[Column] Elder Scrolls Online: Diving Deep into the Progression of ESO

SBFord

Character progression in MMOs is one of the most important features and one that players expect a lot from. In a new video, Zenimax has revealed how character progression in Elder Scrolls Online will work. We've got our analysis to offer so keep reading before heading to the comments.

There are three main facets of skill progression, outside of your character’s overall level (1-50 at launch).  You have your abilities themselves: usually determined by class selection, weapon choice, or even guild allegiance. You also have several different types of skill lines which determine the access to what abilities you can use. And of course you have the skill points, which are the sort of currency you spend to gain new abilities.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Elder Scrolls Online: Diving Deep into the Progression of ESO.

Coldren

Excellent article.

Incidentally, were these messages pre-approved by ZOS? Some of them are a little more.. detailed.. than I'd imagine.

BillMurphy

Originally posted by Coldren

Excellent article.

Incidentally, were these messages pre-approved by ZOS? Some of them are a little more.. detailed.. than I'd imagine.

Yes.

Coldren

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by Coldren

Excellent article.

Incidentally, were these messages pre-approved by ZOS? Some of them are a little more.. detailed.. than I'd imagine.

Yes.

 

Excellent! Hope they will be ready to lift the NDA soon. Sounds like they are giving a lot more detail, or allowing the major sites to talk about it more.

evilastro

The models and world look good, but they really need to work on the combat animations.  Pretty stark contrast if you look at this video and Wildstar.  Still going to check it out for ES nostalgia, but could be a game killer.

Scot

Any new type of skill system or combat system is welcome. We get so few attempts to try something different. I imagine though that there will be "best" templates for certain tasks, but that is better than set classes.

The problem with a more complex skill system is you are going to get a lot more cries for nerfs and loving. As long as they can maintain a balanced approach and remain true the vision they have set out we could be looking at something quite special.

Ziegler

*chuckles* ...I am eagerly awaiting to see what happens after launch...I imagine the nerf hammer will make a strong presence in this game.

orbitxo

Originally posted by wowclones3
Oh man this is going to get ugly. Covers ears...

lol- agreed!

udon

I wonder why they went with locking a handful of skills behind classes if the rest of them can all be unlocked with time.  I am guessing that those class skills will be the most defining characteristics of your toon and everything else will be much more secondary.  For instance a person who picks ranged caster class will never be a top tier tank or vis versa because the key skills needed to do that job will be locked in the class.

Just a guess on my part. Still it looks much more like a Elder Scrolls game than the videos I saw earlier in the year so if nothing else it does seem like they have been listening to people who want a Elder Scrolls MMO and not WoW with a Elder Scrolls skin.

bcbully

I think this is one of the places ESO can shine. I have some concerns, but this is something feels compelling.

 

azarhal

Originally posted by udon

I wonder why they went with locking a handful of skills behind classes if the rest of them can all be unlocked with time.  I am guessing that those class skills will be the most defining characteristics of your toon and everything else will be much more secondary.  For instance a person who picks ranged caster class will never be a top tier tank or vis versa because the key skills needed to do that job will be locked in the class.

Just a guess on my part. Still it looks much more like a Elder Scrolls game than the videos I saw earlier in the year so if nothing else it does seem like they have been listening to people who want a Elder Scrolls MMO and not WoW with a Elder Scrolls skin.

All weapons and armors are shared skill lines. You get a racial and a bunch of "world, guilds and AvA" skill lines too (some are mutually exclusive like the Vampire vs Werewolf ones). The class skill lines are the minority of everything you will be able to unlock and you can still only have 12 skills in combat (with weapon switching, 6 for each weapon set).  Just look at the video above to see how many skills are per line and make the math.

Most players will end up running around with skills that aren't related to their classes.

Distopia

It really makes sense for a game that wants PVP to shine at end game. Constant fluidity at end game is great for PVP, I haven't really seen it personally since SWG in such an open way. It allows for an endless game of trying new builds, that's what I did for a couple years in SWG.

 

Hellidol

Looks good, I love what they are trying to do with the game, if they keep down this path they will only be successful in what they are doing.

Razephon

The game seems worth a shot, but 6 months more! 

artemisentr4

Originally posted by azarhal

Originally posted by udon

I wonder why they went with locking a handful of skills behind classes if the rest of them can all be unlocked with time.  I am guessing that those class skills will be the most defining characteristics of your toon and everything else will be much more secondary.  For instance a person who picks ranged caster class will never be a top tier tank or vis versa because the key skills needed to do that job will be locked in the class.

Just a guess on my part. Still it looks much more like a Elder Scrolls game than the videos I saw earlier in the year so if nothing else it does seem like they have been listening to people who want a Elder Scrolls MMO and not WoW with a Elder Scrolls skin.

All weapons and armors are shared skill lines. You get a racial and a bunch of "world, guilds and AvA" skill lines too (some are mutually exclusive like the Vampire vs Werewolf ones). The class skill lines are the minority of everything you will be able to unlock and you can still only have 12 skills in combat (with weapon switching, 6 for each weapon set).  Just look at the video above to see how many skills are per line and make the math.

Most players will end up running around with skills that aren't related to their classes.

^^ This

 

If you want to be a tank, you can go with building class skills. But you can also go with the S&B, Heavy armor and Fighters guild skill lines. Work on building those skills with the active and passive, and you can be a tank with any class. Same for a Mage. Grab a destruction staff, light armor and join the Mages guild.

 

It would be easier to start with the class and type of character you want to be. But I think with enough skill points, any class can be a top of the line in any of the trinity. Will have to wait and see, but with the limited number of skills as above, it can and will be done.

hovnarren

I am so relived there is not a respec in this game, letting player focus on what they really want to do. this for me is a reason to play in itself

Oziius

Originally posted by artemisentr4

Originally posted by azarhal

Originally posted by udon

I wonder why they went with locking a handful of skills behind classes if the rest of them can all be unlocked with time.  I am guessing that those class skills will be the most defining characteristics of your toon and everything else will be much more secondary.  For instance a person who picks ranged caster class will never be a top tier tank or vis versa because the key skills needed to do that job will be locked in the class.

Just a guess on my part. Still it looks much more like a Elder Scrolls game than the videos I saw earlier in the year so if nothing else it does seem like they have been listening to people who want a Elder Scrolls MMO and not WoW with a Elder Scrolls skin.

All weapons and armors are shared skill lines. You get a racial and a bunch of "world, guilds and AvA" skill lines too (some are mutually exclusive like the Vampire vs Werewolf ones). The class skill lines are the minority of everything you will be able to unlock and you can still only have 12 skills in combat (with weapon switching, 6 for each weapon set).  Just look at the video above to see how many skills are per line and make the math.

Most players will end up running around with skills that aren't related to their classes.

^^ This

 

If you want to be a tank, you can go with building class skills. But you can also go with the S&B, Heavy armor and Fighters guild skill lines. Work on building those skills with the active and passive, and you can be a tank with any class. Same for a Mage. Grab a destruction staff, light armor and join the Mages guild.

 

It would be easier to start with the class and type of character you want to be. But I think with enough skill points, any class can be a top of the line in any of the trinity. Will have to wait and see, but with the limited number of skills as above, it can and will be done.

One question I had was whether or not you could build a character to tank, but use level up light armor and a weapon other then sword and shield to say, use more dodging. Could you still be effective?  Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I still don't know a ton about this game. What I saw when I played was enough to make me come back already though. Sadly, I didn't get a ton of time with in in the weekend.

Xiaoki

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Originally posted by hovnarren
I am so relived there is not a respec in this game, letting player focus on what they really want to do. this for me is a reason to play in itself

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What people really want to do is grind out skill points?

Sounds like you can get pretty much everything but you can only have so many skills equipped at a time. Kinda like GW2.

mari3k

I don't know, chances that this game will fail are big. Looks to me like another standard mmo with great ip and poor gameplay.

orbitxo

Originally posted by mari3k
I don't know, chances that this game will fail are big. Looks to me like another standard mmo with great ip and poor gameplay.

Ive already submitted my ESO gameplay survey.

 

Pigglesworth

Not liking the lack of respec. I never make the right choices the first time.

Karoneth

I thought that I heard about a respec mechanic in a previous interview.  In any event, it's looking great and the ability to continue to progress your skills after level 50 is also nice.

EQBallzz

Originally posted by Pigglesworth
Not liking the lack of respec. I never make the right choices the first time.

You will be able to open up access to everything (outside of other race/class options) so I think the only bad choices that could be made are with respect to morphing. Unclear if there will be an option to unmorph or not.

Nadia

Originally posted by hovnarren
I am so relived there is not a respec in this game, letting player focus on what they really want to do. this for me is a reason to play in itself

from article

A long time ago, Paul Sage told us you’d be able to go back later in the game and learn the other paths of each morphed ability. It remains to be seen if this is true, but we sure hope so.

 

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32045&storypage=2

Abilities level up, then, once you have maxed level four, you receive the option to Morph, which opens up two ability branches to go down in order to specialize.

It was said that you will be able to respec your Morph at a cost that is being discussed as development progresses. You won’t be able to respec completely out of the points spent for the entirety of a skill line but, as you can just go and earn more of them, with no limit on the other lines you can go for, that doesn’t really matter.

 

 

bcbully

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

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Originally posted by hovnarren
I am so relived there is not a respec in this game, letting player focus on what they really want to do. this for me is a reason to play in itself

---

What people really want to do is grind out skill points?

 

Sounds like you can get pretty much everything but you can only have so many skills equipped at a time. Kinda like GW2.

Nothing like GW2. Your skills never change. Those same 15 or so weapon skills you get by level 5 are the same skills you will be using at level 80 and beyond in GW2.

 

StaalBurgher

Not wanting to be negative just for the sake of being negative but really... nothing knew in this game. Levels, no character persistence while offline, grind tastic gameplay, same old guild system that makes no sense witihn the context of the in-game lore/society, no meaningful passage of time because of character immortality, regular crafting/harvesting (doesn't matter how many steps you input it is still watching a bar progress).

Don't get why anyone gets excited by these "new" MMOs. There is hardly anything new in any of them. Just the same old with a fresh coat of paint a maybe a gimmicky tweak or two.