Animation Cancelling & Weaving Guide (PC/Console) | The Elder Scrolls Online

Written Guide: www.nefasqs.co...
This Elder Scrolls Online guide covers the intrinsic components of combat gameplay in the highly acclaimed MMORPG that many players call "animation canceling" and "weaving". Animation cancelling in particular is incredibly important for every player to learn who seek to improve their performance in either PvE or PvP.
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This video goes over the 5 different types of animation canceling and what weaving is plus the default controls for basic attacks/actions. This guide is probably the most up-to-date on animation cancelling and weaving. Please note that lag/FPS drops can severely affect your ability to animation cancel.
- Skill (Light Attack)
- Barswap
- Block
- Dodge Roll/Roll Dodge
- Bash
Let me know if you guys have any questions down in the comments below!
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[@Glories999]

Does spamming the shit out of all my abilities count as cancelling ?

[@mygetawayart]

this is like the most important video one can watch about this game. Any build you might try, any skill you want to use, any class and any race benefits immensely from you knowing about this.

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

The controller PIP was awesome, thank you for doing this! Amazing guide! 👍

[@TuTataElDaddy]

Sooo many golden videos on this channel gotta take notes guys!!!

[@Timmy9384]

This is one of those we can rewatch and learn something new every time. Great video: I'm on the PS4, it seems the Xbox functionality is the same as PlayStation. I have to watch this a few more times; got the weaving and animation cancel down. Now to put it all together. I subscribed and hit the bell.

[@t3hasiangod]

HACKER! CHEATER! EXPLOITER!

[@krasnodar94]

hes just skilled with fast fingers :P

[@EJSimonsen]

Excellent job of walking through these various methods!!

[@fabelgamer7410]

Best video you've put out by far! Thank you for showing the "other" types of canceling. It's not cheating it's needed to complete the game.

[@jeffiswatching]

It would be helpful to go over some specific combos, issues, or what to look for in a combo creation. For example, someone just pointed out for my stamplar that I need to do la>barswap>hail rather than ability>barswap>la>hail as the animation cancel of the ability is preventing the la from going off. Maybe in build videos, explain why some abilities are canceled and others are not. Thanx

[@NefasQS]

This kind of stuff can be extremely specific and can depend on rotations/class/situations which can all obviously change. This is why every patch we test DPS and thus discover rotations which we can tweak with what to do at specific points during the rotation and then apply it to a fight as dummies are not always indicative of what will happen during a raid or even 4 man content.

[@owengoldner6712]

Why does KZbin have to recommend this now after the new PTS patch notes?

[@EgaoKage]

Grab the *Emacs* AddOn. Never mind if it says that it's discontinued or abandon or whatever... This AddOn is literally three line of code, totaling exactly 70 characters; not including flavor-text (making it probably the smallest AddOn ever!). It will never require an update and it will always be functional. This AddOn does 1 thing. It turns _"On"_ ESO's built-in ability to accept and use *Mod Keys.* This can help you *_IMMENSELY_* when setting up binds that suit your play-style. For example: maybe you want to set your Block keybind to D and your Bash keybind to Shift+D. This might seem trivial, but there is a lot of room for extrapolation here!...

[@VampiricByNature]

As a side note for ps4 players: you can change the bar swap button in custom button configurations. I was taught, for example, to swap my left d-pad and my r3 button. This makes left on the d-pad for crouch- but it is not often used in pve- so it is not a bother. It took awhile to get used to but it makes bar swapping much more convenient.

[@DsgSleazy]

Thank you I've needed something like this cause using the d-pad puts too much stress on my fingers and is just annoying

[@johnsmith-tp4ed]

Dude best tip I’ve heard yet! I didn’t know that. I hate bar swap on d pad as half the time it never happens! Can’t wait to try it!

[@robertskr8507]

@@johnsmith-tp4ed so much truth

[@wambo3831]

I think its important that there is a hierarchy to animations, you cant cancel those with higher "priority" with a lower one. Dodge > Bash / Block / Barswap > Skill > Light Attack/Medium/Heavy Also the connection to global cooldowns is important. Animation cancelling is only a dps increase if you cancel an animation that will end after the global cooldown (or channel time if it is longer) is over. For skills its around ~085s for Light attacks ~0,65s. They dont share the same one. But since you can cancel the LA animation with a skill, you usually put the LA just before the skill cast. And since you alternate both, your average s/LA can only get to the GCD of the skills in ideal scenario. But that also means that you can weave skills with a channel time of less than the GCD for skills, you can animation cancel those animations after the channel time is over and "weave" them in the same speed as instant cast skills, you just cant queue the light attack as early as for those. But yeah, in real scenario, some skills just wont like animation cancelling (hail -.-) and you will have to wait a bit longer to certainly get both the Skill and the next LA casted.

[@wingslikeairplanesTV]

Well said friend.

[@kisbiflos]

This is what I was looking for! Thanks!

[@zealous944]

not my first time taking a run at this game but it is the first time in getting into weaving. I've gotting light attack canceling down pretty easy but adding swaps and bashes makes me feel stupid :/

[@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz9]

I suck at this cancelling. I panic and press any random buttons lol

[@rob679]

ZoS stated a very long ago that this was a bug and they tried to fix it, but it became impossible to do with the engine or caused even more problems, so simply it became a feature. A good feature that is, with animation cancelling gone most of the players would probably be out.

[@manupainkiller]

They can't fix it, and now they brag it's "intended". I don't like it at all. It didn't stop me from reaching 2k hours in ESO, but this doesn't mean I like it.

[@FuryOfTyphon]

Nefas: .... ZOS: Cast times on everything!

[@ascel6799]

People tell me weaving is a necessity, sounds complicated so not sure I like the sound of that.

[@Xedrix]

The squigly line is called the tilde key :)

[@danielnormand8156]

I did not know there was many ways to cancel animation. Which cancel animation do you use or it depends on the situation?

[@bryanjturner21]

I get the concept, I'm just not sure if I'm doing it correct, so if I'm weaving light attacks to I just hit my left mouse button and then immediately fire off the skill, or do I fire off my light attack halfway through the animation of a skill, or do I fire off my light attack right after hitting the button for a skill?

[@NefasQS]

Simplified it’s just: Light attack then Skill -> Light attack then skill, Repeat.

[@bryanjturner21]

@@NefasQS alright cool, I've been fooling around with Hack the Minotaur's 1 (sometimes 2) bar Stamplar Build so it looks like Biting Jabs is a channeled ability so inorder to weave light attacks I have to hit left click and immediately fire off Biting Jabs to cancel the Light Attack animation. Now if I'm tanking and I see the tell that tells me to block if I do the Block cancellation move will that ability still be blocked or do I still have to hold my block while waiting for the enemy ability to fire? I'm sorry for the dumb questions, but hey you have to learn to not be willfully ignorant.

[@darthmarr9886]

@NefasQS - light attack is cancelled by a skill, bar swap or block/bash. - skill is cancelled by block/bash, bar swap. Questions: 1. Skill can be cancelled with light attack? 2. Fully charged heavy attack how can be cancelled w/o loosing the resource back effect or they can't be cancelled like the channeled abilities?

[@jacksonchen8458]

I have terrible ping 330ms+, is there any class which is able to execute well under high ping ?

[@NefasQS]

At the moment, Stamplar has one of the easiest stam rotations, mag-wise ... Magsorc.

[@jacksonchen8458]

@@NefasQS would magnecro be similar to magsorc ?

[@0xskar]

@@jacksonchen8458 Its like magsorc in the way that both use magicka but magcro doesn't do as high damage and had the worst sustain in the game.

[@jacksonchen8458]

@@0xskar is there any good magsorc build for pve in this meta (no pet build if possible )?

[@0xskar]

@@jacksonchen8458 Not sure I don't play pve magsorc, I have played with some heavy hitters but they are pet builds.

[@heresey]

What is a good key to bond bash to if you're using mouse and keyboard?

[@sa3d1337]

I actually thought detective nefas would make a video against animation cancelling 😂

[@udinbak44]

hi, can you please explain how to do bash weaving on a magicka dps? i simply cannot find info about that anywhere. is it: LA -> skill -> bash? won't that just replace the skill animation with the bash animation? are we supposed to cancel the bash animation with a LA?

[@manupainkiller]

I think you are supposed to cancel the Light Attack with a Bash. At least that's what it shown in this video.

[@VendettaStiffy]

is this videos still relevant for patches now?just want to make sure

[@JW-wr4ep]

There was a big change ~9 months ago, or so I heard. Does this change the points of this video? (I heard block canceling is no longer required?

[@MeR-md1jq]

Thanks for the video. It is appreciated. I've watched several videos on light attack weaving. I've been practicing but still can't figure this out. I'm getting maybe .5 or .6 light attacks per second, sometimes a lot less. I've read that the goal is to be somewhere around .8 or above. In dungeons people with way less cp's than me are doing quite a bit more damage. Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

[@stephenarmand3981]

ohm' got ta lv me scry' and excavation skill, however I can't stop watching!

[@eightchickens]

How do you weave with stamplar biting jabs?

[@NefasQS]

KZbin Skinny Cheek’s guide on this. Also definitely come by ESOU Discord if you have any other questions about ESO.

[@leadplayer0505]

Did you play SWTOR a few years back?

[@sirvicemanone]

PARSING... Nefas, iv currently joined a core group doing vet trials hard mode and speedruns. I am playing Star pet Sorc , dual daggers 2h back bar with kilt crit 1 pc monster set rele and Kinras . Would you be able to do a video on correct parsing as I'm currently hitting @70k in trial dummy and need to get that much higher but I don't think I'm doing it correctly and idk if the current "advice" I'm using is based on any facts or math. Thank you in advance for your fine efforts .

[@thagan67]

Do you think 1,2,3,4 and 5 is a bad keybind for skills if you know some better binds can you tell me I have a Logitech G502 mouse so 3 buttons I could use

[@SuperJoshuaAguilar]

You know your games wonky and unpolished when people think a core mechanic is an exploit. lol

[@wpowell9080]

Very very excellent video!

[@WebflingerJoe]

RIP the days of the sword and board bash builds :'( they just aint the same no mo

[@hawaiifranke7637]

Does AC shorten or completely remove the GCD on some, all or no skills? For example endless hail, if I cancel it early on do I still need to wait for the GCD to end or can I immediately weave the next attack?

[@samuelwhite3173]

Still need to wait for the GCD to end but you can bash in that time or start your next light attack

[@izi9ro338]

(11:15)So Zenimax, why cant i animation cancel incap following with a merciless resolve? The Dawnbreaker animation cancel doesnt work too 0.o ZENIMAX IT'S NOT THE SAME FEELING!!! XD it has been in the game since launch! It's like nerfing BloodSpawn for any reason, hope i dont jings that 1 tho xD

[@cheetah31983]

Bloodspawn did end up getting nerfed....

[@cadirgemont5900]

When I do this my ps4 dies.... or I see damage explosions over already dead npc's I just attacked

[@Loucid.]

Was going to try ESO until I learned about all this, no thanks, not looking to develop CTS.

[@manupainkiller]

Only if you want to go "pro" you need to learn this. In PvE literally nobody cares what you do and how much you do > only that you do your thing. And in PvP, unless you want be on top of the scoreboard (metaphor), you can go without this (and also if you can live with the idea that others WILL pull this on you). What I don't understand is how people are doing this in PvP where the game is so laggy and barely holds as it is. Maybe Nefas would enlighten me. :) I don't like it either...but it is what it is. It is true the devs won't address this. They say it's part of the game - but in truth I believe they don't know how to fix it (as these things are very tied to the engine itself, would require a major rework - other things might break - actually something common with Zenimax :D) ; or they don't want to fix it, because it is very costly (time) and would rather annoy many of the playerbase. I have 2k hours on Steam...and I can barely squeeze one light attack between abilities ; so as you see, it's not that much of a problem. And there will be always worse than you anyway haha ! :P

[@materialismohistorico1010]

m8, you definely dont need to spam clicks, you just need to find the timing and its actually really easy to do it, theres an addon that shows you the exactly timing to do it

[@TF2Thrifty]

@@materialismohistorico1010 which one?

[@roufaspentaghast1636]

I wouldn't be put off ESO by any of this. Game has a lot going for it outside of combat. Crafting, lore, collectibles, fully voiced quest lines, good aesthetics, great player housing, decorating, etc. And any time you run a dungeon, if its a solo delve or something, the enemy placement and scaling is pretty generous, otherwise you'll usually be grouped with at least one guy running the content on a good solo build for the umpteenth time, in which case you'll have a harder time deluding yourself you're contributing to the dps at all. lol. ESO certainly has a little bit for everyone and choosing not to engage with certain mechanics or content isn't necessarily going to hurt you. You're never gonna hit a point where the game is like, "Run battlegrounds for the next 40 hours" Nah, there's none of that. Don't like what you're currently doing in the game? Respec, go somewhere else, abandon quests, generally do something else etc.

[@sirvicemanone]

Fantastic thank you

[@narem007]

Thank you

[@etem2006]

Anyone have tips for weaving and cancelling on 250-300ms? Australian player here.

[@santiagoalbertodirienzo2777]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3u4pIuvn7WGnc0

[@imRecozx]

It's always work ?

[@goaway5297]

They literally just patched it out. Been a thing since day one, main thing that made the combat engaging, unique to the game, and they patch it out because six buttons per bar, a block and a light attack is capable of tanking their servers into the ground.

[@WilliamMcdanielPure-Hammer]

Very good m8... Thank you!

[@xxblueeyezxx8825]

Sir, your voice, is asmr

[@Trnd.y]

Wait who does 500,000 on a dummy?

[@TakenGTs]

Great video thumbs up 👍

[@bad_dreams_hex]

Lag destroys all animation and the game.

[@gabington8990]

Is this still possible?

[@daxx6687]

you play on downscaled graphics ?

[@NefasQS]

High not Ultra High, for raids I turn off Shadows/Water Reflection.

[@NeCrewn]

came to watch animation cancel and weaving. Got told basic keybinds to pull of an auto attack and left... cmon ppl looking for animation cancel knows where their attack button is

[@unifieddynasty]

Zos probably didn't intend for this to be a thing initially, did they. 😀

[@TheVampireCafe]

If animation canceling was patched and stopped entirely, how would your dps fair.

[@batushing7841]

A lot

[@peabody419]

I think it ruins the game, whole point in magic combat is to watch the graphics

[@choiboi23]

why the fuck would you want to watch the toon actually animation cast?

[@0xskar]

Nobody is actually cancelling the actual animation of the skills for the most part, they are cancelling the light attack animation. You cant spam more than one skill per second because of global cooldown so there is not really a point. The only skills that get animation cancelled is when you bar swap. Your comment is not really relevant, most people doing top tier dps do not cancel their skill animations.

[@vernonricker2091]

It's like the old pinball games and other games. If your up against a program it's fair game. If your playing against real people it's an exploit.

[@Jose-nb7hc]

I don’t understand 😭😭😭

[@tobiasw2032]

thanks for showing me where to find my left mouse button on my keyboard

[@naokimiki12]

GRATZ for the video

[@nickblood7080]

I played this game for years. played a lot of the hard content for a while but never got good enough at animation canceling to beat vet maelstrom. I ended up quitting the game because of it :( spent days in that shitty place.

[@batushing7841]

You need to get used to the mechanics bro also try ring of the pale order it really helps

[@AceHardy]

🔥💯

[@godofm3tal1]

it really kinda is exploiting. the devs assert that light attack weaving is optimal and recommended but things like bash cancelling attacks were never intended to be used in that way. they can't remove the feature because it's integral to being able to react to fast threats without having to worry about committing to channeled attacks like some other mmos. for this reason i think bash should cost a great deal more stamina. it's not something that should be spammable. it's function being intended to interrupt big attacks which shouldn't be spammed and people should have to exercise skill and experience to use it effectively. can't tell you how often i see pve tanks just sitting there spamming bash on bosses hoping to get an interrupt. and using it to weave attacks and bypass channels like that is cheese. that said, it's the state of the game. I'm not going to fault anyone for abusing a cheap mechanic the devs won't address. but the state of the game today compared to what it was 5 years ago is testament to how people perceive these things. especially in cyrodiil.

[@batushing7841]

no

[@godofm3tal1]

@@batushing7841 yes

[@nejcn001]

Animation canceling looks unreal and uses more resources, because you can use 100% more abillities then without canceling, hence is another reason that causes lag. But with ZOS removing anim. canceling, DPS would be halfed, some of content unable to complete, PVP there would be no burst to kill players...whole game would have to be overhauled, so no go. Did you notice how ZOS makes you use less abilities? Sustain nerfs.

[@manupainkiller]

They don't know how to fix it (or it causes way more problems that with it), and now they brag it's a feature in the game. Shameful display, if you ask me.

[@Undercooked_Linguine]

They need to patch this asap. Fuck i hate glitches like this shit,

[@mehmetbekirbirden6858]

barswap never works in PS4 EU battlegrounds, not for animation cancelling, not for really swapping my f*ckin bow to my f*ckin dagger.

[@esveeeeso6614]

PSA: IF👏YOU👏ONLY👏HIT👏4OK👏 ON👏 A👏21mil👏 DONT 👏 TALK👏 ABOUT👏WHAT👏NEEDS👏TO👏BE👏CHANGED👏YOU👏DONT👏KNOW👏SHIT👏

[@ethanloveland504]

360 controller, not impressed, next time please use n64 controller as that is what I use currently.

[@FirstLast-cy8og]

disturbing appearance tho

[@Z0o0L]

fuck this bullshit i dont need another ptsd mode for my fingers

[@FURRYNlPS]

oH mEh GuRd NeFaS, wHy YoU pRoMoTe ChEaTiNg?¿?¿

[@bryansavage5472]

everything u need to know , animation cancelling was ruined by stupid cry baby pve'rs THE END

[@janesik]

Gd movie

[@BangsarRia]

Don't be put off by the washed out low detail graphics that make this look like an Indie game, not the AAA title it is. Everything must have been set to low to get the highest possible frame rate for PvP. This game looks gorgeous on my 5 year old iMac 5K running Windows 10 under bootcamp and gets decent frame rate - I play competitive PvP without out any issues in a beautiful environment.

[@devilcorpsdoc]

I'll never animation cancel, never.

[@mds19899]

barry morgan you will also never hit hard, never. XD

[@dudsummon3803]

Have you done any end game content?

[@natsuotsusuki2879]

mds19899 that comment is gold lmao

[@choiboi23]

@name and region? so i know to kick you

[@pushyrummble8625]

This would be called an exploit but it's something everyone can do, I doubt it something they wanted to happen in their game but I'm pretty sure they didn't know hwo to fix it so they said it was a viable thing to do ans just went with it lol.

[@DsgSleazy]

Exactly it's pretty lazy and stupid imo

[@BLTspace]

@@DsgSleazy Plenty of other games have animation canceling. This isn't a new thing. If you play casually then don't worry about it. If you play games seriously and competitively then these are things you should embrace cause they add another layer of mastery to video games.

[@NoFocksGiven_]

This fucking game is garbage now that animation canceling isnbroken

[@FirstLast-cy8og]

LIES WITCHCRAFT IMPOSSIBLE

[@bryankrough2699]

So do you Animation Cancel your Anime shows? Like do you watch Dragon Ball Z and Goku fires off INVISIBLE Kamehameha waves? LMAO. Animation Cancelling makes no sense. If you dont want animation then why are you playing video games? Video games are 100% animation NOT Real Digital Imaging soooo why is Animation Cancelling even a thing, it even causes people to disconnect and receive a blue screen. So Assanign!!!

[@tanner9985]

Shame on you.