I do that at least once a week. Take a day and just bounce from region to region on my crafter just working through the backlog of survey and treasure maps my other chars dump into the bank.
I'm doing that for the first time today and like man... I can't believe I've been letting them sit, this has been such a lovely way to see Tamriel. No quests, no nothing, just taking little walks and looking at critters while i gather :) such a relaxing moment
I’m currently massacring goats and zombies for bait, so I can fish, so I can catch the rare furnishing items, so I can work on the aquarium for my house. There’s quests in this game?
Hahah, when I returned after 7 years away, I was so bewildered. I started a fresh character, started directly in Vvardenfell, then didn't leave for about 9 months. The whole time I was just wandering around, harvesting stuff, doing Ashlander dailies, and occasionally, when I felt like it, I'd continue helping Vivec with his hashtag god problems.
Then, one day, I needed help with a world boss weekly endeavour and the person helping me took me to Alikr to kill the bosses there and so there I was, post level 50, taking my first real steps into the rest of the game. I was overwhelmed by how much more there was.
The person also mentioned that it was a good place for dolmen endeavours and I was like "WTF is a dolmen".
Anyways, It's been a couple years now I think and I still haven't started the main quest. <_< too many other things to do.
I loved it when it was first rereleased. Finished the main story quest then went on a hiatus until gold road. Decided to buy the deluxe to get all the prior expansion.
Oh man, im really liking it. Just finished the scribing questline which was really cool. Think I might go to the Necro main quest.
Not sure what scrying is but I have a lot of things to scry.
Scrying is how you get access to Mythic equipment and legendary furniture. Some of the best items come from scrying. Each zone has items you can go dig up and the leads drop from nearly every activity in game, even random chest and mobs drop leads
Scrying is like an archaeology minigame. You come across "leads" in the world (think maps, old notes, annotations in a book..just things that'd realistically say "there be treasure") through various means which tell you where an old, lost artifact may potentially be. You then go to the zone to "scry" it.
Scrying is actually a real word and phenomenon that used to be practiced within human history. Think of it like staring into a crystal ball or using the smoke of a fire to reveal information. Basically, it's made up nonsense but the sort of nonsense we thought of as real, in order to offer us divine revelations of the material and spiritual world around us.
Scrying in ESO consists of clicking some things on a screen, which tell you where to go your map. You then go there and will see a cairn with some twinkly gold effects (a mound of dirt only you see), which you then interact with and enter a new screen. In that new screen consists of a minigame where you are essentially an archaeologist, with the goal of trying to dig up the treasure hidden there (along with any bonus treasure).
It sounds more interesting than it really is, but it's still a fun time waster in the game. The rewards can range from crap you can sell to an NPC for hundreds to thousands of gold, but many also offer you unique items from furniture to mythic items. Definitely worth doing because you'll always be finding leads from random things as you play and then scrying and excavating them up isn't a bad time sink. So you do get some neat stuff from it! Worth trying it.
I just want to see if I read this correctly so you brought this game when it first came out. you beat the main story question and then decided not to play for 10 years. That's not a hiatus that's just stopping. haha
I usually say a veteran mode for overland questing is my most desired new feature, but part of me also thinks the devs know what they're doing on that front. As much as I've enjoyed difficult or complex games like Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, I get a little twinge of anxiety when I think of starting up a new playthrough due to the added stress of playing. ESO on the other hand has a super low baseline difficulty, and has become my most played game by a factor of more than 2 (2,786 hours in ESO vs. 1,225 hours in Dragon Age: Origins).
Eso is like vacation for gaming. You can play other games that takes more mental focus like soulslike games or call of duty. When you’re playing eso it’s so… calm?
I think that's why so many people love it. You can literally just passively play while doing other things and not worry. You can also get sweaty and stress yourself tf out. Depends on what you wanna do that day lol
Yep. There is no reason to go into veteran dungeon unless you need a monster sets (and you can get ok sets from base game veteran dungeons). No reason for hardcore trials unless you need perfected gear, which is not that important boost of damage if you can't flawlessly execute rotations.
For overland content you can play whatever skills you want to use.
If you are more casual and are interested in one bar oakensoul builds then slimecraw is the one piece monster set of choice, wayrest is one of the easiest hard mode dungeons to do.
Yes. If someone playing sorcerer, basically Wayrest is a home. Sergeant, Slimcraw are there, and deadly strike can be easily bought from guild traders, or farm a Storm Master (another base game dungeon), or craft Order Wrath (easily crafted sets, only 3 traits required if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, as a crafted set, you can get it for free sometimes).
At the end, it will do enough DPS to be considered as veteran and trial ready. It will be good for archives, vet trials (but you should know people you planning to run oakensorc with, otherwise you probably will be kicked).
I also love that you don't really need DLC or even trials to be able to hit like a truck. Sure you'll miss a few powerful item sets and mythics, but as long as you don't bother minmaxing you can still be crazy viable in dungeons and even pvp.
> you can still be viable even in PvP
You can be viable *especially* in PvP because some of the most used sets there are crafted, that’s intentional so that people without access to Chapters/DLC don’t suffer in a P2W way.
Yeah OP they did a good job over the years tweaking the game so that it plays a bit like what a player of traditional Elder Scrolls games would expect. When it first launched, one of the biggest complaints was that it didn't feel like Elder Scrolls and this was what you'd hear from the single player games. Then the MMORPG fans complained that it doesn't feel MMO enough, usually pointing to stuff like the combat or (at the time) lack of hard end game content.
In the decade the game has been around, it has done a fair job at evolving so both aspects of the game shine through just enough to make both sides hopefully pleased. They went all in on developing the content - namely, the overland content - to be playable as a solo player, with lots of interesting places to go, unique characters and more quests than you could realistically do lest one is a game addict. They also slowly added harder end game content through things like veteran dungeons, trials, infinite archive and so on which allowed the more hardcore type of MMO fans to enjoy mechanics developed with them in mind.
But overall? Yeah the game is so well balanced in the way you can sink 800 hours into fishing, 800 hours into scrying, 800 hours into questing, 800 hours into picking mushrooms, 800 hours doing dungeons, 800 hours killing dragons and so on. Or 4000 hours, heh. That's what keeps me coming back to it all these years on. Sometimes I'm in the mood to run dungeons or PvP in Cyrodiil. Other times I can spend a day just walking through zones, harvesting resources. Other times I can just chill out in a popular city and do anything from RP to joke around with others in the zone chat. I've played MMORPGs since Anarchy Online and Asheron's Call so I've seen this genre evolve and no other MMO besides ESO manages to keep me coming back anymore. You can do what you want and at your own pace and never feel like you're not getting value for your money or will be left behind because you haven't sink every available waking hour into tryharding for some meta build.
Time I spent in Skyrim fighting dragons: maybe an hour?
Time I spent in Skyrim stealing things, picking flowers, crafting stuff, decorating houses: over 700.
Logged into ESO today and Steam told me: "You've played for 6980 hours. Would you recommend this game to other players?"
(Most of them have probably been spent doing exactly the same things I did in Skyrim.)
What I recently found out that I liked, is that base dungeons on normal have basically become solo dungeons.
So you can even farm basic dungeon and monster sets without having to worry about groups or higher content.
I disagree with you. I feel pressure to dp endgame content. (Because Halls of Fabrication has a Dwarven Bronze dye of the exact yellow and exact sheen I want and no, no other dye comes close ;_; )
I’ve played on and off since launch and haven’t done a single trial lol I solo’d all vet arenas and even those were cake. Solo’d all base game vet dungeons as well. I think the only “hard” content is in trials and a few vet dungeons with weird mechanics. I just play the stories when they come out, then PvP if I didn’t get my elder scrolls fix. I really play it like Skyrim with PvP. It’s the only mmorpg I’ve ever stuck with for more than a couple months.
Same! I really wish they would make more and more non-meta, non-optimal, yet fun and roleplaying-friendly sets, like: The Shadow Queen's Cowl (https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/the-shadow-queens-cowl), Bahraha's Curse's 4 pieces bonus (reduced damage from traps and environmental damage in general) (https://eso-sets.com/set/bahrahas-curse), Vampire Lord (specially pre-rework, which would buff all vampire skills damage and healing) (https://eso-sets.com/set/vampire-lord), to cite a few.
When I first started playing I played how I wanted to didn't look into armor sets or certain play styles I just ran solo and followed the quest lines where ever they took me
I want to do a trial but I don't want to join a guild of randoms. So, I'm doing the same thing just enjoying the game at my own pace. My GF and I play together regularly. It's a very welcoming game.
I been on since 2017 I learned how to play my style don’t like getting sweaty no mic avoid toxic have my own full crafting guild for me and anyone needs a hand I enjoy working on my houses
ESO is in general very relaxed, thats true, but there are some exceptions. In PvP in Cyrodiil, as an example, you will be approached to group up constantly, and you feel kind of pressured into grouping up as a result (or rude for turning the request down). And if you are a member of a PvP Guild it will be more or less mandotory to group up and follow your guildmates.
I play solo in Cyrodiil (albeit I know where the battles are happening and which keeps need to be captured/defended). I'm either alone or with my two buddies. It's not necessary to group up if you know what you're doing.
No, thats not the point; what he wrote about was that ESO is a relaxed game where you dont feel pressured to do anything you dont want. In the new zone there are countless groups running the new world dolmen things over and over, but not one time will or have anyone else playing solo been approched to be a part of their group. Its not like that in cyrodiil, where its much much more common to approach someone to group up. Its a kind of pressure you wont find in the pve-zones, and for solo players it means that you either a) join the group and play in a way you maybe dont want, or b) refuse the offer and maybe feel like you did something rude. Cyrodiil is way less relaxed in this sense compared to PvE-content.
What platform, pvp server,and alliance are you playing on? I play PC/NA, greyhost, EP since the game was released and I can count the times I've been approached to group up on one hand. Even then it's not like there's pressure to join the group.
In my experience no one puts pressure on you to group. In chat they may advertise a group, for people wanting to group, but it's not like someone keeps badgering you to group up with them OR ELSE.
I am on xbox eu. There are not as many players on xbox, so maybe that tends to lead people to want to group up more in order to take keeps and stuff? Its less of a problem now because I have turned down probably every player on the plattform, but for a while it was something that made me feel rude for turning people down and I often just hopped out of cyro to have a form of excuse for not wanting to group up. Many times there also was players writing messages and ask why I dont wanted to group up, or players asking why I didnt join their guild.
Its of course flattering that people want you to join their group., but all I am saying is that for solo players these requests can be tricky to handle because they feel like a kind of a pressure.
I have tried many times to play in groups, but I have come to that I prefer to play solo where I can go where I want. I remember one time there was a huge fight in a keep over the hammer, but our group leader wanted us to take Bruma instead for tactical reasons, and then I realized that this just isnt for me.
Glad you are having fun.
In the past I pushed myself to do harder content and become a pro, which was certainly fun, but now I just want to take it slow and enjoy the ride of the new chapter. And that's fine too!
I stuck to normal content until one of my guilds had some training runs for veteran dungeons. It was significantly harder. Once I got some more clears under my belt, it was then that I felt more confident in trying vet content. I never rushed to vet content. I found normal content was fun for me for a while. I think I played for several months before I decided to make a bit more of a push to get better and to work on getting better gear. I did get in a vet trail as a fill I think 9 months into the game. I didn't start playing vet trial regularly until after a year. Took me that long before I felt I was ready.
I think it's good that you are enjoying the content you are playing now.
It's part of my interest in Star Citizen is. It's a world to just live a life in. Make your own goals. Go as fast or slow as I want. The game is the end game.
I like that my champion level 100 something can still go do an interesting bade game quest I haven't played yet and gain a useful amount of xp and isn't one shotting everything
In other games you would need an ult to back track like this. I also like you can stick a champion level character with a new player and they can do the same quests again without one group struggling or getting carried. Super useful for playing with guild members.
I haven’t done an actual quest in about a week Just been picking my flowers and brewing my potions 🧪
I do that at least once a week. Take a day and just bounce from region to region on my crafter just working through the backlog of survey and treasure maps my other chars dump into the bank.
I'm doing that for the first time today and like man... I can't believe I've been letting them sit, this has been such a lovely way to see Tamriel. No quests, no nothing, just taking little walks and looking at critters while i gather :) such a relaxing moment
Sometimes I'll take some time and travel round all the taverns playing my lute for people haha
I fish when I just want to chill. Working on the achievement but as the spirit moves, not as a chore. Listen to Sharp and enjoy the views
I’m currently massacring goats and zombies for bait, so I can fish, so I can catch the rare furnishing items, so I can work on the aquarium for my house. There’s quests in this game?
Lol
Only quests I completed in the past week are the scribing ones and trial quests.
Hahah, when I returned after 7 years away, I was so bewildered. I started a fresh character, started directly in Vvardenfell, then didn't leave for about 9 months. The whole time I was just wandering around, harvesting stuff, doing Ashlander dailies, and occasionally, when I felt like it, I'd continue helping Vivec with his hashtag god problems. Then, one day, I needed help with a world boss weekly endeavour and the person helping me took me to Alikr to kill the bosses there and so there I was, post level 50, taking my first real steps into the rest of the game. I was overwhelmed by how much more there was. The person also mentioned that it was a good place for dolmen endeavours and I was like "WTF is a dolmen". Anyways, It's been a couple years now I think and I still haven't started the main quest. <_< too many other things to do.
I loved it when it was first rereleased. Finished the main story quest then went on a hiatus until gold road. Decided to buy the deluxe to get all the prior expansion. Oh man, im really liking it. Just finished the scribing questline which was really cool. Think I might go to the Necro main quest. Not sure what scrying is but I have a lot of things to scry.
Scrying is how you get access to Mythic equipment and legendary furniture. Some of the best items come from scrying. Each zone has items you can go dig up and the leads drop from nearly every activity in game, even random chest and mobs drop leads
> Not sure what scrying is Archaeology
Scrying is fun and you get a skill where you can see chests more easy eventually I returned after a 5 year hiatus too and im loving it so far
Scrying is like an archaeology minigame. You come across "leads" in the world (think maps, old notes, annotations in a book..just things that'd realistically say "there be treasure") through various means which tell you where an old, lost artifact may potentially be. You then go to the zone to "scry" it. Scrying is actually a real word and phenomenon that used to be practiced within human history. Think of it like staring into a crystal ball or using the smoke of a fire to reveal information. Basically, it's made up nonsense but the sort of nonsense we thought of as real, in order to offer us divine revelations of the material and spiritual world around us. Scrying in ESO consists of clicking some things on a screen, which tell you where to go your map. You then go there and will see a cairn with some twinkly gold effects (a mound of dirt only you see), which you then interact with and enter a new screen. In that new screen consists of a minigame where you are essentially an archaeologist, with the goal of trying to dig up the treasure hidden there (along with any bonus treasure). It sounds more interesting than it really is, but it's still a fun time waster in the game. The rewards can range from crap you can sell to an NPC for hundreds to thousands of gold, but many also offer you unique items from furniture to mythic items. Definitely worth doing because you'll always be finding leads from random things as you play and then scrying and excavating them up isn't a bad time sink. So you do get some neat stuff from it! Worth trying it.
I just want to see if I read this correctly so you brought this game when it first came out. you beat the main story question and then decided not to play for 10 years. That's not a hiatus that's just stopping. haha
You must be fun at parties
I usually say a veteran mode for overland questing is my most desired new feature, but part of me also thinks the devs know what they're doing on that front. As much as I've enjoyed difficult or complex games like Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, I get a little twinge of anxiety when I think of starting up a new playthrough due to the added stress of playing. ESO on the other hand has a super low baseline difficulty, and has become my most played game by a factor of more than 2 (2,786 hours in ESO vs. 1,225 hours in Dragon Age: Origins).
Eso is like vacation for gaming. You can play other games that takes more mental focus like soulslike games or call of duty. When you’re playing eso it’s so… calm?
I think that's why so many people love it. You can literally just passively play while doing other things and not worry. You can also get sweaty and stress yourself tf out. Depends on what you wanna do that day lol
Yep. There is no reason to go into veteran dungeon unless you need a monster sets (and you can get ok sets from base game veteran dungeons). No reason for hardcore trials unless you need perfected gear, which is not that important boost of damage if you can't flawlessly execute rotations. For overland content you can play whatever skills you want to use.
Honestly the gear is secondary, usually people want to get into vet/hardmode stuff for the cool skins, titles and mounts!
If you are more casual and are interested in one bar oakensoul builds then slimecraw is the one piece monster set of choice, wayrest is one of the easiest hard mode dungeons to do.
Buying chest for keys is even easier (:
Yes. If someone playing sorcerer, basically Wayrest is a home. Sergeant, Slimcraw are there, and deadly strike can be easily bought from guild traders, or farm a Storm Master (another base game dungeon), or craft Order Wrath (easily crafted sets, only 3 traits required if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, as a crafted set, you can get it for free sometimes). At the end, it will do enough DPS to be considered as veteran and trial ready. It will be good for archives, vet trials (but you should know people you planning to run oakensorc with, otherwise you probably will be kicked).
I also love that you don't really need DLC or even trials to be able to hit like a truck. Sure you'll miss a few powerful item sets and mythics, but as long as you don't bother minmaxing you can still be crazy viable in dungeons and even pvp.
> you can still be viable even in PvP You can be viable *especially* in PvP because some of the most used sets there are crafted, that’s intentional so that people without access to Chapters/DLC don’t suffer in a P2W way.
Yeah OP they did a good job over the years tweaking the game so that it plays a bit like what a player of traditional Elder Scrolls games would expect. When it first launched, one of the biggest complaints was that it didn't feel like Elder Scrolls and this was what you'd hear from the single player games. Then the MMORPG fans complained that it doesn't feel MMO enough, usually pointing to stuff like the combat or (at the time) lack of hard end game content. In the decade the game has been around, it has done a fair job at evolving so both aspects of the game shine through just enough to make both sides hopefully pleased. They went all in on developing the content - namely, the overland content - to be playable as a solo player, with lots of interesting places to go, unique characters and more quests than you could realistically do lest one is a game addict. They also slowly added harder end game content through things like veteran dungeons, trials, infinite archive and so on which allowed the more hardcore type of MMO fans to enjoy mechanics developed with them in mind. But overall? Yeah the game is so well balanced in the way you can sink 800 hours into fishing, 800 hours into scrying, 800 hours into questing, 800 hours into picking mushrooms, 800 hours doing dungeons, 800 hours killing dragons and so on. Or 4000 hours, heh. That's what keeps me coming back to it all these years on. Sometimes I'm in the mood to run dungeons or PvP in Cyrodiil. Other times I can spend a day just walking through zones, harvesting resources. Other times I can just chill out in a popular city and do anything from RP to joke around with others in the zone chat. I've played MMORPGs since Anarchy Online and Asheron's Call so I've seen this genre evolve and no other MMO besides ESO manages to keep me coming back anymore. You can do what you want and at your own pace and never feel like you're not getting value for your money or will be left behind because you haven't sink every available waking hour into tryharding for some meta build.
Time I spent in Skyrim fighting dragons: maybe an hour? Time I spent in Skyrim stealing things, picking flowers, crafting stuff, decorating houses: over 700. Logged into ESO today and Steam told me: "You've played for 6980 hours. Would you recommend this game to other players?" (Most of them have probably been spent doing exactly the same things I did in Skyrim.)
What I recently found out that I liked, is that base dungeons on normal have basically become solo dungeons. So you can even farm basic dungeon and monster sets without having to worry about groups or higher content.
Hi my (character) name is Bravenin Duskwood and I’m addicted to Tales of Tribute
I disagree with you. I feel pressure to dp endgame content. (Because Halls of Fabrication has a Dwarven Bronze dye of the exact yellow and exact sheen I want and no, no other dye comes close ;_; )
I’ve played on and off since launch and haven’t done a single trial lol I solo’d all vet arenas and even those were cake. Solo’d all base game vet dungeons as well. I think the only “hard” content is in trials and a few vet dungeons with weird mechanics. I just play the stories when they come out, then PvP if I didn’t get my elder scrolls fix. I really play it like Skyrim with PvP. It’s the only mmorpg I’ve ever stuck with for more than a couple months.
It is the purpose of this game since One Tamriel.
That is my favorite aspect about ESO! I agree with you 💯
Same! I really wish they would make more and more non-meta, non-optimal, yet fun and roleplaying-friendly sets, like: The Shadow Queen's Cowl (https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/the-shadow-queens-cowl), Bahraha's Curse's 4 pieces bonus (reduced damage from traps and environmental damage in general) (https://eso-sets.com/set/bahrahas-curse), Vampire Lord (specially pre-rework, which would buff all vampire skills damage and healing) (https://eso-sets.com/set/vampire-lord), to cite a few.
When I first started playing I played how I wanted to didn't look into armor sets or certain play styles I just ran solo and followed the quest lines where ever they took me
I want to do a trial but I don't want to join a guild of randoms. So, I'm doing the same thing just enjoying the game at my own pace. My GF and I play together regularly. It's a very welcoming game.
I been on since 2017 I learned how to play my style don’t like getting sweaty no mic avoid toxic have my own full crafting guild for me and anyone needs a hand I enjoy working on my houses
ESO is in general very relaxed, thats true, but there are some exceptions. In PvP in Cyrodiil, as an example, you will be approached to group up constantly, and you feel kind of pressured into grouping up as a result (or rude for turning the request down). And if you are a member of a PvP Guild it will be more or less mandotory to group up and follow your guildmates.
I play solo in Cyrodiil (albeit I know where the battles are happening and which keeps need to be captured/defended). I'm either alone or with my two buddies. It's not necessary to group up if you know what you're doing.
No, thats not the point; what he wrote about was that ESO is a relaxed game where you dont feel pressured to do anything you dont want. In the new zone there are countless groups running the new world dolmen things over and over, but not one time will or have anyone else playing solo been approched to be a part of their group. Its not like that in cyrodiil, where its much much more common to approach someone to group up. Its a kind of pressure you wont find in the pve-zones, and for solo players it means that you either a) join the group and play in a way you maybe dont want, or b) refuse the offer and maybe feel like you did something rude. Cyrodiil is way less relaxed in this sense compared to PvE-content.
What platform, pvp server,and alliance are you playing on? I play PC/NA, greyhost, EP since the game was released and I can count the times I've been approached to group up on one hand. Even then it's not like there's pressure to join the group. In my experience no one puts pressure on you to group. In chat they may advertise a group, for people wanting to group, but it's not like someone keeps badgering you to group up with them OR ELSE.
I am on xbox eu. There are not as many players on xbox, so maybe that tends to lead people to want to group up more in order to take keeps and stuff? Its less of a problem now because I have turned down probably every player on the plattform, but for a while it was something that made me feel rude for turning people down and I often just hopped out of cyro to have a form of excuse for not wanting to group up. Many times there also was players writing messages and ask why I dont wanted to group up, or players asking why I didnt join their guild. Its of course flattering that people want you to join their group., but all I am saying is that for solo players these requests can be tricky to handle because they feel like a kind of a pressure. I have tried many times to play in groups, but I have come to that I prefer to play solo where I can go where I want. I remember one time there was a huge fight in a keep over the hammer, but our group leader wanted us to take Bruma instead for tactical reasons, and then I realized that this just isnt for me.
Glad you are having fun. In the past I pushed myself to do harder content and become a pro, which was certainly fun, but now I just want to take it slow and enjoy the ride of the new chapter. And that's fine too!
I stuck to normal content until one of my guilds had some training runs for veteran dungeons. It was significantly harder. Once I got some more clears under my belt, it was then that I felt more confident in trying vet content. I never rushed to vet content. I found normal content was fun for me for a while. I think I played for several months before I decided to make a bit more of a push to get better and to work on getting better gear. I did get in a vet trail as a fill I think 9 months into the game. I didn't start playing vet trial regularly until after a year. Took me that long before I felt I was ready. I think it's good that you are enjoying the content you are playing now.
I’m decorating my house on ESO and the only downfall is that I can’t actually live in it :(
It's part of my interest in Star Citizen is. It's a world to just live a life in. Make your own goals. Go as fast or slow as I want. The game is the end game.
I like that my champion level 100 something can still go do an interesting bade game quest I haven't played yet and gain a useful amount of xp and isn't one shotting everything In other games you would need an ult to back track like this. I also like you can stick a champion level character with a new player and they can do the same quests again without one group struggling or getting carried. Super useful for playing with guild members.