Musclemagic

EDIT: This will be the best weekend ever thanks to irons! :) !!

Crafting's probably minor in comparison to regular item stats. Once we know those we'll have a much better base for endgame. But yeah, all item stats/profession perks/morphs/wolf&vamp.. so many things we don't know that we need to know in order to get some real number crunching going on. I'm glad we've had enough time to come up with really balanced/working builds though. Low-level beta playing doesn't compare to being able to think about the endgame from the leaks IMO.

Interesting, thanks for this. I wonder if it means that when you trade an enchanted item with "your" effects on it from a profession it will just be a % lower if the receiving person doesn't have the perks from the profession. It makes sense, like in Skyrim when you have +x% weapon damage it just makes the weapon say it does more damage for one person, but it wouldn't for a person without the perk. Very interesting. I'm always an enchanter on casters, alchemist on melee DPS, and smith on tanks in RPGs. Assuming it's balanced, looks like I'll be an enchanter.

Concentration from Light Armor- Applies to Spells, Weapon Attacks, or both? If it doesn't apply to weapon attacks, then physical damage weapons aren't necessarily a bad choice still-as long as the passives are helpeful (like Bow for a kite-caster build.)

I think Smithing, Enchanting, Alchemy, and anything else they put out will have equally good combat incentive. It will depend on your character. For DPS you'll probably want to either be a Weaponsmith to sharpen blades or w/e, an Enchanter for offensive enchants, or an alchemist who makes some nice poisons or "Berserker" type potions... I am fairly certain it will be complex enough for this to be possible. The real question in my mind is whether these professions are stronger for the person who's leveled up in them. I highly doubt there will be any items bound to your character, so you probably can accomplish everything possible without needing to actually have the professions yourself. If nothing's bound, and there's no insanely long cooldowns or anything that's just super awesome, I probably won't do a profession. I like dedicating my time to killing things, finding materials, and selling those in exchange for the things that other people make.

Kyle, it depends on a lot. First off, PVP or PVE? This is the DK build I like the most. It seems decent in both PvE and PVP: Orc DK, 7 Heavy, 1H&Shield/2H, 1:1:1 Resource Ratio 1H/Shield- VS melee (all the time in PVE) Fiery Grip Puncture Normally Dragon Blood for the 20s of hp regen and the passive +healing received during those 20s, but Searing Strike if you really want it...although it doesn't fit in too well for any tank build. XD Ash Field Immovable 2H- VS caster Momentum Critical Charge Normally Ash Cloud to keep people close to you after you charge at them, but Searing Strike would help do damage to people with high armor I guess..still not great IMO. Reverse Slash Molten Weapon Ult- Magma Armor There's just not much room for it with a tank build. If you're building your character with Weapon Power over Spell Power, which you should, then your spells won't do enough damage to be worth taking DPS-only abilities (utility is better for Weapon Power builds). Also, if you're using your 2H bar to kill casters as fast as you can then you are better off with physical damage anyway, so searing strike's not even worth it. + You need a slow, and the 40% on fire damage isn't going to cut it when chasing casters.

For DPS? Redguard by a long shot. I think Orc with heavy HP build is the best heavy armor class for PVP though.

Yeah, at least a little bit--AD and DC will probably have more Fire resistance as well as taking less fire abilities (since a lot of fire users will go to EP). DC and EP will probably need more Shock resistance too, since Altmer sorc's will be pumping out lots of shock damage. This means DC might need a bit more of both Shock and Fire Res. Perhaps this is a calculated part of the balance between alliances. Or, maybe, it won't have much of an impact at all. If stats like "Incoming Heal" are around, maybe there are things such as "Outgoing Fire Damage". Maybe this means that those racials aren't such a big deal. If they do turn into a big deal though, Nord might make a good caster for the +Armor, depending on how high a % it is. Too early to say. I do firmly believe that DC is still going to be winning most of the campaigns though, all those tanks will be really hard to deal with. I do not believe that AOEs will be able to wipe tanks as easily as in most other games. I agree with irons, melee damage needs to do more damage than ranged damage to players. Maybe they will make the damage balanced, and then like Thal said and we've all noted, lower armor than mRes -- Causing physical damage to do more to players? Like irons said, this just leaves Bows needing a slightly lowered damage..but then again, -42% target mRes is nothing to shrug at for full light armor wearers. I think that it's too much.. on paper anyway.

Thanks for the info I've also noted that it seems pretty limited. I get the feeling that for PVP to be balanced at all they can't make the endgame pieces too much better than the mid-game. Not without having to rebalance items when they enter Cyrodiil as well? Maybe items scale with cLvL so they're only "better" in PVE? That would be interesting.... Not really good IMO, but interesting. I am all sorts of worried about the alliance balancing. It's going to be difficult for them for sure...so many levels of difference between them, and each individual within them.

About Mundus Stones: They are similar to other ES games. The only confirmed Mundus Stone is "The Lover", which gives you "...a power that you'll keep for a really long time." That's all we know atm. Shots in the dark (complete guesses) about item effects: I think you can actually only have one enchantment on each piece of item. The additional magical effects on items that you're seeing are probably the items original effects. If you're seeing one strong-ish and one weak-ish effect, then this is probably true. If you saw an item with 3 characteristics then it was either a specific item type like a special amulet or a weapon/shield probably. Either that or it would probably mean that enchanters could put on 2 enchantments, alchemists could make stronger potions, smiths could make a bit stronger items, etc. Hopefully in a balanced amount... just out of curiosity, did the 3-perk item you saw have 1 strong enchant and 2 weaker ones? It may mean enchants x2 from an enchanter.

Any way for the individual trees to be minimized as well? If I'm looking at Class I don't want to have to look at all the junk classes when I just want to see Templar. Edit: Perhaps instead of the + on the left of each subcategory expanding all the things within it, it just expanded the spells within the category like the main categories (weapons/armor/class) already does. Then we'd be able to just expand each individual spell, I don't think expanding them all at once is necessary. Edit#2: PS- Add a big button in this post, at least. It's even hard to find the link in here. XD

Awesome awesome awesome! I can actually start referring people here!! Great job, thanks a lot for doing it, and I like where it's at on the homepage as well. ps- I'm starting to like the buttons. XD Would it be possible to have the buttons collapse everything except for the button clicked? It would add function besides expand/collapse that we already have. I like being able to clean things up fast like that.. if it's hard to do though, then d/w about it.

Lisette, Vivienne, and Narri. The top blond, brunette, and redhead of Skyrim.. It's like speccing, I just can't decide what I like better!

Sort of.. Immovable's really good defensive stats on top of the anti- KB/incapacitate. But you're right, we don't know how much it'll cost to get out of an incapacitate normally, but I have a feeling it will be pretty hefty! I think it's more for those 4+ second abilities, it shouldn't be worth it on things like Shield Charge or Tele Strike for 1.5-2 seconds or so. That would be silly if they make it that cheap. About Blind, it gives a chance for the opponent to miss. Missing is like dodging, except the opponent gets set off-balance when they miss. Blur, for example, gives opponents a 15% chance to miss. Evasion gives you a 15% chance to dodge. It's almost the same but much better because of the off-balance. So, Sparks (single target) and Blinding Light/Ash Cloud (PBAOE) are pretty dang good.

Just something to note for highly competitive players who plan on using console: If this game's like Skyrim, where strafing and moving forward are the same speeds, you can only sprint straight ahead, and you move slower while backpedaling, then kiting classes won't be as good on consoles as on computer. (Since it's nearly impossible on a console to turn and shoot while strafing without taking you off-path too much...let alone while sprinting forward to do a quick turn, it would take too much time on console.) They'll probably do all the balancing on PC, so this might mean that melee users will be better on consoles than casters. This would apply to PVE a tad, but mostly PVP. Of course, if you are one of those people who can use an insanely high sensitivity on consoles, you might be able to overcome this somewhat.

I think it's the same for all "incapacitates": Stunned/Immobilized/Disoriented/Silenced This doesn't include snares, blinds, fears, etc. It's worthwhile to note that this is what Immovable (from heavy armor) will/won't work with as well (add knockbacks though.) So, it's kind of interesting to think that Snare/KB is probably the best way to kite people, KB being the lesser due to Immovable. This is interesting because the "chase" class snares are a much higher % snare than the kite classes... so without something like "Bolt Escape" or a dispel..which may not even work on a physical snare, or one like Ash Field at all. This means you'll need to use snares AND knockbacks together to kite someone, and if they're using Immovable then you're simply unable to kite them if they are using a snare of their own and you don't have Bolt Escape, Aspect of Terror, Shadow Cloak, or speed enhancers like Cripple/Path of Darkness/Rapid Maneuver(but not good for kiting, just running). Obviously NB with a bow will be very difficult for melee to catch, as well as very good at chasing down casters with their DW bar. This makes them the best 1v1 class by a landslide. It's just a shame they're not very good in group pvp.I guess Volley and Agony are good for groups, as well as a Tele Strike(Fan)/Drain Power/Whirlwind build for bursts of AOE damage. I'm so torn right now on what to be, it's not even funny. edit: I wonder about stonefist/crystal shard type things with knockdowns. If knockdowns are really good then Dagger/Shield build might be amazing (fast heavy attack and lots of blocking)..

Yeah, I hear you, I was set on a 1H&S build for sure until they changed it. XD

Bow does more damage when far away, and people can instantly get out of incapacitates so I wouldn't count on being able to get distance from scatter shot again after getting in close with Tele. And then you'll want the ability to chase when you have DW out so I'd really really suggest swapping Tele to DW bar somehow. I see where you're coming from but I don't think it's going to work out. You can try it... but I think you're trying to be too quirky, haha! I love it, but it's really weird!! XD

The latest update was for the +5% blocking and -5% block cost with "Activate to reflect the next spell projectile at attacker."

As far as telling the difference between classes, I was thinking that armor would appear differently on each class but IIRC it's actually just different for each race, so that's a good point. You're also right that in PvP DPS will probably be better off in mixed with heavy. With a healer it's different than a DPS, because a healer can survive longer the more heals they can put out. "an output-maximizing build versus a build with less output but more defense" - In this case, the output is defensive. But, remember, my Sorc healer build is wearing mixed with heavy for this very reason, so it's not like I actually disagree with you. I didn't mean that they'd rarely get hit, but fights look like they'll last for quite a while in this game so it's not as if they'll get bursted down in one stunlock. If they have enough healing they can just heal themselves up after the burst, so for a pure healer if you look straight at the numbers there's no way for heavy armor to be better than light for them in almost any situation except for against bad odds or if the other team is just flat better at working together than your team, in which case you'd lose anyway. As far as the builds go, of course there's not one build to overcome every situation. There is however always going to be one build that overcomes the most amount of situations possible. If you can admit that some builds are better than others, then it's logical that there must be one build that is the very best on average. Although this build will change depending on what build types most people end up using, and there are multiple best builds to combo with other builds to form better builds within a team.. Like, we don't know..maybe a complete armor of 100% weapon damage Heavy Armor Argonians with Resto Staves will be unstoppable in a group together because they would be hard to kill, healing each other constantly, and could coordinate single-target attacks well while AOE healing meaning they could slowly but surely pick things off. Seriously, we don't know what could counter something as simple as this, but it all depends on your group composition. If you're soloing then I'll agree that you are much better off with some heavy pieces, but if you're in a well coordinated group with high control and support then you as a healer are definitely better off in light armor. It depends on both your team and the enemy team, if they are 4 NBs in medium with 1 piece of heavy for immovable then you're fucked if you're in light and you're much better off in heavy. There's no way your team of X amount of people would be able to kill all 4 before they kill you in light. But, give one of your guys magelight and get another healer on your team? I think we are both agreeing at this point, that it's not a guarantee that light will be better than heavy in all situations, but if you are a decent player who can use their surroundings and you have a decent group then I'd say at least 4/5 times Light will be better. This is coordinated group PVP only though. For solo you'll definitely want a few heavy and S&S isn't a bad option for a Temp healer going solo in Cyrodiil either. Thanks for the post, it's good that people realize this. Also, thanks for making me realize that we won't be able to tell classes apart until they cast.. I hadn't given that a thought before.

As you all probably know, I've been going back and forth between what class I want to play as. I always come back to the Templar, but this week I've been all about the Sorc. I just wanted to post my current build plans: Altmer Sorc – 32 HP 17 MP 0 St – St Pots PVP BARS (7 Light or 5 Light 2 Heavy[main-piece]) Resto- Lifesteal Conjured Ward Armor Familiar Twilight Exchange Shock Destro- Shock Encase Fury (or Force Shock, depending on how important interrupts end up being) Splash (or Force Shock, if interrupts are important and Fury ends up being better than Splash, but I think Splash will be better than Fury for sure.) Escape Exchange Ult- Highborn I'll mostly be using resto bar—simply surviving with Conjured Ward/Dark Exchange until it gets to about 4+ targets. When it turns into group fights of 4 or more in any target area—Encase -> Splash -> White hits until kill-target is almost 20% -> Fury. Repeat until group's dead. Exchange when needed. Escape if things get hairy. PVE BARS- Group Varient (7 Light) Resto- SP Force Siphon Regeneration Steadfast Ward Rune Prison Exchange Shock Destro- Shock Encase Splash Fury Escape Exchange Ult- Highborn Typical healing bar is main bar in group PVE. I feel like in PVP the DPS will get me further in groups but in PVE the healing will. Force Siphon, Regeneration, and white-heals for everyone. Steadfast Ward when one is low. Rune Prison is necessary for group PVE. When DPS is needed, same group DPS strat as PVP bar. Control/AOE. Solo Varient (7 Light or 5 Light 2 Heavy[main-piece]) Shock Destro- Shock Weakness Surge Familiar Twilight Exchange Resto- Lifesteal Conjured Ward Armor Familiar Twilight Exchange Ult- Highborn While soloing I think that pets will be immensely powerful. Tank and Damage in one (two even! ) Depending on how many targets are in the fight, I can either finish one target quickly with buffed up destro damage or I can simply survive while pets and resto staff slowly take things out, dedicating resources toward Conjured Ward for all 3 of us. Armor reasoning and enchant list: I decided to go back to 2 Heavy, but I might end up going back to 7 light and taking armor rating enchantments if it ends up giving similar AR but better passives for me..which I think it will, otherwise the AR enchant will be such a small % bonus for heavy armor wearers.. So, anyway, I might back out of the 2 Heavy since I'm not planning on using Immovable anymore. If I go with 7 light I will take a lot of +AR and then +St flat regen (as well as St pots) because it is the most effective resource for me to get back as a % of total, giving me more of the other 2 resources when possible as well. If I get enough AR + St Reg, I'll go +Power, SP or WP I'm not sure of yet—but probably looking like WP. If I do go mostly WP then I'll need to change my PVP Destro bar for Surge and Fury because I'll be better @ single-target. This would be bad though, because it would make my Resto bar semi-redundant and I'd have to change that to my group bar for PVP as well.. There are too many unknowns right now to say any of this for sure, but I think that it looks pretty good on paper compared to most other builds I've made. It might not be the strongest in every area, but I feel like it has the least amount of weaknesses of any other possible builds. Shock Destro- Shock because of the Storm Calling passives. However, they say "spells" or "abilities" so I doubt it will affect the white damage or the enchantment, but maybe. If not then I'd do Frost Enchant and Fire Staff, I'd use Shock Staff still if I was going to use Force Shock though because that would be a lightning ability/spell in that case. I'd really like to be Daggerfall, and my Orc DK 1H&S Heavy build is looking pretty sweet these days as well.. so I might end up with that. It all depends on how things flow for these builds in beta. I also think that if pets aren't very powerful and Exchange gets interrupted a lot then sorc will be pretty mediocre. If Exchange channel can be stopped every 1 second then I think the chances of it being interrupted are slim.

All we really know about blocking right now is that 1) you move slower 2) it costs stamina to hold down the block button, like sneaking 3) you can block projectiles/ranged attacks as well as melee attacks. I'm not sure if you can block spells/abilities, but I don't think we'll be able to.. 4) you can block with weapons other than shields, but maybe not dual-weild..although I reckon we'll be able to. 5) you can bash, it costs stamina, and you can also power bash with the ability in the shield tree 6) I don't believe there is parrying 7) when you block someone's power attack it puts them off-balance, and then when they get hit by a power attack they get knocked down. I don't know how accurate this information is. "Projectiles and ranged attacks" might not include magic abilities, but rather abilities like Scatter Shot, Silver Bolts, or Hidden Blade as well as arrows. I'm not sure the base % that block reduces on damage, it's probably something like 50% for both projectiles and melee--because there are a lot of abilities that increase block % either as a whole or for specifically melee or ranged by quite a lot. I don't think anyone has this information without violating the NDA. So I'd recommend asking for a PM.

Pretty much all of the builds I personally post are for PVP because we only have information on PVP. We have all known skills for PVP but we don't know any of the PVE fights yet. A healer in heavy will be able to do at least 49% less healing, which you said is what keeps them alive. Yes, they might personally survive a bit longer in heavy but if the CC (there's a whole class that is basically dedicated to keeping targets off of healers) does their job then you will be 49% less effective to the group. If they want to do any damage as well, forget about it because they'll do 42% less damage and have 5% less crit chance in heavy. Templars will be targeted first almost no matter what because of how much they support the groups, even if they appear to be wearing a few heavy pieces. You make several valid points, but in the end it's not worth it. Each time you change something you end up hurting yourself more than helping. There's plenty of defensive abilities that should hopefully be enough for the burst in most situations when guys do get on you. My current build plan on my Sorc healer includes Heavy main pieces, because it's either that or a bunch of +AR enchants. Obviously we'll need to be more defensive for PVP than PVE (at least in most games, so I'm assuming that this will be the case in ESO PVE.) But I don't think that taking non-healer items so you can heal better makes any sense number-wise. If the numbers were different, like if we got more defense than we did healing power from heavy than from light, it would make sense..but with the current numbers it doesn't work out very well doing things like this.