Eol

Am I the only one a little concerned that a guy named Vladimir is this psyched about Vampire abilities? /puts garlic up around windows and doors, and sharpens wooden stakes

I have been very impressed with these developers. They have a clear vision of what they want to do, but at the same time they listen and will revise things when it seems like it is what most people want. I will share a personal story. During beta, I did not get the beta survey in my email like everyone else. I sent a message to their customer support, and a day or two later I got a response. Not only had they read my message and responded to it, but the customer service rep had moved heaven and earth trying to find a way to send me that survey email. Eventually he found out that it was impossible to resend the survey email because of the way it was set up, but then he said he would personally read any comments I might like to share, and pass those along directly to the development team! I was so impressed by the time this guy devoted to one customer, I had never received that sort of response from a MMO customer service. And after receiving the email, he actually told me that my comments were similar to many others they had received, which really gave me some insight to the response they had been getting and therefore the direction they would be going. Since my comments and suggestions were generally quite positive, it was reassuring to hear that the people that were so vehemently negative in the beta forums were the minority. Anyway, thought folks might be interested. I feel better about these developers than any I have ever seen, which gives me a lot of comfort that the game will keep getting better. I have been very excited about only a couple games this early in the process (DAoC and LotRO) in terms of the game itself, but in terms of developer response and customer service, these guys are in a class of their own so far.

Thank you BigSteel, very helpful

agreed, if you can use them as an opener, especially as a caster in the back, you can probably get away with it. Once the battle starts or if you are in front, forget about it, there is just too much chance of being interrupted. As a Templar, I just got Backlash which has a 1.5 s cast time, and since I will be casting in the back with my son the DK in front of me, I will be trying that in PvP. If I can pull it off, its a devastating way to create burst damage out of dots etc. (it accumulates all damage for 6 secs before it goes off and adds 36%; in the chaos of pvp there is little chance enemies will survive that, by the time the healer realizes the guy is taking damage, he will be dead) On the other hand, I took my 2 second heal off my quickbar for pvp. Even though its far more mana friendly than the instant Templar heal, 2 seconds is a lifetime in pvp once the battle starts and people are taking damage. Although that means that healers are constantly low on mana if they use instant heals, at least the Templar instant heal.

Saw the ad saying GMG and Gamefly had ESO for 20% off ending today (end of Feb). I have never dealt with either company before, but since Gamefly specifically mentions the US and I am in the US (GMG seems aimed at foreign customers), I was thinking of saving 20% and buying from them. Anyone have experience with Gamefly in the US? Any reasons NOT to buy at 20% off? (I was going to buy the Imperial Edition, at 20% off its about the same price as the Standard Edition at regular price) Any potential issues with downloads etc on gameday, or any issues for US buyers? Thanks in advance for any help!

You'll be using that weapon a lot, it just wont be with non-stop weapon skills, but rather light and heavy attacks. You wont be able to spam magicka/class skills either because you will quickly run out of magicka. There will be a lot of time when you wont be using skills but simply light and heavy attacks. But I agree that it seems like weapon skills will be used less than I would have thought, not only because of limited stamina but also because it seems like the best skills are class (magicka) skills.

When using a fire destruction staff, are your light and heavy attacks fire damage, or some sort of generic weapon/'magic' damage? Because if they are fire damage, you would get some really nice damage boosts because of the weakness to elements and DK fire buffs. Also, the morph on molten weapons says it adds fire damage to your light and heavy attacks. Does that mean it adds fire damage IN ADDITION TO your weapon damage, or does it TURN your weapon damage INTO fire damage? Because if it turns weapon damage into fire damage, your groupmates would really benefit from the weakness to elements also, and of course if the answer to question 1 above is no, light and heavy fire staff attacks are not fire, using the molten weapon morph would turn them into fire or at least add fire damage.

A few questions about fire-related skills: 1. The morph for Molten Weapons that adds fire damage to light and heavy weapon attacks: does it add some fire damage on top of the weapon damage from your light and heavy attacks, or does it TURN your weapon damage from light and heavy attacks INTO fire damage? 2. Is 'magic' damage separate from elemental damage? ie, is magic damage from a fire destruction staff = magic damage or = fire damage? 3. What is the damage type of light and heavy attacks when using a fire elemental staff: fire damage, or are they some other type of damage? (magic? common? weapon?) Thanks in advance for any help!!

Well didn't they clarify and say the horse wasn't faster than other horses. Also, as far as the rings which speed up leveling, I agree with the other poster who doesn't want to rush leveling any faster. Personally I would pay for an item that SLOWED DOWN leveling, because in a lot of these games that's the most fun part, and I hate outleveling content. Personally I have no problem with the Imperial edition at all. People wanted to play imperial, fine, here's your chance right from the outset. What I DID have a problem with was the any race/any alliance benefit of pre-order. I think that waters down the alliance theme. That being said, some folks were very upset about being forced into an alliance, so I can see why they revised that. I also think a lot of people who say they wont buy it or will boycott it, will end up buying it. Then they will complain about something else and say they are going to quit, repeatedly ... and not quit.

The Imperial version costs $20 extra, and not only allows you to play Imperial but also gives you the horse and imperial crafting and iirc an extra two days of head start before the game goes live. I don't really see why that's a bad thing - every game has collector editions that give in-game goodies, and those are pretty decent goodies. A lot of people had been interested in playing Imperial, well here's your chance. And if you don't want it, don't buy it. The regular $59 pre-order will still let you play any race in any alliance, so unless you really wanted to play Imperial, its not something you HAVE to buy. And as far as the 'head start', well there will be so many pre-orders that the real start date will be 3-5 days before it goes live officially. Personally I might just wait so its not so crowded in the starter areas. But then, its nice to reserve the name you want, and the 5 day head start will probably help a lot with that if you want a popular name...

The best abilities tend to be class abilities, which require magicka, so I think magicka will be very important. Unlike many mmorpgs where skills are time-constrained via cooldowns etc, in ESO skills are resource-constrained. Its hard for me to see how a build using only stamina will compete with a magicka build or a balanced build. Now if weapons had ultimate abilities, and if the abilities for weapons were strengthened, that could be different, but for now, it seems like magicka or balanced is the way to go. FWIW.

the thing is, while they say the size of the pools affects damage, we don't know the nature of that link. We don't know the size of the impact, we don't know if it affects skills and/or light/heavy attacks, and while it sounds like there are soft caps on the pool sizes, we have no idea where those soft caps kick in. Moreover, the buzz is that even if you put all of your points into magicka, and then equip a physical weapon, the damage seems similar to a person who has put most of their points into stamina, so at least at low levels the extra damage emanating from the size of the magicka/stamina pools seems insignificant or non-existent. Basically, we don't know, and we don't even know what we don't know.

agreed, lots of aldmeri archers and assassins. And there are always lots of dps. Thats why the rarest* phrase in MMO chat is "Healer, Tank, CC need dps for dungeon group" (Actually that's the second rarest, the rarest being "We lost that pvp battle because they were better than us, not because their classes were overpowered or because we were outnumbered".)

In PvP its not as easy to min/max because a lot depends on what your enemy does, especially in a game with only 6-12 quickslots where your choice of what to slot defines your character. For example, min/max that Dunmer fire dps to the Nth degree, but don't be surprised when players from other realms start stacking fire resist. Not even to mention skills that, when used properly, can counter other skills very well. I agree that certain builds will be 'perceived' to be best, but to the extent that a lot of people start using that build, it will encourage enemies to select skills and equip gear to counter that build. That's the danger of Flavor of the Month builds. On the other hand, if you can find an effective build that not many people copy, and you can run with a group that maximizes the synergies between characters, well now you have a hands-down winner. Just don't let too many people know about it

My boy will be nearly 8 by the time the game releases and he will be playing. Rather than try to pick an ideal duo, you really need to decide what you enjoy doing, and what your boy is capable of doing. For example, I was really looking forward to playing a stealthing duo with my son, but after watching him play Skyrim, Rift and SWTOR I realized he is much better at playing a tank/bruiser character because he has trouble moving and changing direction quickly, and he needs that extra health/armor to stay alive in pvp. We had a nice combo in SWTOR where he was a trooper tank and I was a smuggler healer, in pvp he would stand on top of the pvp control node and was so hard to kill. Anyway, my point is to get an idea of what you guys like to play, and what your son is good at or not good at, and go from there and narrow it down that way. Because basically any class duo can be made to work, especially if one can do some healing and one can take a bit of damage and do damage.

what it tells me is that you cant begin to cast skills non-stop. Using the right skill at the right time will be far more important than developing 'rotations' that would leave you out of magicka/stamina and vulnerable to enemies that manage their resource pools. It will be an important advantage for mature, thinking players, because its going to be very hard for some players not to hit those hotbar buttons as fast as they can. This will require a major change of mindset for MMO players, or even Skyrim players for that matter.

Thanks Areodon for answering my question. Next question: does anyone know if applications of the same ability by different players stack? For example, if two players with sword and board use Puncture, or if two players with destruction staffs use Weakness to Elements?

Is any class skill considered a 'spell'?

In games with pvp its good to have some definitions. Skills you use effectively are 'balanced'. Skills your enemy uses effectively are 'overpowered'.

If the opponent misses, is that like an 'off-balance'? I was trying to understand Jorik's comment above about Ash Cloud putting them on their butts. Or maybe the description of Ash Cloud I am reading isn't complete. Now the Templar ability 'Blinding Light' specifically says that they miss AND are put off-balance so that one I get. By the way, Fiery Grip is awesome. People are already complaining its overpowered in PvP, but to some extent that's probably because people are too low level to slot some of the skills that would negate it. Better to pull the enemy to you than to jump to them.

I think the Ebenheart Pact will be by far the most popular, in large part because a lot of players will create Nords because of Skyrim. Also Dunmer will be popular. I hadn't thought of Argonians being popular but if they are, look out, Ebenheart might be 50% of players by themselves. I think Aldmeri will be popular among RPers but also stealthers (Bosmer) and pure casters (Aldmer) (and therefore many of the hardcore players) and will be the second most popular choice. IMO Daggerfall will be least popular, but closer to Aldmeri than Aldmeri is to Ebenheart. FWIW, I will be playing as Aldmeri, originally was going to be a Bosmer archer but am leaning towards Aldmer Templar now. My son will be Aldmer DF.

Sword/Shield and Staff are mutually exclusive. Its one or the other.

Just wanted to point out that Backlash seems very overlooked as a Templar ability, but it could be very powerful especially in PvP. Yes it has a 1.5 second cast time and I hate cast times in PvP because they seem like they take a week, but the reason it would work so well is because BURST DAMAGE RULES IN PVP. Healers can usually heal through steady damage even if its a couple players dealing damage on the same character, as long as the healer has enough magicka. But by saving up the damage for 6 seconds, and then multiplying it by 1.33, well no healer can heal through that. Plus there will be no warning, in fact just the opposite, the healer will think that character is fine because they wont be taking damage, the healer will look for others to heal or maybe put a group heal, then BOOM, the target's health bar implodes and he's dead.

FYI, I will be fighting duo with my son 90% of the time. I will be a Templar and he will be a DK. He uses fiery grip to pull, and we will use a lot of area effect auras: Molten Weapons, Obsidian Shield from the DK; Restoring Aura, Rushed Ceremony (instant heal that morphs to heal 2 others), Solar Flare (morphs to a PBAOE which improves the attack power of next hits), and eventually Cleansing Ritual and Backlash. That being said, IMO almost any class will work well with a Templar. The Templar can easily be a tank and/or a healer, which pretty much means the other character can be anything, except maybe another Templar (although even that could work if the auras stack). But if you prefer melee, DK or Nightblade might be best. DK has some ridiculously good class abilities, but Nightblade would give you better pure single target dps. A dps caster would work well with a Templar but you said you prefer melee...

A shield really seems to help defense. Going from a sword/shield to a staff feels like you are fighting naked.