Monday 12 May 2014

Elder Scrolls Online

Not counting the 4 beta sessions I've now played ESO for about 1½ months (that's including 5 days early access) and most of the time I love it, but as with all games there are some frustrations and some things I really don't like at all.

So let's start with the things that continuously bug me.
Fighters Guild and Mages Guild Quest Lines. Seriously. It's exactly the same whether you're in Ebonheart Pact, Aldmeri Dominion or Daggerfall Covenant. How can Guildmaster Sees-All-Colours be in Morrowind at the same time as she's in Glenumbra and Auridon? How can Merric and Aelif get into trouble with the same demon in all threee places? How can Valaste be in all those regions at the same time? I understand that the Main Quest Line is the same everywhere, it's the main quest so it should be, but why are the Guild's quest lines the same thing no matter where you are?

Enemy levels. Honestly. In the wild I can easily defeat enemies that are two or three or even four levels higher than me. But then I run into a boss-character who's three levels lower than me, and I get killed over and over and over. I can't wait for someone to come and help me, cause those bosses I'm referring to are private ones. Like Doshia. Like Balreth. Like Fake-Lyris. Doshia was level 8. I went up to level 13 before I defeated her and even then it was a really really long fight. I recently tried to defeat Balreth with a character on the same level. At least my character didn't die, but I didn't do enough damage to be able to kill Balreth before he ran off and healed himself. I think that stubborn fight lasted for about 45 minutes and no one got out of it victorious. On my main I fought Fake-Lyris yesterday. She was level 30 and I'm level 33. Fake-Lyris still killed me way before I could even half her health, and that was despite me chasing the Feasts around and healing myself while stopping them from healing her. She still killed me way too easily. So right now I'm thinking I should get to level 40 before I go after her again. Just to be on the safe side.

But that's basically it. That's everything that bugs me with this game. Sure there's the occasional bugged quest or item. But most of the time all I need to do is relog or reload. The game's only been out for a month. It still has some childhood diseases. And as far as I've heard WoW had very similar, if not the same problems, when it was released 10 years ago. Yes, it's 10 years ago. I've seen many people in ESO's chat saying that they really enjoy ESO and that WoW has gotten old. I don't really have any other MMOs to compare with. I played WoW for two hours before I was bored and that's my entire experience with MMOs pre-ESO.

Things I love about it.
Group Dungeons. I never thought I'd actually like this. I'm such an out-and-out single-player that I never thought I'd enjoy playing with people. Yesterday I tried to be a tank for the first time in my life. It was awesome :3 I played with a group of French people. They all knew English and I know French so we talked in a combination of French and English xD I think I did alright as a tank, they didn't complain anyway and after our first dungeon together they invited me to do one more. So I take that as all positive. Sure I did die a few times and sure sometimes I was hesitant to just go barging in. But I did what a tank was supposed to do. I think.

Crafting. I pick everything I find everywhere all the time. I research traits, learn motifs, craft, deconstruct etc etc. I love it. Mostly I love Provisioning and Blacksmithing. But I practice all the crafting skills on all my characters. Not that it's necessary. I just think it's a lot of fun xD And yesterday I found my first purple (Epic) item, which only so happened to be a recipe for Provisioning :P

Quests. The quests are not all the typical MMO-quests "kill that", "bring me that", but they are actual epic single-player-ish quests. There are ofc some typical MMO-quests, but mostly I think they're epic single-player-ish quests. This is a huge plus for me.

Mini-bosses. You come across these every now and then and they are always way too hard to manage on your own. So I always stand a bit to the side and ask in the chat if anyone is nearby and could help me. I usually don't have to wait long before someone shows up. Sometimes I don't even need to ask in the chat as someone shows up right after me. People are generally nice in this game. The loot from the mini-bosses are great too and usually comes with a trophy of some kind and always an Achievement.

Public Dungeons. These always come with an Achievement and a Skyshard, which I find very convenient. And they are never empty. You're never alone in these and you can always just hop in a team and fight alongside people. The final boss provides the Achievement and there are always a whole crowd of people waiting for the boss to re-spawn, but all you need is to manage one hit to get the loot and the Achievement. You don't need to deal the killing blow as long as you manage one single hit. You still get the Achievement, the loot and the experience points.

Exploration. I really enjoy doing nothing but exploring in all regions. But this far Summerset Isles and Valenwood have offered the best view while exploring. Valenwood is stunningly beautiful and I'm hoping that Elder Scrolls VI will take place there. As much as I love Skyrim and Morrowind exploring there isn't as fun as exploring in Valenwood. Skyrim is alright, but in Morrowind it's so grey and if it isn't grey you have to watch yourself or you'll fall into a lava pit. That kind of ruins exploration. I kind of enjoy exploring in High Rock and Hammerfell, but thus far it's mostly desert and I get thirsty running through all that sand.
Auridon of the Summerset Isles and Greenshade of Valenwood

Achievements. There are so many and I want them all. I love Achievements.

Dolmens. Or Anchors. These are respawning fighting points, connected to the main quest but not part of the quest line. You get Achievements for them :3 They start off with Worm Cult Priests sacrificing people to Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of schemes. That's where all the assembled players rush in and kill them. Then it starts to literally rain Daedric creatures that everyone has to help kill and at the same time destroying the anchor pinions. There's experience and a lot of intense and fun fighting here.

The game is really good-looking for an MMO, people are nice and despite the occasional gold farmer there isn't much spamming in the chat, which is nice. People always help you if you ask for it, whether it be help to kill a mini-boss or help to find something or someone for a specific quest.

I have a Wood Elf Nightblade in the Aldmeri Dominion called Loyna. I have an Argonian Sorcerer in the Ebonheart Pact called Tar-Jei Gloomscale. I have an Orc Dragonknight in the Daggerfall Covenant called Guligul gro-Bash, although I'm planning on replacing her with a badass male Orc Templar :P My userID is Secchan there and you're free to add me.

Just to show how epic you feel while fighting at Dolmens here's the trailer for the game:


3 comments:

  1. Stör mig också väldigt mycket på att fighters och mages guild är samma i alla tre :( Känns rätt trist.. De kunde ju iaf bytt ut karaktärerna.. där ger jag verkligen en pik till den store lore-mastern.
    I övrigt tycker jag verkligen om det också! Jag önskar bara att jag hade mer tid/ork att spela!!! Jag har ju praktik nu så är inte hemma mycket, och ibland måste jag jobba mer hemma och detta gör mig ju också ganska trött........... men det får väl ta den tid det tar typ.

    Är också glatt överraskad av hur jag upplever group dungeons :D

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    Replies
    1. Verkligheten är ju viktigare än spelet så verkligheten får ju ta den tiden den tar :/

      Jag har egentligen en pik till till den store lore-mastern. Men det kändes så petigt att jag inte ens skrev det i bloggen. Man får höra flera gånger att Argonians och Khajiit förr var slavar åt Elves. Men det går inte ihop. ESO utspelar sig under 2nd Era. Men i Morrowind är Argonians och Khajiit fortfarande slavar och Morrowind utspelar sig i 3rd Era :/ Det stör mig :P Men som sagt så petigt att det nog inte är många som märkt det.

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    2. Har inte tänkt på det tills nu, damn u! XD Nämen haha verkligen, väldigt störigt.

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What's the first thought in your head after reading this? Let me know!