ESO - Opinions from a Returning Player

Painlezz

Hello All,

I wanted to post some opinions and things I've noticed as a returning player.  I would love it if anyone took some time to respond to my questions/concerns/comments where appropriate!

- The world seems to have players running around at all levels up past 40 so far, this is pretty good!  Generally I always see at least 1-2 people in public dungeons or world events (anchors and such) which is helpful at times.

- Combat and responsiveness is pretty solid now.  I still notice some delays at times and it can get you killed when trying to fight anything that isn't a complete pushover.  This is pretty few and far between so nothing to really complain about.

- Group Finder = Garbage.  This is a huge issue for me.  Over the past week, I've found myself sitting in Group Finder for upwards of 7-8 solid hours with nothing popping up!  This is completely unacceptable for a modern MMO!  Standing around in a specific zone spamming zone chat trying to form a party is not good or fun design.  "Fun" design is to allow players to run around doing quests, crafting, or whatever they want while the game matches you up with others interested in Grouping for designated content. 

- Gear seems to break very quickly?  It's expensive to repair...

- Gear seems to have limited impact on combat.  As a caster, I've noticed all my gear broken and without charge and still killing stuff at the same speed as with a full set of repaired and charged gear.  This might change at max level but it makes collecting gear pretty meaningless so far...

- Soul Shards (or whatever) don't seem like very fun mechanic.  It seems to add a lot of extra work to maintaining your character for little benefit.  Like I said above, I could probably strip naked, as long as I had a weapon I could kill things just fine.

- The launcher randomly (pretty regularly) complains about version issues and requires a repair.  Yes, you can re-launch it over and over to fix this... But honestly, how that this STILL be a problem?  It feels very amateur to have bugs like this before you even launch the game!

- Questing is Great so far!  You save towns, and in many cases notice actual changes to the world as you move on!  I think they could have done better with this as most of the changes when you complete quest chains are cosmetic at best =(


Anyway, please post up if you have comments, suggestions, whatever!  I would love to improve my experience where possible!   The number one issue I have is the Group Finder.  I don't have time or desire to stand around spamming zone chat if I want to play with others =(

Drac14

Thanks for the write up! Group finder IS a big deal. It's one reason I keep playing skyforge...takes less than 2 seconds usually to find a group for the content you want.

Azlidax

I have only used the group tool a few times but for the most part if you join a guild or make some friends you will never need to use the group finder tool.  I am not defending it, just giving you a workaround. 

Painlezz

Also forgot to Add:

- With the limited skill system(s), it seems like a vast majority of skills will never get touched by any player ever...  

I don't know the game well enough to list them from memory but there are ground targeted "bombs" or "mines" that you can slot.  From what I gather so far, those skills are generally more difficult to use than targeted skills and from what I can see do less damage in general as well!  Maybe they are AOE?  But even still, there are easier to use AOE skills out there!

Destro staff skill lines is another example.  Two primary single targets are the #1 which does direct damage + damage over 5 seconds and #3 which does 3x element damage.  Currently the stats on my character as follows:

#1 = ~1000 damage + 1500 = 2500 total
#3 = ~500 x 3 = 1500 total

Now, you can spam #3 for a fairly high cost and end up doing more damage in the same period of time.  However, sustained normal DPS generally seems better to use #1 once, cast other skills or use weapon attack a few times before recasting...  


What i'm trying to get at is, it seems like some skills are pretty poorly balanced and don't really fit into any build?  Again, i'm new so maybe I'm missing things but as a new player a lot of these skills will never get touched =(

Octagon7711

Don't know if it's true or not but have read that some skills have been broken since launch or have been nerfed really badly.  With expensive respects, gone are the days of experimenting with all skills to try them out.

Iselin

@Painlezz ;


About those skills... the usefulness of some of them are not readily apparent... especially in the wrong builds. Have a look at some of the Deltia class build guides. He goes into a lot of detail about which skills he uses and why and that might give you more of an idea where and why to use them: http://deltiasgaming.com/


I'm not saying you should copy his builds (unless you want to) but his explanations of skills and their use in different builds is pretty solid.


I've also felt at times that some skills were pretty meh (still feel that way about some lol)... until I've seen someone use them properly.

MagikarpsGhost

Painlezz said:

Hello All,

I wanted to post some opinions and things I've noticed as a returning player.  I would love it if anyone took some time to respond to my questions/concerns/comments where appropriate!

- The world seems to have players running around at all levels up past 40 so far, this is pretty good!  Generally I always see at least 1-2 people in public dungeons or world events (anchors and such) which is helpful at times.

- Combat and responsiveness is pretty solid now.  I still notice some delays at times and it can get you killed when trying to fight anything that isn't a complete pushover.  This is pretty few and far between so nothing to really complain about.

- Group Finder = Garbage.  This is a huge issue for me.  Over the past week, I've found myself sitting in Group Finder for upwards of 7-8 solid hours with nothing popping up!  This is completely unacceptable for a modern MMO!  Standing around in a specific zone spamming zone chat trying to form a party is not good or fun design.  "Fun" design is to allow players to run around doing quests, crafting, or whatever they want while the game matches you up with others interested in Grouping for designated content. 

- Gear seems to break very quickly?  It's expensive to repair...

- Gear seems to have limited impact on combat.  As a caster, I've noticed all my gear broken and without charge and still killing stuff at the same speed as with a full set of repaired and charged gear.  This might change at max level but it makes collecting gear pretty meaningless so far...

- Soul Shards (or whatever) don't seem like very fun mechanic.  It seems to add a lot of extra work to maintaining your character for little benefit.  Like I said above, I could probably strip naked, as long as I had a weapon I could kill things just fine.

- The launcher randomly (pretty regularly) complains about version issues and requires a repair.  Yes, you can re-launch it over and over to fix this... But honestly, how that this STILL be a problem?  It feels very amateur to have bugs like this before you even launch the game!

- Questing is Great so far!  You save towns, and in many cases notice actual changes to the world as you move on!  I think they could have done better with this as most of the changes when you complete quest chains are cosmetic at best =(


Anyway, please post up if you have comments, suggestions, whatever!  I would love to improve my experience where possible!   The number one issue I have is the Group Finder.  I don't have time or desire to stand around spamming zone chat if I want to play with others =(

I agree with most of what you said, i have been with eso since beta. never once stopped my sub. Sadly group finder is by far the worst i have been in a mmo. As for the launcher just close it and re-open it. you will still get the stupid "invalid version" prompt but you will be able to click play instead of repair. As for gear from 1-50 you can easily run with old gear but once you hit vet levels it becomes a bigger part of your over all  build. I ran from 35-v1 with lvl 30 gear (forgot to upgrade) but once i hit V1 things took a bit longer to kill and they actually hurt a bit. As for the soul shards, i am not quite sure what you mean by this.

Deasant

Rhoklaw said:

Drac14 said:

Thanks for the write up! Group finder IS a big deal. It's one reason I keep playing skyforge...takes less than 2 seconds usually to find a group for the content you want.

You're kidding right? Skyforge has a horrible prestige group finder system. Even after it was supposedly fixed with a patch, it still takes a 3-5 minutes for the most common areas and over an hour for some of the PvP events.

I don't even have to wait 3 minutes for 10v10. Let me guess, you artificially boosted your prestige and out leveled most people and now bitch you don't have people to play with?

Painlezz

Soul Shards (or whatever they are called).  Used to rez when you die, rez other people, or recharge gear.   

My complaint with them is... why?  You already have to REPAIR your gear when it takes damage (and it takes damage very quickly) but you also have to charge it in order to get the buff?  It's basically double durability on equipment.   And, like I mentioned earlier, the actual buff provided by the stuff doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the first place.  Most of my gear tends to be completely broken and no charge left and I still have no problem with content.   This is a GOOD thing as if I had to keep running back to repair and recharge my gear all the time it would be a massive negative feature.

I'm worried that endgame vet levels I'll end up spending a good amount of time just maintaining my gear so i can do content rather than actually playing said content =(

Deasant

Painlezz said:

Soul Shards (or whatever they are called).  Used to rez when you die, rez other people, or recharge gear.   

My complaint with them is... why?  You already have to REPAIR your gear when it takes damage (and it takes damage very quickly) but you also have to charge it in order to get the buff?  It's basically double durability on equipment.   And, like I mentioned earlier, the actual buff provided by the stuff doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the first place.  Most of my gear tends to be completely broken and no charge left and I still have no problem with content.   This is a GOOD thing as if I had to keep running back to repair and recharge my gear all the time it would be a massive negative feature.

I'm worried that endgame vet levels I'll end up spending a good amount of time just maintaining my gear so i can do content rather than actually playing said content =(

Elder scrolls has been this way as long as I can remember

Warlyx

meh ESO could have been AWESOME but ..... in the end "meh" at best....its boring casting 3-4 skills over and over

gervaise1

Deasant said:

Painlezz said:

Soul Shards ......
My complaint with them is... why?  

Elder scrolls has been this way as long as I can remember

Previous Elder Scrolls games have "soul gems" shiny objects of power. So : it is the lore!

Iselin

Painlezz said:

Soul Shards (or whatever they are called).  Used to rez when you die, rez other people, or recharge gear.   

My complaint with them is... why?  You already have to REPAIR your gear when it takes damage (and it takes damage very quickly) but you also have to charge it in order to get the buff?  It's basically double durability on equipment.   And, like I mentioned earlier, the actual buff provided by the stuff doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the first place.  

They make a lot more sense if you PVP when you can't rez yourself but need to have those soul gems to rez others. You'll also want to have them in 4-man dungeons and trials for battle rezzing. It's pretty important t have a good supply then.

If you only solo PVE, yeah you hardly ever die if you know what you're doing so they're pretty useless there.


As to gear repairs... it's one of the very few gold sinks in the whole game.


And BTW, the trick to having gear that actually makes a difference is in getting or crafting sets. Those set bonuses make a huge difference.

Painlezz

I can understand crafting, however like EVERY SINGLE GAME on the planet....  The time investment to level crafting is so much that it's not worth doing until end-game.  You can't realistically keep your crafting up with your level making good gear.   That, and I just don't enjoy crafting in most games so I'd rather just fight, earn money, and pay other people to craft... Hopefully they charge realistic prices.

Iselin

Painlezz said:

I can understand crafting, however like EVERY SINGLE GAME on the planet....  The time investment to level crafting is so much that it's not worth doing until end-game.  You can't realistically keep your crafting up with your level making good gear.   That, and I just don't enjoy crafting in most games so I'd rather just fight, earn money, and pay other people to craft... Hopefully they charge realistic prices.

Only some of the items with set bonuses come from crafting. Many come from drops. And yeah, prices are still reasonable - not much inflation... if you have the patience to look around that is. Joining a large trade guild even if you're just a harvester or buyer and don't want to craft is still highly recommended.

Here's a link to a site that details all available sets, whether crafted or drops, with the bonuses. Notice that there are many times more dropped sets than crafted ones: http://esoacademy.com/set-bonus-items/
 

Painlezz

I don't mind, in fact I think games should ENCOURAGE crafting and having NON-CRAFTERS support them.

Unfortunately most games usually have terrible crafting and the gear you create is quickly or easily replaced by drops from fairly simple content.  Or, crafting can make good gear but the cost is so unreasonable that your time is better spent completing difficult content for equal or better drops.

Again, no idea how it is in this game so time will tell!  I'm 40+ now after a week or so of playing so i'll be hitting 50 if I continue to find motivation to play and will start to experience the endgame.


I started this post because my motivation was getting less and less due to the horrible multiplayer experience (mainly, group finder or lack of).  If I can manage to level to 50 and find people to group with then I might end up sticking around...  

If I find that even at max level finding groups is difficult or more trouble than it's worth then I simply won't play.  The game itself should be the challenge and I should be playing it.  If the "game" is to spam zone chat in order to find groups which allows you to do the content... that is not fun for me.

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