The Elder Scrolls Online

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Jabberwhacky

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Looking to mess around with this, and I saw the mention of free play on Stadia last month, but unless I'm doing something wrong, it's not there anymore. I joined the free trial for Pro and was able to claim other games, but ESO wants $19.99.

I'm really not interested in Stadia, would rather just do regular ol' PC, so what's the best route for jumping in currently? Reading over what y'all said about the ESO+ sub sounds like something I'd do in relatively short order if I dig the game, so does that mean I should buy only the original ESO, and not look at any of the expansions?
 
Daidraco

Daidraco

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I wouldnt sub until you know you like the game. The kicker is, the game doesnt really show its cards until you're max level. The sub gives you extra exp and all the random crafting stuff doesnt shit up your inventory. But overall, the game is very playable without it. If you buy ESO - you should get a good chunk of content that will give you enough of a taste to figure out if you like it enough to buy the expansions that require more investment.
 
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J

Jabberwhacky

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Word, bit the bullet on the base game. We shall see how it goes!

I've been watching a handful of videos about classes and browsing some guides, and I couldn't help but notice that the classes all kinda look the same, at least for solo play. It was all just general AE button mashing. Do any of the classes actually feel different while doing the solo game? I'm just thinking of a broad comparison to WoW, where you've got hunters who shoot shit while pet tanks, rogues get invis ambush, druids get all their forms for multitasking, mages and warlocks burning shit, etc. Some of the vids I saw showed even Sorcs just AE tanking mobs while blasting them. Is that just the power level of characters, that they're all capable of that?
 
Xerge

Xerge

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This isn't world of warcraft which means there are no standard class development in a nutshell. If you want a build that stands back and pet tanks then build a stamina pet sorc around it. Will you get accepted into end game? No. will you hold your group back in veteran content? Likely. Will you complete solo content? Very fucking easy.

Sorcs are mag AOE kings.. of course you're going to see that. Each class has three skill trees and they're usually themed. Warden ice mages are really popualr, as are dragonknight magicka fire specs with the burning spellweave item set. Sadly no shapshifiting class though, lol.

This ain't no WoW, you do you my dude.

One thing to remember is that ESO has a scaling feature. That's why a level 15 can be grouped up in a dungeon finder group with max levels. Anyway at a certain point player's power becomes too much for solo content and you just 1-2 tap it, save for bosses in quest chains. It's just how it goes, eventually the player becomes strong. No resets like WoW. This scaling feature is why you can quest in any zone, at any level, at any time.

edit:

I will say ESO meta builds have a shitty habit of sharing similar playstyles/setups, but that's the idea of meta I guess.
 
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Utnayan

Utnayan

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Whatever you do don’t buy the expansion. It’s a fucking garbage heap. Along with basicallly anything end game. Morrowind was a fun expac, summerset was boring as shit, and never play this game on console.
 
Daidraco

Daidraco

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As much as I value Utnayan Utnayan 's input, probably just want to stick to a review of each content block if you're going to purchase them individually. I personally like Greymoor. This streamers review seems to at least describe each expansion.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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Yeah know that I stopped playing so my opinion is based on my experience on the Xbox One X, some PC, and PS4. PC was the best, console was awful on both platforms on PS Pro and XBox One X from not only a graphical FPS rate, but horrid data throughput and ridiculous bugs I have not seen since an Alpha build of an MMO in 2003. But I have been perusing the forums quite a bit, and it appears the developers of this game are living in the bubble and not listening to the major complaints and driving down a shit business model.

There's a difference between a rocky launch and what happened with Greymoor. Just because they were 'working remotely' doesn't give any sort of excuse as much of this content was made before the pandemic. Or did y'all miss the pre-PTS that fextralife leaked all the tooltips in their video? My review isn't based out of impatience, rather it's the sheer lack of communication and further backing off of communication that developers have decided to do. They overhauled the Vampire Skill Line and said that Blood Frenzy ticked all the boxes of what it 'means to be a vampire'. Does using an ability to raise your spell/weapon damage via the cost of health sound vampiric to you? Oh and they totally got rid of the gap closer with Clouding Swarm.

The story is a rehashing of every other storyline out there. Your evil baddies are temper tantruming most of the time. Harrowstorms has this crazy chick who if she had a mustache, she'd certainly be twirling it. Oh and Harrowstorms don't drop anything worth while in the bags. You're mostly going to get edicts. Maybe the occasional treasure map. If you're farming for furnishings? Welcome back to Morrowind.

Back to the vampirism part though. NPC vampires are so much cooler than what PC vampires get to be. Elusive Mist increases your speed by 30% rather than the old 70% so unless you're rocking Swift jewelry, you're pretty much caught up to in no time. Mist Form in general leaves one to be desired. Mesmerize is the buggiest skill in the kit. It doesn't always work on every NPC across Tamriel. Want to upgrade your bag space in Daggerfall? Don't bother. Blood Frenzy was touted by the Creative Director that it ticked all the boxes on what it means to a vampire. In what mythos are vampires suicidal? More to the point, in what mythos does well fed vampires get 0-regeneration, super weak to fire, and all of their class abilities cost a whopping 12% more? "Oh, but you get cheaper vampire abilities!" Right! And I can't use most of my DoTs without having a dreadful case of the me me me me's when I need a synergy. They were warned in several threads and warned all over the PTS that if this goes live, it's going to get cured by a lot of people. Guess what happened? Several bite guilds disbanded because it wasn't worth the hassle.

And how can we forget the antiquities. While it was a great addition, if you get attacked you may as well flat out relog. Half the time the leads are all over the place while the RNG of other leads are so non-existent, they forgot to put them in the game.

If you have a vMA weapon pre-Greymoor? Guess what? You have to go refarm it again because Rich also thinks that it's like a new model of a car.

But they're 'totally awesome' for putting up Skyrim for the 10,000th time for people to buy. Y'all are on damn skooma with that
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The official forums are plastered with how bad that expac is and how ZO is doing hardly anything to resolve the issues. Just giving an alternate opinion. With that said I think most anyone here who is going to dab in it out of boredom of no decent MMORPG's out there (Aside from FF14), will mostly just be going through initial vanilla content and Morrowind.
 
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Xerge

Xerge

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Utnayan Utnayan stop browsing lowest common denominator looking for dirty ass. ESO forums whine about the most brown shit ever. Honestly the only thing you've said so far that I can agree with is not play the game on console. Greymoor is great if you enjoy more of the same, I believe theyre working on adjusting harrowstorms.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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Hell I wouldn’t call you out on this horseshit if everyone outside of you and one other didn’t despise the new expansion and ZO’s continued lack of full follow through on anything they fucking say right now. I mean holy shit, most people think the expac is a piece of shit. Google does wonders.
 
Lodi

Lodi

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Finally gave this game a try, couldn't make it more than three hours. It's a stripped down ES game with bland gameplay and a complete lack of hook. I don't see why this would be appealing to anyone beyond the lore. Thankfully Steam accepted my refund request.
 
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ShakyJake

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Lodi said:
Finally gave this game a try, couldn't make it more than three hours. It's a stripped down ES game with bland gameplay and a complete lack of hook. I don't see why this would be appealing to anyone beyond the lore. Thankfully Steam accepted my refund request.
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I enjoyed running the dungeons, seeing those and all. But outside of that, yeah, this game is complete ass. Combat is the most bland, unengaging system I've ever experienced in a MMO. Animations are terrible and character models look retarded. Anyone who thinks otherwise has zero taste in art. Beauty is in the eye of the holder? No, fuck you.

It boggles my mind that anyone would play ESO past a couple months. I guess if you like running around do quests and "experiencing" a story? Okay, I suppose. But I can't imagine anyone enjoying clicking through numerous dialog options and listening to a NPC go, 'blah blah blah'. Seriously, fuck that shit.
 
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Octave

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I gave the game a shot a few weeks ago.

Combat feels the exact same no matter which npc model you fight. Every class feels very similarly, combat-wise. The solo, world and group dungeons all also feel very same-y to their respective class.

Things don't feel very challenging, either. You can auto res at the place you died. There's no feeling like you're going to discover something awesome in any particular place in the world. The armor and weapons are, again, very same-y with each other of a similar level.

I did like the skill system which could, in theory, allow you to have a unique build. It's too bad that the abilities of each skill group felt so same-y as well.

The whole game feels like 10mins of game play repeated infinitely.

Voice acting and story is not why I play video games but it seems like this is where the game is strongest.
 
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Xerge

Xerge

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If anyone needs shit crafted @ Xerge in game, I pop on for a few mins daily. I can do everything stamina wise can't help much with magika builds. Also willing to fuck around with dungeons and shit.
 
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Utnayan

Utnayan

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So wait, I just saw this: Their business model is to charge $79.99 to get all the other expansions with Greymoor, otherwise you pay $39-49 for Greymoor and then have to pay for the DLC add ons for Greymoor on top of that? And then you are forced to go to their estore to buy separate expansions by themselves for around $29 bucks instead of getting the previous expansions for free with a standard greymoor purchase?

WHAT? :p Why would anyone fucking do that.

In FF14 and with WoW, you purchase the newest expansion you get the others included for $39-49 bucks and obviously all the patches (DLC) is included throughout the expansion (Yeah I know you pay a subscription but shit who cares - the content before all comes included along with all those patches)

Holy fuck what a scam.
 
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Pyros

Pyros

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Utnayan said:
So wait, I just saw this: Their business model is to charge $79.99 to get all the other expansions with Greymoor, otherwise you pay $39-49 for Greymoor and then have to pay for the DLC add ons for Greymoor on top of that? And then you are forced to go to their estore to buy separate expansions by themselves for around $29 bucks instead of getting the previous expansions for free with a standard greymoor purchase?

WHAT? :p Why would anyone fucking do that.

In FF14 and with WoW, you purchase the newest expansion you get the others included for $39-49 bucks and obviously all the patches (DLC) is included throughout the expansion (Yeah I know you pay a subscription but shit who cares - the content before all comes included along with all those patches)

Holy fuck what a scam.
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It looks pretty fucking shit BUT if you pay for the monthly sub(which is optional), you get access to all the DLCs minus the last big expansion, so it's basically the same more or less. If you want to actually own the DLCs to play them even without your sub though it's kinda shitty but you also pretty much don't need to do that as long as you're ok with "subbing" everytime you make a new char to unlock whatever you want to unlock(and past expansions if you play the game you'll buy on release so you have them permanently too).
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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Pyros said:
It looks pretty fucking shit BUT if you pay for the monthly sub(which is optional), you get access to all the DLCs minus the last big expansion, so it's basically the same more or less. If you want to actually own the DLCs to play them even without your sub though it's kinda shitty but you also pretty much don't need to do that as long as you're ok with "subbing" everytime you make a new char to unlock whatever you want to unlock(and past expansions if you play the game you'll buy on release so you have them permanently too).
Click to expand...

So if you sub you get access to all the other expansions as well before Greymoor? If that's the case I retract. I thought that was only for the DLC of said expansion but you still had to buy each expansion regardless.
 
Grim1

Grim1

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Sub gives access to DLC's, not expansions afaik.

When I'm playing this game i always sub. But for the crafting bag / double storage mainly. You also get the xp / research bonuses, etc.. But if you craft then that bag is gold.

I'm sure there is an argument to be had about "THAT'S HIGHWAY ROBBERY!", or some such. /shrug don't care.
 
Pyros

Pyros

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The page says it gives all DLCs you can buy with crowns and the old expansions are in the crown shop under DLC, but might be wrong. I wanted to play last expansion then never got around to it so never checked firsthand(I got a deal with summerset+morrowind anyway so I had both).
 
Xerge

Xerge

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Everything prior to the CURRENT CHAPTER(Not dungeon/zone dlc) DLC will be included with a sub. When a new Chapter DLC comes out Greymoor will fold into the sub. I foresee them following the trend of adding major chapters to the included base content like how MW was.
 
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