Readily available skills that deal multiple hits, and thus consume multiple hits' worth of stamina from the enemy to block them (the base stamina cost for blocking a hit, regardless of how strong, is approximately 2160 before cost reductions which can get it down to ~1100-1200 generally) combined with light attacks weaved in make it very easy to be dealing anywhere between 5 to 10 hits within a one and a half second timespan in both Magicka and Stamina builds. The counters are already in the game. It is up to you to use them. If you are holding down block against someone who knows how to play, you will run out of stamina rapidly while snaring yourself and being unable to light attack or medium attack weave, thus lowering your damage output substantially in the process. It is balanced, and the counters are available to every single character in the game through weapon skill lines. Continuous blocking, a "defense" often cited in balance discussions, is quite literally not feasible, practical, or sustainable against just one knowledgeable player currently. If attempted against multiple knowledgeable players, it is wholly unusable.



Quick proof: If you fight my nightblade and try to hold down block, wearing a sword and shield with five pieces of medium armor and two heavy items, alongside two epic Reduce Feat Cost glyphs on your jewelry which results in your block costing 1251 stamina per hit against it to mitigate the damage, I will drain 7,506 (seven thousand, five-hundred and six) stamina from you per second while attacking if I notice you trying to hold down block unless I make an error in my attacks, which is my fault at that time and not the enemy's. Even if you are stacking Stamina regeneration you will cap out in any build that can hurt anything still at around 1,250-1,300 stamina regeneration each second (2,500-2,600 regeneration rating which ticks to restore it every two seconds, so half of that per second). Stamina builds tend to top out around 28,000-32,000 stamina in Cyrodiil, and if you attack with any stamina ability at that point just once every two seconds that costs 2,000 stamina, I will have emptied your stamina resources from completely full (100%) to zero inside of a four to four-and-a-half second timeframe during combat. The same holds true against my Sorcerer and my Dragonknight, and Templars one-up everyone on this front if they use a class-line skill (Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep) against an enemy "permablocking". Other skills on the Nightblade and the Dual Wield skill line can also match or exceed this output.

New player? Want some tips on how to make a good character in an open RPG build system such ESO's? Check this out! -First-Wave Closed Beta Tester of the Psijic Order, aka the 0.016 percent. =P

Exploits suck. Don't blame just the game, blame the players abusing them!

-Playing since July 2013, back when we had a killspam channel in Cyrodiil and the lands of Tamriel were roamed by dinosaurs.

-Order of Mundus, Nightfighters, LoM, and Mostly Harmless founding member, "DPS: We Deliver."

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-In-game mains abound with "Nerf" in their name. As I am asked occasionally, I do not play on anything but the PC NA Megaserver at this time. ________________