I have played the beta for ESO pretty extensively, and overall I have loved it! I was sold as soon as I got my first character to level 10, and I have already purchased the imperial edition.

I have only noticed one flaw in the core-mechanics themselves, and it is a catastrophic one in my eyes. If this is not fixed for commercial launch, it will take a lot out of the game.

This flaw is the lack of diversity between the one-handed weapons. I am speaking of axes, swords, daggers, and maces. They are all identical! They all have the same damage and stats, can all be upgraded the same way, and seem to hit at the same speed.

The main problem that I see is not that they are identical in themselves, but more that there are no skills which modify proficiency with a specific one! All of the dual-weilding and one-handed/shield skills broadly affect all of the one handed weapons. There are no skills specific to one weapon as in previous elder scrolls games, so there is no way to be more proficient at one.

Skyrim is nothing like ESO, and I would never compare them, but for all intents and purposes we need to look at this example. In skyrim, you could spec into daggers to get more sneak-attack damage, swords to get more accuracy, or maces and axes to get devastating critical damage.

In ESO, a nightblade would be just as proficient an assassin sneaking around with dual AXES or MACES as he would be using daggers. He receives no bonuses to sneak attacks using daggers or swords rather than clumsy bludgeoning weapons. To me, this seems like horrible game design.

Trust me, I have done my research. The ONLY class, armor, or weapon skill which gives individual bonuses to each of the single-handed weapons is Twin Blade and Blunt, the level 41 skill for dual-weilding. This gives a little bit of axes bleeding, maces bonus damage, swords overall damage, and daggers crit. This is a broad skill which gives small bonuses to all 4, even if you don't use all of them. At least this makes them a little bit different if you trait it, but this is still not what the game needs which is complete variety in these weapons. A dagger and sword are nothing like a mace and axe, and they should not play that way!

I have no idea how Bethesda overlooked this! This is the only core game mechanic which is really hurting, and needs to be fixed for an otherwise perfectly designed game. I only ask that they serve different purposes as they should. There needs to be more variety between axes, swords, daggers, and maces so they do different things better. This can be done by either changing their stats so that the damage and speed are different like in previous elder scrolls, or adding some passive skills to the class/weapon/armor trees which further differentiate between them and make them serve different purposes.

Discuss!

Here are my suggestions for making them serve different purposes as they should:

Add a passive skill giving sneak-attack bonuses to daggers?

Add a passive skill giving faster attacks or more damage to swords?

Add a passive skill giving a mini-stun, or mini-knockback, or more damage to maces?

Add a passive skill giving more potent, or longer lasting bleeds, or a chance to double-strike to axes?

Add a passive skill to templar or dragon knight giving them bonuses with axes, maces, or swords?

Add a passive skill to nightblade giving bonuses with daggers?

What are your ideas? Agree or disagree with anything? Let's give them something to work from and get the ball rolling.

Have you looked at the Nightblade passives?:

http://eldersouls.com/elder-scrolls-online/skills

Check out ESOhead.com. I believe both the Dual-Wield and Two-handed skill lines have passives that apply differently based on weapon equipped. For 2H, maces ignore X armor, axes bleed for X, swords do X% additional damage, etc.

I sure have. My level 10 was a nightblade. None of them are weapon-specific.

Please read the entire thread so you understand what I am talking about.

The only one is the one which I mentioned, duel weilding lvl 41 skill.

Please read the entire thread so you understand what I am talking about.

In the dual wield tree there is a skill called 'Twin Blade and Blunt' Which gives the individual types different effects.

This is the last skill too obtain at I think it's 40 points into dual wield? But it gives you what you're after.

Two handed weapons swing slower than the one handed. For a start and do more damage.

The difference in weapons is the effects they can cause on enemies.

Daggers will crit more than any other weapon.

Swords do more damage when the passive is bought.

Axes will cause a bleed effect with the passives.

Maces will ignore armour IIRC.

A lot of the abilities of the weapons are tied to the passive skills when you look at the weapon lines. So a nightblade sneaking and using two maces will ignore some of the armour but not do a lot of critical damage on its initial attack. Where as if they were using daggers the initial damage would be much higher.

I have tested the dual daggers vs the bow from stealth. With no abilities used only the basic power attack the dual daggers will in two hits kill a npc mob of level 14 when attacked by my khajiit of level 13. The bow damage from stealth is no where as close and that alpha strike is just not there for the bow.

When attacking from stealth it is all about that alpha strike and bow vs daggers the daggers will do more damage. Not tried it yet with other weapon types but if I get the chance I will next beta.

Yeah, I feel this is a problem. Weapon types need inherent differences, not just skills, especially because there is no such skill for One Hand and Shield.

Ultimately anything that is done to make weapons specialize stunts diversity and ruins player choice. We (players) want the ability to choose what weapon we use. And while it is cool when we get bonuses for different types, its not cool to have to choose a weapon to fit a playstyle.

Instead of the choice of weapons my nightblade uses im forced to use daggers to synergize with stealth.

So its a really fine line that has to be walked. ESO is perhaps too conservative, but I'd rather it they err on the side of caution.

I agree with ya OP, there should be an INHERENT difference in the weapons (this is kept separate from skills!)

If I pick up a huge giants club and go bashing people with it, it will do a lot of blunt force trauma - maybe that would (IRL if I smacked you with a baseball bat) disorient/confuse you
Whereas if I started hacking away at you with an axe you'd probably bleed a lot and certainly not be confused.

They are different its just not in the description of the weapons when you look at the information.

Wait what...so you are saying someone who's sneaking with big maces is as effective as someone who's sneaking with concealable, small daggers?

You don't HAVE to choose daggers to sneak, you'll just do more raw damage if you choose to. Maybe if you wanted to fit a "smack and disappear" playstyle you'd grab 2 axes so you could hit a target, disappear, and then watch him/her bleed to death...

Sounds way more diverse and cool than what you're suggesting tbh

Please link me to an official source showing how they are different.

Unless you DW, they are all the same thing.

I mentioned this one. I am aware it is there.

Don't you think that there should be some difference between axes, maces, swords, and daggers besides appearance BEFORE you hit level 41? Even with that trait, they should be more diversified. No reason I should be able to use maces to sneak-attack as well as daggers.

Still nobody has been able to provide me with evidence that they will be different.....

Please keep discussing.

What if I used small lightweight maces like a blackjack? What if i had axes that were designed for stealth with grappling capabilities? The point is that this is becoming subjective. Your opinion and my opinion could both be valid and yet completely contradictory.

Its not as simple as "oh well daggers should obviously be the better thief/stealth style weapon". That is just your personal view and opinion.

The system has to meaningfully differentiate each weapon yet at the same time not alienate or de-value each other in similar situations.

I don't care if they make daggers a bludgeoning weapon and maces a stealth kill weapon.

I just want them to make them something! To make them different! - something they aren't right now.

Agree or disagree the idea behind it is that people should not be stuck with 1 weapon (axes) because of reason X when they want to use maces. So by making the weapons nearly identical it allows players to get the "look" they want.

Given that they are similar DPS-wise (not taking into account skills), I would take that as a positive rather than a negative.

This means that you can make your character look how YOU want without the fear of severely gimping yourself into oblivion (see what I did there ).

Oh no, my post was attempting to say "in real life, a person with a dagger would be more apt at sneaking than a dude with a huge mace"

Ok, you raise a valid point there ARE those 'types' of weapons that are styled/designed for stealth.
But in ESO, when you pick up a 1h mace you know it is a large, blunt mace... I don't think (and hope) you contest this view.

Case in point; It might be subjective IRL, but in ESO there are no 'blackjacks' or 'grappling stealth axes", a mace is a mace, an axe is an axe, and a dagger ought to be the most viable base "sneaking" weapon.

Well they aren't STUCK with it. There would obviously be situations/builds more geared towards maces or axes or swords or daggers.
At the crafting table, if you don't have any of those passives unlocked it simply doesn't matter what type of 1h weapon you make, they all do basically the same thing.

That being said, you shouldn't be able to 'get the look you want just because', simply because this makes no sense.

It's like me wanting a shotgun that looks like and operates like a clothes hanger.

Completely agree. Thank you very much for explaining so I didnt have to.

This gave me idea that they should make weapon skills to effect diffrently depending on what kind of weapon you are using. Just like destruction staff. Would add alot more fun and immersion

Agreed i noticed this homogenization too, i see why they did it but it seems really boring and limiting especially when nightblade is concerned.