Tamriel Foundry hosted a live Q&A session with Creative Director Paul Sage.

Combat Mechanics:

• There is no penalty for switching skill bars. If a maintained ability (such as a summon) is not on the second bar, it'll disappear when you switch from the first bar.
• In combat, spamming abilities constantly will use up your resources. You need to reserve your ability use for the appropriate times. This is especially true when you get to later content and group-based content.
• It is possible to resurrect a fallen ally while engaged in combat if you have a filled soul gem of the appropriate level. It does take time.
• Tank-wise, there is an ability which will draw aggro away from other players. The "Puncture" skill from the Sword and Board line will allow you to maintain a boss' attention unless someone just tried to actively grab it from you. Players also have abilities which will enable them to stop being the target of certain monsters.
  Some skills generate more aggro than others, especially heals.
  A good tank can hold aggro pretty readily with a few mobs, but they aren't meant to hold all of the mobs. As an example, a tank can take on the big heavy in an encounter and keep its attention pretty easily without a taunt. Now if someone makes a mistake, they might have to use an ability to get away, but the tank should be able to reacquire the target. The taunt, however, is very helpful in harder situations.
• Combat and healing are very different from other MMOs due to the lack of interface and timer elements. One will have to learn about being active in combat to heal efficiently.
• Healing range and direction vary depending on the spell used. Some spells are radius, some are cone-based and some are non-directed heals (heal the most hurt member). It is better to stay in range of your target (probably the Tank) and face it, the safe distance being between 15 to 20 meters. Some spells are instant and let you heal while not facing your target – they just won't be as efficient as those that do.
• Finesse is an older system which became the back-end of building an Ultimate. The better you do in combat, including heals, dodging damage, blocking at the right time, etc. all contribute to raising your Ultimate.
• Spells usually don't stack if casted twice (depending on the spell).

Synergies:

• Synergies provide an advantage in end game content when used correctly. For instance, there is a synergy which allows someone 'activating' it to go invisible for a short time, and that can really help when someone has too many enemies aggro'd onto them.
• Synergies are about reacting to situations and using them at the right time instead of relying on a skill chain. Skill-chains wouldn't really work for TESO due to the high number of skills and the active nature of combat.
• Synergies are abilities casted by a player that can be activated for an extra-effect. Some examples are (names might be wrong):
  • Supernova – Activating this increases the damage and radius. (AoE damage spell)
  • Siphoning Attacks – Leech health when you activate your attacks.
  • Spear Shards / Blessed Shards – Allows activation to recovers stamina. (Good for those hungry Tanks!)
  • Consuming Darkness – Allows people to become invisible for a short time
  • Storm Atronach – Increases duration and damage of the Atronach.
• Usually, synergies can be activated only once. Some, like Blood Fountain, have a duration.
• The Undaunted skill line, opening up as dungeons are completed, is filled only with Synergy abilities.

Alliance Territories:

• You'll be able to travel to the new alliances for the 50+/++ content because a certain entity wants you to see things from a different perspective. For the PvP campaigns, it doesn't change your original alliance. You can still group with your friends but, if they're not a high enough level, they won't be able to join you in the new alliances.
• When going to other alliances, the dungeons of said alliances will give you a choice between a Normal and Veteran dungeon. You'll not be forced to do the veteran version only despite being 50+/++.

Social:

• It is currently not possible to group with players from other alliances sharing the same guild, but it might be looked into in the future.
• The group finder allows players to pick the roles (Tank, Heal, DPS) they want to take within a group and you can later talk to determine who is the most effective within a role. The LFG tool is both for dungeon and overland.
• It is currently not possible for a group member to rate the performance of other group members.
• You can travel to your group mates from anywhere and arrive at the nearest wayshrine or safe location.
• It's not possible to upload a guild logo in-game.
• It is possible to share a quest with your group-mates.
• Quest steps are mostly shared, but some require a single player decision or include information that is not shared.
• At launch, there will not be a down-scale system allowing you to play with new players in a different quest-progression phase (but it might be added later).

Miscellaneous:

• Most traps in dungeons are of the detect and avoid type. Puzzles and traps require player skill more than built-up, in-game skills. This helps everyone to be on equal footing when coming across obstacles.
• Quests will impact the environment through layering and phasing.
• The main timeline spans multiple levels, so the length of it depends on the leveling speed of the player. If the player could play all of the quest parts one after the other, it would take five or six hours.
• There are a lot of open spaces without mobs or quest-givers that people could claim and RP.
• Hunting is possible for melee classes, but prey or critters do run from players.
• Mobs are both spread across the map and concentrated in chunks. Around some points of interest where questing take place, a high amount of the same kind of mob will be found. In far-off areas, mobs are more spread out and mixed.
• There is no information to share about Adventure Zones yet.
• Full plans for launch and headstarts will be announced soon.

Guilhemette "Whilhelmina" Giacopazzi