Elder Scrolls Online Skills: Offense vs Defense in Tamriel

Hello Everyone, today I want to open up discussion on a dynamic look at both Offense and Defense gameplay in ESO. I know is a long article, but my sensei told me that in order to master the way of the Ninja I must master the path of knowledge.

1. Critical Vs Impenetrable: I think this is balanced in my opinion, im not sure the exact number of Inpen necessary to offset all of the bonus critical damage, but i think you are able to.
Shields are a Crit Negater since you cant crit against shields, I believe that you cant crit against someone blocking either(please correct me if im wrong)

2. Healing in proportion to damage received: The amount of Damage that you receive that can be healed is astronomical, it goes up and down depending on your build but below are a few examples.
A. Healing based on missing health (Vampire and DK come to mind) Moderate Healing, nothing OP.
B. Vigor and Rally Combo (Any Stam Class, Full Medium Armor) High Burst Healing, in some cases able to offset(by Healing) more damage than Full Heavy Armor Mitigation(Unblocked).
C. Nightblade Siphoning (Magic Build, 5L) High AoE Healing, Moderate Burst Self Healing.
D. Templar Healer (Magic Build, 5 L) High HOT Healing, Moderate Burt Healing to Self and Others, Extreme Healing Burst Ultimate. Able to offset almost all damage and its also sustained

My concern: That there is no clear sacrifice in terms of sacrificing Self Healing for high damage, crit, and power. What I’m trying to say is that you have extreme damage mitigation in terms of self healing but you also have high sustained burst damage, critical, armor penetration, and regen.

3. Damage vs Damage Resistance: This is my favorite one. In ESO you can stack Damage and Armor Penetration as high as you can get it. Damage resistance is capped at around 33k armor making damage outmatch damage resistance. I will get into more detail below.
A. Your Armor amount only affects unblocked damage resistance, put simply is Damage that you do not Block or Shield against.
B. Armor Penetration Lowers the targets Armor by that same amount; for example you have 10k total armor penetration, i have 33k armor, with the penetration taken into effect, when i receive damage and I do not block the damage, the damage I receive will be calculated as if I had 22k armor.
C. The amount of Damage Negated by Armor is percentage based as a percentage of the Total initial damage.
D. Blocked Damage Resistance its pretty high, some players getting to even higher than 90% damage reduction while blocking. I think the game is ok when it comes to Blocked Damage Resistance.CP, Heavy Armor, Class, and 1HS Abilities provide buffs to Blocking, Amount of Damage Blocked, and Block Cost Reduction.
E. Armor Cap at 33k reduces unblocked damage by 50%, if they ever raise the cap, the damage reduction percentage would increase. After reading about other mmos, 70% unblocked damage resistance at armor Cap makes sense.
F. Since with the number of buffs and super high damage builds, the amount of damage before the 50% reduction is still really high and that is why a lot of Heavy Armor users do not feel “Tanky” in heavy armor(Raw with no Heals).
G. Why is Armor the only thing that is Capped in the game even after they removed CAPS in Update 6? The only other thing is critical since you can still get it over 100% but it’s only effective up to 100%.

My Thoughts: This is big imbalance in the game right now, there shouldn’t be an armor cap.

4.Shield Mechanics vs Damage: A lot of players are unaware of certain mechanics that apply to shields.
A. Damage Shields cannot be Crit upon, making them Critical Nullifiers
B. Shields Cannot “Crit”
C. Shields Lasts for 8 seconds for most of them
D. Re casting the same Shield refreshes that same shield and it doesn’t “ADD” an additional Shield amount
E. If you cast a different Shield Spell you can Stack Shields, meaning that you can wait a few seconds before casting another shield spell and reduce the vulnerability of the 8 second duration.
F. When you take damage and have multiple damage shields at a time, the shield that takes the damage is the last shield you casted not the first one. For example: You cast Hardened ward, 3 seconds later you cast Harness Magika; when you take damage Harness Magica will intercept the hit. User this to your advantage.
G. Armor Resistance Does not apply to Shields, Shields take raw damage; however De buffs on the enemy are taken into account, like minor maim.
H. Any damage reduction buffs you cast on yourself are useless if you have a damage shield on because your shields would be unaffected by them
I. You can still have a damage shields while in Mist Form as a Vampire, making Shields take 75% reduced damage instead of your health. Because when the mist form is cast that goes on top of all your shields.
J. If you Block with a Damage shield on, the shield would still take raw damage.

Why Shadows of Elder Scrolls Online the Hist is an Important Update

Look, we get it. There’s not a lot of oomph, and the wow factor is somewhat mixed, but overall… yes, this is an important update. ZOS didn’t need to release it, and realistically everything in Shadows of the Hist (and even the base game patch) could have been backburnered until One Tamriel which comes out in a few months.

But Update 11 /is/ an important update, and it’s important for a few reasons.
Updates – Everyone complains that ZOS never does bug pure bug fixing. “Stop making new content,” some cry with seething rage into an oscillating room fan. “Focus on bug fixes! Stop content and just fix things.” Guess what? They did. In fact, the majority of this patch WAS bug fixes. Improvements. Fixes. Tweaks. Yes, two new dungeons were added to the mix, but the vast majority of everything of this patch was bug fixing. Some big, simple little.

You’ve been asking for it for ages, and you got it. Chicken McNuggets for everyone!

Quality of Life – “The RNG system sucks. BURN THE HERETIC!” Yep, the RNG sucks. You said. I’ve said. The guy at the drive thru window of my local Taco Bell said it. And with Update 11, the single biggest quality of life update is… *drumroll* ….the ability to defeat the RNG. You can now trade BOP items. Yes, this seems like a minor update in the scheme of things, but this is huge. This is the kind of thing that truly incentivizes and rewards group play. Y’know, that… that thing you’ve been asking for. That we’ve all been asking for. It’s here. Right now.

Loot sharing will greatly encourage more group play. More trials. More dungeons. More people getting together and doing the content that may not have done, and not having to worry quite as much at being at the mercy of the RNG. Didn’t get the part you wanted? Trade for it. You’re no longer limited to the loot table of yourself, but he loot table of 3 to 11 other people.

Not only that, but ZOS listened to our threads, heard our complaints, and made Maelstrom always drop a weapon. And made DSA always drop a weapon. Yeah, it’s taken a while, but they listened. That’s important. Write that down in your copy book now.

Personalities – I don’t know of many other MMOs that can allow you to change your character’s behavior, walk, idle in such an easy way. Darth Lambert and Emperor Firor could have declared each personality cost 1K crowns. They didn’t. They bundled them, put them together in a seriously cheap and affordable pack, tied a little ribbon on it and basically gave it out for dirt cheap. Yeah, yeah, they still cost crowns, but they made them affordable to get them out there. Small impact, but it further helps customize characters. This is a good thing.

Costume Dyeing – Again, this a minor update but one that has a large impact to the feel of the game. It offers more customization and the ability to be a little bit more unique. You can customize how you look, feel, act and behave (especially accompanied by the new personalities) you can really go the extra mile to make your character feel unique and different from the rest of the pack. Again: huge.

Updated Content – They took the time to go back, fix, tweak and improve the updated content. No, it’s not new, but creating new content takes ages. ZOS opened up a new floodgate of existing for people to engage in, and actually have it be rewarding and end up as something other than “Hey, got 10 minutes to kill to knock out AA for leaderboards?” Scaling also sets the stage for One Tamriel, and brings everything we’ve had prior up to part. Fixed. And yes, it gives us insight that they want Trials to be the hard, yet also accessible. Approachable for new players, and about as fun as a trip to the dentist for those looking for a challenge. Which is good, because that drives people to WANT to get better and improve.

With that, no, not everything is perfect, and this is a small DLC, but this is a small DLC that really focused and catered on the little things. A lot of little things that people have been asking for.

That’s a great thing, and if you don’t think it’s a great thing, trust me… alcohol helps.