So ZOS has announced that Lycanthropy will be in the game although it is restricted more then in the latest conventional title.

My hopes and dreams for Lycanthropy in ESO;

As a huge proponent of lycanthropy, but also an avid MMO player, I recognize that there must be a balance between Benefits and Weaknesses. Balance is very important in an MMO and especially in PvP, giving players ridiculously overpowered rag-dolling power attacks seemed highly unlikely as a norm. So hopefully this Skill tree outline can assist and potentially impact the development of Lycanthropy in ESO.

Advantages and Disadvantages; Lycanthropic Transformation requires a minimum of x finesse (on the mid range of ultimate abilities) Finese gains while in Werewolf form increase the time it lasts, but it still has a limited duration (finesse drains constantly at a rate adjusted for balance). Bloodlust(Disadvantage); (5 stacks immediately after transformation ends) Every Stack reduces the rate at which you gain finesse by "x%"(5-10% per stack increases the time it takes to regain your beast form, lose 1 stack every 2-5 minutes). Diseased (passive); Sanies Lupies permanently lowers health regeneration by 10%, all healing spells 10% less effective, all damage over time/ranged damage/spells (1-5)% more effective (on player).

Skill Line and Morphs;

Morphing Skills is a cool way to customize your abilities to your preferred play style. I strongly hope the morphs for Beast Form abilities (and what those abilities are) would be like this;

This would be the progression of the skill line I would hope for;

1. Beast Form-> the first ability you would get costing Finese to activate and draining finesse while active (therefor it has a duration but it is more of a tactical duration; the faster you gain finesse the longer it lasts -> the longer you have it active the more stacks of bloodlust you get on exit of Beast Form [and therefor the longer you wait to use it again]) Damage/Armor/Stats all 5% higher (Gear dependant, scales with level) Health regen rate increase and stamina regen rate increase 100%(in beast form only)

I would really like to see a stealth option included for lycanthropy players, whether as the alternate morph for abilities (more effective when used from stealth or after breaking stealth) Therefor there are two types of Beast Form using players; "Tank" and "DPS" Some abilities Increasing survivability while also being able to be morphed to instead make you harder to detect but lose the life bonus. With Options to hybridize to make your abilities deal more damage but your beast form (through the passives) more resilient. That way players could go for the straight tank-style run in brute force attacks or the more agile, faster, take out the high priority target DPS, or a combination suitable for single player play, where the extra health from passive - tankier road morphs keeps you alive while the damage-improving stealth morphs increase your damage so that while playing solo you can accomplish some things that would normally take 2 players. (But you would completely die if you tried to solo a 4-man dungeon). The tankier passive morphs would give lifesteal/health bonuses and the dps would make the abilities cause damage over time in the form of bleeding damage.

The rest of the skills would be attacks/passives emphasizing disease and bleed effects from attacks (to boost dps). Some examples would be: "Go For the Throat" deals 1% of the targets health as bleed damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds, Morph 1 (tank); you get an equal amount in health per proc as damage done. Morph 2 (dps); deals 2% every 3 seconds for 12 seconds. "Diseased Claws" Werewolf claws cause debilitating infection slowing movement and attack speeds of their victims by 5/10/15% for "y" seconds (Each time its used it adds a stack, stacks 3 times), if you are using debuff/buff systems like other mmos, in the case of finesse/synergies, Werewolves could get an ability that is only useable on interrupted/stunned opponents that either stun/incapacitate, or do huge amounts of dmg (20% life)

Stealth in Beast Form; Stealth as an inclusion for beast form makes it more versatile and adds diversity to playstyles, Vampirism could be used to increase survivability by providing resistance to normal weapons, increases in attack and movement speed(passively) or give them more passive bonuses and an ultimate ability that greatly increase their attack/and or movement speed, as well as special spells and summons. Vampirism could be used to benefit stealth and caster characters and Beast form could be used to benefit melee stealth and warrior type players. Let me know what you think and what ideas and or spells you would like to see I have others I would like to add to here as well but this is quite lengthy as it is so I will save them for another post.

I just want there to be consequences in addition to buffs, and not just being attacked by NPC guards. We can't just have Vampires and Werewolves wandering around willy nilly making Twilight jokes, we need them to have a hard time and make it seem worthwhile to stay uninfected.

Diseased (passive); Sanies Lupies permanently lowers health regeneration by 10%, all healing spells 10% less effective, all damage over time/ranged damage/spells (1-5)% more effective (on player). might not seem like a lot, but the reduction in healing and increased 5-10 dmg per hit (or more later levels) stacks rather fast and hurts survivability rather a lot. Vampirism is a whole other thing, but vampires have kind of always been caster-buffing. the advantage for uninfected people come from the lack of passives that increase damage to the infected players the numbers have seem small but a heal for 300 on a regular player vs a heal on a player with lycanthrope (270 using example numbers) means the lycanthropy needs to be healed an extra time every 5 heals vs an uninfected player.... in PvP where resource management is supposed to be the basis for balancing, it would make a big difference... that player would be easier to kill, and a bigger drain on his teammates, which in similar situations, gives uninfected players an advantage

There honestly needs to be a weakness of forcing players to transform with the phases of the moons(only full moons), so that being a werewolf is more of a curse than a blessing. In this forced transformation players will be required to satiate their bloodlust by killing living enemies. The more sentient the creature is, the more it shall satiate the bloodlust. For example health, magicka, and stamina can be drained until the bloodlust is satiated, and killing an elf, human, etc. would satisfy the bloodlust for that night, whereas killing a bear would partially satisfy the thirst to kill. Guards and NPCs would attack on sight of transformation as well, forcing players to plan that when a full moon arrives, get out of civilized areas.