Elder Scrolls the MMO

[Daehawk]

I love ESO so much that last month I went ahead and purchased the June stuff. Think it Golden Road. And that months away still lol.

[Bad Demographic]

I was today years old when I finally discovered that if you equip the Antiquarian's Eye in a quick slot and use it while searching for a dig site, it will show the bearing to the site. For... years... I've been running around in the general area given after scrying until I randomly find the site.

I had the same problem. But a guild mate explained how to use the Eye.

[Daehawk]

Im not sure what to do now until the new area stuff in June the Gold Path or Gold Road stuff. I pre ordered it so Im ready. But Ive done all other major area DLCs like blackwood and greymore and the isles and such. I down own stuff like The Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild dlc...are they just a series of missions really?

I have 1500 crowns and dont want to spend more money for more crowns to get The Dark Brotherhood or something if it just some quests. I really want to do a full zone area. It blackwood and greymore and the isles and such. I down own stuff like The Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild dlc...are they just a series of missions really?

Should I get something like Lost Depths or Scribes of Fate DLC or just play an area Ive played before with a different character? Like play blackwood or something Ive played with say my Warden but use my necro this time? Im concentrating all play on my Necro now wit ha little alt of my achanist. The archanist is like easy mode..just green beam anything to death. But I have all my riding speed buffs and stuff on my necro as she is my 'main.

I suppose I could do the mages guild quests. I picked it up just to get mage light when I created my character but never did anything past the first quest so I could have mage light spell. Is it fun? I should I search out the thieves guild to fighters guild quest line? Not sure what would be fun as a necrocaster.

[Max Peck]

I down own stuff like The Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild dlc...are they just a series of missions really?

Each of them comes with their own zone, with all that entails, a story/quest line and a skill line. Both are quite good.

I also enjoy the antiquities system, more so now that I've figured out how to do it properly so that it isn't a huge time sink. Running around digging up artifacts is a good excuse to explore the world, and some of the rewards can be quite useful (I'm looking at you, Oakensoul Ring).

I've also started doing the Infinite Archive. I'm not very good at it, having only completed the first arc a couple of times, but it pushed me to improve my gear a little and is the reason I sought out the Oakensoul Ring to begin with.

[Daehawk]

Oh ya forgot about antiquities. I remember doing that once with one character. Not even sure which one now. How do you start that out if I wanted to just start at the beginning?

[Max Peck]

Oh ya forgot about antiquities. I remember doing that once with one character. Not even sure which one now. How do you start that out if I wanted to just start at the beginning?

Go to Solitude in Western Skyrim and join the Antiquarian Circle.

[Daehawk]

right gotcha...thanks!..this should give me something fun to do for a while. Get my into the world story again so to speak. Im now standing right outside the antiquarian door. Good thing I had a wayshrine close by. Saved me traveling.

[Max Peck]

Time to have your cake and eat it too!

Enjoy Delicious Cake, XP Buffs, & Bonus Rewards during the 2024 Anniversary Jubilee Event

To celebrate this huge new milestone, the Anniversary Jubilee in-game event is back and better than ever. Kicking off on April 4 at 10AM EDT, the event will continue until April 23 at 10AM EDT as part of a special extended stay. Even better, the +100% XP buff once gained by eating slices of cake is now active throughout the whole event, with no risk of losing the benefits due to ongoing battle or a full stomach.

To get started, complete the quest “For Cake’s Sake” to earn this year’s Jubilee Cake, available from the young Khajiit chef Apprentice Mogh near the docks of Vulkhel Guard, Davon’s Watch, and Daggerfall, or found free in Quest Starters section of the in-game Crown Store.

Once you’ve acquired the 2024 Jubilee Cake memento, you can earn three event tickets each day by simply using your cake and enjoying a delicious slice. Combine that with this event’s special length, and you can earn up to 60 event tickets total!

[Daehawk]

cool.

[Skinypupy]

I'm just about finished with the Necrom xpac, should wrap it up this weekend. I gave up on my first Necrom attempt because I really didn't like the Arcanist class gameplay. Went with the Stam Sorc this time around and have enjoyed it much more. It does seem to be a little longer than previous expansions, as I'm already level 31 (and am not finished) while the last two expansions finished around level 25. Interesting story overall, although I could have maybe done with a bit less...green.

That leaves me with still two expansions unfinished: Skyrim and Elsweyr. I may try completing one of those next, although I've bounced off both of them at least three times now. Fourth time's the charm, maybe? I subbed for a month, so it's worth a shot.

Saw this morning that ESO has now made almost $2 BILLION in it's lifetime, which is pretty impressive.

Edit: Necromancy is done. Tougher than usual last couple of bosses were fun, but I’m not a big fan of the cliffhanger ending. Mostly because I’m not likely to remember all the specifics by the time the next xpac comes around.

Started Skyrim and realized why it’s never clicked. Why would I play a smaller MMO version of Skyrim when I could just go play the actual game? That, plus the storyline isn’t great. May still fiddle with it a bit, just because nothing else is currently on my gaming plate. I’ve also never max leveled a toon on console, so I may give that a shot.

[Skinypupy]

Got about 2/3 of the way through Skyrim over the weekend as well. I'm totally hooked by the story this time, which is weird since I bounced off it several times before. Guess I'm just in the right mood for it or something. :shrug:

I've probably mentioned it before in this thread, but I truly love ESO as a single-player RPG. The "RPG" part of this MMORPG is outstanding and rivals even most dedicated single-player games.

However, I've never enjoyed the "MMO" part of ESO's MMORPG formula. Especially group content, like dungeons. I've been doing my daily dungeon for the XP, but they are generally one of my least favorite parts. You sprint through the entire thing at light speed frantically chasing the other people who already know it by heart (god help you if you stop to talk to the NPC to actually get the quest) and there's absolutely nothing in the way of tactics or mechanics in the 15'ish dungeons I've completed (I'm sure that probably changes with higher level stuff). The rewards are fine, but the experience of the dungeons themselves has so far (I'm level 43) just been very meh and not interesting at all.

I do keep up with daily crafting writs, research, and deconstructing equipment, but expect that I'll likely quit playing before crafting actually gets useful.

I tried half a dozen PvP matches, which just felt like chaotic messes where a couple OP players simply dominated. In the last one I played, one dude on our team had 19 kills, while no one else had more than 2. Most of them ended up with something along those lines.

I'll probably keep playing until I wrap up Skyrim, then wander off, then come back next time there's an xpac that adds more story.

[Bad Demographic]

I also like the solo play better, but I will sometimes do a trial or dungeon with some guildmates.
If I have to do a dungeon, I'll usually solo Fungal Grotto I (in Stonefalls) - I skip as much as possible and try to just do the final boss. There's one lesser boss you have to do to open the path to get to the end.
Other group dungeon's I will solo are the Wayrest Sewers I and Spindleclutch I.

[Max Peck]

I've been doing the Endless Archive pretty much every day lately. I'm still not particularly good at it, but I've improved enough that I can usually complete the daily quest, although I still sometimes get murdered by the 4th boss. As I understand it they tend to be trial/dungeon bosses, so there is a big difficulty spike compared to the earlier ones.

[Skinypupy]

I've been doing the Endless Archive pretty much every day lately. I'm still not particularly good at it, but I've improved enough that I can usually complete the daily quest, although I still sometimes get murdered by the 4th boss. As I understand it they tend to be trial/dungeon bosses, so there is a big difficulty spike compared to the earlier ones.

I've never even heard of that. Is it this? Infinite Archive. If I'm reading it right, it looks like a randomized PvE boss battler...?

I subbed to ESO Plus for a month so I assume I have access to it, but it's never been mentioned anywhere. How does one go about finding it?

[Max Peck]

I've been doing the Endless Archive pretty much every day lately. I'm still not particularly good at it, but I've improved enough that I can usually complete the daily quest, although I still sometimes get murdered by the 4th boss. As I understand it they tend to be trial/dungeon bosses, so there is a big difficulty spike compared to the earlier ones.

I've never even heard of that. Is it this? Infinite Archive. If I'm reading it right, it looks like a randomized PvE boss battler...?

I subbed to ESO Plus for a month so I assume I have access to it, but it's never been mentioned anywhere. How does one go about finding it?

Yeah, that's it. Apparently they originally called it the Endless Archive and then changed it to Infinite Archive, and I can never remember which is the "real" name for it.

It's located in Apocrypha, so you can physically travel to it if you have Necrom, or you can just fast travel to it, like a dungeon.



It's a structured series of increasingly difficult combats, organized into arcs. Each arc is made up of 5 cycles, and each cycle is made of 3 stages. The 3rd stage in each cycle is a boss battle, and the boss battle for the 5th cycle is Tho'at Replicanum, the Big Bad in the Archive. You can keep going until you die 3 times, at which point you'll need to reset the archive and start from scratch.

At the end of stages 1 and 2 you get to pick from 2 random temporary buffs that will only be active for the next stage. At the end of stage 3 you pick from 2 temporary buffs that will last until the end of the run. There is also a loot chest at the end of every boss battle.

When you enter the archive, you're in an area called the Index. There's an NPC who will explain what is happening and gives a daily quest to complete 1 arc. There are also a couple of merchants where you can purchase stuff with the currency earned in the archive.

UESP has a good write-up on it here.

[Skinypupy]

Thanks Max, I'll look into that a little further.

Finished Skyrim tonight. Enjoyed it overall, although the underground part of the zone was really obnoxious to try and navigate. Oddly, there's no PS5 achievement for completing that zone questline (there is for all the others). Weird.

Now I'm debating whether I go back and try to finish the one zone I haven't completed yet (Elsweyr), or maybe replay the main questline. Looking back through this thread tells me it was 9 years ago when I finished the MSQ for the first time. Almost hit cap with this toon (currently at 47), which would only be the second time I've done that.

[Blackhawk]

Apparently they have a thing going on where if you pick a pocket, you get a free DLC. I've barely played, despite having it for years (their guild/auction system is a huge turnoff for me, and has driven me away from it a couple of times - I don't want to have to take a full-time in game job and fulfill quotas each month just to be able to sell.)

I'm pretty sure that I've got some of the DLC, but the Steam store page is weird - it doesn't list some that I remember existing.

[Max Peck]

Apparently they have a thing going on where if you pick a pocket, you get a free DLC.

Anniversary Spotlight—Pick a Pocket to Claim the Thieves Guild DLC for Free & More

The Thieves Guild Anniversary Spotlight is part of the ongoing 10-Year Anniversary Celebration and begins this Monday, April 15, and continues until Monday, April 29, 2024. If you’re the kind of adventurer who enjoys operating on the wrong side of the law, you'll enjoy additional rewards and goods by playing the outlaw during this time.

To begin, should you earn (or have already earned) the “Pocket Picker” in-game achievement, you can claim the entire Thieves Guild DLC for free from the in-game Crown Store. Earning the Pocket Picker achievement is as easy as taking a sweetroll from a baby—simply pick the pocket of any citizen of Tamriel. If you’re already an adept footpad, you might have not only Pocket Picker, but other achievements progressing from it that change the name in the in-game Achievements menu. Not to worry—should you have moved on to earn “Purse Snatcher” or “Sneak Thief Extraordinaire,” you can claim the Thieves Guild DLC all the same.

Furthermore, Thieves Guild DLC owners can also claim the Treasure Hunter Horse mount for free from the in-game Crown Store by earning the Hew’s Bane Cave Delver achievement. To unlock this achievement, simply visit and defeat the bosses within both explorable caves in the Hew’s Bane zone.

If you don’t own or have access to the Dark Brotherhood DLC and want to make the most out of the bonus Endeavors, you can acquire it during the promotion window from the Crown Store at 20% off.

I'm pretty sure that I've got some of the DLC, but the Steam store page is weird - it doesn't list some that I remember existing.

That might be because every time they publish a new chapter, all the previous chapters get rolled into a collection, so you can buy the upgrade (just the new chapter) or the collection (the new chapter plus all the previous chapters). If you wanted to cherry-pick individual ones, I believe you have to purchase them through the in-game Crown store.

[Max Peck]

This stage 4 Archive boss is the bane of my existence. I've beat it once, but typically it's game over when it shows up.

[Smoove_B]

That might be because every time they publish a new chapter, all the previous chapters get rolled into a collection, so you can buy the upgrade (just the new chapter) or the collection (the new chapter plus all the previous chapters). If you wanted to cherry-pick individual ones, I believe you have to purchase them through the in-game Crown store.

I was trying to decode this too, so thanks. I think I actually have about 5 hours of play time in this game, but Steam has me logged for over 50. Why? Because it would take me 4-5 days to download and update the game on my old 5 Mbps DSL line.

I should probably give it another go and see if it's worth picking up the DLC (newest or newest+all the old stuff). Getting free stuff for just logging in and doing stuff is just a bonus.

Thanks.

[Max Peck]

It does seem unnecessarily confusing. When I got back into the game in 2020, I bought whatever the current chapter was, with the collection option to catch up, and I've bought every new chapter since then. However, there is still a buttload of DLC in the Crown store that I have access to (because of ESO+) but don't own.

[Blackhawk]

I have (according to Steam) 22.5 hours in. The thing is that I really enjoyed those 22 hours (the .5 sucked, though.) I just have trouble getting myself to commit to games of that scope anymore. Given that I'm doing more with my time than just gaming (moreso that in the past, at least), a huge, huge game is something that will take up what time I do have for many months - and it always makes me hold off.

[Skinypupy]

I have (according to Steam) 22.5 hours in. The thing is that I really enjoyed those 22 hours (the .5 sucked, though.) I just have trouble getting myself to commit to games of that scope anymore. Given that I'm doing more with my time than just gaming (moreso that in the past, at least), a huge, huge game is something that will take up what time I do have for many months - and it always makes me hold off.

The beauty of ESO (for me, anyways) is that you can always play in very self-contained story chunks. Each zone (Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, etc.) has a self contained story with a main questline and a bunch of sidequests that typically takes 20-30 hours. They feel very much like a complete game, and you never have to bother with the other stuff unless you really want to.

It's a very cool system, imo.

[Blackhawk]

That I knew. MMOs are just such a huge commitment, and they're one of the harder games to come back to after time away (especially the ones where you have dozens of abilities - like older versions of WoW.)

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I'm just looking for an open world to explore; figuring this is a low-commitment game where I can just log in and wander around for a bit to see things and then stop when I'm bored.

I have three low-level characters but yeah, I'd probably just keep starting new ones to see different places.

[Daehawk]

ESO has the ability to grab you and draw you in to its world. It is a deep and complex mmo at its heart but it has to hit you the right way. Otherwise you think its just an action combat game that you run here and there to do quest with. If you let the story and the world hug you so to speak it gets deep and fulfilling. I could live in it at times.

[Alefroth]

Steam says I have 27,481.9 hours played.

[Blackhawk]

If you played for 12 hours per day, five days a week for the ten years, you'd have just enough time left for a vacation every summer.

[Alefroth]

Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of it. I do leave the launcher running often, but even with that it seems excessive.

[Blackhawk]

Well, it would only take 3 years if you had the launcher open 24/7. Is it possible it was set to start on boot + start minimized, or was minimizing instead of closing? If it spent a couple of years running in the systray, that could explain it.

[Alefroth]

That could be it. I have been playing it off and on since the beginning. Don't remember when it became available on Steam.

Anyone remember the ESO vs. Wildstar debate we had on here before they launched? I guess we know which one won out.