First off I'll say that I've been playing ESO for a while and quite frankly I don't understand the negativity. I've played alone a lot, I've played with friends and I've already got plenty of hours in the game. Obviously there are areas where it is lacking, such as the loot/item system where we as TES players are used to picking up whatever we want whereas is ESO most of the prettiest stuff we find in the game cannot be picked up. Which does svck somewhat but it 's a typical MMO feature.

However, I find the magic in ESO to be far more satisfying than the single-player games. The ability to mix abilities using magicka, stamina and magical items like staffs makes me feel so much more like a proper 'Mage' than the one-spell system of Morrowind/Oblivion and the two-spell system for Skyrim. Being able to change between spells without menus and having spells that work well with each other, for example a spell that knocks down an enemy while you drain their health with a staff, followed by an AoE spell to deal with more enemies. I also especially like that staffs of specific disciplines have their own skills and unlockable abilities. Basically, I find the range of spells and the ability to use multiple at once a great improvement. I feel like something similar and more attuned to single-player games would be a major benefit to the franchise. And spellmaking wouldn't hurt, either.

Personally? Not a thing, as there's nothing I find particularly interesting or meshes well with TES's intrinsic Skill system. At all. Being able to cast multiple spells works, true, but...unfortunately, its an MMO. Without a separate button layout specifically dedicated to magic casting, I don't really see it working, especially due to how ESO handles its "classes". Going beyond that, I don't think ESO's combat in general meshes well with the main series all that well either.

I do think magic, staves, and how spells are equipped do need to be reworked in order to try and avert the endless inventory management of constantly trying to switch spells, but do I think ESO holds any credible answers? Not really, no.

One thing I have to say is that game mechanics for online games are totally different than single player games. I kinda like ESO having different game mechanics than games like Morrownd and Skyrim, and so on.


Diversity is good. Everything the same is plain boring. That's one reason why I'm glad the TES games are all different from each other.

This, the option to directly cast spells with pressing the shortcut button is one nice feature from ESO.

I liked the gear and crafting system too more fitting for an fantasy world than the otherwise good system from FO4.

And yes an MMO is different as everything has to be balanced and real time.

Get out.


I'm kidding. I think basically all of us agree that Spell Crafting would be a welcome return, it's just an issue of how it works, and what it does. I think the old system was absolute rubbish, and needs a significant overhaul to be both fun and mechanically sound, but we've had that discussion many times in Beyond Skyrim...


Overall, I don't think ESO has much, of anything, to offer magic in the base games. Some visual elements and concepts, maybe (calling pillars of flame from the sky, knockbacks etc) but the actual way it is cast isn't really that visionary, or even that good.


I don't even think the Power Bar is that useful a tool... There does need to be a better way to swap between things, but i don't think an Power Bar really does what's needed.