other setups that stand out to me.