Elder Scrolls Online

shmity72

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317
trivial combat.
I totally agree. They began the first 8 months of the game whereby if you went to farther and farther places the combat got very difficult yet, as you can see, this turned many off because they 'just wanted to do the quest', that sort of thing. If you are ESO plus there are a couple DLC I would recommend. Wrothgar, Summerset I know antimatter enjoyed. Also the 'end game' of eso is fashion believe it or not. buy a house. decorate it. Not my cup of tea so much but my wife is the set designer for our movie. she placed every shrub/chair etc... that you see, and she had fun doing it.
 

Cahir

Innkeeper
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327
I'd be very interested in hearing updates about your experiences and impressions. For me, the combat wasn't challenging enough to keep me interested past my initial excitement to explore. I'll still play it from time to time, though, when I'm in the mood for good rp stories with trivial combat.
It's been more fun than I expected. I haven't played any MMO before and I generally don't like them, so I had lot of doubts jumping into ESO.

The combat is indeed quite easy so far, but when I entered a public dungeon, I was killed couple of times and needed to leave it for later.

What surprises me is insane amount of different gameplay mechanics, which I wouldn't be able to grasp without help of Urdnot_Wrex and Antimatter. But despite all those mechanics, it's served in very coherent and thoughtful way.

Sure, the constant enemy respawning and grinding is a bit tiresome, but it's a great game to play inbetween single player games.
 

Antimatter

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If you'd like to try Maelstrom Arena in Wrothgar for a challenge or Vatesheron in the reach. they are solo arenas that are fun and challenging.

The 'real' challenge comes when a person begins to do dungeons. Normal mode? eh pretty easy. Vet mode eh very hard.
I don't have 17k+ hours in ESO as @shmity72 does, but I fully agree with this. I've started doing dungeons only lately, after reaching 500 champion points. First, we tried normal dungeons, they already were fun (as each has its story). But then we played The Castle Thorn Dungeon during the ESO+ free trial, and man, it had very interesting combat challenges. With 3 people and 1 companion, we won! After that, I made sure to read about dungeons properly, and we decided to try the first veteran dungeon, just 2 of us. It was a very rewarding experience. Suddenly, the game not only got an extra "challenge" factor, it also provided a new loot system that looks fun.

ESO has a lot of strong points, and it was so cool to discover something new after 700 hours in the game.
 

Cahir

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327
After playing just over 45 hours and really only stretched the surface, I can share some initial thoughts about the game. By all means, it's not a review, more like an attempt to processing my experience of playing ESO. As usual, all below is my subjective opinion, which based on the fact this is my first experience with MMO at all, is in fact very subjective.

The most positive surprise:
  • Story and quests - if I knew the story and quests are much better than in Skyrim, I might even try ESO earlier. This was one of the major positive surprises I've had playing ESO. From the little I know about MMOs, is that they tend to have many fedex quests, that can grow old very fast. Surprisingly, I haven't experienced any of such quest yet. In fact, a few quests that started like such, were in fact much complicated and quite long.
  • Lore and world - I always had in a back of my head that TES lore is very detailed and interesting, it's that so far the previous Bethesda game (maybe except Morrowind) couldn't deliver it in a way that would make the experience of learning the setting exciting. Apart from the quality of main story and side quests themselves in Oblivion and Skyrim, these were usually driven by the events and people, putting less focus on describing the world, its history, people or geography. Those details were usually "hidden" inside the lorebooks, which were counted in dozens. With the very few exceptions (BG series, Dragon Age Origins) I usually didn't read all the books, especially when they were long, so in case of TES games I missed tons of lore. It's just reading it like reading an encyclopedia was for me less fun than experiencing it by dialogues or during the course of quests. Morrowind was slightly better, because dialogues were more descriptive, but even there, they were designed in an encyclopedic style, with links to specific topics. In ESO my experience is completely different. I already learned a lot more of interesting details about the world, even about some characters known from previous games, than during the same game time I spent in either Oblivion or Skyrim.
  • Voice acting - I knew the whole game is voice acted, but I was surprised by the quality of voice acting. It's not among the best I've seen, but it's definitely much better than in any of Bethesda games I played.
  • MMO aspects of the game - I gotta admit, I was almost certain I will curse the grinding, respawning and all MMO, group events and all other MMO aspects of the game. Fortunately, this... doesn't bother me much. Sure, respawn rate is a bit ridiculous for me (although, I'm sure it's nothing unusual in MMO game) and grinding for crafting materials and gear is a significant part of the game, but it's not as bad that I thought it would be. Mob enemies can be easily ignored, they attack only when you are in proximity and I tend to collect crafting materials as I play, not farming for it specifically. So far it works well. As for group events, I haven't tried it much, besides joining in a couple of dolmen (dark anchor) events. This is something that I start considering on higher levels and when I feel comfortable with more game mechanics.

What I'm still trying to get used to:
  • Gameplay - an enormous number of various gameplay mechanics is overwhelming and I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything (with a giant help of Antimatter and Urdnot_Wrex). I'm feeling more and more comfortable, following a good advice to learn everything gradually, and not trying to understand everything at once.
  • Third person view - I played my TES games in first person, but I was told ESO is not really suited for this, so I needed to adjust quickly. And I think I'm doing all right. The problem is that I was spoiled with Assassin's Creed games, where I could climb on basically everything. Here, even jumping is clumsy, and I cannot get into the most of the higher ground without finding a way to just walk up there. Here, it feels that from a design point of view, this is a game from 2014. On the other hand, camera and controls are much better than in Dragon Age: Inqusition, which is crucial for me, because those two things are among the main reasons why I bounced out of DAI.
What makes me smile from joy:

  • The little things and attention to details: Zenimax writers did they homework. Many NPCs have a unique way of phrasing things, and they are consistent with it. And this makes many NPCs memorable. Khajit have their own way of saying things and so do Argonians. Not every representative of specific race have similar timbre of voice and the way of talking, but you can immediately tell without looking, you are talking with Khajit or Argonian. Let me share you an example. Yesterday I was exploring a quest on the area of Shadowfen, which is located in the northern part of Black Marsh. There is a group called "The Blackguards", which was phrased as "blagards" by every NPC I met. I started to think that I was wrong the whole time and I pronounce it wrong, until I saw this.
Zrzut ekranu (108).png
 
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Cahir

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327
So, a couple of weeks passed, and I still play The Elder Scrolls Online and... I'm still loving it. In my opinion, it's a better single player RPG, than Skyrim.

In these past weeks, I've managed to:
  • Advance to the mythical level 50 and already gained 90 champion levels
  • Almost finished the main story (I think there is only the last encounter ahead of me, but I've been fooled before)
  • Finished Mage Guild quest line and became the Archmage.
  • Did a good part of Aldmeri Dominion quest line, but the other good part is still ahead of me.
  • Found my first mythic item part (drop from a public dungeon boss in Coldharbour)
  • Installed a significant number of add-ons, that greatly improved my ESO experience.
What I would like to dig deeper into is:
  • Housing. I barely scratched the surface and did not even buy a house of my own. The only one I have is a free room in Vulkhel Guard, but it's microscopic.
  • Try some group encounters (like Group Dungeons) and PvP (like battlegrounds). It's something I always shun because, I'm a solo player to the core, but I may at least try it, even just to get my hands on some mythical leads, if not locked under ESO Plus.
  • Fishing. At least those spots where I may find mythic leads. Unfortunately, after RDR2 no fishing game will be the same for me. So, it's only for items.
I don't know how long ESO will keep me interested, so far there are no signs it's starting to bore me, so it will be for a while, I guess, but I definitely want to finish at least Aldmeri Dominion quest line and possibly some regions I've been recommended to do (like Northern Elsweyr or Summerset Isle) or I wanted to do from nostalgia reasons (Yvanderfell in Morrowind).

Since I play with some add-ons, I've been thinking to share my experience with some of those, if there is an interest. I have to admit, it's a bit weird to use mods in a MMO game, but none of the mods I've seen can give you an advantage versus other players. It's mostly quality of life additions or UI change. They only make your experience better, without giving you an unjust edge over other players. So, if there's any interest, I can share some unbiased thoughts on a couple of add-ons.
 

shmity72

Habitué
Messages
317
It pleases me to see such positive experiences from a game that is beloved by myself and millions others. I have like 20k hours in the game. One can not 'beat' an MMO

But the cool thing is the true 'end game' is fashion, decorating and in my case filming lol.

Hey! if anyone here needs a chill NA guild to join please feel free to join my guild breaker breaker. no obligations ever. zero tolerance for bigotry. A safe FUN friendly pay it forward attitude community I run. shmity72#8905
 

shmity72

Habitué
Messages
317
Housing. I barely scratched the surface and did not even buy a house of my own. The only one I have is a free room in Vulkhel Guard, but it's microscopic.
On this note: there are 3 free apartments in the game one from each of the three factions. Additionally there is a Notable house, 700/700 slots as a free reward! for finishing I think it is the main quest line of northern elsweyr. it's a nice fun house with a waterfall. plus! you get to quest with john Cleese er...Cadwell :)
 

Cahir

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327
On this note: there are 3 free apartments in the game one from each of the three factions. Additionally there is a Notable house, 700/700 slots as a free reward! for finishing I think it is the main quest line of northern elsweyr. it's a nice fun house with a waterfall. plus! you get to quest with john Cleese er...Cadwell :)

Oh, yes, I was told (repeatedly😋) Northern Elsweyr questline is fine (plus, there are the dragons), but there is always something to detract me from going there. I need to finish Aldmeri Dominion questline first. Northern Elsweyr, is part of Ebonheart Pact questline? Cadwell is a great incentive to start it, though. He and Sheogorath are the best voice acted characters I've met so far in ESO.

As for the housing, I was thinking of starting small, by buying the fun round house in Elden Root. It's cheap and seems to be close to all vital locales in this town. It's small, so I won't be overwhelmed at first and will be easier for be to decorate it with the few furnishings I've collected so far.
 

Urdnot_Wrex

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576
Northern Elsweyr, is part of Ebonheart Pact questline?

No. Elsweyr is part of the Aldmeri Dominion, but it's a DLC area that was added later and has an independent main quest. Abnur Tharn will be there and treat you as if you're acquainted though, which was a bit confusing for me who started playing there, but only a little bit.
 

Cahir

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327
Abnur Tharn will be there and treat you as if you're acquainted though, which was a bit confusing for me who started playing there, but only a little bit.

That would in fact work well for me, because already finished that part of the main quest and know Abnur Tharn very well. I am curious, though, if the conversation would not be awkward anyway, based on what happened to him after that part of the main quest. I would be very surprised if game would take it into account.
 

Antimatter

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I've got a habit of coming back to ESO every December. It's such a cozy and relaxing game. Freedom of what you can do in this game is hard to match. What I value the most, is just walking around and noticing all the little details developers put into the world.

For example, I stumbled upon the following scene in Alinor. 🐈🐈🐈🐈

ESOagain.jpg
 

Antimatter

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I guess all of us here play(ed) ESO mostly as a single-player RPG, at most doing some world events with random people, or play(ed) it in co-op. We mostly ignore(d) the PvP content at all. All my previous experience in the PvP area (Cyrodiil) was meh. That area is too huge for my liking. However, about 2 weeks ago I tried the Imperial City. And it changed my view on the game forever. The Imperial City was once paid DLC, now it can be activated in the Crown Store for free.

Unlike Cyrodiil, it's packed and very action-focused. It consists of sewers underground areas and several districts on the surface. While you are in the Imperial City, you gain special currency, Tel Var Stones. Killing any monster there gets you a certain amount of that. The more of them you have, the better modifiers are to get more Tel Var Stones for killing. The tricky part is that if you get killed, you lose 1/2 of what you currently carry. You can store as many as you want in the bank, and those stored can't be lost. You can buy special sets for Tel Var Stones, as well as other special rewards.

Also, monsters in the Imperial City drop special Vault Keys. When you have 60 or 150 of them, you can open special Vaults to gain good rewards, including motifs and styles. You can't lose the keys when you're killed.

Each surface area of the Imperial City has its own Daily Quest. It also has its own equivalent of a World Boss or a Dolmen. But any activity there goes with a risk of getting exposed to players of the opposite alliance. Even opening a locked chest can be risky. So essentially you're playing on the edge.

You can use Sneak against enemy players, and there are ways to counter other players' Sneak.

However, what I wanted to highlight with this post is not how fun (or unfun, if you don't like dying to opposite players much) the Imperial City PvP zone is. It made me understand the game mechanics better and finally get a good grasp of what each role (Tank or DPS) should have, why, and how much. When the game puts you against other players in not a huge area and gives you all the means necessary to use your surroundings (to sneak) and your skills to the most effective result, it explains things naturally, and much faster than any Trial/Vet Dungeon with random people can.

For example, I now understand and use the method illustrated here:


I now understand what I should go for on any character concept I have in mind, and why, be it Penetration, Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Weapon/Spell Damage, what Mundus Stone should I use, and why, etc etc. I understand differences in using different sets and skills and what that leads to.

A small illustration: there are means in the game that make your next attack a Critical. If you max Crit Damage and manage to sneak up on your opponent, you can essentially end them in seconds. Or, just the opposite, there are ways to counter Crit Damage and increase your Health pool and Health regen by a big degree.

I've had more than 1k hours in the game before. But only now I understand finally what some things do and how to perform them. It all helped tremendously in evaluating some challenging PvE content as well. The lessons learned in PvP answered so many questions regarding normal PvE gameplay, be in World Bosses, Dolmens, Dungeons, and more. I understand better what other players do in combat and can evaluate how I can help them more in standard content. E.g. I understand if normal attacks inflicting 4k damage is ok, whether ~8k damage is big, whether a crit of ~15k damage is great, is a pool of 24k HPs big or not, etc.

Overall, games and their features can surprise you. If you try them, you might be positively surprised, even if the first reaction is "No, thanks".
 

WarChiefZeke

Habitué
Messages
61
I like ESO for the characters and quests, some of them really stand out to me and define my view of certain peoples/places/provinces.

That being said, leave every single bit of lore from ESO out of the main games, I am begging the universe.
 

shmity72

Habitué
Messages
317
I guess all of us here play(ed) ESO mostly as a single-player RPG, at most doing some world events with random people, or play(ed) it in co-op. We mostly ignore(d) the PvP content at all. All my previous experience in the PvP area (Cyrodiil) was meh. That area is too huge for my liking. However, about 2 weeks ago I tried the Imperial City. And it changed my view on the game forever. The Imperial City was once paid DLC, now it can be activated in the Crown Store for free.

Unlike Cyrodiil, it's packed and very action-focused. It consists of sewers underground areas and several districts on the surface. While you are in the Imperial City, you gain special currency, Tel Var Stones. Killing any monster there gets you a certain amount of that. The more of them you have, the better modifiers are to get more Tel Var Stones for killing. The tricky part is that if you get killed, you lose 1/2 of what you currently carry. You can store as many as you want in the bank, and those stored can't be lost. You can buy special sets for Tel Var Stones, as well as other special rewards.

Also, monsters in the Imperial City drop special Vault Keys. When you have 60 or 150 of them, you can open special Vaults to gain good rewards, including motifs and styles. You can't lose the keys when you're killed.

Each surface area of the Imperial City has its own Daily Quest. It also has its own equivalent of a World Boss or a Dolmen. But any activity there goes with a risk of getting exposed to players of the opposite alliance. Even opening a locked chest can be risky. So essentially you're playing on the edge.

You can use Sneak against enemy players, and there are ways to counter other players' Sneak.

However, what I wanted to highlight with this post is not how fun (or unfun, if you don't like dying to opposite players much) the Imperial City PvP zone is. It made me understand the game mechanics better and finally get a good grasp of what each role (Tank or DPS) should have, why, and how much. When the game puts you against other players in not a huge area and gives you all the means necessary to use your surroundings (to sneak) and your skills to the most effective result, it explains things naturally, and much faster than any Trial/Vet Dungeon with random people can.

For example, I now understand and use the method illustrated here:


I now understand what I should go for on any character concept I have in mind, and why, be it Penetration, Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Weapon/Spell Damage, what Mundus Stone should I use, and why, etc etc. I understand differences in using different sets and skills and what that leads to.

A small illustration: there are means in the game that make your next attack a Critical. If you max Crit Damage and manage to sneak up on your opponent, you can essentially end them in seconds. Or, just the opposite, there are ways to counter Crit Damage and increase your Health pool and Health regen by a big degree.

I've had more than 1k hours in the game before. But only now I understand finally what some things do and how to perform them. It all helped tremendously in evaluating some challenging PvE content as well. The lessons learned in PvP answered so many questions regarding normal PvE gameplay, be in World Bosses, Dolmens, Dungeons, and more. I understand better what other players do in combat and can evaluate how I can help them more in standard content. E.g. I understand if normal attacks inflicting 4k damage is ok, whether ~8k damage is big, whether a crit of ~15k damage is great, is a pool of 24k HPs big or not, etc.

Overall, games and their features can surprise you. If you try them, you might be positively surprised, even if the first reaction is "No, thanks".
ummm I'm pleased anti that you have garnered an appreciation and acquired many facets of game mechanics through imperial city pvp area except:

where do i begin.
first if a player kills you they unlike monsters that take half of your tel var actually STEAL your tel var from you.
resistance is the key stat in pvp...unless you are a ganker. a highly refined as you say sneak up on them and try to cut them in half within seconds. crit build.
while a 'ganker' build is great...you're going to have a quick death if you do not kill your opponent within seconds.

pve: crit
pvp spell/weapon damage

all attributes in stam or mag

get health from food buff.

now. The way i personally go about making a build'' is looking one up such as xynodes builds and then tweaking it to my play style. 5 years ago i created a dragon knight 'bubble build' It has gone through about 10 different forms but still uses ward ally as one of the main tactics from the resto staff.

note: great job on learning how to weave. I never have in 9 years.
 

Antimatter

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I'm excited about upcoming updates to ESO. This is a good video about it. Skingrad was one of my favourite locations from the whole of TES4, and the autumn colours are beautiful. Scribing - as is customizing your skills and spells - sounds very exciting. Also, "wild housing features" in Q3 would be welcome.

 

Antimatter

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I'm becoming a bit like @Black Elk but in ESO, in the sense that I create new characters (aka "alts") to try out new builds. After liking the PvP content, I figured why not give it a go and create a character that won't die in every encounter in PvP. I went with a Templar character (the class I wanted to try for a long time), and the results so far are stunningly positive. She's only lvl 23, and already killed 50 other human players.

There is an event right now in the game that affects the Imperial City, so there are literally hundreds of players playing there. Turns out, participating in PvP battles is fun (for me). It requires a totally different approach as human behavior is different to the AI, so any game object and area become a tool you can use (for example, climb, jump, or evade attacks by hiding behind the wall etc). Overall, once I gave it a full go, I saw that ESO has some hidden potential to provide additional types of entertainment different from what I initially thought. I have so many options and plan to try different skills on this character, so that in combination with the right (for me) Mundus Stone, right armor sets, right enchantments (glyphs) etc I get the character who is more unlikely to be killed than likely.

And again, the way ESO works, you don't lose any progress, everything works for your account, so any loot/rewards I get in PvP affects the whole progress, not just this particular character. That's why "restartitis" is not the case in this game, at least, not fully. It's more that you can enjoy new classes while still appreciating the benefits of your previous characters. And overall, it makes me understand the game systems more and more.
 

Antimatter

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This game keeps providing me with new entertainment. When I just started playing, I remember stumbling upon a guild trader for the first time and not seeing anything in their inventory. "I need to join a guild for that" - I thought back then. In the following years of playing the game, nobody told me it was actually incorrect. Every time I interacted with a guild trader, I saw no items. You need to hit "R" while in their inventory to start seeing items. "What?" - I thought just a few days ago when I read about this UI "feature". And it started a completely new way to play this game.

Essentially, there are hundreds of guild traders in the game, each of them has their own (and updated every day) lists of items to sell. Rare items. Extra rare items. Diagrams and schematics for furniture. Motifs and style pages for armor and weapons.

They make the world of ESO feel more real - adventurers (real players) go into dungeons and similar places, find extra rare loot, and then try selling it to other adventurers to help them out. It's like visiting a trade center, or a medieval market square, if you wish.

Of course, rare items cost a lot of gold. But that's the way to spend it, in my opinion. Now I can start planning for housing with more detail, and with a much bigger choice.

You can buy in-game houses, sure. But for those houses to look better, and cosy, you need to fill them in with normal items: mirrors, plates, dishes, bookcases, plants, etc etc. The more you invest in variety and also the more you respect each house's style (e.g. high elves and dunmers have a very different view on architecture and furniture), the better the house will look inside. Instead of blind grinding for that one bookcase that would fit your house, you can try searching for it between merchants.

Same with motifs and styles. Every player, if they have enough gold and are lucky enough to grab the item before it's sold to another player, can gain ways to look great, even without doing group Trial events & other end-game challenging stuff (if they don't want to).

There are online trackers available where you can check prices and items in real-time. This is like a new world. And I had no idea all of this existed and was available to everyone, without any need to join any guild.
 
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