Draconian

In the character progression video, you see a sorcerer whose "white attack" damage is 100 flat with his weapon. Based on the spreadsheet, and judging by how some of the known abilities level in damage and cost from level 1-50, damage values seem to go up by a factor of 15 to 25, and the cost of abilities by a factor of 7-8. So, if an ability does 7 damage at level one, using a default magica resource bar, it should end up doing around 115-175 damage, give or take. That's why I am wondering whether a power attack with a weapon which does, e.g. 100 base damage, will compare with a feat like force shock. Edit: Though we don't know whether this sorcerer is affected by buffs - like surge, for instance.

Do you guys reckon that force shock does much more damage than a regular power attack with a dragonknight destro build? It's nice to have a spammable 28 m ability, and the destro passives do make it ignore some spell resistance, but is it worth it over just using power attacks?

Do we know whether the DoTs from fiery breath and searing strike stack, both being fire DoTs? I think I read somewhere that multiple HoTs from strife spammage for instance won't stack but just renew. But maybe that's just because it's the same ability being used.

Does anyone know the Breton's magicka mastery value at level 50? Or want to hazzard a guess what it might be?

Looking over the spread sheet, it seems to me that it will be impossible to make a single best build. And there seems to be so many counters, too. So a single character will most likely never be able to be the master of everything and will always have some form of vulnerability to certain other builds. If this is true, the rock-paper-scissors effect will still be present despite the huge flexibility and freedom, and I think this is what will make PvP truly epic in ESO. So many variables, so many options, so much fun.

I also have a really hard time imagining that blocking would stun ranged attackers using power attacks. It would make better sense if blocking ranged attacks simply is easier because there isn't any significant physical force behind the attacks. It could be that blocking arrows and spell projectiles only costs a fraction of the stamina it costs to block a heavy melee attack.

It could also be that armor rating actually does migitate magical damage but that the migitation calculations for magical attacks use a different variable.

With developers employed who have previously worked on DAoC and Warhammer (Brian Wheeler being the lead PvP designer), everything suggests that ESO's PvP will be those games' successor - but in a new and improved form (pressuming that they've avoided the pitfalls of those ealier games and just taken everything that worked). This really fills me with hope, and I think the PvP will set a new standard - even though it will differ from most MMOs with its lack of cooldowns (thank you) but increased flexibity and complex theory crafting.

But it does come with some useful passives, though. For a caster sorcerer, the encase -> elemental wall (or impulse) combo seems promising. Not to mention, that using power attacks with a lightning staff will damage up to 3 enemies. Then imagine if weakness to elements could be morphed into an AoE. Wishful thinking, but still...

He did suggest elsewhere that full armor sets at max level would be around: 650 (light), 1000 (medium) and 1300 (heavy), so if 750 resistance equals 26% migitations, the numbers aren't far off - provideded the premise of the calculations is correct, of course. Now, where I think these numbers might present a problem is with the speculation that armor rating will migitate any type of damage, be it physical or magical. The thing is, if you can have e.g. 1300 armor rating and add another 750 resistance on top of that, magical attacks seem to have a huge disadvatange over physical attacks. Not to mention that you can get a lot of spell resistance on top of that as well from racials and passives.

I think using the synergy between abilities like this is going to win PvP fights - those who are able to coordinate these things will be far more effective. That's also why I think solar flare will be one of the ultimate support abilities. The increased damage effect from next attack doesn't seem to have a timer on it, so once hit, an enemy might be vulnerable permanently until an enemy strikes him. Imagine spamming this spell into a cluster**** and watch your tanks tear the enemies apart. Lightning splash will also be epic for this if a sorcerer stands back and spams it into a crowd where friendlies can activate its synergy repeatedly. When running in groups, you'd probably want to coordinate having some of these abilities which can be exploited by the team members for increased efficiency.

If lightning splash stacks, it will be an excellent spell for sorcerers who get to stay in the back and spam them. I think it will also be a wicked area denial spell if multiple sorcerers spam it (bright wizards in Warhammer, anyone?). The only place I see a drawback is in 1 vs. 1 where it is probably easy to evade. It's probably awesome if you can encase or repulse your enemies first, though, but that requires close quarter combat - not ideal for a light armored sorc. I am really curious about how well weakness to elements, surge and destro staff power attacks will work together. If it deals about the same damage as mage's fury spammage, this would be an excellent roation because you would hardly deplete any resources on it. Then imagine if weakness to elements would morph into an AoE. Then I'd really start to contemplate the sorcerer as my prefered class (which is templar right now).

I think siphoning strikes and haste will be superb for PvE and dungeons where you need some better resource management but in PvP, if you're going 1 vs. 1 with somebody, I imagine that you will want him to go down as fast as possible. Resorting to light attacks could be rather hazzardous if, and only if, you have enough resources to burst instead. I don't know how fast resources will deplete, but from the Quakecon video is seems that you're able to pull off some rotation before running low. While teleport and flurry is repeatable, assassin's blade is cheap and might do the same - i.e. killing someone with low health - that would otherwise require the activation of two feats, a teleport followed by flurry. Furthermore, using assassin's blade will give you some quick magica regen, which could turn out to be about as effective as resorting to haste+siphoning, which takes up two slots on the action bar. I will also build my nightblade with 5 med / 2 heavy armor, so I agree that immovable is better than blur or evasion. I forgot to think about that feat. The first thing any alert PvPer will do when jumped by a melee nightblade (teleport strike or veiled strike) is to immediately break free of the stun and use some AoE, knockback, blink, root, stun to quickly turn the fight in his favour, and here immovable is absolutely crusial in order to stay on top. About strife, the thing I really like about this ability is that it is the only long-ranged class ability which deals direct damage. This should mean that it can be spammed, which is really good when fighting enemies that are out of "gap-closer" range. if you're a magicka built nightblade, you could possibly even go toe-to-toe with other casters with this ability, until you can move close enough to teleport strike. Having a HoT active everytime you go into a fight doesn't hurt either. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The secondary bar for the aforemention build would be for a bow. It would probably look like: 1. shadow cloak 2. poison arrow 3. scatter shot 4. mark target 5. snipe

http://eldersouls.com/topic/4653-the-templar-thread/page-2 This is the build which is giving me some headaches.

"The Avenger" Class: Templar Race: Altmer or Breton Weapons: Two-handed and bow. Armor: Either 5 medium / 2 light, 5 light / 2 heavy or 5 heavy / 2 light Stats: Either 100% magicka or 70% magicka / 30% stamina Role: DPS and support. First action bar: Two-handed 1. solar flare / sun fire 2. reverse slash 3. critical charge 4. puncturing strikes 5. blinding light Second action bar: Bow 1. sun fire / spear shards (depending on the situation) 2. poison arrow 3. volley / snipe (depending on the situation) 4. piercing javelin 5. restoring aura I am rather happy with the ability choices because I think they will allow the character to deal with pretty much any situation, but what I cannot figure out is what kind of armor configuration will support the build the best. 5 med / 2 light: Pros: High stamina regen to fuel weapon abilities, all weapons will have higher crit range, more combat maneuverability and quicker stealthing. Con: Low amor rating 5 light / 2 heavy: Pros: High magicka regen to fuel spells, spells crit for more damage, better spell resistance and spells cost less. Con: Low armor rating 5 heavy / 2 light: Pros: High armor rate, better health regen, melee does more damage, more damage migitation, received healing is better and it looks better. Cons: Low stamina regen, can't play sneaky as well, no useful set-bonus, no increased crit scores for either spells or weapons. I guess the real choice is between 5 med / 2 light or 5 light / 2 heavy. The latter will only really be interesting if it turns out that these two won't give enough survivability. If the choice is between the two aforementioned configurations, I think it will come down to which config gives the better armor rating. My initial thought is that 5 med / 2 light might be better, but it could be sweet if at one point, I could also grab a destruction staff every now and then and play as a glass cannon nuker (if I come across parties who need such a character, or if the guild needs such a character at times). Then the 5 light / 2 heavy looks very appealing (and that's also why I consider going 100% magicka). So, any input and feedback on ability choices and especially armor configuration would be most welcomed.