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[Column] Elder Scrolls Online: Are Four Classes Enough?
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
Elder Scrolls Online is going to offer a lot of depth in its character customization and progression. But does that mean the game's four main classes will be enough to satisfy the ADHD gamer in us all? Read on for Bill Murphy's thoughts and let us know your own in the comments.
Yes, four classes are enough for Elder Scrolls Online. There we go. Column over. Discuss! Okay, I'll prattle on for a bit longer and then we can get to the usual comment-arguing. The Dragon Knight, Sorcerer, Night Blade, and Templar seem to fill the basic "roles" of traditional trinity-based design. But when you toss in all the many layered variations with skills, weapons, armor, and faction skills... it becomes clear that the four classes are simply a baseline to what the game's character development is all about: player-choice and experimentation.
Read the rest of Bill's Elder Scrolls Online: Are Four Classes Enough?
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Comments
I bet this game will be another cashgrab
mark my words
The number of classes is just that.... A number.
it depends how they define a "class". Is it a framework that has 2-3 individual talent tree's.
Is it a basis for which armor/weapons you'll be able to use?
in some games a "class" is just what ability you start with. In some games there are no classes and it's all up in the air.
TLDR: I need to see it and play it before I can decide.
I'm not sure how people are missing that these "classes" are more like starting points.
In a game like Rift, if I choose a Warrior, I will only be able to use Warrior abilities, equip Warrior gear, and wield Warrior weapons as viable choices for combat. I will never cast a magic spell because I'd have no mana. I can equip a mage staff and robes, but that would be a little silly, as I'd have no survivability and minimal DPS.
What I have seen of ESO, the Dragon Knight is the "Warrior class" - I can strap on armor and leeroy Jenkins myself into the middle of a melee engagement. I can also put on robes, equip a staff, and cast fireballs. Maybe I have some light armor under my robes, to make you think I am a mage; maybe when you run up to engage in melee, I swap to my alternate weapon - a huge 2H axe - and I hack at you. Both are viable choices for combat, and both are options for this "Class".
I'd prefer that this game had no classes, but I guess some players don't like to have to play games anymore, just press the buttons like a good little monkey...that's right, now press 1, now press A...good boy. There's a banana for you in the Item Mall.
There are so many various skill lines that class matters little in the end. From what has been released, classes comprise of 3 skill lines, plus there is racial, weapons (multiple), armor (multiple), guild (multiple), pvp, emperor, vampire (possibly), werewolf (possibly), with more to be added as the game develops.
I would rather have a game with fewer class options that allows me a great deal of customization than a game with many classes and little customization. ESO lets you build any class into any role you want. Mage can be a tank in any armor with any weapon, rogue can be a healer with any armor with any weapon, and guess what, you can swap roles with the swap of your weapon set (which also swaps your action bar).
Last I checked balancing more customization options is harder than balancing many classes. More customization means more possibility to min/max.
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
Since you can use, mix, match any skill does it really matter?
If you look at the Elder Scrolls games that list "classes" (such as Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblvion) all the classes are just various subdivisions of the available skills.
So for example, here is chart for morrowind classes:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Classes
Anyone can have any of these skills but the grouping of certain skills (which doesn't give any bonuses by the way) is then determined to be "x class" because that class might evince the properties that those skills represent.
same with Oblvion:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Classes
Daggerfall:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Intrinsic_Classes
So "yes" the classes have a few predetermined skills (my opinion is that they should allow character creation like Morrowind/Oblvion but "whatever") you can have a character that uses bow, heavy armor and say some sort of magic.
Or a light armored mace wielding character with some sort of healing.
etc.
so, from the article:
In a way, classes in ESO are almost unnecessary. The developers could have easily given players access to all class skills and trees and let them delve into each of them, and the effect would be the same. But the decision to link at least some character differentiation to class is probably linked to the fact that classless systems have never been widely accepted by the mass market gamer ESO hopes to attract with the Bethesda IP. By picking a class at the start of a game, you're making your first decision on who you are in that world.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I don't think he realized that, you don't need stupid excessive classes in ES universe.
if you want to be a circus magician berserker priest...umm & shaolin monk ! you're looking at the wrong game.
the only thing im going to miss is being The dragonborn.
Now, now, we all know I"m the Dragonborn
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Um? Most Asian Mmos actually tend to have MORE classes then western MMos... typically you see more diverse class systems having more classes with different play styles with just less customization. So yeah... you kind of are with that comment since it tends to be the other way around more often for 'classes' in a game, if not being relatively close to the same.
Anyways, putting aside the miss informed, I would say given they have customization to the degree of Rift, It probably won't be an issue. Still, I doubt it will be the case. Given how elder's scrolls is though, if they are falling in line with the traditional game style, it probably won't be as big of an issue, granted the whole class deal IS not exactly what the game had in its wake beforehand either.
I guess it comes down to how close in line it is with the single player games to justify having a much more limited class selection being 'okay'.
Given my experience with Asian mmos a few years back (not played any recent ones) the class options tended to be slim. So I plead ignorance, not deliberate trolling.
I also didn't contemplate the diversity of skill sets. So I plead ignorance again. When they say it's four classes, it sounds a bit limiting. So my bad.
All die, so die well.
4 classes, 1 class, 500 classes. It doesn't matter.
Is the game fun? Is it worth box+sub. Will it be enjoyable enough to sub month after month? These are the questions that matter.
And how many classes were in the latest Elder Scrolls games? How diverse was one person's player compared to another? One less ignorant clown to populate the game I suppose ha.
Why have classes at all if that is the case?