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How important are class skills?
bloodbone
Member Posts: 142
I did not participate in beta and there seems to be some contradictory information out there. Some say there is no practically no need for alts as most things can be done on 1 character. On the other hand I understand 3/10 skill lines are locked class skill lines which, to me, seems to make class matter very much.
For instance if I pick Sorc. ... would it be fair to say I wont ever be an effective sword and board tank as there is no (or very little) synergy with my class skills?
Would love some good insight on this, it will probably effect my first character and certainly weather I will try to do it all on one character or not.
Thanks in advance guys.
Comments
Any class can be effective at any role but certain classes will have abilities that will be better suited for certain roles. For instance if you want to focus on healing then you would role a templar for their healing skills which are better then the skills on the restoration staff. If you want some kind of pet class you would have to role a Sorceror for their daedric summoning skill line. Overall you can take anyone of the 4 classes and role them as a tank, healer, dps, or hybrid and be effective at it. It's all a matter of how your play style is. I'd reccomend looking at the skill calculator over on eso head to get started
http://esohead.com/calculator/skills
Class is pretty important. Yes, you can fulfill any role with any class, but how you go about doing it will change depending on which class you've chosen, and some of those play styles may not gel with the way you'd prefer to play. In addition, each class has unique passive skills that will affect your abilities in one way or another.
I don't agree with the 'no need for alts' argument. Even if I enjoy playing a mage type, regardless of class, a Dragon Knight and a Sorcerer are going to create two vastly different flavors of that play style.
Class skills don't really determine role, but they do have a pretty significant impact on your options as far as playstyle.
So in you want to siphon life as part of a tank build NB is gonna offer you that. If you want an armor buff Sorc or DK can do that. If you want extra burst heal options as a healer Temp can give you that, but other classes can add healing in other ways and can do the healing role (NB has multiple ways to heal others but its not burst and need enemy targets).
You can more or less make a build with just class skills slotted. I would say they can be pretty important, depending on your build.
I would also say that if you had zero skill points in your class skills, which includes the passives, you would be severely gimped.
Class skills importance and non-importance.
Importance: The importance of class skills would be to pretty much have options to doing a class role in grouplay. If you choose a tank class, you have access to some abilities that allow you to taunt, which lets you be tank. If you are a healer it gives you access to healing choices only a healer would have.
Non-Importance: Just because you have a class, does not mean you cannot do another roll. Tanks can be full dps, Tanks can even be full healers like the paladin was in WoW. you can have Healers with heavy armor, their healing might not be as great with heavy armor on but they can tank heal. Same for dps, dps can easily go from dps to healing people, or tanking.
Your role is mainly what armor you wear and what weapon you use. Group dynamics are weird. I just by default go Tank because I want access to it all. But if you want to be a pure build, pick the class you want most, because you'll have access to features of that class that other classes wont get, like Taunt, or Healing. Not really important to pick dps class.
EDIT:
Problems with classes in the near future with classes.
I just want to add, Your Skill level in every weapon, armor, and skill, is what is going to tell how effective you are going to be with that type of weapon armor and skill. Heavy Armor 15, with medium armor 5, is going to make me a pretty crapy medium armor dps. So its important that you focus on all skills you plan to use, and keep them all up to level.
For this reason I think people will degress into calling for Pure Builds. I also see some peoples secondary roles being too underleveled for the things they do which will cause harships in group play.
The way the group is set up, tanks are suppose to grab the hardest mob when tanking and the rest of the group is suppose to take on the all the adds... I think at first tanks are going to have the hardest time trying to explain, they are not suppose to grab up every single mob. Healers and dps might get angry at tanks....
These are just a few of the problems were going to have to face with Grouping and Classes.
Sorcerers make fine S&B tanks. Lightning Form and Bound Armor are amongst the best defensive skils in the game. Class skills (for every class) are almost always a hodgepodge of skills that suite multiple roles.
Sorcerers are quite capable of filling any class role. Tank, healer, Ranged DPS, Melee Dps, AoE, CC/Support. They can do pretty much anything just by shuffling skills around.
That generally goes for any class.
As to whether class skills are important... yes. They house some of the strongest skills in the game. You can certainly make a viable character without them, but I don't think you'd be doing yourself a service.
I honestly feel like any class can do anything from the trinity (heal/dps/tank) or any mix / hybrid of those roles.
Some classes skills will benefit you in different ways but they can all achieve the same role ill give you an example
A templar tank can add self heals to keep himself alive
A nightblade tank can use siphoning skills to heal himself while doing dmg same affect in a different way
both these tanks would have heavy armor skills / sword and board skills lots of tanking passives but ya basicaly you can do anything but you augment your build in different ways with your class skills but anything could be done, not to mention if you use vampire / mage guild/fighters guild skill lines you could do a lot with 0 class skills its crazy :P
Don't stress out over the names of the so-called classes. They aren't really classes.
Check out one of the skill calculators; that's the best advice I can give you. Check the second forum entry (with the thumbtack) and use the first skill calculator that's listed (my recommendation). Pay attention to the various capabilities of the different skills (as described in the pop-up descriptions), the levels at which they're available, and what they do.
The skill calculators will give you better insight into "class" capabilities than any line of BS on these forums. Spend an hour or so fooling around with them. It's worth the time invested.
EDIT: Typo... if I could type I'd be dangerous.
You dont get abillities from passive skills... You get procs or bonusses and the like..
The weapon passive skills only work when the weapon of the correct type is equiped.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
What about class passive skills?
From what i understand you will need to have the weapon or armor equipped to benefit from the passives.
So class passive skills, they are always active then?
They are always active, though there are a few that require you to have class skills on your bar. For instance Daedric Protection requires you to have a summoning skill slotted.
There are also some passives that just buff that particular tree. For instance Energized increases the damage of Storm Calling class skills.
For the majority of class passives there are no requirements for the passive to apply to your character, outside of putting a skill point into it.
Edit: Went back and took a look at the class passives. I'd say it's closer to 50/50. About half are useful no matter what and the other 50 only effect a certain tree or require at least one class skill from that tree to be slotted.