Can I get some opinions on it? It's free on ps plus along with Skyrim so I was thinking about either checking it out or playing Skyrim for the 100th time.
Elder scrolls online
Can I get some opinions on it? It's free on ps plus along with Skyrim so I was thinking about either checking it out or playing Skyrim for the 100th time.
The worst combat to ever grace the genre, moronic classes that serve literally zero purpose and should have been made into skill lines instead. But it is honestly pretty okay and even fun if you can stomach those two points above, but they require iron guts to stomach. No reason not to try in any case, outside of not wanting to download 50+gb or so.
As someone who loves Elder Scroll, I enjoyed ESO for a while. It was fun seeing characters I know or places I only heard about. Some of the quest lines are decent too. But god damn the combat and character building are so terrible I couldn't stomach it anymore.
It's managed poorly from a business point of view.
Decent single player experience.
Shit for brains moderation relative to TOS.
I enjoyed the combat and design of it all, but i can see how some others would differ.
Worth it if you want, other wise it's not.
>playing Skyrim for the 100th time
brainrot on full display
I loved skyrim when it came out. Tried to replay last year, added some mods even, fricking boring game. Id honestly rather fly around and nuke seyda neen or poison apple the imperial city for the millionth time.
Paid "chapters", paid DLC, paid cosmetics, paid subscription, paid lootboxes, paid everything. And the combat is horrendous, and so is their privacy policy. Do not.
>Endless progression means the game is heavily gatekept behind a 5k hour playtime wall
>Combat involves the use of an addon that lets you animation cancle without thinking about it
>PvPgays think they're gods but all they do is google the flavor of the month build
Its not the worst mmo out there, like how Xiv is filled with a community of literal 3rd party tool abusing cheaters....but its still pretty bad. Its SWTOR for eldergays.
>SWTOR for eldergays
I enjoy both series, I wouldn't really make that comparison as SWTOR atleast has dialogue options
Don't.
I've got a few thousand hours.
Things ESO Does well (for a MMORPG):
>Story
Voice acted for the most part. They do offer you some limited choices that changes the outcome of that specific quest, but doesn't really impact anything else. But for a MMORPG, its quite fun.
>World Building
Its the ES universe, of course its good. They had most of their work done for them.
>Immersion
First person, different guilds with daily quests. Like you can join the dark brotherhood and go around assassinating people. Or join the thieves guild and perform heists against their houses. You can steal a lot of things in towns, kill random NPcs, etc. You can really make it "close" to a single player experience if you want. Not perfect, but close.
>Skill system
This is a pro and a con. You can do some crazy builds with some of the freedom of skill choices. Problem is that there's a lot of useless stuff (a lot of class abilities are the same ability with a different skin) and balance usually pushes people into the least fun builds.
Things ESO does poorly
>Combat
Light attack weaving. All the unintended skill floor shit. It makes the combat feel sooo bad. Nothing feels like it has any substance. So unsatisfying.
>"MMORPG" Endgame
Things like instanced PvE. Because the combat feels like shit, these end up feeling like shit
>PvP
Some of the worse PvP i've ever seen in a MMORPG. Basically two people running around with builds that took 300 hours of grinding spamming a rotation over and over. Because of the combat, there's pretty much no reactionary component to the PvP. You just spam one rotation when in range, spam another when healing/running. There's no cast times. No animations (because of animation cancelling). To give you an idea, they've pretty much not touched the endgame in like 7 or 8 years. Its completely devoid of players when there's no a seasonal event going on.
>Light attack weaving. All the unintended skill floor shit. It makes the combat feel sooo bad. Nothing feels like it has any substance. So unsatisfying.
It really is the single worst thing about it. If they removed this stupid mechanic they could put a bit more effort into the bosses instead of so much attention being wasted on watching an addon countdown when to cast again.
Yeah LA weaving is bad, but people do bring up a good point when this is discussed. There's not a lot of substance to the combat without LA weaving. The game has progressed so far with relying upon LA weaving, they would need to do a complete rework of a lot of gearing systems and the overall combat. Sadly this will never happen. I think the reasons are two fold.
1. Zenimax "Risk Adverse" - They see no reason in putting a ton of resources into this when there's no guarantee of gaining money. Reworking the combat wont sell a new chapter. It wont sell more copies. Its a theory that maybe people will come back. But its a catch 20. What if the rework/new combat feels even worse? Then they lose both old and new customers. Simply isn't worth the risk for them unless the game is on the verge of death.
2. Engine issues. I think the issue is absolute shit to work with from a developer size. Just looking at the way it handles...everything. Animations, movement, graphics, etc. Its all shoddy. Its no surprise that the devs don't plan on using it for anything else (like that upcoming mmo or mmo lite game they're workin on). Just look at how little they've done big innovations with the game. Like take a game like Gw2. Despite its flaws, they've done a lot of innovation with the game that wasn't mean to be. Mega servers, mounts, gliding, boats. The engine wasn't designed with those in mind, they've confirmed this. But they were able to implement them. ESO? All ESO has done that was that big was what, instead of dolmen world events there were dragons? Instead of dragons a harrow storm? Things that were not that big and borderline reskins in some instances? They've barely done anything with the game itself from an innovation standpoint. I suspect that's why they can't change the combat. The engine is a dumpster fire.
>World Building
>Its the ES universe, of course its good.
They make the First Era feel way to civilized and like 2,000 years of history and equal rights already occured. What should be a terrifying and archaic world not close to looking like the 3E or 4E becomes the safest and easiest and most bland experience. The idea of an ESO might have been better executed in the pre-WoW era.
The period in which ESO takes place is described in the books as so obscure and decadent that a feeling of anti-intellectualism made itself dominant. Instead the developers chose to portray Tamriel as something akin to Disneyland. It's one of the most disappointing aspects of the game.
Almost like how the game is developed and documented from a business perspective.
>Lady Estre and the GIGACHADS of Shimmerenne were right
>they also transformed prince Naemon into a Ogrim to refer people against equality as mutts
frick...
bro, you picked the Aldmeri Dominion so you had it coming
>Some of the worse PvP i've ever seen in a MMORPG.
IMO every MMORPG has the worst PVP compared to other genres. And other MMORPGs like New World, PoE, Black Desert, and KRMMORPGs are way worse. Quitted ESO once for the same reason just to play DBO and then New World just to come back with a pale face about it, and BDO was the biggest offender for the same reason outside animation cancelling but with the addition of the minmax meta complications you often find on PVE endgame (not to mention the paid rng PEN upgrades). Ironically BDO made me remember I did I quit Elsword in 2014, but in the worst painful avenue, which was also similar to B&S back then.
ESO PVP spam has only one big issue, which is Dragonknight being broken and asking for a big nerf, they just stun you with Petrify and spam Molten Whip on you until you die. Basically that. Also the healball groups, but ZOS is already buffing Meatbag Catapults next patch (altho it would be more effective the community suggested Heal-to-Damage Convertion Ultimate skill).
I have around 800 hours, and it was my introduction to the genre. The solo content is actually really fun, and the combat, at least in terms of PvE, is fine to serviceable. Where the game falls apart is in its PvP aspect. The meta is in a constantly broken state, and I am of the belief that practically no-one enjoys it. The only reason people play PvP to begin with is that the game gives you a large sum of XP for doing daily Battlegrounds quests.
I think that people like to shit on ESO's combat because it is somewhat unconventional when compared to other titles in the genre, but all of that is largely subjective. The only way to know if you like the game is to try it for yourself.
>I think that people like to shit on ESO's combat because it is somewhat unconventional when compared to other titles in the genre, but all of that is largely subjective
I mean there's plenty of reasons why its bad. Sure people like it, doesn't meant its not poorly designed.
>Light Attack Weaving/Animation Cancelling
This is the major offender right here. The first major clue on why this shows that the combat is bad is because it was never intended. Yet it is a huge part of the endgame. And much of the serious endgame requires knowledge of how to do it effectively. When a huge portion of your games hardcore gameplay and endgame relies upon an unintended bug to make the combat "interesting". That's a huge problem.
This also leads into issues with PvP. That's a major reason why it is dead and the "meta is always broken". A PvP meta just stay broken to the point where the entire game style is dead for almost 10 years unless there's a major reason behind the scenes. And the simple answer is its the combat. Animation cancelling does not go well for PvP. It rarely does, especially in MMORPGs. Many players do not like staring at a combat log or post death report to figure out what even happened during the fight. Because of the games combat design, PvP is very low on reactionary gameplay styles. You don't really "react" to what the enemy player is doing. You basically spam your rotation while they spam theirs and see who makes a mistake first. Or who is more meta.
>Overland
They make it easy so people aren't forced to run meta builds which highlight all the flaws in the game and make it feel like shit
>Endgame pop
Vet trials, dungeons, and PvP populations are insanely low. Compared to other games in the genre. Most people play ESO for the story and singleplayer because they're not forced into bad combat.
This game's combat isn't anything new. Its basically Gw2 + WoW.
Agreed. That was a very well written analysis on the combat. The combat is poorly constructed and is in need of being totally reworked.
An interesting thing to note is ZOS's business model when it comes to adding new classes. Necro was stupidly broken at release. I watched lvl 6 necros dispatch entire units of mobs before my lvl50 cp40 DK could even draw his blade. Now look at it. The necromancer has been nerfed into near irrelevancy. I'd wager that the Arcanist will share the same fate. This is obviously intentional on ZOS's part. Release a new class in a broken, OP state to sell copies of the expansion, then slowly apply nerfs to the class with each patch to balance it with the meta. Not that there's anything wrong with making money, it just feels cheap and contrived.
PvE would be good if the game was more difficult - there's virtually no challenge in the overland content. Except for world bosses and some dungeons you can easily kill twenty enemies at once. PvP has been ignored by the developer and it's in a sorry state right now. It doesn't help that ESO's combat is awful and many PvP zones, like the Imperial City, are all but abandoned. If you like grinding and exploring, specially if you really enjoy adventuring in Tamriel, ESO can be fun. The vanilla content (quests, places, people) is a mixed bag, but the DLCs and expansions are better.
Stay away. You pay for the dlc, you pay for the dungeons on that dlc separately, you pay a subscription to have things like storage space. The dlcs have very powerful items that are afterwards nerfed , they do that so people will buy their dogshit " chapters ". The combat is horrendous, it is extremely laggy and unresponsive. The character class system is a total shit-storm, do not expect Elder Scrolls type of freedom. This game is a shitty mmo with an Elder Scrolls paint job slapped on it.
The most shitty issue with ESO is the monetization of the game. Holy fricking shit it's so bad. I don't mind paying for DLC, but what fricking moron made it so that I have to pay for base game again if I want to buy all of the previous DLCs. The store is horrendous, what is it, $30+ for a fricking staff skin? The options to buy their premium currency are even more moronic making you pay usually more than once because the options they have don't line up with the prices in the store. Forcing people to have normal storage space by buying a sub is fricked, too. Whoever was in charge of that shit needs to be shot.
>Forcing people to have normal storage space by buying a sub is fricked, too.
>get 500 slots per guild via guild chaining without paying a single penny
>You pay for the dlc, you pay for the dungeons on that dlc separately, you pay a subscription to have things like storage space.
the sub also gives access to all DLC dungeons and zones too, tho
cool
Garbage. They talked a whole bunch about how you can play whatever class in whatever role but that is clearly bullshit. The classes and combat are absolutely atrocious
>F2P
>Cosmetic shop
All modern MMOs are these two things
You either play them to collect because you're a soulless homosexual or you play them once for the "Story" and never touch it again
If you want to play something fun, play a REAL game not something that's marketed as an MMO when in reality is just a singleplayer game made to make money off you for cosmetics.
it's very ok, comfy if you enjoy things like farming materials and making money. Before I quit doing content I would just spend time flipping items in guild stores, hoarding specific materials and selling high
If I didn't have to subscribe for their stupid loot bag I would think it's comfy too but everything about it just feels like a major chore
not sure what you mean as they specifically make the game a chore WITHOUT the crafting bag, if you want to min/max gold you do need it it's incredibly nice to have
>he doesn't know about guild chaining
I sure don't, mind explaining?
I already looked it up unsuccessfully.
Not that anon, but:
You make a guild and other 9 friends (or 9 accounts you grab from this giveaway) join it, which then unlocks the guild bank with +500 slots.
Since each account can only make one guild and join up to 5 guilds, you can have the other friends/accounts to make their own guilds and both you and the remaining friends/accounts join them, providing you and the others more 500 guild bank slots per guild created. This method is called "guild chain".
It's a grind. The gameplay and the writing is shit l. Pvp in cyro could be fun if it wasn't for the lagging and the mindset of grinding for AP as much as anything else. I hate the concept of armor sets and everytime I go to a dungeon I feel like I'm being held captive and all I want to do is get out.
My favorite thing about the game is shit like fish and collecting items for my house that no one visits unless I invite them. Pretty sure the player base is like most mmos where online friendships become awkward and everytime someone friends me it becomes apparent they are lonely and mentally ill and they want to stand around my house shield bashing all day. It takes like half a year to get your mount up to speed because they really want you to pay money for it instead. Most mounts and items for sake hardly seem elder scrolls inspired. I could talk shit forever but I've had some good times.
Dr2mr
>50+gb or so.
More like 120 after installing the launcher.
>It's a grind
It's the least grindy MMO that I ever played. It even made stay away from every single Korean MMO. Now I only play OSRS, PSO2NGS, XIV and often come back to ESO.
>grinding AP
The only time I grinded AP for real was when I raced to be #1 at Blackreach ladderboards to become Emperor.
It seems like most groups are there to grind AP. Can't tell you how sick I am of being dragged to a delve every fricking hour. I ended up playing solo all the time so I had to be a tank which was boring as frick. Tried going NB but it makes me want to rip my hair out. Gameplay is so fricking atrocious honestly.
I swear every time I start the game up again it's an entirely new player base in cyrodil. First thing you'll notice is players still rage quit due to lag every day like clockwork
>Tried going NB but it makes me want to rip my hair out.
That's the main problem here. NBs are the edgy noob bait, try offtank Sorc or DK, Tank or Healer Warden, or any role of Necro, Templar or Arcanist.
Nightblade is only good for Ganking, nothing else. Unless you make use of Minor and Major Cowardice debuffs and similar gear sets to make a "dick shrinker" tank build to troll 1V1'ers and 1VX'ers.
>First thing you'll notice is players still rage quit due to lag every day like clockwork
If they type odd characters like "ç", "ö", "¿" or vodka characters a single time, ignore their angry rants. Their internet is below OCE tier, they basically insist on play an online game with their 0.6mbps internet speed provided by their cheap ISP. Most of these 3rd worlders use their phone's hotspot for their internet, so expect their ping to go above 300.
>Sorc or DK, Tank or Healer Warden,
Yawn, been there done that
Anyway my point is that playing with groups of grinding homosexuals is boring, but so is being tanky and playing by yourself. The game has potential, it's just not fun no matter what class you pick. Especially if you want it to feel like the elderscrolls. Bugfs last like 3 seconds. That's why NB isn't fun. Not because I don't want to gank.
Depending on your playstyle and gear, you can honestly solo most open world content + normal dungeons with a companion. There may be some DLC dungeons you can't. But yeah you don't have to play in a group. There's a lot of solo builds out there and a lot of content you can do with them + with companion.
Game has issues and I think its abysmal on many levels. To be clear. But yeah just want to make it clear that you can sorta lean into what you want. Also what does bugfs mean?
>Depending on your playstyle and gear, you can honestly solo most open world content
ESO's open world content is the easiest most brain dead shit I've ever experienced in a video game. You can solo all of it regardless of build.
daggerfall covenant has the best storyline it was easily the most engaging and the characters were generally likeable.
yeah i bet it's pretty soulless and sucks but i am going into it knowing that. i played free trial short time, it was fine. got it on epic, assuming the "base game" is pretty nerfed and small. i'll play through whatever is available and drop it, frick paying them for moar
Base game actually has a fairly sizable chunk of content. The entire vanilla game + morrowind.
The free copy giveaway on Epic Games is yours to keep forever. Also Morrowind and Imperial City DLCs are now free.
I've also never spent a single additional cent and bought all the zone DLCs from players selling Crowns.
Elder Scrolls does its main form of Pay2Win through its scheduled DLC launches. Every 3(?) months (If i remember correctly) it launches a new DLC with a bit of content and X amount of new skills. The skills are always heavily influenced by power creep, making similar skills obsolete. You cannot compete with players using the new skills if you dont have the most recent DLC.
>The skills are always heavily influenced by power creep, making similar skills obsolete. You cannot compete with players using the new skills if you dont have the most recent DLC.
>gets dabbed on by a DK spamming Whip
did you even pay the game at all?
>new skills
if you're talking about DLC item sets, that depends: some like Turning Tide are pretty meta but other sets like Yolnakriin, Cyrodiil's Crest, Ebon, Nunatak, Tormentor, Duneripper, Lord Warden etc don't get behind. The difference is pretty shallow to be called that much of a power creep.
Also, on the DPS side, people still use Mother's Sorrow since the game's release and Relequen since Summerset came out.
PVP wise, everything falls down to Cyrodiil sets without question, which are base game or Imperial City DLC (which is free since 2019).
New skills?
What new skills? We don't get new skills alone nor skill trees outside of a new class. And, even when talking about class, Dragonknight is still top meta and, to make things worse, they're buffing it even further next patch. It seems that you apparently didn't play the game at all.
Two things I noticed that made me no longer want to play it.
1. Costly monetization system. It is to be expected for mmos, since it's a genre that is precursor to seasons/battlepasses/time gating/FOMO, but from what I gather, but that was at least a few years ago, you would either need to be subscriber to play expansions and such or pay a lot of money to keep them for your account. Not worth it, like most mmos, imo.
2. It's pozzed/woke. Sure, they have gays and such, but it goes beyond that. It has racemixing love plots that are framed as morally good (some dunmer woman running off with an argonian slave), altmer conservatives that don't want other races on their island being the bad guys, one of the said conservative faction member turning to the other side and becoming some sort of tree woman and losing much of her memories and identity because "destiny" or some such shit. Not a fan at all, to say the least. At least with some other proper rpgs or sandbox games you side with "villains" in such situations.
Keep in mind that I got the free game key from some anon on Ganker, but he probably had that key from when the base game was not free 2 play either or something, but I guess it doesn't matter.
I have 8000+ hours in ESO, AmA
I wish I could get those hours back or turn it into money
The biggest problem with TESO is that GW2 exists and does everything it does but better.
Especially the combat Jesus fricking Christ. GW2 combat feels fluid. TESO just feels terrible. Half the skills have no indication that they have done anything.
I'm glad I checked it out during the free week instead of buying it because woo lad.
Yeah from a MMO perspective, ESO is held up HEAVILY by the TES IP. The only thing that I think ESO Does better is the RPG side of things. The questing, stuff like the ability to mix/match skill lines, and some of the RPG side of things like the housing system/companions/stealing/crime.
That's why most people play ESO as a singleplayer RPG as backwards as it sounds. Its the only thing that it does really well. Gw2 feels so much better in dungeons, raids, and pvp for endgame for the reasons you listed. On top of that there's large scale PvE content where you're playing with 30-100 other players. That's why thing that Gw2 does really well that other MMORPGs either don't have or execute it horribly. Meta events and the such for PvE. They actually try to make the "massively" in MMORPG matter again.
>GW2 exists and does everything it does but better
Except housing, tho, which is only rivaled by EQ2 (where ESO copied it and made it almost GMod tier). ESO's housing is Zenimax's main cash income besides the nasty crown crates.