Elder Scrolls Online

Homestead update patch note.

They reordered some of the skill lines abilities…again…turned frost destruction staff into a tanking weapon…and buffed the already overpowered Sorcerers (the amount of sorcerer in starting zones was already crazy).

edit: nice table with the houses available.

Actually stam builds are much stronger in PvP so mag characters needed a little boost.

So played some more ESO over the past few days and of course started thinking about getting more…

I got base ESO before Gold Ed and annoyingly there seems to be no upgrade path to that version without starting over. So I'm looking at either ESO+ or buying a bunch of coins and purchasing the DLC that way.

Reading up on things and thinking long term (I play games on and off over years), it would seem paying $80 for 11,000 coins might be better than a 6 month sub for $75 with 9,000 coins - mainly because ESO+ rents you the DLC and you'll lose access to them if/when your sub lapses so I'd still need to buy them anyway to retain access. Also despite early marketing it seems the number and quality of DLC per year seems to have dropped off meaning getting them automatically with an ESO+ sub is less of an incentive.

MW will be extra so no benefit to ESO+ there either.

You get some other bene's with ESO+ but except for the 10% XP bonus the crafting, dying and house stuff doesn't interest me at all.


So what are people's opinions - Are the DLC worth it, should I just keep playing vanilla? And considering I'm somewhat casual player should I skip ESO+ and buy the DLC outright?


Cheers

Complicated (thanks ZoS).

Some things to consider.

You get crowns even with a subscription, so you can buy the DLC with the crowns you get from your subscriptions outright anyway if you don't spend all your crowns on other stuff. If you think you want may want to own all DLC outright, but aren't sure til you try them, then sub may be the way to go, after you are done with the base game, and you want to keep going.

The subscription offers an unlimited crafting bag which is a godsend since this game has many more items than you can carry on mules and bank. And they've added a bunch more items with the Housing crafting.

If you don't think you will be investing much in the game, and just play through the areas once on one kind of character "quickly", then I'd just sub, and play through the areas, finish and cancel.

If you think you will be playing on again and off again casually, with no crafting, with no need to make money in game, then just buying all the DLC up front would be best and not subbing.

So the crafting bag holds all the material stuff that ends up filling up inventory if you collect them - skins, runes, metals etc?

Originally Posted by KaosWarMonk
So the crafting bag holds all the material stuff that ends up filling up inventory if you collect them - skins, runes, metals etc?

YES!!!!!!

The sub is worth it just for it. Loot, loot, loot everything!!!

It's account wide too.

Downside of the sub, you need to plan that you'll play that long. My metric is $1/hour, so it's not that hard to achieve sub-price/month with a MMO when I play about 20 hours per weeks.

Originally Posted by Toff
You can certainly solo as a werewolf but you will only get to be one for shortish periods of time. I tried it and you need to keep the werewolf ultimate ability slotted to be able to transform and I preferred having other ultimates in its place so ended up getting cured by a priest. There are a few werewolf rp guilds out there that will give you a bite for free. Do not pay for one. Make sure you play past the starting area. I thought the quests get better the further along you get. PvP is completely optional tho there are 3 good skills in the pvp skill line you may want. I pvped only long enough to get them. Raiding is also completely optional as better gear really doesn't drop from them. Its a good solo game. I think the graphics are quite good but I've seen what you are used to in Skyrim so not as good as that. I haven't look to see if there are any graphic improvement mods out there. If you need some starting money or any help, stick me on your friends list @Lythandra-ESO tho I haven't been on alot lately.

Also be aware that areas do not need to be done in any certain order anymore. You can play for quite a while without ESO+ (I play without ESO+ but I did buy the Gold Edition) and get it for the DLCs much later if you wish.

Many thanks for the suggestions and information. PVP I have to avoid. Mainly because I am not one of those who can take it impersonally. So my blood and temper and stress skyrocket the few times I tried - to the point my temples would throb and my hands would shake. I avoid it like the plague. The only time I ever enjoyed it was a few times in Dark Age of Camelot doing big group runs. Raiding I can only do with a large group of close friends and the last time I had that in a game was EQ1 and WoW. I just don't have the time to do it now.

Rest sounds great though and I have the game up and running. I admit I have a very hard time getting past the ugly characters simply because I am so used to Skyrim and FO4 now. My screenshots (minus the DOF) is how I see and play my game and the graphics are amazing there. I have gotten rather spoiled when it comes to customizing the looks of my character. Still I have something passable now at least.

There are guilds that do PvP with large groups which is what I prefer too for the social aspects, rather than solo ganking (or dueling). But the lag can be pretty bad at times with the large scale battles, and when I die to lag I get REALLY pissed off, and so I haven't been playing PvP for the last month or so.

Well I've up'd for 6 months, will go easy in the crown coins to keep enough up my sleeve to get the DLC at the end.

In the end I decided that I've played the game enough over the last 16 months to warrant forking out a bit more dough.

One last newb question… Are purchased mounts account wide or character specific?


Thanks

Account wide.

Originally Posted by KaosWarMonk
One last newb question… Are purchased mounts account wide or character specific?

Every cosmetic (mounts, costumes, pets, hair, hats, etc) bought in the store are account wide. They can all be enabled in the collection panel once in-game.

Is there a way to make other online players invisible to your character? Are there areas that are online-player scarce? Is there one dominion that is much less populated than the others, etc? You get my drift. I'm antisocial

It used to be that the Cadwell silver and gold alliance areas were extremely depopulated, but ZoS fixed that with One Tamriel: removed travel restrictions, continent wide treasure maps, surveys, and level-scaled enemies and set items unique for each zone. I am sorry to say that the anti-social will have a hard time of it.

Play anti-social then. Like, very early in the morning (of your server's time zone) or around noon. Never after 10:00 a.m. on weekends. Never on holidays (though you might miss some fun stuff).
As for zones, I hardly met anyone while playing the Wrothgar content (as opposed to the Thieves Guild or Brotherhood content), perhaps because it's the oldest DLC.
And if you dare to visit Cyrodiil for the PvE content, make sure to pick a (guest) campaign where your side holds the majority of flags. While you might run into other players, you at least won't have to look constantly over you shoulder.

Also, the addon site: http://www.esoui.com/addons.php

Grab Lorebooks and Skyshards for sure to get started. Theres tons more great ones which you will grab as you need them. Probably my favorite is Destinations.

The addon manager is called Minion and works great.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Is there a way to make other online players invisible to your character? Are there areas that are online-player scarce?

Main zone cities always have people, as does Dolmen events and area near festivities quest givers (when there are a festival going). By default you don't see people's nameplate though, so most just looks like NPCs running around. Once out in the wilderness there isn't necessarily a lots of people. Zones are pretty large and there are many of them.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Is there one dominion that is much less populated than the others, etc?

There is a single Dominion, the others are a Covenant and a Pack . Which one you choose isn't that important in term of player population, with One Tamriel you can travel pretty much anywhere once you leave the Wailing Prison (tutorial area).

See this map to find how zone main cities connect to each others (exclude DLCs). You need to talk to Navigator/Bowstain NPCs, if the image wasn't clear enough.

Originally Posted by Toff
Also, the addon site: http://www.esoui.com/addons.php

Grab Lorebooks and Skyshards for sure to get started. Theres tons more great ones which you will grab as you need them. Probably my favorite is Destinations.

The addon manager is called Minion and works great.

Ya, I use Wykkyd Full Immersion, a UI mod to basically clear the screen… Nice.

I started playing this Friday. Started with a Breton Nightblade for a few levels then went back and started a High Elf Templar as I want to play a mage. I'm taking destruction staff and using the fire/sun tree for the most part. This reminds me mostly of Path of Exile. You've got really, really basic quests/crafting with tons of mats/simple battles that typically last 10 seconds or less/boss monster fights/etc.

I don't really see enough here to keep me playing very long, but it is a one time payment for a game that I can run occasionally over the years. Good enough. I did all of the beginning zone after the tutorial, but I haven't combed over every inch. Is there a reason to do so? I've moved to the next zone, but assume I can fast travel back if necessary.

The big downer is inventory/bank limits. I'm a pack rat so I fill everything up and have been out of space since level two. Poor design in my opinion. If your game is full of loot, don't put limits on inventory. I know there are ways around this, but 120 items till you have to upgrade? Silly.

You can buy a horse and upgrade the load limit on a daily basis.

Please tell me that's sarcasm, Hidden. Dailies to increase packmule carryweight. Fascinating.