That got your attention. So why would I make such a bold and daring comment? Simple: Dungeons, group content, "Raids" and more (note the quotes around Raids). These types of activities require you to in some form have some who is wearing heavy armour to take the argo, some one with the staff to heal and finally who ever for dps. Lots of MMO's don't have this trinity aspect - but it is known that if you plan to be a mage - you have to play your role in dungeons, you cannot be some heavy armour - duel sword wielding fireball thrower. people expect you to stand back, either heal or cast your spells from a distance.

Even in games like GW2,. where there is no trinity, a lot of the times when I play my caster class, I am expected to stay at the back and support the team - regardless of my ability to go in, lay down some what ever and get out alive. People don't like that. People don't like change in group based content. they want to be healed, they want the tanks, they want the dps people.

No in the open world, sure you can be your heavy armour wearing mage who wields axes and goes crazy, but if you like group content you'll be asked to switch and after enough times of switching up your gear youll just start playing that role out side of dungeons - which ruins the elder scrolls way of doing what ever you want how ever you want.

I haven't done group content in beta, so maybe I am completely wrong - please state that if so, but I get a feeling I am not.

"Lots of MMO's don't have this trinity aspect"

The majority of MMO's emphasize on the "Holy Trinity"...so I can't take this thread very seriously.

No you're half right. I mean in a 4 man group dungeon you need a tank, a healer and dps but everywhere else you can play anything you want and be fine. The rest of the game is pretty much soloable anyways.

So does this mean players will have to learn to play another way, how refreshing.

I stopped reading here, but sadly it was the last sentence

Edit: i did some group dungeons and nobody "switched" so i don't think it is really necessary. Yes you need a healer, but whether they wear light or heavy armor it matters not much.

Pretty sure that crafters have the biggest claim to not being able to play the way that they want.

I see a lot of people not taking the thread seriously and thats fine. The problem you are going to face is that if you want to be a mage in a dungeon - you are going to have to switch up the way you play (assuming you play some weird mage/thief/fighter combo rp thing) to that of an actual mage in terms of the skills people expect you to have, the play style people expect you to have.

Real life, the ultimate "do what you want" game, cant be played the way you want. If it could i could fly.

There is no way to ever have something "do what you want" because there will always be someone who wants to do what they cant. The best you can do is do what you want within the guidlines of what is added to the game. No matter what game i have ever followed as soon as they announce a feature/class/race you get a hundred posts about "oh i want to play a ______" why cant I ??!!

Touting this game as play what you want is wrong i guess, because your right you cant, but you do have more freedom to play in different ways than many other games. For me thats more than enough and so far seems enjoyable.

From what I've found in the beta, this is close, but not entirely true.

The holy trinity of roles is certainly incorporated in that there is a special indicator on the grouping screen to indicate what role(s) you can fill, but it isn't class-based. It's based on which roles you, specifically, want to fill. Thus why Sorcerer tanks and Night Blade healers are entirely feasible.

Granted, there will be "purists" who think that only Dragon Knights should tank and Night Blades are only for DPS, but that will be more player-driven than game-driven. The devs have gone out of their way to make sure each class has plenty of viable builds, especially unconventional ones.

In what way exactly? People will expect you to dps and do some CC as a mage. Most people play this way anyway I think?

Maybe I'm not understanding your post.

I think your wrong
Yes you need to conform to either tank healer dps (not sure about support or hybrid )
But you have freedom in the way you want to do that
Via class weapon selection

Also I cant see a group asking a dps to play one way or another if he does his job one way or another .
If your a melee mage type and supplement your magic dmg with melee dmg and survive then who cares?

Are you saying you're upset that you can't do whatever you want when you're in a group with other people?

How shocking.

This thread is completely wrong.

You do not need "A Tank", you just need someone "to" tank.

You do not need "A DPS", you just need someone "to" DPS.

You do not need "A Healer", you just need someone "to" heal.

The Sorceror can Tank, the Nightblade can heal, and the Templar/DK can DPS.

Or the Nightblade can Tank, the Sorceror can heal, and the Templar/DK can DPS.

Or the Templar can Tank, the DK can Heal, and the Sorc/NB can DPS.

This is why this thread is fail.

I rarely join random pick-up-groups, so I can play how I want

Have fun with your randoms

This distills it down very nicely! If it's okay, I'm going to use this method of explanation in future discussions about this topic.

Sure thing.

I think what the OP means is if you build your Sorc for straight DPS from the start, you can't just decide 5 minutes before you run a 4 man dungeon that you're going to tank unless you've been training up 1h and shield and other class abilities and passives that lean more toward defense and tanking. I mean you could change out your armor and put more for health regen but unless you've been taking the passives along with that, then it doesn't give as much benefit.

Yes a sorc can tank great, but you'd probably need to maybe do a respec to change some morphs around, etc. Along with equipping a 1h+shield but I hope you've been training it up some.

boring

You don't have to build for "tanking" to decide you'll be tanking. All tanking (or healing, or DPSing) is, is a role, which is just a set of actions and intentions.

A Sorc in light armor with DPS skills can tank, so long as they understand that its their job. They can DPS to start to get an agro lead, and then use dodge roll, blocking and whatever defensive skills they have (everyone should have SOME defensive skills available). Ta Da! They are tanking.

Most people think that "tanking" means "facetanking". Sorry, no, not the same thing.

Well, this is actually very simple. After leveling to 50, placing all your skills into tank line and tanking many times you strat thinking that may be you could do something different, so you respec, shape your skills differently, take new gear that matches mage/healer type and that's all - no need to build new alt. Seems that you made mistake? Then again you can return to tanking or try something different.

Just a side note. You can be tanking mage, but you need to wear heavy armor - this will cause that you will not be perfect nuke. The trinity is still valid in ESO.

Playing the way you want only works if it does not compromise the group effort. Just because one fancies himself as some kind of hardcoe rpg expert playing a dude who lost his memory and can't use any abilities except for his skills with the /lute, doesn't give him a free pass to screw things up.

I don't see this game enforcing the holy trinity too much. Maybe this will change in the endgame. Before that there were many ways to get things done. I completed Dark Anchors and group dungeons without dedicated tanks or healers, or with tanks who did not use sword&board but a destruction staff.

It's not total freedom but more so than in many previous games (so far; can't say for endgame).

The play the way you want bit, is more about how you make your character there are so many choices. Any class can fulfill any role. Sorcs can tank and Dragonknights can heal.

The game and progressing through it is still quite a bit theme park. Because you have to progress through it and no matter how much you want to at level 5 you cannot go do 50 content or even make it to that area. Luckily the world is quite vast, so one you have progressed in an area that area then has some sandbox feel to me, especially with all the crafting collecting and hunting for skyshards. Lots of times in the beta weekends I was going back on an area and found even found a quest or 2.

In 4 man group dungeons that are higher level along with Raids when they come out, you're going to have to do a little more than just roll dodging and blocking with a staff. =)

Not trying to be argumentative, and I totally agree with you about Sorcs or ANY class being able to tank. But it's not as simple as holding the block key down in the more difficult encounters. It will in fact require a 1h+shield along with passives that reduce block cost, etc.

This thread is just silly. They never said you could play your own way everywhere, every time, no matter what.

Challenge accepted.