I really wish we could alternate or even choose one type of element to use, like in the SP.

I have one RP Bladesinger mage who ises frost & lightning a lot and another more traditional spell & staff wielding mage who uses fire.

It would have been great if you could pick the element of the dps trait line now called stormcalling.

You can still pick a Fire Staff and only use skills from the Fire Staff skill tree.
You do not have to use Sorcerer class skills.

As far as I know there are going to be different types of destruction staff.
Maybe a fire staff, a lightning staff and a frost staff for each item level/tier.

So if you like to go for frost and lightning you could choose to play as a Sorcerer using a Frost Staff.
As for the traditional Fire Mage I'd highly recomand a Dragon Knight using a Fire Staff, due to the DK's passives which grant additional fire and burn DMG.

I understand those options. Thats just not how I want to play my mage. My mage wears a robe and casts fireballs and such as a matter of course. He doesnt need a staff to do so. The rigidity of the MMO system in this case is killing mage immersion.

In this case the death of creative spells began in Morrowind and is now complete in ESO.

TES through Skyrim atleast had some remaining choices for elemental damages. Now, if we want dps, we must choose lightning. All Im saying is was implementing fire & frost effects for the same spells with exact same damge and effects tree that difficult?

Well if you don't want to use a Staff than stick to the DK and use all of his fire skills along with those of the mages guild until your magicka is used up.
Maybe you have a hell of a downtime with such a build, but it would be the same as a pure mage build in Morrowind and earlier.

Sorry to say so, but I don't get what your problem is.

If you dont get it I understand. There are things in life sometimes we just dont get.

I think he understand perfectly. Perhaps you do not understand that you can play whatever you want even if there is no class labeled "Mage" for you. Any character can wear robes and what weapon would you use as a stereotype mage anyway but destruction staff?

The open character progression of ESO has many possibilities, unlike the other games you just have to find them. No one will tell you how to play your "class" with 4 hotkeys

I thought there were fire, ice and lightning staves or something like that?

I think the OP is confused that you aren't pigeonhold into what your class name is. He assumes that being a Dragon Knight means he can't be a mage at the same time.

this just sounds like another thread bashing change. yes being an mmo has brought on changes. players need to understand and accept that. change is not always a bad thing. if players would stop asking for more of the same (skyrim part 2) they might actually find themselves really enjoying this game

Oh. That's ridiculous

In fact dragon knights have some pretty mage like abilities.

I have to agree the system is rigid and lacks immersion for mages. We should be able to cast any spells without a staff in hand. Use of magic really should be separate from the use of a melee weapon.

I dont agree that morrowind was the death of creative spells. I thought the spell creation in morrowind was pretty good.

Well, i say there shouldnt be any classes. They couldve sticked with SP style where if you try so hard you could have had all DK, Sorc, Templar , Nightblade abilities in one character, for me thats the way i like to play

That's weird because the game is very open on how you want to make a mage even without using a staff. But I guess some people just don't see the game being so open.

I guess when I think of a mage I don't think of someone who just casts fireballs and shoot lightning out of my hands. Just being a spell caster can make you a mage shouldn't matter what the type of spell it is. But I guess everyone has their own definition.

Yeah, They probably will give us that feeling of casting elements with Mages Guild talents, but i think thats class spells that annoy people

The game being open might be the actual problem. Some people just prefer being told what armor to wear and which weapon to use based on Class, without any possibilities of moving left or right from the beaten path

Personally I dont, I love the system as it is now. Open with some class distinction seasoning on top

Yep. You want class-based flameys? DK's Ardent Flame line, or Temp's Dawn's Wrath for a holy paladinesque version. Zappage? Sorc's Storm Calling line. Frosties? Hmm. Nothing that I know of. Something for an expansion then...

Just because you have to have a staff in your hands doesn't mean its cast from your hands though.

Really I think attaching Elemental Magic to the staves instead of to a Class is a good thing. It means all classes can use these spells and that any class can be an elemental mage. If only Sorcs had access to them then this system would prevent 3/4ths of the classes from being a mage. That's not in the TES spirit. More freedom is always a good thing in my mind.

I was never arguing for only Sorc to have access to all 3 elemental lines alone, I was saying Sorc should get to choose what element it uses for dps instead of being forced into lightning.

However, I will say that there might be people who WANT to play a straight warroir without magic... can they in this game? I guess maybe if they ignore trait lines.

Can you play a straight mage who doesnt use a weapon and just casts? No.

More freedom is better.

For those who posted sanely, ty.

P.S. I listed MW as the beginning of the slippery slope because they started limiting spells in that game, although it was more obvious from MW to Oblivion.

Uh, what? You so can play a mage and never use a weapon.

Not if you want to cast fire or frost magic.

Well staves are weapons and you need those for 2 of the three types of elemental magic.

Would it make you feel better to know you can't hit people with your staff? It there for casting, that's it. The light/heavy attack from your staff is a fireball/lightning/ice shard as seen in the released footage.

Actually it makes me feel worse. Wizards used to use their staff as a last resort in combat if they ran out of spells or were somehow forbidden to cast verbal spells. The staff in lore also used to be a repository for some spells of power & significance - NOT an unlimited amount.

Think if the great mages of legend in game and out. They are all famous for what THEY can do, not a magic item, even if some had them.

Wrong. As has been said numerous times above, fire magic is available through DK's Ardent Flame tree. *Any* class can run ranged DPS set-ups without touching their weapon skills.