I don't personally regard Zenimax as a good company. So, it depends on the person, whether you want to "come back" or not. You might. I won't. // I can certainly deal with other companies for happiness. .. not with Zenimax, sorry - doesn't happen.... idiotic company - you try if you don't believe me.
Originally posted by velexie I don't personally regard Zenimax as a good company. So, it depends on the person, whether you want to "come back" or not. You might. I won't. // I can certainly deal with other companies for happiness. .. not with Zenimax, sorry - doesn't happen.... idiotic company - you try if you don't believe me.
Well thought out post with substantial arguments as to why you dislike Zenimax over other companies.
What gives me faith in the game is that the devs are so open about what they are doing and what their intentions are.
For example their intention with the veteran system was to give people group content for post lvl 50 but players kept on soloing and many ran into a wall so only the lucky ones with the right builds could have fun and many many stopped playing the vet content. So they changed it to be soloable and left group content for Craglorn.
There is a big imbalance between stamina and magicka builds. They went one step last big patch and made medium armor give a lot more bonus to medium abilities and next big patch there will be big changes to the armor sets so stamina builds can benefit from them too.
PvP has become awesome if you go to one of the active servers. Many servers are only farm grounds where one faction control it all but a few are contented and pvp there is utterly fun now. It really is DaoC2 with realm pride and huge battles raging everywhere.
They have also worked hard to balance the NB and Templar classes and nerf sorcs and DKs. But they have been careful not to overnerf either.
Vampires are pretty balanced now. They are fairly rare in pvp atm because everyone use silver arrows or fire on them if they find them. Mostly it is only stealthers that become vampires these days, and for stealth builds it is still useful because vampires are so good at sneaking.
Werewolfs are still a joke and they have admitted it. They initially plan to make the ultimate cost less and the duration longer but it wont matter since the wolf form is far weaker than your normal form and the weakness affect your human form while the advantages does not.
They have promised TONS of stuff but most of it is still in early development stage. Next patch will give you armor dyes, guild emblems and world stores for guilds that everyone can access and it will change the PvP areas so you no longer really can have the passive farm realms. PvP is going to be VERY hectic by then.
Atm once you hit max level there are 3 things to do. Trials which is a form of speedrun raids, veteran dungeons or PvP. Only the PvP allows you to solo and I don't recommend it.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."
What gives me faith in the game is that the devs are so open about what they are doing and what their intentions are.
For example their intention with the veteran system was to give people group content for post lvl 50 but players kept on soloing and many ran into a wall so only the lucky ones with the right builds could have fun and many many stopped playing the vet content. So they changed it to be soloable and left group content for Craglorn.
There is a big imbalance between stamina and magicka builds. They went one step last big patch and made medium armor give a lot more bonus to medium abilities and next big patch there will be big changes to the armor sets so stamina builds can benefit from them too.
PvP has become awesome if you go to one of the active servers. Many servers are only farm grounds where one faction control it all but a few are contented and pvp there is utterly fun now. It really is DaoC2 with realm pride and huge battles raging everywhere.
They have also worked hard to balance the NB and Templar classes and nerf sorcs and DKs. But they have been careful not to overnerf either.
Vampires are pretty balanced now. They are fairly rare in pvp atm because everyone use silver arrows or fire on them if they find them. Mostly it is only stealthers that become vampires these days, and for stealth builds it is still useful because vampires are so good at sneaking.
Werewolfs are still a joke and they have admitted it. They initially plan to make the ultimate cost less and the duration longer but it wont matter since the wolf form is far weaker than your normal form and the weakness affect your human form while the advantages does not.
They have promised TONS of stuff but most of it is still in early development stage. Next patch will give you armor dyes, guild emblems and world stores for guilds that everyone can access and it will change the PvP areas so you no longer really can have the passive farm realms. PvP is going to be VERY hectic by then.
Atm once you hit max level there are 3 things to do. Trials which is a form of speedrun raids, veteran dungeons or PvP. Only the PvP allows you to solo and I don't recommend it.
Well said post. Regarding both Carbine and Zenimax, i love how open they are to community feedback. I hope more Devs start to embrace this instead of just alienating their population until the game just dies.
As for ESO, they changed a lot of system to account for the community feedback including
1) Tutorial Area
2) Campaigns and how they work
3) Veteran system
This does give me faith in the game and believe that it may recover since there are already tons of people who are interested in the game.
Originally posted by velexie I don't personally regard Zenimax as a good company. So, it depends on the person, whether you want to "come back" or not. You might. I won't. // I can certainly deal with other companies for happiness. .. not with Zenimax, sorry - doesn't happen.... idiotic company - you try if you don't believe me.
Look at the post above. This is how you say why you don't like or like a game/devs/company.
I subscribed to ESO at release, but left after few weeks. One reason was that it was literally overrun with bots and gold sellers. Second, public dungeons didn't seem to work well....you would get this quest and big build up to fight a boss, only to get there and see a line of people circling around waiting to kill it. Third, it also seemed too much like a single player game, and after GW2 I didn't want to go down that road again. Finally, PVP seemed broken as I watched YouTube videos of a single Vampire killing dozens single-handed.
How are things now? Especially on the above concerns. Thanks in advance...
I subscribed to ESO at release, but left after few weeks. One reason was that it was literally overrun with bots and gold sellers. Second, public dungeons didn't seem to work well....you would get this quest and big build up to fight a boss, only to get there and see a line of people circling around waiting to kill it. Third, it also seemed too much like a single player game, and after GW2 I didn't want to go down that road again. Finally, PVP seemed broken as I watched YouTube videos of a single Vampire killing dozens single-handed.
How are things now? Especially on the above concerns. Thanks in advance...
Still the same, just look for another MMO.
"Truth? Who cares about the truth? As long as we can say it, that's all that counts" - bcbully
I've been playing since launch. I think they've done a great job cleaning up bots, spammers, etc. I'm still in my 40's but see one or two folks in each dungeon I visit. Nothing like my experience at launch when everyone was leveling up. I've encountered very minor bugs and most can be bypassed by logging off. Haven't tried pvp yet.
With that said, I also feel the game is a bit bland. I see an endless road of quests to do and frankly, they start blending together. I've been a very slow leveler yet I'm getting a bit tired of the game. It is feeling like a chore. I'm going to keep playing however not sure this will be a long term game for me. I just don't feel that wow factor and desire to log in long, long hours.
They need more to break up the questing, but other MMOs shows the mistakes you can make once you go down that route. If put in pvp scenarios what do you think will happen to keep play? If you put in anything that gives half decent xp, what do you think will happen to questing?
Cyrodiil should be where players get from V1 to V5, and it should be mostly without quests. Then questing in a non faction region to get to V10. Then back to Cyrodiil.
except all they would then have to do is download the addon that shows all the skyshards and then do a run through of each area.
...and get a list from somewhere of the quests and public dungeon group events that give you a skill point. It's not only the main zone story quest lines that give you those skill points although you can count on those giving you one. (For example: the Welcome to Cyrodiil tutorial quests that you can do @ level 10 and takes about 10 minutes, gives you 2 skill poits...at a point in the game when you're really starved for skill points - well-worth doing that one.)
As far as I know that list doesn't exist yet.
But... funny that phantomghost's method is being criticized for leaving skill points behind when his previous post said the game is kind of boring at the same time he's saying it takes only about 36 hours to max a character... hmmm... I wonder who's to blame for the boredom
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I use to love fishing in EQ1 and making darts for the monks.
I really want to fish again and its between ESO and FFIV. ESO looked very interesting with the little I dabbled in it, but I have read its bugged atm.
FFIV has fishing and housing...decisions decisions.
ESO is a game that is still being finished, for the most part, in time i think it will improve a lot, FFXIV on the other hand is good now, so it depends on how patient you are, however, an investment for the future perhaps, but Amazon is currently selling ESO for £11, its a tempting price
except all they would then have to do is download the addon that shows all the skyshards and then do a run through of each area.
[mod edit]
Not sure where the highlighted part comes in but perhaps that's your issue?
In any case as Iselin has been mentioned, all someone would have to do is make a list of the quests that give skill points and run their guild through. Guilds have done more for less.
But it seems to me that you take it personally that players would do such a thing?
The only time circumventing the intended game play by substituting an alternate method of game play (such as grinding) is an issue is if the person leveling through other means gets there and complains and cries that "the game was boring". Otherwise, if they don't want to quest, they prefer grinding and perhaps doing the few quests that give them skill points, then I don't see what the issue is. Unless of course there are tears.
Additionally, Zenimax will be adding more chances for skill points in future content so perhaps that is a way to go.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
except all they would then have to do is download the addon that shows all the skyshards and then do a run through of each area.
[mod edit]
Not sure where the highlighted part comes in but perhaps that's your issue?
In any case as Iselin has been mentioned, all someone would have to do is make a list of the quests that give skill points and run their guild through. Guilds have done more for less.
But it seems to me that you take it personally that players would do such a thing?
The only time circumventing the intended game play by substituting an alternate method of game play (such as grinding) is an issue is if the person leveling through other means gets there and complains and cries that "the game was boring". Otherwise, if they don't want to quest, they prefer grinding and perhaps doing the few quests that give them skill points, then I don't see what the issue is. Unless of course there are tears.
Additionally, Zenimax will be adding more chances for skill points in future content so perhaps that is a way to go.
I doubt you will get loads of new skyshards/skill points. Look at craglorn only 4 skill points added to the game with that
Any graphical, audio, or gameplay restrictions not seen in other mmos but found in FFXIV can be blamed on one thing. PS3
I was still curious about a list of quests with skillpoints so I kept rooting around and found a list of many (but not all) quests that give you a skill point - 78 of them. It's at Esohead. You can filter quests by different criteria and one of them (tick box at the bottom) is skill point reward.
It still doesn't have the quickie 2-skillpoint Cyrodiil siege equipment use tutorial or the last quest in the Mage's Guild line which can also give you 2 depending on your choice of endings.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I doubt you will get loads of new skyshards/skill points. Look at craglorn only 4 skill points added to the game with that
I was referring to one of their recent interviews where they indicated that they were going to add new options for new skill points. I think it was one of the recent interviews where they talk about changing the vet system.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I subscribed to ESO at release, but left after few weeks. One reason was that it was literally overrun with bots and gold sellers. Second, public dungeons didn't seem to work well....you would get this quest and big build up to fight a boss, only to get there and see a line of people circling around waiting to kill it. Third, it also seemed too much like a single player game, and after GW2 I didn't want to go down that road again. Finally, PVP seemed broken as I watched YouTube videos of a single Vampire killing dozens single-handed.
How are things now? Especially on the above concerns. Thanks in advance...
Others have nailed it, but I'll weigh in with my opinions too. I will answer from my personal experience, having played from the beta weekends to now. Easy answers first.
1) Bots and Gold Sellers:
Gone. Haven't seen any in several months, at least in the areas I am in - none running around, not in zone chat, no whispers, not even any mails. I honestly don't know how they're suppressing them so well, I expect at least a few spams once in a while even in well established mmos...
2) Public Dungeons:
Zenimax instituted a timer on loot drops from bosses (in part of their initiative to combat botting), and it effectively nullified boss farming. You can go through dungeons and not have any problems now.
4) Vampires OP in pvp:
Fixed back in May. It was a problem with stacking ultimate cost reduction gear, combined with vampire's ability cost reduction from stage 4 - making vampires a Bat Swarm ultimate tossin', health absorbing machine; they could use another bat swarm before the first one expired. Bonus points for being a DK and recovering a large portion of their resources every time they activated an ultimate.
They heavily reduced the cost reduction from vampire stage increases, and prevented Bat Swarm stacking on itself. There was much complaining afterward that vampires were actually a little too weak.
3) Single player game feeling:
Short answer: Yes, but it opens up as you get into the VR.
Long answer:
All their "overland" content has been designed for solo play difficulty, so that feeling is still there. There are the instanced group dungeons, world bosses, and public dungeons, but in general, the game does feel very solo-focused from levels 1-50. Also, since you don't get xp from monsters too far under your level, it's easy to get out of step with your friends when leveling and get no reward for joining them if they're a zone behind you.
In VR post-50 content though, all monsters give xp (everything is still considered lvl 50, you can even still get xp from monsters in the Coldharbour lvl 45-50 zone at vr12), so no matter what zone you're up to, you can still join your other VR friends and get xp for all combat, which leads (in my experience, at least), to much more grouping and hopping around zones to help out one another. Hitting VR1 also grants access to Craglorn, a complete zone designed around group play. It's quite common to group up and grind xp in Craglorn, in addition to running the 12-player oriented "Trials", ESO's spin on raid content.
the reason for this is that the subscription fee is not worth the playing this game. Its essentially a single player game because of the phasing. Even trying to group up with friends causes issues with quests. On top of this the cash grabbing part with imperiels and other pay gate barriers make you realize that your subscription fee isn't sufficient to have access to the game. On top of all the above issues, the biggest is the dumb down combat system where you only use like 5 buttons to play the game...seriously...very consolized game.
========================== The game is dead not, this game is good we make it and Romania Tv give it 5 goat heads, this is good rating for game.
the reason for this is that the subscription fee is not worth the playing this game. Its essentially a single player game because of the phasing. Even trying to group up with friends causes issues with quests. On top of this the cash grabbing part with imperiels and other pay gate barriers make you realize that your subscription fee isn't sufficient to have access to the game. On top of all the above issues, the biggest is the dumb down combat system where you only use like 5 buttons to play the game...seriously...very consolized game.
"the reason for this is that the subscription fee is not worth the playing this game"
You are entitled to that opinion but it's only an opinion. I for one feel the sub fee is worth it. Keeps out all the riff raff F2Pers.
"Its essentially a single player game because of the phasing. Even trying to group up with friends causes issues with quests. "
I quest with groups from my guild every single day. Rarely a phasing issue. If there is a phasing issue.. there's a good reason for it. You need to understand why phasing exists to begin with before complaining about it.
"On top of this the cash grabbing part with imperiels and other pay gate barriers make you realize that your subscription fee isn't sufficient to have access to the game."
I can see why people are bothered by this but in the whole grand scheme of things... it doesn't affect gameplay or your ability to have fun. People are bothered by this more on principle than anything else. I say.. get over it... water under the bridge.
"On top of all the above issues, the biggest is the dumb down combat system where you only use like 5 buttons to play the game...seriously...very consolized game."
What does the number of buttons have to do with the combat system? You actually get 6 buttons if you count the ultimate. You think having 20 clickable skills at the bottom of your screen makes for a better combat system? If so.. why? With weapon swapping, you get 10 active combat skills plus 2 ultimates. Add in all the gear options, multitude of passives and skill trees and you have A LOT of build options. IDK.. I love the combat. I'm a Vet 4 Sorc and love the PvP combat.
Anyway.. sorry you don't like the game. I hope people give it a try. The price has come down and you get your first month free.. so I think it's worth a try for anyone.
I can recommend returning to ESO, most haters and people whose playstyle did not match that of the game have left, which leaves the community a friendlier place, full of ES fans.
I came back and read the many additional comments. Thanks to everyone for (mostly) thoughtful and honest answers.
I did want to follow up on what Bleakraven mentions above - community. Despite having a "single player" feel, players through their own efforts can create content with each other. I recall, for example, some of the player-run events in Lord of the Rings Online.
How is community now in ESO? Do players and guilds run events, including RP events? Is there a lot of RP interaction? I couldn't tell in the time I was playing, due to the other issues I raised occupying my attention.
All the guilds I've been in seem to try their best to have weekly pvp events, and grouping up for dungeon runs.
As for RP events, I suppose it depends on which faction you're in, and also what kind of roleplay you're into. I'm aware of a fair amount of vampire/werewolf roleplay guilds, for example, that host events amongst their group members. Also, if you're on Aldmeri Dominion, you could look up Blue Skooma. They're a roleplay trading guild that hosts a lot of weekly events, including an open air auction every Saturday, and from what I hear it's always a fun time. I'm not a member, but the auctions are available to everyone and it gets pretty bustling.
Comments
Well thought out post with substantial arguments as to why you dislike Zenimax over other companies.
What gives me faith in the game is that the devs are so open about what they are doing and what their intentions are.
For example their intention with the veteran system was to give people group content for post lvl 50 but players kept on soloing and many ran into a wall so only the lucky ones with the right builds could have fun and many many stopped playing the vet content. So they changed it to be soloable and left group content for Craglorn.
There is a big imbalance between stamina and magicka builds. They went one step last big patch and made medium armor give a lot more bonus to medium abilities and next big patch there will be big changes to the armor sets so stamina builds can benefit from them too.
PvP has become awesome if you go to one of the active servers. Many servers are only farm grounds where one faction control it all but a few are contented and pvp there is utterly fun now. It really is DaoC2 with realm pride and huge battles raging everywhere.
They have also worked hard to balance the NB and Templar classes and nerf sorcs and DKs. But they have been careful not to overnerf either.
Vampires are pretty balanced now. They are fairly rare in pvp atm because everyone use silver arrows or fire on them if they find them. Mostly it is only stealthers that become vampires these days, and for stealth builds it is still useful because vampires are so good at sneaking.
Werewolfs are still a joke and they have admitted it. They initially plan to make the ultimate cost less and the duration longer but it wont matter since the wolf form is far weaker than your normal form and the weakness affect your human form while the advantages does not.
They have promised TONS of stuff but most of it is still in early development stage. Next patch will give you armor dyes, guild emblems and world stores for guilds that everyone can access and it will change the PvP areas so you no longer really can have the passive farm realms. PvP is going to be VERY hectic by then.
Atm once you hit max level there are 3 things to do. Trials which is a form of speedrun raids, veteran dungeons or PvP. Only the PvP allows you to solo and I don't recommend it.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."
Well said post. Regarding both Carbine and Zenimax, i love how open they are to community feedback. I hope more Devs start to embrace this instead of just alienating their population until the game just dies.
As for ESO, they changed a lot of system to account for the community feedback including
1) Tutorial Area
2) Campaigns and how they work
3) Veteran system
This does give me faith in the game and believe that it may recover since there are already tons of people who are interested in the game.
Look at the post above. This is how you say why you don't like or like a game/devs/company.
Still the same, just look for another MMO.
"Truth? Who cares about the truth? As long as we can say it, that's all that counts" - bcbully
Game is kind of boring.
Takes about 30-36 hours play to max out and get fully crafted gold sets. End game is easy.
Leaves you with PvP... which is kind of dull in this game.
Good for a month or so of entertainment... that is about it.
I've been playing since launch. I think they've done a great job cleaning up bots, spammers, etc. I'm still in my 40's but see one or two folks in each dungeon I visit. Nothing like my experience at launch when everyone was leveling up. I've encountered very minor bugs and most can be bypassed by logging off. Haven't tried pvp yet.
With that said, I also feel the game is a bit bland. I see an endless road of quests to do and frankly, they start blending together. I've been a very slow leveler yet I'm getting a bit tired of the game. It is feeling like a chore. I'm going to keep playing however not sure this will be a long term game for me. I just don't feel that wow factor and desire to log in long, long hours.
They need more to break up the questing, but other MMOs shows the mistakes you can make once you go down that route. If put in pvp scenarios what do you think will happen to keep play? If you put in anything that gives half decent xp, what do you think will happen to questing?
Cyrodiil should be where players get from V1 to V5, and it should be mostly without quests. Then questing in a non faction region to get to V10. Then back to Cyrodiil.
Questing is the slowest way to level.
Grind seems to work best from about 20-vr12.
Vr1-12 in craglorn takes 12-15 hours.
except all they would then have to do is download the addon that shows all the skyshards and then do a run through of each area.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
...and get a list from somewhere of the quests and public dungeon group events that give you a skill point. It's not only the main zone story quest lines that give you those skill points although you can count on those giving you one. (For example: the Welcome to Cyrodiil tutorial quests that you can do @ level 10 and takes about 10 minutes, gives you 2 skill poits...at a point in the game when you're really starved for skill points - well-worth doing that one.)
As far as I know that list doesn't exist yet.
But... funny that phantomghost's method is being criticized for leaving skill points behind when his previous post said the game is kind of boring at the same time he's saying it takes only about 36 hours to max a character... hmmm... I wonder who's to blame for the boredom
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
When I said i had "time", i meant virtual time, i got no RL "time" for you.
I use to love fishing in EQ1 and making darts for the monks.
I really want to fish again and its between ESO and FFIV. ESO looked very interesting with the little I dabbled in it, but I have read its bugged atm.
FFIV has fishing and housing...decisions decisions.
ESO is a game that is still being finished, for the most part, in time i think it will improve a lot, FFXIV on the other hand is good now, so it depends on how patient you are, however, an investment for the future perhaps, but Amazon is currently selling ESO for £11, its a tempting price
Not sure where the highlighted part comes in but perhaps that's your issue?
In any case as Iselin has been mentioned, all someone would have to do is make a list of the quests that give skill points and run their guild through. Guilds have done more for less.
But it seems to me that you take it personally that players would do such a thing?
The only time circumventing the intended game play by substituting an alternate method of game play (such as grinding) is an issue is if the person leveling through other means gets there and complains and cries that "the game was boring". Otherwise, if they don't want to quest, they prefer grinding and perhaps doing the few quests that give them skill points, then I don't see what the issue is. Unless of course there are tears.
Additionally, Zenimax will be adding more chances for skill points in future content so perhaps that is a way to go.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I doubt you will get loads of new skyshards/skill points. Look at craglorn only 4 skill points added to the game with that
Any graphical, audio, or gameplay restrictions not seen in other mmos but found in FFXIV can be blamed on one thing.
PS3
I was still curious about a list of quests with skillpoints so I kept rooting around and found a list of many (but not all) quests that give you a skill point - 78 of them. It's at Esohead. You can filter quests by different criteria and one of them (tick box at the bottom) is skill point reward.
It still doesn't have the quickie 2-skillpoint Cyrodiil siege equipment use tutorial or the last quest in the Mage's Guild line which can also give you 2 depending on your choice of endings.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I was referring to one of their recent interviews where they indicated that they were going to add new options for new skill points. I think it was one of the recent interviews where they talk about changing the vet system.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
You are basing your decision to play a MMO on fishing and housing!? Ok I know we all look for different things, if housing is that important go FFIV.
Others have nailed it, but I'll weigh in with my opinions too. I will answer from my personal experience, having played from the beta weekends to now. Easy answers first.
1) Bots and Gold Sellers:
Gone. Haven't seen any in several months, at least in the areas I am in - none running around, not in zone chat, no whispers, not even any mails. I honestly don't know how they're suppressing them so well, I expect at least a few spams once in a while even in well established mmos...
2) Public Dungeons:
Zenimax instituted a timer on loot drops from bosses (in part of their initiative to combat botting), and it effectively nullified boss farming. You can go through dungeons and not have any problems now.
4) Vampires OP in pvp:
Fixed back in May. It was a problem with stacking ultimate cost reduction gear, combined with vampire's ability cost reduction from stage 4 - making vampires a Bat Swarm ultimate tossin', health absorbing machine; they could use another bat swarm before the first one expired. Bonus points for being a DK and recovering a large portion of their resources every time they activated an ultimate.
They heavily reduced the cost reduction from vampire stage increases, and prevented Bat Swarm stacking on itself. There was much complaining afterward that vampires were actually a little too weak.
3) Single player game feeling:
Short answer: Yes, but it opens up as you get into the VR.
Long answer:
All their "overland" content has been designed for solo play difficulty, so that feeling is still there. There are the instanced group dungeons, world bosses, and public dungeons, but in general, the game does feel very solo-focused from levels 1-50. Also, since you don't get xp from monsters too far under your level, it's easy to get out of step with your friends when leveling and get no reward for joining them if they're a zone behind you.
In VR post-50 content though, all monsters give xp (everything is still considered lvl 50, you can even still get xp from monsters in the Coldharbour lvl 45-50 zone at vr12), so no matter what zone you're up to, you can still join your other VR friends and get xp for all combat, which leads (in my experience, at least), to much more grouping and hopping around zones to help out one another. Hitting VR1 also grants access to Craglorn, a complete zone designed around group play. It's quite common to group up and grind xp in Craglorn, in addition to running the 12-player oriented "Trials", ESO's spin on raid content.
short answer is no, its not worth coming back.
the reason for this is that the subscription fee is not worth the playing this game. Its essentially a single player game because of the phasing. Even trying to group up with friends causes issues with quests. On top of this the cash grabbing part with imperiels and other pay gate barriers make you realize that your subscription fee isn't sufficient to have access to the game. On top of all the above issues, the biggest is the dumb down combat system where you only use like 5 buttons to play the game...seriously...very consolized game.
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The game is dead not, this game is good we make it and Romania Tv give it 5 goat heads, this is good rating for game.
"the reason for this is that the subscription fee is not worth the playing this game"
You are entitled to that opinion but it's only an opinion. I for one feel the sub fee is worth it. Keeps out all the riff raff F2Pers.
"Its essentially a single player game because of the phasing. Even trying to group up with friends causes issues with quests. "
I quest with groups from my guild every single day. Rarely a phasing issue. If there is a phasing issue.. there's a good reason for it. You need to understand why phasing exists to begin with before complaining about it.
"On top of this the cash grabbing part with imperiels and other pay gate barriers make you realize that your subscription fee isn't sufficient to have access to the game."
I can see why people are bothered by this but in the whole grand scheme of things... it doesn't affect gameplay or your ability to have fun. People are bothered by this more on principle than anything else. I say.. get over it... water under the bridge.
"On top of all the above issues, the biggest is the dumb down combat system where you only use like 5 buttons to play the game...seriously...very consolized game."
What does the number of buttons have to do with the combat system? You actually get 6 buttons if you count the ultimate. You think having 20 clickable skills at the bottom of your screen makes for a better combat system? If so.. why? With weapon swapping, you get 10 active combat skills plus 2 ultimates. Add in all the gear options, multitude of passives and skill trees and you have A LOT of build options. IDK.. I love the combat. I'm a Vet 4 Sorc and love the PvP combat.
Anyway.. sorry you don't like the game. I hope people give it a try. The price has come down and you get your first month free.. so I think it's worth a try for anyone.
I came back and read the many additional comments. Thanks to everyone for (mostly) thoughtful and honest answers.
I did want to follow up on what Bleakraven mentions above - community. Despite having a "single player" feel, players through their own efforts can create content with each other. I recall, for example, some of the player-run events in Lord of the Rings Online.
How is community now in ESO? Do players and guilds run events, including RP events? Is there a lot of RP interaction? I couldn't tell in the time I was playing, due to the other issues I raised occupying my attention.
All the guilds I've been in seem to try their best to have weekly pvp events, and grouping up for dungeon runs.
As for RP events, I suppose it depends on which faction you're in, and also what kind of roleplay you're into. I'm aware of a fair amount of vampire/werewolf roleplay guilds, for example, that host events amongst their group members. Also, if you're on Aldmeri Dominion, you could look up Blue Skooma. They're a roleplay trading guild that hosts a lot of weekly events, including an open air auction every Saturday, and from what I hear it's always a fun time. I'm not a member, but the auctions are available to everyone and it gets pretty bustling.