# Elder Scrolls: Online



## Crispy (May 3, 2012)

Not much info yet. It exists. It will be released in 2013.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...-cover-revealed-the-elder-scrolls-online.aspx



> Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.


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## agricola (May 3, 2012)

> as well as a peek at the player-driven PvP conflict that pits the three player factions against each other in open-world warfare over the province of Cyrodiil and the Emperor's throne itself.


 
It was at this point in the article that my heart sank.  Why "player factions"?  Why not just let people shoot whoever they want in the face with a glass arrow?


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## ohmyliver (May 3, 2012)

I'm hoping it turns out to be a terrible game, so I'm not even remotely tempted to play it.


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## Crispy (May 4, 2012)

agricola said:


> It was at this point in the article that my heart sank. Why "player factions"? Why not just let people shoot whoever they want in the face with a glass arrow?


Me too. This could have been a fantasy EVE


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## Voley (May 4, 2012)

I hope you can rename enchanted weapons (Ebony Helmet of A Massive Wanker, for example) and leave them for other adventurers to find.


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## Shippou-Sensei (May 4, 2012)

I'm not  sure if i like the idea

it has potential for a massive world  with lots of races and organisations  buuuuuut

MMOs  kinda  suck  the uniquness out of games


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## Crispy (May 4, 2012)

Details:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-the-elder-scrolls-online-preview-leaked-detailed

Yes, it's WoW in ES lore dressing. That can fuck off then.


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## Random (May 4, 2012)

Has this period of Tamriel already been made into a game? When was Arena set?


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## ohmyliver (May 4, 2012)

Crispy said:


> Details:
> 
> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-the-elder-scrolls-online-preview-leaked-detailed
> 
> Yes, it's WoW in ES lore dressing. That can fuck off then.


 
*breaths sigh of relief* thank god for that, not tempted at all now.


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## Stigmata (May 4, 2012)

Sounds like shit sauce. Rumours that one of the factions would be Nords/Dunmer/Argonians, ie three races that are supposed to hate each other. This reminds me of how much I used to enjoy the Warcraft games before WoW devoured the franchise.


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## Vintage Paw (May 4, 2012)

Seems like it's been in development for some time now, so I'm hopeful that means it won't impact on any future development of the next TES game.

Not that I'm going to be done with Skyrim any year soon.


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## Epona (May 7, 2012)

This has been in the works for fucking ages, but there was a bit of legal whatnots going on for a while (wrt Bethesda/Zenimax vs some other company, they sold the rights to someone else (Interplay? I could be wrong but that rings a bell) a few years back and fairly recently took them to court because they weren't delivering on the contract, or something like that) and the rights for an MP game reverted to Bethesda/Zenimax. This is just off the top of my head, stuff that I recall, not all details may be accurate.

But yeah it doesn't surprise me.

And I am not going to be playing any online MP game any time ever, even if it is Elder Scrolls.

It shouldn't interfere with any future Elder Scrolls games (or Fallout 4) because as far as I can work out, it's not being developed by BGS, but a different studio under the Bethesda/Zenimax umbrella - Bethesda Game Studio and Bethesda/Zenimax are NOT the same thing, the former is a games developer who write/program TES and Fallout games, Bethesda/Zenimax are a publisher with a wide range of interests/business concerns, including BGS, but they have a lot of other studios under their wing. This game is being developed by Zenimax Online Studio, not Bethesda Game Studio (who do the single player Elderscrolls games and the Fallout series) so I just tend to view this as a spin-off.  I hope.


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## Citizen66 (May 7, 2012)

I don't think it will be any good. There's already wow and others for people who want that. If anything, i would like to see elder scrolls with a co-op option. Like you can in borderlands. Would probably be too complicated to implement though on games of that size.


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## FridgeMagnet (May 7, 2012)

As others have said, what's the point if it's just going to be a wowalike clone of every other MMO? This is what happens when you reflexively follow market behaviour and dumb consumer requests ("omg where is the multiplayer") instead of having an actual plan.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 26, 2013)

Beta tester signup is now open: http://signup.elderscrollsonline.com/


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 26, 2013)

Aye, I signed up yesterday. I'll certainly be interested in trying it out.


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## Bernie Gunther (Feb 3, 2013)

I know someone who should know who says that the faction warfare bit is currently shite and that the devs are in complete denial about the potential popularity of that aspect of the game, being much more PvE focussed.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 3, 2013)

Oh dear.

Well from my limited experience, you end up with different types of players. You have those for whom the whole game hinges on the quality of PvP, its balance, its rewards, its ability to stay fresh and interesting (and within that group of people, who have those who are so super l33t that they moan if they can't rule the roost with ease, and those who moan if it's not easy for everyone whatever the level). Then you have those for whom end game PvE is the most important aspect, where attention must be given to raids, dungeons, lewtz, with new content being brought out almost constantly for them not to whinge that the devs simply don't care about them at all. Then you have those for whom the most important part is the journey - although they tend to be far rarer - who basically want to enjoy the somewhat casual process of playing through the levelling content, maybe doing a bit of PvP for a lark, maybe teaming up for a dungeon or two, but who would quite like there to be more story and mission content added - this group tends to be the least loud and obnoxious.

Is any game ever going to please them all?


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## FridgeMagnet (Feb 4, 2013)

That  just sounds like WoW players. Does it offer anything you can't get from WoW? (or any of the other clones)


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## Epona (Feb 4, 2013)

Yes I know I posted earlier that I would never play an MMO - but I've changed my mind a bit in the intervening months.

Why can't I sign up for the beta? I complete all the details, and then when I submit I just get 'turn back, adventurer' (ha ha very funny).. have I missed the deadline or something? I'll be really pissed off if I have, given that I was on the bloody official forums regularly for months, as soon as I decide to give it a break they ask people to sign up for the beta.... 

Edit to add: managed it in Firefox, their sign up page doesn't work with Opera, not yet even been selected to take part in the Beta, but that is My First Fucking Bug Report - make sure your bloody site including your sign up page works with all popular browsers!!!!


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 4, 2013)

i've signed up for the beta

i'm a bit  "meh"  about it all.    i've played a lott of MMOs lately  and they are all.... MMOs  i know you could say the same about FPSs  or JRPG  but in this case  it really  does feel like all MMOs are the same.   there are a few that  keep some originality  of story for a bit longer  but    i think ES:O will need to pull  something special out of th ebad to get me intrerested


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## agricola (Feb 5, 2013)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> but i think ES:O will need to pull something special out of th ebad to get me intrerested


 
The sad thing is that it really wouldnt need something special - all they would have to do is make it as sandbox as the rest of the Elder Scrolls games have been, something which has been proved by EVE to be doable in MMOs.


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## Random (Feb 6, 2013)

agricola said:


> The sad thing is that it really wouldnt need something special - all they would have to do is make it as sandbox as the rest of the Elder Scrolls games have been, something which has been proved by EVE to be doable in MMOs.


A million times this. Medieval/magic EVE, with factions and high/low security areas.


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## Epona (Feb 9, 2013)

My main concerns are: 1) that they are going to mangle the lore, and 2) that it's not going to be full/free exploration.

1) - We already know that Cyrodil isn't going to be a jungle, and the possibility of it ever having been a jungle has been handwaved by ZOS saying it was "a transcription error". We know that Nords and Dunmer and Argonians are in the same faction, which evokes a slight "wtf?" from me.

2) - Territory (other than the PvP province of Cyrodil) is going to be faction-locked, at least at release - if you think you're going to be able to explore ALL of Tamriel with one character, think again. You'll have to decide between Ebonheart Pact (Nord, Dunmer, Argonian - restricted to Skyrim, Morrowind, Black Marsh); Daggerfall Covenant (Redguard, Breton, Orc - restricted to Hammerfell, High Rock); or Aldmeri Dominion (Altmer, Bosmer, Khajiit - restricted to Summerset Isles, Valenwood, Elsweyr). You'll have to have Alts to explore the entire landmass. Having said that, I am quite happy to have more than one character, but I know not everyone feels that way.


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## tommers (Feb 9, 2013)

How are they going to handle having thousands of players in each world?

AFAIK the main attraction of skyrim seems to be the exploration,  which is fine when it's just you as the 'active' explorer but what about when every dungeon is found within an hour of release?

How does WOW deal with it? I suppose it's the same isn't it? I don't play MMOs.


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## agricola (Feb 9, 2013)

tommers said:


> How are they going to handle having thousands of players in each world?
> 
> AFAIK the main attraction of skyrim seems to be the exploration, which is fine when it's just you as the 'active' explorer but what about when every dungeon is found within an hour of release?
> 
> How does WOW deal with it? I suppose it's the same isn't it? I don't play MMOs.


 
It is going to be awful.


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## tommers (Feb 9, 2013)

agricola said:


> It is going to be awful.



Mate, I didn't even like skyrim, I'm not holding out any hopes for this.


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## Bernie Gunther (Feb 9, 2013)

What I've been hearing from someone who should know is that it's a clueless company that's nothing much to do with Elder Scrolls, who have no clue about PvP and are ignoring the advice of testers with lots of DAOC, Conan, WAR, Eve, GW etc PvP xperience.

... driven to a large degree by investors who only really understand WoW as success.


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## Stigmata (Feb 10, 2013)

Epona said:


> 1) - We already know that Cyrodil isn't going to be a jungle, and the possibility of it ever having been a jungle has been handwaved by ZOS saying it was "a transcription error". We know that Nords and Dunmer and Argonians are in the same faction, which evokes a slight "wtf?" from me.


 
The elves look shite too. The mad, crystalline fractal city of Alinor looks like bloody Rivendell


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## agricola (Feb 11, 2013)

Bernie Gunther said:


> ... driven to a large degree by investors who only really understand WoW as success.


 
Idiot investors, more like. There is no point in paying millions to bring out another clone of WoW because people will just go and play the real thing. 

That said, the tragedy of WoW's financial success is such that even genuinely innovative games get crushed - as a game, there are large parts of WoW which are inferior to some of the other games that it has ended up killing.  Take WAR for example, which had much better PvP than WoW has ever had (especially the keep sieges), and which has much better design elements to it, and yet its down to three servers worldwide now.


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## captainmission (Feb 11, 2013)

I think it's more like sensible investors, stupid consumers. For a start i very much doubt any  investor in this day and age will be expecting a wow killer or wow rival. But a themepark mmo, either subscriptionless or quickly dropping subscription after first rush of sale, is the only sensible way to invest the $100 million it takes to make a AAA mmo. Despite the self induced amnesia of the mmo play base there's pleanty of sandbox mmo's out there, including fantasy sandboxes. The problem is they all die on their arses, struggling to get more than 10k subscribers reduced to a skeleton development team or closing a few years after launch. The 1 exception to this - eve online - manages to get the subscription levels of a middling mmo themepark game. It just makes no sense for an investor to spend in a way the consumer has repatedly shown they have no interest in playing.

The problem is it much more fun to talk about sandbox mmos and imagine the possibilities of what you could do, than play them. Case in point, i was reading website for sandbox enthusiasts which had a public poll "which sandbox mmo are you currently playing?"- the top answer (arround 60% of total) was "i'm not currently playing a sandbox mmo" and that's amongst people who read website extolling the virtues of such things.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 15, 2013)

A video has surfaced, some naughty beta tester put it up online. Youtube has taken it down but it's here on some Russian site:

http://riotpixels.com/dvadtsat-minut-gejmpleya-the-elder-scrolls-online/


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## captainmission (Apr 15, 2013)

good to see they've kept to the spirit of elder scrolls my making the character model look fucking atrocious.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 15, 2013)

From what I managed to see (the video was refusing to load properly earlier) it looked utterly uninspiring, thoroughly mediocre, and... well, old.


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## ffsear (Apr 16, 2013)

I hoping that the content will be its savior. Lets not forget that Elder scrolls has 20 years of gaming lore to fall back on!


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 16, 2013)

ffsear said:


> I hoping that the content will be its savior. Lets not forget that Elder scrolls has 20 years of gaming lore to fall back on!


 
That's very true. But they're not off to the greatest of starts with that considering the alliances they've decided upon. They'd better have some convincing reasons for it all.


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## ffsear (Apr 16, 2013)

oh,  just seen the video.  Yep that's disappointing!    The landscape looks rather dull


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## ohmyliver (Apr 18, 2013)

well, I'm breathing a sigh of relief.  If it looked good, I'd want to play it, and if my experiences of Oblivion, and Skyrim are anything to go by, I'd become horrendously addicted to it. So far it's a all bit meh.


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## Radar (Apr 18, 2013)

Vintage Paw said:


> A video has surfaced, some naughty beta tester put it up online. Youtube has taken it down but it's here on some Russian site:
> 
> http://riotpixels.com/dvadtsat-minut-gejmpleya-the-elder-scrolls-online/


It has been yanked now


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## captainmission (Apr 18, 2013)

Radar said:


> It has been yanked now


 
Just imagine any generic mmo with graphics from 2006 and a UI that looks a bit like skyrim and you're there


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## Citizen66 (Apr 18, 2013)

Graphics aren't really the important aspect of a game although they help agreed. I doubt I can go to another MMORPG after Warcraft. They're ridiculously addictive and become ridiculously boring and repetitive for a long time before the addiction wears out. Also I think I prefer the solo offline RPGs more than the online ones.


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## ffsear (Jun 11, 2013)

ESO to be relased on PS4 and XBOX One -


Think i'll still play on my laptop though


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## ffsear (Jun 11, 2013)

.....and pushed back until Spring 2014


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## Shippou-Sensei (Aug 21, 2013)

crap


plans to be subsciption  $14.99

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...er-Scrolls-Online-Will-Have-Subscription-Fees


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## captainmission (Aug 21, 2013)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> crap
> 
> 
> plans to be subsciption $14.99
> ...


 

...for about 3 months before they 're-assess their business model' (and after they got the box sales and early subscription fees) and go freemium.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Aug 21, 2013)

possibly

i'm not sure about 3 months. but after a year or two quite possibly.

certainly looks the model from sw:tor. st;o and rift.


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 21, 2013)

TSW went free to play very quickly. I don't think they can hang about these days. It costs more and more to make the games with every passing year, so the shortfalls in subs are going to be keenly felt, since they can't put the subs up to match.

Unless it cost them pennies to make it, then fuck 'em.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Aug 21, 2013)

it's not free to play  it's guild wars stylee


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 22, 2013)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> it's not free to play it's guild wars stylee


 
Which is typically called free to play in terms of subscription model. You buy the game, you don't pay a sub. Often comes with added microtransactions by way of some kind of in-game store.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Aug 22, 2013)

it's an odd one. i've heard people call it buy to play to distinguish it from actual free to pay.


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## ffsear (Aug 22, 2013)

I'd rather just pay a subscription


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 22, 2013)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> it's an odd one. i've heard people call it buy to play to distinguish it from actual free to pay.


 
I've heard it called buy to play as well. I guess it depends. With TSW, it was originally a case of buy the game, then pay a monthly sub, and when it dropped the sub most people referred to it as 'going free to play' - it might be that if you already own the game, then it is changing to 'free to play' because you've already bought it. If you don't own it yet, you could perhaps say it's buy to play. It's relative, in that sense. I don't think it particularly matters.

What it isn't, though, is freemium. Freemium refers to a game that is free, you don't need to buy it at all to purchase it, no up front buying of the disc or the key to download or whatever. It's completely free to download and play, but you essentially would have to grind for the rest of your life to get any kind of decent experience from the game, which encourages you to buy items or packs or whatever in-game/in-app to speed up that process. I've only really heard freemium used in relation to apps on tablets/phones, or the facebook game-tyle thing, and not in relation to your bigger MMO type games.


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 22, 2013)

I rate the TSW model, I think they did it really well. The things they sell in their store are either cosmetic, or of little consequence - like 10% extra XP potions and so on. I believe if you went all in as a super awesome chief sparkly woo-hoo member with a really expensive version of the game when it was released, you get an allowance of all that stuff for free, plus free upgrades to the expansions and so on. But the main game itself plays identically for someone who doesn't spend any money in the store. The full game is the full game.

Compare that with SW:TOR. Their model is bullshit. Sure, you can play the game for free, but you're effectively playing a cut-price, cheapo version. You don't get half the choices in character customisation as someone who chooses to take out a sub, you don't get access to certain missions/flashpoints, etc.

There's a very basic difference here, and it's in how they view their customers. The people at Funcom want people to enjoy the game, and while they still want to be able to make money to employ the few staff they have left, they don't want to be dicks about it. The staff responsible for the subs at SW:TOR don't give a flying fuck about the people playing the game, their priority isn't making a game they love but raking in the cash as much as possible. And it really, really shows. They exhibit a disdain. These days, that kind of thing is becoming more and more important. People tend to stay loyal to companies that show respect and greater regard for their customers/audience. The sad thing is that those who shit all over people from a great height still get the sales because principles tend to mean shit in the face of 'ooh, shiny!' when it comes to the majority of people who play games. As with any other media or product, I guess. But there are tiny little shifts here and there. It's why we've seen so much back peddling by the XBOX180 team of late (although I'm not convinced they didn't plan it this way, so as to seem to be all conciliatory and shit- "see, we're awesome, we listen to you guys and let your views shape our decisions!").


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 7, 2014)

Got a beta key for a stress test, just a weekend pass it seems.

Anyone else?


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 7, 2014)

no... bugger


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 7, 2014)

the level of freemium-ing in  SW:TOR  is  fucking ridiculous


that being said  the story content  is  quite good.	and  if  you don't  mind  grinding  you can have some fun.

i think i did  buy  a few  things....	   

usually  with  freemium  the  main buy is bag space.   at least it is for me.

although in terra   i did  pay  quite a lot  to get the	sukumizu   outfit  for my foxgirl mage.....


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## Epona (Jan 7, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Got a beta key for a stress test, just a weekend pass it seems.
> 
> Anyone else?



Yep


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## agricola (Jan 7, 2014)

Just seen that WAR died last month, sad news - its still probably the closest anyone has ever come to knocking WoW off its perch, and was in several areas a much better game.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 8, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> the level of freemium-ing in  SW:TOR  is  fucking ridiculous
> 
> 
> that being said  the story content  is  quite good.	and  if  you don't  mind  grinding  you can have some fun.
> ...



I played TOR for a while, but since it went freemium or whatever I've become grumpy and refuse to. The stories are absolutely excellent, and I did have a great deal of fun playing it though. I still have all my characters languishing on what appears to be the sole European pve server, but I can't bring myself to reinstall it knowing that half the bloody content is now locked off, when previously it wasn't. Profiteering cuntfucks.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 8, 2014)

Got a beta key. 

Pity my laptop probably won't run it.


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## Epona (Jan 8, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> Got a beta key.
> 
> Pity my laptop probably won't run it.



There's no official spec at this point but they've said all along that they are are planning that it should run on older and lower spec PCs (increase the player base rather than limit it to those with top end hardware), albeit on low graphics settings.  Your best bet is to ask on the official beta forum (link at the bottom of the email), it's breaking NDA to discuss specifics anywhere else.


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## Citizen66 (Jan 8, 2014)

You can have my account if you want. I own everything up to the expansion before the current one although are accounts tied to bank details etc?  

It's something like a 30gig download though. Oh hang on, I think Diablo III might be tied to the same account. I'm unlikely to play that ever again either though.


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## Radar (Jan 8, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Got a beta key for a stress test, just a weekend pass it seems.
> 
> Anyone else?


Myself and a mate landed one.. 21GB download grinding away atm


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 8, 2014)

Yeah, I should get a wriggle on and think about starting to download it XD


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 10, 2014)

Requested to switch to the Mac client beta test instead.


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## tommers (Jan 10, 2014)

How did you get these?  I feel like I'm missing out, even though I have no interest in it whatsoever.


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)

I got a beta key. I applied for it ages (a year?) ago. It says not to use my email but my username i gave them a year or so ago which obviously I can totally remember.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 10, 2014)

Citizen66 said:


> It says not to use my email but my username i gave them a year or so ago which obviously I can totally remember.


It also says not to tell anyone else you're in the beta


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)




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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 10, 2014)

Citizen66 said:


> I got a beta key. I applied for it ages (a year?) ago. It says not to use my email but my username i gave them a year or so ago which obviously I can totally remember.



i thought i had that problem

the  sign up for  notification	is  different  from this registration.  

just  hit the   click here to make account


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> i thought i had that problem
> 
> the  sign up for  notification	is  different  from this registration.
> 
> just  hit the   click here to make account



Yeah done that now, cheers. Got it downloading.


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> It also says not to tell anyone else you're in the beta



Actually you're just not allowed to reveal any content I think.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 10, 2014)

Citizen66 said:


> Actually you're just not allowed to reveal any content I think.


Nope, I read the NDA carefully - you're not allowed to reveal that you're in the beta programme.


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Nope, I read the NDA carefully - you're not allowed to reveal that you're in the beta programme.



Is that the NDA you get to read once you're in the beta?


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## ohmyliver (Jan 10, 2014)

um, if the above is true... buggeration, I can't edit my old post....


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 10, 2014)

the thing is   we were told  we were in the beta   by the email.  that  was  before we did the NDA.   

the email says the contents of the beta  are confidential but  does not  say  you participation was also confidential.  

we had no way of knowing  that.

I posted  that I was in as soon as I saw the email as I'm sure the rest of you did. 
I'm not sure  how we can be blamed for that.  the email should have  had  warning  if  they wanted to avoid this.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 10, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> the thing is   we were told  we were in the beta   by the email.  that  was  before we did the NDA.
> 
> the email says the contents of the beta  are confidential but  does not  say  you participation was also confidential.
> 
> ...


No, you were _invited_ to the beta by the email. You're not IN until you've registered, which includes agreeing to the NDA.


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:
			
		

> No, you were invited to the beta by the email. You're not IN until you've registered, which includes agreeing to the NDA.



It came with an access code. That's as good as in.

Anyway, you started going on about the NDA when all I mentioned was the email.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 10, 2014)

How's this for a badly-constructed sentence from their tech support:


> Rest assured, you will still be considered for future Mac beta events even if you don't redeem the PC key as long as you have signed up for the Mac beta.


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## Epona (Jan 10, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> It also says not to tell anyone else you're in the beta


The devs have also said that they understand people get excited and do it before they've fully read the email or even seen the NDA, let alone agreed to it.  They have said that they will not take action against anyone who gets overexcited and 'squee's a bit about getting an invite.  I suspect that legally they'd not be able to either, if people haven't yet seen or agreed to the NDA.


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## Citizen66 (Jan 10, 2014)

Epona said:
			
		

> The devs have also said that they understand people get excited and do it before they've fully read the email or even seen the NDA, let alone agreed to it.  They have said that they will not take action against anyone who gets overexcited and 'squee's a bit about getting an invite.  I suspect that legally they'd not be able to either, if people haven't yet seen or agreed to the NDA.



Exactly. You get to see - and agree to - the NDA later; it's only briefly covered in the email.


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## Yata (Jan 11, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> the thing is   we were told  we were in the beta   by the email.  that  was  before we did the NDA.
> 
> the email says the contents of the beta  are confidential but  does not  say  you participation was also confidential.
> 
> ...


Too late its off to prison for you blabber mouth. the only way out of this is to PM me any information about the beta as i know all about the law and that


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2014)

Yata said:


> Too late its off to prison for you...



Well that is certainly a TES-themed threat at least 
Morrowind: Prison ship
Oblivion: Prison dungeon
Skyrim: about to be executed.

Can't recall Daggerfall, was that a prison or a cave at the start, I can't remember?


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 11, 2014)

if a judge  ever  sends me down  i expect the next thin i see will be a character creation screen


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 11, 2014)

ES openings

tough on adventuring and tough on the causes of adventuring.


----------



## Epona (Jan 11, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> if a judge  ever  sends me down  i expect the next thin i see will be a character creation screen



Oh and btw, if we had signatures here, I would want that as mine.


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Jan 12, 2014)

Epona said:


> Well that is certainly a TES-themed threat at least
> Morrowind: Prison ship
> Oblivion: Prison dungeon
> Skyrim: about to be executed.


You'll never guess where The Elder Scrolls Online starts off...


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Jan 13, 2014)

Not a fan: http://lordmatt.co.uk/item/2445/


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 13, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Not a fan: http://lordmatt.co.uk/item/2445/



Hmm, trying to reply to that without breaking NDA is... difficult. But I would say that for the most part this person is talking out of his arse and indeed got several things wrong.


----------



## Epona (Jan 13, 2014)

If anyone wants to look up anything in the public realm to do with ESO, there is a good compilation of non-NDA breaking info available at The Tamriel Foundry Development FAQ, all the stuff compiled there is from publicly released info such as developer interviews and the like.


----------



## tommers (Jan 13, 2014)

If you break the NDA what happens?  I want to know.


----------



## Epona (Jan 13, 2014)

tommers said:


> If you break the NDA what happens?  I want to know.



At very least, excluded from future tests.  Court action would be theoretically possible over breach of contract I suppose.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 24, 2014)

Account banned. I expect court action would only happen if it were a bad breach... like writing an article and putting it in a games magazine, or something like that. There are pictures and screenshots all over the internet of it already, and I'm yet to hear of anyone being prosecuted. The odd little word here or there chatting about your experience with people in a place like this would likely only result in an account ban, should they ever find out about it, of course.


----------



## tommers (Jan 24, 2014)

I presume you didn't sign up as "Vintage Paw" either.

I do know one guy who completely spilled everything about that awful ultima game and he got banned from future stuff but I don't know how they knew it was him.


----------



## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

Massive beta test this weekend.
Anyone who hasn't already been invited to beta (or been in beta previously - if you already have a key or an account you don't need another, just update the client) and would like to, Zenimax have given 500k beta keys to www.curse.com to distribute, so you can apply there - all totally above board and legit.

This info all on the official public forum and website so not breaking NDA to alert people here.


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Feb 5, 2014)

An extra half a million players, on top of the existing beta testers? That's going to be ... interesting. Stress test this time, perhaps?


----------



## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> An extra half a million players, on top of the existing beta testers? That's going to be ... interesting. Stress test this time, perhaps?



Yep, there are going to be over a million players (at rough estimate) in this beta.  Give the servers a good old workout!


----------



## ffsear (Feb 5, 2014)

Any ideas on system requirements?


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

ffsear said:


> Any ideas on system requirements?



That's something I can help with as the spec is now up on the official store page.  As we're now not that far off release, I don't imagine it will change much, if at all (although if it does, I am not to be held responsible - this is the situation as understood for launch and may change).

*PC Recommended System Requirements*

Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 8 64-bit
Processor: Quad Core 2.3GHz or equivalent processor
Memory: 4GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 60GB free HDD space
Video Card: Direct X 11 compliant video card with 2GB of RAM (NVIDIA® GeForce® 560 Ti / ATI Radeon™ 6950 or better)
Sound: DirectX compatible sound card

*PC Minimum System Requirements*

Operating System: Windows XP 32-bit
Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
Memory: 2GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 60GB free HDD space
Video Card: DirectX 9.0 compliant video card with 512MB of RAM (NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 / ATI Radeon™ 2600 or better)
Sound: DirectX compatible sound card

*MAC Recommended System Requirements*

Operating System: Mac® OS X 10.7.0 or later
Processor: Intel® i5
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 5770 or better
Memory: 4GB Ram
Storage: 60GB
Media: DVD-ROM

*MAC Minimum System Requirements*

Operating System: Mac® OS X 10.7.0 or later
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo
Video Card: Intel™ HD Graphics 4000, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 6490M or better
Memory: 4GB Ram
Storage: 60GB
Media: DVD-ROM
Resolution: 1024X768 minimum display resolution


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

Oh I completely forgot to say.  It is also known that last weekend there was a press event for previews, there will be a press presence in this coming session too.  The press embargo lifts on Friday, so even if you don't get in to the beta (or don't wish to test it), there are guaranteed to be preview articles in the gaming press on Friday and over the weekend.

I don't trust much of the gaming press further than I could throw them, but some may want to have a look around for articles over the weekend.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/2014/02/03/where-is-the-elder-scrolls-online-preview-it-s-coming


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## ffsear (Feb 5, 2014)

Checked my spam folder and i had a key all along


----------



## tommers (Feb 5, 2014)

There's an advert up on kinguin.  Pre-order + 30 days for €34.98.  Is that about right?


----------



## bouncer_the_dog (Feb 5, 2014)

I'll wait to test it when its f2p


----------



## tommers (Feb 5, 2014)

bouncer_the_dog said:


> I'll wait to test it when its f2p



Invite 5 friends for 1,000 gems!


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

tommers said:


> There's an advert up on kinguin.  Pre-order + 30 days for €34.98.  Is that about right?



Sounds very low price compared to others so I'd check to see what the catch is (or it might just be some really good deal but it seems too good to be true iykwim).  Lowest price I've found for the standard edition (disk or digital) is £39.99 - Amazon and GAME! are offering boxed standard edition at discounted pre-order price of £39.99, and over the weekend GMG had a 20% off deal on digital versions which took it down to around the same price (standard edition) for a few days.  These are all "discounted special offers", but are a perfectly average price for a big budget PC new release, so no argument from me on that score.

UK price direct from Zenimax is £49.99 for the digital standard edition which is IMO a stupid fuckup of price conversions that will lose them direct sales (just sell it internationally in $ so that it's a level playing field FFS), but even so I would be a bit suspect about anything less than £39.99 from any distributor or retailer for pre-orders.

All editions include 30 days sub.


----------



## tommers (Feb 5, 2014)

Oh I think it's legit.   They resell steam keys,  I bought a game off them no problems. Technically steam might stop the transaction as you're buying a gift copy but nobody I have heard has ever had problems. 

Is it pay for the original copy and then a monthly subscription?


----------



## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

tommers said:


> Oh I think it's legit.   They resell steam keys,  I bought a game off them no problems. Technically steam might stop the transaction as you're buying a gift copy but nobody I have heard has ever had problems.
> 
> Is it pay for the original copy and then a monthly subscription?



ESO is not on Steam.


As you say, it is pay to play - buy a copy of the game and get 30 days free, then monthly sub.

As a gamer who does not have loads of spare cash, I find sub far easier to budget for than freemium/microtransaction/pay to win bullshit.


----------



## tommers (Feb 5, 2014)

Oh OK.   I don't know how they get their copies then. What's the usual subscription?

Edit,  I saw £8.99 a month.   I don't know how that goes against other MMOs but doesn't sound too bad I guess.


----------



## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

tommers said:


> Oh OK.   I don't know how they get their copies then. What's the usual subscription?
> 
> Edit,  I saw £8.99 a month.   I don't know how that goes against other MMOs but doesn't sound too bad I guess.



Yep £8.99.  I suspect there will be discount deals for longer sub periods as that is usual (but then going F2P at some point is also not unusual), but there is no info about that right now so just assume the base price of £8.99.


----------



## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

Oh and yeah I know I always say I don't want and wouldn't get another gaming client besides Steam?  Well I've always included the proviso that I would do _if there was a game I really wanted to play_.  EA/Origin, the ball is in your court 

I think it's not beyond the realm of possibility that future Zenimax and/or Bethesda games will require the same client, I hope not (I like Steam), but it's not a thought that is so far out there as to be impossible.  I have no way of knowing and am just guessing, but my gut feeling is don't be too surprised if that happens.


----------



## Epona (Feb 5, 2014)

Sorry to make yet another consecutive post:

Apparently the 20% off code (for both standard and Imperial digital versions of the game) at Green Man Gaming was still working a couple of hours ago - I thought it was only valid for a couple of days but is apparently still going.

I have been told use code PH4V4F-33PTVI-5HXNWG for 20% discount.  This is info passed on from elsewhere, don't hold me responsible if the code doesn't work!


----------



## Yata (Feb 6, 2014)

8.99 is exact same price as WoW and theyve been going for ages, f2p ends up costing you more if you play serious so sub isnt too bad of an option imo


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 6, 2014)

It depends if they get enough people to stick to it. Comparing it to WoW is pointless because it's a special case that stands on its own due to its age and status as the only one to be so successful in that way. Just how many will play it seriously enough to justify a £9 sub every month? If it's not enough they'll look at other methods of bankrolling it. What we expect of games has changed since WoW came out and started gathering its dedicated and loyal base, and that includes what we expect of how to pay for them.


----------



## ffsear (Feb 7, 2014)

I'm gonna give it a go on the stress test this weekend.	 How big is the download?


----------



## Epona (Feb 7, 2014)

ffsear said:


> I'm gonna give it a go on the stress test this weekend.	 How big is the download?



Absolutely fucking massive - over 20Gb.  If you're only just starting, I hope you have fast internet.


----------



## moon (Feb 7, 2014)

Have you seen this?


----------



## agricola (Feb 7, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> It depends if they get enough people to stick to it. Comparing it to WoW is pointless because it's a special case that stands on its own due to its age and status as the only one to be so successful in that way. Just how many will play it seriously enough to justify a £9 sub every month? If it's not enough they'll look at other methods of bankrolling it. What we expect of games has changed since WoW came out and started gathering its dedicated and loyal base, and that includes what we expect of how to pay for them.



EVE does have a similar (indeed from the view of the player much better) payment system, I think the issue is that the subscription model only works when the game is good enough and is managed well enough to give it a chance of long-term financial viability.  None of the MMOs over the past decade or so in the West have been able to do this, either because they were fundamentally flawed (as ESO looks to be), arent that good, or because they were crippled by being badly run (as WAR was).


----------



## ffsear (Feb 7, 2014)

Epona said:


> Absolutely fucking massive - over 20Gb.  If you're only just starting, I hope you have fast internet.




Its coming down at 2mb/sec  so hopefully will get on tonight!


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Feb 8, 2014)

Fucking Windows Update - left it downloading overnight, but the stupid PC decided it needed to restart itself sometime during the night so I'm still only at 78%.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 8, 2014)

Problem I have with this is the setting isn't very engaging.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 8, 2014)

Endless login screen this time around. Guess they're not quite ready for that many concurrent users...


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## ffsear (Feb 8, 2014)

liking it so far,	having to play on low graphics settings sadly!


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Feb 8, 2014)

So far only managed to login once, after about a 20 minute loading screen wait, and then it crashed.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2014)

I had a hell of a time logging in over the last stress test weekend. idk, that coupled with some of the game itself makes me a bit ... concerned that release is so short a time away.

Not that I'm buying it. I'll watch from afar.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2014)

I haven't logged into this beta yet, but my friends are all posting screenshots because the watermark has been removed. Is the NDA lifted then? If not, seems weird to remove the watermarking.


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Feb 8, 2014)

Haven't seen anything to indicate the NDA is lifted; at least, I wasn't presented with a revised set of T&Cs on opening it this time.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2014)

Yeah, I finally got it patched and saw nothing.

Server down for maintenance now. I've had a lot of problems with infinite loading screens today


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Feb 9, 2014)

A few reviews are landing now, and it doesn't look good for Bethesda: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/07/hands-on-the-first-few-hours-of-elder-scrolls-online/


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## ffsear (Feb 9, 2014)

Is the entire world open in beta?	the maps are huge


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 9, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> A few reviews are landing now, and it doesn't look good for Bethesda: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/07/hands-on-the-first-few-hours-of-elder-scrolls-online/



The 2 I've read are spot on, imo. It's pretty enough. There's nothing glaringly _bad_ about it. But it's just... a bit boring. There's no hook. There's nothing spurring you on, other than the vague hope that it gets better soon. I mean, it's a pleasant enough way to pootle around wasting a couple of hours, but that isn't worth the box price, and certainly isn't worth the sub. And even with the free 30 days I'm not about to spend £50 on a game I can only play for 30 days (because I can't justify spending £9 a month on something I know I'm not going to play endlessly).


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 9, 2014)

But there is a silver lining. I'm taking the characters I've made in this and using them as ideas for characters in Skyrim


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 9, 2014)

I've got deeper into the quest in Mistral now, I'm level 5 atm. That quest seems decently interesting. There's a lot of running from house to house to speak to x and back again, which is a pain, because I like going out and killing things, but it's not as bad as it could be.

It's drawing me in a little bit more, but not enough.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 10, 2014)

Hit my first major bug, doing the rites of the queen quest. The queen just stopped moving and was utterly unresponsive so i had to abandon it. Forums suggest it's a common bug, and that the end fight in that quest is uncharacteristically hard anyway, so the bug probably did me a favour.

I'm actually starting to like it a bit


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 10, 2014)

Sheogorath


----------



## golightly (Feb 10, 2014)

I haven't even managed to get out of the cell yet!   Now every time I try to log on I'm held in a queue for half an hour.


----------



## ffsear (Feb 10, 2014)

how long is beta open for?


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 10, 2014)

I believe it was meant to end Sunday, but I haven't tried logging in today so I don't really know. Maybe I'll try to log in again.

I ended up by the time I went to bed (don't ask what time that was... seriously) wishing I owned the game 

Dammit. I might get it. After all my protestations. We'll see.

Edit:

I can still log in.

Edit 2: It might end around midnight EST tonight.


----------



## Epona (Feb 11, 2014)

I'm getting it (so yes, my first post on this thread might have been a little hasty  ).  Fortunately my birthday is near the release date, so that's my birthday prezzie sorted!


----------



## moon (Feb 11, 2014)

Why the sudden change of opinion?


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 11, 2014)

Epona said:


> I'm getting it (so yes, my first post on this thread might have been a little hasty  ).  Fortunately my birthday is near the release date, so that's my birthday prezzie sorted!



My birthday is April, so it'll be a pressie for me too (going to wangle the Imperial edition) 



moon said:


> Why the sudden change of opinion?



The change for me was just that as I got deeper into some of the quests (I'd say when I hit level 6 roughly) they started getting quite interesting, and I was getting more of the hang of it and enjoying just romping around. 

The big problem for me in MMOs usually is that I'm generally a lone gamer so if there are massive spikes in difficulty for certain parts that require you to group with others I often hit a brick wall. I stumbled across one group dungeon this weekend, but it's an optional instance and not related to the main stories. I also kept dying at one particular point when trying to get through a difficult area to complete a quest, but there was a small group of people doing similar so we grouped for just 10 minutes to help each other fight through, then dissipated straight after. There were a couple of individual instances (as in, instances in the MMO sense and individual as in you're alone when you do them in a dungeon or similar) where the difficulty spiked but I was able to get through them with only a couple of deaths and with lots and lots of judicious kiting and running the fuck away  Taking the nightblade's health siphoning skill and also slotting the first soul skill have been very, very useful.

I'll probably check out the guilds once I can... I think I'd like to be in a casual guild. There are usually ones where people aren't super-serious about people taking on specific roles when grouping, who are more about just helping each other get through content, or grouping to have a laugh in a dungeon where everyone will likely die several times, and just being a friendly face etc. That's my kind of thing, because as much as I can strategise and deal with high difficulty combat in certain games I've never been especially great with it in MMOs because I panic and start spamming whatever buttons my fingers reach first  The more 'srs bsns' guilds and players don't appreciate that kind of 'learn to play properly, fucking n00b' stuff.

But yeah, my mind changed because - while it's still not the most exciting thing ever made - I was getting drawn into the story (TES lore ftw) and generally having a good time in there. It's very pretty, I was starting to get a rudimentary understanding of a couple of the crafting systems, and I basically just found myself wishing I could keep playing after the beta ended.


----------



## Epona (Feb 11, 2014)

Found a preview where the reviewer actually played for more than a couple of hours:

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/t...r-scrolls-online-preview-first-few-hours.aspx


----------



## Epona (Feb 11, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I think I'd like to be in a casual guild. There are usually ones where people aren't super-serious about people taking on specific roles when grouping, who are more about just helping each other get through content, or grouping to have a laugh in a dungeon where everyone will likely die several times, and just being a friendly face etc. That's my kind of thing, because as much as I can strategise and deal with high difficulty combat in certain games I've never been especially great with it in MMOs because I panic and start spamming whatever buttons my fingers reach first  The more 'srs bsns' guilds and players don't appreciate that kind of 'learn to play properly, fucking n00b' stuff.



Same here, the ones that take it all too seriously scare me.  I want something that's fun to be involved in for casual grouping and assistance and having fun, rather than being yelled at because you don't have the exact right build or gear.

Edit: Oh I did actually set up a guild for the beta (with the imaginative name of "Urban Gamers"  ), but for some reason couldn't add anyone to it.  So maybe if there's another beta before release we could try that out!


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 11, 2014)

That sounds like a good idea. I did get a notification at some point which I think might have been telling me someone was trying to get in contact with me but it bugged out when trying to access it and it never came back. That might have been it. Hopefully that will be refined somewhat soon.

In MMO-related news: I really did love The Secret World - it was such an interesting concept, the combat was really refreshing and different, the story was fun, the setting was imaginative. I hit that brick wall when I got to the Blue Mountains region because it's really difficult and I didn't have anyone to play with. I was playing with someone else but they lost interest and didn't really understand the combat system (it's quite involved in terms of studying what skills to use together). So I stopped for a while. Then when I tried to install it on my new computer it refuses to play. Something to do with directx or something, but I think it's my gpu since this is a laptop and most games don't outright recognise the discrete card and only the integrated one - it seems like it was a step too far for TSW. (I haven't tried it with later drivers though - in fact I haven't updated my driver for a while now ). It worked absolutely fine on my macbook pro though


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 11, 2014)

http://www.theouthousers.com/index....ne-playtest-the-good-the-bad-the-awesome.html

Decent review by someone who spent a lot of time in the game, rather than the first few hours/levels, and who doesn't play mmos but adores TES.


----------



## Epona (Feb 12, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> http://www.theouthousers.com/index....ne-playtest-the-good-the-bad-the-awesome.html
> 
> Decent review by someone who spent a lot of time in the game, rather than the first few hours/levels, and who doesn't play mmos but adores TES.



That's a good review from someone coming to it from a similar perspective to my own.  There was only 1 point in the review I think that surprised me - mostly on the basis that it's odd they didn't realise this before they played, even not being into MMOs it seems like fairly straightforward logic to me - and that is about not getting tons of loot from enemies.  If people are getting full sets of armour and weapons from enemies it would devalue crafting, and break the economy.  It's all very well to play Skyrim for a bit and fairly quickly have more money, armour, and weapons, than all the Jarls put together, but that's just not going work in a game where crafting professions and trading are supposed to be a large part of the social side of things.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 12, 2014)

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1xog98/eso_discount_thread/

I just used the GameFly code and got the Imperial Edition for less than the standard price of the normal edition (i.e. 20% off). It appears it comes with all the early access and any race any faction stuff that you get from buying it through ESO's official store, as well as the Imperial Edition goodies. I saw a few people on white horses during beta so I expect that if you register your key to your account now you'll be able to take advantage of some things during any upcoming beta events.

Epona


----------



## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/...Michael-Bitton-ESO-Its-The-Little-Things.html


Vintage Paw said:


> http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1xog98/eso_discount_thread/
> 
> I just used the GameFly code and got the Imperial Edition for less than the standard price of the normal edition (i.e. 20% off). It appears it comes with all the early access and any race any faction stuff that you get from buying it through ESO's official store, as well as the Imperial Edition goodies. I saw a few people on white horses during beta so I expect that if you register your key to your account now you'll be able to take advantage of some things during any upcoming beta events.
> 
> Epona



Cheers, I'll have a look at that!

Edit: Found a good article on crafting, something I found really fun:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/...Michael-Bitton-ESO-Its-The-Little-Things.html


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 13, 2014)

I didn't get a chance to spend much time with crafting. I started with some provisioning because of the sheer weight of pork and so on you can pick up in Coldharbor, and some of those pies stood me in good stead when I went up against a couple of harder end-of-quest baddies later on. But I soon got annoyed by the sheer amount of ingredients I was lugging around so turned my attention elsewhere.

My first enchantment ended up being green, and gave me +50 armour, which was very nice. I put that on an amulet I was given for a quest. 

I was powering through as much content as possible though so I didn't spend any more time gathering materials and learning some of the basics. I want to dawdle my way through once the game comes out, and have no problem at all spending hours, days, weeks in certain areas getting the most out of them. I hear the skill points really start coming in once you hit the teens, so spending them on crafting skill lines doesn't seem as much of a risk at that point.

I'll read that article. I've always fancied crafting in other MMOs but only dabbled and therefore never made good headway. In TOR it became prohibitively expensive (in time and money) to do it past a certain point unless you were doing it fulltime, really. I was playing with a buddy during my whole time with that game, and we split up the crafts between us so they complimented. But he wasn't as into it as I was, and it's something that takes an element of dedication. What I've heard about ESO's crafting though sounds promising. The lack of an auction house might be a stumbling block. If you're a member of a guild then professional crafters will emerge and you have people to go to to make things for you, but not everyone wants to focus on crafting to the point that you need to make the really nice stuff, so those not in a guild might start to have problems if there isn't easy access to some kind of trading system. I think they want to encourage chat box trading, but that can get mightily cluttered and chaotic, and you can't exactly browse someone's wares that way. You either have to put out a request for a very specific X or wait to see a very specific Y listed for sale. Maybe this is all covered in the article, I'll read it now


----------



## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

The 'special crafting areas' are covered in the article and they're bloody fantastic


----------



## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> The lack of an auction house might be a stumbling block. If you're a member of a guild then professional crafters will emerge and you have people to go to to make things for you, but not everyone wants to focus on crafting to the point that you need to make the really nice stuff, so those not in a guild might start to have problems if there isn't easy access to some kind of trading system.



There is already a large group of dedicated crafters and traders setting up a guild to make it easier for dedicated crafters to get their goods distributed without having to be part of a massive serious guild - making use of the '5 guilds per account' limit.  The idea being that if you get good at crafting you keep a guild slot free, when you have stuff to sell or want to buy materials you join the trade guild, do your trading, then leave the guild.  Others can then buy your goods from the trade guild for themselves or to distribute them via their other guilds.  Apparently the guild store prices are set and if that is the case and the trade guild is well organised and well advertised, it could mean that even solo crafters can do well at a profession and sell their wares widely without too much hassle.  There are ways and means for crafters to organise even without an auction house or trading post.  Not sure how it will work, but the folks organising it seem to have it all thought out!  I've already expressed interest as I love crafting.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 13, 2014)

That's interesting. You've clearly read a lot more than I have about it. Where do you get most of your news? I've been sticking to the subreddit so far, but I know there's Tamriel Foundry and so on as well.

And yeah, I read around that guy's crafting articles last night - it sounds great. I stumbled across a couple of completely out of the way crafting stations with strange names, I didn't know that's what they meant. There was one on a little wooden platform sheltering in the rocks just off the beach near the coast on the 2nd Aldmeri island... I can't remember what it was called now.

OH. I also found a ghost ship! The ghost skellybones that were patrolling it were way above my level at the time but I was exploring around the coast, saw some ruined bits of wood, got closer, saw it was a shipwreck, and when I got close enough the entire ship appeared in ghost form and it was freaking massive and amazing. I would have loved to have been able to find out what that was all about. Probably one of my favourite moments from the whole beta. It was great.


----------



## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

ATTENTION BETA TESTERS.

Just had a change in the client, looks like they'll be testing the EU server soon.  Unfortunately this appears to mean a complete reinstall from fresh for those in the EU. *cries*

It might be a good idea to launch your client now, wait for it to automatically change to EU, and click the INSTALL button to re-download everything so that it's ready.

Bugger bugger bugger, took me 36 hours to download everything last time


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

DON'T DO ANYTHING YET!

Actually it looks as though files from the US beta are still in a separate folder, I'm going to try copying them to the EU folder and see what happens, hopefully I'll get a smaller update.

Will let everyone know what happens.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 13, 2014)

D:

Gawd, what a pain.

I haven't had another email about a test, have you?

We will, apparently, be able to choose whether we play on the EU or US server. I don't know which to pick, to be honest. Lag hasn't been an issue with any US servers I've been on in the past, and I don't expect it to be with this game either. I've previously chosen US servers a lot of the time because I tend to be a bit of a night owl... I think you know this already since we tend to be replying to each others posts at 3 or 4am most of the time. I'd likely have more of a chance of being able to group with people or be social if I was on the US server.

That said, I tend to hunker down and watch netflix after about 1am these days... so might find myself doing most of my gaming in the afternoons and evenings. I suppose it depends on the guilds too, since they will be server-based.

Gah. It's my biggest dilemma. I have a bunch of friends on flickr who it seems are going to be getting the game too. I''ll see what they're doing. Of the ones I've seen so far, I think 1 is in Europe and 1 is in South America, and I'm not sure about any of the others.

What are your thoughts on this, Epona? It would be most wonderful if we were able to keep in touch in game, maybe group up on occasion.


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

THAT DID THE TRICK.

Instructions for EU Beta Testers.

Open the client, wait for it to update (it will freeze for a few minutes).  Now in the 'Games' panel you should see "Elder Scrolls Online EU (Beta)" and your Play button has changed to Install.
Click Install so that a new directory is created.  Then pause the download and close the client.
Locate your Zenimax Online folder.  Within that there should now be 3 folders - Launcher, Elder Scrolls Online, and Elder Scrolls Online EU.
Open the Elder Scrolls Online folder and copy all the subfolders and files into the Elder Scrolls Online EU folder, overwriting when asked.
Launch the client - it will now be verifying files instead of downloading from scratch, then some smaller updates.

Thank goodness for that!

Looks as though they will be testing the EU servers soon!


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> What are your thoughts on this, Epona? It would be most wonderful if we were able to keep in touch in game, maybe group up on occasion.



I have been wondering.  Sometimes I play at night and sometimes during the day, depending upon the unpredictable whims of my sleep patterns and insomnia!  I didn't have any issues with latency on the US server in the last beta so that's not an issue for me either way.

I'd certainly like to be on the same server as you so that we can occasionally team up for group content and communicate.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 13, 2014)

I'm glad it's as simple as just copying the game over. That would have been a nightmare. Not just because of the long download time but I don't particularly want 2 versions of such a huge game on my hard drive.

I've let my flickr friends know as well, since some of them will no doubt stumble across this problem soon.


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2014)

Although they have said that they won't be doing a formal open beta, they will be inviting everyone who has ever signed up - I assume this is just in preparation to get us lot on the EU server to give it a good thrashing whenever the next beta test will be.

I'm now wondering if they will be moving our beta accounts across to the EU server or if we'll be sent new login details and have to start from scratch... hmmm.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 14, 2014)

There has been confirmation that roleplayers will be phased with other roleplayers on the megaserver. There will be a series of checkboxes or options you can pick, presumably in settings, and the game will take that into account as it dynamically phases people into different shards depending on server population in any given zone at any given time. That sounds excellent.

Epona - I think I'm going to pick the EU server. I've spoke to some who have said that pvp showed a fair bit of lag for EU people on the US servers the past few betas. Now, that's not to say it will after launch, but lag matters there, even a few milliseconds. I'm not a pvp-er as a rule, but I also don't want to shut that whole part of the game off to me in case it is something I want to try - and I _do_ at least want to try it since it does sound like a lot of good fun.


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## Epona (Feb 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> There has been confirmation that roleplayers will be phased with other roleplayers on the megaserver. There will be a series of checkboxes or options you can pick, presumably in settings, and the game will take that into account as it dynamically phases people into different shards depending on server population in any given zone at any given time. That sounds excellent.



When was the info you saw dated and/or where was it?  I ask because this is how they WERE planning to do it, but that idea was ditched a while back now.   The advice now is that you'll be placed with people in your guilds, on your friends list, and people you've grouped with before.  To the best of my knowledge, the questionnaire is no longer happening, sadly.



Vintage Paw said:


> Epona - I think I'm going to pick the EU server. I've spoke to some who have said that pvp showed a fair bit of lag for EU people on the US servers the past few betas. Now, that's not to say it will after launch, but lag matters there, even a few milliseconds. I'm not a pvp-er as a rule, but I also don't want to shut that whole part of the game off to me in case it is something I want to try - and I _do_ at least want to try it since it does sound like a lot of good fun.



Cool, EU it is.  Makes sense, just because I've not had issues on the US server so far, doesn't mean that will still be the case come launch!


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 14, 2014)

They tweeted it earlier today, I saw a picture of the tweet on the subreddit (r/elderscrollsonline - definitely worth watching because they are dredging everything for news).


http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscroll...layers_get_phazed_together_on_the_megaserver/


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## Epona (Feb 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> They tweeted it earlier today, I saw a picture of the tweet on the subreddit (r/elderscrollsonline - definitely worth watching because they are dredging everything for news).
> 
> 
> http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscroll...layers_get_phazed_together_on_the_megaserver/




Oh excellent!  Thanks for that, I knew they said it some time ago, then said they weren't doing it - a lot of people (mostly the RP crowd) were complaining about that, because naturally if you RP you want to be placed with other RPers for the best experience - so that's really good news


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2014)

THE NDA HAS LIFTED.

I repeat: THE NDA HAS LIFTED.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2014)

INCOMING...

A certain daedric place:






Part of the Aldmeri Dominion's starting location:





Pretty water:





Gorgeous lighting (seriously, the light is lovely in the game):





More nice lighting, plus some armour (medium) and my favourite hairstyle:


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2014)

http://esohead.com/

Skill calculator, crafting simulator, maps, and more.


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## Epona (Feb 15, 2014)

Finally!!!!

I have spent weeks restraining myself, now NDA is lifted I can't think what to say.  I'll have a bit of a think about it and post a little beta review tonight or tomorrow (been out all day across the other side of England at niece's birthday party and have just got back so am a bit knackered right now).


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## Yata (Feb 16, 2014)

so how much of the game is instanced?


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## Yata (Feb 16, 2014)

Nice :O


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 16, 2014)

Yata said:


> so how much of the game is instanced?



It's one massive megaserver, and you are phased into shards. There have been issues in beta that if you are grouped with others and you enter a public dungeon area sometimes they'll be invisible because the game has phased you all into different shards. I expect this is something they are working hard on to get right.

The - I think - 16 private dungeons are all obviously group instances. There are a few solo instances when it comes to main quest content, but a great deal goes on outside or in public areas. There's currently no mechanism for people you're grouped with to enter your solo instances. And I think they are still trying to balance how many people are phased into the actual public dungeons that are scattered around (the last beta there were too many being let in at once it seems). 

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/02/eso-isariis-comprehensive-review/ <-- this is the first really comprehensive review I've seen. It covers most things.

And yeah, there are some great pvp videos coming out. I've never been a pvper but this - I am absolutely going to be trying this out. Without a doubt.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2014)

*ESO Beta Review - the perspective of a long-time TES fan who has always hated multiplayer - a review for the fans of Single Player TES games. What to expect, and why you should try it (or maybe decide that it's not for you).
*
I must first explain that I am not an MMO player. Before taking the game out for a spin I was extremely dubious about one of my favourite franchises being given the multiplayer treatment, and thought I would probably not be interested. How wrong I was!

Here is a mini-review, based on my experiences playing the beta for around 80 hours over 2 weekends. I will not go into bugs as it is a beta build (and I have it on good authority that there is a smaller full-time test group who are still under NDA for post-lvl 15 content, playing on a newer build, looking for bugs throughout the game, the stress tests that I am involved in have likely been conducted on a slightly older build as far as I know) so to go into detail about bugs which have likely already been sorted out is not the point here.

Also it is important to note that the build used for stress-testing confines the testers to low level zones and PvP (which is restricted to Cyrodil - I say restricted, but it is of comparable size to the size of the province in Oblivion, so a vast area). I have not yet tried PvP so don't expect a review of that here - even if I had tried it, with no other MMO experience I would not be able to give any useful comparisons or write up beyond the vaguest opinion - although other players who have tried it compare it to DAoC PvP which is not surprising, given that some of the developers of that game are heading development of ESO.

There are some *MINOR* spoilers here, so I'm putting it in tags. (Edit: had to do it in 4 parts because of forum word limit - my "mini-review" became less "mini" than I expected.)

And yes I am biased - started off hating the idea of the game, not particularly liking the game for the first few hours I played it, got drawn in, now happily budgeting for my £8.99 a month sub.  This is not an objective review, and I am not pretending any different.  This is a write up of the things I liked and disliked about the game - my viewpoint, entirely subjective.

*Part One (Exploration, Questing/Story)*



Spoiler



*Exploration*

First thing to get out of the way, is that the starter area (Coldharbour and "Starter Island" for each alliance) is small and you have to advance the main quest in order to reach the mainland. There is some exploration to be had, crafting materials to be gathered, mobs to be killed, and certainly on one faction starter island that I put some time into, several side quests off the beaten path. However, the start of the game is fairly weak in this regard, especially if you are a TES fan. Worth sticking with however. Yes the game takes place in levelled zones.

Yes, once you're off starter island, you can go wherever the fuck you like within the available alliance areas (once you're out of the starting islands, the only impediment to your exploration is loading screens between zones, and higher level mobs than you can cope with), just expect to get your arse handed to you when you run into something above your level, because there's no level scaling. This is a plus for me -there is nothing stopping you from doing it, but if you are a low level expect it to be difficult and try to avoid enemies.

Other alliance territories are off-limits until you hit level 50 (and I suspect complete the MQ up to a certain point), then you can travel to another alliance area and complete 'veteran' versions of those quests and dungeons and explore to your hearts content. Then you can visit the third alliance territory. So it will be possible to explore the entire of the available territories with one character.

Can I also just say "Treasure Maps" 

*Questing/Story/NPCs/NPC Guilds*

Again, this is weak at the start. The typical TES 'prison escape' intro is present and correct, but failed to grab me (although at this point the game is lacking an opening cinematic, which may help to instil a sense of drama, there is just a placeholder graphic in the build we are testing on). But my initial thoughts were "this doesn't seem very TES" and overall left me feeling a bit dubious about the game.

The start sequence introduces you to the basic mechanics of inventory, journal, map, combat, and levelling, and mercifully can be rushed through in around 10 minutes once you know what you're doing - getting the hang of the controls will not be difficult for TES fans used to mouse controlled camera and movement.

Similarly, Starter Island feels very on the rails in terms of questing with some handholding and a sense of urgency to get through the MQ. As I mentioned, you can go off the beaten track and find a few side quests and interesting things, but the start is a weak point in the game for TES fans.

Once on the mainland, how it all changes for the better! Side quests all over the place, NPCs become more interesting and you start to become invested in them and the stories they present, the quests become more interesting and varied with different ways to complete (using a disguise to infiltrate vs. all out combat; enslave an undead army or free them from their torment) and quest choices that meaningfully affect the world. Even the sidequests made me feel invested, at no point did I find myself on any "collect 10 bear pelts" without any real good story reason type of collection/kill quest.

The writing is really good and the quests are interesting, up there with the best quests that TES has to offer, and IMO often surpassing them.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2014)

*Part Two (Lore, Skills, Classes)*



Spoiler



*Lore
*
THIS IS TES. Yes I was disappointed when it was announced that Cyrodil was not going to be a jungle (and I'd have had far more respect for the devs if they'd just said "look, a jungle is not going to work for the type of PvP we have planned, so we're doing it as it was in Oblivion for Gameplay Reasons" rather than trying to fluff it by a dubious retcon. Same with fractal crystalline Altmer buildings.) And the alliances didn't seem to make much sense.

HOWEVER I take it all back - rather than riding roughshod over lore, we have a world utterly dripping with TES Lore, strongly permeating every byte and pixel of the game, the alliances and their quests are full of tension within the alliances (in one quest for the Ebonheart Pact I attempted to deal with a Dunmer who refused to allow an Argonian whom he considered a slave-race to heal the townsfolk, and later on there are quests involving Dres slavers who refuse to support the alliance. In the Daggerfall Covenant there were quests involving tensions and choices to make between Orsimer, Redguard, and Breton. And yes, it is your choice how to deal with these issues.) So do not think that these alliances are accepted without issue - tensions form a major part of the game and it is really well thought-out and implemented into everything from NPC chatter, to quests, to new written lore appropriate to the period and setting.

Which bring us to books - what good would a game in a TES setting be without books to read? Plenty available, from old classics that pre-date the era of the game, to new writings, missives, documents, all very well thought out and adding a ton of that old TES lore magic.

Even in terms of food recipes, there are local ingredients and recipes that are lore-correct or fit in neatly with existing lore - including plenty of options for Bosmer who probably have the most restrictive diet of any TES race, I was very happy to find myself making brews of fermented meat and cooking up insects to enhance my combat stats. Rotmeth FTW!

*Skills*

Skills work differently than in TES games, in order to make a balanced MMO experience. This is probably the biggest area of difference, although some TES mechanics (skill increase with use) have been included. Certainly if you are used to skill increases from TES, and XP-based levelling and spending skill points on abilities in other types of RPG games, this won't seem too alien, it's neither one nor the other but a mesh of the two styles.

Basically, whenever you complete a quest, find a new location through exploration, or kill a mob, you gain XP. You gain levels and 1 skillpoint per level by accruing XP. You also increase the level of the skills you use regularly. You can then use your skillpoints to buy new abilities on your skill trees, or to morph existing ones into something better. You can also gain additional skill points as quest rewards or by finding Skyshards which are hidden around Tamriel.

So it's a fairly sensible mix of TES-style "increase by use" skill progression, and other RPG style "gain XP and spend points to increase attributes and buy skills and abilities". IMO, it works rather well.

There are also skill trees that you can gain and level by joining Fighters Guild/Mages Guild/Undaunted (and although I don't think they will be in for launch, Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood will be added later.) And vampire and werewolf skill trees too.

*Classes
*
Following on from skills, it is natural to talk about classes in the game. Classes are of course not a new thing to TES, but in games pre-Skyrim were determined by either preset or custom Major/Minor skills which would level quicker than other skills. Zenimax have strongly hinted that they included classes to provide comfort and a frame of reference for the MMO crowd. In practice, they are extremely flexible. You choose a class at the start but it doesn't limit you to a certain playstyle. Each class has 3 skill trees (which given the number of skills in the game is fairly minor) and has a set of skills that cover all sorts of abilities.

However, any class can pretty much do anything, just some can do certain things a little bit better than others, or in a slightly different way. View it as a set of additional abilities on top of the base, rather than a restriction, and you're thinking along the right lines.

As an example, the Nightblade skill lines are additional abilities that can be used to improve stealth (Shadow), damage enemies whilst restoring yourself (Siphoning), and fast DPS type attacks (Assassin). But these are on top of the basic weapons and armour skills (and everyone can do stealth, just that there are improvements to it in the Nightblade class), so you can mix it up with light armour and a flame (or other destruction) staff/restoration staff to be a stealth mage, medium armour with dual daggers (or any other dual 1 hand weapon combo) and a bow to be a more typical rogue, or heavy armour and sword/shield to be more of an evasion tank. Or pretty much any other combination you can think of. There is no class restriction on the weapons or armour you can use.

This extremely flexible class system is immense and allows for some unusual combinations of skills, and some of the headaches it is causing to Min/Max hardcore MMO gamers is somewhat amusing to watch, as they attempt to pick a 'best tank build' or 'best healer build' from amongst the vast mix. I think for some, the flexibility is going to cause a rethink on their usual play style. For TES players it may seem more restrictive on paper, but it's just "a small bit of extra stuff that different classes can do" rather than being tied into a particular role from start to end. I like it.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2014)

*Part Three (Combat, Loot, Grouping/Instances)*



Spoiler



*Combat*

Combat at the start of the game is not particularly interesting or diverse (it can be said that in most aspects the first few hours of the game are fairly flat, Zenimax fell flat on their face with getting you quickly into the heart and soul of the game in pretty much every regard) - run around, kill a few wolves, kill a few hostile NPCs, use the one ability that you spent your first skillpoint on.

My god it gets really good. A few skill levels and skillpoints later and you're meeting mobs that use similar skills and work together with really pretty good AI to rip your head off. There are definite difficulty spikes - standard mobs become easier to deal with as it should be, then you'll run into something that makes you wonder what the fuck you are doing wrong. Can I just say "Gutstripper". Some of the boss encounters are enough to raise your adrenalin to levels you haven't seen in gaming for a while and make you really think and strategise about what abilities to slot on your hotbar, what buffs you need for preparation - which is absolutely superb if you get bored with easy games and little challenge. Sure overground most mobs of an appropriate level won't impede your exploration (which is important) but then you'll really have to think about tackling some nasties.

About the hotbars and combat mechanics - combat skills are light/fast attack (LMB), strong/slow attack (Hold LMB), block (RMB), interrupt (LMB+RMB), dodge (double tap direction key). Q button is for a potion, then 1-5 for active abilities from your skill trees, and R for an "ultimate" skill. At level 15 you unlock weapon swap which gives another bar of 1-5 plus Ultimate. Yes there has been plenty of whining from MMO players that want 150 skills on their hotbar at all times and are used to playing Rachmaninov on their keyboard during boss fights. ESO doesn't work like that, and it ain't going to change. Select a few skills that you want active at any one time, swap them out for other things if need arises. Switch weapons (weapon 2 can be the same type as weapon 1) in combat - it's pretty much instant - to access the second hotbar.

As in single player TES games, your resources are Health, Stamina, and Magicka - different attacks and combat moves draw on either stamina or magicka, there's no cooldown or anything, but you are unlikely to be able to spam an attack or have a fixed rotation of attacks, because you're going to run out of resources. The intention is that every character, every class, should be involved in combat when in a group, and that every character should be at least partly responsible for their own survival.

Note to TES players: There is no collision detection between player characters, or between players and NPCs/mobs. This is to enable up to 200 players on screen at a time without affecting performance, and to prevent complete bastards from blocking a doorway to a quest objective for shits and giggles. It takes a little adjustment to get used to but makes sense for the reasons given. Also combat at the moment feels a little unimpactful, this can easily be remedied by the implementation of small 'on hit' animations and vocal sound effects - good news, the devs in their latest "Ask Us Anything" say that they have noted feedback on this aspect of combat and will do something to improve it.

*Loot*

This is possibly one of the hardest concessions to multiplayer for TES fans to get to grips with. You cannot kill an enemy and get his/her complete armour/weapons kit for yourself. You will likely get at most a small gold reward, and for around 10% of kills, a single weapon or piece of armour if you're lucky.
It's quite simple to explain, and that is the player economy. Unlike a single player game you cannot be allowed to become the wealthiest person in the world with every daedric artefact in your personal arsenal, because there are other players around. There is an economy and there is trade. There is crafting (which we will come to later), and it's easy enough to craft your own basic kit, but there will be players who get their main fun from putting a load of time into crafting and selling their high-end gear to other players.

So - if you kill an enemy NPC, you will not get all his/her amour and weapons. If you see a weapon rack, or a weapon on a table, it is probably just for decoration. Having said that, the game is very rich in lootable containers - barrels, crates, urns, pickable locked chests etc. But don't expect tons of armour or weapons (they are supposed to be rare and it's therefore exciting when you find something good!) but there is plenty of stuff to loot.

Lockpicking is a mini-game that is not hard, but is on a timer. Enemy loot and XP is instanced so there's no such thing as kill-stealing - if you join in a fight and do a significant amount of damage to an enemy you will get your own loot and XP.

*Grouping/Instancing*

The MQ is designed to be solo-able. Some parts of the MQ you can do with friends who are on the same stage of the quest as you, if not you will be phased into different instances to complete different stages of the quest. If you are on the same stage, you will each have to perform each part of the quest and individually speak to quest givers. Some parts of the MQ you are in a solo instance. This is because the MQ is designed to be done solo. Although it won't be in at launch, the devs have stated that they intend to introduce a mentoring system so that you can go back and redo previous completed quest content with friends.

There are some questlines (such as the NPC guild "The Undaunted") completely designed around 4 player dungeons. Some quests you can share. There are public dungeons. There are overland boss encounters designed for groups. There are Dark Anchors which are designed to be tackled by multiple players at a time.

There is little detail about endgame content at this point, but 12 person 'adventure zone' dungeons have been mentioned.

But yeah if you want to solo there is plenty of solo content (although much of the time there will be other players visible and helping each other out even if not formally grouped), if you want to group there is plenty of group content, but sometimes on the MQ you won't be able to group.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2014)

*Part Four (Crafting, Graphics & Art, Summary)*



Spoiler



*Crafting*

I think I already talked about crafting earlier, because I fucking LOVE it. 6 professions -Blacksmith, Woodworking, Clothier, Alchemy, Enchanting, Provisioning (cooking).

Really in-depth and well thought out, everyone will be able to craft their own basic kit but later in the game dedicated crafters are going to find that their skills are in demand, because to become really good you have to put in a ton of time and effort and spend some skill points on it - it's a really good balance of "everyone will want to give it a go and find it useful, but not everyone will want to concentrate on it".

Special set crafting areas FTW. Just one example of how exploration IS rewarded, and rewarded well in this game.

*Graphics & Art*

There's little to say about this that can't be said with a screenshot or 20, unfortunately I have not yet taken any screenshots. Vintage Paw posted some earlier in the thread, and expect more from both of us after the next beta (or even better, sign up for beta yourself and experience the game - just remember when you start that the first few hours are not a good advert for the rest of the game).

It's not modded Skyrim, nor can we expect it to be to allow so many players on screen at a time and to accommodate older PCs. But it is pretty - the lighting is lovely, the water is lovely, the spell effects are lovely, etc etc. It's just a really nice looking game, and really well optimised to run on older kit even whilst still in Beta.

In terms of art style it is very true to TES - there's nothing cartoony here and no "anime swords". In fact in terms of art style, it reminds me most of Morrowind (with better graphics). It's not as oversaturated as Oblivion, and not as desaturated as Skyrim. It's not photo-realistic, but it's not cartoony. It just looks really nice and atmospheric, and very very TES.

I should also mention that the music is great - very evocative, and very TES.

*Brief summary*

There is something about the game that (at least in terms of atmosphere and lore) reminds me more of Morrowind than any other TES game. There are some obvious concessions to multiplayer - in terms of allowing a large number of players on screen at the same time, game economy, areas designed for certain levels (although mostly you can try to explore them regardless, on your own head be it) and balance - but if as a TES player you can live with a few changes for a persistent multiplayer world, then you might find something you really like. I certainly did.

The beginning is weak for TES players, but if you persist beyond the first few hours you will be rewarded.

There won't be a formal open beta, but Zenimax have said they will have a few more large-scale closed betas where everyone who has signed up will be invited, and they will have large giveaways of beta keys - so if you want to try it out, there is no excuse not to.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 17, 2014)

Great review Epona - your experiences gel pretty much with my own. I've played MMOs before so wasn't quite coming at it from the absolute TES fan point of view that I've seen a lot of people having some issues with, and I didn't expect it to be like Skryim or other TES titles at all, really. I don't think I had any preconceptions at all, which stood me in good stead.

I agree absolutely about the first few hours. It's definitely the weakest part of the game, and might do them some real damage in terms of box sales and subs. I'd hope, however, that if someone has gone as far as to buy the game they'll give it a few more hours than those first 6 levels or so to see how it pans out.

I hadn't heard about their plans for mentoring. I'm very, very pleased to hear that, and interested to see how it will work. It's one thing I was worried about in the long term for the game. The way their phasing works on the megaserver means that once you've completed a quest you're stuck in a shard where that quest has been completed, so there's no going back to help out someone who hasn't done it yet. On the one hand, it works really, really nicely for individuals being immersed. There's one quest where I stumbled into a village that was under the rule of some dodgy military types, being razed to the ground, etc. I had to help save the village and drive the soldiers out. After I had done so, the village changed, now under the control of Dominion soldiers and with the villagers rebuilding it. There's no way I could go back to its earlier state to help someone else put down the invasion. For me, the world was permanently changed because of my intervention - amazing for immersion, worrying for cooperative play. I worry about what it will be like in some areas a few months down the line when people have spread out more. If you start a new character, there's a decent possibility you'll be the only one in an area because others are more advanced than you and while they are still in the same area they are phased to a more advanced part of the quests/island/area. They'll have to address that, because it could break the game for new players in particular, and an MMO depends on a steady trickle of new players to supplement and replace fatigued players down the line.

And yes, Gutsplitter. I only died the once, but if I hadn't had my siphoning skill I'm sure I would have died again. (Although I'm eyeing up a bow-wielding Breton templar for one character, which I think would be pretty sweet - plus heals... heals... lots of heals). Also, the quest with Veil in the title - I can't remember it's full name. A solo dungeon instance, 3 evil bosses at the end. 2 of them come at you at once. Oh. Dear. Lord. Again, I only died the once, but I only survived the second time by running the fuck away and regenning a bit of health and magicka and stamina in the process.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 17, 2014)

Are you going to be venturing into pvp, epona? This is the first game where I'm going to. It looks brilliant.

Anyone else here thinking about getting the game?


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 19, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Anyone else here thinking about getting the game?


I wasn't, since I burned out on WoW (and subsequently Warhammer, LotRO, Eve Online, Defiance, plus a few others) but Epona's review now has me thinking I might give it a go. Dammit. Still waiting for the ESO Mac beta, since Bootcamp OS switching is one thing that puts me off buying Skyrim on PC.


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## ffsear (Feb 19, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> INCOMING...
> 
> A certain daedric place:
> 
> ...




what are your system stats?


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 19, 2014)

I'm still torn. Still don't know if I can justify a subscription.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 19, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> I wasn't, since I burned out on WoW (and subsequently Warhammer, LotRO, Eve Online, Defiance, plus a few others) but Epona's review now has me thinking I might give it a go. Dammit. Still waiting for the ESO Mac beta, since Bootcamp OS switching is one thing that puts me off buying Skyrim on PC.



People have been playing the Mac beta already, it's releasing at the same time as the PC version. Response seems to be good, it's not a wine port or anything like that, it's native, and apparently runs like a dream.

This may be of use to you:

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1y1v9b/mac_players_megathread/


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 19, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> People have been playing the Mac beta already, it's releasing at the same time as the PC version. Response seems to be good, it's not a wine port or anything like that, it's native, and apparently runs like a dream.


Cool - I registered for the Mac beta, guess I wasn't interesting enough for them to include.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 19, 2014)

ffsear said:


> what are your system stats?



Clevo P170E
AMD 7970M 2GB
i7-3630QM 2.4ghz
8GB 1600 RAM
750GB Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD (no SSD)
Windows 7

Ran everything maxed out, didn't check fps but was getting some epic screen tearing and everything _felt_ like it was above 60 the whole time (need to fiddle with vsync and CCC next time I play). Didn't try pvp but I don't anticipate problems.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 19, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Cool - I registered for the Mac beta, guess I wasn't interesting enough for them to include.



Keep an eye on curse.com - that's where they were giving away beta keys for the last weekend. There's no word yet but I expect there will be another test the weekend after this - because it's going to start getting a bit tight to fit many more in otherwise, what with early access starting on 30th March. I believe they might be inviting everyone who ever signed up, but that might have been the rumour mill. No harm signing up again on their official site though, in case your original one went astray.


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## Epona (Feb 19, 2014)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I'm still torn. Still don't know if I can justify a subscription.



Give it another go next beta.  It's much better once you're off Kenarthi's Roost and have a bigger area to run around in - if you still don't like it once you've got past level 10 or so then the decision will be easier.  I was very 'meh' until I'd got off that island and then I was sold.

I've now done all 3 starts, and although Kenarthi's Roost is bigger than the others (who have 2 starter zones each), for some reason the early quests there did not seem as interesting - although that could be because the others are fresher in my memory I suppose, and also my AD character I really grew to dislike, Templar doesn't suit my play style well and it was a silly decision for me to make a character that class when if I'd spent more time in character creation it would have been obvious that the stabby skills of the Nightblade would suit me way better.

I currently have a level 8 Bosmer Templar (who is currently in use as a pack mule), a level 11 Redguard Nightblade, and a level 8 Dunmer Nightblade.

Vintage Paw - I have heard a lot about the PvP and it does seem good, I will want to give it a go at some point, although probably not to the exclusion of exploration and questing.  One thing I have heard from full time testers is that if you go into Cyrodil at level 10 hence scaled up to 50, you have very little survivability against those that aren't scaled up because they reached level 50 naturally.  Given that most people aren't going to be a very high level in beta it probably levels the playing field a bit, but just don't be put off if you feel very very squishy!  But yeah the siege stuff sounds amazing.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 19, 2014)

Found the Mac client is now on the ESO website, so I'll download that and give it a try next beta weekend.

Edit: 1 hour later, 1% downloaded. Yay for rural broadband...


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 20, 2014)

I'm sating my need for ESO by cracking open GW2 again. I've been enjoying it, for the most part. Trying to focus a bit more on crafting, but you do seem to hit a natural limit when the fucking copper and jute runs out 

Still, made it to level something or other, 13? That sounds about right. Playing a thief, which, according to the people who still play this game, is a difficult one to level with if you're not used to the game. I am a bit squishy, but it's a darned sight more interesting than playing a fucking warrior.


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## Epona (Feb 21, 2014)

Twiddling my fingers and thumbs waiting for the next beta session.
Need my fix


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 21, 2014)

I have reached level 18. I keep dying all the time. I've invested almost all of my extra stats into precision to go heavy on critical hits, and tried to synergise with bleeding damage, but if I get hit too much I go down fast. I have run out of bank space. Thank the maker for the collectables slots for crafting materials. I have no idea how we are going to cope without something like that in ESO.

Basically, from what I saw in ESO, you have 30 bank slots. You pay (in game gold) to get more, but they come at 10 at a time and cost more and more to unlock as time goes on, so you're going to run out fast - way before you earn enough to get more. And I don't know what the absolute limit on them is. Same with bag space. If you are a crafter, you simply won't have the space to keep materials, unless you specialise not in just one or two professions but probably in one or two items and styles from those professions.

In GW2 you have 30 bank spaces. You can buy extra bags for pennies (because they are player-crafted) to expand your inventory but you can't go above 5 bags (bags come in different sizes though) without paying gems (bought with in game gold or with real money) to unlock more slots for more bags. Sounds like a nightmare, BUT - they have a great collectables system. Anything that can be used in crafting can be deposited in your collectibles. There is automatically a slot for every crafting item in the game, and your ingredients, materials etc., will be slotted into their respective place. You can access anything that is in your collectables from any crafting station. Bank space can then be used for weapons you want to save, or whatever else. One awkward thing is that if you use some ingredients/mats to make another intermediate crafting component - for example let's say I make a bowl of dough out of flour and water or whatever it is - that component doesn't act as a collectable and has to be stored in your bank or bag if you don't use it immediately. This is most awkward with cooking because you can make a lot of intermediate components only to find you can't use them in anything yet because you do a kind of ESO alchemy thing with cooking, in that you try ingredients together, but they are capped at certain skill levels as you progress in the crafting line. So currently my bank is full of things like dough and ice cream base and cinnamon sugar and simple oil dressing XD Your bank and collectables slots are account wide.

Without those collectable slots crafting just wouldn't be viable in GW2. So I worry very, very much about how you would manage it in ESO. It's one thing to craft the first set of gear you're able to, but it's quite another to keep supplied with the mats to be able to level up your skill in it, to learn new recipes, and to progress in any meaningful way to keep yourself in good gear - and quite another again to do it as a profession - particularly outside of a guild. This is a thing I am worrying about.


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## Epona (Feb 21, 2014)

I have heard (although I don't know what, if any, facts are behind this) that it may be that we have reduced inventory in the beta build we are using.

At 3.25 of the crafting video below, 200 slots are shown - that's likely with upgrades as the character is a high level (and bank as it's in the extraction tab?), but gives me hope for a larger starting inventory in the final build, or at least that it is upgradeable (and feasible to do so, once you start earning more cash) to a useful size.

Either way, I gave plenty of feedback about inventory space last beta, and I know a lot of other people did too, it's been something of a hot topic.  It's not that I think inventory should be a bottomless pit, but when you start spending too much time on inventory management rather than other stuff, it is just not fun!  But yeah, looking good for better inventory for launch.



EDIT: Actually a bit later on the personal inventory is shown as 200 slots.  If it is like that for launch, then that is fine by me.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 22, 2014)

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for that. Well let's hope they get the balance right because you're right, it's absolutely no fun trying to earn money just to increase inventory/bank space, and in the meantime desperately juggling your gear when you'd rather be out killing things or exploring. It has the potential to make exploring more difficult if you can't stray too far without having to head back to sell some stuff. 

In GW2 news I've started a new character (I have chronic restartitis) - a ridiculously cute Asuran warrior called Dink. There's nothing more awesome than the tiniest, cutest little scamp smashing everything to pieces with a big, fuck off greatsword  It's a lot easier than thief, and thankfully because I'm still a newb to the game I get just as much pleasure out of being able to down things quickly as others do from having complex builds that require concentration and strategy. I'm following a couple of guides to make sure I focus on the right stats, but otherwise I can just slice right through everything. Far more satisfactory. I tend to really enjoy challenging myself once I've learned the mechanics of a game back to front, and it's far more difficult to do that in an MMO than a regular game, imo. So the might-as-well-be-cheating class it is


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 22, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Basically, from what I saw in ESO, you have 30 bank slots. You pay (in game gold) to get more, but they come at 10 at a time and cost more and more to unlock as time goes on, so you're going to run out fast - way before you earn enough to get more. And I don't know what the absolute limit on them is. Same with bag space. If you are a crafter, you simply won't have the space to keep materials, unless you specialise not in just one or two professions but probably in one or two items and styles from those professions.


Can you use spare characters as pack mules like in WoW? A few low-levels hanging around mailboxes with their pockets full of copper ore... actually, how does inter-character mail work in ESO; is it even possible? I don't remember seeing any mailboxes.


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## Epona (Feb 22, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Can you use spare characters as pack mules like in WoW? A few low-levels hanging around mailboxes with their pockets full of copper ore... actually, how does inter-character mail work in ESO; is it even possible? I don't remember seeing any mailboxes.



Yes you can.  Each character has their own personal inventory/bag slots, but there is also bank space shared between all your characters.  So you can park alts by the bank clerk and although it's a bit fiddly, you can log on with one character, transfer stuff to the bank or from the bank to that character, then log out and log in with a different character to access the same bank space.

It's a bit time consuming, so hoping for better inventory space come launch.  But yes if all else fails you can use alts as storage space - I already did it in the last beta.

Edit to add: When you are at a crafting station, you can craft directly from your bank space, so I found it most useful to keep ores and materials for enhancements in the bank.  You start off (at least in beta) with only 40 bank slots though, and given the variety of crafting materials in the game, that is insanesly small - I hope the base size for both personal inventory and bank are increased a bit for launch.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 22, 2014)

In addition, mail works just by hitting the mail icon - there are no physical mailboxes that I'm aware of. It might destroy immersion for some, but it's one of those quality of life things I really, really appreciate in the long run. Same with how GW2's collectables works - you can deposit mats in there from wherever you are. You can't access the bank in that way though, but that's a different storage space. You can also list things for sale on the trading post (auction house) from wherever you are, or buy things on it, but you have to go to a trading post person to pick up your goods/dosh. The balance feels about right to me, although I'd appreciate the opportunity to buy more bank space with just in game currency in an easier way, but I guess that's why they are buy to play with a cash shop - they need to get that money out of you somehow. It's not a dealbreaker though, the game is still perfectly playable without that.

As for alts, it entirely depends on how many slots you get because I use alts as mains... in that I tend to have several characters that I play with because I enjoy all of them equally. GW2 has 5 slots... that makes it quite difficult to do that (you can, of course, buy more in the cash shop but nope). If ESO has the full 10 then that will be a bit easier, but still unnecessarily fiddly - I'd rather be able to get more space, and I'm certain most players feel the same. It depends what they intend to be their gold-sink in order to maintain the economy.


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## Epona (Feb 22, 2014)

ESO will have 8 character slots, the devs confirmed last week.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 25, 2014)

Well now this is interesting. Latest patch notes state that they have changed the opening of the game so that once you leave Coldharbour you no longer go to the first starter island, but instead go to the second (or third, depending on faction) location that has the main city in it. You will have the option of choosing to then go to the first island to do the content there, or you can head off right away and start exploring, etc. To accommodate the change they have altered the difficulty of the mobs in this area to be 3-6 so they are easier for people who don't do those starter islands, but also compensate for easier difficulty by making level 5 mobs and above harder than they were to begin with anyway.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I would have preferred it if they did it the other way around, so you get dumped on the first starter island but can talk to an NPC who offers to take you straight to the main area, explaining you'll be missing some stuff. As it stands, I believe it will break the story, new players might miss it altogether by accident if it isn't signposted that they really should go back if they want to experience everything, etc. I'm fine with them giving people a choice, but doing it that way round seems more awkward.

Plus, how will the story work now? For example, in the AD faction you immediately meet Raz - the most awesome khajiit this side of a skooma party - and he explains a few things that have been going on with the maomer and so on. It sets up the story that continues on the main island, to such an extent that you won't know who the fuck Raz is, you won't understand some of the things about the queen, the maomer, why there was a storm, etc. I mean, some people don't give a shit about story and just want to click to pick up a quest, kill 20 wolves, and turn in their pelts for xp and lewts. But the whole point of this game was that it was dripping in TES lore and story. Breaking that up right at the beginning runs the risk of fracturing the narrative and making people really confused about who the fuck they are and why they are meant to care about helping these people out. 

No, I really, really think that doing it the other way around, making sure you are on that first island and understand what you might be missing (maybe showing you a short text explanation during the loading screen to the main island - "in the weeks it took you to travel to Auridon you learned that the storms that lashed the coastline and caused chaos amongst the Dominion troops stationed there and the khajiit who live there were in fact caused by maomer, and now you must uncover a greater threat..." - or something like that) so that people don't accidentally miss it without realising, and to make it flow in a more natural progression. It still offers that choice, you can still meet Raz, but he can tell you that if you'd rather you can head to the docks and get off this flea ridden island. 

Ugh. I'm a bit worried about this. We'll have to wait and see how it's handled, of course, but I worry so much that a few loud commentators have had such sway over such a crucial set up for the game... Maybe it'll be fine. Maybe I'm overestimating the importance of setting the scene. Maybe it's because I like a story to make sense. I just want the game to be the best it can be.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 25, 2014)

This video explains what has changed, but without covering the details, I guess. Also shows a few other changes, like collision detection for npcs and pve enemies.


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## Epona (Feb 25, 2014)

I should add, this is the patch notes for the full-time beta test group, and have not been released to the public or weekend beta testers (ie. it's still under NDA and been leaked).  They may or may not be applicable for either the next weekend stress test as we may well be on an older build, or for launch - this is just stuff they are trying out on the full-time testers to get feedback - not set in stone.

EDIT: Oh also included in the patch notes that no-one is bothering to report is that there is currently in that build no VO (or synthesised voice only) for the starter islands and for some of the main quest - heavily indicating that if they are changing stuff, there is going to be a re-write/reorganisation of the story and new VO presumably so that the story still makes sense, so don't panic just yet.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 25, 2014)

That's interesting, thanks.

This particular info isn't leaked though, the video creator went through official channels to ask if he could talk about it, and they said yes. I'm aware it's still beta and open to change, and they want feedback - that's why I and others are giving it


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## Epona (Feb 25, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> That's interesting, thanks.
> 
> This particular info isn't leaked though, the video creator went through official channels to ask if he could talk about it, and they said yes. I'm aware it's still beta and open to change, and they want feedback - that's why I and others are giving it



I suspect permission was given because of the leak - earlier every thread about the patch notes on the official forum was being locked and the text edited out because at that point it was a leak so the permission must have come later.  It all seems a bit daft at this point anyway (the NDA stuff I mean), I can understand plot spoilers being stomped on but there's been a lot of confusion over the past couple of days about what is still under NDA and what isn't!  This has changed since I last looked at the official forum.

EDIT: I'm actually very pleased with the proposed changes, but won't be giving any feedback until I've actually played with them in place.  If they've made a hash of the story as a result I will tell them so, but as long as they do a sensible re-write and this is just to enable people who want to explore to explore freely, then IMO it's a good thing.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 25, 2014)

I have to say my main concern just at the moment is about the guild stores they've been talking about. For a couple of reasons.

~ I understand you don't have to be a member of a guild to buy anything, but you do in order to sell (unless restricting yourself to spamming a chat channel). Guild numbers are capped at 500, I believe. The devs have stated that they want to encourage super influential guilds that are well known for having the best weapons, others that are well known for having the best armours, etc., as well as encouraging inter-guild contact. This brings up a problem, in that specific trade guilds will be looking to only recruit people who can prove themselves to be the best crafters in any particular profession, which automatically excludes 99% of the playerbase. Perhaps there will be a variety of lesser trade guilds open to others who aren't the best of the best, but depending on your ability to get into the ones that get their names known you're going to be sadly out of luck if you want to be able to just join a random trade guild and expect to sell anything. Worst case scenario is we get monopolies forming, with guilds allying with each other to ensure they tie up market share, where what they sell is tailored to veteran players and those they are personally helping level, and trade chat channels - if they end up having dedicated ones - get filled even more with spamspamspamspamspam, and your average player has that avenue of revenue locked away from the get go. Best case scenario is it works wonderfully to foster a flourishing economy where everyone is given a chance and a place to be able to roll up and sell those 10 superfluous hide vests they made as they were trying to level up their crafting a bit while they decide what they want to do next. I haven't experienced a system like this before, so I don't know what to expect.

~ My understanding is that they currently have it that you can only set up a guild store in a keep in Cyrodiil that your faction holds in PvP. I'm unsure at the moment if this means that guilds will be required therefore to have a physical presence in every single siege in order to be able to set up that store, or whether there will be an electronic interface that allows the guild leader or subordinates to see what keeps are held right now and click "set up store here" regardless of whether any of their guild mates are physically in that keep at the time. If it's the former, then again smaller trade guilds are screwed over because they are less likely to have successful PvP players than the more organised super guilds, and they simply might not have the numbers on the ground to ensure one of them can be in the right keep at the right time to set up a store. Not to mention that it becomes a requirement that at least some of the members of a trade guild _must_ be prepared to PvP in the first place - so your PvE or casual RP oriented guilds that want to deal with trade are going to be in a tough spot.

~ Which leads me onto the buyers. Again, stores are going to be in Cyrodiil, and they will be spread about by the sounds of it, with some being in Keep A, some in Keep B, etc. It sounds like buyers are going to have to traipse all over Cyrodiil to shop around at different guild stores, trying to find what they want, of course sticking to the keeps that are currently under the control of their faction. If the DC are having a bad run of it and haven't been able to control a keep for the past 5 days then... well, no buying anything at all for you! Unless you join a guild that has decent traders, because you'll be able to use the guild trade interface. But, numbers are capped at 500, and the best traders will be in the best guilds... and we're back at that old problem again. And what if you're in guilds for reasons other than trade, to play with friends, to RP, to get pro help, etc., and the only crafters there deal with heavy armour and weapons and provisioning? Where do you get your potions and light armour or your bows? By shopping around in Cyrodiil, which might not be as easy as you'd like...

~ If you can't get what you need in your own guilds, then you're going to have to go into Cyrodiil whether you want to PvP or not. You'll have to make sure you're online at a time when your faction has at least one keep. You'll have to run the risk of being ganked 50 times on your way to get there, which could end up costing more in armour repairs than it would to buy that nice new helm you've been on the lookout for in the first place. For someone who doesn't like to PvP, who simply doesn't have the skill, or who is still honing their skills, being essentially _forced_ into a PvP zone where you have to pray to your gods of choice in the hope that you don't get ganked by Stealthed Griefer #476 on your way ... well it doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me. Now, I want to PvP, this is the first game I've seen that has made me want to join in. That being said, I don't expect to be very good at it, and I don't expect to spend a lot of time doing it either. It'll be something I pick up and try to join in with when I fancy a break from the rest of the game, some mindless fun, running with the zerg, maybe trying to stealth around a bit, whatever. But I shouldn't feel pressured into worrying about running the gauntlet that I'm ill prepared for just because I need a new sword and to stock up on potions. I can try to craft myself, but I'm not going to be able to maintain it in all the skill lines I need, to the level that I need, with the ready supply of mats that I need when my level 20 bow just isn't cutting it in a level 35 area anymore.

To summarise: I understand that we don't have all the details yet, and a lot of my fears might be put aside in their entirety depending on how this is all implemented, but as it stands right now I understand absolutely and completely agree with the desire to _encourage_ more community engagement and to _encourage_ people experiencing PvP areas, but I am very wary of the implication that people will be _forced_ to do things like PvP in order to get access to a very basic game mechanic. I would have many of my worries put to rest if they allowed guild stores to be opened in main cities, even if they were tied in some way to the % of Cyrodiil a faction or guild held at any one time (although that isn't ideal). I would have even more of my worries salved if I knew there would be an accessible way for regular people to be able to sell their wares without having to be part of the guilds who've got it all sewn up for themselves. Or by relying on spamming trade chat. Even if it's some kind of slot you sign up for, whereby you can be a part of a farmers' and crafters' market on the outskirts of the main city. My thoughts are muddy on it because I don't have all the facts, and I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing.

I know I sound very negative. I'm very excited to play the game. That doesn't mean I turn off my critical faculties though.


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## Epona (Feb 25, 2014)

Beta Test This Weekend.

If you would like to play in the beta and do not have a beta key, MMORPG have some legit keys to distribute, see the link below:

http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/498/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Beta-Key-Giveaway.html

Vintage Paw - I do worry a bit about selling stuff to other players and how restrictive it might be.  I can see that Zenimax is trying to encourage people to be in guilds, but the main guilds controlling keeps in Cyrodil are going to be the slightly barking (IMO!) "you should be doing 0.5% more DPS, you can't be in our club" type.  It does seem like an odd choice for a game that is by its very nature going to attract a lot of people who prefer solo questing, taking time over story and exploration, and roleplaying.  Zenimax do seem to listen to feedback and take seriously what people want out of the game, so hopefully if it does not work, or isolates solo/small guild traders and crafters and enough people say so, they would be daft not to add more features for trade (which could still be interactive and social in game, but not dependent upon spamming chat or guild membership) later if it's not to peoples' liking.

I hope, anyway!

Hopefully see you in game at the weekend 

EDIT TO ADD: I have just been told that we will be on v0.171 for the test, so the patch notes for v0.18 will not apply to us.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 25, 2014)

Epona said:


> Beta Test This Weekend.



Was just coming here to post that too.  Downloading the client on my work laptop since I'm on a decent hotel connection; might give me something else to do when I'm stuck in hotel rooms on my own.


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## Epona (Feb 25, 2014)

Some relevant info - this beta will be using US SERVERS ONLY.  If your client is showing the EU beta, click on the cog in the top right and switch your server to US.  If the entire download starts again, stop it and copy or move files from ...Zenimax Online/The Elder Scrolls Online EU to Zenimax Online/The Elder Scrolls Online and then relaunch the client.
I do wish they'd stop buggering about with this.  Beta tests, what are they like


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 25, 2014)

Edit: ignore all that, posted at the same time as Epona XD

I'm excited to play it again


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 25, 2014)

Hmm, so I've changed the region to the US, and then clicked 'check for updates' and it's not updated anything at all. 

Launcher version says it's 1.3.6.732111, but I can't see a section anywhere saying what the game patch version is. Starting up the game just gives me the eso.live version, which doesn't correspond to the 0.171 patch number. Was the last test 0.171? I know this one is primarily to test log in queue times and server load, so it's not about content as such... could that be why I have nothing to download?


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## Epona (Feb 26, 2014)

I haven't had any major updates since the last beta (a few very small ones under 50Mb each, I tend to check for updates daily) but nothing that you'd even notice if your internet speed is faster than a snail crawling through treacle (really must contact BT and complain).  I think if you can get as far as the login screen then get a 103 error when you try to log in that's as it should be.  As far as I know!


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 26, 2014)

Good to know, thanks 

Getting quite excited about playing again. Looking forward to seeing Cyrodiil.

I'm still getting stuck into GW2 in the meantime (when I'm not forcing myself to do the work I need to get out of the way!), and enjoying it quite a lot. It's not nearly as fun and immersive as ESO though.


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## Epona (Feb 26, 2014)

Yeah I'm excited too, can't wait to get back to Tamriel 

It's sort of comforting to know that I've put in more than 80 hours so far in beta tests and haven't really got all that far in terms of questing and exploring.  That's with one character in each alliance but even so they have each explored only a little of their first main zone.  One of my characters got the "50 Quests" achievement last time and hadn't even explored a third of the first main zone.

I'm going to start another AD character this time around (probably a Khajiit), because in my first beta I didn't really get into the feeling of the quests in the AD probably because I just didn't like my character class very much (and the whole MMO thing was a bit intimidating at first, kept thinking 'oh god, everyone can see me fuck up').  And I was also stymied by bugs (although have now worked out that relogging is a workaround for most of them!  I do also report the bug in game of course)  I also have at least one character who is high enough level to go to Cyrodil so want to try that too.

Edit: I would really like to test out the guild thing this time, so anyone in the beta who doesn't mind helping (in a very minimal way!) with that, please PM me your ESO user name and I will try to add you, I already have a guild (Urban Gamers) set up for beta but no members yet.  I will not be demanding that you turn up in Cyrodil now to defend any keeps (or at least that is highly unlikely, unless I get carried away in which case you can feel free to ignore me  ), it's mostly just a functionality test.  Thanks


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 26, 2014)

You have my username I think. Hopefully I'll get the message this time, I'll certainly join up.

One work around for the bug where you get stuck in merchant dialogue and can't exit is to press C and then click on the Mail icon at the top. I tested that a couple of times and it worked. Before then I'd been exiting the game and starting over.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 26, 2014)

I'm going to play my AD character and get her into Cyrodiil, but I was planning on starting up in EP to see what a dragonknight is like, and if I have time try to test out a templar as well, in DC. I don't want to spoil too much of the quest and story content this close to release, so I might focus on killing random mobs while getting to grips with a bit of crafting - other than a test of pvp of course.

Did you have to specify a faction when starting the guild? Can they be cross-faction, or are they tied in to one? I suspect they have to be just one faction, because of the way guild stores seem to be working, but I'm not certain.

If that's the case, it's going to be awkward for people who have alts in other factions. Guilds are account-wide, and you can be a member of 5, so I guess there's room to be in 3 versions of the same guild - one for each faction - but it makes dealing with trade guilds and so on all the more complex.

We'll have to see how it works out when the game goes live, I guess. I've never been in a guild before so I don't really know what to expect, and this game seems to be rewriting the book a bit, so it's doubly confusing/intriguing.


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## Epona (Feb 26, 2014)

That's sort of what I've been doing too because I don't want to spoil myself too much, but once I started wandering round a bit (thinking that I would avoid doing much questing) I found it almost impossible NOT to gather up a load of side quests - something I find very encouraging.  With my Dunmer I found myself exploring a bit above my level and picked up loads of quests, some of which I managed to do, and some which I couldn't at that point tackle - but the sight of a bursting quest log gives me great pleasure in a game 

Edit: the recommended way to deal with getting stuck in dialogue/crafting interface is /reloadui.


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## Epona (Feb 26, 2014)

Oh and apparently we (beta testers) are getting a free monkey at launch.
I don't think it does anything, just a vanity item, but apparently some people like that sort of thing.

Unfortunately monkeys are pretty much my least favourite animal, I find them a bit creepy in a 'nearly human, but not human enough' kind of way   Yes I know that's weird.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 26, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Did you have to specify a faction when starting the guild? Can they be cross-faction, or are they tied in to one? I suspect they have to be just one faction, because of the way guild stores seem to be working, but I'm not certain.
> 
> If that's the case, it's going to be awkward for people who have alts in other factions. Guilds are account-wide, and you can be a member of 5, so I guess there's room to be in 3 versions of the same guild - one for each faction - but it makes dealing with trade guilds and so on all the more complex.


That would make sense, and is in line with Alliance/Horde guilds in WoW - you're always going to have to pick your race/starting area/guild options based on what you prefer to play and where your online friends are.

Epona I'll PM you my username, but I suspect you won't be able to add anyone not in the same faction as you.


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## Epona (Feb 26, 2014)

Hmm, no, I didn't have to specify a faction.  I did think at the time that only those in the same faction as me would be able to be added, but at the time I did it that was Vintage Paw and Shippy as we were all in the same faction, and I couldn't add either of them.

I'm going to do a little research on this - it's all a bit confusing what with 3 alliances, each player able to have 8 characters in different alliances, and belong (on an account basis) to 5 guilds.  I will ask someone who already set one up, see if I can get a straightforward answer.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 26, 2014)

I can completely understand why per faction guilds are the norm, when you have a pvp element to a game at least. With something like ESO it's going to be interesting, and perhaps a bit awkward for many people, because half the target audience are single player TES fans, who will absolutely want to have more than one character purely for personal roleplaying* and story purposes. The majority of people probably don't join guilds anyway, and those who do are more in line with that traditional MMO mindset of 'mains' and 'alts' and will pick their faction and stick with it. They're trying to do something different with this game though, and it's attempting to meld together elements from both genres, so it will be interesting to see how that side of it develops.

*I don't necessarily mean active roleplaying with others, but just having reasons and stories in your head for who your character is and why they do what they do, etc. You know, the typical TES stuff.


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## Epona (Feb 27, 2014)

I have a spare 'bring a friend' key if anyone wants it for themselves or if you know someone who would like it.
Tried to convince OH that he wanted to give it a go, but it was a very long shot as he doesn't like fantasy settings, doesn't like RPGs, and doesn't like MMOs - he looked at me as if I'd suggested he chop off one of his own limbs


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 27, 2014)

Epona said:


> Some relevant info - this beta will be using US SERVERS ONLY.  If your client is showing the EU beta, click on the cog in the top right and switch your server to US.  If the entire download starts again, stop it and copy or move files from ...Zenimax Online/The Elder Scrolls Online EU to Zenimax Online/The Elder Scrolls Online and then relaunch the client.


Thanks - all set up and ready to go.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 27, 2014)

We have unlimited keys, I think. I just clicked the 'forward' link in the email and sent it to one of my friends, and the form came up afterwards saying it had been sent, and to fill in any more names and addresses of anyone else I wanted to send a key to.

So, if there's anyone here who wants to play this weekend, let me know.

Even if you can't do it this weekend, get the key and make an account and register it, because with any luck you'll be able to play any more betas they do before launch (I expect there will be one more after this, maybe for a bit longer than a weekend, but who knows!).


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 28, 2014)

Beta is live, a bit earlier than expected. Have a good weekend folks


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## ffsear (Feb 28, 2014)

My mrs has food poisoning = weekend cancelled = ESO all weekend for me!

Result!!


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## ffsear (Feb 28, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Beta is live, a bit earlier than expected. Have a good weekend folks




Do i need to reenter keys,  redownload anything,   or can i just log straight back in?


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 28, 2014)

You can log straight back in.

Check that the launcher hasn't auto-changed your location to the EU. If it has, click on the cog at the top and change it back to the US - it's US only servers this weekend.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 28, 2014)

Cor, crafting takes a bit of getting used to. I've made a staff, and a medium armour belt and heavy armour shoulders, because that's all I had materials for. I want light armour but I can't find a single piece and jute seems really easy to miss. A staff isn't as fun as a bow - I'm playing a dragonknight - going to use a staff at first then a 2H sword for alt weapon if I get that far. Mostly just enjoying exploring. I filled up my inventory once already.


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## Epona (Feb 28, 2014)

Vintage Paw - I'm going to be out of the game for about 10 or so minutes whilst I do real life stuff, but my crafter has a ton of jute (both raw and processed) so can send you some if you're short.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 28, 2014)

Progress seems to be faster this time around, unless that's just because I'm more familiar with the game and UI.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

Yeah, probably because you're more familiar. This is the same build as the last weekend (and maybe the one before that, not sure about that though). 

EP 2nd area is waaaaaay more buggy than the AD areas. Trying to deposit anything in the bank is like trying to pull teeth. And I just logged out to try to fix a problem and it's stuck on the beta screen. What larks 

The 2nd EP area is gorgeous, though.


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

I just tried to find the PvP event (now done my siege training!) and picked up a scouting quest but really need a horse, it's fucking massive.  Also getting a bit of lag so have left cyrodil for the time being.  Gathered some high level materials that I currently can't use 

Anyone know what I can use alliance points for?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

Maybe there will be special stores that sell stuff with them, idk. Or are they for the alliance skills you can unlock (do you spend normal skill points on them?).

I wonder if that lag is the latency you'd see normally on the US server or because of the test? I'll try it out, probably tomorrow.


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Maybe there will be special stores that sell stuff with them, idk. Or are they for the alliance skills you can unlock (do you spend normal skill points on them?).
> 
> I wonder if that lag is the latency you'd see normally on the US server or because of the test? I'll try it out, probably tomorrow.



Could just be because the underground cables around here are waterlogged due to near-apocalyptic wet weather this winter.  I normally get download speed of around 9 Mbps, currently at 1.8 Mbps due to line issues.  My ping is not too bad though, but could be better.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

Found a little cove, had to swim to it, there's nothing there but me and the sunset.

So I pulled out a chair (/sitchair) and enjoyed the view.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xoyggjm2p6mazmr/Screenshot_20140301_014242.jpg


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> So I pulled out a chair (/sitchair)


No wai 

I had no lag at all, although maybe that was because all the Americans were still at work in the early evening here. See how it is later today...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

The game has a ridiculous amount of emotes.

Get 3 of you together and you can /lute /drum /flute your way through Tamriel as a roving band of bards who accompany heroes on their journey, singing songs about their great adventures


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

If you get any game freezes for a second or two, apparently it's something ZOS know about and are trying to fix. Some users have said they have solved it by closing the launcher once the game is running, so it might be worth doing that.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

If you're in the EP, everyone keeps cheering at you when you finish quests. Apparently they all love me.


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> If you get any game freezes for a second or two, apparently it's something ZOS know about and are trying to fix. Some users have said they have solved it by closing the launcher once the game is running, so it might be worth doing that.



Also setting ESO to 'above normal' CPU priority in the processes tab of Task Manager may help a bit to minimise the impact of the processor usage spikes on the running of the game.

Back from the vet now (just vaccinations) so back to Tamriel


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

Crafting just got fun. Reached level 8, went to make myself a full new set of gear. I'm a dragonknight, with lots of magicka regen, and with 6 pieces of light I hit the softcap so I've scaled down to 5 light, 2 heavy. I had enough improvement mats to improve my heavy leggings to fine and my light robe to fine. The robe turned a lovely deep, rich colour of shimmery green! And there was me starting to get a bit bored of crafting!

I do love this game.


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

Just found a working Dark Anchor - utter bloody mayhem but fun.  I got some decent loot off the boss daedra at the end too.  And an achievement


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

Found a beautiful place up a mountain, not sure I was meant to be there!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 1, 2014)

Spent the past god knows how long in the public dungeon near the docks in stonefalls. Lots of fun in there. Got 2 skill points, one from the skyshard (already had 2), and one from killing the group boss. Died about 4 times in all, but it was lots of fun. A nice little M'aiq reference in there if you look hard enough as well.

I'm level 9 at the moment. I realised my tactics weren't that great, but I morphed one of my skills and it's a lot better. My magicka is pretty hefty and my regen is good, so I can spam it a few times and it gives me back a bit of health too. 

I'm yet to find any special crafting stations in Stonefalls. I found a fair few in Auridon, but then I've barely scratched the surface of exploring here yet.

Can it be the end of March already pls?


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

Thoughts:

Sneak - I really like the sneak mechanism.  The use of stamina during movement makes it a good tactical decision when and how to sneak, and it works well IMO.

Research - I do like the research and think it will work well after launch.  At the moment though, I find myself not doing anything for 10 minutes if the timer on a research is that close to finishing - my crafting character is at times (although this is very much my own fault!) tied to being near crafting stations at certain times.  I think this is largely due to the limited time during beta weekends though, it wouldn't bother me so much losing half an hour of potential research time if the clock wasn't ticking on the servers being up!


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 1, 2014)

I found it hard to stick to a particular class of weapon or armour, since the chance of the one you want to use getting a decent upgrade as a quest drop is stupidly low. I started off thinking I'd be a Light armour staff magic person, but I've ended up with heavy armour and a dagger because I didn't get anywhere near the amount of DPS from the two staff upgrades I came across (13 vs 22 at lvl 6).


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> I found it hard to stick to a particular class of weapon or armour, since the chance of the one you want to use getting a decent upgrade as a quest drop is stupidly low. I started off thinking I'd be a Light armour staff magic person, but I've ended up with heavy armour and a dagger because I didn't get anywhere near the amount of DPS from the two staff upgrades I came across (13 vs 22 at lvl 6).



Have you tried crafting yourself some gear?  Drops seem to be pretty random in terms of what you get, you can often get better (or at least more relevant) stuff crafting.

If you like, I can either send you some materials so you can have a go yourself, or I could craft you some bits and pieces and send them?


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 1, 2014)

Epona said:


> Have you tried crafting yourself some gear?  Drops seem to be pretty random in terms of what you get, you can often get better (or at least more relevant) stuff crafting.
> 
> If you like, I can either send you some materials so you can have a go yourself, or I could craft you some bits and pieces and send them?


I looked at the crafting stuff briefly, but I couldn't easily work out how to turn ore (which I had a quite a bit of) into anything else - presumably I need to find a forge somewhere? - so I gave up in the end.

I'm not too bothered, I'll probably do a fair bit more reading up on it all before it actually launches.


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2014)

Oh, in 'other news' my OH decided it would be a good idea to play something multiplayer whilst I was in a public dungeon 
Need to get fibre asap.


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## Epona (Mar 2, 2014)

Just grouped with a complete stranger 'on the fly' and ran around together slaughtering stuff on the DC quest where you have to explore an ancient battleground.  Unfortunately I hit some sort of major glitch halfway through and lost control of which direction I was moving, so had to call it a day. 

Is it just me, or is it more difficult than it ought to be to talk to someone with the text chat?  I can type at 70 words per minute, so that's not the issue - just targetting them to talk seems to be the issue I am having.  Holding F and selecting from the dial half the time gives me an 'account not found' message in top right of the screen.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 2, 2014)

I find using chat quite difficult, yes. Half the time I don't have the right type selected. I've found myself trying to help a few people in /zone but mostly try to ignore it because it can be ... trying.

I grouped briefly to kill some massive mudcrab boss. It gave us an achievement. It was one of those skull and crossbones places.

I reached lvl 10 and made my way into Cyrodiil. I did the training, and turned in a couple of normal quests, then got killed by an npc lieutenant because another 2 mobs spawned instantly next to him. I coulda got him otherwise  So I've quit for the night I think. I didn't see a single other enemy player in there, but I don't think I got far enough in. There was a keep under attack nearby but I was a bit too scared to go and see! Maybe tomorrow  I bet that's when the lag will start to hurt.

I think you're right, Epona - after launch there won't be so much of a sense of having to rush to do everything. I've researched a couple of things, but my robe trait was still 2 hours away when I reached level 10, plus I'm out of hemming, so I've put off making my level 10 robe. My level 8 one is pretty decent anyway, and I've started making a few glyphs, but the runes take up far too much space so I make a few and buy a few - they're not too expensive at this stage.

I can see that doing random quests in Cyrodiil will bring in a nice little bit of money early on. I wonder if the amount scales with your (real) level?


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## Epona (Mar 2, 2014)

Bloody hell the repair bill: loot ratio in this game is bloomin hard.  Easy to wipe out the proceeds of your previous quest by getting in deeper water than you can handle!

EDIT: Vintage Paw  - yeah I've pretty much abandoned enchanting for the beta because it requires too much inventory management.  Even if you note the location of rare aspect runes and farm them, it's a very difficult profession wrt. inventory space because there are so many varieties and barely anything stacks.  I can have 100 iron ore in one slot, or 30 runes taking up 25 slots... very tricky to manage.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 2, 2014)

Just participated in the taking of a keep.

It was fucking insane. Brilliant, but insane. I've clocked up a massive 8 enemy player kills now, which, okay, isn't many, but it didn't take us long to take the keep.

Getting some epic lag, and there weren't even that many people involved (maybe about 50-100 of us, couldn't see tons of them). I think it's going to have to be EU servers at launch, because HELL YES I'm going to be PvPing 

I've died 4 times at the hands of enemy players, but my repair bill wasn't that huge - only about 30 gold, which is a darned sight cheaper than when you die during questing.

Lag is generally when talking to NPCs, and sometimes it just won't register that I'm trying to use skills or LMB at all. Still, SO MUCH FUN. You really, really, really want to have a ranged weapon and skills if you're doing PvP, unless the whole time you're going to wander around and try to go 1v1 or just do quests. Being able to shoot fire at people on the keep walls and watch them slowly die was amazing. You need to keep mobile though - those siege weapons will fuck your shit up. Instakills a lot of the time. 

Man, I'm going to be spending a decent bit of time in Cyrodiil!!!! Who knew?


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## Epona (Mar 2, 2014)

I felt that way too (yes, I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed it), I didn't really get involved much because my character over level 10 has no bow skills yet, only dual wield - and I felt I really needed some ranged capability.  And a horse.  I've said it already, the place is fucking ginormous!

Come launch I can see myself making a build specifically for PvP, probably stealth archer type.

Edit: Actually I think I'm going to start a new character this evening and try out the bow, see how I get on with it.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 2, 2014)

Range certainly is the way to go for Cyrodiil. You spot an enemy player with a ranged weapon and you think "oh shit." Melee will have its place - getting through the hole in the keep wall and skirmishing with troops on the ground, getting into the flag area that you have to take in order to control the keep, that sort of thing. But in the meantime while you're sieging the walls range is great - and for opening up attacks against others without dying immediately. But, at 15 we can have 2 weapons equipped, and I imagine it wouldn't take too long to do some random questing either in PvE or Cyrodiil to level the second one up to have a few decent skills. It's potentially viable to have a bow or staff on every single character (I'd go bow if not specifically aiming for a magey character, tbh, for the skills but I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it).

This game <3


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 2, 2014)

What are your plans for purchase, Epona and Vintage Paw?

Amazon have it for £40 with 3 days early access, compared to £50 on the official site or via Game, or £70  for the Imperial Edition. You get a couple of days extra early access, plus some other bits and pieces though.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 2, 2014)

I pre-ordered the Imperial Edition via GameFly. They had a 20% discount for all of feb. I get the 5 days early access with that, plus whatever else is in the Imp Ed and the Explorer Pack. So the Imp Ed was something like £55.

Just done my first Dark Anchor. I was lounging on the beach just outside of Ebonheart and it dropped across the water from me. It was lots of fun. (In fact, while typing this it dropped again but this time seems to be bugged so I've left.)

The area around Ebonheart is so damned pretty. I could wander around there for hours, just gathering things, sitting on beaches, in deserted coves.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 2, 2014)

I wonder whether it's going to turn up on Steam? Skyrim is on there.


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## Epona (Mar 2, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> What are your plans for purchase, Epona and Vintage Paw?
> 
> Amazon have it for £40 with 3 days early access, compared to £50 on the official site or via Game, or £70  for the Imperial Edition. You get a couple of days extra early access, plus some other bits and pieces though.



I'm not sure yet.  Someone has to buy it for my birthday is the upshot of it.  We're a bit strapped this month so if OH is buying it, it won't be until after the 25th. We did finish paying off a loan with a high monthly payment last month (so will be OK for the sub), but there's still a bit of dust to settle from outgoings>income for the last few months.  I will be getting it one way or another, just not clear from whom or where they will buy it from.


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## Epona (Mar 2, 2014)

I love this game.
But the bank bug is really fucking me off right now!  Trying to do a lot of inventory shuffling and the banker in Bal Foyen is pretty much non-operational for me at the moment.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 2, 2014)

The one in Bal Foyen was completely unusable for me yesterday. Thankfully once you get to Stonefalls it's absolutely fine.


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## Epona (Mar 2, 2014)

Tbh all the banks have been fairly bad for me, but the Bal Foyen one drove me to the point of taking a screenshot showing me about to put an arrow through the stocky argonian bloke's head after I'd used /reload UI a dozen times and then ragequit then relogged and still failed 
I really like Bal Foyen, think they've got the Argonian settlement atmosphere really well.  Love the "netch grenade" quest. 

I hope next beta we'll be on a more up to date build without these issues.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 3, 2014)

There's a lovely Argonian settlement just below Ebonheart. It's just gorgeous.

I've reached level 12 now. I've morphed my ultimate ability, I've reached the soft cap for magicka pool so I put points into health instead. I've had some decent loot along the way too. I found a Death's Wind crafting station hidden near some lava and old dwemer ruins, I was able to craft a staff but didn't have enough stuff to temper it to green level. I'm not certain how you unlock those special crafting station sets... I don't know why I could craft a staff but couldn't craft any clothing in that style. Oh well, not too worried. I've stopped collecting materials for the moment because I just don't have any space.

I still have a level 8 quest I haven't finished, a couple of level 9s, I'm doing a level 10 now I think. I also have a 13 lurking somewhere that I'm not going anywhere near for the moment. I think Stonefalls is a lot harder to explore exhaustively than Auridon - and that's a good thing! I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, not having ventured any further west than Ebonheart. I got to level 11 in Auridon and had explored the whole island. I know there's tons of stuff I've missed in the places I've already been to, as well.

I wish I could keep on playing all week! The end of the month can't come soon enough.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 3, 2014)

Just saw this:


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## Epona (Mar 3, 2014)

Special sets - you need to have researched 2 traits on an item before you can create that item as part of a special set.
I did one of my characters a set (the one with a stealth bonus) just to try it out, but at the time most of the items I had 2 traits on were light armour, which I wasn't using.  I just crafted them to see what they looked like.
Before the servers close on this session, I'm going to set off some long research for the second or third trait on medium armour pieces, so next beta I should be able to craft a set in the type I want.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 3, 2014)

Aha, that makes sense, I had no idea why! Thank you.

I'm not entirely certain our current characters will carry over. Do you know? Since they are updating to a different build, I wasn't sure if they'd be compatible. Here's hoping though, because I'm rather fond of my dragonknight now!


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## Epona (Mar 3, 2014)

Oh well, that's it for now.

I have tons of screenshots which I will be sorting through and posting over the next couple of days.


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## Epona (Mar 3, 2014)

Any thoughts about builds?  I seem to be groping in the dark tbh - so many skill lines to choose from.  I've heard the Fighters Guild line is really very useful against certain bosses.
I've tried a few builds but mostly wearing medium armour and high dps and they are good at low levels but I tend to run into a wall at about level 8-10 where I start to feel very squishy (especially so with my archer for some reason), but given that the soft caps aren't that high I wonder whether heavy armour with stamina boosting enchants might work better in terms of solo survivability for stabby DW or archer types - at least for my playstyle.

Or it could be that I'm picking the wrong skills.  Or I'm just crap 

Edit: Best moments this weekend were where I grouped up on an impromptu basis, worst moment was when for some reason I found myself facing The Bad Man (a public dungeon boss) solo and died several times in succession before teleporting out to a wayshrine and deciding to save that particular fight for another day.  Level 5 my arse! Maybe if there are lots of people...


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## Epona (Mar 3, 2014)

Right I'm going to try sharing some screenshots.  All taken on ultra graphics settings:

Arriving at Kenarthi's Roost and surveying the damage done by Maormer Pirates





Maormer weather magic in action.  Although I didn't get a screenshot of it (as I was trying to stay alive at the time), when they raid a harbour they do so with the aid of giant sea serpents:





Trader stalls near a Khajiit moon temple in Kenarthi's Roost





A town in Kenarthi's Roost:





Bridge that probably leads to a moon sugar plantation on Kenarthi's Roost (can't recall exactly which plantation though):





I got invited to a harvest festival in a very pretty grotto.  What could possibly go wrong? (Bad Man's Hollow):





A Wayshrine in Auridon, on a misty morning:





Skyshard!!





Looking down towards the dockyard tavern in Davon's Watch





Edit: I think I finally got this post correct - it bugs me horribly that when editing it does not show the BB code by bloody default!


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## Epona (Mar 3, 2014)

On the docks:





"Selfie" with an Ordinator...





The locals in Stros M'Kai often pass the time by betting on mudcrab fights:





Sunlight in Stros M'Kai:





Found a good vantage point to get a good shot of the harbour town:





What type of Khajiit are you?  No, I did not bring you an offering of fish:





Stros M'Kai is very beautiful at night!





My Breton character posing a bit:





Bits of Dwemer machinery:


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 3, 2014)

Someone talk me out of it...


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 3, 2014)

Jesus, how big is that box!?!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 3, 2014)

Do it, Buddy Bradley - do it!! I'm not one for statues and other ephemera - the only thing that might have tempted me was the map - I love maps - but a map isn't worth an extra £20 imo. So although I do prefer a physical copy of things I pre-order, I opted for the digital Imp Edition instead. It just made more financial sense.

Great screenshots, Epona. I only took a handful.

Somewhere up a mountain in Stonefalls, completely out of the way.





I died! But we took the keep. 




It was a fantastic experience. Someone resurrected me shortly after I took this. It started lagging badly on Sunday in Cyrodiil, but everyone was complaining of the same thing so I don't think it was necessarily a problem with server distance in this case. I'm still on the fence about what server to choose. Someone I've played other MMOs with tried the beta this weekend and has gone from "eh, idk, it doesn't really inspire me" to "omg, I think I really do want the game". He's in the US and doesn't have the best internet connection, and I'd absolutely want to team up with him, so that might force my hand. I'll have to see how Cyrodiil is at launch.

Enjoying the view of Red Mountain from the shores of the Argonian village behind Ebonheart.





And here's that view.




Right after I took that picture, up the little path to the left a dark anchor dropped. So I swam across and helped 6 or 7 other people close it. It was a great experience! Then it dropped again maybe 10 minutes later but bugged and so was there from then on until beta ended.

On that same shore by the Argonian village, having just swam back from closing the anchor.




I got that nice robe from PvP, I'm not sure what style it is in.

On a little island across from the Argonian village.




I had a quest there, and you can see the marker if you look closely. Turning off the hud doesn't get rid of them, unfortunately. I think I read they are giving the option to turn off markers as well, but I'm not sure if that was ZOS who said that or someone making an addon. My memory is faulty.

I took others but that's all I have uploaded so far. 

I got to level 13 in the end and felt pretty powerful. In my experience, the difficulty does suddenly ramp up a bit around level 7 or so, and I started feeling rather squishy. But after level 9+ I felt a bit more substantial. There are anomalies though. I can't stand fighting scamps no matter what level because they are little bastards. On the other hand, I was level 11-12 and killing 2 or 3 level 14 covenant soldiers at a time. I don't mind those discrepancies though, because it keeps you on your toes. Sometimes you will feel powerful, but then all of a sudden something will hand your arse to you on a plate and you'll run away licking your wounds thinking "what the everloving fuck?"

In related news, Gutstripper was so much easier this time around because I learned you can keep hopping on his little platform and his pathing means he can't hop down the same way as you and has to go around. Not sure if they'll change that or not though. But exploiting the environment is a must for many hard fights. The one at the end of the fighter's guild line took me forever as a nightblade archer last beta, but was a lot easier as a dragonknight fire mage this time around, mostly because I had more rocks and stuff to use to block attacks, plus I knew to kill the adds that heal it quickly. I didn't know that until I'd been fighting it for ages last time >_<


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 3, 2014)

I also made a breton templar and a khajiit nightblade but they never made it out of their prison cell because I was having far too much fun with my dunmer dk. I prefer the EP areas to the AD areas so far. I haven't done more than a level or two in the DC, so I'll likely focus on my templar there next beta.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 3, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Do it, Buddy Bradley - do it!! I'm not one for statues and other ephemera - the only thing that might have tempted me was the map - I love maps - but a map isn't worth an extra £20 imo. So although I do prefer a physical copy of things I pre-order, I opted for the digital Imp Edition instead. It just made more financial sense.


The map looks pretty shit, to be honest, and I don't know what I'd do with a 12 inch model of Molag Bal. I think the only thing that makes it an interesting option is the 228 page lore book, but I don't know if I can justify spending £90 on a single game. Although I suppose you can rationalise that it's really £80 plus a month's subscription ... mind you, if a box that size arrived here and I tell my wife it's a computer game, she's not going to be impressed.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 4, 2014)

I found the Tamriel Foundry forums and now my head hurts...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 4, 2014)

So, here's a way to deal with space for crafting materials, and also how to help level up crafting in a smarter way as a result.

You need 10 accounts signed up to a guild in order to open up guild bank space - which I have read is 1,000 slots.

You can be a member of 5 guilds. They are cross faction.

So, let's say we try and get a guild started, just to help us with inventory space. We can all deposit our crafting materials in there, on the understanding we can all access them (so if I deposit 100 jute, Epona can use it whenever she wants; if Buddy Bradley deposits 10 Jora runes in there, I can waste them all trying to learn new enchantments) - so individual responsibility and shared trust comes into play - but I think we're reliable sorts.

This makes crafting a lot easier, and we can reserve our own bank space for gear we want to save/research later, for those ultra rare materials we're holding onto for the right time, etc. It gets us out of a tight spot from the get go, and means we don't necessarily have to waste our money early on trying to unlock extra personal space.

In addition, we can use it to swap items between each other for deconstruction. If I make 10 robes and deconstruct them all in order to level up my skill a little, the amount of experience gained is quite small. If, however, I give those 10 robes to someone else and they deconstruct them, they gain more experience from it than deconstructing something they made themselves. I presume this is to encourage trading and community and friendships and reasons to be in guilds. So, any gear we deposit in the guild bank can be assumed to be taken by anybody else, either to wear or to deconstruct. Gear we make for ourselves can be stored in our own bank because now we have more space since we're not using it for our own crafting mats.

How does that sound? Do you think that between us we could muster 10 different trustworthy and reliable players to get a guild started at launch? I have 1 possible non-urban person who might be buying it - with a 2nd being an outlier 'maybe' at this point.

And if we're looking for a guild name, might I suggest the rather boring but useful 'Urban Alliance'?


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 4, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> You can be a member of 5 guilds. They are cross faction.


How does that work, then, given what Epona said earlier about how a guild can occupy/trade out of held keeps in Cyrodil - surely that would mean a guild would have to be all one faction? Or could the same guild be active on all 3 sides of the PvP battle? 

I'm up for an urban-related guild, I like the social/assistance side of MMOs more than building the best PvE groups/raids. I wonder what happens if your membership drops below 10?

Also, where do you go for bag upgrades? I keep reading about them, but I didn't notice anyone offering them in-game. (I eventually bought the Digital Imperial edition, btw.)


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 4, 2014)

There's still a bit of confusion about how guilds will work, but it seems to be understood that guilds are cross faction. You join with your account, rather than with your characters - so if you join a guild that is focused on the Ebonheart Pact there is absolutely nothing stopping you from making a breton in the Daggerfall Covenant. That would be too restrictive, building it into the game that you can only be in a guild if you only ever from this point out have characters in X faction.

In terms of PvP, stores and Cyrodiil, I'm not certain about the specifics, but if your guild holds a particular keep it presumably means that the leader or someone from that guild from that faction did something to gain superiority in it. I don't know if that's based off Alliance points, or completing an objective, or what. You get certain passive bonuses for being a member of a guild that holds a keep (I think) - but if you are in an opposing faction then you won't get those bonuses. Only those in that faction will get them, and only those in that faction will be able to use the store, will be able to team up and play together, etc.

So, for general play guilds are going to end up being formed around a specific faction, because that way everyone can work together, get the bonuses etc. But, since they don't limit you to 1 guild, you can be a member of a guild like that but also it will mean groups of friends can form a guild to help each other out, keep in touch, etc., but still play in different factions with some of their characters if they want. At times you might find that a handful of you are playing in the same faction and of course you can group together and do content then, but at other times you might be evenly split between the factions, but still be allowed to be in the same friends guild as each other.

It would be far too restrictive to do it the other way around, I think.

This is what I've gathered from looking around at a few different places. Info still seems thin on the ground, and I haven't spent a lot of time mining for info on ESO's official site either, so don't quote me on any of it. But they'd be daft to tell friends that they can only be in a guild together if they all decide to lock off 66% of the characters for the rest of time.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 4, 2014)

Bag upgrades - there was one in Bal Foyen in the same building as the bank and crafting stations (Ebonheart Pact) - that's in the second small starting zone. So I'd expect there are some around the starter zones for the other factions too. I read somewhere that bag upgrades will be available at every second major city. That to me suggests there should be one at Ebonheart but I couldn't even find a bank there (had to keep going back to Devan's Watch for the bank instead - but there was no bag upgrade merchant I could find there either). 

It's decently expensive. 400g for another 10 personal inventory slots, rising in price for each 10 slots after that. Bank space starts at 2000g I think, for 10 slots, rising thereafter.

Crafting materials bring in a decent amount of money, and they are usually found in abundance if you are cool with exploring and taking your time. I had a stack of maple that had a price of 600g next to it, so it's worth taking your time adopting the hunter gatherer mindset every once in a while can give you a much-needed cash injection. I never got above 1800g in my 13 levels this weekend, and spent a lot of that on various things. I wasn't really watching my money, and I didn't sell my materials other than a few bits here and there. To be honest, I think having to plan ahead how you're going to manage money rather than relying on getting it all from quest rewards or loot is a good thing because it adds to immersion. As long as there _are_ ways to make money that don't require epic investments of time that a lot of people don't have then it's a positive thing.


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## Epona (Mar 5, 2014)

Vintage Paw - Yep I'm cool with having a small guild for a bank to share crafting materials, excellent idea - as long as everyone is sensible and fair about it and gathers stuff when they see a node to replenish materials they use then I think it's an excellent way to have a shared pool of crafting resources rather than taking up personal inventory/bank.  Also good idea on leaving spare stuff there for others to deconstruct - if I make 10 daggers to level my smithing then I can put them in the bank, someone else will get far more out of them by deconstructing them than I will by doing it myself.  I can take someone else's 10 daggers and get more 'inspiration' from breaking down those.

It would save an absolute ton of personal storage space even if it's only the lowest tier of mats that we are putting in there at first.  I reached critical mass with provisioning when I hit level 12 (level 26 provisioner) and started finding stuff like onions, potatoes, mutton, bear haunch etc. that I had never seen up until that point - I was pretty much "oh fuck, there's a whole new tier of provisioning supplies here, where am I going to put them?"  So I started to destroy some of the lower tier ingredients just to save on space, but with a small guild like that someone else might have a real use for those to help level that craft.

Buddy Bradley - I managed to get both of you joined up to the "Urban Gamers" guild which was an AD based guild when I set it up.  But you both showed up in the guild list with your account name rather than character name, and I could have a look at the guild members list at various times and see that at times we weren't always playing in the same alliance.  In fact when I was playing as a non AD character, I was still guildmaster of that guild, because it's tied to player account, not player character.  I didn't get to try out the bank because it was only the 3 of us.  Where it gets complicated is that when you choose a Cyrodil campaign, you cannot (for obvious reasons) be in the same Cyrodil campaign with different characters on your account.  So if, for instance, we decided we wanted to PvP together as members of that guild we would have to all have 1 AD character and all choose the same Cyrodil campaign for those characters.  Also if we wanted to group to do PvE content, we would have to have 1 character each in the same Alliance.  I think that's where it gets confusing.  But in theory, each player can join guilds in any alliance, but won't be able to group with them for characters they have in a different alliance.  Also you can only be guildmaster of 1 guild - I tried to set up a second, because I've been trying to wrap my head around the whole thing, and got a message that I was already a guildmaster and couldn't run 2 guilds - but I could join another 4 as an ordinary member, in different alliances if I wished.

I think!


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## Epona (Mar 5, 2014)

Thinking about it, I'd really like to try out the guild bank next beta, so if you know anyone who seems to be trustworthy and who is up for it, ask me to add them to the guild list.  I 'know' 1 person who was swapping racial motif books with me by mail the last 2 betas and I could invite him/her - s/he was giving me stuff for free so I think it's unlikely that they'd be selfish about bank content.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 5, 2014)

Epona said:


> Also if we wanted to group to do PvE content, we would have to have 1 character each in the same Alliance.


Does that mean that there is world PvP once we get out of the starter, alliance-only areas? Seems like that will make it rather easy to level up your weapon/armour skills by just meeting up with guild members on the 'other side' and bashing at each other for hours. 



Vintage Paw said:


> I haven't spent a lot of time mining for info on ESO's official site


Don't bother, there isn't any. Hopefully the ES wiki will fill the gap once the game launches.


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## Epona (Mar 5, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Does that mean that there is world PvP once we get out of the starter, alliance-only areas? Seems like that will make it rather easy to level up your weapon/armour skills by just meeting up with guild members on the 'other side' and bashing at each other for hours.



No, only PvP is in Cyrodil.  Mind you I say 'only', the place is vast.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 5, 2014)

You could spend an hour in Cyrodiil and never see another player, friend or foe. Or you could find yourself about to be overrun by an army of 200 enemy players, and crouch down and sneak behind a rock and watch them charge past while they never know you're there. Or you could be on the front lines storming keep walls with 300 of your comrades, throwing up magical bubble defences or sniping enemy mages from the battlements or fixing broken siege equipment or manning the battering ram and avoiding boiling oil being poured from above, or you could discover a dungeon in the middle of nowhere and head in with 4 of your friends to explore, just be about to fight the big boss NPC in there and be ambushed by 5 enemy faction players who were in there at the same time and lying in wait for you.

Cyrodiil is amazing.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 5, 2014)

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1zluwg/0181_patchnotes/

Patch notes.

Most important one: INCREASED THE STARTING BANK SIZE BY 30.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 5, 2014)

> Gutsripper is no longer quite as fearsome as his name, and his difficulty has been adjusted.


Good - stupid dinosaur killed me a dozen times before I gave up. 

Interesting they have made so many adjustments to prices - mostly reducing the cost of new stuff and paying more for stuff you sell.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 5, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1zluwg/0181_patchnotes/
> 
> Patch notes.


A comment on there points out that weekend testers never actually played the previous 0.18 patch, which had even more fixes:

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1yso0g/upcoming_v018_patchnotes/



> Now after the tutorial completion, new characters will go directly to first alliance city where you will then have the choice to go to the starting islands.
> 
> Molag Bal has stepped up his attacks, and Dark Fissures are opening throughout Tamriel! These are smaller events than the larger Dark Anchors. To close a Dark Fissure, several Daedra will emerge from a fissure and must be slain. They are designed for solo or a small group.
> 
> In order to make the world feel more substantial, you will now collide with NPCs, including collision with NPCs in combat. We’d appreciate everyone’s feedback about how this changes the way the world.


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## Epona (Mar 5, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> A comment on there points out that weekend testers never actually played the previous 0.18 patch, which had even more fixes:
> 
> http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1yso0g/upcoming_v018_patchnotes/



Yep we were on 0.171.  Looking forward to giving a more recent patch a whirl because there were a couple of quests I couldn't complete for various reasons and I could really use the XP before tackling some of the others (again)!

I managed to do Gutsripper eventually but I was about level 10 and came out of it by the skin of my teeth.


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## Epona (Mar 5, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I also made a breton templar and a khajiit nightblade but they never made it out of their prison cell because I was having far too much fun with my dunmer dk. I prefer the EP areas to the AD areas so far. I haven't done more than a level or two in the DC, so I'll likely focus on my templar there next beta.



Ah I knew I'd seen you say this but after my screenshot splurge I was tired and thought "I'll comment on that tomorrow" and then didn't!

But yes I agree with that, I've now done all 3 alliance starter areas twice and got a little bit around the bigger zone once in each alliance, and AD is definitely my least favourite of the three.  Not that it's bad mind you, just that I prefer the others.  Can't put my finger on exactly why that is, possibly because both times I've done AD I seem to have got bottlenecked at the quest in the Ayelid ruins which is really hard and there don't seem to be as many side-quests on the very bottom of the zone where you start out?  That can't be the sole reason, the other 2 alliances both have plenty of difficult fights, it just seemed a bit easier to find a wide range of quest-based stuff to do near where you start out in the zone.

Don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I've always had a problem (in any game) picking back up with a character that I've left for the amount of time we have between beta tests.  I like having a range of different characters anyway, but especially because we've been restricted to low level zones (and also not wanting to spoil myself too much) I find myself starting new characters rather than continuing old ones.  Mind you I will take my highest level one back to Cyrodil next time if the lag isn't as bad.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 5, 2014)

You know, I didn't have too many problems with old Gutsy. He killed me the first time with my nightblade archer, and I just managed to kill him the second attempt but was sure I was near death. It was that fight that made me certain I'd never survive without that lovely first siphoning ability  I think he's a good deal easier with a ranged character, because you can still be doing damage while you're avoiding his attacks. I liked the sudden spike in difficulty though because it forced me to think about whether I'd been properly focusing on blocking, dodging and interrupting charged attacks and exploiting stuns and so on. That said, if he'd have killed me more than 3 or 4 times I think I'd have become really quite grumpy!

I killed him incredibly easily with my dragonknight this past weekend, but that was mostly because I had learned that he has pathing issues. If you jump on and off his little pedestal he can't follow you down at the back, so has to leave by the side to come around - and then if you jump back on it again from the back he has to go back around to the side again to get back on it. It made kiting him really easy, and let me regen magicka and slowly chip away at him. That does kind of feel like cheating, but at the same time this is a game where it can be important to use the environment to block attacks and get away when you need to, so it's not quite as bad as typing in a cheat code. The only thing that makes it 'cheaty' is his pathing.

I had more problems first time around with the Doshia fight in the fighters' guild storyline. I don't think I died that first time I did it, but it took me far too long to realise those orbs were healing the boss and that I had to get rid of them as quickly as possible. It felt like it took forever and I was constantly having problems managing my resources (and my health!). When I did it again this time around there was a nice big rock formation in the middle of the room that I could kite around and over, and it was a fair bit easier.

Then there was the fight against that big old bone golem in the main faction storyline in EP (I mean, seriously, the moment I saw them summon that golem I thought "this will end badly"). That was a level 8 quest, but I didn't do it until I was something like 12 because I was busy doing other things! The fight was easy, in that I at no time feared I would die - BUT it took forever. He kept healing over and over and it seemed like there should have been something I could have done to stop it but he regened to practically the same amount time and time again. It was a pretty boring fight and I was getting annoyed with it, simply because it just took so long with absolutely no variation to what I had to do. Just kill the scamps as they turned up, dodge his aoe fire attacks, hit E to use the rune thing the dude I was with had, and keep spamming my attacks at it as it slowly lumbered from one side of the cavern to the other over and over again. Perhaps it would have felt more interesting had I been closer to the suggested level and been kept on my toes a bit more, but even with stronger attacks because of my level it still took forever to chip away at his health.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 6, 2014)

As for the starter areas and main faction areas, I liked that the AD starter island was all in one, but it also felt a little barren as a result. Bleakrock and Bal Foyen felt more bustling, things were closer together. Auridon was very, very pretty and I enjoyed exploring it, but it seemed smaller than Stonefalls, and again it didn't feel like there was as much to do. By level 11 I'd explored the whole of the Auridon map (even managed to sneak all the way past the exterior of the Banished Cells and get to that last shrine you had to pray at for an NPC... only to get utterly killed by the troll that was there). By level 13 I'd only explored perhaps 2/3 of Stonefalls - and that's just the exterior, I certainly hadn't gone in every mine or dungeon I'd noticed. It will be interesting to see what the DC areas are like. I plan on having a few different characters so I'll certainly see all 3 areas come launch, but at this point I have no idea which I'll end up spending more time with.

And yes, I have problems going back to characters after a long break. I'm the same with Skyrim as well. I haven't played it since November, and while I hadn't finished the story I planned for my dunmer I'm itching to make a different character on my return. But I also want to do a complete reinstall since so many things have changed - 4 months is a hell of a long time in Skyrim modding  But at the same time I really don't want to abandon Anis, and she was the one I planned to do my first run of Dragonborn with because it would make the most sense. My nord companion was the one who first completed the main story, because it felt _right_ (plus Kodlak in Sovngard - how could it _not_ be my companion?). My dunmer was going to be the one to do Dragonborn, because Solstheim and dunmer and all that jazz. I still haven't ever done the mage guild story because I've never had the right character for it. For that matter, I've never completed the dark brotherhood or thieves guild... because I get distracted!


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 6, 2014)

Epona said:


> I find myself starting new characters rather than continuing old ones.  Mind you I will take my highest level one back to Cyrodil next time if the lag isn't as bad.


Hopefully we can play on the EU megaserver next time.

The patch notes did specifically say that they want players to roll new characters to try out the new tutorial/starter experience, so don't feel too bad if that's what you end up doing.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 6, 2014)

Just reading up on the racial passives available - they're pretty underwhelming. Basically just breaks down as:

Choose Breton, Dunmer, or Altmer if you're going to mostly be a magic user.
Choose Redguard, Orsimer (Orc), Nord or Imperial if you're mostly going to be a hand-to-hand fighter.
Choose Bosmer if you're mostly going to use a bow/stealth.

Argonians have a weird potion/being healed passive. Khajiit seem to have the best, with a combination of stamina, stealth and crit buffs available as you level. Shame they look so stupid.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 6, 2014)

Ah, no, you're not at all forced to be any of those races for your class at all. The overcharging feature means you can pretty much reach the soft cap for health, magicka or stamina with any class at all depending on racial passives, class passives, armour enchantments, armour passives, and/or points put into those stats.

For example, I hit the soft cap for armour with my dunmer dragonknight fire mage while wearing mostly light armour, with 2 pieces of heavy, whenever I'd use the Spiked Armour skill.

In addition, before I'd taken any of the Dunmer magicka passives I hit magicka regen soft cap because I'd taken one of the light armour passives and was wearing a couple of pieces of gear that helped magicka regen as well. If I'd have worn all medium and taken the medium armour passives I'd have likely hit the stamina soft cap instead.

Basically there are endless different ways you can get the right stats for the type of character you want to play - racial passives are just one of those ways. But as you rightly point out, the 2 outliers at the moment are argonians and khajiit, because no one really knows whether critical chance/damage can be increased to the same extent any other way right now, nor how important the argonian ones might be. There are lots and lots of khajiit stealth characters out there - but they're not all dual wielders as you might expect. Some are big fuck off 2h tanks with good crit damage. Some are siphoning healers (healing crits too).

The racial passives and the existence of classes is making a lot of people stumble at the first hurdle, I think. It'll take a while for people to break free of the chains that other games have created for them. But you can be whatever the hell you want. You can be an orc sorcerer with a bow, you can be a khajiit nightblade healer, you can be an altmer dual wielding single target dps rogue... it's all about the _combination_ of things you choose. Sure, you can decide to get your magicka regen bonuses from the race you pick, but you can equally get them from the armour you pick. If you take light armour passives _and_ dunmer passives and put your points into magicka you'll hit the 2 soft caps for magicka sooner, but then what do you do? Put all your points into health or stamina or only enchant with armour and health, only eat health and stamina food and drink I guess - whereas if you'd have chosen another race, or decided to make your dunmer wear only heavy or medium armour, or put your attribute points elsewhere, or spent your skill points on something else other than the racial passive, you could have reached those soft caps in other ways.

You're absolutely not gimped for choosing one race over another. You'll just have to make different decisions about where to put your points, what weapons and armour to use, and think outside the box (I hate that phrase) with your build - which is far more interesting in the long run because khajiit dw nightblade #758 is going to be just as predictable as the 757 that came before her.

Disclaimer: I'm making a khajiit dw nightblade


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 6, 2014)

There's an update to the client, if you want to get the jump on it before beta is announced.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 6, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> There's an update to the client, if you want to get the jump on it before beta is announced.


As long as they don't announce it for this weekend; my internet is cut off until Tuesday.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 6, 2014)

And I've got work to do (work I should have done last weekend  ).

Doubtful it'll be this weekend now. If we're lucky little things we'll get a week of beta but I doubt it. An official tweet went out replying to someone saying that "there will be more chances to help beta test eso before launch" - emphasis on the 'chances'. But frankly we're clutching at straws. It's not long til the end of March anyway


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 6, 2014)

A Finnish website is saying the next beta will be 14th March, weekend-long. We're updated to patch 0.183 - no news on patch notes yet though. 

Exciting!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 8, 2014)

ZOS are getting themselves a bit of a rep for actually listening to people. 

From the PTS (public test server - the beta that is ongoing 24/7):



> Hey everyone,
> 
> I just wanted to drop a line in to talk about some things coming to the game in the future that we thought you might want to know about. Of course, there is way more happening than what is listed here, with team busy on many initiatives including continued bug fixing, balancing, and other features. But these are things we can offer some tidbits on that you’ll hopefully be seeing soon. As with anything in development, things could change, so we are not guaranteeing these.
> 
> ...



That sounds really good. The phasing thing was something that was probably my biggest worry. As it stands now, yes you have the 'travel to friend' option if you are both phased into a different instance, but that is generally only for private instances (for the most part). The big problem is that because of the way the story changes the world around you, if your friend is a couple of steps ahead from you in the story, you can't join up with each other to go random exploring adventuring or anything. You're stuck in different phases. This means that more seasoned players can't go back to help newer players (a big feature of some guilds, but also friends who buy the game a month or so after you and you want to play together - nope!). It also means that if you start out at exactly the same time, if one of you happens to need to go offline for a while, the other can't continue playing or they'll desync and you'll be forever separated in different phases. In addition, good luck trying to pick different options during quests - surefire way to trap yourself in a different phase.

Obviously this is disastrous for an MMO. It's wonderful for the story, the way they want to show the world reacting to your decisions, but for an MMO it just doesn't wash. There has to be a way to group with your friends and stay grouped with them to do the same content regardless of whether you've already done X quest or picked Y choice instead of Z. This is something that will come back to bite them on the arse if they don't sort it out. So hopefully this announcement shows they're aware of it and trying their hardest to find the most elegant solution.


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## Epona (Mar 8, 2014)

HAHA!  I wasn't sure how public that info was so just sent a PM to you and BB with some of the info in case you hadn't seen it, whilst you were posting this.

It all looks like good stuff, especially pleased about the grouping stuff - that's kind of important


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 8, 2014)

Yeah I just saw 

Sounds like good news all round so far.

Now, I have to have a concerted effort to push through and finish all my work so I can play guilt free next weekend


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## Epona (Mar 8, 2014)

My response on the most recent player survey about trading (included this as part of my response about guilds):


_My one concern (actually my biggest concern about ESO as a whole) is that with a guild requiring 50 members to operate a guild store, and needing to hold a keep in Cyrodil in order to have a public storefront, independent or small-guild crafters will be very isolated and cut out of the loop and it will prevent a mode of play that many people enjoy - unless you are willing to be a part of the sort of serious large guild that kicks you out if you cannot commit yourself to regular guild activities or less than x (insert job-type number of hours here) hours a week of activities, or have the wrong build or wrong gear, or ought to be doing 0.1 more DPS, that sort of thing. Many of us cannot keep up that level of commitment to a guild and find some of the serious hardcore guilds intimidating to be a member of in terms of 'keeping up', or would prefer to engage in social activities on a more casual or ad hoc basis, or even prefer to solo.

So it is my worry with the current guild store system that those of us who would like to sell our crafted goods to other players but cannot commit to x number of hours or activities a week to satisfy a large 'serious' guild will be sidelined and it will not be viable for us to pursue crafting/trading seriously within the game. You have created such a wonderful crafting system, but I do feel there need to be avenues besides guild store or trade chat to sell items to other players in order to make being a crafter a properly viable method of play for independents and small guilds. Please consider lowering the number of active guild members required to run a guild store and adding other options for player to player trade!_


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 9, 2014)

Won't independent crafters/traders just be able to 'set up shop' anywhere they like and sell their stuff? What is the benefit of being in Cyrodil - if anything, it means you're harder to get to than a regular city hub.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 9, 2014)

As it stands at the moment, if you're not in a guild with a guild shop, you'll be relegated to spamming zone chat (or if they have a trade channel) - WTS Green inferno staff lvl22 vrs traits avail - etc. It'll be hell. You will have no physical presence, no way to advertise yourself, nowhere for people to browse. I can understand why they've adopted this for the moment, because they first and foremost want to foster community relations and group work - but it leaves others out in the cold. It kind of feels like you're being shunned, you know? It'll be interesting to see how it develops though.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 9, 2014)

I like the idea of some kind of market or bazaar - in the main cities of each area or perhaps in a specific area anyone can access. Someone suggested tying it to player housing - if there are special areas for housing then there can be rough collections of people on the village green, for example, selling their stuff. Perhaps you have to rent a market stall, or at least book a slot - to avoid it being a complete free for all. Something that can still be collaborative and player-driven without it resorting to the guild structure would be ideal, and it could still maintain a sense of individuality, rather than the faceless insta-access that an auction house provides.

There are lots of ways they could do something interesting with this. I absolutely agree with Epona on the point though, because at the moment if you don't have friends you know you can sell to or trade with and don't want to or aren't able to get into one of the large trading guilds then there's no incentive to deal with crafting outside of your own requirements. This is the sort of game though that could see some people becoming very, very good at one particular crafting discipline. We might even see someone who specialises in 2h weapons exclusively, and others who only create heavy armour, etc. because of the intensive nature of the traits and skill points system needed to be the very best. Not to mention willingness and access to the special set locations. It's the kind of game where being a top level crafter is absolutely within the grasp of every single player if they put in the time and dedication - and with such a wonderful crafting system it seems a shame to restrict that possibility to the people who engage in a certain type of playstyle or group activity.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 9, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I like the idea of some kind of market or bazaar - in the main cities of each area or perhaps in a specific area anyone can access. Someone suggested tying it to player housing - if there are special areas for housing then there can be rough collections of people on the village green, for example, selling their stuff. Perhaps you have to rent a market stall, or at least book a slot - to avoid it being a complete free for all.


I can see that being really hard to get right. You don't want anyone with a couple of crappy swords to be able to block another player with a wide range of goods from getting a slot in the marketplace - that's what was good about auction houses, it was a level playing field, but allowed those who knew how to play the market to operate effectively in and around the tiny players.

I think maybe having some way to advertise things in game would work - maybe some kind of notice board arrangement, where you can list your items and your location/opening times.

Re. housing - have you seen that mentioned as a possibility in ESO? The only other MMO I've played that had housing was Lord of the Rings Online, and that was only guild houses, and they were a bit pointless.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 9, 2014)

Plenty of people seem to want housing. I believe a dev has stated it's one of those things that they'll be thinking about in the future. Thinking about as in considering whether it would be worthwhile and doable, rather than saying "yes, it's coming at some point down the line".


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## Epona (Mar 10, 2014)

Thing is, there will be ways to find buyers for your crafted gear (outside of the current guild-based setup and without spamming trade chat and hoping to randomly find someone who wants your wares at that particular moment), it just won't be done in-game.  There are already out-of-game networks set up to fill the gap (such as East Empire Trading Company), who will provide space for crafters and traders to list their wares outside of the game, then go in game and finalise a sale (for in-game currency).  But I can't help feeling this is not the way the developers intended it to work, and it's a bit fiddly.  The current ways around it are not ideal, and are more likely to be based on advertising outside of the game world (on bulletin boards and the like) to find buyers to hook up with in game who want to buy your goods.

That is the way it will be done if there's not an alternative that lies somewhere in the middle between guild stores or spamming chat in the game, and it is far from ideal.  This could all be done completely in game by way of town noticeboards for trading, with a listing fee or % of sale fee for deals.  If they want to promote guild stores, just make the noticeboard sales listings more expensive/less lucrative to use by way of fees.  But there really shouldn't be any need for crafters to already be setting up bulletin boards out of game for listing items for sale - it demonstrates a gap in the game that really ought to be filled in some way, IMO.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 10, 2014)

http://www.tesoelite.com/2014/03/elder-scrolls-online-emotes/


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Beta weekend confirmed this coming weekend. Going to spend my time in DC this time. Looking forward to it!


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 11, 2014)

Are we back on the EU server this time?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

We've never been on it. But I doubt it. I would imagine they want everyone in one place to continue to monitor server load, etc. I haven't followed any news yet today though so I could be wrong.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 11, 2014)

Oh - I thought that when we had to switch to the US megaserver, the implication was we were on the EU one before (since my game folder is called "Elder Scrolls Online EU").


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

They introduced the ability to download the EU folder/files just after the second to last test, but it was more in preparation for launch than it was anything else. It confused a lot of people because we assumed it meant future tests would be split between the 2 servers. They made a statement explaining the tests are on the NA server and how to switch back for it.

If indeed this beta is US-only again, click the cog in the top right and make sure you have the US server selected. If you don't, then select it. If you only have one main game folder (Elder Scrolls Online Beta EU) then the launcher will attempt to download the US version. The versions of the game are actually identical, but the servers seem to require there to be a separate version for each. Instead of downloading the whole lot, pause the download, close the launcher, and just rename your EU folder to the name of the newly-created US folder (which is usually just the same but without the EU part). When you open the launcher again it'll just check the files, maybe download a patch, and you'll be good to go.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 11, 2014)

Ah, fair enough. I just duplicated my folders to save having to rename them. Looking forward to the weekend - I worked my arse off last weekend packing and unpacking everything we own, putting up beds, and installing stuff, so Mrs BB says I can do nothing all next weekend.  Of course, that is dependent on EE having correctly transferred our broadband account to the new house by Friday night...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Right, seems like an update is being rolled out. A new launcher and a 4GB patch, updating the game to 0.89something.

Problem is, it seems to be buggy as all hell, and the launcher keeps crashing for a lot of people, lots of looping, endless downloading, error messages, etc. If you download it, you might need to repair the files. To do so, the repair function has moved from the left to under the cog settings menu (in the new launcher, if you get that far).

Might be worth not opening your launcher for a day or two though, to see if they push out a fix for this in a few hours or so. It's causing a bit of chaos. The new version has only just dropped though, as in the past hour... so it's early days.

Also, mine isn't even trying to patch right now... so perhaps it's rolled out to a few at a time?

Edit: nope, now mine is updating. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Right, it has updated really quickly. New launcher, with some quite odd options in there. Opening the launcher now gets it stuck in an infernal loop, where it opens and closes itself over and over. Eventually it stayed open, and I clicked play, and indeed the version is 0.89something.

Then I got an error message saying it wasn't able to determine my patch version. The play button was replaced with an update button.

Nothing happened when I clicked update, so I closed the launcher. Now, whenever I try to open it it gets stuck in an infinite loop, trying to open, then closing, over and over. The only way to kill it is to reboot. So I can't repair. Apparently they've since pulled the update, so hopefully you won't get it if you haven't already.

I'm furiously refreshing pages hoping someone has a solution for me that doesn't include uninstalling and redownloading the whole 9 yards!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

It's fixed.

They have pushed another update super quick!

I left the launcher looping for 20 minutes and eventually it 'caught' and opened properly. It updated something really small, but still looked bugged. I repaired the files, closed, reopened and got a fun new message:

It welcomed me to the beta, it told me when the beta is (this weekend), it told me I could choose between the EU or NA server for it(!!) and that my characters from previous betas would be playable on either server.

Happy days.

So I guess it's safe to update now. Also, you should only have one version of the game files. I'd suggest seeing what happens to the folders, but the only one you need once it's all done patching is "The Elder Scrolls Online" - so if you still have an EU version, either rename it or delete it (if you have both).


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2014)

Ugh - not launching my client until it's sorted, hope you don't have to download the whole thing again VP.  EDIT: Oh good, it's now sorted for you.  Posting at the same time 

People on the Bethsoft forums are reporting that the next beta message says it opens Friday at noon EST, and we can choose between NA and EU servers.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Yep, that's the message you get when you start the launcher. They must have copied and pasted our characters across. 

I'll probably start my new templar on the EU server but go back to my old DK on the NA server to see what PvP lag is like this time around. I'm still in two minds about what server to go with on launch. I'd probably just go with the EU but I also want to join a guild or two, and there are so, so, so many more to choose from for the NA server.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Eeeee, it seems if we have pre-ordered we can sample everything from the Imp edition and Explorer pack this beta.

A horse, a horse. My kingdom (read: 100G) for a lovely white horse.

Edit: Actually I think you can whether you have pre-ordered or not. Nice.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 11, 2014)

Awesome  thanks for taking the bullet for us on that one, VP


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

NP 

I should be doing work, but instead it was a case of, "I'll just check reddit one last time before I knuckle down" - which led me to, "well, I'll just see if the update has rolled out to me before I knuckle down" - which led to, "OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING I HAVE TO FIX THIS WHO CARES ABOUT KNUCKLING DOWN?"


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Also, the next zone for each faction will be available as the quest cap has been raised to 25.

Patch notes: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/205nej/weekend_beta_patch_notes_018/

(I'm still not working  )


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2014)

Just saw the patch notes. Glad we get to try the new features and an extra zone for each alliance!  I still don't want to spoil too much before launch though 

And bug fixes of course, finally might be able to continue my highest level character, she'd got stuck on one quest bug towards the end of the last session, so will go back and try again this time.

Oh must remember to look at keymapping this time, because I've been playing Skyrim in between I have a tendency to blow my Ultimate instead of sheathing my weapon.  No that is not a euphemism, but I may bear it in mind next time one is called for


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2014)

Now got my invite, it says that the session starts at 5pm GMT.

Now I consider this unlikely, because EST went onto daylight savings last weekend - had Zenimax taken this into consideration, they would have realised that they need to recalculate and 12 noon EDT is actually 4pm GMT.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 11, 2014)

Man, I don't use auto-loot, so I hit E followed by R quickly after to take everything. The amount of times that I spent my ultimate  by accident because of lag or problems with containers saying they were lootable when they weren't....

I wanted a sign to hang around my neck that said, "HERPDERP, L2P N00B"

My ultimate was really fucking flashy. The dragonknight standard thing - the great ruddy banner that falls from the sky and plants itself in the ground, a massive pole twice your height, flag flying, huge area of effect in glowy red, and a camera shake and sound when it plants as well. And I keep bringing it down just as the fight ends and I go to loot. And _always_ when theres someone else there to witness it.


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Man, I don't use auto-loot, so I hit E followed by R quickly after to take everything. The amount of times that I spent my ultimate  by accident because of lag or problems with containers saying they were lootable when they weren't....
> 
> I wanted a sign to hang around my neck that said, "HERPDERP, L2P N00B"
> 
> My ultimate was really fucking flashy. The dragonknight standard thing - the great ruddy banner that falls from the sky and plants itself in the ground, a massive pole twice your height, flag flying, huge area of effect in glowy red, and a camera shake and sound when it plants as well. And I keep bringing it down just as the fight ends and I go to loot. And _always_ when theres someone else there to witness it.



Oh good grief - the full neon arrow pointing at the neon 'dunce cap' that you feel you are wearing right at that moment.  Yep, done that.


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## Epona (Mar 12, 2014)

Just wondering what to do this beta.

I think I will keep my highest level character on the US server.  I will start an Imperial just out of curiosity (allied to the DC) on the EU server.  Test out both in Cyrodil in high population campaigns on each server to determine lag in each.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2014)

That's my plan too (without the Imperial bit).

I learned today that the EU server is in Frankfurt. No official word on where the NA one is, but rumour says Texas.


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## Epona (Mar 12, 2014)

I'm supposed to be spending the next couple of days clearing enough space in the spare room so that I can find a spare power socket and run an extension cable through to the hallway so that I can get switched to fibre in the gap between beta and launch.

Current progress - zero.  It's a mammoth task to be fair, there is a double bed in that room somewhere but I haven't seen it for a few years


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## Epona (Mar 12, 2014)

OK, this a new one on me, and will make playing on both servers (to fit in with different groups of friends) far more do-able (in terms of having character slots free to fit in with friends in different alliances on different servers, not necessarily in terms of the involvement of time required to run that many characters  ).

C&P from the beta forum (ZOS_AmeliaR is a Zenimax employee):



> sigismond wrote: »
> @ZOS_AmeliaR‌ Are we gonna be able to switch between megaservers after the launch? If yes, can we play with our characters on both servers or are you gonna limit the characters only for one megaserver? (If this is the case can we have total 16 characters on both servers?)
> 
> ZOS_AmeliaR: At launch, characters will be bound to the server on which you created them. You'll still be able to access both servers, so yes, you could have a total of 8 characters on each server.



So if I read that right, up to 16 characters in total across the 2 megaservers?


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 12, 2014)

Epona said:


> So if I read that right, up to 16 characters in total across the 2 megaservers?


Sounds like it.

Assuming our internet gets switched on by Friday  I think I'll be starting a new character to test out the changes in the tutorial/starting zone experience.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2014)

Yep, that's right. It makes sense, since characters are bound to your server. Your 8 on the NA server won't be able to communicate to the 8 on the EU server though, or so I'd assume - for sending mail and so on (a handy way to eke out a bit more storage space - send your items to another of your characters and leave them in the mail until you want them). Now we don't have to have 2 folders of stuff or bother with renaming it will make switching between servers a lot easier.

Buddy Bradley - that's what they want us to do. It's in the patch notes, or the email, or somewhere (I haven't checked my email yet. They want us to start a new character and give feedback on the new start. As well as the same usual things like feedback on Cyrodiil and so on.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2014)

Another new patch, a tiny one this time. No issues either, thank god XD

I'm excited for all this new stuff they're pushing out. It's coming thick and fast.

Gawd, I'm just really excited for launch 

I've made contact with a guy (or gal, not sure yet) on reddit who was asking for EU friends to make contact with and maybe play together. S/he's not necessarily interested in joining a guild, but I suppose if it was a rough conglomeration of friends it'd be cool. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's one thing I'm really, really excited about with this game. Apart from when I've quested with my MMO pal, all my MMO experiences have been entirely solitary. And, I mean, that's fine, because I've never really invested properly in an MMO before (I would have loved to have continued with TSW but life happened - I'd still love to go back to it someday though - it's absolutely fantastic). But this time around, although I still class myself as a solitary player, I'm really excited about making friends, chatting with them, maybe joining up to go and explore a public dungeon together, or go exploring Cyrodiil ruins together - skyshard hunting! - or perhaps heading out to obliterate overworld skull and crossbones bosses, etc. Or just meeting up at the end of a busy day's questing in the local tavern and having a chat over a drink. I'll still value my time heading out on my own, but I absolutely want to be able to feel social as well.

Which is surprising for me because I'm a right misanthrope 

I read something last night that they are looking into voice comms. This pleases me. I've never used a push-to-talk service, and while Skype is always an option it's also always-on - and I'd far prefer push-to-talk. It'd be easier to deal with, because whoever I'm connected to wouldn't have to put up with me shouting at the cat, or having a conversation, or the tv being on in the background at random times. I don't know what the deal with getting p2t servers up and running privately is... I expect it costs money? 

Also, Buddy Bradley - did we become contacts? If not, I'm catabuca.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 12, 2014)

I played WoW for 5 years, on and off, socially to start with a single friend, then joined guilds. It definitely is one of the best parts of the experience IMO - I'm like you, I hate socialising in real life, but in an MMO I'll gladly help people out or chat for hours.  The built-in voice stuff in WoW is shit, though; everyone either uses Skype or dedicated MMO apps like Teamspeak or Mumble.


Vintage Paw said:


> Also, Buddy Bradley - did we become contacts? If not, I'm catabuca.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 12, 2014)

In other news, my Launcher won't open now.  It keeps crashing silently - is there anything else I should try?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2014)

Did you do all the updates yesterday? What does it look like when it crashes? Is it in that loop thing, trying to open and close over and over? If so, let it run - for as long as needed - and it will eventually 'stick' (took about 20 minutes for me yesterday). From there, repair the files - it doesn't take too long.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 12, 2014)

Didn't update yesterday after you posted; it's not in a loop, it just closes without doing anything. I'm on a Mac laptop at the moment - I'll try reinstalling the client from the ESO site and see if that fixes it.

Edit: Well, that didn't work. Maybe they changed the firewall at work. Guess I'll wait until I get home...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2014)

Probably for the best. Perhaps they don't like the idea of you spending all your time playing games when you should be working, naughty!


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## Epona (Mar 12, 2014)

I've been complaining about poor internet speed all winter - looks like the line/exchange problem finally got fixed because my router has spent the last hour or so intermittently re-synching (right when I decided to launch the ESO client for updates, causing a bit of panic for me!), and I'm now back up to over 5 Mbps!

It's quite exciting to see the small updates to the client whizz past in a flash.  Now just fingers crossed that it stays stable at that speed over the weekend.


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## Epona (Mar 13, 2014)

OH has bought me the Imperial Edition as an early birthday prezzie - I can relax a bit now I actually have the game


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## Epona (Mar 13, 2014)

In other news, earlier today my internet speed was back down so I did a soft disconnect and manually reset the router - now I'm on 8.3 Mbps.  The noise margin is lower than it ought to be though, so I reckon it's going to be a bit unstable and settle at between 6-7 Mbps.  At least if it is unstable and goes tits up at any point I have BT FON to fall back on - just plug in a wireless adapter and use someone else's internet. 

Tbh I'm just fidgeting around and bored waiting for the servers to go online tomorrow.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

I haven't finished all the work I wanted to get done - most, but not all. I've had a dicky tummy for a couple of days, topped off with a horrific headache for most of yesterday. 

Damn time of the year. It's sinus-related, but I don't really know what causes it. Had a spate of them last year, every other month, where all I wanted to do was crack open my skull and wash the inside of my face and head out. I've taken an allergy tablet and a decongestant to hopefully stave it off today, but I expect it will come back in some form or another. Going to try to do a bit of my work before the servers open. I'm not bothered if I'm not playing the moment the clock strikes huzzah o'clock


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

You have my sympathy - I've had sinus problems for years, sometimes you daren't even try to tip your head the wrong way cos of that feeling of pain flooding into your face.
My worst issue these days is that I have developed an allergy to the Ash tree outside my window - it must be the only tree within 200 yards of here and it's a real pisser being allergic to it.  That comes a bit later in the year though.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

GAH!!

Got home to find the internet is working now, but when I try to update the ESO client I get an "Error 1001 - Access Denied" message.   Tried reinstalling the launcher but it didn't make any difference, and I can't find any help anywhere online.

Edit: Feel free to upvote my post on reddit.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Hmm - the game launches okay (as version 1.0.0.813000) if I find the actual game client, so maybe it's just the Launcher that is screwy. When does the beta weekend start? Edit: Never mind, I can use Google  4pm our time, should be.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Beta starts at noon EDT, which is 4pm GMT.  But judging by the last 3 betas, the servers tend to open a bit early.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

The new game version is 0.941004 so you have the old version still.

Can you get to the point with the launcher where you can click repair? (Have upvoted you, btw - and added you as a friend!)


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Buddy Bradley - I have a feeling that you are on Mac?  This is a long shot as I don't know where you are located, but if you are on PC and can get to East London with an external drive, you can copy the files off my PC.
Send me a PM for my address if that would be in any way helpful!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

So they've reverted back to you needing to rename your folder if you're switching between EU and NA servers. I let the launcher change it to EU for me automatically. Changing it back in the launcher to NA makes it want to install the full game again (as you went through troubleshooting last time, Epona). So I can only assume that changing the region, then changing the folder name, then reopening the launcher will let us switch between them this time. I hope so, anyway.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> So they've reverted back to you needing to rename your folder if you're switching between EU and NA servers. I let the launcher change it to EU for me automatically. Changing it back in the launcher to NA makes it want to install the full game again (as you went through troubleshooting last time, Epona). So I can only assume that changing the region, then changing the folder name, then reopening the launcher will let us switch between them this time. I hope so, anyway.



Either that, or having 2 installs (I left the EU folder as it was as a sort of backup).

I hope that gets sorted before release - it's one thing to have 2 half games installed in different folders - because, you know, it's a beta; but the entire amount is going to be massive.  It doesn't matter to me too much as I put it on one of my mechanical drives and I have nearly a terabyte free, but if I wanted to put 2 installs on my SSD I'd be right up shit creek!


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> The new game version is 0.941004 so you have the old version still.
> 
> Can you get to the point with the launcher where you can click repair? (Have upvoted you, btw - and added you as a friend!)


Thanks. Balls - I guess I need the launcher to get fixed then. It doesn't get far enough to repair, unfortunately.



Epona said:


> Buddy Bradley - I have a feeling that you are on Mac?  This is a long shot as I don't know where you are located, but if you are on PC and can get to East London with an external drive, you can copy the files off my PC.


Thanks for the offer, but yes - I'm on a Mac and pretty far from East London.  I submitted a ticket to the ESO site as well, hopefully someone out there will have a solution.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Hmm, just had a response back from ESO (super-fast!) basically saying "fuck off until the beta session is actually open". I'll give it another go after 4 and see if it was something that simple.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Oh dear. Surely they must realise most people want to get the client and launcher updated before the beta begins because of the length of time it takes to download such a monstrosity from scratch should something go wrong?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

I don't know if there's anything from this you might be able to salvage, Buddy Bradley 

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/20e5qz/fix_for_eu_megaserver_update/


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Oh dear. Surely they must realise most people want to get the client and launcher updated before the beta begins because of the length of time it takes to download such a monstrosity from scratch should something go wrong?


I think they just saw the 'access denied' part and fired off a cut-n-paste "wait until it starts" response without reading the bug report properly. I sent it back to them to re-assess.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

What folders did you already have, Buddy? 

A lot of people are saying that if they have both a normal (The Elder Scrolls Online) folder _and_ an EU folder (The Elder Scrolls Online EU) before this update then they get errors.

They suggest renaming (to something ESO won't recognise, like 'The Elder Scrolls Online Euro Backup) or removing the EU folder completely, and letting the launcher just recognise the US version at first. 

From there, it may or may not ask you if you want to migrate your installation to an EU installation. I clicked yes to this. It changes your server location for you, and then automatically renames your US folder to The Elder Scrolls Online EU. It obviously can't do that if you already have that folder present (I suspect it's a fuck up because it doesn't expect anyone to have that folder yet because there hasn't officially been an EU test until now).

I'm not sure if that will fix your issue, but it's worth a shot.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Buggering fuck- you're right Vintage Paw - not that I doubted you, just wanted to check it myself iykwim - I just moved my EU folder somewhere else and started up the client and switched to EU and it wanted to download the whole bloody lot again.  I am moving the folder back (takes 20 minutes a go mind you, just moving it between my mechanical drives) but I can tell you for nothing they are going to get a slightly cross /feedback from me about commandeering hard drives with double installs - absolutely no need for it, it's the exact same fucking game files ffs!!!

Slightly cross about it.  Not even for me really, I have plenty of space and I'm fairly tech-savvy, but it's far from being user-friendly the way it is.  It's the exact same set of files!  Duplicated!

Edit: Just seen your latest post VP and that isn't happening for me - when I get rid of my EU folder it doesn't give me any option when I click on EU server other than to download the whole bloody lot again.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> It changes your server location for you, and then automatically renames your US folder to The Elder Scrolls Online EU. It obviously can't do that if you already have that folder present (I suspect it's a fuck up because it doesn't expect anyone to have that folder yet because there hasn't officially been an EU test until now).
> 
> I'm not sure if that will fix your issue, but it's worth a shot.


Yes, mine did that - I had removed the old EU folder already. I'll try renaming it back and trying it again, but I think I'm just going to have to wait until it gets sorted out.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

It's an absolute nightmare. They tell us we can switch between the servers at will, but make in impossibly difficult to do so. Many in the US have far worse internet speeds and packages than us. We're lucky over here that we tend to have decent speeds and there are not many 'pay per GB' plans left these days, it's mostly unlimited downloads. But I've seen people talking about how they only get a 5GB/month allowance, speeds capped at 1MB, and so on. It's really not feasible to expect people to download 2 lots of the game. And it's certainly not for this weekend, when they are asking people to test out the EU server as well as things like the NA server's improved PvP stability and so on. Do they think we can all just download 2 versions in an hour or so?


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Aye, I mean I don't always have great download speeds, but at least it is unlimited - I can download however much I want, however slowly they let me.
I know certainly in Canada most people are on a capped amount for internet, and pay per Gb after that.  Just looked at my usage and I average about 250Gb downloads a month - that would cost me an arm and a leg in a lot of places.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Beta may or may not have already opened up for some, if you want to try your chances, Epona.

I'll try in a little while, just grabbing some dinner and might finish a bit more work, we'll see.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

I have news about the EU server.

The EU server is currently in the US.



And it will be during launch as well. Once launch is over, they will migrate it to the European datacentre. So... yeah. That's a whole bunch of... yeah.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Buddy Bradley - this is for you http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/20eem1/mac_beta_weekend_megathread/


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I have news about the EU server.
> 
> The EU server is currently in the US.
> 
> ...



Oh for fucking fucks sake.  Excuse my language.  The whole point, surely the only point, is so we have better ping.  If it's actually going to be located in the US... I can't even be bothered to finish the sentence tbh 

I did manage to log in, and immediately sent /feedback (about the duplicate install issue) possibly with a few too many words in shouty upper case to be taken seriously


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

lol, good for you Epona. I plan to use /feedback a fair bit this weekend.

They do plan on migrating it to the German datacentre, but not until after launch... they say it's so they can better monitor things. idk. I guess we don't understand the technical ins and outs, but it's going to annoy a lot of people. I'm one of them, since I wanted to be able to test early on what latency in Cyrodiil was like on both servers.

I'm also grumpy because it means I probably wouldn't have migrated to the EU folder today either. I know they want us to test it, but sometimes when things start getting frustratingly opaque to work out you're not sure if you're helping test or just frustrating things.

I wanted to play my DC character with someone I know, who is in the US but was thinking of switching to the EU server to play with me this weekend. I told him not to bother switching yet because it's a pain in the arse and his internet is ridiculously slow should he need to download anything again. 

Blargle!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Now there's a report that using /reloadui breaks the escape key. So, I guess, don't do that!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Well, I've opened the launcher. I thought I'd see what happens - since I've only got the EU folder - if I changed the region to North America. My thought was that if it started a 30GB download I'd exit, and simply rename my EU folder - getting rid of the NA one it had just created - and reopen the launcher again, hoping it would work how it did for Epona way back when this whole thing started a few weeks ago.

However, while it did start downloading something, it's only about 5GB. So I don't know whether I should just let it run or not. It claimed to have straight away been at 50% (53%). I don't know if this means it's going to download a bunch more after, or if that's all that's needed, or what.

I don't know whether all of this is part of their testing - to see how we deal with the switching and so on - and therefore it might be open to change and finessing as launch approaches, or if wysiwyg and it'll be this goddamn awkward for the rest of time. It'd be useful if they would just tell us what is actually going on under the hood when we switch servers, rather than making us guess and fuck things up along the way.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Ok, here's my glitch for the day - started an Imperial, got halfway through Coldharbour, thought 'fuck, I didn't choose an alliance' and yep, I was not in the alliance I wanted.  Deleted that character, started a new one.  New character now stuck in Coldharbour, cannot get through the doors after picking up a sword.

I guess for every bug that closes, another one opens   Naturally, I have reported the bug - but it's kind of a biggie, I won't be the only person ever who gets halfway through Coldharbour then thinks - "hold on, I buggered that up" and deletes.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Oh dear! Did you choose the same name? Maybe it hadn't had time to 'delete' the character fully from the server. idk. The mysteries of this game.

My 5GB downloaded, and it started applying a 5GB patch. I'm at 98% now. Who knows what will happen then. I'm playing Heroes of Dragon Age on my phone while I wait XD


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

"Unable to unzip manifest, please click repair."

Gawd.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

After checking the files, now it wants to download the whole game.

THIS is why they need to get this stuff in place before the moment they open the beta servers. How can you test stuff for them if you're spending your entire weekend downloading the bleeding game.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> lol, good for you Epona. I plan to use /feedback a fair bit this weekend.



 Somewhere in the midst of my shouty outrage, I managed to insert the phrase "for the love of Akatosh".

Sometimes mild, sometimes angry.  Always mindful of lore


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Oh dear! Did you choose the same name? Maybe it hadn't had time to 'delete' the character fully from the server. idk. The mysteries of this game.
> 
> My 5GB downloaded, and it started applying a 5GB patch. I'm at 98% now. Who knows what will happen then. I'm playing Heroes of Dragon Age on my phone while I wait XD



Oh that bug disappeared on relog.  I did report it though, no-one wants any game to fuck up like that within 10 minutes of start.

How have you ended up with it wanting to download the whole thing again?  If it's cos of the whole NA/EU server thing, just duplicate the folder, make sure there are 2 folders, and make sure they are named appropriately (one should be The Elder Scrolls Online, the other should be The Elder Scrolls Online EU).  I'm sure you've checked that already though, I'm just going through my 'beta forum' helpful poster routine :/


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

I might do that. At first it looked like it was only going to download 5GB, and the folder structure looked in tact, so I thought I'd let it do it, since it didn't take too long. But it was after that it said to repair, so I did, and _then_ it started the full download.

I'm just wary of messing things up even more. Maybe I'll pause this one then, rename it to something the game won't recognise (in case anything goes wrong), and copy over as you suggest. I'm assuming having 2 folders is a necessity then, rather than just renaming them when we want to switch?

I just wish they'd tell us!

Edit: actually, screw that. While it's downloading the whole thing it still says 'repairing' - it's at 25% now, so I'm just going to let it run. I have more work I can be getting on with. It'll be finished soon enough. At least I know once it's done if it fucks up it'll have absolutely nothing to do with user error!


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Mine just isn't working at all. If I don't get any joy from either Reddit or ESO this evening, I'm going to nuke the lot and try a clean reinstall overnight.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Everything is up and running at my end, but my evening is being well and truly buggered by a 4kg bundle of black and white fluff who thinks he should get his dinner early and I have spent a good part of this evening so far trying to gently scrape him off my arm.  The edge of my arm is all wet cos he keeps bloody biting me (not hard, but enough to be annoying) the little sod.

This is why voice chat scares me, no-one needs to hear me suddenly start screeching in pain/surprise with the words 'get off you little bugger, it's not tea time for half an hour yet' interjecting into the game.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Epona said:


> This is why voice chat scares me, no-one needs to hear me suddenly start screeching in pain with the words 'get off you little bugger, it's not tea time for half an hour yet' interjecting into the game.


I greatly amused a WoW raiding party once when they heard me yelling at the kids to GET BACK INTO BED AND GO TO SLEEP!!!!!!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

That's why we need to collectively work out what this push-to-talk malarkey is. I, too, am wary of people listening to me swearing at the cat as he walks across my laptop keyboard to get to the cushion I rest my arm on... because obviously the rest of the sofa isn't comfortable enough for him.

Download has finished, it's 'applying patch' now... and is at 65%.

One day I'll get on there!

I'm most likely going to be on the US server though. Because I won't put my American person through the ordeal of having to potentially download a bunch of stuff and get frustrated... he's probably not even going to buy the game so he really doesn't need the hassle! And now we know the EU server is in the US...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

It seems that issues with switching around and so on - renaming folders and the like - can be solved by deleting the folder named 'game' under your Elder Scrolls Online [EU] folder. It's only about 100mb, and will be patched when you run the launcher again.

But adkjnfskjdgnkfsjgn I just wish they'd put out some official guidance on this. They could solve a hell of a lot of problems.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

21404 MB remaining. I calculate it's about 8.5 hours of download.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Radar has now had his tea, so I can go back to gaming without a cat in horrid bitey mode attached to me.  My other cats aren't like this, he's just a little sod.  Love him dearly mind you, but he's not the easiest pet bless him!


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> 21404 MB remaining. I calculate it's about 8.5 hours of download.



Ouch. :/


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Mine's done, I think. Let's see if I can log in.

I really sympathise with you, Buddy. I expect they'll be getting a LOT of feedback about this this weekend.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

How are you all set for tomorrow or Sunday (you should be downloaded by tomorrow Buddy Bradley ?) for getting together a little group for some fun in Cyrodil?  If we all have characters in the same alliance on the same server mind you.

I have a DC character who is level 12, and I can put some work in tonight to level up one of the others to lvl 10.  I've stuck with the NA server (I think), anything else just seemed like too much hard work.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

I'm not doing much over the weekend, so I'd be up for that.  Planning to start a new Argonian to test the tutorial, and my highest level char isn't 10 yet, so I'll need some time before I can get into  Cyrodil.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Cool, if I try to get my 2 level 8 characters up to level 10 then I'll have a choice and can fit in with you.
Vintage Paw - you up for it?  Just an hour or two at some point over the weekend.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

It sounds great to me. Yeah, I've stuck with the NA server.

I'm just starting a breton templar in DC now. She might make it to 10 by then. Otherwise, I have a dunmer dragonknight (lvl13) in EP, and a bosmer nightblade (lvl 11) archer in AD (I haven't played her for a couple of weekends so I am not sure I can remember how!).

I warn you - I just bought a new mouse and it's taking a while to get used to. So I will likely suck a lot


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Oh, I knew there was a reason I tabbed out.

Loot. So much loot in Coldharbour now. Lots of things to loot before you even get to Lyris. Okay, so most of it is damned fishing bait, but still XD


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I warn you - I just bought a new mouse and it's taking a while to get used to. So I will likely suck a lot



I promise you, if there's a league table of 'sucking bad' I may beat you to the top rank and I cannot blame it on a new mouse.


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## Radar (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I have news about the EU server.
> 
> The EU server is currently in the US.
> 
> ...




Utter arseholes


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

I can tell you, that bank slot upgrade makes the world of difference. I looted the becheeses out of Coldharbour and managed to get my inventory down to 7 

Now I've just got to work out how the hell to get out of Glenumbra and back to Stros M'Kai. I do not like that decision.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Hmm, it doesn't do a good job of letting you know you might want to go and see these 2 entire other areas. I figured it would be at the docks, but a new player is just going to look around the city and never know to go back. I worry.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Hmm, it doesn't do a good job of letting you know you might want to go and see these 2 entire other areas. I figured it would be at the docks, but a new player is just going to look around the city and never know to go back. I worry.


Is there really any reason to strongly encourage players to go back and do them? If they don't do anything to specifically introduce particular aspects of gameplay, or fill in necessary parts of the main quest, then skipping it won't really matter, will it?


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

I haven't got very far into a new game yet - I'm with my level 8 Dunmer trying to beat up some level 10 Nords in Ebonheart.  Whilst I'm drunk.  It is not going according to plan.  (Unless I pretend that the plan is to end with me face down on the ground, resurrecting at a wayshrine, and going to get all my gear repaired - yes that absolutely WAS my intention!)

I have a character (Imperial) who is just out of coldharbour in Daggerfall.
I'm not sure they've done 'skip the start' right tbh - it's not done for the benefit of those of us who want to wander round picking plants and come back to the quest later.  I worry it's more for the 'ugh, why do I have to read dialogue, why is there a story, what are quests, I just want to kill stuff - only just started but why aren't I max level yet and where is the endgame' type player.

Not that I have got that far with my new character yet, I will come back and give a proper answer once I've actually got that far.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Is there really any reason to strongly encourage players to go back and do them? If they don't do anything to specifically introduce particular aspects of gameplay, or fill in necessary parts of the main quest, then skipping it won't really matter, will it?



Skyshards.  The fact that you level quicker by questing and exploration than killing mobs - I would imagine that is enough to keep some people doing the start islands.  But possibly for a lot of people only if they are directed there and told -> Levelling is to be had in this direction.

You know what, without a huge surge of people going through there in the first day or so, it's going to be an absolute dream collecting low level crafting materials in those zones.


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## Radar (Mar 14, 2014)

Epona said:


> Radar has now had his tea, so I can go back to gaming without a cat in horrid bitey mode attached to me.  My other cats aren't like this, he's just a little sod.  Love him dearly mind you, but he's not the easiest pet bless him!


Meow


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

There are still a fair few people on Stros M'kai, most on white horses so they're bound to know 

So, can anyone confirm with a new character... I don't have the 'World' skill tab anymore. So I can't slot the soul gem filling power thing. This is... odd.


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## Radar (Mar 14, 2014)

Oh FFS.. Now the launcher has gone spastic and is insisting on downloading Gigs and Gigs of data. I'm currently at the parents place in paddyland with a bit of wet bailing twine for my broadband connection


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Okay, it's saying it's a mage's guild skill. But... but... the World skill line - with all the soul skills - was always there from the start, wasn't it? The mages guild line is separate.



Radar said:


> Oh FFS.. Now the launcher has gone spastic and is insisting on downloading Gigs and Gigs of data. I'm currently at the parents place in paddyland with a bit of wet bailing twine for my broadband connection



Aw crap, sorry  It's really just not working well for people. You should make sure you give them feedback on this.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

And yeah, I have the bug where I can't use esc

Edit: If your esc key breaks, type /logout and you'll be taken back to character select. That will fix it. For now.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Radar said:


> Meow



Right, since you currently seem to be understanding writing, we have to have a word about your utterly obnoxious behaviour.... hmm - somehow I do not think you are small, fluffy, white with black spots, and filled to the brim with bitey teeth and grabby claws.  It's that Radar I want to be having words with!


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Okay, it's saying it's a mage's guild skill. But... but... the World skill line - with all the soul skills - was always there from the start, wasn't it? The mages guild line is separate.



Oh I hadn't checked that.  Soul trap is kind of important, even if you never use any other skill in that tree.  But yeah it used to be a World Skill that levelled up according to your progression along the main quest.

I hadn't even looked to see where it is now!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Is yours there, Epona? 

I asked in zone and they said they had theirs. I've asked on reddit, and one person so far has replied, and said that they thought it was a requirement to finish the tutorial in coldharbour... well i did... but I did make this character last beta and she's been sat in her cell until today, when i obviously took her through.

But it's just missing! This is... awful!


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

I was in the middle of a quest with my Dunmer and it seems to have gone.  Guess that it has been changed in some way and I have to restart it somehow.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Well I just started a brand new character and it's not there. I wonder if it's tied to the Mage's Guild now or something. But it was always useful because it had a point in it from the beginning.

This is very odd.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Is yours there, Epona?
> 
> I asked in zone and they said they had theirs. I've asked on reddit, and one person so far has replied, and said that they thought it was a requirement to finish the tutorial in coldharbour... well i did... but I did make this character last beta and she's been sat in her cell until today, when i obviously took her through.
> 
> But it's just missing! This is... awful!



Sorry, I was away from the computer for a bit.  I checked the character I started today, and one I started last session, and they both have soul trap under World Magic in their skills.

If you don't have it, I can only think that you must have been subject to an odd glitch due to your character still being in prison last beta - they probably changed the point in the quest at which you gain that line of magic and you missed out by being somewhere between the old point and the new one   It used to come up as you entered Tamriel - "You are now a conjurer in Soul Magic" came up on screen as you first loaded into the real world, and that is when that skill line became available.

Edit: but if you just started a new character and that one doesn't have it either - how far have you got with that character?  It always used to be gained as you entered Tamriel for the first time, either just before or just after after speaking to The Prophet (or his projection) and he tells you to look for the Harbourage.

If your character is 'out in the world' and doesn't have that skill line at all, definitely report it using /bug


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

That'll be why. I never saw the prophet. He never turned up in Daggerfall. I just assumed he didn't now.

I've just completed Coldharbour with my new new character, and he was there.

Well that sucks.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

I gave feedback about the new start.  Vintage Paw - although I was sort of in favour (for IMO the right reasons, if only it had been done the way I think it should), now I have tried it I think it's not so good and you were right.  My feedback was along the lines that although I am in favour of free exploration, they shouldn't ever, ever, apologise for having a story.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

I completely agree, Epona.

So, I started yet another character, DC again. I skipped the tutorial so I could see what happens with the prophet. He wasn't there again. I wonder, might I ask a huge favour - would you start a quick throwaway character, skip straight to Daggerfall, and tell me if the prophet is there for you? I'm remaking her... again... and not skipping the tutorial this time. (I'm getting sick of it now though!)... so let's see if third time is the charm.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 14, 2014)

Okay, don't worry. I started her again... went through the tutorial... again... and the prophet turned up this time.

So that's a bug.

I'll send a report.


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## Epona (Mar 14, 2014)

Cool - I will try it myself later, just putting food in the husband and cats.

I was just part of a large group and it was absolutely fucking mental.  We grouped up, I died, we got back together, closed a dark anchor (I got loads of goodies off the boss), then someone shared a quest with me, then I fell off a cliff into a river of lava and died.  Almost comical   Not quite a great big glowing arrow and dunce cap, but near enough.  Great fun though


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 15, 2014)

Main computer download is at a whopping 10% after being left on overnight.

Then I remembered that I'd actually downloaded most of the update on my laptop    currently patching that (about 1.5 hours I reckon), then hopefully I can play while the PC finishes downloading.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 15, 2014)

Managed to play for a bit, but it's being a bit laggy for me at the moment, plus my laptop is barely coping on Medium graphics, so I'm just going to wait for this download to finish. 

Duh, why didn't I think of this earlier?  I can just copy the game files over from my laptop to the desktop - that should work, and then I can play on a 27" screen instead of a 13" one.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2014)

HUGE thread on reddit where almost everyone agrees that they should have done the starter island skip the other way around (just like we said!!) - so you go to the starter island but get the option to skip.

HUGE.

But there are also a lot of people complaining that the weapon racks were taken out of Coldharbour, despite the fact that you ending up with some crappy sword is the TES way 

In my multiple *sobs* runs of Coldharbour yesterday I ended up with loads of different weapons, and always had the one I wanted by the undercroft.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2014)

Weird - not sure if this is part of the same problem you were having VP, but my new DC character does not have "The Harbourage" quest :/


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2014)

Did you meet the prophet when you landed in Daggerfall? I don't have it either. Doesn't he come to you later and say he's found somewhere you can meet, and then the harbourage quest comes up?

Gawd, I can't remember what order things are meant to happen in.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2014)

Ah yes possible we get that later.  My brain is not in the best state today, based on me being in a bit of a state last night (as much lack of sleep as beer, but not a good combination)!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2014)

I admit I wasn't having that great a time myself yesterday. A combination of the awkward issues I was having with the prophet, the change to the way the starter islands work, and trying to get to grips with my new mouse (it's one of those fancy ones with a ton of side buttons - it's going to take a lot of getting used to - I'll play a lot of GW2 after this beta has finished so I can get better before launch) - but I'm having more fun today. I'm still on Stros M'kai  I'll probably be there forever. I have a horse, but I never use it. 

I've also put a point into keen eye for alchemy. I don't really like the quickslot set up, so I haven't used potions too much, but I thought I'd give it a go since it's really the only one I haven't focused on too much. And man, that keen eye really, really helps. It's probably the only one I'll put it into, to be honest, because they are so difficult to spot (for me, anyway!).


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 15, 2014)

I had the same Prophet-less DC start as you describe, Vintage Paw - I even wandered over to the Harborage on my own but it wouldn't let me enter. I seem to remember that you get the actual quest later on, though - the initial 'landing' interaction with him is just to finish off the Coldharbour storyline.

Is it just me or does the game seem a LOT more buggy and crashy than any of the previous beta weekends? I've had multiple crashes and had to report a ton of bugs in just a few hours of playing.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2014)

I'm now having problems remembering which slots my abilities are in - just randomly hitting buttons and hoping something happens (besides me dying that is!)


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2014)

Oh dear, it seems that a bunch of quests that were previously bugged are still bugged.

I've found my first. Tormented Souls on Betnihk (or whatever it's called). Drusilla doesn't spawn. Forums suggest it's happening for everyone and it is an old problem.

Man. This sucks.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2014)

I can't believe how unbelievably bad I am at this game 
The worst thing is I don't seem to be getting any better at it, still dying regularly.  I really think just having gaps between the betas I sort of de-level between them in terms of my own skills.   Mind you games that are too easy can be boring (although sometimes I'll be in the mood for something nice and unchallenging, you know how it is).
I am currently doing a bit of grinding to get to the next level and practice a bit at my combat reactions on stuff I know I can kill OK.  You don't get a lot of XP doing it, but I think the practice itself is going to help me sharpen up a bit regardless.  Finally decided to bite the bullet and get used to 3rd person, it's not as though I don't play other 3rd person games after all!  I've also put my Dunmer Nightblade in heavy armour for a bit more survivability, it doesn't seem to make a vast difference in terms of stealth, and wearing a piece of medium armour too so that skill is leveling as well, make it easier to switch back at a later point.  And I've asked my parents for a new keyboard for my birthday, it really doesn't help that this one has suffered a few spillages and some of the keys stick a bit 

I've hit a few bugs, again with stuff not spawning.  Really hope they get it fixed!

I can't express how much I love the game though, just wandering round and looking at the scenery and finding new places is great fun (love the Argonian village outside of Ebonheart, you were right to tell me to go and have a look Vintage Paw.  Roll on early access...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2014)

I got a bit grumpy with the broken quests on Betnikh, so I ditched my templar for now (also wasn't feeling that great about the choice of class and weapon... I went templar with 2h... idk, I didn't know what to do with armour... I'll have to give that whole thing more thought).

I've started a kitty nightblade. She's dual wielding for now. Well, forever because she'll never get to 15 this weekend now. However, she's levelling up astonishingly well. Probably got something to do with the fact that AD has the emperor right now and I have all sorts of bonuses! Plus I found a bunch of recipes and a racial motif all in one room - whereas with my templar I didn't find any motifs and only one recipe. I was getting better with alchemy though.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2014)

I have all the motifs on my crafting character (except Imperial), which ones do you need?  If I find any I will mail them to you.

Edit: Yeah I found Templar really didn't suit me very well.  As a tank/healer it's going to be great for people who enjoy playing that, but it doesn't really suit my playstyle.  I've had most fun with Nightblade and Dragonknight so far.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2014)

Oh it's okay, I don't 'need' any of them  If you have any spare that you think make particularly lovely medium armour though, feel free to send my way! I'm wearing imperial right now, because the khajiit is a little... bland. Maybe if I can get some improvement thingies it'll look nicer. 

It really is luck of the draw, isn't it? I mean, I spent all day yesterday and today looting every available place with my templar and got nary a thing. Then in one room I got a massive haul of recipes and a motif with my khajiit. It seems she has great luck!

And yeah, I just couldn't get templar to fee right. I hear it's nice with a bow, so that's always one possibility down the line. Even though I tell myself I don't particularly like that mode of thinking, I don't half find myself turning into a bit of a min-maxer when I play. I start looking for abilities and passives that can absolutely maximise certain things (this is so much easier in GW2 or TSW!). Dragonknight with a dunmer was nice, because of the fire synergy. Using a staff and light armour meant I maximised magicka regen early on and armour as well when using Spiked Armour. With a khajiit it's stealth, and a good old boring medium armour dual wielder sounds nice and sensible - lots of crit, lots of slashy noises  And DoTs too... I love to bleed 'em and leech 'em dry 

I haven't tried a sorcerer yet. Maybe that can be my 2h-er? I'll have to look into it more in between now and release. I only have a smidge more work to do, then I can take a break and do more reading about the game.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2014)

Not tried Sorcerer yet either.  I'm a bit pissed off with them for running around ruins with their daedra summons, I am still smarting from my time in the first beta when I started slashing wildly at someone's summons trying to kill it.  Then realised and casually sauntered away to go play my /lute somewhere nearby as if nothing had happened.  Another dunce cap moment LOL


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

How does anyone manage to play MMOs when they have animals that want attention?  Currently had to log out because little blue cat was determined to have a cuddle regardless of whether it was convenient for me.  My arms are in 'keyboard position' and he is laying across them with his bum on one arm and front paws hooked over the other, purring his little head off and dozing off to sleep.  It's really restrictive on my hand/arm movements.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

Oh my. I'm really enjoying playing my kitty stealth stabbity nightblade. Teleport Strike from stealth! 

And yeah, my Charlie is nudging my hand with his forehead at the moment, jealous that I'm spending time with other cats, clearly.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Oh my. I'm really enjoying playing my kitty stealth stabbity nightblade. Teleport Strike from stealth!
> 
> And yeah, my Charlie is nudging my hand with his forehead at the moment, jealous that I'm spending time with other cats, clearly.



Give my love and a head rub to Charlie   Having 3 can be a real trial when trying to play a game, there's always one that wants a cuddle, wants feeding, is having a bit of a scrap with another, or is in annoying bitey mode (although that only applies to Radar, the other 2 are better socialised and do not bite or scratch).  Have to time my gaming for when they are napping, but even then one of them may wake up briefly and decide they want a cuddle and to sleep on me rather than any of their other regular places


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

reddit is full of disgruntled people today. And to be honest, I can't say I blame them.

First and foremost is the launcher. There are still people not in yet. For some, every time they start the launcher it tries to download the full game again. They let it download. It gives them an error. They repair. It downloads it again. It gives them an error. They check their game folders and half the files are missing. Rinse and repeat. The launcher is just... dreadful.

Then there are the bugs. The bugs, the bugs, the bugs. Considering they were supposed to fix 'over a thousand bugs' in this build, I've encountered more quest-breaking ones than in the previous builds. Mostly NPCs not performing the actions they should, or enemies not spawning. Relogging, quitting, relaunching, abandoning - none of it seems to fix it. 

Then there are the starter islands. It's not going down well. I KNEW IT WOULDN'T. *writhes frustratedly* Someone started a thread asking "why are all the quests 4 levels above my level?"... because it wasn't immediately apparent to them that they needed to go back to the starter island.

I mean, unless you're super l33t, once you get out of that initial little area around the main city the quest levels are going to ramp up and you won't have had the several levels of starter island to help cushion the blow. It's going to hurt.

With 2 weeks to go until release, I'm having my first wobble. I have faith in the game long term, but I'm really very worried about how it will be received at launch - because that kind of response, all the reviews, etc., can have a lasting effect on the reputation of a game, and one that will rely on subs to move forward...


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

Oh, and Charlie says thank you  Likewise to your little terrors. I keep imagining Charlie as an alfiq now (I did some reading up on khajiit sub-types the other day) and it makes me giggle


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> With 2 weeks to go until release, I'm having my first wobble. I have faith in the game long term, but I'm really very worried about how it will be received at launch - because that kind of response, all the reviews, etc., can have a lasting effect on the reputation of a game, and one that will rely on subs to move forward...



Yeah I know what you mean -the change to the start was just a really really bad idea.  My own complaint was that the starting zones seemed a bit small and rushed in terms of dealing with questing, but being dumped straight into a higher level zone where you can't actually do any quests (unless you have l33t skilzz) because you are too low level for them, without any guidance as to how to get to an area where the quests are of a more appropriate level, is just such a bad idea and will be off-putting for many.  The story no longer makes sense, and there's no sense of progression in terms of gradually getting stronger and being able to tackle higher level stuff than you could an hour or two ago - just a brick wall of stuff that you probably can't manage, and not being adequately directed back to a lower level zone.  I am about to give my 4th /feedback about this, just to be clear that I think it does not work on a fundamental level, either in terms of story or progression.

I'm less worried about the bugs tbh, but just because on a personal level I am not going to give up on a game even if it still has bugs at launch, I'll just go back to it when it's fixed - but I know that other gamers are not necessarily as patient as I am.  I still think the game will be right up my alley mind you, but yes sometimes first impressions and early reviews can hurt a game.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

I've been running around that area in Stonefalls with all the shalks and am definitely getting better at timing blocks and dodging!  Still for some reason find a sideways dodge difficult, have to double tap the relevant button faster than I can manage most of the time.

I wish someone would tell me what I was actually doing Friday night.  My head tells me that I was sat at home playing an MMO, but still feel as if I was at some point run over by a truck - massive pain in my right foot like I broke a bone and I somehow ended up with a trapped nerve in my right shoulder.  Had reduced sensation in 2 of my fingers for a few hours yesterday and although that is now back to normal, my shoulder still hurts like hell.  Feel like I was out there fighting in reality, not just sitting in front of my PC playing a game!


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Am determined to get my Dunmer to level 10 and into Cyrodil regardless of what it takes.
Good thing about going on shalk rampages is that I think the loot has been upped, every so often I have to head back to town and unload a shed load of gear into the bank for my crafter to disassemble.  Some items I wanted to use too.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 16, 2014)

I'm confident that they will fix the starter zone problems, since it's so simple -- either take people to the starter island with a skip option there, or put an NPC in the same room you wake up in who explains the starter islands to you and gives you the starter quest.

The quest bugs are a bigger concern, since there seem to be a lot more of them than in previous weekends. Still, like you say, it's a game launch and bugs are impossible to avoid; I hope it retains enough critical mass of players for this to not bring it down before it even gets properly started...


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 16, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> First and foremost is the launcher. There are still people not in yet. For some, every time they start the launcher it tries to download the full game again. They let it download. It gives them an error. They repair. It downloads it again. It gives them an error. They check their game folders and half the files are missing. Rinse and repeat. The launcher is just... dreadful.



FFS!  My install was working fine last night, but when I fired it up this morning it has decided to delete the entire game and start redownloading it. Fuck. No more beta for me then, there's no way this is going to be completed today.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> FFS!  My install was working fine last night, but when I fired it up this morning it has decided to delete the entire game and start redownloading it. Fuck. No more beta for me then, there's no way this is going to be completed today.



Are you using the EU server? If so this constant reinstall is a known issue, switch to NA server (cog in the top right of the launcher) and write the EU server off as a lost cause for now.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 16, 2014)

Epona said:


> Are you using the EU server? If so this constant reinstall is a known issue, switch to NA server (cog in the top right of the launcher) and write the EU server off as a lost cause for now.


I'll try switching, but either way it's a massive fail on their part this close to launch.

Edit: A work colleague reports he has the same problems despite already being on the NA server.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

I now have a level 10+ character in both DC and EP, if anyone is up for something in Cyrodil later today.  I'm going to get a few hours kip right now, but can do this evening some time.  Have some guild activity (hark at me, never thought that was a sentence I'd utter) that I am already committed to at around 8pm, but could do before or after that.

Or if you would like to join in with what I am doing at 8pm, tonight's activity is checking out PvE content/group dungeons in Cyrodil, it's a fun non-shouty EP guild.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

You're not the only one, Buddy. Forums are full of people having the launcher keep downloading each time they fire it up. It's a fucking nightmare.

Make sure you send firmly-worded bug reports and feedback to their customer support, and fill in that survey when it comes!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

I've started yet another new character. This time an altmer sorcerer who will use a bow (and maybe a melee at 15 - not that I'll get there). She was dual wielding in coldharbour and it felt nice.

Her name is Mirie Caemian and she has a bit of an affinity with the bosmer.

I know I'm going to end up having a bunch of nightblades, a sorc, a dragonknight, and maybe never a templar. And my weapons of choice will tend to be dual wield, bow and 2h. There's a lot of choice in just those different set ups even though they have a lot of similarities. Knowing what to focus on first will be tough! I think my dunmer light armour dragonknight will migrate to a 2h rather than the destro staff I was using before. It feels like dk has a lot of melee range skills, and gap closers, so melee feels right. Maybe a staff later on. I might try a templar again at a later date. I hear a bowplar is really nice, so that's one option. Obvious khajiit dual wielding nightblade, but I also hear a 2h khajiit nightblade is really nice for the super awesome crit damage. Bosmer archer because obvious... not sure about the 2nd weapon choice. I could see dual wield, but I guess anything could work.

Not sure what to make my breton now. She was my templar. Maybe she can still be... but the bowplar.

I'm going to be putting woodworking through its paces!


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Yeah I think Dragonknight definitely suits melee - I put one of mine in heavy armour and with a greatsword (2H) - even at a fairly low level you could have fiery chain to damage them and pull them to you, stonefist to knock them flat, then whack them with cleave while they are down.  You do have to watch the resource bars but you've got a few class skills to deal with foes at range and close the gap, then give them a good whack with something heavy close up - feels very natural.  I was worried that the classes might feel restrictive, but at this point I have 5 NBs who all play differently, and 2 DKs - one in light and one in heavy.  I like the tanky one best.  Come launch I can easily make 8 different characters out of just those 2 classes.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

If you have something like breton, dunmer or altmer they can wear light armour, gain ridiculous amounts of magicka and regen, and still hit armour cap with Spiked Armour. That's what I was doing with my staff dk last time and I never felt squishy. Then you can focus your enchantments and foods on stamina - maybe even wear a couple of pieces of medium instead of heavy (I was wearing 5 light/2heavy). That's my plan, anyway. I think it will be fun.

Well, I'm level 7 with my bow sorcerer now. It's a lot of fun. I only have the one bow skill right now - because I don't want to waste points on volley just for PvE and scattershot hasn't opened up yet (scattershot is lovely). Still, I very rarely even take 1 hit before things are dead.

And I have found so many chests this weekend. So many.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> And I have found so many chests this weekend. So many.



Whilst I was grinding shalks with my Dunmer to level up and practice dodging, a lot of the time I was right by a chest spawn point.  If anyone else was going through the area I let them have the chest, but I must have opened that thing myself 20 or so times, I'm quite good at the lockpicking thing now.  Kept having to go to the bank to drop off all my goodies


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 16, 2014)

I kind of felt that they overdid it with the forage-able spawns now. It was ridiculous - you're supposed to be escaping from an undead prison, but you have to stop every few yards to search through every box, urn, basket or crate you come across.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> I kind of felt that they overdid it with the forage-able spawns now. It was ridiculous - you're supposed to be escaping from an undead prison, but you have to stop every few yards to search through every box, urn, basket or crate you come across.



The sheer amount of urns in the last 2 rooms is a bit mental


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 16, 2014)

Epona said:


> The sheer amount of urns in the last 2 rooms is a bit mental


"Deactivate the shield crystals so that I may free The Prophet!"
"Sure, erm, just give me a minute here..."
"Do it now! The daedric energy is unstable!"
"Yep, yep, with you in a second, just let me check what's in those boxes over there..."


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

If you don't come out of Coldharbour staggering from the weight of pork, natural water, and lockpicks that you have looted, you are doing it wrong.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

The person who I was hoping one day to maybe convince to buy the game - my MMO buddy - well, he was playing it earlier when BZZZZZZZT! gpu dead.

He's trying to fix it, but yeah, that and the bugs have more or less convinced him not to get it.

To be fair, he wasn't massively excited for it anyway. He played in one beta other than this, and started to like it, but it was never that "wow, must play" thing anyway.

But yeah.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2014)

I have just spent the last 2.5 hours doing PvE in Cyrodil in a group of 7.
Got a couple of skyshards, did a couple of dungeons.  Absolutely bloody chaotic tbh, but we worked out good co-ordination amongst the group about how combat went in terms of who was doing what, and what worked.  I only left because I haven't had dinner yet and am feeling a bit light-headed!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2014)

Well Gutsplitter was easy >_>


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## Epona (Mar 17, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Well Gutsplitter was easy >_>



What happenend?  I've not tried him this go round.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 17, 2014)

Epona said:


> What happenend?  I've not tried him this go round.



Well, he died very quickly. I can't tell whether it's because my build is SO FUCKING AWESOME (because it is) or because of the nerf. I was hoping he'd still pose some kind of challenge, but it was all over so quickly.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 17, 2014)

On that note, OMG!

I adore a bow-wielding sorcerer. So. Much.

Open from stealth where possible. For single targets a heavy attack, followed by Mage's Fury. They usually go down by then. But if they don't, more Mage's Fury and light bow attacks if they aren't too tough. If they are tough, then while they are momentarily stunned from the heavy attack Crystal Blast (morphed to cause a big old explosion). Mage's Fury explodes if the enemy dies from using it. So that and Crystal Blast are both nice if there are more than one clustered together.

And if there are more than one, open from stealth with Volley (not yet morphed but would have likely gone with the fire damage upgrade) - because it takes a while for it to get to them and for them to realise where you are, you have time to immediately start the cast for Crystal Shard, which then explodes - lost of nice damage. Follow it (without even blinking) with Mage's Fury and it's like firework night. (It sounds really impressive, all these lightning attacks and 'splosions.)

Should anything get close then Scatter Shot (not morphed yet) is great to knock them away a little bit. My fifth ability is Venom Arrow, which I'm not using that much anymore tbh.

For my Ultimate I have Overload. I wasn't sure of the benefit of it to begin with, but then I faced those dremora churls and scamps in the anti-chamber on your way to Cheesemonger's Hollow - last time with my DK I was kiting around and around because it was awful! This time, I used Overload and everything just kind of melted. Just... I mean, it wasn't there anymore.

I could probably replace either Scatter Shot or Venom Arrow with something else, but I'm not sure what.

Made it to level 11, had skill points appearing all over the shop. Spent the last 30 mins or so going crazy farming those diseased villagers/peasants near Phaer - it was a lot of fun and I got insane amounts of loot - lots of greens too. Wayshrined it back to the city and deconstructed them and was able to improve both my robe and my bow to green with the tempers I got. Not that it matters because I've quit now XD

Yeah, I really, really like a sorcerer with a bow.


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## Epona (Mar 17, 2014)

That sounds like fun   Honestly too tired to try anything new at this point mind you, just trying to keep my eyes open til the end of the beta, then going to sleep for a day or so.

I wish there was some indication on armour what style (if any) it was - I made some really really nice looking heavy armour for my Dunmer and just wish I could remember what style I made it in.  It was probably Dunmer, but can't really remember.  Also I wouldn't make my Redguard's light armour pants again, she's quite well endowed in terms of posterior dimensions, and shiny pants are just not a good look for her.


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## Epona (Mar 17, 2014)

Ah well.  That's it until early access.  Hopefully see you there


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 17, 2014)

You know what makes me sad?

The thought of losing my full 70 slot bank inventory. 

The joy of stepping out of Coldharbour and heading straight to the forge to get yourself a spanking new set of gear, a nice weapon, then heading off to explore is wonderful.

Of course, it is nothing like the normal TES experience, but still 

That said, you'll only need a few hours of game play exploring and harvesting in order to stock up your bank with enough materials to satisfy your first set of gear and the first sets of gear for another couple of characters.

Edit: I'd been questing for hours in Khenarthi's Roost, had some really nice gear I'd crafted myself, and was joining people on quests who were still in their Prisoner's Rags. I kept thinking, "OMG get thee to a clothier!"


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 17, 2014)

Hey, my download finally finished! Now I can ... oh.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 17, 2014)

(((((Buddy)))))


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 17, 2014)

Early access launch day is Sunday March 30.  There are a set of surveys on Reddit about what race/class/alliance people will choose come launch. I'm tending towards the Ebonheart Pact, mostly from a lore/RP perspective, since the Aldmeri Dominion sound like racist dicks and the Daggerfall Covenant just sound dull.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 17, 2014)

(Epona please correct me on this stuff if I'm wrong)

The AD aren't really racist dicks - the altmer I assume you're talking about primarily. At this point in history they mostly fill a paternalistic role - they believe that a high elf would be better on the throne because they would be fair to everyone and rule better for everyone's sake, rather than trying to be all "we're totes superior to your shitty races." That (arguably) comes later. The queen's kinda awesome. Very nice, very understanding, kicks ass, not afraid of mucking in in a fight. Certainly not a racist dick. In fact, the early faction quest there has to do with opposing altmer who _are_ racist dicks.

The Thalmor you meet in the game though - yeah, they're dicks. But it's like assessing the racist nature of all Germans based on what the SS were like.

The EP is really interesting. They probably have the most reason to hate each other, but are pragmatic enough to come together in the face of a common threat. I love one line from an argonian in Ebonheart when you finish a quest. I was a dark elf, I'm not sure if this is the same line for everyone (probably is), but the argonian said something like, "Look at that, dark elves and argonians working together! You'd almost think we had a pact or something." 

I haven't played past the opening stages of Betnikh in the DC and haven't read anything about their story, so I don't know what their reasons or faction quests will be. It's my understanding they basically just want to gain trade routes or something? Maybe trade superiority? Not sure. That sounds pretty pragmatic as well.

One thing I find absolutely fascinating is the way that the alliance versus alliance versus alliance thing works on a storytelling level.

For example, you're in the EP and those nasty evil Covenant are attacking. Clearly the DC are fucking evil - they're the baddie. They're the monsters. They are killing and invading and being generally all round bad. You learn to hate the Covenant.

You start a character in the DC, and you guys are the good guys. I don't know how much contact you have with the storyline you're seeing in the EP, whether it's referenced at all, or whether you see something different entirely. But if they _did_ touch on it I'm sure it would be in a way that made the Covenant appear absolutely as the logical good guys, and the EP as evil. You'd learn to hate the EP.

I mean, that's just fucking fascinating from a sociological and psychological standpoint. Isn't it? I can see some enterprising teacher somewhere or another using it as a learning tool to discuss empathy and bias, the difference between subjectivity and objectivity, etc.

I'm going to go full on reddit thread about this once I've learned more about how each alliance deals with encounters with the others. Maybe even write a piece on it.

It's not new in terms of MMOs, I'm sure. I wonder how it was dealt with in other games that have factions like this? WoW with the hoard and that other one (never played WoW!) for example. Is there a general implication that one is 'good' and one is 'bad' or are they both meant to be understandable from a subjective standpoint? I know in TOR  it's set up to be, on the surface, a good/bad binary of the Republic and the Empire - but the storytelling in each of the class stories pulls that apart a bit more and you can start to see the grey that makes everything more muddy. (I really, really love the stories in TOR, it's just a shame that I ran out of steam with the gameplay - that plus the dev team and EA were making me grumpy - they're all available to watch on youtube though - best ones imo are Jedi Knight and Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior is good too though, and my Sith Warrior (marauder) was my favourite character out of all of those I played.)

I should read up a bit more on the background for ESO, because I really haven't so far. But on the other hand, I kind of want to let myself discover it all in game and read around once I start to have more of a feel of it for myself.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 18, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> It's not new in terms of MMOs, I'm sure. I wonder how it was dealt with in other games that have factions like this? WoW with the hoard and that other one (never played WoW!) for example. Is there a general implication that one is 'good' and one is 'bad' or are they both meant to be understandable from a subjective standpoint?



In WoW it's handled the same - within each faction, your 'side' is presented as being the good guys. The Horde, despite being the archetypal bad guys (orcs, goblins, trolls, undead) are still given an overall story arc that is largely positive. There are some really well-handled "both sides of the same story" questlines too; if you play an undead character, there's a really long storyline about dealing with werewolves rising up - you accompany your queen, join an invasion into their region, and put down the leadership. But if you play a worgen (werewolf) character, you see the other side of the same story - how the werewolf plague rose up and consumed the area, how your leaders tried to contain it and save everyone. You fight against the undead invasion, and eventually work with the leaders to get them out of the area (where they are killed by the undead queen). It's really well done.



> I should read up a bit more on the background for ESO, because I really haven't so far. But on the other hand, I kind of want to let myself discover it all in game and read around once I start to have more of a feel of it for myself.



There are two novels set in the Elder Scrolls universe by Greg Keyes. They're nothing special as far as fantasy books go, but it does give you more of a feel for the different races and locations.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 18, 2014)

That sounds fantastic. I really enjoy that kind of thing - wearing someone else's shoes. Man, you'd think with this stuff having been going on for years now that gamers in general would be a more empathic lot... and yet *shields her eyes from the pain*

I'll take a look at those novels. I've read Dragon Age and Mass Effect novels before, and they were - apart from one rather unfortunate ME book that must not be spoken about - pretty decently written (Drew Karparshyn and David Gaider (ME and DA respectively) are pretty good writers). Are the TES ones set around the time of ESO to give a background to it, or are they older (in terms of when they were written) and newer (in terms of lore chronology - if that makes any sense )?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 18, 2014)

ZOS AMA on reddit on Thursday. Should be interesting. I shall be watching... there will no doubt be lots of questions about the bugs and phasing and server locations and crafting and, and, and...


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 18, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Are the TES ones set around the time of ESO to give a background to it, or are they older (in terms of when they were written) and newer (in terms of lore chronology - if that makes any sense )?


They're set about forty years after Oblivion, before Skyrim, so way after the time period in which ESO is set.


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## Epona (Mar 18, 2014)

I'm restless as anything today.  Thinking about different build variations of the classes I enjoyed most and what abilities would be best to have slotted for solo and group play.  Just want to test out some stuff now, this wait is going to do my head in.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 18, 2014)

After I've finished my work I'm going to go back and play some New Vegas - it's been a while and the quality of the ENB binary has moved on a lot since then. It should keep me busy.


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## Epona (Mar 18, 2014)

I was in the middle of a Skyrim game but updated my nVidia drivers over the weekend to see if it stopped the occasional "your video driver has stopped responding" crash I was having in ESO (it did).  Unfortunately Skyrim is now buggered with flickering textures and odd DoF effects that aren't as quick/responsive as they ought to be and I can't be arsed to sort it out, probably just need to find a more recent ENB than the one I am using but just not into it enough right at this moment to go looking for one.  I might have calmed down a bit tomorrow 

Meanwhile I am poring over ESO skill calculator.  Having gone on a guild rampage in Cyrodil on Sunday night (low population campaign, clearing dungeons, finding Skyshards, closing Dark Anchors, tackling world bosses, and generally causing mayhem) has made me want a marginally different build (in terms of morphs and slotted abilities) for large group stuff.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 18, 2014)

So what is your build, Epona?


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## Epona (Mar 19, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> So what is your build, Epona?



Still haven't made an absolute final decision.  But for playing in a group, I would have morphed Strife differently, to the morph that heals yourself and 2 closest allies - that can buy a healer who has a few balls in the air a few extra seconds of survivability for anyone in melee.  Would have gone more heavily into Shadow Cloak to get out of situations where I start to pull aggro away from more tanky builds.

And make sure I have skills slotted to provide synergies for other players - synergies are bloody good, and if say I'm a DW NB going up close and personal against a world mega-boss or a high level Dark Anchor, it makes more sense in a group situation to have class skills slotted that your group can exploit (for their own benefit and to build up ultimate for players within the group quicker), rather than weapon skills that don't benefit the group as much.  I can see myself slotting different things for solo and group play, just because of synergy which is of limited use when soloing (although someone else can exploit it if they happen to be running the same mob/boss), but come into their own if you are are always taking stuff on as a group.  So you want the synergy exploitable skills ready for use.  Of course you want some weapon skills slotted because they tend to use stamina so provide something useful to do when you are short on magicka (which the class skills tend to use) and waiting for it to regen, and also to keep your weapon skill leveling.

I think what I will do come launch for my group build is that 1st 3 skillpoints I get will go into each of the class lines, to get them started leveling as early as possible, because that's where the 'synergy starters' are.

Also for group play I may decide with my NB to have resto-staff as secondary weapon.  We had a fairly large group, but it seems that with the plethora of choices people have in front of them, you may not have a good balance of healers, or the healers may be spreading themselves too thin in a large group in terms of magicka regen, so even if your primary role is dps, being able to switch to resto and help out with that to provide a bit of healing backup when needed (even if it is just switch out, use one or two heals, then switch back to primary weapons) may be extremely useful - at least in large group PvE.

Edit: I will also have builds more geared to solo questing.  But having gone from 'I'm not really sure if I like multiplayer games' to 'let's do some guild activity, can't wait', it's definitely made me put more thought into builds that will be useful in a group situation.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 19, 2014)

Epona said:


> Also for group play I may decide with my NB to have resto-staff as secondary weapon.  We had a fairly large group, but it seems that with the plethora of choices people have in front of them, you may not have a good balance of healers, or the healers may be spreading themselves too thin in a large group in terms of magicka regen, so even if your primary role is dps, being able to switch to resto and help out with that to provide a bit of healing backup when needed (even if it is just switch out, use one or two heals, then switch back to primary weapons) may be extremely useful - at least in large group PvE.


How are you switching between weapons - do you mean a fast switch during combat, or just being able to swap stuff around in your character screen?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 20, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> How are you switching between weapons - do you mean a fast switch during combat, or just being able to swap stuff around in your character screen?



At level 15 you get a second action bar, so you can fill it with a separate load out for a second weapon. You're able to switch it on the fly hitting a key (not sure which one because I've yet to make it to 15!). I'd expect most people will end up with at least one ranged weapon because of its use in Cyrodiil, but some might go with 2 melee, or both ranged, I suppose. You can have exactly the same weapon on your second bar and just fill it with different abilities so you get the most out of the skill line you've chosen.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 20, 2014)

Patch 0.82 notes: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/20uypv/patch_0182_notes/

Well now I just have no idea about what patch we played on.

At first I thought it was going to be 0.81. Then I heard it was going to be 0.83 - which is what the pts folks are using. Then I patched it up and my version number in game jumped all the way to 0.94. So I have no idea what it was!

But anyway, interesting reading.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 20, 2014)

The Reddit AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/20x73q/welcome_to_the_eso_ama/


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 20, 2014)

It's _insane_ how good game cinematics have got now:


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 21, 2014)

Some interesting/useful advice and tips here: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscroll...just_over_a_week_until_early_access_what_are/



> If you pre-order the Imperial Edition, when you get to the town buy 1 horse for 1 gold, buy a stable spot for 100g, buy another horse for 1g. Feed 1 horse Oats every day (increases inventory space) and the other horse Apples (increases speed). Now you have a pack mule for leveling and a speedy horse for AvA.





> Train the first skill from each of your class lines and put them on your bar as soon as possible. Even if you do not use these abilities, it will level the trait line until you get access to the spells you like.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 21, 2014)

I've been doing that second one. It can make levelling the one you really, really want a bit slower, but it's worth it in the long run to open up all the lines early on. Your weapon will level without any skills on your bar - albeit slowly, so it's better to put those first 3 points in your class skills. Unless you absolutely know without a shadow of a doubt that there's one skill line you'll never use, in which case don't waste the point. Your fourth point can then go into your first weapon skill so that starts levelling a bit quicker.

And passives! Don't skimp on passives. I love passives.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 21, 2014)

I got a bit too deep into min/maxing in WoW and obsessing over gear drops. My plan for ESO is to have fun, not think too hard about what skills to pick, and just enjoy playing the game. The whole game is going to be rebalanced dozens of times between here and level 50, so it's pointless worrying about any of that for now. I think by the time we reach max level we'll have enough money to re-spec, and at the same time the game will have settled in a bit and it will be clearer what to choose.


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## Epona (Mar 21, 2014)

Also another tip is to join the NPC guilds (currently Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, and Undaunted) before going back to the starter islands, so you have access to their skill lines right off the bat.


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## Epona (Mar 22, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> I got a bit too deep into min/maxing in WoW and obsessing over gear drops. My plan for ESO is to have fun, not think too hard about what skills to pick, and just enjoy playing the game. The whole game is going to be rebalanced dozens of times between here and level 50, so it's pointless worrying about any of that for now. I think by the time we reach max level we'll have enough money to re-spec, and at the same time the game will have settled in a bit and it will be clearer what to choose.



I'm not even going into min/maxing - if any guild does not want me in because I don't have the exact right skillset or gear then they are not the right people for me to group with!

I like a combination somewhere in the middle where I pay some sort of attention to effectiveness (whereby if I have a character for group play I will not intentionally gimp them), but also have a backstory or some reason for my characters motives.  I'm neither into heavy min/max play nor heavy "aye, my sweet maiden/sire, I can see though dost requireth ressurection" always in-character type roleplay (which makes me feel very silly when I try to do it).  I think most people fall somewhere in the middle ground.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 23, 2014)

Sounds like there was another brief flash of testing last night - I missed it because I was at the most boring party on earth...

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/213wov/you_can_log_on_right_now/


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 23, 2014)

FFS @ Launcher. It patched to the NA client, so I thought I'd try to change over to the EU server and see what it would do. Surprise surprise, it wants to download all 22GB again.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 23, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> FFS @ Launcher. It patched to the NA client, so I thought I'd try to change over to the EU server and see what it would do. Surprise surprise, it wants to download all 22GB again.



Have you emailed them about that? Lots of people are having the same issue. Perhaps they have a recommended way of dealing with it.

I'm not touching the launcher until the final patch drops, and even then I'm going to wait and see what happens when others download it on reddit.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 23, 2014)

Meh, it's got nothing else to do for the rest of the week. I'm reasonably confident that once it's finished downloading again, the EU client will patch itself properly come launch day.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 24, 2014)

Let's hope so! The last thing we want is the launcher annoying us and making us download it all again as soon as the servers open 

I'm keeping myself busy with Fallout New Vegas and trying to avoid the flu (it appears to be going around in these parts).


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 24, 2014)

Download complete. v1.0.0.9something. 

6 days to go...


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 25, 2014)

Census results: https://tesocensus.info/?results#

I find it interesting how over-represented Nightblades are - I would have thought the Warrior/Wizard archetypes would be more popular. Looks like going for Alchemy might be a good bet too.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 25, 2014)

I think nightblades are popular because they are easy to spec as typical dps builds either ranged with a bow or dual wielding - and they can be very good in Cyrodiil. They're a decent 'go-to' class that doesn't require much thought, I think. They can fit nicely into the typical 'rogue' type, and that's precisely why I picked it to play during my first beta - I always prefer rogues (medium armours, stabbity, bows, sneaky, fast, high damage high reward, crit, crit, crit) and nightblade made a lot of sense. But of course, the game lets you make whatever you want and the class system is there just to give people a little bit of suggested guidance should they want it - but you can make a siphoning healer nightblade or a critical tank nightblade or a nightblade caster... I find it hard to get my head around the endless possibilities to be honest, so I expect a couple of rerolls along the way as I slowly learn more about the game.

Those results are really interesting. How was the survey conducted? I'm assuming it was very self-selecting - so I would take some of the results with a pinch of salt. It's good for a decent idea about faction percentage, I'd have thought. I do wonder whether how the survey was conducted (as in, where it was posted etc.) will have an effect on server location stats and gender stats.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 25, 2014)

Incidentally, I think I've found my first guild.

It's a social guild for roleplayers, ooc, to help find people to socialise with, join up with, play with, and maybe roleplay with... but mostly a place to facilitate the same kinds of players meeting each other. There's an NA version too, so if I do make any characters on the NA server eventually I'll join that one as well.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 25, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Those results are really interesting. How was the survey conducted? I'm assuming it was very self-selecting - so I would take some of the results with a pinch of salt.


Yes, definitely. There is some comment on the relevant Reddit thread relating to the timing of the survey (i.e. it was a while ago, so may not reflect people's changed preferences after beta testing) and also obviously it's a very limited subset of players. Still, interesting. It would be cool if Zenimax release stats on actual player distribution once the game is live - if they have anything like the WoW Armory then they can make that data public.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 25, 2014)

I do love stats. Especially with pie charts. I hope ZOS do gather all sorts of fun nerdy info like that.


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## Epona (Mar 25, 2014)

I am currently trying to come up with character names and backgrounds.  Trying to write a bit of a list of names for each race.  I was very unimaginative during beta but am making an effort as I could have to live with any choice for a while!
I'm going to have a Dunmer Nightblade on the NA server to play with the people I met and joined a guild (SangSang) with during beta testing.
I'm not into only having one character though, I'll have others on the EU server, and that guild you linked to Vintage Paw looks great for finding people to just have some fun with, I expect I will have a Breton or Imperial Dragonknight on the EU server.

I am getting so impatient waiting for launch at this point!


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 26, 2014)

Epona said:


> I am currently trying to come up with character names and backgrounds.  Trying to write a bit of a list of names for each race.  I was very unimaginative during beta but am making an effort as I could have to live with any choice for a while!


Since I finished the first draft of a novel last month I haven't had much to write about, so yesterday I started writing the backstory for my Argonian Nightblade. fantasynamegenerators.com is quite a handy resource for naming inspiration; Argonians are a little harder since they have at least two different names to come up with...


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## Epona (Mar 26, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Since I finished the first draft of a novel last month I haven't had much to write about, so yesterday I started writing the backstory for my Argonian Nightblade. fantasynamegenerators.com is quite a handy resource for naming inspiration; Argonians are a little harder since they have at least two different names to come up with...


Congratulations on finishing your draft!  I view that as a major achievement, I am one of those people who has loads of ideas for novels floating around in their head but zero skill in putting any of it down in a form that would make even passable reading.  I have tried and know it's not at all easy.

I tried that fantasynamegenerators.com thing but got disenchanted with it when I found it suggested Bosmer names that would be fine 'wood elf' names in other fantasy settings, but paid little regard to Bosmer naming conventions in TES Lore, and I threw all my toys out of the pram at that point   Has to be said that Bosmer and Altmer are a good deal more difficult to name than most other TES races.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 27, 2014)

Launch patch has just dropped. Get your patching on, yo.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 27, 2014)

Bit annoyed at Zenimax customer support at the moment. Emailed them a few days ago to request a UserID change - I got two responses asking for security verification and my choices for a new UserID, to which I replied. Then nothing, so I chased them up, and got a response back saying "no you can't have it." 

Now I'm waiting (for several hours) for a callback from their phone support people.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 27, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Bit annoyed at Zenimax customer support at the moment. Emailed them a few days ago to request a UserID change - I got two responses asking for security verification and my choices for a new UserID, to which I replied. Then nothing, so I chased them up, and got a response back saying "no you can't have it."
> 
> Now I'm waiting (for several hours) for a callback from their phone support people.




I can help with this, Buddy Bradley .

It's close to my heart because I've done the same. I got mine changed yesterday.

However, whereas before it was luck of the draw getting a helpful agent, ZOS have officially stated you can now change your ID and/or email by contacting support.

Start a new ticket. I started 2, the first led nowhere, the second led to the immediate change (agent passed on my details to the relevant department and Justin got in touch within the hour by email and did it for me).

Direct your customer service agent to this knowledge base article if they get shirty. Or, even better, when you start your new ticket (which I think you should), quote it right away.

Don't worry about starting a new ticket just because you're waiting for a call back. Do it by email, and if you get the call in the meantime then yay, and if it gets sorted by email and then you get a call just explain to the person on the phone it's sorted now but thanks for getting back to you.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 27, 2014)

Incidentally, my new username is amoebae - so we can all still be friends 

NA server is patched, now I'm patching the EU version. I'm still not sure which server I'll end up on, I'm joining the EU and NA versions of that social RP collective and I'll see how it goes. Unless I find some really cool friends on the NA server it probably will end up being the EU though. I'll make characters on both for the meantime. I reroll all the time so it's not a bother if I change my mind.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 27, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> However, whereas before it was luck of the draw getting a helpful agent, ZOS have officially stated you can now change your ID and/or email by contacting.


Yep, saw that on Reddit shortly after I posted  Sent a new request with the link, hopefully it will all be sorted by launch.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 28, 2014)

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1493169-tips-i-wish-id-known-when-i-started/


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## Radar (Mar 28, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1493169-tips-i-wish-id-known-when-i-started/


Showing locked and unreadable on the phone


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 28, 2014)

Radar said:


> Showing locked and unreadable on the phone


Hmm, for me too. Works fine on desktop though.


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## Epona (Mar 28, 2014)

I got in for 10 minutes today, they were doing some fiddling around with the servers and someone left the door open.

I got to see the intro movie as it appears in game, unfortunately it looks really lo-res on my display.  Not that it matters a great deal, but I did have a moment where 2007 called asking for its intro movie back.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 28, 2014)

Epona said:


> I got to see the intro movie as it appears in game, unfortunately it looks really lo-res on my display.  Not that it matters a great deal, but I did have a moment where 2007 called asking for its intro movie back.


I watched it on YouTube the other day, and have to agree it's pretty poor quality compared to the rest of the game, and especially compared to the trailers they have on their site. The choice of fonts seems really old-fashioned as well, like you're playing Ultima Online instead of Elder Scrolls Online...


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 29, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Since I finished the first draft of a novel last month I haven't had much to write about, so yesterday I started writing the backstory for my Argonian Nightblade. fantasynamegenerators.com is quite a handy resource for naming inspiration; Argonians are a little harder since they have at least two different names to come up with...


Finished my brief backstory, just in time for launch: 

http://tenminutesofprose.tumblr.com/post/81086132188/an-argonian-origin-tail


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 29, 2014)

Bloody hell, Buddy, that's really good!


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## Epona (Mar 29, 2014)

That's a really great read!


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## Radar (Mar 30, 2014)

Heuston, we are go for launch!!

EU Server's UP!!!


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 30, 2014)

Yup. I've spent the last 2 hours getting all the names I want on both servers (in case I want to switch). Now I'm ready to start.

I've installed that Wykkid's Full Immersion addon - mostly for the emote list  (It needed Wykkid's Framework, so I have that too)

I'm on the EU server for now. ID is amoebae if anyone wants to add me in game. Let me know your ID so I know it's you, because I'm prone to ignoring or denying people who don't introduce themselves first 

Going to be focusing on DC with my breton sorc for now I think. It's the faction I spent least time in. Although I'm sure I'll flit around for a while at first while I get my bearings, and remake characters as I realise they look like ass.

Have fun


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 30, 2014)

Rolled up my character and got as far as the weapon racks before I had to stop to cook Mothers Day lunch 

Hopefully she'll collapse in a food coma now and I can get some gaming in...


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

Rather than subject myself to hammering on the login button from an hour beforehand, I left it til about 20 past 12 to give it a go.
Got in straight away, no queues, no drama, completely pain free - in fact it went so smooth it was almost an anti-climax!

Have set up a character on the NA server, going to try the EU one in a minute after I've given the cats their lunch.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 30, 2014)

I'm on EU, btw - will send some friend requests once Zenimax sort out my user ID issue.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 30, 2014)

If anyone wants in on that roleplay collective guild, I can send invites. There are about 60 people in it atm, it's nice having a polite and civilised chat tab


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

Hmm, my EU install appears to be borked.
Going to try copying the files across, that should work right?
(Although why in the name of all that is good we have 2 separate installs is beyond me, but still!)


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> If anyone wants in on that roleplay collective guild, I can send invites. There are about 60 people in it atm, it's nice having a polite and civilised chat tab



Yes please!  Just trying to sort out my EU install, will let you know once I'm in


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 30, 2014)

Everything seems nice and smooth right now. Opening early was a good idea. It would have been 6am in America, so they will have been half asleep still. And in the EU... well I guess with it being Mother's Day people have commitments and so on.

My Mother's Day commitments went as far as phoning my mum, then sitting on the sofa eating the mini eggs my cat bought me for Mother's Day while I made my characters


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 30, 2014)

Epona said:


> Yes please!  Just trying to sort out my EU install, will let you know once I'm in



People have been having problems with copying the stuff over recently, or renaming folders and so on. I think if you do that you have to delete certain files... possibly the ones that end .version? Then open the launcher and it should verify everything and download the little things. That's in theory though, many people have found that regardless of what they do it keeps wanting to download the full game again for them.

In the end, I let it download both from scratch - I figured that if anything went wrong then it absolutely wasn't my fault or the result of a workaround. It is stupid we need both folders, and maybe they'll let the renaming be more reliable eventually. But for now I have the space so I might as well just go with it.

Epona - are you epona22 again?


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> People have been having problems with copying the stuff over recently, or renaming folders and so on. I think if you do that you have to delete certain files... possibly the ones that end .version? Then open the launcher and it should verify everything and download the little things. That's in theory though, many people have found that regardless of what they do it keeps wanting to download the full game again for them.
> 
> In the end, I let it download both from scratch - I figured that if anything went wrong then it absolutely wasn't my fault or the result of a workaround. It is stupid we need both folders, and maybe they'll let the renaming be more reliable eventually. But for now I have the space so I might as well just go with it.
> 
> Epona - are you epona22 again?



Epona222

Your cat bought you eggs?  I'm jealous, my lot decided to have a fight on my feet whilst I was trying to get through Coldharbour, no consideration for me whatsoever.


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

Right I managed to sort out my EU install, it was fairly painless just took a while to verify the files.


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

I love the tutorial despite having played through it god knows how many times in beta, why anyone would skip it is beyond me.

Lyris: Hurry, there isn't much time
Me: Fuck that, there must be 200 urns in this room, story can wait until I've finished looting.

Also John Cleese.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 30, 2014)

It was great slowing down and finally listening to Cadwell. I've just skipped so much before, so it's rather pleasant.

How's your connection? You've no doubt seen some in guild chat talking about lag. I get the odd bit but nothing too worrisome. I suppose they'll be monitoring it and adjusting the servers as it goes along.

We should all remember to keep doing /bug and /feedback too (I assume those features are still enabled outside of beta).


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## Epona (Mar 30, 2014)

It's actually OK for me.  When I first started it was terribly laggy but relogging seemed to sort it out.  I get the occasional blip but yeah not too bad in general.  Not tried PvP yet mind you, still only level 5 and in Stros M'Kai, I kept my promise to myself to really take my time once there was no pressure of the beta session clock ticking down iykwim 

Edit: just taking a bit of a break 'cos I'm getting a bit motion sick (I didn't during beta but I think lack of sleep isn't helping atm).


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 30, 2014)

Up to level 7 so far. Lag hasn't been bad at all; the worst thing is the random crashes every couple of hours. I think it's the Mac having memory issues with graphics, since I'm playing on Ultra High, so I'll try turning a few things down to see if that makes any difference.

I'm finding it really hard to follow the chat window - it's so small that it's easy to miss activity and not notice that people are having conversations.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 31, 2014)

One thing I've noticed is that they seem to have massively gimped the number of locked chests. I have about 250 lockpicks, and so far have only come across one single locked chest.

Progress in general seems a lot faster than during beta, though.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 31, 2014)

I've opened loads of chests. In AD they are particularly plentiful, but I found a fair few in Stros M'kai yesterday as well.

I've now joined the EU reddit guild as well. Seem a nice bunch.


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 31, 2014)

Time flies, don't it?

I started my bosmer earlier today, and I've been playing on and off all day with her and I'm still only level 6 and on Khenarthi's Roost. It's such a nice feeling to not have to rush through anything.

It's felt utterly deserted most of the time, I must say. Guild chats are busy enough, I suppose, but everyone is spread around. Most people who started yesterday are still playing with the same character, so there's little old me pootling around on Khenarthi's Roost with her pick of the red runes and the chests 

I'm going to get myself a hireling - for clothier I think, since that's the one I use most materials for. I've had enough hemming to improve one piece of armour, and I have enough pitch to improve one bow.

I find it quite difficult to know which nightblade class skills to go for with a bow. Strife is my go-to, and I use that first assassination one when they get too close. I have the option to morph it to work from range, but I plan on getting a melee weapon at 15 so I don't know whether to morph it to heal instead. That would probably be the better bet, but idk. There are a few other skills I'd like have on there if I was using melee, so it might get pushed out. I don't know if any of the others can be morphed to range. 

Too many decisions, not enough skill points. This really early stage is a bugger because so many things are opening up to you and you want to put points in everything but you simply don't have enough.

And there's always one skyshard on Khenarthi's Roost I can't find, dammit.

I massively prefer the AD's starting area to DC. I mean, Stros M'kai is pretty, but it feels a bit... idk. I can't get into it. I haven't seen enough of Betnikh to form a judgement on that, but it was always raining whenever I was there 

And I might remake my breton sorc to be a templar again, with a bow. And keep my high elf as my sorc, as I originally intended to. OH GOD I DON'T KNOW.


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## Epona (Mar 31, 2014)

I've been having a great time today!  Didn't so much yesterday, not because of the game, but because I was ill - very difficult to enjoy anything when suffering waves of nausea (at least it explained the 'motion sickness' thing, I was actually unwell!)  I'm still not 100% but feeling lots better today.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I find it quite difficult to know which nightblade class skills to go for with a bow. Strife is my go-to, and I use that first assassination one when they get too close. I have the option to morph it to work from range, but I plan on getting a melee weapon at 15 so I don't know whether to morph it to heal instead. That would probably be the better bet, but idk. There are a few other skills I'd like have on there if I was using melee, so it might get pushed out. I don't know if any of the others can be morphed to range.
> 
> Too many decisions, not enough skill points. This really early stage is a bugger because so many things are opening up to you and you want to put points in everything but you simply don't have enough.


I've been switching between levelling Bow skills and dual-wield. For Bow I've only got the poison arrow one and the AoE, but I've been feeling pretty powerful most of the time. Nightblades have a nice 12 second CC that comes in handy for pulling multiple mobs at once.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 1, 2014)

Is that Agony in the erm... shadow? line? I haven't taken that yet, because I wasn't sure I'd need it at this low level (just level 7 atm) - but I could see it coming in handy even against nasty bosses if you need a bit of a breather to regen. Problem is, I want _everything_ on my bar  I'm having a far harder time picking and choosing with nightblade than I have with anything else. 

I adore my bosmer though. Her name is Sisa Nightwind, and she's a punky, scrappy little shit who looks like she's got a problem with you. I realised I probably should have let the green lady kill that maormer (Ulindor? So many names, all of them the same.) but I'd got so used to persuading her otherwise in beta that I just automatically went for that. But Sisa would totes let her kill him. Oh well. That'll learn me to not save before making decisions 

Having skipped through dialogue in beta, I'm realising just how funny this game actually is now I'm sitting back and listening to it all. Raz is a legend. Every sentence is a nugget of gold. I want someone to draw me a picture of him and Sisa getting pissed and getting up to mischief together. Goddammit, this is how the urge to spend more time writing fanfic than playing starts


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Is that Agony in the erm... shadow? line? I haven't taken that yet, because I wasn't sure I'd need it at this low level (just level 7 atm) - but I could see it coming in handy even against nasty bosses if you need a bit of a breather to regen.


Yes, I think so. Rings a bell, anyway. I've been doing a few quests with bow equipped and Bow skills slotted, then switching to dual-wield and changing skills around to level that up for a few quests. Wearing a mixture of medium and heavy armour, with light gloves; everything seems to be skilling up nicely so far. 

The Ebonheart Pact starter areas are nice; the first island is straight out of Skyrim, but there's a good throughline of quests around an invasion that carries all the way through to the main city. The second zone, Stonefalls, is a bit bleak - all ash and lava - but it's got some cool fire-insect things. Unfortunately a couple of quests are bugged still, which is annoying, but there's still plenty to keep me occupied.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 1, 2014)

First loot of the day. Immediately afterwards I got a Honey Pudding recipe that does the same. Maybe my luck is on the up?


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 1, 2014)

I really loved Stonefalls. The bits where it's just rock and lava got a bit boring but otherwise I loved the setting. Ebonheart in particular is lovely, when you head on down to the beach and rummage around the Argonian village behind it, and over to that little island where the fighter's guild quest is.

I'm still on Khenarthi's Roost 

I assume for the broken quests you've tried relogging umpteen times?


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I assume for the broken quests you've tried relogging umpteen times?


Yep - a couple were just over-subscription due to launch day excitement I think, too many people hanging around trying to kill the same NPC. One is properly bugged, but never mind.


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

I've gone with agony too - I hadn't bothered with it until yesterday when my character on the NA server somehow managed to pull 5 alits at once - survived by the skin of my teeth and then started looking more closely at the skills 
I'm finding choosing skills far more difficult than in beta, then it felt like it didn't matter much.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 1, 2014)

Server maintenance. And I think I was getting close to finding that treasure, dammit.

Or not. I swear I've scoured every inch of the fucking island.


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

I was just about to start some research


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Server maintenance. And I think I was getting close to finding that treasure, dammit.
> 
> Or not. I swear I've scoured every inch of the fucking island.



Is that Izad's Treasure?
I have never managed to find that bloody thing!


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 1, 2014)

Epona said:


> Is that Izad's Treasure?
> I have never managed to find that bloody thing!



Nooo, I can find that. (Check your journal - it gives extra tips than appear on screen.) This is on Khenarthi's Roost, one of the treasure maps you can loot at various times. Treasure Map IV I think. You can see a 3-masted ship in the distance,then some temple architecture in the middle ground, and a shoreline with palms in the foreground, and it's meant to be somewhere there. I *think* this places it behind the temple of mourning springs, because it's the right architecture style and it's in a direct line from the ship docked at Mistral.... but I can't pigging find it. I was scouring that area when the servers went down (forums say they'll be down for a few hours, apparently). I've found another on Khenarthi's Roost last beta, just outside of Windcatcher Plantation. That one was pretty easy, but this one is a bastard.


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

Ah ok.  I've drawn a complete blank on finding any treasure maps so far!  I have the Imperial Edition ones but haven't unpacked them yet 'cos bank space


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 1, 2014)

My Imp Edition one's haven't come through yet. Seems different things are coming at different times for different people. I have the scroll of Mara and the monkey pet and can buy my Imp horse, but I don't have the treasure maps yet.

Also, seriously, you cannot move on Khenarthi's Roost for treasure chests.


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

I'm back in on the EU server


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

Vintage Paw - thanks for the Izad's treasure tip, you're right, once I had found the starting point the hints were shown on screen and then I found it easily enough - so cheers for that!

I currently have 2 characters on the NA server and 1 on the EU, and because I'm doing a lot of crafting I feel as though I'm plate-spinning at the moment, what with doing research and inventory/bank management.  It will calm down a bit once I'm onto 2nd and 3rd traits for research as those take longer, so less time spent hovering around bank and crafting areas and hoarding All The Loot for research purposes!

I have various items in my bank on the EU server that I made but are now obsolete, if anyone wants them for deconstruction, let me know and I'll mail them to you.


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## Epona (Apr 1, 2014)

Playing my EP character, seems a lot of people that started today are missing out on the starting islands.
I just got to Davon's Watch, level 7, set of crafted level-appropriate gear, hotbar full of active skills.  Went to collect the remains from the Indoril Tomb and the place is piled high with dead bodies of level 3 players wearing rags and clutching whatever crappy starting weapon they got, they were dropping like flies.  I was 2-shotting the boss so hung around for a bit to help the "young'uns" out if they got into difficulties, but didn't have enough soul gems to go around so had to ignore many of the fallen.

I daren't go on the official forum, I bet it's awash with "it's too hard".  No, no it isn't, just that you've missed a sizeable portion of low-level content.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

Oh god, I know. I haven't been looking at zone chat so I don't know what it's like, but guild chat has a fair few people mentioning that everything is too high a level for them. I wish they'd have done it the other way around. I actually really rather like the opportunity to buy my horse and join the guilds as soon as I leave Coldharbour, but it's just far too easy for people to miss that they should go back - even though they moved the quest giver. I think they could have had it work quite well, but only if they'd had the time to do it properly. As it is, the shoe-horned in dialogue doesn't half put me off when it's done by a completely different voice actor than it should be 

As for crafting, I'm realising I'm going to have to spread it about a bit. Looking at the amount of points you have to put into a craft in order to be able to continue crafting as you go up the levels it's just not going to be sustainable to do it for more than a couple.

So my bosmer is taking woodworking and clothing. My breton will take provisioning and smithing probably. Although my dunmer would be good with smithing, since she'll be using a 2h sword at some point (when not using a fire staff), whereas my breton will be using a bow and probably a resto staff. Maybe the breton can do provisioning and enchanting. But those take up a lot of space. My bosmer can make the staves for my dunmer and breton, and my breton's bows, and the armour for both. Wow, my bosmer is going to be busy!

I'll have finished researching my 3rd bow trait tomorrow when I log on, then I'll get started on some staff traits. I've taken the hireling perk for woodworking and clothing - I thought it was better to take them early to maximise the amount of stuff I'll get over time.

It's going to be hard juggling it all! Particularly as I'm having a really, really hard time trying to work out what class skills to take with my nightblade. I want to take all of them! I suppose I'll be sticking with a bow for the most part, so ranged skills and utility are my focus, but I was thinking of dual wield for a 2nd weapon, and that means I'd do well to have closer-range stuff for that. And I wanted to do more with the shadow line as well. The siphoning line is my main focus because it's just so goddamn amazing though. But gah. I want it all!


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## Epona (Apr 2, 2014)

Vintage Paw - absolutely agree on all counts.  I'm all in favour of people having freedom to go where they like (on the proviso that it is not level-scaled to the player and they may get their backside handed to them in certain areas), but all it needed was to start them in the original starting area and have a boat/skipper NPC that could take them back and forth from there if they wished (at least the first time, since wayshrines are an option after that), rather than dropping them in a later zone from the off - and it seems in a lot of cases people are not even realising that there are other islands with low level content to explore.

It's a bit of a pain juggling all the crafting at the start, I really like the crafting and want to do all of it and will probably split it over several characters.  One of my characters is a level 18 provisioner now, and has put points into chef and brewer because it's a nice little earner creating more portions - a session at a cooking fire after questing and looting everything in sight and then selling all the cooked goods can net me a few hundred gold on a bad day, which is often more than the quest reward.  I also took hireling perks for woodwork/clothier/smith, because as you say it's good to get started on that early, I'm already getting blue quality improvement items so it looks as though it will be worth it as they are otherwise hard to come by.


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## Epona (Apr 2, 2014)

Oh also just as a thought - it feels more natural to people who like questing and story-heavy games to clear up quests area by area, so it's not in the slightest bit abnormal for people to think 'lets do all the quests in this location before getting on a boat to go somewhere else'.  I would undoubtedly think that way if I didn't know any different.

Edit:  Morrowind is one of the most "do what you want" games I have ever played, but it still set you down in a village which had some easy quests to get you started, a few rats and mudcrabs around, and an instruction to "deliver this package to Balmora" which started the main quest.  You could either do that, or you could postpone/ignore it and wander off wherever you wanted.  But you were still dropped in that one area with one start to the main quest.  This is like if Morrowind started you at a position half way through the main quest (such as Urshilaku Camp) with a poorly-signposted method of going back to Seyda Neen and picking up the package to start the story at the beginning.  Arse about face.  Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but they made a mistake and it's confusing to new players.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 2, 2014)

I don't know - the "go back to the islands" questgiver was pretty much impossible to miss, and the instructions are pretty clear ("take this quest, go talk to this person down at the docks"), so it's an active choice not to take it. Plus your journal quests are clearly aimed at specific levels, so if you're L3 and you choose to try the L6 quests in your book first, it's your own fault.

I agree the writing could be improved to make it a stronger recommendation to take the quest. Personally, I'd advocate for having the questgiver be in the room with you when you wake up, to make it almost impossible to ignore/miss.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

There are massive problems with the NA servers right now. They've been down for maintenance for 8 hours... and counting.

Apparently people were able to log into other people's accounts - without even trying. They'd log into their own, but suddenly be in someone else's, with access to everything that entails. Some people were losing everything from their bank (possibly related, possibly not) and there were big problems with the mail system.

Apparently the EU server doesn't have this problem. 

That's a pretty serious problem (or series of problems). I hope they manage to get it sorted soon.

They are also planning on pushing out a new build to us all today.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 2, 2014)

Sounds like someone typoed something critical in the login system.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 2, 2014)

btw, Happy Birthday Epona!


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

It's your birthday! Happy birthday, chuck


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

God, I'm installing Mumble. I have no idea what I'm doing.

The reddit guild is having an event at 8pm - everyone's meeting up for a guild picture


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

But of course all guild functionality has just been disabled, moments before we were due to organise groups to meet up.

Best laid plans, and all that.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

Some EU people are apparently starting to suffer the same problems the NA folks did yesterday: disappearing bank items etc.

Uh-oh.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 2, 2014)

EU server going down.

And we were just on the cusp of taking back a keep.

Well, I say on the cusp. I mean we'd got the wall down but there were about 20 of us, and lots of them.

Damned EP have taken every single keep on the map XD


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## Epona (Apr 2, 2014)

Thanks for the birthday wishes 

Ah well, at least for the EU server presumably since they already did the NA there will be less "ok, who the fuck broke what and how do we fix it?" (at least this is the way I imagine Zenimax HQ sounded most of the day) and hopefully it won't be down for so long.

NA server also got a patch, so if that hasn't rolled out on EU server yet, expect to have to patch when it comes back online.  I haven't been keeping up with the EU server since the NA one came back up, my crafter there had research that needed doing, and I want my other NA character to make level 10 at some point so I can start to do some PvP with the guild.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 3, 2014)

_Finally_ got a callback (after a week's wait!) from the phone support team about a UserID change. Hopefully it won't kill my friends lists.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 3, 2014)

...and now the bloody server's offline for maintenance again.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 3, 2014)

It's down to prepare for launch. They expect it to be back in a couple of hours.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 3, 2014)

Servers are back, but hold off on patching.

Lots of problems. It's deleting people's games, telling them to reinstall. Not for everyone, but for a lot of people.

Best wait for them to find out what's going on. ZOS know about it.


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## Epona (Apr 3, 2014)

Mine went OK but yeah a lot of people are having to redownload from scratch.

ESO are giving an extra 2 'free' days to those with early access to make up for the server issues this week, meaning that the standard 30 days included now starts on the 6th instead of the 4th - I think that's pretty decent of them really, I didn't expect early access to be wrinkle-free anyway and that seems like a decent goodwill gesture.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 3, 2014)

Everyone in guild irc is having the problem, so I'm holding off on dealing with it until tomorrow. It's late now anyway, and I generally stop playing at around 1pm.


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## Epona (Apr 3, 2014)

Oh on another note, I'm having CPU bottleneck issues - low fps, gpu not breaking into a sweat, but all 4 cpu cores maxed a lot of the time.
If you guys are getting decent framerates and are on PC would you mind posting your CPU spec so that I can determine whether it is within reasonable bounds for overclocking or whether I need to bite the bullet and upgrade!
Ta


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 4, 2014)

I've been getting about 30fps in decently populated outdoor areas, sometimes higher - higher indoors. I haven't experienced a really frantic Cyrodiil yet, just maybe 40-50 players sieging a keep at most. I'd turned down draw distance a bit at that point, but usually everything is on max, inc. draw distance.

My cpu is i7-3630QM @ 2.4Ghz (not OC). I had the option of a better one when I was putting together my order for this laptop, but chose not to because at the time MMOs weren't really my focus, so my money went on the 7970M gpu instead. Still, I'm happy with the performance overall. Once true fullscreen is enabled it'll help a bit, I'd think.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 4, 2014)

In other news, in their store they only have 1 clothing item available for women, and everything else for men. And the men's styles are 1/4 off right now, whereas the lone women's t-shirt is not.

I have grumbled at them via twitter.


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## Epona (Apr 4, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> In other news, in their store they only have 1 clothing item available for women, and everything else for men. And the men's styles are 1/4 off right now, whereas the lone women's t-shirt is not.
> 
> I have grumbled at them via twitter.



Bloody hell, that's a bit off!  I tend to wear mens tops myself but it's the principle of the thing, I'll also have a grumble somewhere about it.

Thanks for the CPU info, not sure why mine is being difficult, I'll have to look into the differences between them to see what yours has that mine (AMD Phenom II 965x4 3.2GHz) doesn't.  It's not unplayable or anything like that (yet!), just dropping down to below 30 in cities, so slightly noticeable.  (It's definitely not my gpu - a GTX670 2Gb - it's barely being used)

I just had an absolute whale of a time with my NA Dunmer Nightblade, grouped up with someone to do pretty much the entire Balreth questline as a duo and we took him down and had fun doing it.  Big step forward from a few months ago when shy unsociable old me was quaking in my boots at the thought of playing a game _with other people_


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 4, 2014)

I've read some people having a good 10fps drop since 1.01.

Also, the Palomino horse in the shop... is $14.99

Ouch.


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## Epona (Apr 4, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I've read some people having a good 10fps drop since 1.01.
> 
> Also, the Palomino horse in the shop... is $14.99
> 
> Ouch.



Blimey, that makes the oft-ridiculed Oblivion "Horse Armor" DLC look like a bargain.  Meh, I used to ride a palomino horse for free (she was brain damaged after tetanus, kicked the shit out of me and killed 3 goats so not a great memory), not going to pay to get a particular colour of horse in game.

Anyone seen a dark fissure yet?  I have done a dark anchor and when we had closed it my Khajiit started dancing, and then other Khajiit gathered around to play music, it was a great moment   And I got some fairly decent loot from the multitude of daedra - not anything mindblowing but decent stuff with traits - 2 weapons, 2 pieces of armour, and other bits and pieces.

EDIT: If other people are having fps drops since the patch that may explain why I didn't notice anything wrong until recently!


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## Epona (Apr 4, 2014)

CRAP, I just lost several recipes and a motif book in my bank, I put them in there with 1 char, logged out, logged back in with my crafter to pick them up to learn them and they weren't there.  I double checked each character to make sure I hadn't accidentally stored them on a character instead of in the bank, but they are gone.
Those motif books are currently hot property in some parts, if I didn't actually want it myself I could have sold it for a fair wedge.  I couldn't bear to look and see if anything else was missing 
I submitted a slightly upset /bug report, I thought they had fixed this already.  If it's not fixed for actual launch it's not going to be pretty.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 4, 2014)

That sucks. 

I'm waiting for a response to my ongoing UserID issues - they changed it, but it doesn't seem to have actually been changed in-game for some reason.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 4, 2014)

I hear it takes a little while for it to filter through in game. Leave it a couple of hours or so then submit another ticket with them

That sucks, Epona. Did you have a rollback, or is it the infamous disappearing bank bug do you think? A few have been suffering from rollbacks.

And yes, I've done 2 dark fissures - both the same one actually. A nice little challenge, really. CC really helps in this game.


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## Epona (Apr 4, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I hear it takes a little while for it to filter through in game. Leave it a couple of hours or so then submit another ticket with them
> 
> That sucks, Epona. Did you have a rollback, or is it the infamous disappearing bank bug do you think? A few have been suffering from rollbacks.
> 
> And yes, I've done 2 dark fissures - both the same one actually. A nice little challenge, really. CC really helps in this game.



No it wasn't a rollback - my AD Khajiit picked up a load of recipes in the bank area in that first city you go to in Auridon (excellent area for finding recipes and motifs), put them in the bank, I logged out and logged back in with my crafter and none of the stuff my Khajiit put in the bank was there   This all happened in the space of a few minutes.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 4, 2014)

I loot that place too, cabinets and dressers - best things in the game for loot ^^

Maybe you logged out too quickly after putting them in. It shouldn't work like that, but perhaps it does. Maybe it didn't get a chance to save it to the server?


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 4, 2014)

To complement my gaming, a friend just brought round an old Dreamcast he didn't want anymore. So I've been playing Soul Calibre and weird racing games for the past 2 hours XD And as a result I think I missed the guild event we had planned. But what can you do, eh?


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## Epona (Apr 4, 2014)

I am just having one of those days.  I should have known it would probably not go well when I woke up to find that one of the cats had been sick all over me whilst I was asleep.

Things I have learned today - no, I cannot solo a dark fissure at level 8.  No, 3 people between levels 6 and 8 is woefully insufficient to take on a dark anchor with any expectation of success.  Be careful when at the bank in case you click the wrong dialogue option and find yourself putting a load of random shit into your guild bank instead of your personal one (I now have a sneaking suspicion about what happened to my mystery disappearing stuff yesterday  ).  When using a new keyboard that is slightly different than your old one, try typing stuff to get used to it before attempting any of the above.

I found the funniest NPC today in Stonefalls btw - an Argonian by the name of "Finds-Trouble" who is located near the Kwama mine near Davon's Watch, the one you have to send the lost kwama around Senie back to.  People who ignore any NPC without a quest marker are missing out, there's some quality dialogue just talking to random NPCs.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 4, 2014)

Epona said:


> I found the funniest NPC today in Stonefalls btw - an Argonian by the name of "Finds-Trouble" who is located near the Kwama mine near Davon's Watch, the one you have to send the lost kwama around Senie back to.  People who ignore any NPC without a quest marker are missing out, there's some quality dialogue just talking to random NPCs.


Is that the guy who just complains about everything going wrong for him until you make your excuses and run away? 

I just dinged level 10, looking forward to trying Cyrodiil for the first time this weekend.


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## Epona (Apr 4, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Is that the guy who just complains about everything going wrong for him until you make your excuses and run away?
> 
> I just dinged level 10, looking forward to trying Cyrodiil for the first time this weekend.



Not sure if it is the same NPC, he does complain about everything going wrong, but if you follow the conversation right through to the end


Spoiler



he says he found a dagger and wore it on his belt, and everyone who saw him was exclaiming "The Razor! You have The Razor" and eventually he freaked out and threw it in a river.  It's just such a great reference to the way Skyrim NPCs spoke to you if you were carrying a daedric artefact, and it utterly cracked me up 

As a side effect however, I will not from this point on be able to pass a river in ESO without thoroughly checking it for discarded daggers


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 5, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Is that the guy who just complains about everything going wrong for him until you make your excuses and run away?
> 
> I just dinged level 10, looking forward to trying Cyrodiil for the first time this weekend.



What faction are you in? I have a level 11 character on AD if you want to group up and do some exploring. I'm slowly levelling my EP character at the moment, and will probably jump in and get started on my DC character at some point over the weekend too. 

Epona, I know what you mean about plate-spinning now... now I've decided which characters are going to do which bits of crafting I'm realising I'm going to have to keep them all roughly at the same level so I can keep their crafting up to speed to help each other out. Thankfully so far the one who will be doing the most - my bosmer with clothing and woodworking - is the one I started with so she has some decent research under her belt already. I'm going to be desperate for bank space though. I've already bought 2 bank upgrades and can't afford the third yet!


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 5, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> What faction are you in? I have a level 11 character on AD if you want to group up and do some exploring. I'm slowly levelling my EP character at the moment, and will probably jump in and get started on my DC character at some point over the weekend too.


I'm on EP, slowly making my way through Stonefalls.

What happens if you are on opposite sides from your friends in Cyrodiil? Does it restrict communication once in PvP, or can you arrange to meet up and fight each other directly?


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 5, 2014)

You can still communicate, so yeah I'm sure you could meet up to do battle together.

It seems your home campaign is set on an account-wide basis, so mine is Wabberjack, because that's the campaign we joined as AD with the reddit guild. However EP are absolutely owning everything in that campaign - so it's not the most balanced unfortunately. I haven't set a guest campaign yet, because I think the guild are waiting to see what happens with Wabberjack and whether we all guest on another one together, one with more balance.

But if I make it to 10 later, Wabberjack would at least be a good one for my/our EP characters to go exploring caves and killing NPCs in, and so on. You really do need a friend or two to go dungeon delving in Cyrodiil.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 5, 2014)

I'm on Scourge, and EP are pwning that campaign too. 

TBH I'm a bit confused by Cyrodiil. I went there and did the practice quests, then picked up the scouting and other missions, but all of the objectives they gave me were for places that EP already held, so I couldn't complete any of them.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 5, 2014)

The quests are always in more or less the same sort of places. The scouting mission is always going to be deep in enemy territory. It's best done with a small group, in stealth, being very, very careful. If another faction is in control of the map you'll find the others more difficult. It incentivises working for the good of your alliance and getting involved in taking back resources and keeps. With the stealth mechanic, you can still move around a lot of territory, you just have to be careful, maybe travel in a group, make sure you have a horse that you've spec'd for speed, and keep your wits about you. Not everyone is going to automatically be up for a fight if you see each other. Sometimes you'll see opposing players eye each other up from a distance and then carry on to wherever they were originally going. A case of pick your battles, really. It's particularly true if it's just 2 players stumbling across each other. If you are alone and spotted by a group, you're done for unless you can hide or run away.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 5, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> The scouting mission is always going to be deep in enemy territory.


Nope - twice I got sent to the same place, a mine that EP already held. I went there, stood around for a bit, then went back and got points.


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## Bernie Gunther (Apr 6, 2014)

PvP is getting some good reviews. The comparisons with GW2's World v World in particular are intriguing, particularly the suggestion that small groups have a viable role that complements the zerg.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/what-is-your-opinion-on-the-pvp-in-eso/

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/2094i4/what_is_pvp_like_in_eso/

Hmm ...


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## Epona (Apr 6, 2014)

I now have 1 character in each faction on each server.  I get most enjoyment out of playing a multitude of characters rather than just 1 main.  I don't really have 1 main, but several mains.  Especially with all the crafting goodness in this game!
Now have 1 character at level 10 so Cyrodil awaits.
Provisioning is by far the biggest moneyspinner (in terms of solo play and vendoring items).  Chef and Brewer skills can double/triple/quadruple your income, even if you put no skillpoints anywhere else in provisioning.  I just ran a character through the tutorial, banked all the ingredients, and had my provisioner (lvl 26 provisioning) cook up everything and vendor the cooked goods - 400 gold in 15 minutes.  Yesterday I made nearly 900 from provisioning.  I'm not rolling in cash yet and it does require spending skillpoints, but it's netting me more income than questing at this point.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

I've been having a problem with bank space, trying to do all 6 crafts over 3 characters, while also questing with them. I've bought 2 bank upgrades, and at least 1 bag with each character (2 bag with my first) and I'm always fit to burst. Trying to move gear between characters for deconstruction is a big pain, or when my clothier and woodworker will make things for the other two (who both use light/medium and bows/staves). I think I'm going to give up on alchemy. I barely ever use potions, and I find enough to keep me going. Like you say, provisioning makes more money. And I'm usually overflowing with armour/weapon materials as well, so as soon as I have 1 full stack in the bank everything else gets vendored.

I did have a load of aspect runes (my dk in bleakrock and bal foyen managed to find loads in a short amount of time) and I started my templar so she could get started on levelling it up. And then I realised I hated how she looked, so deleted her. I mean, god, I wasted all those aspect runes - but priorities! I'll have to live with her for a long time, she has to look right 

But damn... crafting space >_<


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

On the subject of PvP, tomorrow Reddithium (my reddit guild) is having an all day event in Cyrodiil, trying to muster forces to push back against the Pact (who control every single resource and keep). We've made alliances with the Covenant to do so, including 2 of the biggest Covenant PvP guilds. So whether DC or AD, if you don't have a home campaign set, or if you want to guest, maybe pop into Wabberjack and we could perhaps meet up and do some dungeon delving. I'll be AD, because it's my only character I can get to Cyrodiil with right now.

In other news, a templar with a bow... who knew? My god, it's lovely.

Edit: It gets compared to GW2 WvW, but that in turn borrowed heavily from DAoC - and one of the people who made that is the lead person working on it in ESO. So perhaps it's more correct to say that it is taking its cue from DAoC, as did GW2. I've heard people who played a lot of GW2 saying that ESO gets it right where GW2 got it wrong.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

> If you hold sprint while on a horse, it will drain the stamina, but will continue to "sprint" after the stamina is gone. This is intentional. What you're doing by holding sprint in really "jogging".
> 
> If you want to actually "sprint", you have to rapidly press the sprint button. Then, if you do run out of stamina from this, you stop sprinting and also can not "jog" because you have no stamina. Rapidly tapping sprint makes you go about 30-50% faster than "jogging".



I had no idea


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## Epona (Apr 6, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> On the subject of PvP, tomorrow Reddithium (my reddit guild) is having an all day event in Cyrodiil, trying to muster forces to push back against the Pact (who control every single resource and keep). We've made alliances with the Covenant to do so, including 2 of the biggest Covenant PvP guilds. So whether DC or AD, if you don't have a home campaign set, or if you want to guest, maybe pop into Wabberjack and we could perhaps meet up and do some dungeon delving. I'll be AD, because it's my only character I can get to Cyrodiil with right now.
> 
> In other news, a templar with a bow... who knew? My god, it's lovely.
> 
> Edit: It gets compared to GW2 WvW, but that in turn borrowed heavily from DAoC - and one of the people who made that is the lead person working on it in ESO. So perhaps it's more correct to say that it is taking its cue from DAoC, as did GW2. I've heard people who played a lot of GW2 saying that ESO gets it right where GW2 got it wrong.



Is that on EU server?  My DC character made lvl 10 but hasn't done siege training yet, I have an AD character at lvl 8.

Yeah I had heard that templar + bow = Awesome, but not tried it, I just wasn't that keen on the templar I tried in beta, I found the class actives really underwhelming.  I am doing bow as my first weapon on every character regardless of class, I am just not that into the destro staff as a ranged weapon for damage, much prefer bow.

Yes my bank reached critical mass already.  Problem is that because I have gone full tilt into provisioning, I am in "loot ALL the things" mode with every character, so although I am making plenty of cash, I am also having to juggle my inventory a lot.

Not sure what it says about me, but I have realised all my characters are stick-thin.   I am just putting it down to the fact that I get a chance to play something that is unfeasible in real life, but the pattern that is forming does make me wonder.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 6, 2014)

Epona said:


> Not sure what it says about me, but I have realised all my characters are stick-thin.   I am just putting it down to the fact that I get a chance to play something that is unfeasible in real life, but the pattern that is forming does make me wonder.


I was quite disappointed at the limits placed on how fat it is possible to make characters. The males get a little pot belly and are wider than usual, but not properly fat, and the women just go a bit curvy.  I want to make Friar Tuck, dammit!


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 6, 2014)

I'm having inevitable bag/bank space issues too. It's not helped by only having a bank in the first city, so you do a lot of shuttling back and forth to juggle stuff between bags and bank and deconstruct things.

Haven't really been focusing on any particular aspect of crafting yet, just upgrading things as I go and researching dagger traits in readiness for more high-level weapon specialisation.


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## Epona (Apr 6, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> I was quite disappointed at the limits placed on how fat it is possible to make characters. The males get a little pot belly and are wider than usual, but not properly fat, and the women just go a bit curvy.  I want to make Friar Tuck, dammit!



Yeah I know what you mean, although during beta I did manage to make a female Redguard with an absolutely massive arse.  Not quite sure what to make of that tbh.
Character creation does give a lot of options, but it wouldn't hurt if the slider went a little bit more that way.  I have spoken to plenty of people who would prefer to make a fat character.


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## Bernie Gunther (Apr 6, 2014)

This looks interesting. Nice and tactical.

AOE evidently isn't gimped the way it is in GW, so the organised (and on Vent) guys in the clip are operating a bit like a WAR bomb-group (mutually supporting AOE) but without being too OP, due (I'm guessing) to the ESO resource management dynamics.



That looks a whole lot better that I was led to believe by the person I was hearing about ESO PvP from a year or so ago.

The 'everybody can stealth' thing looks like a barrel of laughs too (if you're organised and on Vent)


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## Bernie Gunther (Apr 6, 2014)

Question about the collision mechanics in PvP.

Can you actually physically body-block other players? Say if they're trying to get through a choke point like a doorway can you use a tank-wall keep them there and/or funnel them into heavy AOE?

ETA - Never mind. Found answer. "No, 'cos we are optimising for performance in PvP", which is fair enough (although having it makes PvP tanks much more interesting) 

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/ene...-latest-closed-beta-build-reddit-post/page/5/


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## Epona (Apr 6, 2014)

How long is it taking to get into Cyrodil? I've been on a loading screen for half an hour, should I wait or close down and try again?

Bernie Gunther - there is collision detection on NPCs, but no player to player collision.  Good thing too, or I wouldn't have been able to get to a crafting bench yet.


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## Epona (Apr 6, 2014)

FFS, Cyrodil is unplayable for me.
I don't know what the issue is, it just keeps crashing.  At one point I managed to log back in right in the middle of an enemy zerg   Then after I respawned at the nearest keep, it fucking crashed again. I've submitted 20 bloody crash reports in the last 2 hours.
It's a real pisser, I was grouped up with some really nice people too. 

Edit: turns out it's not just me with this issue, I have raised it on the official forum and will put in a customer support ticket if there is no answer forthcoming.  But on the bright side, I did kill several people in the times between crashes - battles between small groups on the outskirts of a contested keep, if this issue is resolved I will be going back in for more


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

Cyrodiil - lots seem to be having issues, particularly when joining groups. First thing I'd try is turning down all the pretties - even if you get 60fps in busy cities, in Cyrodiil it seems to suffer more. But beyond that, I think it just needs to be optimised their end. Something they've done has made it really awkward. (And yes, it's the EU server.)

Bernie - it absolutely rewards those who are organised. You can run with the zerg and profit, but a smaller more organised group can swoop in and scatter the zerg and pick them off. Populations are woefully unbalanced at the moment in all campaigns but Auriel's Bow I think, and 1 faction is utterly dominating (hence the proposed push back today on our campaign). I'd like to hope that sorts itself out over time, it's certainly the sort of game where if there's enough collaboration and planning the tide can be turned even against a larger force.

Fat characters - Every single one of my characters has the body slider about a 1/4 - 1/3 of the way down the 'heavy' side from muscular, and from there I increase every single slider except feet and hands and arms (oh, and gut usually goes a notch or two to the left). Waist, hips and arse are all maxed out, legs are big and chunky, boobs are usually around the middle, sometimes a bit more - never balloon tits though. Most of my characters are the shortest they can be - not sure what to do with my high elf, whether to go tallest or shortest. It almost seems like a waste to not make her the tallest she could be. Anything thinner than what I've made just feels far too thin, tbh. I'm standing next to all these characters and they look so unrealistically skinny, their heads are all too big for their bodies, like if I cough on them they're going to snap, and it's a bit depressing. But, everyone has their reasons. Even with my slider settings my characters still look slender to me. Heh.

I have seen some cracking fat orcs though.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

Some pics of my characters:

My bosmer nightblade - who looks like she's gonna fucking cut ya (with her bow): https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6ssn9w891qxn4t/2014-04-02.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oijnkni4bk9plje/Screenshot_20140331_172907.jpg

(See, you wouldn't realise her slider is between heavy and muscular with waist etc maxed out, would you? I can't imagine how scrawny she'd look on the thin side of things.)

My dunmer dragonknight - https://www.dropbox.com/s/pj3k9e98icbbp0v/anisverethi.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fpuc7kylu6daf9y/Screenshot_20140404_150824.jpg (this one isn't so good, dark room)

My breton templar - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ooq72kwdfn71icx/aless 3.jpg

And another of her before I'd finalised her look, so you can see where the body slider is that I was talking about earlier: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hq4vpwt15r1wmr/aless 2.jpg

I'm going to make my altmer sorcerer now - just need to scour uesp for a name 

Oh, and I'm using bows for everyone but Anis (DK) - they just feel good early on at least. Sorc and DK will eventually have a 2h sword, I might try a resto staff on both my templar and my nightblade not sure yet, otherwise the nightblade is getting daggers.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 6, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> balloon tits


That would be a great Argonian name.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

Well, an organised group of 15 or so of us managed to take a farm, lumber mill and mine, and we got the keep walls down but there were too many pact.

The official event with the DC as well is postponed until 8.30. It was great fun though. Someone made a stream. Having voice comms is such a big plus.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

I'm sure it's boring if you weren't involved, lots of sneaking and getting killed: http://www.twitch.tv/truckerm/b/517603207


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 6, 2014)

Well I have to say, that was a lot of fun.

DC have some really coordinated guilds, and they pushed back and took a lot of keeps. We had the reddit guild, and Sithis - who was the first AD emperor - who was coordinating our attacks. We had fewer numbers but we managed to take back 2 keeps and all the resources around it, and had lots of skirmishes along the way. I am only level 12 but helped take down plenty of players, died a bunch of times, and had fun 

It really is at its best when you have an organised group to work with, with voice comms as a must. Several different groups can work together coordinating in zone chat, and your individual groups can all talk to each other and make sure they stick together and know where to go and what to focus on.

If you manage to get the outer wall down, there are players AND enemy NPCs inside that you have to kill. And while you're killing them trying to get the inner wall down to capture the 2 flags, even just a couple of stealthed enemy players can really fuck your shit up by flanking around behind you all and setting up some siege equipment to bombard you from behind through the wall you just broke down.

I heartily recommend it.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 7, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Well I have to say, that was a lot of fun.


I tried to join PvP, but after ten minutes staring at the Cyrodiil loading screen  I switched it off and watching the Grand Prix highlights instead.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 7, 2014)

It loaded fine for me when I wasn't already in a group or trying to load directly into Cyrodiil from the character screen.

There's a problem at the moment with the game crashing when people are added to a large group, and it happened over and over as we were forming our group. Of course, that means that you are stuck in Cyrodiil, and have to load directly into it, which can be very difficult if it's busy in your campaign. Asking to be kicked from the group helped, but it was still a pain.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 7, 2014)

In other news, I'm going to start up a little guild, just for friends to help keep in touch without having to type /tell and the name all the time. I was going to call it Urban Alliance, just cuz  Anyway, it's nothing more than to make it easier to say hi, ask for help, maybe offload gear on each other, swap for deconstruction, chat, organise to have a roam in Cyrodiil to find skyshards etc... No obligations, just a central contact point really. If it does get above 10 then all the better for the guild bank.

I have a small (very small) handful of friends from flickr who are also playing, and I'll invite them too. I'll invite you both (and if there's anyone else here who's playing who hasn't piped up yet, let me know) and it's entirely up to you if you accept or not. It doesn't matter if you're not on the EU server much (Epona) - it's just a place to say hi as and when you are, or whatever.


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## Epona (Apr 7, 2014)

Yeah I've been a bit lax on the EU server the last couple of days.  My crafter on the NA server needed to do some catchup to be able to supply my PvP character adequately and got stuck on the Rites of the Queen quest (not because of a bug, but because I find that boss fight horrendously difficult for some reason) so I've been roaming around trying to find good places to grind xp without doing the faction quests out of order iyswim.

I will definitely be on the EU server a bit more once I've managed to get over that hump.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 7, 2014)

I'm hideously over levelled, without trying. Idk, I just explore a bit, kill everything in my path, explore a bit more, do the odd quest... I'm lvl 12 with my AD character and have lvl 7 quests still to do. I can't explain it. Nothing drops loot anymore


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## Epona (Apr 7, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I'm hideously over levelled, without trying. Idk, I just explore a bit, kill everything in my path, explore a bit more, do the odd quest... I'm lvl 12 with my AD character and have lvl 7 quests still to do. I can't explain it. Nothing drops loot anymore



I  have a sneaking suspicion that it is due to the AD being massively popular on the NA server, if something spawns it lasts about a microsecond before being obliterated.  I was in Del's Claim in the early hours of this morning and even at that time there was a massive amount of people camping the boss.  I was there for about half an hour til I managed to hit him to get xp/loot and clear the dungeon!  I can wander for miles without seeing anything much to kill, hence me looking for somewhere to camp (probably along with everyone else in the zone)


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 7, 2014)

Have either of you played since patching today (on the EU server)?

I haven't patched yet. I'm watching reddit and the official forums. It's not a pretty sight.

It's asking for you to verify your account with an authorisation code it will email you. But the email doesn't arrive. For ages. Then it does. But it's expired. So it locks you out of your account.

Or, for some lucky people, they manage to get in. But if you zone anywhere that requires a loading screen you get disconnected with 'an unknown error'. Also, friends lists are empty, guild lists are empty, mail is all deleted, and people are losing all their bank slots they've upgraded.

I'll wait for the dust to settle and play something else tonight. Shame, I've not had a chance to play at all really today.


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## Epona (Apr 7, 2014)

Yes I have, and it's fine.  It was a bit of a balls-up at Zenimax's end, but not quite apocalyptic.  They did the server maintenance, brought the server back online, but it seems as though they forgot to put up the patch so no-one could patch or log in 
Unfortunately every time they patch we seem to have to get a new authentication code - cue however many people trying to log in at the exact same time, and mail being delayed.  It took me about 30 minutes waiting for my code e-mail, but it was still valid by the time I got it, I just had to be patient.  If people are retrying every 10 minutes when they haven't had the previous code, then when they get the first e-mail through the code is invalid because they were already sent a new one.  It's constantly trying to log in without waiting for the email to come through that locks the account.  I just waited for the inital one and was able to use that without issue once it eventually came through.

Tbh it's a stupid way of doing things if everyone has to wait for an e-mail to get back into the game after a patch because they are going to take a while to come through to people, I hope they look into it because it has caused no end of problems.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 8, 2014)

I don't think it was as simple as people not waiting and getting impatient. Seems plenty were just waiting for their email, and when it finally came it wouldn't work. Some got lucky, lots didn't.

They need to sort out when they do maintenance. It stands to reason that if you do it during peak hours and bring the server back online while it's still peak hours, everyone is going to rush in at the same time. Far better to do it when it's quiet, so people start coming back in in dribs and drabs rather than all at once. I hope they sort that out once the server is moved over here. 

And then of course the 'unknown error' that was stopping people from being able to zone anywhere, and the missing bank slots (always accompanied with a second (or third) email welcoming them to the game and giving them their bonus items again).

Anyway, after 11-ish I opened the launcher. I figured it'd be quieter then. It patched, and I pressed play. I saw my version number hadn't updated again (it didn't after the last patch either), so I exited and repaired. It still didn't update the version number, so I wonder if it's not meant to? We're supposed to be on client version 1.0.2 but mine is still 1.0.0.9something. idk.

Anyway, I was able to log in just fine. It didn't ask me for authentication either, so no email worries at all. And no errors when zoning. But it's quiet as hell there, so it's to be expected.

I just think they're having massive problems with high populations. There's got to be something wrong that kicks it all off, but it's not a big problem until there are a lot of people all at once doing something, maybe.

Apart from the bank bug. That's their servers identifying the account as being new and logging in for the first time... hence sending the welcome email and resetting the bank. Seems some can still access the bank with other characters, just not the one they were on at the time.

Really fucking weird.


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## Epona (Apr 8, 2014)

They do need to get these issues sorted out.  Yesterday before the maintenance I was having trouble logging in so absolutely it is being problematic for a variety of different reasons.

I just did Toothmaul Gully, I know from the journal clues that there is supposed to be a skyshard in there, but I couldn't bloody find it.  There were times when I could hear it mind you, I think I'm going to have to look up where it is and go back for it, sometimes they don't always glow for me and those goblins & durzogs were respawning in groups all around me, it got a bit hectic to say the least 

Edit: The EU server is down again whilst they try to fix login issues.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 8, 2014)

WoW's regular maintenance window was something like 5am-11am on a Wednesday morning, so they didn't piss off too many people wanting to play at that time.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 8, 2014)

My launcher just downloaded a really small patch, then I was able to login without any additional authentication - version number is still 1.0.0.9. I guess they've rolled the patch back until they can fix it.


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## Epona (Apr 8, 2014)

Someone from the guild I am in came and helped me with Norion - I had gained a couple of levels since I last tried him, and with 2 of us we dispatched him before he had a chance to raise his summons (which was always the point where it went horribly wrong for me before).
I don't know what it is that I find so difficult about that particular fight, it's like it is in my gaming blind spot or something.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 8, 2014)

I must have been overlevelled for that quest. I'd heard from beta that it was a spike in difficulty, but I found it quite easy. What was it, a level 7/8 quest? I must have done it at around 9 or 10 I think. 

Buddy - that thing with the version number, I don't think they actually update it to what they say the version they're patching to is. My version number hasn't changed over at least the past two patches. I have no idea what it's meant to be, whether the 1.0.0.9something is correct, or whether it's just not updating the numbers, or what. I guess if the game works it doesn't much matter though.


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## Epona (Apr 8, 2014)

Vintage Paw - I think the most likely explanation is that I am just shit at games


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 8, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> My launcher just downloaded a really small patch, then I was able to login without any additional authentication - version number is still 1.0.0.9. I guess they've rolled the patch back until they can fix it.


But now when I login, I get the prompt about unauthorized access and enter a code. Which hasn't been sent. 

Edit: Arrived within 10 minutes, so


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## Epona (Apr 8, 2014)

Well today so far I have given Gutstripper a good smacking for the times he took me out in beta (he's really easy now!), and I managed to summon up enough German to tell someone (in German) that my German was not very good and we still had a chat and made friends.  (((EU Server))).


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 8, 2014)

Yeah, Gutstripper has been made too easy now I think. He was a good early challenge to make sure you were blocking and dodging and thinking about things. Oh well, I'm sure there are others


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 8, 2014)

Tried to play a little tonight in my hotel room on a not-that-old MacBook Pro, but it's basically unplayable - even on Medium-to-Low settings it's so laggy that you can't see what you're about to run into.


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## Epona (Apr 10, 2014)

At the moment I am spending a good deal of time doing 'The Inventory Tango' - I believe it bears some relation to The Fishstick, but is far more complex and must have come from a mind more touched and sadistic than the Mad God himself.


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## poului (Apr 11, 2014)

My current internet connection's a bit unpredictable and can drop every so often. Would this make the game unplayable?


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## poului (Apr 11, 2014)

poului said:


> My current internet connection's a bit unpredictable and can drop every so often. Would this make the game unplayable?



Just read the official website. Answer is yes.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 11, 2014)

Got home a bit fucked off with the game after it being unplayable on my not-yet-2-year-old laptop, and not missing playing all week much. Then did a couple of hours investigating unmapped areas, discovered two special crafting areas, and remembered that when it's good, it's awesome.


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## Epona (Apr 11, 2014)

poului said:


> My current internet connection's a bit unpredictable and can drop every so often. Would this make the game unplayable?



How often do you lose connection?  If it's every 10 minutes for a couple of seconds then that is going to be annoying to the point of any online/mp game being unplayable - if like mine it's once every few days then it will occasionally interrupt a quest so that when you log back in you might (sometimes, not always) have to restart that particular segment of the quest, and of course it is annoying if it drops when you are grouped or in PvP, but it's not unplayable by any means.

Depends on how frequently it is interrupted.


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## Bernie Gunther (Apr 11, 2014)

So what's the score with taking territory? I've read some stuff that implies that if you're a crafter wanting to sell stuff and don't want to be hawking it in local chat, you need to be in a strong guild that can take a keep in Cyrodiil so that you can set up a guild market?

Is keep ownership relatively stable, e.g. like Eve outposts that typically stay owned by the same crew for months or years, or is it more like GW2 keeps, changing hands 2-4 times a day?


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 12, 2014)

It depends on your campaign, Bernie. Keeps nearest your faction's gates will be the ones most likely to stay stable, but if you happen to have a run of bad luck with some really coordinated attacks from a rival faction's guilds you can lose the lot in an evening. The way it works is that when you capture a resource/keep someone from your guild has to be the first to get to the quartermaster (I think it's the quartermaster) and claim that resource/keep for your guild. It can be hit or miss whether you get it or not though - since you're in the midst of a really fucking chaotic battle while you're trying to cap the resource/keep, and then it's a rush to see who can get to them first. Nothing is guaranteed, and it's a system that rewards very tight organisation. 

There are, however, dedicated crafting and trading guilds. You can join 5 guilds in total, so joining a couple of those would give you access to their guild store via the guild menu. You won't be selling to the general public in this way, but you'll be selling to people who are members of that guild. It doesn't even have to be a specific crafting or trading guild - if you make a name for yourself as a good and reliable crafter who can craft all levels of X type of gear, then you can quite happily sell to your normal guild mates if you're in a decent sized players guild.

There are also a few trading websites that have been set up. I don't know how successful they are right now, but check out the subreddit /r/elderscrollsonline and in the sidebar there are links to a couple of them.

It _is_ an awkward system, and I believe they do want to expand on it as time goes on, but as it stands right now you do either have to try to sell in /zone or join a guild and deal with the various methods there. There aren't enough people in the veteran ranks yet to know what the economy and crafting will be like once a large bulk of people have gone through the first third of levelling, so it remains to be seen how the trading and crafting community evolves.

I thought it would be a massive detriment because I've generally relied on easy access to an AH in other games, but I haven't found it a problem at all. Crafting is accessible to everyone, although it requires skill points in it to carry on crafting level appropriate stuff past level 14. But then, I'm only crafting for myself right now. Once I get to higher levels I'll look at what I can do for my guild, but atm I'm still learning the game and want to focus on my own experience in that regard.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 12, 2014)

Well, Reddithium have changed their home campaign to Dawnbreaker, because it really was no fun not owning a single, solitary keep since launch. We had a mini pvp event in there tonight and it was much more fun. I'm level 14 now and I can pull my weight a bit more. It's amazing how just a couple of levels can alter how powerful and competent you feel to such a degree. I was able to chase down and kill people in their 30s earlier, on my own. And I took on VR players with someone else and we walked away from it with another kill under our belt. I still died twice (avoid the oil, seriously, avoid the oil), and I was only in there for an hour or so, but it feels really good. Hopefully now we have more of a presence I'll be able to venture in there and do some of the PvE quests, and I really want to get a group together to go exploring dungeons and hunting skyshards.

I ran through Toothmaul Gully earlier. I only found one of the champions despite doubling back on myself endless times. I'm overlevelled for it, and I was able to take the champ myself, and mobs of 4 or 5 didn't bother me (it's something like level 9 I think, although public group dungeons are harder than usual). I far prefer Crow's Wood in EP - it seems easier to navigate, tbh. I haven't tried the DC first tier public dungeon yet. 

I've got a set of the Night's Silence special gear on, which gives 40% health regen when hidden. It's quite nice. I'm still maybe about 1/2 way through Auridon, and I'm looking forward - with some trepidation - to getting a group together to do Banished Cells soon too. It's for level 12 but I'd rather be overlevelled and get gear I can't use and less XP than run my first ever private dungeon and wipe at every possible opportunity.

I've no idea when they're moving the EU server to Europe, but I'm hopeful it'll sort out the random lag I get. I don't lag all the time, and when I do it's never really disastrous, but it's annoying when it does happen.

Oh, and I crashed in Cyrodiil earlier. Everyone just stood still, while I could still move around (player movement is handled client side, so you can move while nothing else happens through interaction with the server), and eventually the crash report window came up. No idea why it happened. I wasn't getting lag, I turn down shadows and water reflections and draw distance while in there to avoid bad fps, but perhaps it was just being fussy.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 12, 2014)

Here's my plucky, scrappy, punky little bosmer with her nice new gear:


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 12, 2014)

Well that jack certainly looks like it provides maximum protection of important areas...


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 12, 2014)

Here's me at the moment, with a couple of hand-crafted enchanted daggers:


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2014)

Sports bra of Night's Silence 

I might joke but I love how all the styles look different, once you have learned a few motifs you can get a wide variety of appearance in your gear.  I am particularly liking the Bosmer heavy armour cuirass at the moment 

Edit: Ok I'm going to take some screenshots of my characters!


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 12, 2014)

I like all the different styles, how you can mix and match, too. I've learned everything but Nord with this character now. I really like the bosmer light and heavy, I like the khajiit light too, and dunmer. Some are just fugly though. The redguard medium - at least at low levels - is just bleurgh. I like the altmer medium as well. And I'm one who is sensitive to skimpy clothing/armour in games, but I can't say I feel particularly stressed or bothered about any of them in ESO. That bosmer medium is probably the skimpiest of the lot (although there's what I assume is one of the rare ones that the Wyrd people have in Glenumbra, that's a bit skimpy too) but none of it feels like it's trying to objectify anyone - helped no doubt in part by the fact that even though you can make a character with big boobs you can't make a character with fantasy melon boobs.


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2014)

TES has a good score IMO compared to a lot of other games when it comes to things like not overly-sexualising female characters, and ESO has continued in that vein so that gets it a thumbs-up from me in that regard.  I think the Bosmer armour is the skimpiest of all styles, with for some reason the midriff exposed (yeah go on, stick a sword in my gut, that won't damage me!) but it's more along the lines of making them look (even in heavy armour) like hunters rather than knights, not to be 'sexy'.  The detailing on Bosmer heavy armour is great mind you, with the trim changing for levels and tempers.

I know what you mean about the Redguard armour though - "here are some sacks I found in a barn and stitched together with baling twine" seems to be the style they are going for at lower levels.  It gets better after level 8 when the colour changes but the leg armour is still a bit balloony.


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## Bernie Gunther (Apr 12, 2014)

Lizard people with cleavage look quite strange though.


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2014)

Bernie Gunther said:


> Lizard people with cleavage look quite strange though.



I know, I always make my female Argonian characters as 'straight up and down' as I can make them with any weight on the gut rather than hips or boobs.  They're egg-laying reptiles and egg-laying species IRL typically have no obvious sexual dimorphism in terms of body shape and no mammaries, Argonians with boobs just look odd.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 13, 2014)

Isn't it all hand waved away with some Hist malarkey or something? You'd probably know more than me about that Epona.

Anyway, I have had the most AMAZING time in Cyrodiil with my guild tonight. I went in at level 14 and left at level 16, and got 4 skill points along the way.

At first we were defending our keep, then taking back some resources. Then we decided to go off as a group of about 20 and do a bit of stealth recon and ganking their people as they came over the bridge to resupply their own forces at the siege. It was such fun, coordinating where we would go, where best to camp, spotting outliers or smaller groups. We even managed to see off a few larger groups as well.

Then our fortunes changed. We spent ages getting to a particular bridge where we knew they were passing. We stealthed, and snuck round to their side of it, and hung around for a bit. We saw a small group of maybe 6 of them on the bridge heading in our general direction, so we thought fuck it, let's go for it. So we attacked - and by rights victory was ours for the taking, but about 40 of their players unstealthed from fucking nowhere and massacred us. It was brilliant 

After a while, we decided to head off deeeeeeep into DC territory, way up north in the snow, and go skyshard hunting and dungeon delving. We met the odd few EP and DC players while we were there, but we were legion - and of course highly skilled and amazeballs  - so we always saw them off. We did a few random quests we found here and there, but then our leader and almost everyone else died, and no one had any soul gems so they decided to res back in our territory and regroup, maybe go back off into EP territory this time and do more exploring. Well, I hadn't died, and you can't teleport while in Cyrodiil without a transitus or a wayshrine, so I hung around and finished up the few quests I had there. There was still another person from our group there, at first. They eventually disappeared, so I was left alone.

I ended up in a church, talking to an npc, and out of nowhere an EP player attacked me from behind. He was 5 levels above me, and got the jump on me, but gosh darnit if I didn't go and kill him 

I decided that my only option was to make it back to friendly territory alone, so I stealthed and crouched my way back. I had a couple of missions in DC territory from ages ago, so I set my map marker and off I headed. Every once in a while I'd notice a red bar nearby, but I was stealthed, and they didn't see me.

Until, that is, I practically landed on top of a stealthed DC player. They were level 30, I was level 15... my chances were... limited at best. We started fighting. Oh god did we start fighting. It felt like it went on for so long. My health would go down, but so would theirs. I kept spamming swallow soul as often as I could to try and keep my own health up, but in the heat of battle I often forget what skills I have  I was hitting venom shot, cripple, swallow soul, and a ton of light bow attacks. We danced and danced around each other for an eternity. And I won. I WON. I have never been so proud of myself in a game. It was such a rush. I wish I could have communicated with them to say thank you for the awesome fight. I forgot to make a note of their name 

I took my inflated ego and stealthed my way to a scouting mission I had at a DC farm, and then went on to a priory where I had to turn in something or another that I'd found a million miles away a few days ago. Where I picked up another few quests but it was getting late and I didn't want to have to double back on myself and go further north again, so I continued stealthing my way back to Brindle (under our control at the time). From there, I transitussed (totes a word) to nearer the rest of the group, and went to join them in another dungeon. After about 20 minutes of fun, and one more skyshard, I stumbled head first into a stealthed VR player and died. No one had any soul gems so I rezzed back at the wayshrine and went back to Auridon.

You know, until ESO I'd never PvP'd, and while I was curious about it I was also very wary, because I was unsure of my skill, unsure of what would be expected of me, and certain that I'd be rubbish at it. So I filed it away as one of those things that I'd probably never do. And now, here I am, having the time of my life in there, feeling greater confidence in knowing that I can help take down people, I can help defend a keep, I can pick off enemies from the ramparts, I can kill someone all on my own, I can be an asset, I can have fun... I love it.

I made myself a coffee at 6pm, right before I settled down to head into Cyrodiil. I looked across at my mug at 11.30pm and realised I'd forgotten all about it because I'd been so absorbed. Unhealthy, no doubt, to get caught up in something for that length of time, but I wouldn't trade that experience


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 13, 2014)

Someone took screenshots - I can spot me on many of them: http://imgur.com/a/vWwTe


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## Epona (Apr 13, 2014)

Honestly when I started playing in beta, I thought I would never do PvP, it just wasn't going to be my sort of thing (mind you when this game was announced, I thought 'meh'  ).  But it's bloody great, even going in solo to stealth/explore you can usually find people to team up with and it's such good fun.

On another note - There are plenty of places where you can download spreadsheet templates to keep a record of your crafting research, however I only have 4Gb RAM and can't have a spreadsheet eating half of that whilst I am playing.  So I set up my own mini-database using NeoMem, it's pretty basic but uses less than 3Mb RAM whilst running so I can easily have it up on another screen without it impacting on game performance.


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## Epona (Apr 13, 2014)

I just found myself in RP with 1 other person and oh god it was painful, I am spectacularly shit at this sort of social stuff  And just me and one other, so no crowd to fade into iykwim. :/  It was like the worst first date you could imagine, multiplied by 100.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 13, 2014)

If you're into the possibility of addons, these might interest you:

Research Assisstant - adds icons next to things in your inventory/bank that tells you whether you've already researched the trait on it or not, and handles multiples of the same trait as well. It's a bit basic, and there's another version that is a bit more detailed but that one looks a bit complicated to me. Both are in an active state of development, so if you don't take the plunge now, maybe bookmark and keep an eye on them.

Sous Chef - keep track of your provisioning ingredients, adding an icon next to them in your inventory/bank that lets you know that you know a recipe related to them, including the provisioning level of that recipe. The icon is faded if another of your characters knows a recipe that uses them. Also adds icons for the recipes themselves as well.

Batman Store Filter - makes searching for materials in a guild store amazingly easier, because it introduces a materials filter that actually does something (unlike ESO's vanilla half-hearted attempt).

SkyShards - a controversial one, but one I'm probably going to get for Cyrodiil at least - adds icons for all shyshards in the game, and updates automatically with ones you've already found. You can customise it to only show certain ones in certain situations, or turn it off altogether via the in-game menu. When I was grouped yesterday in Cyrodiil someone else in the group was using it and directing us to the nearest Skyshard, so I might have well been using it myself. I originally said I wanted to find them on my own, and for non-Cyrodiil ones I still do, but it's handy to have in the background for those that you absolutely cannot find, or, as I say, for ease of use in Cyrodiil at least.

HarvestMap - another controversial one. This one adds icons to your map representing harvesting nodes and chest - BUT the saving grace is that it only adds them once you've discovered them. So you still have to go and explore, but once you have it's the equivalent of you pulling out your map and marking a little X with a grease pencil so you can find it again in the future. When you think of it like that, I reckon it makes a lot of sense.

Wykkid's Full Immersion - I only use this currently for the nice dropdown list of emotes, but it also lets you smart-hide elements like the reticule. It requires that you install...

Wykkid's Framework which has a slew of options. At the moment I have everything turned off apart from the chat background - which is very useful if you use chat a lot. I turn off the loot notification part of it (as well as all the bars etc.) because I use...

LootDrop Continued, which is a godsend if you're using Auto-Loot and consolidate area loot in menu options. Previously, if you did that, there was no way to tell what loot you got. But with this, it adds a little icon that flashes up in the bottom corner whenever you get loot, money, XP, AP. It's very unobtrusive and I can't imagine not using it now. The icons for XP, AP etc are vile in this new version of it, so I made my own. If you start using this and want the new icons let me know.


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## Yata (Apr 13, 2014)

Epona said:


> I just found myself in RP with 1 other person and oh god it was painful, I am spectacularly shit at this sort of social stuff  And just me and one other, so no crowd to fade into iykwim. :/  It was like the worst first date you could imagine, multiplied by 100.


you could always roleplay as whoopi goldberg and say you've just arrived from the future and nothing makes any sense. or a mute/anti social type of character that runs away from social interaction


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## Epona (Apr 13, 2014)

Idiot things that I realised recently despite having done 4 beta sessions and playing almost solidly since early access started:

- when the mobs in an area become non-hostile due to quest completion (eg. Starving Plains undead in EP, or Tanzewil undead in AD), you can still target them and fight them 

- if you have characters on both servers, you get the preorder and IE bonus items ON BOTH SERVERS - if you ever intend to play on the other server (or even if you're not sure), just make a mule character on that server and grab the items from your mail before the mail expires. (This particular tip comes from the 'making damn sure I get my money's worth' aspect of my personality!)


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 14, 2014)

I'm level 17 now. And still in Auridon. Jesus.

I'm going to cast about tomorrow to see if anyone wants to do the Undaunted dungeons with me. PvP was my first confidence hurdle. Private group dungeons are my second. If I leave them any longer I'll not get any xp or loot from them. I'm mostly in it for the loot. And the story, of course!

I'm swimming in skill points, and since I'm not dying or anything and over-levelled I've been putting them into crafting. I decided to pop a couple into provisioning, which I didn't intend to do on this character. But it's just too much of a ball ache to log out and into my dunmer every time I want 5 new liver and lights or whatever.


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## Radar (Apr 14, 2014)

Yata said:


> you could always roleplay as whoopi goldberg and say you've just arrived from the future and nothing makes any sense. or a mute/anti social type of character that runs away from social interaction


I like the idea of roleplaying as an idiot, not that much of a stretch and you should get cut a lot of slack 

Sorta like this






with a touch of Forest Gump for good measure


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

That bridge between the stables and the mill in Daggerfall has now 'killed' me more times than any mob! (due to me falling through it, getting stuck in the architecture, and having to /stuck my way out).  I have taken to running through the river to avoid its evil clutches.


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

Oh Vintage Paw - do you know if that last maintenance sorted out the bank issues?  I could really do with upgrading but am holding off until I know for sure that it isn't going to bite me in the arse!


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 15, 2014)

No, it wasn't solved. There will be a patch tomorrow but it won't be solving it either. They are still working on it, and are hopeful sometime later in the week.


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> No, it wasn't solved. There will be a patch tomorrow but it won't be solving it either. They are still working on it, and are hopeful sometime later in the week.



Thanks, I will hold onto my cash for now!   If you hear that there has been a definite fix, please let us know


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 15, 2014)

Epona said:


> Edit: Ok I'm going to take some screenshots of my characters!


*Ahem*


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> *Ahem*



It's easy to take screenshots, it's an hour putting them up on a hosting site and then posting them here - give me a bit of leeway, I'll get around to it eventually


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

And oh, in the wee hours I phoned BT pretending to be my husband (he won't mind, he left the latest advertisment on my keyboard hoping I would do it) and arranged for Infinity installation.  I did tell them that no-one is touching my computer and I will be installing any software myself and they were fine with that.


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

Oh and I had to turn off ALL THE CHAT yesterday (zone, guild, the entire fucking lot) because I hadn't watched the latest Game of Thrones episode and everyone was talking about it   I pretty much turned all chat off yesterday.

I have now watched it


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 15, 2014)

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/78407/patch-notes-v1-0-3


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 15, 2014)

Bah. Work chat server crashed so I thought I'd knock off early and play, but the server's down for maintenance.


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## Epona (Apr 15, 2014)

Oh fuck, they've nerfed the vendor price of foods.  There goes my main source of income!  Where are the respec shrines?


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 15, 2014)

2nd main area, so the area after Auridon, Stonefalls and Glenumbra.


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## Radar (Apr 16, 2014)

Epona said:


> Oh fuck, they've nerfed the vendor price of foods.  There goes my main source of income!  Where are the respec shrines?


by much ??


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## Epona (Apr 16, 2014)

Radar said:


> by much ??



It's not that bad, from what I can see - lvl 5 foods are now 1g (before they were 2g), lvl 10 and 15 foods are now 2g (down from 3g/4g).  So IMO it's still worth doing provisioning, it was a bit silly previously, I could easily make 1000g a day from it, now I'm down to a few hundred and that seems fair enough.

EDIT: Oh btw yesterday's NA update borked my launcher, I eventually managed to get the patch this morning so can now play again on both servers, but only by by-passing the launcher.  It's a problem with some of the patch servers.

But anyway, as I'm having to bypass the launcher, if anyone hears of new patches over the next few days can they please post here about it so that I know to try the launcher again?  Many thanks


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 17, 2014)

What is the issue you're having? Because there are a handful of fixes out there that might help.

One thing to do is make sure you aren't starting the launcher from a shortcut.

Next, is to delete the bethesda.net_launcher.version file (put it somewhere safe), then reopen the launcher and see if it patches. If all is well, yay. If not, repair. If all is well, yay! If not, put the old .version file back in. If all is well, yay! If not... IDK!

It seems that sometimes the .version files can get corrupted. There have been quite a few launcher problems that people have been able to solve by deleting/replacing them.

You can of course get rid of the launcher altogether and re-download it from the website. It's a small download, since it's not the full client. I think tbh though the only reason that one has worked for some people is because you're also deleting that .version file at the same time, so idk.

---

Spent another evening with the guild in Cyrodiil. I got 6 skill points while I was in there. 1 from increasing in rank, 1 from a level up, and 4 from skyshards and... something else I can't remember. I'm halfway to level 20 now and I'm _still_ in Auridon. I barely have any quests left that are anything other than grey now. Still, I'm enjoying myself


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## Epona (Apr 17, 2014)

Hi Vintage Paw  - thanks for trying to help, you are right there are a number of 'fixes' out there that have 'fixed' it for some people, but the problem is actually down to bad info on some of the servers at various different IP addresses (causing your launcher to look for the wrong patch number), all most of the fixes do is sort it temporarily by deleting that info - once you relaunch the launcher if it connects to a server that isn't working properly you will be back in the 209 bad manifest repair loop (and it's usually random or based on load, so for some people just closing and relaunching the launcher until they get a server with the good patch manifest works).  Only certain way to workaround it is to amend your hosts file to point the launcher to one of the server IPs known to not be borked (the community did good and provided a list of good and bad IP addresses), and I'm loathe to start messing with system files because I'll only forget to set it back to normal afterwards and bork something else.

They'll sort it out eventually. (Edit: I just tried it now and the launcher is back working OK, so it could be that they rolled out the correctly numbered patch manifest to affected servers at some point tonight, I don't think it's the sort of thing that would require any downtime of game servers).


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## Epona (Apr 17, 2014)

Oh did you do the Undaunted dungeon in Auridon yet?  My AD Khajiit is now level 12 and just needs to sort out some new gear.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 17, 2014)

Reaching the second big zone (around L16-17) really starts to make clear how important it is to specialise in only one or two crafting professions. There's no way to juggle bank and bag space to support 'kind of' levelling everything, plus you need to put points into each profession skill tree to be able to make anything with the second-tier materials.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 17, 2014)

I haven't done BC yet, Epona. I want to, though. I'd be up for it. I'd likely be able to find a couple of others from Reddithium to come along. 

I've never done private dungeons like that before (in any game) so I don't really know what to expect. I know I want to follow the story, listen to the dialogue, see all there is to see, and try not to die.

I'm level 19, so I expect I'd have a decent chance 

Once you've done the one in your zone you can use the map to teleport to the other 2 in the other faction areas as well. You get a skill point from each, regardless of your level. I'm not sure whether you get XP and/or loot if you're overlevelled (not sure if the same mechanics apply to private group dungeons as does regular questing), but I'm not especially bothered about that. I just am terribly completionist and want to turn those black icons white, and see all the story I can.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 17, 2014)

You get so many skill points though, Buddy, you can afford to put them into a couple of professions, maybe even 3 if you don't take every single skill in the profession line. For example, with provisioning there's no need to get the hireling (it's shit), and it's best to focus on either food or beverages, rather than both. There's no real need to get keen eye in the others if you're the sort who enjoys exploring rather than relying on spotting materials while you're heading from A-B. The jury's out atm as to the benefit of the hireling in other professions. I've had a few blue improvement materials from my clothier, none from my woodworker (but apparently turpen may be bugged - no one seems to be able to get any other than from deconstructing blue items - I have 2 turpen and something like 15 embroidery right now). The only one that is truly necessary is the line that lets you craft at higher levels, the others are quality of life perks really.

As for bank/bag space, you're right, it's difficult, but there are ways to make tough decisions and keep it manageable. I keep most of the important materials on my character (wary of the bank bug) for woodworking and clothier. Provisioning materials go in the bank, but I'm not bothered about losing those because they are so easy to find again. Iron ingots and jute are in my bank, again if they disappear I'll not miss them. I currently have my runes in my bank, and some nice aspect runes too, which I'm slightly worried about, but they are for a different character and I'm avoiding logging into any of my other characters right now because that always seems to be a commonality amongst those who lose their bank slots (that's not to say it's definitely related, but until it's fixed I'm avoiding potential high risk activities - it could still happen to me though, of course).

I think there are ways and means to make multiple professions work, you just have to be very efficient, only hold onto what you know you're absolutely going to be using in the near future, and be prepared to spend time hunting and gathering for the other stuff when you need it. Making frequent trips back to town to deconstruct and sell gear and bank (currently low risk) materials helps as well, rather than thinking that you can keep questing for hours without having your bag fill up. I had to destroy an absolute ton of stuff from Cyrodiil last night because my inventory is at a permanent 40 slots full with the various mats I'm storing on me, and a few items I'm waiting to learn the traits on. That gives me another 40 slots to fill with loot drops, which fills up in an hour of PvE questing in Cyrodiil (heck, you can fill that in one dungeon).

I'm saving up to get my 90 bag slots on this character. I don't generally repair my armour, I just make new ones. It saves money. But I have a handful of really nice pieces at the moment, and since I'm level 19 still stuck in Auridon I don't have access to higher tier materials yet so I haven't bothered putting skill points into unlocking the next tier in crafting... I'll save that for when I can actually use them. So I replace the gear that is easily replaceable, and then I pay to repair the 2 or 3 nice items (remove the broken stuff from your inventory or the price will be to repair all of that as well). I sent about 50k AP on random armour from the AP vendor in Cyrodiil last night and ended up only keeping a couple of pieces. They were all blue, and I deconstructed what I didn't like/need. I have just under 6k in gold atm, and really need to focus on some questing today to get more for that bag upgrade.


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## Epona (Apr 17, 2014)

I haven't really made a decision about crafting yet - on one character I put points into provisioning to get more portions just to make some cash, and I'm doing research on clothier/smith/woodwork with all 3 characters as research is really the thing that takes most investment of time (it's not difficult to level up the crafts themselves if I decide to specialise later).  I thought I'd wait until I got into the higher level materials and see how to divide it up at that point, probably based on who has researched what.

I'm not feeling the love when it comes to alchemy tbh, I don't use potions that much anyway as the system on Q is so bloody fiddly to use, it's not as though you can easily change potions mid-fight.  I'm doing it to get the level up just in case poisons gets implemented at any point but not really using it.  Enchanting is very useful but so much stuff to store whilst you're looking for that elusive aspect rune!  I made a mule just to hold all the other runes I have.  I'm going to be jumping for joy when the bank slot bug gets sorted, before it was known I had already upgraded considerably and now I get a slightly sick feeling every time I look at my bank wondering if my slots are all still there, just at the moment storing the more important stuff on mule alts rather than putting it at risk.


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## Epona (Apr 17, 2014)

My lvl 12 character just managed a lvl 11 dark fissure solo.  The thing opened up and there was another player coming up the road towards me and I thought they'd probably help (I would!) so I attacked the first wave - cowardly git just got on a horse and sprinted off leaving me to deal with it on my tod.

Managed it though, feeling quite pleased with myself atm (and maybe I'm not quite as useless as I thought  )

Oh and Vintage Paw if you want to tackle that dungeon I would love to group up to do so if you have a couple of others as well that's great (I'm NB using a bow), pretty much any time over the Easter weekend is good for me, just let me know   Think I might be a bit low for it as I'm only lvl 12 and I've heard they're quite hard so will try to gain a bit more xp beforehand


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2014)

I made it to level 20 without really trying , and I bought my next bag upgrade so I have 90 on this character now. That'll take the pressure off a little bit. I also learned you can't research 2 traits on the same type of item at the same time. I can research 2 things at once, but I tried to research 2 different traits on pauldrons and it wouldn't let me. Grr.

I played for a few hours this evening and spent most of it talking to people via whispers or in guild chat.

Incidentally, a couple of new people joined our silly little Urban guild. I know them from flickr, husband and wife, they're lovely people - from Portugal I think (don't quote me on that though!). They are WoW vets, and feel like ESO is their new long term home. They only got the game yesterday (they'd ordered it earlier but their retailer took ages getting it to them). They have characters in EP and AD. They seem like they'd be up for doing things together, so eventually maybe we'd all be able to head off skyshard hunting and dungeon delving in Cyrodiil or something 

Epona, sounds good about the dungeon. I'm NB with a bow too, so we'll need a tank and a healer. I'm sure I'll be able to find someone. If you let me know when you're free to do it we can group up and I'll start the awkward process of trying to find 2 more 

Now, we have a mumble server in the reddit guild. It has different channels for different things. It has a couple of PvE group channels, and people often jump into them when they're doing a dungeon so everyone can stay coordinated. If I'm getting the other 2 from Reddithium they'll likely want to use it (unless they are members who haven't set mumble up yet). I don't know what your view on voice comms is - I've found it really useful in Cyrodiil (although my mic seems temperamental). Now, I don't know what the line is on inviting people who aren't part of the guild to use it. However, I'm reasonably certain we are allowed to invite people who aren't members of reddit to the guild if they are our friends and we vouch for them - which would of course grant you immediate access to the mumble server.

The choice is yours though. I can explain in chat that it'll be with someone outside of Reddithium so no mumble if you'd rather. I'm good either way


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2014)

Very short snippet of us all piling on a massive daedra boss in Cyrodiil. Basically a raid, I suppose. It took forever to take down. There was very little strategy involved - just hit it to death in a massive spam attack.



(That's me, on the right nearest the camera in the still ^^ )


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2014)

Right.

If you have any milestones you're planning or any marathons of playing on the cards for the next day or so, hold fire.

There's a rather large exploit. It's been going on for some time, apparently, but it's only just getting a lot of attention.

Item and gold duping. Using the guild bank and lag players are able to duplicate any item and amount of gold to their heart's content. It's flooding the economy, it's being sold online, etc. There's a twitch streamer streaming himself duping stacks of 100 filled grand soul gems to sell for 3k gold a stack right now (presumably to draw attention to it - which it is doing).

So, I don't know about the implications of this sort of thing. I don't know whether it's a simple "bring down the guild store function until it's fixed and ban those who did it" thing, or - as many people are suggesting _should_ happen - a case of everything being rolled back, which is the only way to take that money and those items out of the economy (since the items are also used for crafting, they are being sold in guild stores, etc.). How far that rollback would be is anyone's guess.

Or, it could be something in between. With only accounts that are suspected to meet certain suspicious criteria to be rolled back, known dupers banned, and the rest of us trying to carry on as we were.

Anyway, nothing might happen. Something might happen. But if you have plans for investing a great deal of time in a character in the very near future I'd hold off and just do some fun exploring or mindless killing in Cyrodiil or something for a while, just in case - whether that's a slim chance or not - they do indeed rollback. Unless you don't mind the idea of redoing a bunch of stuff. I kind of don't mind that, but I'm aware I might be in the minority there.

And I'd suggest monitoring the forums for anything that might come up about it too.

Edit: I should say that since I don't have experience with this sort of thing in other games and I haven't been involved in 'the economy' in them either, it's the sort of thing that mildly irritates me because some people are cheating the system, but overall doesn't have an impact on how I experience the game. I know that's not the case for everyone, and particularly in this instance where ZOS stated that a strong player based economy was a central part of their vision, so I really have no idea how big of a deal it is, or isn't.

Because of my inexperience and my lack of personally being affected (beyond annoyance at the sense of injustice) my initial hunch is that they won't do anything other than try to patch it and let it all just die down, maybe banning those they can identify as being really naughty with it. But I really have no idea, so I posted this just to let you know it was happening, on the off chance it means some kind of rollback (of a day, a few days, whatever) in case you don't want to risk losing progress.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2014)

Guild banks have gone offline. I'll keep you posted tomorrow if I find out more, unless you do first, of course.


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## Epona (Apr 18, 2014)

Blimey sometimes I really can be a bit dense about working out certain boss battle mechanics.
Just had a hell of a time with my DC character vs. Faolchu, died loads and eventually left having decided to come back later.
A few seconds with google has explained the mechanic to me 


Edit: thanks for the heads up VP, saw something about this on the official forum a couple of hours ago but didn't know what the problem was because anyone saying what the problem was had their posts deleted  so I didn't actually know what was going on.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 18, 2014)

EU server is down at the moment too, according to @TESOnline on Twitter.

I'm levelling a healer on DC as well as my NB now, because I want to see what healing is like in dungeons.


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## Epona (Apr 18, 2014)

This time Friday morning is part of regular scheduled maintenance on the EU server is it not?




			
				Zenimax server maintenance said:
			
		

> North American Megaserver
> Tuesdays at 8:00am EDT (12pm GMT)
> Fridays at 8:00am EDT (12pm GMT)
> 
> ...


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 18, 2014)

Epona said:


> This time Friday morning is part of regular scheduled maintenance on the EU server is it not?


No idea.


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## Epona (Apr 18, 2014)

Patch notes - short and sweet, very very sweet:

Patch Notes v1.0.4
ZOS_GinaBruno Administrator, Moderator admin
April 17 edited 4:56AM in Patch Notes
DEUTSCHE PATCHNOTIZEN
NOTES DE VERSION 1.0.3


OVERVIEW

The Elder Scrolls Online v1.0.4 features fixes to existing content. This is the second patch this week, and addresses the high priority fix of missing bank slots, stored bank items, and missing skill points. We’re continuing to work hard on other issues, and will let you know when they are fixed.

FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS

Miscellaneous
General
Fixed an issue where your characters could lose bank expansions you purchased, including the items in these slots.
Note: This will not return any items or slots lost prior to this fix. If your character was affected, please contact Customer Support.
Addressed an issue with guild invites that could cause latency with social systems such as guild chat, player-to-player chat, and long loading times.

UI
General
Changed the functionality of auto-stacking in guild banks. You will now have to stack items in your inventory before placing them in the guild bank.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 18, 2014)

Just been reading up on this duping bug on Reddit - lots of very worried people over there, talking about rollbacks, server wipes, widescale item cleanup, even alternative currencies. 

It would be nice to see ESO evolve into a true sandbox game along the lines of EVE, where virtually everything is determined by the players and there's no option for the company running things to screw stuff up like this.


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## Epona (Apr 18, 2014)

I am so completely paranoid about scammers at this point that I practically had a panic attack buying a motif book off someone.  I got the book, the person I was buying it from got the g, I am just being completely paranoid worrying about this sort of transaction aren't I?  It was done through trade in person, not using mail.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2014)

How do you trade face-to-face with someone? Is there an option for it on the F-wheel?

I really like the idea of people meeting up in person in the game to trade.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2014)

Go easy on the bank slots. Reports coming in that people are still losing them post-patch.


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## Epona (Apr 18, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> How do you trade face-to-face with someone? Is there an option for it on the F-wheel?
> 
> I really like the idea of people meeting up in person in the game to trade.



Yep hold F while targeting and select trade - it's a good feature.  I bought the motif from someone who was using /say in a crafting area, replied, they then invited me to group so it's easier to see each other in the crowd because of the group markers, then we opened a trade window and did the trade in person (had a chat too), best thing is no fees for personal trades.  Edit: only real gripe is that there's no specific chat channel for trading, so sometimes /say gets a bit clogged up around crafting stations.



Vintage Paw said:


> Go easy on the bank slots. Reports coming in that people are still losing them post-patch.



Oh FFS!  Need more bank slots!  Have cash to buy them!  Thanks for the warning


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## Epona (Apr 18, 2014)

Actually although it's early days yet, I could imagine that eventually there will be some unofficial markets set up, go to a certain place in a city if you are looking to buy or sell goods.  I am not aware of any player-designated places for this at the moment, but I could see it happening and that will be a good development.  I am starting to see the potential of the trade system tbh despite being a critic during beta, as it has potential to be a very social and face to face experience.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 19, 2014)

I did a good deed today. I was right at the very end of Auridon, doing the Firsthold quests. And there's a poor lonely level 8 character wondering why they keep dying to level 15 dremora 

So I helped them get through the part of the quest they were on, and we got talking. Today was their first day, and they didn't really know what they were doing. They'd abandoned Khenarthi's Roost because of that weirdness that happens with quest markers right at the beginning - they tell you to keep going in and out of Eagle's Strand. I remember that boggled me a bit when I first encountered it. They thought it was bugged so went back to Auridon, and had just been following quests there. How they made it as far as Firsthold I don't know. So I talked them through some stuff, we made friends, and they've gone back to KR. I hope I managed to make their first day a bit less stressful


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## Epona (Apr 19, 2014)

Good on you   I was in beta since January, and that bloody thing in Kenarthi's Roost with the quest marker pointing you out of one gate then back in it (I reported it several times) still floored me when I started new AD characters!  And that is coming from someone who wanders a lot and doesn't really rely on quest markers as such, so god only knows the sort of confusion it must cause to some people being pointed one way then another.  Glad you were able to help out


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## Epona (Apr 19, 2014)

The duplication glitch has hit me, but not in an expected way - right before it hit the headlines I listed a motif book in one of the guild stores on the NA server, then the bottom dropped out of the market and my item is now priced way too high.  To remove it from sale (or relist it at a lower price), it seems I have to pay the listings fee for the original price I put up.

I hope I am wrong about this, if not I just got burned trying to use a guild store (not through any fault of the guild).  Think I might stick to private sales from now on.


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## Epona (Apr 19, 2014)

While I was playing this morning, I somehow managed to turn on Windows Narrator accessibility feature - it completely freaked me out, theres suddenly a robotic voice telling me which keys I am pressing :/
Tbh it doesn't seem like it would be that great for blind folks anyway, there was a fair bit of delay between hitting a key and hearing the voice, and sometimes I couldn't really make out what it was saying anyway.
How I managed to turn it on whilst gaming is another thing entirely, and I don't quite know tbh.  It did cause a bit of consternation though.  Some relief though to realise it was a feature of Windows and not imaginary voice in my head - it's always a fairly good feeling to realise that.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 19, 2014)

Epona said:


> I listed a motif book in one of the guild stores on the NA server, then the bottom dropped out of the market and my item is now priced way too high.  To remove it from sale (or relist it at a lower price), it seems I have to pay the listings fee for the original price I put up.


Clearly it's telling you that you should be donating all your motif books to your Urbanite guildmates first...


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## Epona (Apr 19, 2014)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Clearly it's telling you that you should be donating all your motif books to your Urbanite guildmates first...



Aye and if I were talking about the EU server of course I would have offered them to you lot first, but if any of you are on the NA server as well you haven't told me that you're there, and I can't mail stuff from one server to the other   I already gave away 3 motif books on the NA server, so don't question my generosity   Rather question the fact that on NA I have found 20+ assorted motif books, and only 8 on EU.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 19, 2014)

You're doing better than me, I've only ever found one


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 19, 2014)

With that in mind, I have an orc motif if anyone needs it. It's sat in my bank gathering dust.

Can you send mail to people with attachments from your bank or does it have to be from inventory? I have a feeling it's the latter.


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## Radar (Apr 19, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> With that in mind, I have an orc motif if anyone needs it. It's sat in my bank gathering dust.
> 
> Can you send mail to people with attachments from your bank or does it have to be from inventory? I have a feeling it's the latter.


I'd generously free your bank slot up, I've only found one motif so far 



Spoiler



@sdunne


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## Epona (Apr 19, 2014)

Radar said:


> I'd generously free your bank slot up, I've only found one motif so far
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Best places to find them are in chests/trunks, dressers, and cabinets, so keep checking high class homes and manors.  For example, the bank in Vukhels Guard in Auridon has a load of dressers and cabinets and will occasionally offer up a motif book if you go through all the containers every time you log on.


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## Epona (Apr 20, 2014)

I'm getting fibre optic connection on Friday, quite excited   Of course it will probably mean that I am offline for a few hours


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## Epona (Apr 20, 2014)

Oh god - in Stonefalls (EP) and on the quest to help Bala find her dead lover.
Is there actually any good outcome possible?



Spoiler



On a previous character, I told Bala the truth that she had been deceived which seems like the right thing for a good aligned character (LG in D&D terms) even if it will hurt her in the short term, and later came across her dead body because she'd killed herself and her ghost, eternally stuck on this realm because she couldn't let go, it's quite horrible   

I mean on the other hand, I want to give her a good talking to and tell her not to get so hung up on a bloke that it ruins your eternal happiness, but still....


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 21, 2014)

Would you look at that, the patch today updated the version number to what it should be!

I feel like this is a breakthrough, people. Not having the correct version number was, like, totally game-breaking.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 23, 2014)

Ermahgerd. Someone fiddled with SweetFX 1.5 to get it to work in ESO without the need for RadeonPro (as had been the case previously).

All my game time is now being spent creating a preset for it ^^


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## Awesome Wells (Apr 23, 2014)

I'm seeing a lot of negativity toward this; is it justified?


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 23, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> I'm seeing a lot of negativity toward this; is it justified?



I don't think so, but it depends on your outlook really.

Many of the negative articles I've read tend to get many things outright wrong. Not just 'difference of opinion' wrong, but 'might as well be completely lying' wrong. At the same time, there's no denying there have been problems. 

There was a bank bug, which meant that a small number of people lots any bank upgrades they had purchased. It took them a while to fix it (by a while I mean 2 weeks - 2 weeks at the launch of an MMO is, I'm learning, the equivalent to infinityx12 to many people). There are many, many gold farming bots who will ruin your day when you're trying to get credit for killing a dungeon boss - could that not be spun as the sign of a successful MMO launch though? We could spin it many ways. There have been 2 duping exploits so far, both have been fixed. According to some, they have broken the game beyond recognition and it will never come back from it and the sky fell and killed everyone along the way. Neither dupe has altered the game in any way whatsoever for me. There are some quests that seem to break rather easily, with NPCs not spawning correctly or failing to let you interact with them when you need to. This is the biggest problem, imo. Some can be fixed by simply relogging, because you'll likely be put in a different 'phase' when you return, where the quest won't be bugged. But some don't seem to be fixed that easily, and require intervention from the devs. Again, 2 weeks is literally the longest time ever, and so not all of them have been fixed yet (although many have) and there are still some people who are having problems progressing from one area to another. Load times can be long when entering Cyrodiil, although I hear that lowering your graphics before entering can help that. I've only had problems getting into Cyrodiil when I was already in a large group. Alt+F4 and a relog solved it.

The people who are getting on with playing the game pretty much all love the game. There are some annoyances, but it's the minority who are encountering them. It's a strange old thing though. It seems to have spawned the kind of community buzz around it whereby everything is blown out of all proportion (fancy that), but what is happening is that because of the sheer scale of the game (and it is huge), reviewers aren't able to experience it all before they write their review and they're falling back on what they've read on forums and the various controversies on them in order to inform their opinion in their reviews. Personally,I think that's really fucked up - but it's easy to spot that it's happening. I spend a lot of time browsing the eso subreddit, which due to its nature references a lot of what happens on other forums and websites as well. What so many people get up in arms about is stuff I've almost never experienced myself - and neither have the majority of people I speak to in game either, and certainly not in the massive game breaking doom the end of the world is nigh this game will fail in a month kind of way. But those things end up informing large parts of some of these negative reviews. It's very peculiar.

I'd expect if you've been reading about the game, it's difficult to go in without any preformed ideas and expectations. But I'd suggest doing just that, if you were to buy the game. I love it. Questing is about as good as I can imagine it being in an MMO without them spending 10 times as more than they did. They've put a lot of effort into the stories - and I'd go as far as to say they are richer and have more depth than your average TES story quest. You never do anything for no reason. And when you are on quests, there will be notes, books, NPCs to talk to, all giving you as much backstory and lore as you could ever desire. All of that is optional of course, if you don't give a shit about that sort of thing. You can race to 50 (which, actually, is only the first 1/3 of the PvE side of the game) and do little exploration and have a great time. Or you can slow the fuck down, explore every inch of coast and forest and lava field and rocky outcrop, read every book, hunt every skyshard and lorebook, kill every enemy, delve every dungeon, gather each achievement, gather materials for crafting... and just enjoy the journey. You can go into Cyrodiil (PvP) and join a large group and go and help bring down an enemy army and take their keeps, or defend your own. Or you can sneak off alone, deep into enemy territory, and scout out their resources, find random dungeons where you have to kill the NPCs while being mindful of enemy players you might encounter doing the same, you can camp out in quest hub villages and snipe enemy players as they unwittingly stumble along, you can join up with a smaller group and go skyshard hunting or sneakily stalk the enemy as they resupply fresh troops to a nearby siege, ganking them and hampering their war effort. You can do it all in the same night if you want.

I'm smitten by the game. There are problems, but aren't there always? I'd recommend if you get the game that you spend more time playing it than you do worrying about how other people play it.


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## Epona (Apr 23, 2014)

Pretty much what Vintage Paw said. 

A few initial problems that as per usual on the internet get blown out of all proportion by a vocal few (not saying that there aren't some small annoyances in terms of bugs and phasing glitches and bots camping but it's early days), whilst the rest of us just get on and enjoy the game.

Absolutely love the quests, they are in a lot of ways at least as good and in many cases better than TES quests, they all have a story and a purpose that fits together and are quite varied (and there are bloody tons of them).  They've done a great job with lore and story.  Much of the voice acting is great, the graphics and effects are great if you can run it on a high setting, the combat is fun and there are some really challenging moments.  Exploration is just lovely, plenty to see, plenty of stuff to collect, and you never know what you might run into around the corner so there's a sense of danger if you're exploring somewhere new or above your level.  Crafting is great.  PvP has plenty to do.

Not sure what else to say really, I absolutely love the game, worth every penny.


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## Awesome Wells (Apr 23, 2014)

Why on earth do you think I'm worried about it? 

Other than the premium content nonsense, which is a joke.


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## Epona (Apr 25, 2014)

My interwebs is back!  Quick and painless install 

I just had the most awesome time - I was waiting for a world boss to spawn and there were a couple of other characters there RPing, I joined in and traveled with them for a while hunting monsters in Glenumbra.  SO glad to see that I haven't completely lost my RP mojo after all, that gave me a lot of confidence about joining in more  

(Actually I've seen a lot of random role-play going on over the last couple of days on the EU server)


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## Epona (Apr 25, 2014)

Just had a conversation with some guildmates in a trading guild on the US server, apparently NB with resto staff is the way to go (if you are playing NB that is) - heavy attacks with the staff refill some of your magicka so you can keep going with soul shred to heal as well as getting some healing (and healing allies) with the resto staff skills.  Sounds like win/win to me, I am nearly at lvl 15 with one of my NBs so will try it out as 2nd weapon and see how it goes.

(Edit: I am not playing at the moment because I have become fascinated with the fact that I can download a TV show in the time it takes me to get a beer from the fridge)


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 25, 2014)

I have a restoration staff that I've been using in PvP to fill in the gaps. Tbh though I'm just really happy with the bow so I've not really been thinking too hard about a 2nd weapon. It seems NB can make great healers or tanks, but can be seen as a little bit mediocre for what you'd actually expect them to be - rogues. Most of their skills and passives aren't working as intended at the moment, so I'd expect little fixes and buffs to them over time.

I also expect vampire to be nerfed at some point. They are untouchable in PvP (yes, even with fighter's guild abilities). There's some footage somewhere of a vampire empress who lasted, alone, in the midst of an almost endless supply of enemy players, and her health barely moved an inch. They eventually got her down, but it was 50v1, actually probably more in total.

I'm not too bothered about specific builds really. I just want to play in a way that feels satisfying.


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## Epona (Apr 25, 2014)

Yep I agree, just having fun playing is the most important part   However as I do a lot solo (and am still a bit crap - less crap than I was, but even so... the tortoise I had as a kid had faster reactions than I do!) survivability is a big thing for me with any character.

I am finding that my supposed rogue dps build is doing far less punch than I'd like, it's not so much glass cannon as glass bb gun, and my CC is non-existant (which is why I sneak a lot).  You know that moment when you think 'I might be doing this wrong'.   So I'm pleased (in some way, at least!) to hear that some of the skills actually aren't working, hopefully that will be fixed soon!  Otherwise I might just slap on a full suit of heavy armour (which is the way I was leaning during beta) with magicka and stamina enchants.  As it happens, I am due for some new armour so might give that a go for a while.

And yes I have heard some horrifying stories about vampires taking out entire armies solo, I imagine that will be 're-balanced' at some point because it sounds extremely OP at the moment.

Edit: Oh I finally managed to beat Faolchu with my DC character, the first time I tried it there were no fire animations appearing, if that happens that fight is in the range from difficult to impossible.  I retried it and this time the fire animations happened and it was a piece of piss.  I suffer from the low fps and rendering issues plaguing high-end nVidia users  hopefully it will be fixed soon, or gfx drivers will be released that will help sort out the issue.  (I also failed the 'run around the island' quest off the coast of Auridon several times because the glow effect that you have to run towards was taking too long to show up)


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## Epona (Apr 26, 2014)

Tip - do not leave your non-ESO-or-any-other-RPG-playing OH/partner/spouse in charge of your character in a public dungeon while you spend 30 seconds in the kitchen turning sausages in the pan.
Left my poor character in a (relatively) safe spot, telling OH to keep an eye on her and call me if anything started happening.  Came back to find utter mayhem because my character had "somehow"  fallen off the scaffold and ended up in the middle of a major battle, low health and screen flashing red, OH frantically scrolling the mouse wheel to (in his words) "find a better weapon" (he plays a lot of FPS games where that is a common keybinding for switching through all available weapons.  I did ask him whether he managed to find the rocket launcher  )

Love him dearly, but next time he is going to the kitchen to turn the sausages.


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## Epona (Apr 28, 2014)

Late Sat night/early Sun morning I did a guild skyshard hunt/Cyrodil PvE questing on the NA server.
It was a bit epic and memorable and great fun.
We picked a low population campaign because our aim was PvE, but I still feel sorry for the poor player from another alliance who was solo sneaking up to one cave entrance as I came out of the cave.  I think s/he'd been trying to sneak behind the bulk of our group as they were engaged with hostile NPCs outside the cave, but I was coming out of the cave a bit behind most of them as I'd got bugged and had to relog - we met at the cave entrance with another 2 from our group (who had waited for me to relog and assist the way out of the cave while the others cleared the entrance - at lvl 15 I was the lowest level character in the group!) behind me, I could hear a distant "oh shit" uttered from across the Atlantic... poor sod.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Apr 28, 2014)

I was intrested to see the  negative reviews.   just  saw  angry joes  one  in which  he  says  it's  got a lot of  problems   especially  in how  it instances  groups.



note:  he doesn't  say it's  terrible  just  painfully  average overall  and  a big disappointment   when compared to skyrim  especially  given the price point   and   very odd mechanics.


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## Epona (Apr 28, 2014)

To be fair, Angry Joe has usually been and usually always will be a complete tit.  I much preferred the "Zero Punctuation" bad review, at least it was funny.


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## Epona (Apr 28, 2014)

Loving the bank/mule alt character names that I am seeing around banks.  Argonians seem to be popular for some reason.  "Holds-Several-Items" became an instant favourite of mine when I saw him at the bank, rummaging in his backpack. (I admit to being a bit pissed off that I didn't think of it first!)


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 29, 2014)

Sorry I've gone a bit quiet on the ESO front - I got back into EVE Online last week, so that's been taking up all my spare time, especially as ESO seemed to be fighting with bugs and bots, I thought I'd leave it for a while and let it settle down.


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## Vintage Paw (Apr 29, 2014)

That's fair enough. I had a few days of radio silence too. I seem to like the game more when I don't spend all day/night playing it. 

And I'm fighting an internal battle with the ridiculous part of me that wants to embark on a complete reinstall of Skyrim and all the mods. No. I will not do it!


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## Epona (Apr 30, 2014)

I've been setting myself to appear offline when I'm questing, so it probably doesn't look as though I've been around much - just because I'm questing doesn't mean I won't join in with our little guild chat if there's any going on, just that one of the guilds I belong to is quite zealous about organising me into doing things, went through a couple of days when I couldn't get much done, they'd be assigning me to a group the second I logged on - that's fine some of the time and they are a nice bunch, but I also need some time to myself   Also I turned off the EU RP guild chat because over the last week, they spoiled the main plot for me, AND Game of Thrones before I'd had a chance to see it!


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## Vintage Paw (May 1, 2014)

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/24h8dv/welcome_to_the_zos_aua/

An AMA on reddit with the development team atm.

True fullscreen is coming in the big content patch 1.1.

They are introducing a Guild Kiosk system. In major cities there will be a kiosk. Guilds 'bid' for it, and the highest bidder gets to set up shop there for a week, and anyone in that city can access that guild store. I think that's an absolutely great idea. I'm not certain that the PvP keep guild store system has been used at all, to be honest. Everyone can get what they need by playing the game, and when you're in Cyrodiil you are generally killing things or exploring - I haven't heard of a single person heading to a keep specifically to look at the guild store. That's not to say it doesn't happen if you are in a particular keep, but I get the feeling it's a feature that isn't working quite as well as they perhaps intended. But, it's still early days.

Armour dyes!!!!!!! Very happy 

I asked about when they plan to move the EU server. Matt Frior said they are waiting until they've got goldselling bots under control with a reliable method of keeping them at bay, as well as properly sorting out issues with server load, lag, etc. Once that's all settled down, they'll be looking at moving it, but he said they're reassessing it constantly.

Lots of interesting things ahead.


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## Vintage Paw (May 1, 2014)

OMG.

Someone asked if we will get guar mounts.

THEY SAID YES.


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## Epona (May 2, 2014)

All sounds like good news!  Thanks for posting the info   To be fair, over the last few days they have been going nuts on bots, with in-game gamemasters taking reports of bots via /tell and insta-killing them with an unresistable magic blast - in the last couple of days I've been through a few dungeons and sometimes found myself fighting the boss alone - getting the cleared achievement and loot first try is a nice change!

I wish I could work out why I find some boss fights so much harder than others.  I just finished up the Auridon faction quest at level 16 (I still have some side quests in the zone to do) first try, without breaking into a sweat, the fight at the end was a piece of piss.  Glenumbra with another character (pretty much the same spec and abilities) I died 5 times to the boss fight at the end of the zone at level 18 and STILL haven't managed to beat the bloody thing.  There is obviously something that just doesn't click in my brain about certain boss mechanics.

EDIT: Hopefully true fullscreen will sort out a lot of performance issues.  I hope.  I am lucky if I get 20fps in some areas.


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## Epona (May 2, 2014)

I did it, I finally beat the boss in Glenumbra!  I think I have worked out what my issue is, for years I have been playing RPGs where typically "ignore the summons, take down the summoner" is a good tactic, and I am very well trained in that mindset.  It just doesn't work in this game.  Hence why the bosses I have had most problem with are ones that summon a load of nasty shit - Norion in AD, and Angof in DC, as they both summon things.
Have now learned that summons will kill you and typically the summoner does little damage to you personally, concentrate on the summons, hit the boss between waves.  Long battles, but what I was doing wrong was trying to take down the summoner quickly.

Have now been successful ("rejoice, rejoice"  ), first order of business in the next zone is to find myself some mats so I can make higher level gear!


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## Epona (May 3, 2014)

I have come to the conclusion that Dark Anchors, open world bosses, and public dungeons can either be completely awesome or just meaningless mayhem, entirely dependent upon how many people are there and their level.  Realised I had missed a DA in the north of Auridon so before I moved on I naturally wanted to do that, and found myself there with 2 other people at around the same level, the 'right' level for the Anchor.  It was an absolutely brilliant fight, we all got a look in on destroying the pinions, as a NB I sometimes had to take action to avoid aggro (including use of the "Brave Sir Robin" tactic - ie. sprint like fuck), it was really quite a tactical and challenging battle involving 3 strangers flung together and co-operating well on the fly.  I got a shit load of loot too.
When it works like that, it absolutely shines.


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## Buddy Bradley (May 3, 2014)

Epona said:


> I think I have worked out what my issue is, for years I have been playing RPGs where typically "ignore the summons, take down the summoner" is a good tactic, and I am very well trained in that mindset.  It just doesn't work in this game.


Indeed - in most MMO boss fights, you always take down the adds when they spawn, then go back to the boss.


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## Epona (May 4, 2014)

Love the fact that same-sex relationships have pretty much become 'normalised' (iykwim) in RPGs over the last few years.
I've done a few quests now where the objective has been to rescue or help the quest-giver's same-sex spouse, liking the way that it passes without comment in-game, which is just as it should be.


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## Bernie Gunther (May 4, 2014)

Have any of you been eaten by bats yet?


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## Vintage Paw (May 5, 2014)

Not yet. I haven't been in Cyrodiil for a while. They're looking into it.


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## Epona (May 5, 2014)

Right I am trying to get rid off stuff I don't need.
Giving this stuff away free on EU server.
Argonian motif book
Shadows Embrace medium armour chest piece - I have 2 of these, 1 level 16 and 1 level 17, unused so no problem to give to another player.


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## Epona (May 5, 2014)

Oh also on the NA server I just blasted through Fungal Grotto/Banished Cells/Spindleclutch with some guildmembers, it was great fun, if anyone still has to do these on the EU server we could get together and have a bash at it perhaps?


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## Radar (May 8, 2014)

Epona said:


> Right I am trying to get rid off stuff I don't need.
> Giving this stuff away free on EU server.
> Argonian motif book
> Shadows Embrace medium armour chest piece - I have 2 of these, 1 level 16 and 1 level 17, unused so no problem to give to another player.


I wouldn't mind the Argonian motif book if that's okay (id sdunne). 

If you mean the Embrace of Shadows (i.e. the chest from the Shrouded Armour set) then I'm good thanks, got drops of the other 3 pieces so my NB archer already has the full set bonus until he grows out of it on the next ding.


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## Epona (May 8, 2014)

Radar said:


> I wouldn't mind the Argonian motif book if that's okay (id sdunne).
> 
> If you mean the Embrace of Shadows (i.e. the chest from the Shrouded Armour set) then I'm good thanks, got drops of the other 3 pieces so my NB archer already has the full set bonus until he grows out of it on the next ding.



Cool, I still have the motif - PM me your username or character name so I can send it to you.


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## Bernie Gunther (May 8, 2014)

Tempted to play if only to create an Argonian called 'Worries David Icke'


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## Epona (May 10, 2014)

I hope there are going to be some fixes for bugged Nightblade skills in the next patch.  I have put aside my NBs for the time being, and created a sword & board DK in heavy armour - pretty much steamrollering over everything I found difficult with NB.


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## Epona (May 13, 2014)

Is anyone else still playing? 

I'm really loving my DK tank/dps build (Sword & Board + 2-Handed).  A few issues with forced soloing of certain MQ/NPC Guild bosses because I have little ranged capability, I'm currently working on getting bow levelled up a bit so that I can switch to it when kiting something solo may be of benefit! (Had trouble with Doshia for the first time in ages because it's just more difficult to get the healing bubbles with a pure melee build).  It's taking me a little time to get used to the fact that when there are a few people hanging around near an open world boss or dark anchor that everone's waiting for me to start the fight, I'm more used to sneaking in the background until someone else has got the attention of the mobs then sniping/flanking.  I'll get used to it though, and it's fun


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## Buddy Bradley (May 14, 2014)

Epona said:


> Is anyone else still playing?


Very occasionally - still playing a lot of EVE Online instead.

The most annoying thing about ESO is still the vast numbers of people all doing the same thing wherever you go - it's silly to find 30 people all putting out the same three fires or rescuing the same five injured priests. I thought it might have stopped being such an issue after the first couple of weeks.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jul 11, 2014)

Epona said:


> Is anyone else still playing?


Are you still playing? I think I've opened the actual game once in the last two months, and played about fifteen minutes or so. It's just not gripping me. I should probably cancel my subscription...


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 11, 2014)

I played for a month and stopped, although I still have my sub going I think (well, I didn't cancel it so I assume it's still going). I keep meaning to go back. I like what I heard from this month's 'the road ahead' and about update 3. I probably will go back to it once that hits the ground (it's starting to roll out on the pts I think), and will likely start over with a new character (I have a hard time picking up where I left off). Seems like they might have nerfed dragonknights a bit too much, they're still looking at balancing templars, and are on a long-term project of bringing nightblades up to spec. I don't know if they've dealt with the evil sorcerer vampire bat swarm of doom problem or not - I've barely looked at reddit or any other news.

I really liked it, but I did find that when I got past Auridon and to the next area I felt a bit overwhelmed. I think if I had a person to play with it'd be a bit better, but I'd start to feel stressed and under quite a bit of pressure to play the way they like to play - whereas I'm quite a dawdly, meandering player, I can backtrack over the same area countless times just for the heck of it rather than having a goal in mind and trying to get X amount done.

Another thing that made me feel overwhelmed was I let myself get sucked in with the idea of ideal builds again. I told myself not to, but I always end up thinking, "what should I take next? What should my 2nd weapon be? What if I don't like it? Should I be doing something different? Am I going to be ineffective? ARRGGGHHHHHH!" which is ridiculous but I can't seem to shift it. I never wanted to become a vamp/werewolf so some of the most interesting sounding builds were never going to quite fit with how I wanted to play. When the next update drops I might spend some time looking at various builds and see if I can't find something I like.


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## Epona (Jul 12, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I played for a month and stopped, although I still have my sub going I think (well, I didn't cancel it so I assume it's still going). I keep meaning to go back. I like what I heard from this month's 'the road ahead' and about update 3. I probably will go back to it once that hits the ground (it's starting to roll out on the pts I think), and will likely start over with a new character (I have a hard time picking up where I left off). Seems like they might have nerfed dragonknights a bit too much, they're still looking at balancing templars, and are on a long-term project of bringing nightblades up to spec. I don't know if they've dealt with the evil sorcerer vampire bat swarm of doom problem or not - I've barely looked at reddit or any other news.
> 
> I really liked it, but I did find that when I got past Auridon and to the next area I felt a bit overwhelmed. I think if I had a person to play with it'd be a bit better, but I'd start to feel stressed and under quite a bit of pressure to play the way they like to play - whereas I'm quite a dawdly, meandering player, I can backtrack over the same area countless times just for the heck of it rather than having a goal in mind and trying to get X amount done.
> 
> Another thing that made me feel overwhelmed was I let myself get sucked in with the idea of ideal builds again. I told myself not to, but I always end up thinking, "what should I take next? What should my 2nd weapon be? What if I don't like it? Should I be doing something different? Am I going to be ineffective? ARRGGGHHHHHH!" which is ridiculous but I can't seem to shift it. I never wanted to become a vamp/werewolf so some of the most interesting sounding builds were never going to quite fit with how I wanted to play. When the next update drops I might spend some time looking at various builds and see if I can't find something I like.



Don't go there on the ideal builds - it's only important if you are doing VR trials, and there's plenty of time to level up any skills you want in preparation, and things may still change anyway (my main is a 2H DK wearing heavy, but I have 1 medium and 1 light slot used, and I equip other weapons when turning in quests to level them up so I am multi-purpose and flexible no matter what lies ahead - I have several weapon skills at about the same level as a result - Oh and I can largely plough through quest content if use a bit of nouse, even if I'm a bit underlevelled).

If you want someone to play/group with, I will do that willingly as far as the phasing allows, I would actually really enjoy having someone to group with and have missed out on some of the public and group dungeons due to me just being a bit unsociable - I'm dawdly and meandering too, it would be refreshing to play with someone who actually wants to stop for a minute to read a book!

(Oh and DKs have not been nerfed into oblivion at all, people whining about that are just those who are upset that they can no longer unendingly pwn (ie bash-spam) everyone in PvP)


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## Epona (Jul 13, 2014)

Oh Vintage Paw - just to add - yeah when you first get to Grahtwood it can seem a bit daunting as there is a definite difficulty spike when you first get to a new zone, especially the second main zone as facing 3 enemies in a normal group becomes the norm, and that can be tough to adjust to at first, you start really needing to have some aoe abilities, cc, splash damage, and have something in the way of buffs/healing, and concentrate on gaining ultimate so you can use whichever flavour of whizz-bang you prefer to use to turn a fight in your favour.  There's a similar difficulty spike at the beginning of zone 3 when most mob groups start to have a healer as standard, it took me a couple of deaths to realise that there were now enemy healers involved and to adjust my tactics to take them into account!

I did mean it when I said I would group with you btw - I'd be more than happy to either group with one of my existing characters for delves/group dungeons, or to start a new character and quest together as a team from the get go, whichever you would prefer.  The only stuff in the game that it is impossible to group for are the main quest, and the fighters and mages guild quests, everything else including most zone bosses are instanced to either solo or group, depending upon whether you are grouped when you enter the area.  Apart from my regular Friday night guild events, I have been mostly playing solo (with occasional ad-hoc groupings for specific quests or dark anchors), I do feel I have missed out on some of the more social aspects of the game and certainly wouldn't say no to experiencing the game with another player


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## Epona (Jul 26, 2014)

I won the limited edition QuakeCon pig vanity pet in a guild fishing event.
I am more delighted about this than I really ought to be, given that I am an adult and all that. It runs around behind me making little piggy squealing noises


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 26, 2014)

Are you still playing primarily on the US server, Epona?


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## Epona (Jul 26, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> Are you still playing primarily on the US server, Epona?



No, mostly EU.  I do have characters on both servers mind you, but spend far more time on EU these days.


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 26, 2014)

That's good to know. What kind of guild are you in on the EU server? I liked the reddit guild, and we had some great pvp events (hunting skyshards, coordinating with bigger 'professional' guilds in strategic battles, etc) and there seemed to be a lot of friendly people there, but I've been away from it for a while now and I don't know how it is now.


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## Epona (Jul 26, 2014)

I've been a bit crap at finding a guild that suits on the EU server tbh.  I'm in a small DC guild, but they don't have any events and the problem I found is that because I am never in a rush to do stuff, it takes me aaaaaages to level up and progress through the game, they'd all hit veteran levels while I was still pissing about (in "oooh, I wonder what's over that hill" mode) in Glenumbra.   So if I want help with anything, it's usually more effective for me to ask in one of the trading guilds as they are large and it's just more likely that there will be someone about with a similar level character.

I am sure if I asked around I'd be able to find something.  The US guild I am in was formed out of the Sanguine beta test group on the official forum during beta, they were planning to set up an EU branch but unfortunately there wasn't sufficient interest (as most members were in the US/Canada) to make it viable.


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## Epona (Jul 26, 2014)

Jerissa with pig (I keep getting stopped by people asking about the pig, I'll go into a city and the local chat changes to stuff like "wth, is that a pig? where did that come from?") :


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 26, 2014)

It's a cute pig


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## Epona (Jul 26, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> It's a cute pig



Aye it's one of those Bristleback boars from Solstheim.  Far nicer as a friendly pet piglet than coming screaming at you with a Reikling mounted on its back


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## Epona (Jul 27, 2014)

Jakes has developed a habit of plonking his big fat feline arse down in the middle of the mousemat every time I have a hard battle to get through.
Every time, without fail.


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 28, 2014)

The EU server is moving to Frankfurt on Wednesday!


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## Epona (Jul 30, 2014)

Should be back up in a few hours - can't wait to see if the move makes everything just that bit more quick to respond, I'm playing melee currently and sometimes block/interrupt/dodge are a teensy bit slow to react, hopefully the move and subsequent better ping will fix this.

Vintage Paw - I hope you come back, there have already been a huge amount of improvements (and I've not seen a bot in weeks), update 3 is planned for release soon, and I'd like someone to play the game with who already seems like a friend of sorts, iykwim.


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 30, 2014)

I do plan on returning. I'm excited by update 3, it does sound like there have been a lot of interesting improvements.

In terms of playing together, I tend to be a loner of sorts, in that when I'm just exploring, doing normal quest content and so on, I tend to prefer to be on my own because otherwise I start to feel obligated to do things in certain ways, feel under a bit of pressure to not stand in the same area killing mudcrabs for 20 minutes, not make that 30 minute detour around the coast because I feel like taking in the sights, and so on. I know that's probably unwarranted pressure, because I know you like to take it slow too! I think in terms of grouping up I feel more comfortable doing so for specific things, like a public dungeon, a private dungeon, a roam through Cyrodiil hunting skyshards, completing quests or jumping into an ongoing siege, etc. I think I'm a single-player style player first, mostly because of my social awkwardness and crushing feelings of guilt, politeness and worries about not annoying people. The bottom line I guess is that I tend to not enjoy myself as much if I'm grouped with someone for no particular reason other than just 'playing the game'. Does that make sense?

That said, there's plenty of group content or content where being in a pair or with a few others is positively advantageous - such as heading into Cyrodiil with specific goals - that I'd definitely appreciate having a friendly face to do that with. And I expect once I got the hang of playing with someone else in those situations I'd feel more confident and comfortable more generally.

But certainly knowing someone was in the game to chat to while I was as well is something I very much like - even if I'm off on my lonesome doing whatever.

I don't know if something like that is workable for you, or if you were looking for someone to actively play with and level with.

I was chatting to someone from the reddit group and he would always message me when we were both online. It was nice to have someone to chat to. At one point I mentioned I was thinking of making a sorcerer, and he said he wanted to make a new character in the same faction, and from that point onwards he kept pestering me, asking if I'd made it yet, so we could level together. I felt a bit penned in, and despite saying that I level really slowly and I like to spend hours and hours just wandering around, backtracking, not caring about getting to the next level, etc., and that not really being his style, he kept on about it. I'm not very good at saying, "No, I don't want to," to people I don't know, particularly in situations like that because I know from past experience what a drain getting abuse that stems from entitlement is - so I try to be diplomatic and ease myself away from it. It was such a pain.

Not that you'd give that abuse! It's a totally different power dynamic at play there, as I'm sure you're aware. It just sprang into my mind because I mentioned levelling together.


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## Epona (Jul 30, 2014)

No that's cool, I find myself pissing about solo a lot of the time and I like that (I don't like the pressure either, I was on the NA server today and I said thanks to someone who healed me and they immediately wanted to pair up and go rip through some quests and that doesn't really suit me), it's more about having someone to do the group stuff with (world bosses, group dungeons, dark anchors etc, or sometimes get help on stuff that is difficult, but that allows grouping).  It would be cool to know someone with a similar level character to do that stuff with.  And chat with   And sometimes hang out catching mudcrabs


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## Vintage Paw (Jul 30, 2014)

That sounds good 

I'm in the middle of a massive work thing atm, so I won't be back before I finish that (probably a week or so), and once I'm back I don't know how invested I'll be, how much time I'll spend in there, but certainly I do want to get back into it to some degree - I really liked it


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## Epona (Jul 30, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> That sounds good
> 
> I'm in the middle of a massive work thing atm, so I won't be back before I finish that (probably a week or so), and once I'm back I don't know how invested I'll be, how much time I'll spend in there, but certainly I do want to get back into it to some degree - I really liked it



Great, it will be good to see you back 
I'm holding off getting into veteran content because the leveling and reward thing is being changed (and I like the sound of the changes more than I like the sound of it at present) so I expect I will put my current characters (who are currently lvl 40+) on hold once they hit 50 and start some new ones until they have reworked the vet stuff.

I've always been like this with games - I can happily play the same content over and over, it never seems to lose its shine for me.  DK is my favourite class so far, but I may try out a sorc or a templar.  I didn't like templar in beta, but I think it's been tweaked a bit since then.  I'd like to see how one does in the early game.

In terms of addons, my current favourites are Greymists Quickslot bar (which allows you to hotkey consumables), and Wykkid's Outfitter (requires Wykkid's Framework, and allows you to hotkey gear and skill sets - so I can change gear and hotbars with a keypress - absolutely invaluable, and saves me spending several minutes pissing about in my skills menu when I enter a dungeon with daedra or something that would benefit from a different hotbar lineup to my usual).


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## Epona (Jul 31, 2014)

I've been busy, but have tried a bit of play since the EU server migration - the job's a good'un, I no longer get the awful lag I used to get when using my abilities.  That's kind of important in a game with action style combat!

So yeah it seems to have gone well - I don't appear to have lost anything, and combat works better.  If only they'd put the EU servers in place before release!

Edit: My ping to Frankfurt is 21 ms.  Big improvement


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## Epona (Aug 1, 2014)

Update 3 hits the US server in the small hours (for them) on Monday, which means we'll get it on the EU server in the small hours (for us) on Tuesday.

The dye stations are going to be crowded!

Also respecs available at 1g per skill (and I think it will also be possible to just change morphs), so if you made a mistake or want to try a different build, get to a respec shrine after the update!


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 2, 2014)

I've been looking forward to the dyes. I don't care about fancy colours, just the opportunity to be able to have all items matching if you pick up stuff that's better you've crafted but doesn't fit your set.

Those respecs, are they always going to be 1g/skill or is it a limited thing because of the update? I'm still busy with work, so I really won't have time to for a little while yet.


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## Epona (Aug 2, 2014)

Vintage Paw said:


> I've been looking forward to the dyes. I don't care about fancy colours, just the opportunity to be able to have all items matching if you pick up stuff that's better you've crafted but doesn't fit your set.
> 
> Those respecs, are they always going to be 1g/skill or is it a limited thing because of the update? I'm still busy with work, so I really won't have time to for a little while yet.



I don't know whether the cheap respec is permanent or for a limited time - I'll try to find out and let you know.  If it's limited then all you need to do is travel to the city with the respec shrine and select the option to reset all skillpoints, you can then come back and reallocate them later at your leisure when you have more time, doing it that way will only take a few minutes at most (if you haven't got to those cities yet, I have a character in each faction who can go there, so let me know if you need to hop on quickly to do it and I can put a character in place for you to use "travel to player" to get to the shrine in each faction quickly).  I'll try to find out whether it is for limited time only.

I've just looted 2 purple items at lvl 21 on a guild event in Cyrodil (no pvp, we were in a low population campaign doing dungeons and getting skyshards), the earliest I've seen a purple on any other character is lvl 35+ so I was very excited to get those items!  Also really happy with my DK build, I switched between 2H dps and heals and was very happy with the way it went.  The only time it went tits up was when we got a bit bold and decided to capture a scroll, a fair few of us died a fair few times to the NPC defence.  Probably needs more than 8 people (half of whom were under lvl 50).


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## Epona (Aug 2, 2014)

dp


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## Buddy Bradley (Aug 2, 2014)

Cancelled my subscription yesterday, since I haven't really played it for a couple of months. Might come back at some point, but since I'm mostly sticking with EVE Online for social gaming and Skyrim for fantasy questing I have no need for ESO right now.


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## Epona (Aug 4, 2014)

The US server is now on v3, so I have been mostly playing round with the dyes - absolutely love it, love the way I have to work to unlock dyes what with them being tied to achievements (although dyes are account wide, so you don't have to get everything on one character to unlock dyes, all characters can use a dye that any character has unlocked).

Vintage Paw - the 1g respec is limited time only, but I have been unable to find out for how long the offer applies :/  Anyway, once v3 goes live on the EU server tomorrow, just let me know if at any point you want to use the "travel to player" option to get to a respec shrine quickly as I suggested in an earlier post.  Oh the patch is around 6Gb btw.


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## Epona (Aug 4, 2014)

Oops, the respec cost is 1g for a week, finally found it in the patch notes


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## Epona (Aug 7, 2014)

The fight at the end of the DC storyline is making me cry, it's really fucking hard!
I nearly survived the first wave on my last attempt.  I think I am going to sit outside the door to the final fight and beg anyone who shows up to group with me. 
This game has no easy mode.


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## Epona (Aug 9, 2014)

Last night's guild event was Cyrodil quests - because a lot of people were away or had other commitments, there were only a small group of us, but we did all the quests in Cheydinhal and Cropsford, and had a really good time (as well as staggering back to town afterwards loaded down with loot!).

We (the guild I am in on the NA server is a Pact guild) encountered a Dominion player in Cheydinhal and easily bested him, but he must have called up his mates afterwards because we were in battles with the same group all night after that.  I think we all died at least once, but the game now tracks when you kill a player who previously killed you, so I know I got 2 players who had previously got me.  I think I like the city questing better than I like the all-out sieges, when there is a siege going on you know it will be a pitched battle, but when you're doing city quests it's more a case of keep an eye open for enemy groups and try to get them before they see you.  Makes for some interesting fights between small groups.  The NPC guards must be on steroids though, they are tough as hell.


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 9, 2014)

My favourite times in Cyrodiil were with the guild, roaming around going into dungeons and towns looking for skyshards. One evening our group dissipated and I found myself in a town, figured I'd try to grab the nearby Skyshard and do the little quest there. One of the people I was previously in the group with was around too, but we weren't grouped up anymore. We suddenly started getting sniped from a couple of different directions. Turns out there were a couple of Covenant players up in the buildings, hiding and trying to pick us off. Somehow we managed to turn their advantageous position against them and we took them out. It was a lot of fun.

I agree with you, I prefer doing stuff in towns and dungeons in Cyrodiil over the bigger battles. They can be lots of fun, but I like that smaller-scale thing where you have to keep an eye out because you don't know who's around the next corner or in stealth following you waiting to make their move. I got caught in a building waaaaay up at the top of the map (I was AD). I was picking up a lore book, I think, or maybe handing in a quest, and someone from the Covenant came into the building, presumably to do the same. I was alone, and they got the drop on me, and they were about 15 levels above me, but I managed to survive and take them down. It was a real buzz. Then on my very, very long trek back to AD territory (I spent most of it in stealth!) I ended up in an epic fight with a Covenant player. It lasted for ages as we kept trying to whittle the other one down. I won that too. 

Definitely my favourite experiences playing the game so far.


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## Epona (Aug 9, 2014)

Aye, the stealthing around and doing dungeons and quests in Cyrodil is just so much fun, I love that the design allows for a range of different PvP styles from the large battles down to small groups running into one another while questing.

Also although we were in an open to all campaign last night, there is also now a campaign for non-vet level players only, so it's far easier for lower level characters to feel as though they are useful in that campaign and have fun up against players of a more similar level, rather than being 1-shot cannon fodder to a VR12!


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## Epona (Aug 20, 2014)

Update 4 is now on the PTS, and is due to go live sometime in September.  The patch notes (as they stand at the moment, subject to change when it's been tested on the PTS) are available:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/127711/pts-patch-notes-v1-4-0

*Highlights*:-
A new group veteran zone with new trials (high level players who prefer to solo, don't panic, there is a solo veteran zone planned, probably coming in update 5 or 6)
Arena fights in the Dragonstar Arena (for groups of 4 players, both normal and veteran modes)
Changes to enchanting so it's not so much of a bloody nightmare to level the skill, and new enchantments that can alter your abilities
A new researchable armour trait, Nirnhoned, which gives a bonus to spell resistance, and an extra rank of the perk that reduces research times
Improvements to all delves in the final zone of each faction (part of a general rollout to improve the size, uniqueness, and boss encounters of delves throughout the game, Cyrodil was done in update 3 and more will be coming in the future)
Grouping improvements including shared quest stages when grouped for a whole number of quests
PFX Prioritization - effects on you and your group will take priority over background stuff, this should provide a big improvement in terms of less combat lag and quicker response, and less delay in seeing combat cues on foes
Also more hireling messages have been added, may seem like a small thing but I'm excited about it!


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## Epona (Nov 24, 2014)

Well I'm still playing.
My main on the US server is now Veteran Rank 10.
Best thing ever in update 5 is Undaunted Pledges (additional dailies to go clear a group dungeon, with extra rewards if you do it a certain way/meet additional difficult targets).  Some of them are really tough, I was in a group in Veteran Crypt of Hearts for nearly 7 hours this weekend.  We did manage to beat it eventually, but it was very challenging.


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## Epona (Jan 27, 2015)

The bastards in my guild made a new rank of "Butter Feet" just for me, to pay homage to the ease at which I seem to fall off keep walls (often straight into the enemy hordes below) when trying to place and use siege equipment.  

Anyway, I expect everyone has heard that the game is going B2P in early March.  As an avid fan I am not particularly happy about it, as it means content updates will happen less regularly, and there will be a cash shop.  It does, however, mean that any of you who already bought the game will be able to hop on any time without having to pay a sub.


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 27, 2015)

Epona said:


> Anyway, I expect everyone has heard that the game is going B2P in early March.  As an avid fan I am not particularly happy about it, as it means content updates will happen less regularly, and there will be a cash shop.  It does, however, mean that any of you who already bought the game will be able to hop on any time without having to pay a sub.


I hadn't heard that. I guess maybe I might return in that case, although I got rather bored of it before.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 16, 2015)

Epona said:


> Anyway, I expect everyone has heard that the game is going B2P in early March.


So this is happening tomorrow, apparently. Any chance of a quick rundown of what has significantly changed in the game since last summer, to save me untangling patch notes and reddit threads? 

Edit: Uhm, nevermind! 

Edit 2: The new Justice System sounds interesting - what has it actually been like in-game? I can imagine that unless it is very carefully balanced there are the occasional mass NPC slaughterings?


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## Epona (Jun 1, 2015)

In case anyone is interested, I now run a reasonably successful and friendly trading guild on the NA server.

Anyone who joins that server, hit me up for an invite, my username is Epona222

(and yes, it was the same me who said at the start of the thread "pffft MMO? Not getting involved in that" or words to that effect  )


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## ffsear (Jun 3, 2015)

Out on ps4 next week.	Will us console players be on different servers from you?


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## Kid_Eternity (Jun 5, 2015)

Very tempted by this...


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## Epona (Jun 6, 2015)

ffsear said:


> Out on ps4 next week.	Will us console players be on different servers from you?



Yes, because it's behind MS/Sony network paywalls (which, btw, is why ESO went b2p, because MS were being difficult about xBox release, NOT because the game was failing).

XBox players will be on 1 server, PS players will be on 1 server, those are different servers than the PC server.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jun 8, 2015)

Anyone got a good recent review?


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 3, 2015)

Loving this game! Only got it this morning but had a couple hours play and utterly absorbed in it! My clan now is a guild in game with our own bank and things are looking good for some serious fighting fun!


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## Epona (Jul 3, 2015)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Loving this game! Only got it this morning but had a couple hours play and utterly absorbed in it! My clan now is a guild in game with our own bank and things are looking good for some serious fighting fun!



I'm really glad to hear that you are enjoying it 
Which server are you on?


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 4, 2015)

I'm playing via PS4, Europe.


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## Epona (Jul 6, 2015)

Oh OK, I'm NA PC server, I'd have friended you if on the same one.

Can I just say though... guild politics, ugh, exhausted right now.  Not even my guild.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 9, 2015)

Oh dear. Well luckily I'm in a clan from another game so we're all friends. Very low levels of bullshit!


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## Epona (Jul 10, 2015)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Oh dear. Well luckily I'm in a clan from another game so we're all friends. Very low levels of bullshit!



Wait until you realise you need to be in several trading guilds too 

We all have a 'low bullshit' guild that we identify with, then there are the guilds we are in so we can sell stuff


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## Epona (Jul 10, 2015)

Sometimes playing on the NA server sucks.

I stole an absurdly long knitted scarf which was OBVIOUSLY a Doctor Who easter egg, but no-one gets it.  Kill them all. Kill them all with fire.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 11, 2015)

Epona said:


> Wait until you realise you need to be in several trading guilds too
> 
> We all have a 'low bullshit' guild that we identify with, then there are the guilds we are in so we can sell stuff



Lol fair enough! Man this game is good but it does take an age to get leveled up!


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## Epona (Jul 17, 2015)

Running a trading guild is exhausting - there are people who pst every time you log on, wanting to say 'hi' or wanting advice about this that or the other.  There are mails from people who want to donate towards raffle prizes and send a ton of random lvl 20 green gear.  There are mails from people complaining about the guild tabard, because it is not what they would have designed.
The next person who contacts me about something ridiculous is going to find themself in charge of the guild while I have a quiet week.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 24, 2015)

Kinda gone off it tbh, was loving it but find its hard to get the amount of time it needs to get anything done...


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## Epona (Aug 7, 2015)

Dear fucking god - what is it about some GMs that they don't appear in game for 2 weeks, and when they do turn up, make a fucking song and dance about the sodding guild raffle offering the wrong prizes?  (All prizes paid for out of my own personal gold mind you).

Well someone offered me the chance to take over an existing trading guild, so I did - GM of guild A gets upset and wonders how I am going to cope with running 2 trading guilds.  Errr... if I was supposed to be running yours whilst you spent all your time playing Rust (not been online in ESO for 2 weeks, leaving me to deal with trader bids etc), you should have just made me GM and let me do it without having to seek you out on Steam or ts (anywhere other than in the damn game) so that you could disapprove of every damn move I make.

OK thank you, glad I got that off my chest, thanks for listening - nothing to see here, move along, move along


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## Kid_Eternity (Aug 8, 2015)

Hehe no worries...I need to get back to this, haven't played in two weeks due to life, work, stuff....


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## Epona (Aug 15, 2015)

I actually really enjoy running trading guilds tbh - but it is far easier to run the one I took over lock stock and barrel because I can make decisions autonomously.  The guild where I am one of a triumvirate of leaders is more difficult, it is just slower to get anything done or any decisions made, I can't just make a decision and go with it, I have to run it by the other leaders.  I still have to do most of the work, but with no remit to just go ahead and do stuff.


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## Epona (Sep 3, 2015)

After none of the other 2 'triumvirate' guild leaders had shown up in game for nearly a month I tracked them down on Steam and with their agreement have merged that guild into my guild, making the entire thing far more manageable.

If anyone ends up on the PC NA server and needs a trading guild, send me an in-game mail (@Epona222) if you want to join Ghost Sea Trading Co.  One consolidated guild, bigger and better than ever.


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## Gromit (Sep 16, 2015)

I've tried really really hard to love this game and today just realized, I shouldn't be having to try.

I realise why it hasn't made me fall in love with it like Skyrim did.

It doesn't feel open world. Skyrim felt huge, you could travel anywhere and find something to do at almost any time.
ESO is compartmented into a linear pathway. Do this area, now this area, now this area. Once you've grown out of an area there really is little point in traveling back there ever again.


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## Epona (Sep 17, 2015)

Gromit said:


> I've tried really really hard to love this game and today just realized, I shouldn't be having to try.
> 
> I realise why it hasn't made me fall in love with it like Skyrim did.
> 
> ...



Yeah it is very much it's own beast - more like a chapter RPG than a single player TES game.
Although I love the game and play it every day and run a guild, I think Zenimax kind of shot themselves in the foot by making it cater too much to existing MMO players and the type of loot grind they want, and not enough to TES fans who wanted more of an open world "TES with friends".  I think the latter would have been more popular - that is what TES fans wanted when they asked for a multiplayer game.

The game is still doing well (it was never doing badly, it went B2P because of getting it onto the XBox because MS would not waive the XBL fee for players, not because it was failing on PC), but it has never quite managed to fully meet the expectations of either MMO fans, or TES fans.

Even so, I personally get a huge amount of enjoyment from it, but I accept it is not for everyone.


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## Buddy Bradley (Oct 3, 2015)

The wife and kids bullied me into getting a new kitten today, but said I can choose the name - so our new kitten is named Raz.


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## Epona (Oct 4, 2015)

I have unexpectedly found myself on the player committee that regularly has voip meetings with Zenimax to give feedback and suggestions.  Not sure quite what to make of that, but there you go.


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## Buddy Bradley (Oct 5, 2015)

Epona said:


> I have unexpectedly found myself on the player committee that regularly has voip meetings with Zenimax to give feedback and suggestions.  Not sure quite what to make of that, but there you go.


Nice, well done!


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## ffsear (Oct 5, 2015)

Anyone playing this on PS4??	Im level 9 know,  still in Stonesfall.  Don't seem to been many other players around


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## Epona (Oct 5, 2015)

Orsinium DLC announced - 2nd Nov PC/Mac (which will technically mean 3rd Nov for EU server), 17th Nov XBox, 18th Nov PS4.  Free access to subscribers, or 3000 crowns.

Really looking forward to this one, it's more geared around solo/small group, and any character can play it, will be levelled to the zone.  Repeatable content in the form of a single-player arena, similar to DSA (several levels, 2 difficulty modes, leaderboards with rewards) but for solo rather than group.

Also a base game patch that introduces many changes, but most exciting is the ability to group with members of other alliances for dungeons - should make it a lot easier to find a group, and make cross-faction PvE guilds more workable.

Elder Scrolls Online


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 5, 2015)

Hmm  might get it now my PC is running again.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 6, 2015)

Ordered it. Just over £20.


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## Epona (Oct 6, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> Ordered it. Just over £20.



Ooh good price.  If you go on the NA server let me know and I'll add you as a friend.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 6, 2015)

I should still have the account I set up to beta test. I'll join the NA server.  Will be interesting to do some guild stuff.  Not seriously been in a guild since KOL


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## Epona (Oct 6, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I should still have the account I set up to beta test. I'll join the NA server.  Will be interesting to do some guild stuff.  Not seriously been in a guild since KOL



Brilliant, let me know when you are set up and I'll add you and invite you to my trading guild.  I also sort of run a play guild but it is all but defunct, I suppose I should try to give it a bit of CPR.
Also can help out with any crafting/gear/consumables you need.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 6, 2015)

I'd be interested to see how crafting goes in eso 
I gave it a fair try in guild wars 2 and dabbled in other mmos  but it often seemed like a time and money sink.  Maybe more of an endgame thing.  On the other hand love crafting in skyrim.


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## Vintage Paw (Oct 6, 2015)

From what I remember (and it's been a long while since I played, and things have probably changed since then) crafting in ESO was a lot less hassle and more enjoyable than in GW2. You quickly got to a point in GW2 where it became difficult, but I don't remember it being so in ESO. But then I didn't reach a massively high level.


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## Epona (Oct 6, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I'd be interested to see how crafting goes in eso
> I gave it a fair try in guild wars 2 and dabbled in other mmos  but it often seemed like a time and money sink.  Maybe more of an endgame thing.  On the other hand love crafting in skyrim.



Crafting in ESO is pretty fun, everyone can do the basics, but it takes a bit of time (researching traits) and some skill points dropped into the craft skill line(s) to be good at it.  But that is time in terms of you set off some research and it takes x amount of hours or days (and time you are logged out counts, the timer doesn't stop when you go to bed) to complete, not hours spent at a crafting bench.

The only slightly painful thing is rarity and difficulty of collecting some of the rare styles to learn, but that's cosmetic rather than functional.


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## Epona (Oct 6, 2015)

Shippy, I tried sending you a friend invite in advance, but it wouldn't let me, you probably need to activate the game on your account before I can do that - either add me when you get in game (@Epona222) or give me a shout here and I'll try again.

Edit: probably should have said, my trade guild is cross-faction; the play guild I have inherited and am trying to resuscitate is EP.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 6, 2015)

May not be for a bit. Had to buy hard copy to get the price down and the shipping takes ages.


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## Epona (Oct 6, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> May not be for a bit. Had to buy hard copy to get the price down and the shipping takes ages.



Ah OK, let me know when you are all installed and everything!


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 6, 2015)

Epona said:


> Ah OK, let me know when you are all installed and everything!


Looks like i can download and install off my old beta  account.  
I wonder if it will let me in on that...


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## Epona (Oct 6, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> Looks like i can download and install off my old beta  account.
> I wonder if it will let me in on that...



If you were emailed a code to activate your account then it will - if the code is coming with the game shipment then you will still have to wait for that, but you can get the game downloaded and ready on your existing account - just make sure in the client you have selected NA server BEFORE starting the download, because stupidly it is not 1 install for all servers.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 7, 2015)

selected NA. Unfortunately don't have the code yet.  The game was actually only £18.74. However although it  was posted  yestertday  it	has an estimated arrival of   15th-24th
booo hisss.

Still better than paying   £50 for the   digital version.   Madness in the pricing there.


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## Epona (Oct 7, 2015)

That is something of a bargain, probably worth waiting for it rather than paying full price!


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 7, 2015)

Yeah.  If  it was only  5 or 10 pounds difference  and I was working  I may well have splurged	but  under half price while I'm back on the dole?  no choice.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 16, 2015)

Code finally arrived. Turns out it was shipped from Australia.


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## Epona (Oct 16, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> Code finally arrived. Turns out it was shipped from Australia.



How bizarre, games in Australia are usually more expensive even than here as there is a hefty tax on them.  I'll try sending you a friend invite!


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## Epona (Oct 16, 2015)

Sent invite, I didn't get "account not found" this time!


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## Epona (Oct 16, 2015)

If you don't see a notification next time you log on, try inviting me instead.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 18, 2015)

OK  so  I'm now hitting about the point I made it to in the beta.  Must of the stuff seems  very similar.  Although i feel they may have  made some sections a little easier.

Trying  to  find  what  combat suits me best.   I do like the idea of archery   but	skyrim has  me  spoiled. I was  so  badass ninja  in that  this  can help feel like a clunky mess.	 Doing a bit  of  dual daggering  which is  fun.  Ideally	i'd  fire off a shot or two  on my bow   then switch for  close  quaters   but	not  worked out  if  there is a  quick switch  yet.

Also  got a few crowns   to increase my bag space.  I always  buy  more bag space in MMOs


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## Epona (Oct 18, 2015)

I'm not overly keen on archery in ESO, tend (on my stamina based characters at least) to use it more as a backup in fights that require ranged (especially in group dungeons, some bosses have a perma-aoe thing going on that you need to stay out of).  You get weapon swapping at level 15 and then can have 2 weapons equipped and a second skill bar which is useful!  The default key for weapon swap is dreadful though, I'd recommend going into Settings>Controls>Keybindings and allocating it to an easier key when you get to the point where you want to weapon swap.

Once you get the second bar, fill it with skills that you want to level up and switch to that bar when turning in quests, you'll level up skills and alternative weapons quickly that way, allowing for more flexibility at higher levels.


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## Epona (Oct 18, 2015)

Oh also addons.  There are some I cannot play without now.  Best place to get addons is esoui.com

My list:

*Advanced Filters* (makes inventory management bearable!)
*Awesome Guild Store* (adds filters to the guild store interface)
*Master Merchant* (stores data on prices of stuff sold through any guild stores you are a member of, so you can price stuff appropriately or hunt for bargains from guild traders - displays that info in the guild store interface if also using Awesome Guild Store)
*Greymind's Quickslot Bar* (makes potion selection in combat easy)
*Research Assitant* (adds a little icon on the inventory screen to let you see if you have researched traits on the weapons/gear in your inventory, so you don't accidentally decon stuff that you want to save to learn the trait)
*Research Grid* (adds a window that you can bind to a key and toggle to see what traits you have researched)
*Potion Maker* (helps keep track of what effects you know on which plants, a favourites list, search by potion name when at the alchemy bench, very useful)
*Merlin The Enchanter* (similar to Potion Maker but for enchanting)
*pChat *(very useful improvements to the chat box)
*Sous Chef* (marks recipes that you don't know with a great big tick, can see what recipes other characters know if you have alts, marks ingredients that are used for recipes that you know)
*Loot Drop* (anything you pick up, or any time you gain XP, crafting inspiration, gold, AP, it is displayed briefly at the edge of the screen)

Ones that can ease the way, but aren't necessary (and may be undesirable if you prefer to find stuff by yourself, I didn't use these on my first character):
*Destinations *(marks all sorts of stuff on the in game map, highly configurable)
*Skyshards *(marks skyshards on map and compass bar)
*Lorebooks *(marks lorebooks on map and compass bar)
*Rare Fish Tracker* (useful if you want your fishing achievements!)
*Kill Counter* (displays a bit of additional info when in PvP, useful to see which keeps are under attack, keeps track of your kills)

If using a lot of addons, you'll want to increase the lua memory available which is done in (default location) Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/Live/UserSettings.txt - I set mine to 512 which seems adequate.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 24, 2015)

well shit

now under £17  on a humble store sale

The Humble Store: Great games. Fantastic prices. Support charity.


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## Epona (Oct 31, 2015)

I had a really weird dream that was ESO related last night - I dreamed that I had been left in charge of a guild that wasn't a trading guild or a PvE guild or a PvP guild or a trials guild or anything like that - it was a "coffee morning guild" (whatever the fuck that is supposed to be) for quite elderly people, and it had happily been ticking along for ages.  As far as I can work out, the main stated aim of the guild was to chat and swap recipes for biscuits.

There was a hostile takeover and I was called in to a board meeting filled with people using zimmer frames to discuss the fact that I had failed to make this "coffee morning guild" successful in PvP because I hadn't ever been emperor in any campaign, and that I should immediately be relieved of my position.  I woke up at that point in a cold sweat.

I sometimes hate what my brain does to me when I am asleep :/


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 31, 2015)

That sounds not to far off from an actual provisioner roleplaying guild.


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## Epona (Nov 3, 2015)

Orsinium DLC is WONDERFUL!

If they keep putting out new content of this quality, then I will be very happy.

Very TES feel to the zone and quests, music and art great, quests are engaging.  Haven't played through much yet, but have done a lot of exploring and gathering and thieving.  Only slight issue is that everyone and their dog(/goat/scamp/dwemer sphere/etc.) is there at the moment so it is very crowded, but that is to be expected this close to release.

Even people on the official forums are raving about it, and that place is normally a bile-filled pit of hate.

10/10, well done Zenimax, you got it just right.  Keep going like this and I can see myself playing for a long time


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## ffsear (Nov 4, 2015)

Gromit said:


> It doesn't feel open world. Skyrim felt huge, you could travel anywhere and find something to do at almost any time.
> ESO is compartmented into a linear pathway. Do this area, now this area, now this area. Once you've grown out of an area there really is little point in traveling back there ever again.



I'm with you on this.  And each area feels like you are trapped in a bowl/ valley,  with mountains ranges at the edge that you can't cross. Unlike skyrim where with was far more open.  Reminds me of LOTR online. When you do move onto the next area,  it looks exactly the same. Don't know about a maxed out PC,  but on PS4 the draw distance is very low.  I've not ben wow'ed by the graphics at all.

And some of the enemies are just plain weird...	 Massive jellyfish floating inland?  whatever they are called?  No, just NO

   Given this game a month,  but sadly I'm gonna quit when fallout 4  and star wars battle front comes out.


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## Epona (Nov 5, 2015)

ffsear said:


> And some of the enemies are just plain weird...	 Massive jellyfish floating inland?  whatever they are called?  No, just NO



FFS, they are netches and are an established part of the TES universe.  Yes, just YES. 

Edit: A netch in TES III: Morrowind (released in 2002)


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## Shippou-Sensei (Nov 5, 2015)

Epona said:


> FFS, they are netches and are an established part of the TES universe.  Yes, just YES.
> 
> Edit: A netch in TES III: Morrowind (released in 2002)



I've got 99 problems but a netch ain't one


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 7, 2016)

Going to reinstall this after a long break.

Because it's just the way I roll, I didn't let my sub lapse, and as a result I have 18200 crowns to play with 

Epona - if you buy something from the crown store is it account wide or per character?

I'm eyeing up that pretty lioness mount (and maybe the nightmare courser). And all the crafting styles, of course.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 7, 2016)

Okay, a quick google says pets/mounts are account-wide. WOO.

Still looking whether crafting styles are. I suspect not, but idk.


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## Epona (Jan 8, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Okay, a quick google says pets/mounts are account-wide. WOO.
> 
> Still looking whether crafting styles are. I suspect not, but idk.



Sorry mate, only just logged back in here.  Mounts and pets are indeed account wide. Crowns can only be spent for stuff on either the EU or the NA server though (ie. if you spend them in NA you will not have the item on EU, so pick a server and stick to it). Crafting styles are learned via motif books/pages, but of course if you do that on 1 character that character can make gear for every other character on your account (or even for other players). I am more than happy to help out if you come back and need stuff crafted.

If you're coming back in, please come to the NA server, I run a trading guild, I also regularly do group stuff on a Friday night/Saturday morning (and at various points in between if we are all online) with my friends Marcia and Gidget (we have use of a teamspeak server), we're all middle-aged women and we're actually pretty good at the game.  You would be more than welcome to join us although I realise I made our little group sound a lot older and a lot less cool than we feel iykwim... (same goes for Shippy, should he desire to dip his toes in the pool again, he'd be welcome).


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 8, 2016)

I like ESO  but i'm terrible  at  giving MMOs  the time they need.   also  for not doing the social stuff.


----------



## Epona (Jan 8, 2016)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I like ESO  but i'm terrible  at  giving MMOs  the time they need.   also  for not doing the social stuff.



I hear you wrt being social, quite often I play in offline mode so I don't get bothered if I am feeling unsociable.  I have a lot of friends in ESO who quite like to chat, and chat, and then chat some more, I don't mind that occasionally and sometimes I want to chat with them too, but it's a bit of a pain when I am trying to quest (and to be fair, if what I wanted to do was go online to talk I'd have a facebook page).  Come do a dungeon or something constructive, not just sit here and chat! So thank goodness for "offline mode". 

But yeah regardless of all that, you are welcome to join us on our Friday night adventures.

Edit: sorry,forgot to mention the play guild is an EP guild (not my decision, I have characters in all factions, but Friday night is EP night.)  My trading guild is cross-faction.


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## Epona (Jan 8, 2016)

Vintage Paw - I think I sent you a friend invite on the NA server in case you decide to pop in there, but friend requests can be a bit temperamental (at least they are for me 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ) so if you don't get it, try inviting me - @Epona222 (I also have a second account because "Zeni, why only 8 character slots???" which is, predictably enough, @Epona223)


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 8, 2016)

Alas, I still have all my (7!) characters on the EU server, with one of them at lvl 24 (which is nothing, I know), and I don't really want to lose the hard work I put in back then.

All my attributes and skill points have been refunded in my absence. Damned if I can remember how to play the damn thing and where to put them 

I also have a free tiger to ride, which is SO AWESOME.

I've gone back to Auridon so I can retrain myself against weaker enemies. 

So much has changed!


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 9, 2016)

Slowly getting back into the swing of it. Trying to remember how to mmo against enemies 4 levels below me at the moment, because I keep forgetting to do things like block. I was overlevelled for Grahtwood when I stopped playing anyway, so I'm more or less picking up where I left off.

I need to find out how dyes work. I haven't seen a dye station yet, I expect there will be a book or a person there to ask.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 9, 2016)

Presumably you use some add-ons, Epona? 

I'm going to get the various map marker ones, not sure what else is useful. I have no idea what I'm doing in combat so I doubt one with extra damage numbers and all that jazz will be much use to me until I get back up to speed (and frankly I don't much care about eking out an extra half a percent damage anyway). Are there any add-ons you'd definitely recommend?


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 10, 2016)

Really enjoying getting back into this.

I'm hideously overlevelled for the area I'm in atm. I missed an entire hub in Grahtwood, so I'm level 26 doing level 17 quests  - and I have a bunch of level 20s left too. Which, tbh, is no bad thing because I'm still in the 'l2p n00b' stage of refamiliarising myself with everything. Plus, my facerolling nightblade isn't as facerolling as she was before Craglorn (that's how long it's been since I've played!). Rebalancing be damned *shakes fist at sky*

I've maxed out provisioning. Am I right in remembering you can have only 1 food or 1 drink active at a time, yes? I like food over drink, but I've never run the numbers to see which would actually be better. I think food, since I have some regen passives going on.

I'm also trying to level up woodworking and clothing, since I'm in medium and started with a bow. I've got daggers on my second bar now, so I'm dabbling with blacksmithing, but once I get back to a character that uses heavy armour and/or 2H I'll get them to focus on it. 

Fuck enchanting and alchemy. I hear alchemy is super easy to max out now, I'll check a guide at some point.

I thought I'd find it difficult to pick it up with my old characters but not at all. I can't remember much about the main story, what quests I've done so far, but I'll be starting a couple of new ones at some point so they'll help get me up to speed. My sorc and templar are only level 8 or thereabouts I think, my dragonknight is probably 12ish, can't remember. I'll probably do a proper cookie cutter khajiit nightblade at some point - I'll treat Sisa Nightwind (my current lvl 26 bosmer) as a trial run while I get used to the game - although I do love her dearly, she's perfect.

 

Internet is playing silly buggers this evening, just got kicked out for terrible latency. Grr.


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## Epona (Jan 10, 2016)

Vintage Paw - I posted a list of addons that I use a bit higher up the page, it dates from October but is still the list of what I use - in terms of essentials, Greymind's Quickslot Bar (allows you to hotkey potions/consumables) and Advanced Filters (for better Inventory management) are ones that I absolutely couldn't do without.

An awful lot has changed since you last played!  I decided I really couldn't get along with Nightblades, there was just something about them that I didn't 'get' iykwim, but they are the class that is most likely to make me shit myself if I go up against them in PvP (fear, and high burst damage).  So I can't help with specifics on their particular skills.  Having said that, I think magicka Nightblades tend to be more effective than stamina builds, as most of their best class skills are magicka only (unlike say Templar, where many class skills can be morphed to a stamina version), and it leaves your entire stamina pool available for sneak, dodge, interrupt, and block.

A general tip for magicka builds in general, is that dual wielding maces with the sharpened trait actually makes all your offensive spells more effective (due to blunt and blade passive in DW line bonus for maces is to ignore a percentage of physical resistance per mace equipped, and sharpened trait increasing armor and spell penetration) - so it's worth considering having that set up on 1 bar, and whatever other weapon you like on the other bar.

For stamina builds, it's worth considering leveling 2H and having it on 1 bar because of the Momentum (morph to Rally when available) active, which is a stamina-based buff to weapon damage and a stamina based self-heal over time.

Alchemy and Enchanting - I would recommend leveling both, for starters both are a lot easier to level than they used to be.  Alchemy - being able to make a variety of your own potions with 3 effects is invaluable at higher levels.  Gathering the plants is the most painful part of the process, but it doesn't actually take that long at the alchemy bench to get to Alchemy level 50 (I had a big stock of plants and solvents and it didn't take me more than a couple of hours to max it out on 3 characters - and you're unlikely to need to make your own potions until you hit vet rank, so just collect plants and solvents for now and then level it when you need it).  Enchanting - use Denata (blue) runes on 1 character to make glyphs with the highest level potency runes you can use, and decon them on another character (the one deconning will get most inspiration from the process, and again it only took me a couple of hours to max out 2 characters by that method).  You will want to allocate skill points while leveling to use the highest level solvents/runes that you can, but can always respec afterwards (respec is now only 50g per skill point, so a lot cheaper and more viable than it used to be!)

Provisioning - either food or drink can be active at a time, not both (except xp booster drinks, which I don't imagine you will be using given that you are already overleveled!!)  General rule of thumb is food for questing/PvE, drink for PvP where resource regen rate is more important.  There are now a few recipes that do increase max of 1 resource and increase regen of another, they don't drop, they are Wrothgar quest rewards and many people prefer to use those for difficult content (trials etc.)

Crafting in general - because there are now so many style motifs and some of them are a pain in the arse to collect, if you are going to split crafting between 2 characters, have 1 do bs/cloth/ww and the other do prov/alch/ench - just so that you only have to get the style motifs on 1 character to have full use of them!

Argh, sorry about that, major case of verbal (well, typing anyway) diaorreah there, but I hope some of it is useful


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 11, 2016)

Ah, I forgot about that list up-thread, thanks. There are a couple on there I'll take a look at.

I remembered I used Wykkyd's toolbar back at release - glad to see it's still going, I like having all that info at the top where I can just glance at it.

Re nightblade, there are a few class abilities that can be morphed to use stamina later on, that's the way I'm going at the moment, and I'm using a lot of weapon abilities as well. I've got my points 2/1 stamina/health atm, and I never run out of magicka but do still run out of stamina! For class abilities I'm mostly using teleport strike, the stealth invisible one, and the first siphoning one. When I last played, I'd focused quite heavily on siphoning, so that's got a few levels to it, I'd done nothing really in the shadow line, but I'm incorporating more of that now. Siphoning strikes looks very useful. My goal at the moment is working towards never running out of resources while pumping out as much damage as possible. I can spam the health siphoning attack and never run out of magicka without a single point in magicka atm, and I think I need to look into getting something that will help me increase the healing done. I haven't made my mind up to what extent I'm going to commit to a specific class line yet, and have been focusing on getting my weapon skills where I want them. I was considering 2H, and looking at my skills it looks like I had started levelling up resto staff back in the day - I think I was looking into more of the siphoning stuff when nightblade could do some decent healing. I like what you say about Rally though, so I'll keep that in mind. Honestly, I don't know how it's all changed, but I'm focusing on traditional damage right now (with a touch of self-heal) aimed around incapacitating enemies, lots of options for that. My bow bar right now doesn't let anything get close to me at all - snipe, that cone one (barrage?) slows them down, volley, then spamming the cone one and sometimes upgraded scattershot if they get too close, and that keeps them in the volley aoe until they die. I do more damage with my daggers (haven't looked into the other weapons yet, I'll keep in mind your comments about maces for the future though) than my bow, but I only go in if something is a) being stubborn and is taking too long to die, or b) refuses to be snared. That said, I'm over-levelled, so... I still had a hairy moment against one of the public dungeon bosses yesterday (my own fault for not opening as I should have).

Honestly, I find builds far easier in The Secret World where everyone goes on about how it's really difficult to understand, but it isn't at all! It's just different. There are no classes, you can learn any skill you want, use any weapon you want (like in this), and by the end you'll probably know every skill in the game. You wield 2 weapons at a time (like this) but you get one bar of 7 (later 8) actives to share amongst both weapons, and a bar of 7 (later 8) passives to slot to accompany them. You can slot any passive from any weapon line at any time regardless of the weapons you're using (unless it says it only applies when using x weapon). The power of any build comes from its passives, and the synergy you create. So if you've decided you'll use a blade because it looks cool, you look at the blade's actives, look for the status effects it can use, and then search all the passives in the game for references to those status effects and build something that has good synergy, and pick a second weapon that can compliment it. So you can find a passive that applies _affliction_ when you _penetrate_ using one of the blade's skills, and from there you need to do 2 things: 1) find another skill that exploits the _affliction_ status to get maximum utility from it (for example: x skill does y damage and also applies _impaired_ if target is _afflicted_); and 2) find a way to reliably _penetrate_. Then of course you need to find something that exploits _impaired. _You end up having this big web of information that's looping back in on itself as you make connections between skills and passives and build something in 14 (later 15) slots that works incredibly efficiently. 

But in ESO, for one you need an external site to look at what all the morphs are so you can plan ahead, which is annoying. My brain also doesn't seem to gel as well with what I need to take into account to find those synergies. Trying to decide on a weapon (never mind two of them) is hellish. I really don't like the feel of the staff combat for some reason, it feels really underwhelming, but that automatically biases me against using them. I need to rectify that. Hell, the time I've spent thinking about race, class and weapon combos - before I even get into the nitty gritty of attribute distribution, or which class lines - is ridiculous. It's all just a muddle in my head. I hate not being able to get it straight.

I have a level 4 Khajiit sorcerer with a bow sitting on my account and I can't for the life of me remember why I went with that combo.

Used to be a bow was great with sorcerer (I have a level 8 altmer bow sorcerer sitting there too), and with templar (likewise, level 8 bowplar sat in the DC). I get the impression that's not so much the case now though. idk. Coming back after many, many incremental re-balances is tough! I'll get the hang of it in time though.

I need to upgrade my gear. I'm nearly lvl29 in 20-24 gear, but that's been fine because I've been taking my time finishing Grahtwood. I popped into the next zone last night, and will spend some time foraging to make a new set. I've got some Viper's Sting stuff that I found and bought, and some Torug's Pact stuff because it's one of the first unique crafting stations I came across. I should go back to that stealthy nightblady place in Auridon to craft some stuff there to make up for what I'll be losing in Viper's gear when I upgrade.

For all my pontificating though, I'm just enjoying riding around on my tiger and looking at all the pretty scenery and listening to the quest givers and promising myself I'll read the lore books only to close them immediately because there's this Thing I Have To Do Right Now and maybe I'll come back to it later.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 11, 2016)

Have they just done a patch? just tried to play and got trapped in a repair/patch loop


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 11, 2016)

PC/Mac Patch Notes v2.2.9

looks like it


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 11, 2016)

Epona thought I'd ask you since you're more likely to know (and I can't find anything online): when I logged in for the first time in months there was a mail waiting for me from someone I don't know. No message, no subject line, but 5 or 6 VR 15 weapons attached. Now, it's not that I'm not grateful for this unexpected windfall, but I want to know if there's some kind of scam going around getting people to reply or take attachments or whatever. 

In the spirit of comradeship I was going to mail them to ask if it was intended or a mistake on their behalf and if they want it back, but I won't do that if there's some kind of nefarious bot scam I don't know about...


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 11, 2016)

Also Peggy jumped on my mouse at a critical time and I attacked a guard.

Goddammit Peggy.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 12, 2016)

The year ahead for ESO: Elder Scrolls Online


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 12, 2016)

I can't get greymind's quick slot bar to work. I set it up, assign keybinds, have my stuff in the relevant slot, but when I click that keybind it simply highlights it, or selects it, on the bar but won't actually use it.

I'm uninstalling for now and will see if I can use the one in advanced ui.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 12, 2016)

No, I can't get that to register my keybinds either.

What might I be doing wrong? Any ideas?

The keybinds I assigned are showing in the bar, the items are showing in the bar, but when I go to use them nothing happens.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 12, 2016)

Worked it out. Didn't realise all it did was swap what was in your primary quickslot position.


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## Epona (Jan 14, 2016)

OK - lot of posts since I last looked, first thing first - Greymind's Quickslot Bar - you can hotkey your consumables, but you still need to hit Q to actually use them.  So like I have health pots on F1, Magicka Pots on F2, Stam pots on F3, Tripots on F4, Food on F6 - I hit F1 to select the health pot, but still need to hit Q to actually take the pot.  The quickbar doesn't make you auto-glug potions, it's just an easier alternative to the horrible radial menu as to what is currently going to happen if you press Q.


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## Epona (Jan 14, 2016)

Just going to try to respond to a few other things, yes back in the day bowsorc was (I can't remember the exact reason, but there was something) really powerful, although there are a dedicated few who try to run a stamsorc, but a bowsorc is not what it used to be, you're probably better off ditching the bow and going either dw maces/resto or dw maces/destro.  (Maces for reasons I mentioned in an earlier post).

I do know what you mean about staves, I just can't really get to grips with them, getting up close and whacking enemies at close range just generally seems more satisfying!

In terms of people sending odd mails, unless I have missed something it was probably just user error - hit R to return a mail to sender (something people do all the time in the middle of a dungeon run when their inventory is getting full is send mails with attachments to a friend to return them, so it could be that person just accidentally selected the wrong address.  There is no scam that I know of).  The person who sent it is probably wondering why their friend @Ambrosia or something similar didn't return the mail right away (as when you send a mail there is a drop down menu of similar @ names that you can select from, it's probably just a mid-dungeon "argh, fuck, clear out my inventory!" error). 

If it was 6 items VR15-16 white or green gear, that would also point to it being someone clearing out their inventory by trying to bounce a mail off a friend during a dungeon run and getting the address wrong.


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## Epona (Jan 14, 2016)

In terms of upgrading gear, until you hit max at VR16 you can pretty much easily get away with just making new gear at every change in the type of mats for most levels - with new characters I make gear for them at levels 4, 10, 16, 26, 36, 46, VR1, VR4, VR7, VR9 (and then although the mats are the same as VR9) VR12 and VR14 then save up mats for VR16.

Edit: I improve stuff to green up to and including lvl 16, then blue for 26-46, and purple for vet rank gear.  Save gold upgrades for end game gear.


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## Epona (Jan 14, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Also Peggy jumped on my mouse at a critical time and I attacked a guard.
> 
> Goddammit Peggy.



I am very familiar with that routine, Sonic in particular will happily sit on my lap for a while then gradually creep onto the keyboard, usually hitting the space bar and making me jump around all over the place.  Being adult cats, they normally sleep a lot of the time, but as soon as I go on teamspeak, they spring to life - not sure whether they are thinking I am talking to them, or if they think there is just something interesting going on that they should be involved in.

In case you didn't already know, you can turn off "attack innocents" in the settings menu - for best experience I would suggest leaving it turned on most of the time, but turn it off temporarily if a quest has you go beat up a few hostiles around town or has you do some combat in town in any way - because if you hit a guard or civilian whilst you are trying to beat up a mercenary or a bandit for a quest, you will get a hefty bounty.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 14, 2016)

omg I did NOT know you could turn that off! If I'm wandering around a town overrun with enemies I have more than once blithely shot off a snipe before realising they are a friendly instead  I run away and then hide until I have under 100g left to pay 

I saw an addon that will only let you steal items if you're in stealth. I think I'm going to get that because goddammit if I don't keep accidentally clicking and stealing someone's pleasantly displayed shield on their market stall table when I want to in fact click on them to sell them my spoils. 

I don't upgrade everything to blue, I seem to be doing pretty well with most things at green, and probably just chest and legs in blue. As I reached 30 I slowly started making a new set of gear but it's not all the same level, some is 28, some 30, and some 32, and that will do me for a while. I should do the next stage of the mage's guild quests because I need new jewellery, which is pretty hard to come by. I know not to do the last fighter's guild quest until you're VR, but I hear different things about what the cap is - I've heard it caps out at VR14, VR12, VR8, and 50. Still, I'm nowhere near there yet so I'm sure I'll find out by then. I'm holding off on any of the guild/main quests that level with you until I make my next jump in material, so I can make a set of level-appropriate gear. I'm having fun in Greenshade. I wandered into an area that I think is meant to be done later, it was referencing stuff to do with Naemon that I'd only just learned and hadn't done the next bit of quest to set in motion, so I did one side quest there, grabbed a shard, and went back west.

I seem to be holding my own pretty well now. I feel quite powerful again. I was running around with someone a level or two above me yesterday - we weren't grouped but were in the same area doing the same stuff, and they were getting pwned quite a bit, and I was helping them out. I don't religiously stick to a rotation, although I have a pseudo-rotation for easy kills and openers, but when things get hairy I just spam the shit out of whatever I can remember to use. I try to be intelligent about it, but I'm often not  Still, I come out of most things just fine. I've closed the gap now, I'm no longer 9 levels over-levelled  and just maybe 1 or 2, which is much better. Did a level 30 dolmen last night, just me and someone else, had to run away at first because I wasn't prepared for the jump in difficulty (I've been at least 4 levels above all the ones I've done since I've been back) but then it went pretty nicely. When you play alone it's difficult to gauge your strength, but working down this big old boss and his minions with one other person I saw how much damage I was doing compared to them, and it felt great. Of course, I'm pretty squishy, but I'm doing stam/health 2/1 and I have a couple of health glyphs and 2 pieces of ashen grip which I think ups health at that level too. The rest is night's silence. There's a dearth of nightblade/crit/dps/stamina set gear in these middle stages. I don't have enough traits researched on enough pieces to make it worth my while trying to get to Hunding's Rage atm, so I'm going night's silence 5 pieces and then 2/3 pieces (3 because daggers, one of the daggers can be something else) whatever I feel I'm falling behind in, so at the moment I thought ashen grip looked okay. And honestly, I don't feel like I'm going to die so that's fine. I found and bought a few pieces of viper's sting a while back, it's a shame you can't craft that because it had great set bonuses.

I hate hate hate the layout of woodhearth, and it doesn't have a bank (that I can find), so I'm going back to Marburk frequently, which itself isn't as well laid out as Elden Root. Just put everything in one place, dammit


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## Epona (Jan 14, 2016)

It USED to be the case that best to do the last fighter's guild quest at a very high level, because the enchantment on the weapon that you could choose as a leveled quest reward was unique - but that was before Imperial City: - you can now get the rune for that extra damage against undead and daedra from IC, or buy it from other players, so the weapon from the FG questline is no longer unique, you can make your own version of it when you want a VR16 weapon that does that.  (Not sure of prices on the EU server, but on the NA server the rune for daedra/undead damage sells for about 40-50k, which is not peanuts, but it's not breaking the bank either in terms of end game gear).  Personally, I now like to finish up the FG questline before I go to the upper part of Coldharbour (I am usually about VR1 then) because it is really useful during that portion of the zone and main questlines.

If you can craft it, Hunding's Rage is all the rage for any stamina build because of the 5 piece set bonus for weapon damage - I use 5 Hunding's Rage and 3 Ashen Grip on my stamina builds.  Hunding's requires 6 traits researched before you can craft it though, if you can't do that yet or get someone to craft it for you, I would suggest a mix of Night's Silence and Ashen Grip (both of those crafting stations are in the first zone, and only 2 traits are needed, neither has a particularly mind-blowing 5 piece bonus, although the 5 piece bonus on Nights Silence that removes movement penalty in sneak is really handy if you use sneak a lot, but the 2/3/4 piece bonuses for each set are good).

Yeah Woodhearth sucks, it looks as though it ought to be really cool but there's no bank, and it's all too spread out, even the wayshrine is way out of town.  Elden Root has everything more central, but I think once you get to Rawl'kha in Reaper's March you will be relieved of all worries, as it has everything and is really compact, the bank is right next to the wayshrine and you can see everything else you need from there as well.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 14, 2016)

Yeah, I spent some time looking at the set bonuses and figured that even though they're from the first zone Night's Silence and Ashen Grip really do provide the best for me that I can access right now. I have a couple of pieces with 6 researched traits, but most have about 3 right now. Some still lagging behind with 1 (I really need to get researching on medium belts and helms).

I have 220 bank space now, and it's still almost always full. I understand why they don't, but I wish glyphs stack. God, I'm glad runes stack now though, they didn't when I last played. I found a Kuta rune last night, WOO. Holding onto that baby. I seem to have found a couple of places that had a LOAD of red runes - probably just luck, I don't think they spawn back the same colour do they? But I'm getting a nice collection now of all colours. I'm going to do enchanting with another character, not this one. I'm collecting the red runes I see, but generally not the others since they're more commonplace. I think I'll get to Reaper's March and then focus on one of my other characters for a while. Not sure which one. It'd be nice to focus on a magicka build. Sorcerer is meant to be a soloing beast, so it'd suit me while I'm still learning (and while I have no friends lol), but I am fond of the idea of dragonknight because rah fire brimstone woo. I imagine DK could be magicka or stamina? I'd expect magicka might be more useful for solo play, and stamina for tanking? I'm pulling that out my arse though, tbh, I have no idea. My sorc is an altmer, and I think I'd prefer to be somewhere else tbh. My DK is a dunmer, and my templar is a breton, so I have some choices there. Got some time before I decide though.


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## Epona (Jan 15, 2016)

Breton templar is a great race/class combination which is fantastic for soloing, and I really like most of the DC storyline, it has some great characters and a solid story.  I would highly recommend giving that one a go - am biased though, one of my own favourite characters is a Breton templar 

You'd want to run that one as magicka build to make the most of the racial passives, so you have a really great self-heal in your restoring aura class line (the instant one, not the useless 3 second to cast one!) which makes it a joy to solo.  Puncturing sweep (the magicka morph of the first skill in the aedric spear line) is a reliable go-to melée range dps skill that damages in a cone, and that also heals you (the morph does) based on damage done, and Radiant Glory (morph of Radiant Oppression) does large amount of damage against a single target and is very useful against bosses or in PvP.  Solar disturbance (morph of Nova) is a good ultimate, and at higher levels I have the mage's guild ultimate on the second bar.

I think it's a really fun build for soloing, it's like the duracell bunny - with the self heals you can just run from one mob to the next without stopping - it's also flexible as you can heal effectively for groups or in PvP, especially if you level up resto staff on your second bar.  I go dw/resto, but because you have a built in heal that is really good you can stick anything on the weapon bars that you like, you won't need resto for self-heals at all.  I think you'd find it a lot of fun.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 15, 2016)

That's really useful, thank you! I think I will do that then. I might delete her and start from scratch (after banking/selling all her stuff, obv). She's only a few levels in, so I'm not losing much progress, plus she went heavy on the bow so I'd be levelling dw from scratch anyway (which I know is no bad thing, but still). I'll have to see if I can remember to get her looking how I like (super important part of it all!).

Made it to lvl 34 now with my nightblade, manage to solo the public dungeon in Greenshade (not difficult really) apart from the group boss. There was only one other person in the dungeon and they'd fucked off by the time I got there 

I'm fed up of outlevelling my gear so quickly. And I accidentally deconstructed the dagger I'd made myself for when I hit 34


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## Epona (Jan 17, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> I'm fed up of outlevelling my gear so quickly.



I hear ya - on my main account all my characters have been veteran rank for a while, and I'd forgotten what it was like.  On my second account, I've been playing lower level characters for a few days and it all came flooding back Saturday.  Saturday I went into Coldharbour with one character at lvl 43, so I was wearing Dwarven Ore and equivalent level gear.  Now I've been through Coldharbour on so many characters that I suffer from what I call "Coldharbour Fatigue" and just wanted to do everything there is to do without dawdling.  Saturday evening, I crafted myself some level 46 Ebony gear, and just now I crafted some VR1 gear because I am about to go into the final zone quest and am lvl 49 and three quarters.  So that's 3 sets in one day of playing  - I think I may rethink my crafting strategy for other non-vet characters!  (I have given that Ebony set that got about 4 hours use to an alt to hold on to for future characters to use, I may be obsessive about what I craft and when, but I am not wasteful!  )

If it's any consolation, you won't have to do nearly as much crafting once you hit vet rank, as gear is good for about 3 vet ranks, which is more like 3 zones than 3 hours 



Vintage Paw said:


> And I accidentally deconstructed the dagger I'd made myself for when I hit 34



Easily done, I tend to zone out a bit when I am deconstructing stuff.  I haven't tried it yet, but I was looking at an addon called "Itemsaver" which I *think* allows you to flag items and removes flagged items from workbench and vendor lists.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 17, 2016)

Yeah, I've started using item saver. What made it so easy to do is that I've started using Research Assistant. I don't know if you use it. It places different coloured buttons next to stuff depending on whether you know the traits or not, so I've been blithely deconstructing grey stuff without looking at what they were, because I don't generally make myself gear before I hit the level to use it, but this time I had and it was sitting there in my inventory... and poof... I realised as soon as I hit E.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 17, 2016)

Also, damn, maxed out bank slots are still not enough! (Okay, I'm not quite maxed out, got 220 atm but I know 240 will still leave me struggling, especially once I get a couple more characters going. Just... thank the maker runes stack these days.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 17, 2016)

Oh, and I am finding LOADS of red runes (I forget what they are... aspect? Essence is yellow and Potency is blue?). I thought they used to be the hardest to come by but not since I've been back. I tend to find a bunch close together. What I'm finding hardest is just normal glyphs to deconstruct.


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

Are you storing weapons and armour for future research?  I used to have terrible bank trouble when I was saving stuff for that, but it's not been too much of an issue since I finished most of my research.  You may be doing this already, but if you have a few non-crafting alts that haven't done any research, have them research the pieces that your main crafter needs, at least the ones that are less urgent such as sturdy and well-fitted items (if you have a sub the first trait for an item is only 6 hours, the second 12), in a few days you should have cleared out a fair number of those items.  Then the alt(s) can craft the item with that trait when your crafter has a research slot free, saves you keeping every single research item in your bank for possibly weeks on end while your crafter researches other stuff.  The addon called AI Research grid lets you look at each of your characters' researched items when you are not logged onto them, which you may find useful if you decide to do that, or are already doing it.

I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief when stack sizes for all mats were doubled to 200, including runes (which initially would only stack to 10 which is ludicrous).  Yes they did up the rate of aspect rune nodes, alas most of them drop Ta, and everyone is drowning in Ta, can't give them away - the only thing people use them for is enchanting writs.  But more nodes means more chances at a more valuable/useful rune, so it's all good.  Just don't hang on to stacks of Ta in case it comes in handy, because it won't - just keep 1 stack for writs and destroy the rest.

Highest drop rate for white glyphs for decon is from daedra/undead, also locked chests often provide one.  People who have already maxed out their enchanting often sell white glyphs cheap at guild traders, so it's worth just having a look if you go past a guild kiosk (use the Awesome Guild Store addon for more filters when browsing through guild trader inventories).

EDIT: Oh do you still have that guild that you started, Urban Alliance?  If so and you want me to hop on to the EU server and join that on my second account so you are closer to having a guild bank available, just let me know and I'll do so.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 19, 2016)

OK  this  might  sound  like a Noob  question but


what is the best way to acquire  recipes? 

I really like the idea of being a chef  in MMOs

It  kinda feels like  you have to be aq theif  to   really  make it as a chef in ESO


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> OK  this  might  sound  like a Noob  question but
> 
> 
> what is the best way to acquire  recipes?
> ...



Most of the recipes I get aren't stolen - they drop from some enemies, but the best sources are backpacks which are often out in the wild or in delves so not 'owned', or any time you're on a main quest, fighters guild, or mages guild quest none of those containers are marked as theft.  Dwemer pots (in Dwemer ruins or quest locations) are a good source too.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jan 19, 2016)

Thanks.

that seems the real limiter on cooking.

i kinda  wish it was more like old schoo,  alchemy


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

Nah, it's fun collecting recipes - for most of them, there are multiple recipes that provide the exact same buffs, so you don't need to collect every recipe in the game (there are nearly 500) to be able to get every possible food and drink buff.

The level of the recipe you get is determined by zone, so if you are AD character looking in Auridon for a level 20 or 25 recipe it isn't going to happen, make sure you are looking in the right place.

You can also buy recipes from guild kiosks, the vast majority of green recipes are really cheap.  Except recipes that use fish, because everyone has a ton of fish so those recipes are more in demand.


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

Vintage Paw - OK I have been wanting to ask you this since you started playing again and said you had a load of crowns built up in your account - what (if anything) did you spend them on? 

I find it quite stressful spending anything (whether it is IRL or virtual currency) so I have a fair bit built up too, but I have bought 3 senche mounts at various times as I just couldn't resist!  I want one of the goat pets, but can't quite bring myself to click the 'buy' button.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 19, 2016)

I've spent them almost entirely on bank upgrades so far, and a couple of bag upgrades because I'm impatient. I bought myself the black senche pet (who is adorbs). I figured since I'm not really one for vanity items first and foremost, using them for bank space was the best thing to do. I'm at 230 now, I have enough crowns to take me to 240 but I haven't quite needed to yet.

As time goes on, I'll likely spend any more I get on crafting motifs. I have all the standard ones on my main crafter now, and almost all of them built up again in my bank should I want to level anything on another character in the future. I've found one purple dwemer page (in a low level area, which was interesting), but that's all. I think all 4 rares (primal etc) are 5k together on the store. Then that weird Xsomething one is another few grand. But tbh, I'm not massively bothered about style for my own characters, it'll only be an issue if I get into trading.

In terms of provisioning, shippy, I've found higher level recipes now and again. The best thing to do is make the highest level recipes you can to level your skill up as quickly as possible. The most important thing to put your points into early on is the passive that lets you create higher level recipes (not green, blue, purple etc) because it'll let you get more experience with more recipes. Pop to a guild trader (in most large cities) and find a few cheap green higher level recipes and batch make them and you'll be at 50 in no time. Then you can start putting points into other passives. 

Another tip: go to Cyrodiil. You can find ingredients and materials and recipes for things you don't usually see in your own region, and at different levels. If you stick in your own area you should be fine. It's also a good source of free skill points with all the skyshards. You're levelled to V14 in the non-veteran campaign, so everyone is the same level, inc npc enemies, the only difference is what skills you have unlocked and your gear. Plus Cyrodiil is just great fun. Watch chat in there and head to where they say they're attacking/being attacked, ask to join a group, then follow the leader and join in. It's brilliant (and this is from someone who abhors cooperative online play).


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

See I view that as a waste of crowns, given you can get all those things by playing the game.  Mind you, I view most cosmetic items (except the senche mounts) a waste of crowns too


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 19, 2016)

In answer to your other questions, epona, yes I've been storing stuff for research, but I tend to get rid of stuff that isn't too important right now especially if it's on something like my bow, which I have 7 researched. It never occurred to me to get another of my characters to decon it and make one for my main crafter... ingenious. I'm hovering around 210 in my bank at the moment, which isn't too bad. Enough room to put a full set of new gear in to swap to another character, enough room to pop in 'extra inspiration' gear I find for my main crafter, etc. 

I'm keeping Ta atm so I can craft the odd glyph for myself - I am changing out of gear so fast I don't want to waste green or above on them. White has seen me fine up to 35 with my nightblade so far. 

My templar is level 11 now. I'm yet to take anything other than the first skill in each class line, and I haven't taken a single weapon skill yet  I'm using a resto staff, which doesn't hit hard but it's absolutely fine so far. Not sure what I'll do when I get to 15. I might start levelling destro, dw AND 2h, and see which I like the feel of the most. 



Epona said:


> See I view that as a waste of crowns, given you can get all those things by playing the game.  Mind you, I view most cosmetic items (except the senche mounts) a waste of crowns too



Heh, well it seems to take me ages to build up any money. I have 30k on my nightblade, 2k on my templar after bag upgrades to 90 (I deposited some for her in the bank before I started), and I simply don't have the patience to wait  

That guild is still in existence, btw. Not a solitary soul involved in it now though, so I wouldn't worry about it. I'll keep it around probably, just in case, but I'm likely going to try to hunt down some established guilds once I level up some more. Difficult to know how to find a good one though. They're thinner on the ground on the EU server.


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

Have a look on the official forums, there is a guild recruitment forum that might be worth having a bit of a browse through.  The forum as a whole is kind of a toxic environment IMO filled with "you suck L2P" and "nerf this" and namecalling and the usual battles between people who hate the game and fanboys (and watch your language there, I got a warning for saying "hell"), but there are guild recruitment forums that might be worth a look.

The money thing is down to finding a good trading guild - although you may not think you have a lot of cash or stuff to sell right now you will get to the point where you have an excess - I made 30k last week JUST on selling excess mats (mostly spare provisioning ingredients and refined mats that I don't use - ie. stuff I had more than 1 stack of) and another more than 50k selling an imperial motif and 2 barbaric motifs that I didn't need (BTW, Imp motif can drop at any level - I've had 6 or 7 of them now, mostly on lower level characters around the lvl 20-30 mark; Barbaric and Primal in VR1-5 zones, and Daedric and Ancient Elf in VR6-10 zones, don't spend your crowns on them because they seem rare now, I have looted 3 barbaric motifs and a primal this week, and 2 daedric on a higher level character the week before last, you just have to be in an area that is at the level that drops them).

I don't make money from selling high end gear from trials or PvP, just on mats/motifs that I have collected, and it's a fairly steady income.  Being 'that person' who stops to harvest every node and look in every container pays off eventually.  It's why I would find it difficult to justify spending crowns on stuff that I can buy for in-game gold, because I have plenty of in-game gold (more than I know what to do with, other than sinking into my own guild/guild donations/raffles to pay for kiosks) - and you will get to that point too.  Then there's a possibility that you might look back and wonder why you didn't buy that mount/pet/outfit with your crowns instead


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## Epona (Jan 19, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> My templar is level 11 now. I'm yet to take anything other than the first skill in each class line, and I haven't taken a single weapon skill yet  I'm using a resto staff, which doesn't hit hard but it's absolutely fine so far. Not sure what I'll do when I get to 15. I might start levelling destro, dw AND 2h, and see which I like the feel of the most.



I just hope you enjoy playing the class after my recommendation  - I honestly cannot get to grips with a resto staff as a main weapon at all (on any class), I did level it on my breton templars (by having it on my 2nd bar and switching to 2nd weapon to turn in quests, getting all the quest xp on that weapon skill), but I only tend to use it in group dungeons when there is a situation that requires back-up healing/buffs, or in PvP.  I just can't for some reason feel the love for any ranged weapon in this game - I'm happier when I'm whacking enemies at close range/using close range spells for some reason 

My preferred magicka templar build is dw as main weapon, heavy cuirass and legs for physical resistance and looks, and the other 5 pieces light (for the light armour magicka passives) and just wade in to battle at melée range.  My magicka templars all look a bit like D&D clerics with their armour and blunt weapons   And although I laugh about it, it is a build that works really well.

I do think there is a good reason to go through most of the DC storyline before going to Coldharbour on any character in any faction - because the vast majority of the NPCs that come with you to Coldharbour, including some really important ones, are from the DC faction storyline or side quests - and there are some moments that are really more poignant and meaningful, or in some cases funny, if you already knew those characters from the DC zones before getting to Coldharbour.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 19, 2016)

I've done all 3 factions' intro islands a couple of times now, and I have to say that I like the DC story the best, because of how you get to know the crew of the ship, how they each have something to say to you at numerous points before you get to Glenumbra, and having to make a decision that alienates half of them is really welcome. I mean, it has no Rasum-dar, which is a big, big downside since he is brilliant... and I honestly can't remember much about the EP intro because I haven't done it since I reinstalled but I don't remember being very taken by it. But the DC intro feels like it had more time lavished on it in terms of writing than the others.

I still feel more at home in EP for some reason, but I haven't got past Glenumbra/Stonefalls with the others yet so that may change.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 19, 2016)

It's been a buggy mess recently.

I get massive fps spikes. I can pootle along happily at 70-99 fps, and then it'll drop to 20. Relogging often fixes it, but not always. It tends to happen later at night, so not when there are loads of people and spells around or anything like that. It started happening maybe 3 days ago.

And I keep losing my ability to interact with anything. Grrrr. It's driving me mad.


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## Epona (Jan 20, 2016)

Yeah a lot of people have been having trouble the last few days, I am getting the lag spikes and occasional disconnects.  They didn't do maintenance on the PC servers this week either, which is a bit  given that the hamsters clearly need oiling or whatever.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 20, 2016)

Phew, I'm glad it's not just me (although not celebrating the fact others are going through it too!).

Templar is lvl 15 now. I solo'd a group of 3 group bosses last night. I was a couple of levels above them, but considering I'm not very good at combat I was SO impressed I made it through. They were the outdoor werewolf ones in Glenumbra. THANK THE GODS FOR HEALS. I was fucking spamming that first restoring light heal thing while kiting them at one point lol. I had to use a potion too. 

I can't decide how to morph that heal. I know breath of light is standard, but that's if you're healing others, which I'm not. I don't know if I'm ever going to find myself in groups or a guild where I play with others (because I'm very much not sociable, and I very much am not good at the game and have The Fear of letting people down - not something I can just think away I'm afraid) and I know I can respec to that in the future if I want... but maybe taking BoL would encourage me to take a few more risks with that, idk. I should add I've never played a healer role in my life - there's a reason dps is so popular, because as long as you can try to avoid damage (not even necessary in some games if healing is set up for it) you just spam what works. 

I morphed the second resto staff skill to rapid regen because while mutagen might be an effective oh shit button I don't think that would necessarily teach me to play any better. Plus there's plenty of burst healing in the templar class skills anyway. I haven't taken the first resto staff skill. 

I still only have the first skill of each templar line. I morphed the aedric spear skill to be puncturing sweep for the heal. I'm focusing on magicka regen, lower spell cost, and extra magicka for my passives from wherever, with a mixture of health and magicka on my gear (plus one stamina), and reduced spell cost on jewellery. I'm using 5 Seducer pieces atm, because I don't have many traits unlocked in light and heavy (I'm currently using 1 medium and 1 heavy to level them, I've got medium chest and heavy legs atm).

I don't know what 2nd weapon to go for now. I've got into a really nice rhythm with my resto staff (and here I was saying I don't like staves!) - I do the burninating sun skill thing from afar, then heavy resto attack until they get to me, then finish them off with puncturing sweep. I was going to get the leapy jumpy aedric skill, the third one, so I can jump right into the fray. That would be useful on a second bar if I level dw/2h, but tbh with so much magicka (I keep calling it mana) and regen I can spam my class skills forever and a day, and my weapon power is never going to be that great with stam based weapons (but dw helpful for spell power eventually - see, I do listen ).

Heck, since I'm going all out on survivability, even s&s could be an option. Damn, I want to level everything lol. Since I'm enjoying resto staff so much (inorite!) I'm so very tempted to go with destro staff. 

GAH.

I'm noticing lots of differences in enemies and the flow of play here with DC as opposed to AD. For example, loads of the enemies are proper tanks, deploying a shield skill that makes most of my attacks miss. I don't remember EVER seeing that on AD - not yet anyway (and I'm half way through Greenshade). Maybe it's because I have a lot of stuns and immobilising skills on my nightblade they never get a chance to deploy them? My nb is a crowd control beast. I lock them down in a fiery cage of raining arrows and don't let them out  If anything gets remotely close to me I've fucked up (or it's a boss who's immune). That said, I'm enjoying templar a lot now I've got that rhythm going. If only I could decide what to level next...

I'm getting annoyed with how few rune nodes I'm finding. I'm swimming in alchemy ingredients (which I use up immediately to try to level) because I took the first keen eye skill, which for alchemy is crucial imo (I never bothered for clothing/wood/metal... I can see them easy enough). I haven't taken keen eye for enchanting because the nodes are bigger and they already have shimmery lights, I can usually spot them a way away, but maybe there are some I'm missing? It's only one point, so I guess I will take the first rank and see if it helps.

Also, the provisioning/alchemy/enchanting writs are tough! You're totally at the mercy of rnd-style luck as to what spawns where. I don't have either of the recipes my provisioning writ wants me to make (carrot soup and golden lager) and I can't find them in any of the local guild stores. My alchemy writ wants me to find cornflower but it's just about the only fugging one that won't spawn. And my enchanting writ wants a rune I can't dig up for love nor money. Goddammit  I'm using item saver so I don't accidentally sell or decon the bits and bobs I've made for the writs so far. I do that far too often


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 20, 2016)

Got myself my first perfect roe, lol.

Is it at all possible to get blue fish if you fish alone? I've got blue when fishing with 3 others, and green on my own. I guess it is possible, just going to take a good long while. That's fine. I'm happy taking my time. Going to take a slow fishing tour of the place before I move on, and am fishing here and there when I have 15+ of whatever bait.


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## Epona (Jan 22, 2016)

I don't group much either - only with friends where I know we're all about the same level of competence (ie. a long way from being the gaming elite LOL), and I know if we wipe a few times we'll have a laugh about it and spend a while talking through alternate strategies rather than trying to apportion blame.

Where resto staff does come in handy for me is in Cyro - join in with a siege and spam the first 2 resto abilities on those manning siege weapons, and you'll do some good and earn AP even if you're not that great at combat.  You will of course be targeted by enemy players for quick removal, but even if you're not great at fighting back, you'll have done something useful while you were there and earned the AP for healing.  Or join a zerg and stay in the middle of it, similar deal.

Yes a lot of enemies especially in Glenumbra seem to be "Dominion Shieldwall" or similar, if you see an enemy with a shield, best tactic IMO is to either run into melée range and use puncturing sweep which has a knockback and will stop them immediately using that annoying shield skill, OR if you prefer to open at range, take the second aedric spear skill which is a ranged attack with a knockback, OR open with focused charge (3rd skill in aedric spear) which stuns and brings you straight into melée range, both morphs of that are useful, OR spear shards, another ranged one which disorients an enemy for 6 seconds (one of the morphs turns that into a stun) - so there are a few options to choose from!

Runes are most common around ruins, it could just be bad luck and there's someone farming the things just ahead of you.  When it comes to potency runes, they drop at particular levels according to zone (except in wrothgar and cyro, where they drop by character enchanting rank).  Those writs are tricky at first, for provisioning you don't necessarily need the recipe, you can turn in food/drink made by another player, so check stores for the finished product too.  (Potions for alchemy writs are the same, everything else you need to make on the character who has the writ as it checks for a 'crafted by' tag - provisioning and alchemy products aren't tagged by crafter).

And yes, you can get blue fish when fishing solo, but the drop rate is lower than if there are several people at a fishing hole.

I'm getting quite excited now about the upcoming thieves guild dlc and patch Elder Scrolls Online


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 22, 2016)

I answered my own blue fish question - I just got one. And 2 more perfect roe. 

I've been sticking with destro staff for the time being. I haven't taken any skills in it, just letting it level up. I've morphed the first class heal to breath of light, because I figure if I'm looking at healing skills then I might as well make them useful if I do decide to do stuff with others (good tips about Cyrodiil btw), and I have enough healing power anyway to keep myself alive while I'm levelling.

I decided to take my nb out last night since she's not seen much action since I started my templar (who is now lvl 19) and god... I realise how much I love having decent heals! I have the siphon ability, but it doesn't heal for much. For some utterly ridiculous reason I went after a set of 3 group bosses (who I have solo'd before) and died spectacularly. NB is really difficult for me in terms of working out which direction I should go in. I love my bow, I love the bow skills, massive crowd control to make sure nothing gets near me, and that lovely lovely snipe too. My daggers do more damage, though, if I'm going against something that won't stay away or has an awful lot of health, so I don't want to drop them for a couple of heals from the resto staff (which would never be that great since I've gone all stamina anyway). I need to look into survivability. Maybe I should wear a couple of pieces of heavy instead of all medium, idk. I mean, I don't die often, but I feel like kiting and hoping they're susceptible to cc/stuns/knockback/immobilisation is all the mitigation I've got. Gah.

Anyway, enjoying my templar. I really like the fire class line, I've only taken the first skill and I morphed it to hit multiple targets (since there are a lot of groups at this stage, and I can respec to the other one should I go serious into Cyrodiil or whatever). Enemy casters go down very fast after they've been hit by that, and since there is a lot of werewolf stuff here in Glenumbra it's been serving me well. I was told all I'd need for a magicka templar while levelling is that first aedric spear skill, but half the time they're dead before they even get into melee range 

I'm excited for the Thieves' Guild stuff too. I haven't properly invested in stealing or trying to pickpocket yet, but maybe that'll give me more of a reason to do it. I steal the odd thing here and there but only if I can use it, since it's not going to be worth dealing with laundering at the small amounts I'm stealing. Also I have this unfortunate problem where if something doesn't fit with how I see my character I just won't do it. So she won't steal from ordinary folk, only nobles or dicks


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## Epona (Jan 22, 2016)

If you like that first dawn's wrath ability (I find it very handy as an opener against multiple targets whilst I run into Puncturing Sweep range), you'll love Radiant Destruction when you unlock it.  It's single target and channeled, but you can move while channeling so can usually sidestep out of the red - it does seriously more damage against enemies under 50% health, so leave it until later in your rotation against bosses when you have already whittled them down, and watch their health bar melt.  It's known as the "templar nuke" in PvP.  I think you'll enjoy that skill 

Templar is by far my favourite class (I actually hated it during beta for some reason!) because it's a great all-rounder with a bit of everything which makes it great for solo play, and for a magicka build you have a choice of healing or dps roles in groups, or as I do, dps with backup heals.  A stamina templar can fit either dps or tank roles (although Dragonknight is a better natural tank as has more cc abilities, a templar is more than capable of tanking effectively) with a change of gear.  They aren't particularly OP in any direction (except natural healing ability), but so so flexible.

EDIT to add: Stamina templar is also really fun to play, it doesn't have quite the resource sustainablity of the magicka build or the same level of 'oh shit' self-heal capability, but makes up for that in slightly increased physical resistance and high weapon damage/weapon crit.  It's a build that is definitely best done mostly melée with the buff/heal from the 2H weapon line.  There are a number of "when slotted" buffs from various skills that I use for my stamplar build which makes it a bit of a killing machine, and every so often daedra and undead just evaporate in a mess of blue flame when I hit them (due to Evil Hunter from the Fighter's Guild line, which is very satisfying).  With that build, I do occasionally have to sit behind a rock panting whilst my stamina bar refills though


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 22, 2016)

With your 2 maces, do you take any dw skills, or rely on class skills? If you're all magicka, you won't have much to play with while leaving enough for a couple or so dodge rolls in a pinch. 

I've seen others talking about 2 swords because of the 3% damage increase rather than maces for less physical damage resistance. I'm going to re-read your post about that, because physical damage won't be racking up if you're only using spells, that's spell damage, right? So what's the benefit of the maces in that instance? (I understand about the trait bit, just the twin blade and blunt passive is confusing me a bit, as to what types of damage it applies to and how the numbers stack up - not that I'm looking to min-max, I just don't want to be useless.)


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## Epona (Jan 22, 2016)

2 swords is better for hybrid builds that actually do weapon damage, 3% of barely any damage is not worth it for a pure magicka build imo.  I don't slot any dw actives, I put most of my attribute points in magicka (with maybe a few in health at high levels, at VR16 the aim for a dps build should be to have health of around 20k with buffs from enchantments and consumables, highly competent players with lightning reflexes can get away with 18k but I do not fall into that category) so all that will happen is that a dw active will use a good portion of my stamina bar and not do a lot of damage whilst taking up a spot on my bar that could be used for something more effective.

I DO put some dw skills on my 2nd bar and switch to it to turn in quests, as it levels the dw skill line to unlock the passives quicker.

I do take some of the dw passives - Dual Wield Expert, Ruffian, and Twin Blade and Blunt - as I still mash light attacks between casting spells, but ignoring 10% physical resistance is, as I understand it, better than 3% extra damage for a pure magicka build.  I don't honestly think it makes a vast amount of difference except to min/maxers mind you, so go with whatever you like the look of best.


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## Epona (Jan 22, 2016)

Having said that, either maces or swords is preferable to axes or daggers - with the first 2, they always do that extra damage or armour penetration on every hit.  Axes and daggers are a small chance of the passive doing anything at all over not having the passive, and as we all know, the RNG deities are cruel masters


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## Epona (Jan 22, 2016)

Oh just looking over the last few posts and there's one more thing I wanted to say something about that I forgot in my excitement about discussing templars  

It is in regards to thieving - you may not think it is worth laundering stuff, but every single item you process through a fence, whether fencing or laundering, is worth 1 point in legerdemain skill.  Fenced blue thieving item gives you 1 point, fenced armour piece gives you 1 point, fenced lockpick gives you 1 point, a laundered ear of corn gives you 1 point, laundered recipe gives you 1 point, a laundered style mat gives you 1 point - so if you want to level legerdemain and don't mind thieving (there are a lot of palaces and noble homes in DC territories, not so much in AD but still ample opportunities for guilt-free theft), nick EVERYTHING and either fence or launder it, even if it's only worth 1g. (Try to split it about half and half between fencing and laundering, as your daily max for each is separate).  If you're fussy about what items to nick, it will take forever to level the skill.  And I quite like the sneak bonuses that the skill-line provides


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 22, 2016)

Okay that's really useful, thank you. I haven't been to a fence yet so I don't know how much it costs - I was wary of it costing me more than the value of what I was having laundered/fenced. I'll give it a go, though. I'll go on a crime spree  I stole everything I could from that Lady whatshername who wants that Jewelled Crown. 

Talking of that, that's my favourite quest of the entire game so far. Just a pointless side quest but god, poor Stibbens! I chose to take the cursed crown, and as soon as Stibbens went to pick it up I was all, "no no NO NO NO!" trying to work out some way to stop him!!! That fucking quest. Sheer brilliance.

I figured daggers wouldn't be worthwhile, I think the tool tip says the bonus only applies to attacks with the daggers, or to dw skills? Can't remember, but I know I discounted it immediately. And axes is bleeding damage, which again presumably only applies when using the axes or dw skills? Still, while I love dots in general (and often build characters around that in some way in most games, dots and crit), I see no need to have any more other than the burning damage from the sun fire line.

I can't state (and restate) enough how much of a revelation healing is though. I know I'm only healing myself (although while I was hanging around a bit in Bad Man Hollows for the bosses to spawn I healed passing various people who were getting low on health), but it makes encounters far less stressful. Balancing magicka is the problem, needing to make sure you don't use it all in healing and end up with none for attacks (and in the heat of battle I always forget I have a weapon equipped that can do damage lol, and especially forget I can switch to my resto staff and actually get magicka back from heavy attacks... or is it health? I forget ... I know I get magicka back from something, might just be my glyph of choice when I can make them - magic damage and returns magicka with each hit... I think health back is from the passive). If I know a fight might be tough, I start by casting rapid regen on myself, then switch to destro, open with sun fire, then a heavy staff attack while they make their way to me (I'm lazy, let them do the leg work), then pummel them with puncturing sweep. I have BoL on both bars so I have a useful insta-heal should I drop too low, and I can switch back to resto now and again to recast rapid regen. 

I mean, I love proper hard hitting dps characters, I always have - the feeling of awesomeness that comes from one-shotting, or from doing such huge amounts of damage that you don't need to worry about survivability too much. But I'm not the best player at these things (I'm much better in non-mmos where I can pause, take a break, save, think it through), and while I haven't had too many problems with my NB so far, it's always risky going up against bosses (I solo world bosses and public dungeon bosses a lot, because I tend to play quite late at night when there aren't many people around... sometimes I'll make a point of saving a really tough one for a weekend or early evening when there are more around - not a problem for you I guess since you're playing on US time). And I have to be very precise about how I open, from stealth with snipe, then straight to that fire arrow aoe, then straight to barrage(? the cone attack that pins them), then I usually throw a siphon on one of them, then I spam the cone one to keep them in place, and use that knockback single target bow skill if any get out of the fire arrow aoe. It's probably not that efficient in terms of raw dps, but I like the cc of it, and that if I'm effective even casters/archers can't get off any/many attacks against me because they're stunned a lot of the time. But with templar? I feel like I have more leeway because I can just heal myself in a number of ways should I fuck up.

I notice 2H has the same bonuses as DW, but obviously only the one weapon so you don't benefit from 2 traits and 2 glyphs. On my last templar, decades ago  I was going bow and 2H because 2H seemed pretty fucking cool frankly. I saw some discussion on deltia's site (who... idk, I don't understand half of their replies in the comments, they seem unnecessarily vague sometimes) about 2H potentially being even better than DW, but I don't know what the reasoning was. As I said, I'm not planning on min-maxing, so it's not really an issue. And was it you or did I read it somewhere else? That levelling another weapon can be easier in Vet ranks anyway because the amount of xp ramps up? I guess the beauty is you're not limited to one build, and with Cyrodiil and various trials etc there's plenty to do to level up a new line if you want, even though it'll take a while, and you can respec when you want.

So, I see Wrothgar levels with you. Is it worth doing at some point early-ish, or would you recommend waiting until you're vet 14+ for the rewards? I know they're getting rid of VR, I don't know how it'll work though... just level up to 66? Will the champion system still kick in at a certain point? I haven't read about it much, so I don't know what exactly they're changing other than what they call it. And having never reached VR I don't know what's really that different about it atm anyway.

Gawd, sorry for the walls of text


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 22, 2016)

Did they change the way soul trap works at some point?

Maybe my memory is bad, but back at the beginning I seem to remember unmorphed it affected 1 target, filled 1 soul gem, and one of the morphs was 2 targets, 2 soul gems.

Now unmorphed it's 2 targets 1 soul gems (sounds rude), and one of the morphs is 3 targets but still 1 soul gem. That I can understand, anyway. I'm going to morph it to the other one, so it gives back resources on death. I don't always have it on my bar (well, I do atm for templar, but that will change in time as I unlock other skills), but when it's there I find it useful.


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## Epona (Jan 24, 2016)

I adore Stibbons and even Lady Laurent grew on me a bit - you will have more fun to come in the DC zones and in side-quests in Coldharbour - they are 2 of the reasons I suggested to play through the DC questline before doing Coldharbour on any character because they are superb, and amongst my favourite characters in the entire game (there are another 4 reasons besides that pair) and it just seems right that any player ought to get to know them a bit.

I really hated templar class during beta, like hated it with a passion.  At that time it did very paltry damage, but has since been tweaked a few times to be a very competent dps class.  Due to my less-than-great beta experience with the class, when the game went live, I tried every class _except_ templar quite early on.  Then I thought 'oh well, might as well give templar another shot' and was blown away.  Even a stamina templar has better self-heal options than any other class in the game, making either build good for solo PvE.

You get magicka back from heavy staff attacks, and stamina back from heavy attacks with other weapons.  2H is the preferred weapon for stamina builds as with high stam just the basic attacks do high damage, and there is that stam based weapon damage + hot ability on the 2H skill line which is invaluable for stam builds, and pretty cheap - just use that skill on the run in to combat and do 20% more weapon damage, hot, and larger heal at the end of the duration, rinse and repeat.  That and executioner, which is one of the best execute skills in the game for stamina builds, and wrecking blow is popular/unpopular in PvP.  Those are why you see so many people using 2H weapons, I bet they are all stamina builds though.  In terms of your magicka regen, gain a few levels and equip jewellery that either reduces magicka cost of spells, or increases regen rate - at VR levels and with arcane jewellery I don't tend to run out of magicka.

My advice would be to leave Wrothgar at least until you hit Veteran Rank - not because of the rewards (I think I deconned all my quest rewards, I don't recall anything very exciting other than the recipes you get for a side quest, and the costumes that you can unlock), but because if you do it while you are questing in your home faction pre-level 50, you'll get over-leveled for your home faction zones.  Getting over-leveled is not much of a concern once you hit veteran rank (as content up to 5 vet ranks below your own VR level still counts as being within the level range of your character).  You will probably want to continue doing the daily quests though once you max out, as often the reward contains a piece of Trinimac/Pariah/Briarheart dropped sets, which are fairly good for various builds (basically 1 set is for magicka builds, 1 for stam builds, and 1 for tanks).

When they eventually remove vet ranks, you'll get to 50 and then stop gaining levels, just switch straight onto champion points - the 2 systems run concurrently at the moment.  Post level 50 gear will require a certain number of champion points to use it, so there will still be a high-end in terms of gear.  The existing VR1-16 levels will (as far as I know) be replaced by a bonus of 10 cp and an attribute and skill point per old vet rank equivalent up to a total of 160 cp (making it equivalent to 16 veteran ranks in terms of attribute and skill points).  We'll have to wait and see for the exact details.

I don't recall whether they changed soul trap as I haven't used it for a while, once you finish the main quest you're unlikely to need it to fill gems (unless going out filling soul gems for lower level characters that do not have access to the passive yet, in which case you want to fill gems quickly) as the soul lock passive in the main quest skill line usually means that soul gems do not stay empty for very long.  It is not a bad skill in of itself though (ignoring the filling soul gems aspect of it).  Another one to consider if you have a spare slot is Silver Bolts/Silver Shards from the Fighters Guild line, very handy against daedra and undead.  Don't bother with the tether morph, it really annoys people if you start snatching enemies away from them when they are trying to melée (I'm usually pretty easy-going in game, but I've been known to log off and sulk when someone comes through a delve snatching enemies out of my melée range with tether or fiery chains  it's more annoying than someone running through hostile territory/fleeing in terror and dropping a bunch of mobs on you whilst you are trying to talk to an npc or interact with a quest objective), the shards morph for multiple targets with a knockdown is way way better and won't piss anyone off!


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## Epona (Jan 26, 2016)

As the NA server was down for a hotfix for a bit today, I hopped onto the EU server to see what sort of stuff I had and gave my bank/inventory a bit of a sort out - I seem to have a fair number of runes, so Vintage Paw - if you are still missing any that you need for writs, let me know and I'll see if I can send you some.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 26, 2016)

Thanks! I'll take a look next time I go on. I popped in briefly earlier to train horses and research, but I'm busy with other stuff today so might not get any playing done. I can't remember what my current writ is, nothing too onerous I don't think. Still haven't fulfilled that provisioner one. Can you abandon crafting writs in the hope of picking up a different one? I'll try it. I've looked in guild stores for both the recipes and the ready-made food/drink but no luck. (On the off-chance your EU characters can make them... carrot soup and golden lager, I think - really simple stuff but I can't find it at all.)

Enchanting is a pain in the arse to level, isn't it? I'm way above in character level what my enchanting level allows me to make, which is very annoying. I think I only have an enchanting level of 11, whereas I topped out provisioning days ago. I decon everything I find. I take a cursory look in guild stores for cheap glyphs to decon but I'm wary to spending too much money on them. I use up all my runes to make the highest level glyphs I can, but they give paltry amounts of inspiration. 

In other news, I've been stealing in earnest. My NB is made for this, because I have a lot of stealth passives, and she has 2 levels of the final wood elf passive that extend the stealth radius too. I just snuck my way all through Skywatch (I was there to make a Night's Silence 2H sword) and stole everything I could lay my hands on through the market, crouched right next to guards ffs and no one noticed  I just piflered the lock box in the mage's guild in Marburk, within touching distance of the guard. 

My templar has a harder time of it, with no stealth passives of course, but it's still fun. Really looking forward to the thieve's guild as a result


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 26, 2016)

Had a grumpy moment the other day when I remembered you can't join the same pvp campaign with characters of a different faction. Which, for someone who is levelling several characters at once, is a total fucking annoyance considering there's only one non-vet campaign. I wanted to take my templar in there at 3am when it'd be pretty quiet to try to get a bunch of skyshards. No such luck. I read they're looking at letting you drop a campaign, rather than transfer to another, so that's one (still annoying) way around it, whenever it comes, which might be months yet. I took my NB in there a week or so ago to try to get some of the last remaining shards... I'd been in there in a group when the game released and we went shard hunting through the whole map. I don't have many left to get at all. Still grumpy about my templar.

I don't want to transfer my NB to a vet campaign just so my templar can go in and get the skyshards, because I do want to pvp now and again, and I feel more confident doing that with my nb, but she'll be locked out if I transfer, because there's no way she'll get the alliance points to transfer back again.


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## Epona (Jan 26, 2016)

Not sure what I can do in terms of food/drink for writs as I haven't really played on the EU server since the provisioning changes so not sure what I am able to make in terms of the new recipes, but I'll certainly have a look.

Really not sure what I was up to on the EU server at all but my inventory was a complete mess and my research was all over the place, and I hadn't upgraded a single horse   I am trying to get some research sorted out now, because I will want to use those spare character slots in due course - I always get to a point where I want to start new characters and I'm pretty much filled up on the NA server, can't quite justify buying another copy of the game when I have spaces available on the other server.

The PvP campaigns are really annoying in that regard, I wish there were a few more campaigns tbh, even with the vet campaigns there are only 4 of them, so even then if you have characters in each faction and decide you want to switch campaigns it's a complete pain in the arse.  I don't normally do PvP until vet level simply because I normally level a character in each faction concurrently (yes that is a bit weird, but I like to compare stats between them at various stages of leveling).


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## Epona (Jan 26, 2016)

Turns out I could do carrot soup and golden lager, you should have a mail from me


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 28, 2016)

OH! Thank you. Just about to log in briefly so I'll take a look


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## Epona (Jan 28, 2016)

Let me know if there's anything else I might be able to help out with in terms of writs, it's the sort of thing it can be difficult to get started on until you have a stock of mats and recipes built up, and I have some bits and pieces lying around.  I'm logging in on that server daily atm to try to get my research up to date for if/when I want to start new characters (serial altoholic), so if you send me an in-game mail I'm bound to see it.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 28, 2016)

Thanks, epona, will do.

I've barely started Stormhaven, but I went into Rivenspire last night to drop off one of my writs (enchanting, I think). Everything in the starting area is 2-3 levels above me and posing no problems. This is the problem with insisting on doing every side quest and killing everything in between (multiple times) - I'm constantly overlevelled. I went around and discovered a handful of shrines (I've already gone around and discovered all the ones in Stormhaven), which is another annoyance with these writs... realising it's telling you to go to another area you haven't discovered yet to drop them off. 

Rivenspire is a nice change of scenery from the featureless grassy areas of Glenumbra and (so far) Stormhaven. I mean, they're pretty, but that gets boring after a while.


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## Epona (Jan 29, 2016)

Oooh, camel mount coming up with the Thieves Guild, I've been wondering whether/when we'd get one.  I might actually get that, it would make a lot of sense (in my own internal RP terms) to use a camel in the desert areas of the game 

Repeatable activities include "heists" - can't wait to see what that entails.

March 7th release date for PC/Mac (that will likely mean 7th for NA server, 8th for EU server), March 22nd XBox, March 23rd PS4.

Oh and 64bit client (FINALLY) as part of the base game patch for PC/Mac.


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## Epona (Jan 29, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Thanks, epona, will do.
> 
> I've barely started Stormhaven, but I went into Rivenspire last night to drop off one of my writs (enchanting, I think). Everything in the starting area is 2-3 levels above me and posing no problems. This is the problem with insisting on doing every side quest and killing everything in between (multiple times) - I'm constantly overlevelled. I went around and discovered a handful of shrines (I've already gone around and discovered all the ones in Stormhaven), which is another annoyance with these writs... realising it's telling you to go to another area you haven't discovered yet to drop them off.



Writs are REALLY annoying in that regard, why you can't pick them up anywhere and turn them in at any delivery station is beyond me.  It gets doubly confusing if you get onto what should be vet level writs before you hit Vet rank, because normally you'd hand them in in Craglorn, which you can't go to until you hit VR, so they cap out at Coldharbour writs (which I think is VR1 mats) and if you need to get to Coldharbour before the questline takes you there, you'll need to get a port to Hollow City to turn them in because you can't just walk there.  So it might be a good idea not to go above rank 5 in any craft (or stop doing writs temporarily) until you hit that point in the story.  Max level writs turn in in Orsinium if you have the DLC, and anyone with the DLC can go there at any level, it makes no sense really.

It's a pain in the arse the way they've done it tbh.  I could port you to Sentinel (Alik'R) and Evermore (Bangkorai) for DC and similar for the last 2 zones of AD, (can't recall where the writ turn in is in Malabal Tor, but it would be Rawl'kha for Reaper's March) but I didn't get as far as Coldharbour on any character, but if you're in a guild you will probably be able to find someone to assist!



Vintage Paw said:


> Rivenspire is a nice change of scenery from the featureless grassy areas of Glenumbra and (so far) Stormhaven. I mean, they're pretty, but that gets boring after a while.



I know what you mean, I actually quite like Glenumbra as it kind of reminds me of childhood holidays camping in Wales (well, apart from the hazardous fauna, undead, and giant vines all over the place), but it is a bit same-old-same-old "could be anywhere in NW Europe" classic fantasy fare.  Rivenspire is my favourite zone in the entire game, not just for the look of the place, but also the main zone quest is really good and there are some great characters.


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## Epona (Jan 31, 2016)

I do wish fishing was a bit more... involved.  I really want the fishing achievements, but my mind wanders after about 10 minutes and I start wasting bait because I find I am no longer looking at the screen for the reel-in cue.  It doesn't help that Nate has been playing Rise of the Tomb Raider most of today and it is an interesting game to watch


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 31, 2016)

I've got a couple of fishing add-ons - one of which has a big old visual cue on the screen when it's time to reel in. I think you can configure it to play a sound, too. 

Votan's Fisherman

It plays nicely with Rare Fish Tracker which has a little overlay on screen (which you can keybind to hide) in every zone showing which rare fish you've already caught and which you still need.

I've been doing a bit more fishing, but I find collecting some of the bait an absolute chore (damn you, worms *shakes fist*). I have loads of insect parts (so many pretty butterflies in Rivenspire!!), and plenty of crawlers. Guts sometimes run low. But fucking worms 

I've had a handful of greens and blues now, but I haven't completed a set for a whole zone yet.


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 31, 2016)

Do you create little stories in your head about how your characters interact with the characters they meet, when you're not around and so on? I do 

I haven't quite got to the point of wanting to write fanfic for it  but I like thinking about what they get up to.


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## Epona (Jan 31, 2016)

I use Rare Fish Tracker, and along with Destinations (which marks a whole load of fishing holes and water types on the map) helps me to work out where I need to fish.  I will check out the Votan one though, having it make a noise at me would be really useful if I'm sitting staring into the distance completely zoned out or at Nate's monitor rather than watching my screen 

Worms are definitely the worst to get as they only come from plant nodes and (occasionally) zombies, everything else you can pretty much farm.  Glenumbra seems to have a lot of rats for some reason, some around each of the upturned carts off the road between Daggerfall and Delyn's Mill, and there are often rats in delves and frogs around the boggy areas (and plenty of frogs in Grahtwood too), so not too bad for guts.

I don't really think about what my characters might be up to when I am offline, I really don't have much creative imagination for such things   I do RP them in terms of their motivations and responses when I am playing and they are each a bit different, but it doesn't really go any further than that for me.  I'd be quite happy to read some fanfic though, I may be deficient in the imagination department myself, but I often enjoy what other people come up with


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## Vintage Paw (Jan 31, 2016)

Oh yes, I have destinations too. I often find fishing holes that aren't marked on it, I don't know enough of what goes on under the hood to understand whether that means they've just been missed off, or whether rare fish never spawn in those spots. I'm presuming the former, but to be safe I stick to fishing holes that are marked


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## Epona (Jan 31, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Oh yes, I have destinations too. I often find fishing holes that aren't marked on it, I don't know enough of what goes on under the hood to understand whether that means they've just been missed off, or whether rare fish never spawn in those spots. I'm presuming the former, but to be safe I stick to fishing holes that are marked



I think it's the former, it's just a massive job adding all the fishing holes, especially since they aren't always all active at the same time.  It marks more fishing holes in the current version than it did 6 months ago, so I think it's just a case of "work in progress"


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## Epona (Jan 31, 2016)

It's not as if fishing isn't worth it though, I just got 2 Kuta from a wet gunny sack


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 1, 2016)

Every time I try to get back into this, the lack of any meaningful kind of social interaction puts me off. The 'join multiple guilds' mechanic seems to actively work against forming relationships with guildmates, since you end up with hundreds and hundreds of people, none of whom are all that communicative for the same reasons.

Epona Vintage Paw Any suggestions for this? Is there a great resource for finding a guild that is right for your playstyle and is actually more than just a place to get cheap stuff?


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## Epona (Feb 1, 2016)

Look for the right kind of guild - trade guilds exist purely to get a guild kiosk/for people to sell stuff to other players and don't tend to be very social (seriously, most trade guilds no-one even uses guild chat except to get price checks on items, and most don't organise any play events because trade guilds are usually cross-faction).  Most guilds are trade guilds, and won't be what you are looking for - but that doesn't mean the smaller, more intimate play/social guilds where people actually get together and play don't exist - they are out there!

I suggest having a look on the official forum, there is a guild recruitment forum for each server, hopefully you will be able to find something that suits your needs there.

There is also a guild recruitment forum at Tamriel Foundry, which may be of use.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 1, 2016)

Also, how does the shared bank thing work if you delete characters? Since I haven't played for months I was planning to roll a brand new character, but the fact that he has a bank full of junk is kind of annoying. Can I liquidate all of the stuff in my bank on another toon and send my new one the gold before deleting it?


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## Epona (Feb 1, 2016)

Yeah, just empty everything (including gold) off the character you want to delete into the bank, it will stay there.

Tbh though, if you have spare character slots then it's handy to have a couple of bank alts to hold stuff that you don't need just yet.  Of course if you wanted to use the same name you'd have to delete the old character first anyway.  But yeah, stuff is safe in your bank.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 1, 2016)

You can't send mail to yourself (i.e. to another of your characters) because it goes to your username, not to your characters. Mail is account wide, your bank is account wide, it's just your characters' individual bag space that is separate.

So yes, as epona says, stuff what you want to keep in the bank, inc gold, and then delete your character. The stuff will be there waiting for your new character the first time they go to the bank. Any bank space upgrades you've bought will persist, but any bag upgrades you'd paid for on your character will be lost, since as I say bag space is individual.

I always try to invest in bank space more often than bag space precisely because it persists across characters. (And don't forget that you can feed your horse so you have extra personal bag space... one feeding = one extra inventory slot.)


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## Epona (Feb 1, 2016)

Re. the guild thing, I am sure I saw somewhere recently that Zeni are planning to introduce better (haha, "any" would be an improvement over current) guild recruitment tools at some point this year - which would be a real blessing tbh to GMs and people seeking a guild alike.  It's a bit daft that currently the best way to find a guild that suits is to go out of game.  I do hope that if they do it they do it right, it doesn't even need to be that complicated, just allow a GM to check a "recruiting" box in the guild tools and a couple of keywords that best reflect the nature of their guild, then let people who are looking for a guild search, get a list of guilds with recent activity that meet their search terms (and preferably be able to see the "about us" message as a hover-over note) and apply in game.

I get the 5 guilds thing, I never think it was intended for people to join 5 large play guilds, but with no auction house the only way to sell stuff to other players (other than the tedious and time consuming route of spamming zone chat with your wares) is to join trading guilds.  So have 1 guild slot for your guild that you play with - those guildmates are the ones you should feel a connection to and loyalty to and socialise with; and 4 other slots for what basically amounts to storefronts so you can sell your shit.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 1, 2016)

It gets a bit messy if you like to play in all 3 factions, finding a good guild that isn't wholly restricted to just the one. I know they exist (for example, your experiences, epona) but finding them and ensuring you're the right fit is tricky. Especially on the EU server, where they seem to be thinner on the ground. 

I think I might want to join a decent guild at some point, but I've not especially felt the need yet. I'd like the opportunity to sell my stuff when I get to VR levels, but I expect that'll be easier to deal with because there are a lot of trade guilds.


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## Epona (Feb 1, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> It gets a bit messy if you like to play in all 3 factions, finding a good guild that isn't wholly restricted to just the one. I know they exist (for example, your experiences, epona) but finding them and ensuring you're the right fit is tricky. Especially on the EU server, where they seem to be thinner on the ground.
> 
> I think I might want to join a decent guild at some point, but I've not especially felt the need yet. I'd like the opportunity to sell my stuff when I get to VR levels, but I expect that'll be easier to deal with because there are a lot of trade guilds.



Yeah you can't move without tripping over a trade guild tbh and they are not too difficult to find - I know from running my own on the NA server and belonging to others that unless it's a really high end one where there are membership requirements (in terms of dues or minimum sales per week or whathaveyou - mine does not have such requirements, in fact there is a kind of story about my guild's origins and ethos), member turnover is pretty high and if you miss getting a trader spot one week membership will drop because people will leave to join a guild that got a kiosk that week - I reckon I have a small core of people who are somewhat loyal to the guild and donate towards a trader every week and will stick around and wait out the occasional kiosk fuckup, but membership turnover is pretty high - and that's not just my experience, it's just the way trading guilds are.  They are not a place to make friends or (generally speaking) find people to play with or a cohesive community.

You will likely need a trade guild at some point though, you can make a fair bit of cash selling spare mats, motifs, and recipes once you have an excess, and it only takes a couple of minutes to list stuff in a store where any player visiting the kiosk can buy it.

Finding a good play/social guild that is the right fit is not quite so easy.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 2, 2016)

Does stuff usually always sell? Some of the guild traders are quite out of the way, and I don't often see people browsing even the ones in the major cities (although now I'm at Wayrest there's more activity around... haven't spent time near the guild traders there yet).


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## Epona (Feb 2, 2016)

Depends on how you price stuff, but I tend to sell provisioning ingredients within 24 hours of listing them (sometimes within minutes).  Not sure about the EU server, although at a quick glance average prices do seem to be a LOT higher on EU for some reason.


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## Epona (Feb 4, 2016)

Thieves Guild DLC is now up on the PTS for testing if anyone's interested in having a look (or doing some bug testing!)

I tried out the intro quest, it's really very good and a lot of fun   New area looks good, new TG skill-line useful.

Assistants - oh god, bank access from anywhere as a crown purchase - take my money now!

I don't think I'll go any further through the questline though, don't want to spoil it for myself before it goes live iykwim.  Going to try out a few repeatable activities though, I have to pickpocket 'leisure items' from people in Grahtwood which should be fun, I suck at pickpocketing


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 4, 2016)

So the assistants, are they like a summonable pet type thing? And you can effectively summon one and say, "take this tat to the bank, old chap, and while you're there grab some of those empty soul gems I have stored there" and they'll toddle off and do the business? Because, gosh.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 4, 2016)

Also, I HATE Wayrest. Far too big, everything is spread out. I used to wonder why I saw high level characters in some of the lower level cities, but this is exactly why. When you want to dump your mats, do a bit of quick crafting, make some food, and head on out, you'll go to the place that requires the least amount of fannying around. So far for me that's Daggerfall (on DC obv.). For the Aldmeri, Elden Root was pretty great but I'm used to Marburk now and it's not too onerous to get from one crafting station to the next and on to the bank.


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## Epona (Feb 4, 2016)

Yep, the bank assistant works just like a vanity pet (and you can put him in a quick-slot, works with Greymind's), while he is summoned he temporarily replaces your pet, and basically gives you the bank interface anywhere (except cyro/IC).   ANYWHERE!!!  Middle of a dungeon - bank access.  Out questing and getting full up - bank access.  Forgot to pick up soul gems or food from the bank - bank access.

Here's what gets me excited, because I am dreadful at remembering to stock up on stuff before I head out - middle of a quest or delve, oops no food, or leveled up and need new gear.  I can log onto my crafter and run her to a cooking fire or set crafting area, do crafting, call up the bank assistant, put stuff in - log back in on the character who needs the stuff - middle of a delve or whatever, call up the bank assistant and pick the stuff up - cutting out all the running back to the bank tedium.  I'm ridiculously excited about that going on the live server, I can honestly see myself just parking my weapons/armour crafter in my favourite set crafting area and leaving her there.

The bank assistant does NOT give access to guild banks or guild stores, and the vendor assistant does NOT do repairs or sell anything - so the need for banks and merchants is not circumvented and there will still be plenty of people visiting towns, so it shouldn't hurt city immersion too much.

In terms of DC towns, Shornhelm in Rivenspire is much better layout, best layout in all of DC - wayshrine, bank (with cooking fire), ww/bs/cloth stations all within a few paces of one another, and enchanting/alchemy/dye station just around the corner.  Worth getting to Shornhelm to use as a base.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 5, 2016)

Is that the one right by the entrance of Rivenspire? Where the writs get dropped off? If so, I've already discovered it so I could drop off my higher level writs. I didn't explore it though. I headed out and discovered maybe 5 or 6 nearby wayshrines, then went back to the previous area (which I'd barely started questing in ).

What does the vendor assistant do then, if not let you sell or repair? Do they just sell lockpicks and health potions, that kind of thing?


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 5, 2016)

I made my dark elf dragonknight the other night. I like making new characters in the middle of the night when there's no one in the starting areas


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> What does the vendor assistant do then, if not let you sell or repair? Do they just sell lockpicks and health potions, that kind of thing?



You can sell stuff to them, that's it.  They don't have anything to sell to you.  That may not seem like a big deal at lower levels, but the number of times I've been halfway through a group dungeon and one of the group has to be elected (you can't all leave, or it resets) to head back to town to go buy repair kits or soul gems for the group... not that this is something that really good players have to deal with mind you, unfortunately I do not count myself amongst that number


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2016)

Oh forgot to say, one of the best things about the next update (apart from the bank assistant) is that you know all the trophies you get for completing public dungeons?  They are finally going into the collections menu rather than being inventory items.  FINALLY!

Hopefully at some point they will work out similar for quest related disguises too, that's not in this next update though.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 5, 2016)

Oh thank goodness for that. I want to keep things like that! I don't even like selling the stuff you get for killing certain things (you know, like a mudcrab will drop something that will go towards your achievement for killing things, or whatever), but at least you can get cold hard cash for those. Trophies are worthless, and yet can't part with them.


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2016)

(This is Lyra, my trusty Imperial Stamplar main on NA server (or at least a copy of her on the PTS!), wearing one of the Orsinium quest costumes  )


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 5, 2016)

I cleared out the inventory and deleted my previous characters, then rolled a new toon that I'd had in mind all week. Logged in, ran through the tutorial dungeon for old times sake, came back to life ... only to discover that I'd somehow unselected the alliance I wanted, and was in Auridon instead of Glenumbra. 

Had to delete and recreate him.


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## moon (Feb 5, 2016)

I may get this since its actually an RPG  with a story?(I'm still holding out hopes for The Division!.. ), I've just been watching the opening scenes, they have some amazing voice actors? Jennifer Hale, Michael Gambon...


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2016)

moon said:


> I may get this since its actually an RPG  with a story?(I'm still holding out hopes for The Division!.. ), I've just been watching the opening scenes, they have some amazing voice actors? Jennifer Hale, Michael Gambon...



*Chants* _"One of us, one of us"_

- yeah it's a good game, you can solo everything in all the quest storylines if that's your preference, you can also group up for a lot of quest stuff if you prefer that, the main quest story is good if a bit predictable, but that's only a small part of the game - the alliance/zone quest stories are in some cases really very good.  It looks fucking gorgeous and is very immersive.  Even if all you want to do is solo questing and exploring there's hours and hours and hours (weeks/months)  of it.


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## moon (Feb 5, 2016)

Ok thanks... any advice on the best class? I liked Skyrim for the ability to have a sword/bow wielding mage.. I still miss my dawnbreaker sword!  but also liked the choice of flame/sparks throwing etc. Is the online version the same?


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 5, 2016)

moon said:


> they have some amazing voice actors? Jennifer Hale, Michael Gambon...


Just don't let John Cleese put you off...


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## Epona (Feb 5, 2016)

moon said:


> Ok thanks... any advice on the best class? I liked Skyrim for the ability to have a sword/bow wielding mage.. I still miss my dawnbreaker sword!  but also liked the choice of flame/sparks throwing etc. Is the online version the same?



Online is different from Skyrim in terms of how you do combat, but the basic movement controls are the same, at least on kb+m, and if you've played a range of RPGs it's not going to be anything that you can't pick up and get to grips with fairly quickly - it's not very complicated, and the game eases you in fairly gently (take the quest to go to the starter island for whichever faction you go to, it gives you a chance to get the feel of the controls and explore and harvest some crafting materials and get to grips with basic combat and quests etc.)

IMO the best class for solo questing is Templar, it has a good self-heal which is very useful.


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## moon (Feb 5, 2016)

This is arriving tomorrow  am hoping my internet connection can cope as I've never played an online game before. 
Excited! 
I'm pretty sure I'll be a high elf mage, but will look into all the various races and classes including Templar as it seems the most versatile.
I don't think I want to be a healer, I'm not sure what the difference is between a damage dealer and tank.
I think my style of combat is stand firm and look death in the face lol until I start running 
I prefer ranged but can get along with melee if it is precise and quick, like using Dawnbreaker, umm that's all I can think about right now, until I see what kind of a beast the game actually is..


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 5, 2016)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Just don't let John Cleese put you off...



*sings*

_"One fine day in the middle of the night..."_


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 5, 2016)

Mage can be good for solo play because you can summon creatures to take aggro for you. I just wish they weren't so darned _purple_. (I have a thing against purple in certain contexts... I know, I'm weird.)


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## moon (Feb 5, 2016)

I'm not sure if I'll be solo or group playing, probably a bit of both I guess. The whole PvP thing is new to me so I'll have to see how well I cope, and whether its annoying 
Summoning things was ok in Skyrim but I didn't use it much. I much prefer a follower.
I'd love to have Uthgerd and Erandur back


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 6, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> *sings*
> 
> _"One fine day in the middle of the night..."_


Does Cadwell show up again later? Out of curiosity I googled his voice work, and there's a clip of Cleese talking about his backstory and motivations, which seems a little like overkill if the 5 seconds you spend talking to him is all there is.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 6, 2016)

Yes, I believe so. I haven't finished the main story, but I know you go back to Coldharbour, and I know there's a quest called Cadwell's Silver, but I have no idea what any of it is about.


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## moon (Feb 6, 2016)

This has arrived, it was really cheap on Amazon, £11 and I got next day delivery, will dip into it later today once all the updates are installed.


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## Epona (Feb 6, 2016)

moon - you're on PS4 aren't you iirc?


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## moon (Feb 6, 2016)

Epona said:


> moon - you're on PS4 aren't you iirc?


Yes..


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## Epona (Feb 6, 2016)

Oh, forgot to say earlier, some good news from the PTS - you can now buy recipes needed for writs from chef and brewer NPC vendors, so you won't ever get stuck on a provisioning writ for want of knowing the recipe.  It checks against your provisioning rank and offers the correct recipes for your rank


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 6, 2016)

Oh thank god!!!


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## moon (Feb 6, 2016)

I've done a bit of questing and a bit of standing around watching the world go by, some of the squares get quite lively with dance troupes, random werewolves and formation horse jumping antics.
I ended up dancing in a fountain at one point 
Will probably get into it a bit more over the coming days when I have more time etc..


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## moon (Feb 7, 2016)

I want an armoured bear! I keep looking at other players in awe thinking about where they have been, what must they have done and seen. Lol
I'm currently running around in ragged green trousers hoping and praying I don't get mobbed.
I'm a Breton on a desert island doing stuff, I had to wear a disguise and some nice people helped fight a mob so that I could free some other people, that's about all I know right now.
I deposited things in a bank, I really wanted to sell them so I could buy a bear but they are 0 value at merchants.
I crafted some leather straps, I think..


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## Epona (Feb 7, 2016)

Unfortunately you can't buy a bear in-game, they are from the crown store.  The only mounts you can buy for in-game gold are horses, which come in 4 colours (there's a chestnut one which is 10k, and a dun, a black, and a paint which are all 42k.  Unless you bought Imperial edition, in which case you get a free white horse).

Everyone starts out being able to make low level armour though, collect iron ore for heavy armour, rawhide scraps for medium armour, and jute for light armour, then go to the appropriate workbench and make yourself something a bit better than the rags you start out with


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## moon (Feb 7, 2016)

Epona said:


> Unfortunately you can't buy a bear in-game, they are from the crown store.


WHAT??!!
Wtf is a crown store??
I need a bear...


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## Epona (Feb 7, 2016)

moon said:


> WHAT??!!
> Wtf is a crown store??
> I need a bear...



It's cosmetic and convenience items that cost IRL money.  (or rather you can buy crowns for IRL money, then use the crowns to buy stuff on the crown store.  If you have ESO plus then you get 1500 crowns a month added to your account, but not sure how it all works on consoles).


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2016)

Crafting is mandatory imo, unless you're in a guild with people who will give you stuff. Sure, you can find decent-ish gear, and some quests and dungeons will reward you with a nice blue+ piece now and again, but you can craft stuff with excellent set bonuses, and make sure you have decent armour in every slot, and it costs you nothing but the time to gather materials, research traits, and craft it.

To be any good at crafting, you'll need to invest skill points in the passives related to the craft you want to level. With that in mind, it can be difficult to level all crafts on a character you actually want to play the game with, since there are a finite number of skill points available. Epona's good advice was to have all the armour/weapon crafts on one character (clothier, blacksmithing, woodworking) and everything else on another (provisioning, alchemy, enchanting). That's what I'm doing, although it's very easy to level up provisioning without investing many points so I reckon you should just do that on all your characters anyway.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2016)

It's also worthwhile levelling up every skill on every character even if you don't intend them to be a crafter in that profession, so you can pop a couple of points in the 'hireling' passive, which means an NPC will send you materials for that craft once per day. With 1 point in hireling you'll mostly just get standard materials you could gather yourself, with a small chance to get a rare material and improvement material. With more points there's a greater chance to get better materials. They'll always scale to your level. 

So, you'll no doubt take the hireling passive for woodworking on your character who is the main woodworking crafter, but if you take it on your others too you'll get extra materials your main crafter can use, which is useful because some can be quite hard to come by, and it's especially important when you want to craft yourself a full set of purple or gold gear.


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## Epona (Feb 8, 2016)

And the only way to get purple provisioning mats is by hireling, so definitely take provisioning hireling at some point 

Another reason to level provisioning on every character is for the passives that extend the time that food and drinks buffs stay active, that can be quite valuable at higher levels.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2016)

I quite like the passive for alchemy and provisioning that creates more portions with the same ingredients. If you're a packrat like me, you'll have no end of provisioning ingredients for recipes you don't need, so crafting a bunch of them can be a decent way to make a bit of cash here and there. I expect it's even better if you're in a trade guild, but even just selling to merchants is decent.

Of course, I benefited from having a shat load of ingredients from before they changed provisioning - brought me in quite a lot of gold, selling those.


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## Epona (Feb 8, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> I quite like the passive for alchemy and provisioning that creates more portions with the same ingredients. If you're a packrat like me, you'll have no end of provisioning ingredients for recipes you don't need, so crafting a bunch of them can be a decent way to make a bit of cash here and there. I expect it's even better if you're in a trade guild, but even just selling to merchants is decent.
> 
> Of course, I benefited from having a shat load of ingredients from before they changed provisioning - brought me in quite a lot of gold, selling those.



Food/drink as an end product doesn't sell well at all, I suspect because it is so easy to level the skill.  Provisioning ingredients are always in demand however, and I find they sell well via my trading guilds at between 4-10g per unit for most of them on the NA server (I guess not everyone stops to loot every container the way I do!), and some blue and purple recipes sell for a lot of cash.  Actually the level 20 purple recipe is one of the most expensive ones in guild stores, because people don't spend as much time in a level 20 zone as in VR zones, so are less likely to find the purple recipe as they are going through at lower levels.


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## Epona (Feb 8, 2016)

Oh another juicy piece of info which apparently has been known for a couple of weeks but I've only just picked up on it - in a recent live stream episode, Zeni confirmed that *mat bags* are due to be provided as a bonus for ESO Plus subscribers, this is due to be rolled out with the Dark Brotherhood DLC (which will be the one after Thieves Guild).


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2016)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, extra space for crafting materials on top of your normal bank/inventory space? Because YES PLEASE.


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## Epona (Feb 8, 2016)

I know, I know 

I'm going to save *actually *wetting myself until there's more info and confirmation which definitely won't be until after Thieves' Guild (I'd guess we'll hear more details around May or June ish), but it's looking promising.  I did hear mention of it back last year when they said it was something they were intending, but to hear recent mention of it is encouraging.

With that and the bank assistant, we'll be able to feel more like adventurers and less like warehouse stock managers 

Editing, because it's like all the spelling has fallen out of my brain today!


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## moon (Feb 9, 2016)

I'm now level 7 and managed to get some new clothes, weapons and abilities. I refined some metals and leather and crafted a few things. I'm mainly using a 2 handed sword and magic.
I think I'll specialise in either blacksmithing, clothing or enchanting, but not sure yet.
I've got to a point where my bank slots are full but I'm still collecting new things so I'll have to be more selective in future.
I'm a Breton but for some reason my character selection screen shows me as a Redguard, I hope that wont cause any problems further into the game..
At the moment I'm finding the game a bit slow, maybe because of the dialogue (slow speech) or running from place to place, am hoping that the pace picks up a bit..


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## Epona (Feb 9, 2016)

moon said:


> I'm a Breton but for some reason my character selection screen shows me as a Redguard, I hope that wont cause any problems further into the game..



Best to check now at an early stage - log in on your character and go to your skills screen and look at the racial skills page.  If the first racial skill is "Light Armor Affinity" and the others relate to magicka and spell resistance, then you are a Breton.  If the first one is "Shield Affinity" and the others relate to stamina, then you are a Redguard.

(BTW unless you were particularly set on playing a Breton for role-playing reasons, a Redguard is by no means a disaster - it's the best race for any stamina build.  And you could still do a magicka build with it, it's only min-maxers that worry too much about the racial passives and the 0.1% difference to performance they make)


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## moon (Feb 9, 2016)

Ok, I'll look at the  skills screen again soon, in the meantime here are 2 pictures of my character,
this is what I look like in game, as a Breton?
 
And this is me in the character selection screen, this one is darker and more muscular, looks more like a Redguard?


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 9, 2016)

Facial structure definitely looks redguard to me, in both pictures.

(I've played around in the cc more times than I can count now, and know them all pretty well.)

If you really don't want to play redguard, it takes no time at all to get to level 7, so sell all her gear and put the cash in the bank, then go and make your breton and start over.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 9, 2016)

Also, if you're a redguard you'll know how to craft redguard armour and weapons, and won't know how to craft breton stuff unless you've found a breton crafting book. So that's another way to absolutely double check.


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## moon (Feb 9, 2016)

Really, ok well I'm quite attached to my character so will be a Redguard then..
Although I never play with a shield, I prefer a big ass sword and some magic..


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## moon (Feb 9, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Also, if you're a redguard you'll know how to craft redguard armour and weapons, and won't know how to craft breton stuff unless you've found a breton crafting book. So that's another way to absolutely double check.


Yes I have a redguard style thingy in my inventory.. So there it is.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 9, 2016)

Well you don't have to play with a shield. Ignore what your racial passives suggest, just do what you like best


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## Epona (Feb 9, 2016)

^ Yes, what Vintage Paw said - that first racial passive only helps you level up that skill a bit quicker than other races, it's a completely meaningless skill tbh as you will likely have maxed out whatever weapon you mostly use by the time you hit about lvl 40-50 anyway.  It means nothing when it comes down to it, doesn't give you any bonus in using a particular weapon.


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## Epona (Feb 9, 2016)

Also should add really that doing the quests in this game, at no point will you come across anything that requires you to have maximised your build at all - nothing in the questing part of the game is going to require that you have certain builds with certain racial passives and certain weapons - some builds may provide a slightly easier time than others, but there's nothing that requires you to have a highly optimised build, at all.

Just play a class/race/weapons/spells that you enjoy.


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## moon (Feb 10, 2016)

Is anyone soul trapping in this game? Or are you buying/looting filled soul gems? I have 1 filled soul gem (which I am saving for when I really really need to revive on the spot) and a couple of empties.
I should hit level 10 quite soon and thus PVP? So it would be quite good to have a supply as I think the walking distances are quite far (I've been watching Angry Joe's videos) I cant justify buying a horse/bear just yet and also feel I'll miss spotting materials if I'm not on foot.
I'm hoping to join the fighter's guild but will try the mage's guild too, would I be right in thinking there is an undaunted guild? Or has this morphed into the Dark Brotherhood/Thieves guilds?
Then there are all the player guilds which are another minefield..


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## Epona (Feb 10, 2016)

Join all the NPC guilds as early on as possible - they all have their own skill lines which are very useful, but they level up by (Fighters Guild) - killing undead and daedra and doing dolmens; (Mages Guild) - finding lorebooks; (Undaunted) - doing dungeons - so best to join early and start leveling those skill lines.  Fighters Guild particularly has some very useful skills against daedra and undead (which make up the majority of the NPC enemies in the game tbh, and you'll probably come across vampire players in PvP too), and Mages Guild has what is probably the best ultimate in the game, so they are worth getting.

In terms of soul gems, later on in the main quest you get access to a passive that auto-fills soul gems so you won't need soul trap forever - but do use it to fill your own soul gems in the earlier portion of the game, buying filled ones is a huge waste of money.  You can often steal empty soul gems from stalls next to mystic NPCs, and they often drop from locked chests, so you don't really even need to buy empty ones.  Save your gold for something that you can't get for free 

Oh I think in Cyro you can only use grand soul gems, so no point stocking up on lower level ones for PvP.  And you cannot rez yourself using a soul gem anyway if you die to another player, you have to either wait for someone else to rez you, or rez at your home wayshrine which does not require a soul gem.


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## moon (Feb 10, 2016)

How do I even begin to trap a soul? Do I need a particular skill? I don't think I've been putting any points into soul magic etc..
I'll try to do some guild quests tonight..


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## Epona (Feb 10, 2016)

You start out with soul trap - it's in the soul magic line (which btw unlocks bit by bit as you do the main quest) - just put it on your bar, you don't need to unlock it.  Then find NPC enemies of the appropriate level for the soul gem you want to fill, so for a lesser soul gem you need to find enemies level 11-20, for petty level 1-10 etc.  Cast soul trap on them and kill them and a soul gem of the right level is filled.  I usually find an area with lots of mudcrabs of the appropriate level when I want to fill a stack of gems


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## moon (Feb 10, 2016)

OK thanks, I'll investigate my skills bar a bit more as I've basically been ignoring it 
I've managed to start 2 radial menus for potions and emotes which has saved a lot of flustered time digging through menus etc. I guess I should add some other consumables to the radial too.
I've tried to create a glyph but have no idea what I created or where it went, let alone how to use it, plus there is a black arrow over enchanting tables which I'm guessing means I still have to create the correct glyph. But I've run out of runes..
I'll go hunting for more, do they make a sound like ninroot when nearby? Or are those the skyshards?
I'm going to try not to ask too many more questions  so I can enjoy discovering the answers in game, unless I get really stuck...


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## Epona (Feb 10, 2016)

Glyphs go into the 'Misc' inventory tab, so have a look there.  I have no idea what controller buttons are used for the console versions, but on PC to use a glyph I would do it by right clicking a weapon or piece of armour which brings up a little box of actions such as "Destroy", "Enchant" etc. and then pick the enchant option and choose a glyph from the box that pops up.

Runes do not make a noise, but they are easy to spot as they have quite a bright glow - if you're having trouble spotting them, try to go rune hunting when it is night in-game as the glow is quite easy to see in the dark


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## Epona (Feb 10, 2016)

One thing I forgot to say about the Fighters and Mages guild skill lines - the Fighters Guild one has an "Intimidate" passive that you can put a skillpoint into, and Mages has a "Persuade" passive - these alone are well worth joining the guilds for, as they sometimes give you different options in quests.


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## moon (Feb 10, 2016)

I think I just have one more question (before dipping in tonight at least ) The onscreen dialogue text is really distracting, it takes up a huge part of the screen and is all blocked off in black.
Is there any way to make it smaller or more transparent? as it's hard to focus on the NPC when huge bold text is up in your face etc etc..


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 10, 2016)

You definitely do want to be filling a few soul gems along the way because your enchantments on weapons will slowly drain away as you use them, and a level-appropriate soul gem is how you recharge them.

Rune nodes don't make a sound when you're close, you just have to keep an eye out for them. If you're considering levelling up enchanting, think about a point or two in the keen eye passive. I don't find it necessarily for everything, I don't bother for clothier, blacksmithing, or woodworking for example because I find it pretty easy to have a surplus of those materials just from stopping and collecting while questing, but it's very useful for enchanting and alchemy - alchemy in particular I used to think there weren't many nodes around until I took keen eye and now I see them everywhere. 

When you make glyphs, they go to the misc section of your inventory, and you can either use them or sell them from there. 

In terms of deconstruction, in any of the craft lines, you get more craft XP (which is called inspiration) from deconstructing things someone else crafted (inc. things you find in drops/steal) than you do from deconstructing things you craft yourself. So if you're crafting glyphs just to learn the rune name (which is a good way to get inspiration), either use them in your weapons/armour, send them to one of your alts so they can decon it, or sell it. I mean, you could decon it for the chance of getting back materials, which might help you for enchanting more so than for the other crafts, but you'll get very little inspiration for it. 

Once you start doing crafting writs (it opens up at level 6, you get two npcs - one at the fighters guild one at the mages guild - who will give you the initial quests) you'll get bonus inspiration for handing completed ones in. You can take all 6 specialisations, regardless of the npc saying you can only specialise in 1, which because you get a reward of materials for completing a writ means even if you're doing say woodworking writs on your enchanter, you then have those materials should you make another character who will be a woodworker in the future.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 10, 2016)

Dialogue text generally fills the right hand side of the screen, yes? Do you have a screenshot of how it looks on PS4? I'm not aware of a way to change it, unless there's a mod but that's useless for consoles. You can resize the UI but I don't know if that a) is available on PS4 or b) changes the dialogue overlay.


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## moon (Feb 11, 2016)

I reached level 10 last night.. whohoo.
This is what my dialogue screen looks like...horrendous.. who designed that?


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 13, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Once you start doing crafting writs (it opens up at level 6, you get two npcs - one at the fighters guild one at the mages guild - who will give you the initial quests)


Is there a way to turn off the crafter quest markers? They always make me think there's something new to do until I get there and realise it's them again.


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## moon (Feb 13, 2016)

Will it ever stop raining?


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2016)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Is there a way to turn off the crafter quest markers? They always make me think there's something new to do until I get there and realise it's them again.



No, but you will eventually get used to where they are and stop thinking it's new quests!



moon said:


> Will it ever stop raining?



Let me guess - are you in Glenumbra?  If so, then the answer is probably no


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2016)

Buddy Bradley - actually you could try this addon, I haven't used it myself, but in the description it says that you can use it to just turn off writ board quest markers.

PinKiller


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 13, 2016)

moon said:


> I reached level 10 last night.. whohoo.
> This is what my dialogue screen looks like...horrendous.. who designed that?
> View attachment 83301



It's more obtrusive than the PC version, which is more transparent and doesn't fill the entire right side in a block. It still covers a decent amount of screen, but it's not as obnoxious as that. No idea if there's a way to change it I'm afraid 

Edit: Oh wait, yours is transparent too, just couldn't tell because it's night. But still, PC isn't as blocky. But it's still the same idea, you end up with the NPC on the left, dialogue on the right.


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## Epona (Feb 13, 2016)

I do think the PC one looks a lot nicer tbh, here is an example:







I guess that some of the design decisions taken for console UI is that they are expecting the player to be sitting a few feet away from a TV screen rather than up close to a monitor, and is designed differently for that reason - but not sure why they had to make it so blocky.  The same as PC but with bigger text by default would have worked.


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 14, 2016)

btw Epona - did you invite moon to the Urban guild? I noticed that I'm still a member, although I don't seem to be able to deposit anything in the guild bank.


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## Epona (Feb 14, 2016)

Buddy Bradley said:


> btw Epona - did you invite moon to the Urban guild? I noticed that I'm still a member, although I don't seem to be able to deposit anything in the guild bank.



moon is on PS4, different server.
Need 10 members to have a guild bank   I could join on my 2nd account which would take it up to 6...


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## Buddy Bradley (Feb 14, 2016)

That's okay, I was only looking for somewhere to stash my food components...


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## moon (Feb 14, 2016)

Yeah, I'm on the PS4 EU server, I've been invited to join 3 guilds and have grouped a few times, mainly by walking past tough areas or upon arrival in Cyrodil there have been people gathered at the entrance who have added me to a group.
I'm guessing the social gaming aspect of ESO is easier on PC? 
The PS4 has voice and mail but I don't think it's as integrated as the PC version.
I'll be doing my first dungeon for the undaunted soon, I also got a bear for gathering trips and a cute palomino horse for speed.
I'm mostly getting killed in Cyrodil but that's only to be expected, I think the travel situation there is a bit odd as you easily get separated from your group if you die and it's hard to regroup over long distances.
I haven't yet seen any major battles, there have been none on my map, but I think I've picked random campaigns rather than checking to see if anything is actually happening in them. I'm also still working out how the campaigns are structured in terns of setting home, guest, 7 day, 30 day etc etc. For ages I couldnt travel because of the 2 different shrines? And I inadvertantly skipped the training because it's not clearly marked..


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## Epona (Feb 14, 2016)

moon - text chat is coming to consoles (not sure when, but they've indicated this year sometime), which should make the social side of things a bit easier.  I honestly don't know how I'd manage without it, I mean myself and my friends have use of a teamspeak server which we use when we group up, but most interaction when people are looking for a group or guild or a crafter or just general chit chat is done in the chat box on PC.


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## moon (Feb 14, 2016)

it's good to hear that text is coming to consoles but it will still be tricky without a keyboard imo.
The area voice chat is interesting if a bit bizarre  I haven't yet used group or guild voice chat but will see how well it works once I'm doing more dungeons and Cyrodil battles.
Btw what are the battles like? Anything similar to Angry Joe's?


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 14, 2016)

I haven't done any proper Cyrodiil stuff for a while, and it was still early on in the release that I got stuck in, but it was a LOT of fun.

You need to find a group. I mean, you don't need to, but it's best to. Then you follow the leader, go where they say, do what they want you to do. It really is like having little phalanxes of an army rallying to the next battle. You'll see in chat that X is being attacked by EP, get there NOW. So you'll all go there. You'll attack their trebs try to kill their healers and they'll be trying to get through your walls. It can be manic as hell, and you find yourself working out whether it's worth attempting being strategic or just rushing in because it's so crazy.

Or you'll be the ones trying to take a resource or a fort. So you'll decide your tactics. Maybe your group will go for the lumbermill. You'll sneak up, go round the tower, and take out their casters as quickly as possible, then you'll all rush in after the guards, then run to the middle until the flag changes to yours. Then your own guards will populate, and off you go to the next target (as long as there aren't any roving packs of the other side looking to take it back). 

This is all dependent on the population of the server, and whether there are any decent battles going on. Certainly on PC, the best campaign is Blackwater Blade, for non-vet characters. I hear that the vet campaigns are pretty shit, and you have to be V14-16 or you'll die as soon as you get in there. You're scaled up when you go in the non-vet campaign, so everyone is ostensibly equal apart from skills available and player skill. But once you hit 50 they don't scale you anymore, so you go into one of the vet campaigns at V1 and there's a HELL of a difference between a V1 and a V14. It seems to be a big bone of contention atm and people want there to be more campaigns with more equality so it's all about player skill rather than grinding for hours or days or weeks to get to max level before you can pvp again. There used to be many more campaigns, but they got rid of a majority of them. I get the impression pvp really isn't all it used to be, which is a damn shame because I thought it was bloody excellent.


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## Epona (Feb 15, 2016)

Huh?  You're battle-leveled to VR15 in all vet campaigns.  

The complaints are about Champion Points, and to address that they are introducing a no-CP campaign (where champion points will be disabled whilst in Cyro).


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## moon (Feb 15, 2016)

I had a fun time riding around Cyrodil with another player yesterday, we visited the place where our scroll was held, found some sky shards, and a mine which opened up a quest.
Then he took me to what I think were the gates to the Imperial City?
That was a sight to behold, we couldn't get close because the guards held us back.. For good reason


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2016)

Epona said:


> Huh?  You're battle-leveled to VR15 in all vet campaigns.
> 
> The complaints are about Champion Points, and to address that they are introducing a no-CP campaign (where champion points will be disabled whilst in Cyro).



Are you? Then I must have been reading complaints from before they introduced that. I was trying to find out stuff about whether you can switch campaigns or drop campaigns, and came across loads of people complaining about it, no recent discussions at all.


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## Epona (Feb 15, 2016)

Vintage Paw said:


> Are you? Then I must have been reading complaints from before they introduced that. I was trying to find out stuff about whether you can switch campaigns or drop campaigns, and came across loads of people complaining about it, no recent discussions at all.



Must be, it is only within the last few months that they've properly sorted out battle-levelling!  The CP issue is kind of related but it is now partially sorted with a seasonal CP cap and catch-up mechanism, and there will be a new campaign soon which will suit those with low CP better than the current vet campaigns.

Unfortunately you cannot drop campaigns which is tbh fucking annoying if you have a lot of characters, but you can switch - on the campaigns screen, select a new campaign as home and then a box comes up, you can select either "change now" or "change at end of current campaign" - but it costs a lot of AP.  First change is free though.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2016)

Does it cost to switch at the end of a campaign, or only when it's still ongoing? It really should be free at the end of a campaign.


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## moon (Feb 15, 2016)

I took part in my first battle, set up a catapult on the walls of Fort Nikel and stopped the Aldmeri Dominion from breaking them down. They still managed to take it though and I noticed that our scroll has gone missing 
I'm going to level up the speed of my horse, however my comrades kept adding things to me to give me speed as we rode into battle  Was really thrilling!
I died so many times and think that although you are leveled in Cyrodil, if you don't have powerful spells or skills you are screwed.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2016)

People who play pvp regularly or exclusively will min-max their builds, so even if you're the same real level as them unless you're l337 you'll likely die a lot. Combat strategy is different in pvp than in pve and for levelling, and people will have different builds often times. 

For the most part, gear set bonuses don't count in Cyrodiil (I think there are a couple of exceptions). Vampires do really well, werewolves not so much. Nightblades and Sorcs seem to be where it's at, and specific builds at that. 

Magelight is very useful to have in Cyrodiil. When morphed to Radiant Magelight it shows people in stealth, and reduces the damage you and allies take from stealth attacks.

Honestly though, you will die. That's what pvp is. Even the best will die a lot, because there are a lot of the best and they can't all win against each other all the time; someone has to lose. But the more you play, the more you'll learn a few strategies, the best places to stand in big battles, how to decide whether it's worth attacking someone or stealthing and trying to just sneak by, and so on. And yes, of course, the more morphs and passives you unlock the more impact you'll have, but it's not necessary to be lvl 48 in order to do well in there. 

Spend some time exploring your own faction region (especially if you're currently in control of it). There are loads of dungeons and little towns, loads of hostile npcs to kill, shards to collect, lore books, etc. Be careful going into dungeons in enemy faction territory, because you're more likely to encounter enemy players there, and there are few places to hide.

I hear they're talking about bringing back forward camps (or have they already done it?). They were a thing you purchased from a vendor in your faction area, and you could set it up out in the field allowing anyone from your faction to travel to there (and I think rez there too, but not sure). Enemy players could destroy your forward camps. Not sure why they got rid of them, presumably a balance issue.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2016)

I remember a great experience in Cyrodiil. I was still in the reddit guild at the time, and we went in a big group, did a load of battle things, and then we went off skyshard hunting, got loads of them across the whole map. After a couple of hours or so we decided to call it a day. I wandered off to do some exploring nearby, lots of stealth, and someone else from the group seemed to be doing similar, but we weren't grouped anymore. We both ended up in this little town, and there was an enemy faction player somewhere. We couldn't see them, and they kept sniping at us. We ended up in this little run down house, where you could see out the top from the broken down wall. They couldn't see us anymore because we'd stealthed and gone behind various buildings to find this vantage point. We spent ages trying to spot them, and they were trying to find us. We eventually spotted them, and we snuck all the way to them (they were in another little house right across the road from us), made our way up the stairs without them knowing we were there, and then murdered them mercilessly.

Probably doesn't sound like much, but it was such a rush.


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## Epona (Feb 15, 2016)

Forward camps are coming back in the next update (probably, unless testing shows up major issues), but there are restrictions on placing and using them, can't recall the exact details as I haven't done any PvP on the PTS so it doesn't really stick in my mind.  Something to do with preventing people from using them to port people in from the other side of the map probably?  I'll look it up.

I am not so much into the big battles, I get a fair bit of lag during them tbh, but I do love going and doing city quests and delves, and having 1 on 1 fights with people from enemy factions doing the same.  Of course if I win, they tend to come back and bring their mates, but it's still really good fun.  As Vintage Paw says, expect to die frequently and when you don't it's a pleasant surprise!  The good news is if you die to another player your armour doesn't degrade at all, so there aren't any repair costs for dying in combat with another player.

EDIT: Oh and Magelight is changing in the next update to providing a lot of "when slotted" buffs rather than a toggle, which makes it more useful and more powerful.  If playing a magicka character, probably worth leveling the skill now in readiness for the change.


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## Epona (Feb 15, 2016)

Here it is, forward camps info from the PTS patch notes:




			
				ESO PTS Patch Notes said:
			
		

> Forward Camps, an item that allows you to respawn anywhere without relying on Keep ownership or respawning at your home base, have returned with the following changes:
> 
> You may only respawn within a Forward Camp radius if you die within it.
> The radius for Forward Camps has been greatly reduced from how it was originally.
> ...



PTS Patch Notes v2.3.0

PTS Patch Notes v2.3.1

These changes are due to go live with the Thieves Guild dlc (but not as part of the dlc, this is the base game patch) which is 7/8 March for PC/Mac and I think 22/23 March for consoles.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2016)

I just had a very stupid death whilst questing - at Seaside Sanctuary in Greenshade, enemies there are packed pretty close.  Must have run past some and had them chasing me but not noticed - engaged a group of 3 ahead of me.  It's all going OK, then the 3 that were following me caught up and joined in.  OK, not bad, I can handle this.  Then roll-dodged the wrong way and managed to pull another 3 into the fight.  It still might have gone OK if I'd used my ultimate instead of going "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" and stabbing my fingers at random keys


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## moon (Feb 16, 2016)

I'm currently a Redguard templar mostly using a 2 handed sword (the one the king gave me), fire and I've just started using the spear thing.
I have one ultimate fire thing although people seem to walk away from it unscathed  and I'm not sure how its triggered.. I guess when the box is completely yellow, but sometimes when I press L1 and R1 nothing happens.
I also want to develop healing but not sure how compatible it will be with min/max as I want to max the 2handed skill and fire.
I think my most powerful skill so far is the uppercut, that can sometimes knock people dead in 1 hit.
Last night I grouped with a bunch of French guys in Cyrodil, I couldn't understand them on voice chat so turned it off.. which is also good for listening to the awesome in game music.
On the PS4 the main means of communicating seem to be jumping and rearing up on your horse etc to indicate you are ready and willing to do battle  then the group leader adds you to a group.
I also realised how small the icons are for current battles.. you have to zoom in loads and scan the map to find the tiny crossed swords.

We went from keep to keep doing a lot of sneaking, we took a couple of keeps and I loved the displays of honour at the taken keeps broken down walls. Everyone in a line bending down on one knee in unison, it was fantastic!
We also went to an anchor thing (I think) and destroyed it. 
I got loads of AP and bought some more siege equipment, I am guessing that the catapults are for 1 time use only? My originals seem to have disappeared from my inventory, the first time it happened I guessed it was because I was killed and we lost the keep but the second one was stowed and just disappeared..

All in all a good nights game play 

Edited to add that I wanted to be able to rev people in cyrodil not be a healer.. I didn't realise you could use soul gems there... I will stock up!


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2016)

Templar is good at rezzing, the last passive in the Restoring Light line increases rez speed, gives increased health to the target on being rezzed, and gives a chance to gain a soul gem on a successful rez - so as a Templar it's a good idea for you to do the rezzing in a group as it is quicker and less costly. (Also once you get to vet level and open up Champion Points, you can spend some of them on better rezzing).  You can use soul gems in PvP, but only to rez other players, not yourself.

Edit: if you need grand soul gems and are in DC, there is one that is easy to steal from the mystic's stand in Aldcroft (Glenumbra), just crouch behind the stall and grab it when no-one's looking - and it will respawn when you relog or change zones, so keep doing that (if you want to launder them it costs 4g per gem and will help level your legerdemain skill, although filling them does remove the stolen tag anyway).  Then fill them using npc mobs in Cyro, the npcs there are the right level there to fill grand soul gems.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2016)

Oh I should also have said, Vintage Paw - if you need grand soul gems before you hit level 50, there is one (that also respawns) completely free for the taking in Monkey's Rest POI in south west Auridon, it's not even marked as stolen, just sitting there with no owner.

I'm a complete skinflint, hence I know where to get the free goodies


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## moon (Feb 16, 2016)

Question: Can someone explain the difference between a tank and damage dealer?
As I'd like to know what I may become..
So far I think a tank is someone who takes the focus of the battle.. and so has lots of armour??
A damage dealer is probably ranged and so likely to be a mage??
Can you be both a tank and a damage dealer?


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2016)

A tank is a character that is built to withstand a lot of damage and take the brunt of attacks, keeping hard-hitting enemies away from squishier members of the group.  Typically you'd want to use 1H and shield and wear some pieces of heavy armour for high damage mitigation, although you may want some pieces of medium or light for the passives (medium for a stamina build, light for a magicka build).  There are 2 taunt abilities in the game that get enemies to focus on you rather than other people (or "aggro" them, as it is known), these are Puncture from the 1H+Shield line, and Inner Fire from the Undaunted line.  Shield skills slotted on your actives bar are also useful.

A damage dealer or "dps" (as in damage per second) is any build with the primary function of doing as much damage as possible and killing things as quickly as possible.  They can be either ranged or melée, so pick whichever style you prefer.  2H and/or bow for a stam build, Dual Wield and either resto or destro staff, or destro and resto staves if you prefer to stay ranged for a magicka build.  Put most of your points into either stamina or magicka, maybe a few in health for survivability, and take skills that do a high amount of damage.

Templar is fairly flexible in what it can do, if you split your attribute points into health and either stamina or magicka then you can switch between tank and dps by changing your gear (heavy armour with health enchants, healthy/health regen jewellery for a tank; medium armour with stamina enchants for stamina dps; light armour with magicka enchants for magicka dps) and active skills.  Although you can't switch gear mid-combat, so it's pick a role for that fight and stick with it.  It's quite useful as you can fill in for either role depending upon what the group needs for any given situation. 

The downside of course is having an extra set of gear clogging up your bank/inventory, but you won't need to worry too much about having different complete sets until higher levels, at low levels you'd manage OK with just putting 1H+Shield on your 2nd weapon slot.  You don't even need to make a final decision, you can level up both 1H+Shield and other weapons, then if you choose 1 role over the other later, a complete respec is possible.


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2016)

Oh another thing I would recommend whilst levelling is to wear at least 1 piece of each armour type (so for my stamina dps I wear 5 pieces of medium, 1 piece heavy, 1 piece light - 5 pieces counts as a full set for the armour skill line passives), so that you are gaining levels in all 3 armour types - useful to have them all levelled a bit so that if you change your mind about your focus later you won't have to start levelling a new armour type from scratch


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## moon (Feb 16, 2016)

Thanks, should I be crafting my own stuff?
I'm currently level 14 and have been wearing things I've found or been given.
I've been collecting jute, wood, metals, rawhide, gems and runes, but selling/destroying food (I'm not cooking!) and flowers, although I can't resist picking them


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## Epona (Feb 16, 2016)

Flowers are really valuable, don't vendor or destroy them, join a trading guild that regularly gets a kiosk, and sell them to other players!  (seriously, a full stack of Columbine is worth approximately 60,000 gold, it varies between servers, but that stuff can make you serious cash if you don't want to use it yourself.)

I'd recommend levelling all crafting skills - start some research if you haven't already (at blacksmithing, clothing, and woodworking stations), and deconstruct any gear you don't want to use or keep for research purposes.  If you don't want to do any provisioning, bear in mind that you'll have to be buying food and/or drink from other players at higher levels, it is not an option to do without player-made food/drink for PvP or high level PvE content.  Same with potions.  Unless you plan on buying them from the crown store, but they are not as good as player made stuff.


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## moon (Feb 16, 2016)

Oh god.. more stuff to think about..


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## moon (Feb 16, 2016)

btw look what I found a few days ago.. I wondered what was making that sound


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 16, 2016)

Wot epona said.

The trinity, as it's known, is common language within almost all mmorpg and rpg games. Tank, DPS, Healer. Not all games rely on having a strict trinity, some are a lot more flexible, but it's good to understand the idea behind it so you can adapt it and know what's expected. Even Dragon Age is fashioned around the trinity, although there you're far freer to ignore it altogether if you want.

As epona said, the tank is generally the damage sponge, there to take aggro and get the attention of enemies so that DPS is free to deal all the damage and Healers are free to keep everyone alive (and in some cases provide useful buffs and debuffs). They are your typical knights in shining armour when you think about how they look - heavy armour, brutes, big. That's not always the case when it comes to individual games, but think about it in that way and it's easier to understand what their role is.

DPS (known as DD in ESO, damage dealers) dish out the pain. If min-maxing, they are often glass cannons, meaning they have very little or even nothing in the way of armour and damage mitigation built into their build, and focus solely on pumping up their stats to maximise the damage they can deal with pinpoint accuracy. The tank must work very hard to make sure they keep aggro, because the way the enemy AI usually works is that they'll go after whoever does the most damage. Well you don't want your tanks to be doing the most damage (although they can help), you want your DPS to be doing it, but if the enemy goes after your DPS they'll be dead in a heartbeat. So tanks will have some kind of taunt, which does exactly what it says on the tin - it's a skill or a passive or whatever (depending on the build and the game) that taunts the enemy and makes them so angry at the tank that they only attack them, leaving the DPS free to attack without fear of insta-death. 'Keeping aggro' is a key skill for tanks, and if your build doesn't have the skills to do that, you'll be a crap tank. 

Healers keep everyone alive. They generally don't wear much armour, usually because light clothing is often coded to have healing/magic benefits. The idea is a healer won't be doing much damage, if any at all, so they'll likely never draw any aggro (unless the enemy AI is coded to go attack on debuffs, etc). That said, a healer still needs to understand where to stand, to keep out of cc (crowd control) and aoe (area of effect) attacks, otherwise they'll take damage themselves. Healers keep the tank alive, as well as healing any damage the dps may take. Depending on the game, dps might take more damage because it's just not possible for the tank to take it all, but I'm just talking about the pure idea behind the trinity at the moment, not necessarily how it filters down in different games - every game utilises it in its own way. Another role for the healer might be buffing the party - using spells that increase attack speed or stamina regen, or provide better damage mitigation, or poison immunity, etc, for a limited amount of time. Knowing when to fire off those buffs can be crucial. As well as buffs, there are debuffs, that are focused at the enemy to remove whatever positive buffs they have. So a boss might be immune to fire, and a healer might be able to use a debuff which makes a character 50% more susceptible to fire for 20 seconds, for example, or more specifically "removes "Satan's Kiss" for 20 seconds" (idk, making up a name for what an enemy buff that makes them immune to fire damage might be called in a game ). There are also dispels, which are sometimes also called debuffs, which remove negative effects from your party. So, the boss might have cast a snare spell on your party so no one can move, and the healer might have a spell that removes that snare.

Now, each of these roles is flexible depending on the game, and certainly in ESO you only really need to worry about them if you're going to be doing group dungeons and other high level PvE content. It can be useful in Cyrodiil, but your priority is going to be on creating a build that YOU can survive and kill other players with, not on supporting others, unless you join a regular PvP group where you only ever go around together and each has a designated role. For general questing and levelling, you'll want to mostly be dps, but you'll need damage mitigation of some kind (whether it's through passives, armour, spells or all of them) with the understanding that the more tanky you are the longer it'll take to kill things. It's very, VERY useful to have a self-heal of some kind while levelling/questing. That doesn't make you a healer, but you'll be very glad of it. 2H has a skill/passive that heals (epona will be able to tell you what it's called) but if you're a templar then taking the first and/or second healing skill will be all you need while levelling. If you're a stamina build, then you'll never be using magicka, so you'll always have a small reserve of it for an oh shit heal now and again. (You might be using magicka at first for other templar skills but once you morph them I think there are some that can be morphed to use stamina instead.) 

Ignore min-maxing unless you really want to be playing at the top levels. And on your first character you absolutely won't be. Min-maxing means people theorycraft their builds so that they can't even eke out 1 single more point of damage/healing/whatever from them, and so each skill and passive and weapon and piece of armour and potion is used for maximum efficiency in synergy with one another. Min-maxing is in no way needed to play the game, even to play it well. It's not needed to do group content, it's not needed to do PvP, and it's certainly not needed to get through the story content. If you do want to go down that route, don't worry about it with your first character. You won't fully understand the game until you've played it through to max level with a character and put in hours and hours to figure out how it plays. Arguably you won't understand the game fully until you've reached max level with every class and every role. But you don't need to if you're not interested in leaderboards and so on. 

Back to the trinity: if you do want to pick a role because you expect to do group content, I'd go with dps/dd for now. It's the easiest, which is why there's always a shortage of tanks and healers. There's less to worry about, you just focus on hitting things hard. You worry about you and the enemy, that's all. If you're a tank you have to be aware of aggro all the time, and it can be difficult to keep it on you unless you know what you're doing; it also restricts the types of skills you can take because you HAVE to take taunts and things that help with damage mitigation, whereas with dps you just have to take stuff that deals damage - it's up to you which ones you take to achieve that (there are exceptions - for example some dungeons might need you to have more cc and aoe skills, some might work better if you're only doing single target damage - but in general it's useful to have a mixture of both for hard single enemies and groups of enemies). Healers have to pay attention to everyone in the party all the time, watching for incoming damage, keeping out of damage themselves, watching for buffs, debuffs, negative effects, and of course maintaining the right kind of healing constantly. Of course, playing a tank or healer can be very rewarding, but dps is much easier, and feels very satisfying too. And since you'll be spending most of your time questing, and since it seems you enjoy Cyrodiil a lot, you'll definitely want to be dps with a hint of damage mitigation/survivability, and have a decent self-heal.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 16, 2016)

And yes, wear one piece of each armour type, also while levelling have 1 skill from each 3 class lines on your bar. You only level up the lines you have on your bar when you get XP, and you need to level up the lines to be able to put any more points in their passives or take other skills from them. 

At level 15 you get a second active bar, and can equip a second weapon. Even if you're only really interested in 2H right now, pick another weapon you think you might vaguely possibly want to use one day, and use that on your second bar. You can slot the same or different class skills in the bar. Pay attention to what bar is active when you hand in quests, because it'll be that weapon and those class lines that get the XP boost, not whatever is on your off-bar. 

Provisioning is the easiest craft to level. There's no real reason not to do it, really. Food is insanely helpful. I barely use potions but at higher levels and in dungeons/pvp they're very useful and can make or break an encounter, so levelling alchemy is good. I've not got far in alchemy yet, but I've already unlocked the ability to make potions that replace health AND magicka (or health AND stamina) in the same potion, and also give a boost to spell power, etc. But honestly, COOK THINGS. There have been even low level encounters I've only survived because I've eaten something that gives me more magicka or health so I can last longer or fire off that extra healing spell. It's more reliable than potions because it lasts for 30 minutes upwards, whereas there's a cooldown after you use a potion. So eat food regularly, because you'll never know when you'll need it and as soon as you're cooking you'll have a ready supply on hand all the time. Then if you really need to, you can pop a potion, but you'll need to do that far less frequently if you're eating food. It will also help you stay alive a bit longer in Cyrodiil, and as you put points into provisioning you can start making better drinks recipes that give regen plus extra health, which epona has said can be better for PvP. But food is great for questing.

The armour and weapon crafts are very useful to have because you can craft sets that have bonuses attached to them. You've probably come across a couple of special set crafting locations already. There are 3 in each zone, each one different. They can provide some very useful buffs, like increasing stamina regen, reducing damage, increasing your damage output, increasing your weapon critical, increasing your movement speed while stealthed, increasing spell protection, etc. If you can craft your own gear, you'll be able to ensure you always have a full set of special gear (in fact, 2 sets, one with 5 pieces and one with 3 - there's nothing to be gained from having more than 5 pieces of the same set, it's a waste).

WALLS OF TEXT


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## moon (Feb 17, 2016)

Destroyed by what I think were vampires (there were flashes of wings and they went invisible from time to time) in a series of very well co-ordinated attacks, it was a bloodbath right up at our gates.
Good on them for their strategy as it seemed to be separate groups working together.
I'm not sure what they had on them but hitting them hard did no damage at all, when I was 1 to 1 some just stood still and took it even though my uppercut has over 1000 dps, I was only able to finish with it when a few other people were involved.  
Plus they put something on an entrance, there was a red circle around the whole of the opening and I had to keep cleansing myself..
It was great fun though!


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## moon (Feb 18, 2016)

I'm level 16 now and have a second skill bar etc etc.
I was in a guest campaign last night and the vampires from the Ebonheart Pact basically took over the map and 'crowned' (?) an Emperor.
Daggerfall Covenant had about 2 places to revive on whole map.. I was gutted 
I'm going to spend some time questing, exploring and collecting things for food and potions so I can go back into Cyrodil a bit more prepared 

Edited to add that I've been checking the stats (on Steam) and the game seems more popular now than ever
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - Steam Charts


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## Epona (Feb 19, 2016)

Glad you're having fun moon 

There aren't really that many vampires in the game, they're too vulnerable to fire attacks and Fighters Guild skills and it takes some skill to play them (also they are fucking ugly, vampirism makes you go all veiny and horrible looking, Khajiits and Argonians are the only ones who don't look horrendously ill as vampires).  They don't have wings either, but they do have a Bat Swarm ultimate which looks like a cloud of bats.  If people with flappy wings were leaping in they are Dragonknights using their Dragon Leap ultimate.  They could have been DK vampires, but the wings thing is definitely a DK class skill.  Although vampires can go invisible using their Mist Form ability, that is an escape skill - if they were going invisible and then hitting you for a critical attack, that is a Nightblade thing.

If you do come across any vampires, using Silver Bolts (Fighter's Guild skill line) will hurt them, as will any fire damage.


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## moon (Feb 19, 2016)

Ok thanks, I am loving this game! and having loads of FUN!
Last night I decided to practice combat skills on a bunch of respawning Bloodthorn cultists, mainly practicing blocking and trying to decide which secondary weapon to equip. I am thinking a bow might go well with the 2handed?
Then I went back to one of the squares in Daggerfall to find loads of people with bears gathered, all the bears roaring. I think some were mainly showing off their new black bears. 
Then as the sun set people started throwing down glyphs? Which lit up the square and there was lots of dancing in circles and random men in the middle doing old skool face offs.. I had my area voice chat on and heard loads of people laughing.
I don't have a mic attached to my ps4 as that is too weird and not many other people do, but I love the way people manage to communicate without words, it's really interesting and almost a game inside the game.
I'm also loving the AI, its seems to be really clever and subtle.


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## moon (Feb 19, 2016)

I found this funny youtube clip


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## moon (Feb 26, 2016)

Level 20 now, I've been taking it slowly, getting the hang of crafting etc, spending LOTS of time in Cyrodiil, doing a few quests, do they get more interesting/challenging?
I think the main pull of the game for me is shaping my character for PVP and mastering enchanting.
I'm having lots of fun with Dawns Wrath, shooting fire to the top of buildings and am learning a bit about animation cancelling etc.
i just wish the quests were a bit more engaging, but I guess that's the deal with MMOs, lots of grinding etc...


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## Epona (Feb 28, 2016)

The quests are IMO better than most quests in single player Elder Scrolls games (with the exception of Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion, which were exceptionally good), even the quests in Morrowind which is still my favourite game of all time were tbh a bit shit.  I think Zenimax has done a better job of quests than BGS usually manage (and some of the quests in Skyrim were dreadful).


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## moon (Feb 28, 2016)

I guess the main quest is quite interesting, but the unscripted PvP and exploring in Cyrodill seems to be the best part of the game  
DC is still getting its arse kicked in the Blackwater Blade campaign but we are becoming more organised.
I'm still only relying on about 3 skills, 2 handed, Dawns Wrath and my bow, which I've been levelling up and morphing etc, plus putting points into racial passives.
Filling writs is tricky as I never seem to have all the materials I need, but am collecting lots of runes for enchanting.
I bought a bunch of recipes from my guilds and have been munching my way through the flowers I collect in order to learn their effects.
Researching takes forever, but exploring etc in Cyrodil is quite handy for getting new gear to research.
I've decided that my pet cat is way too annoying and will be getting a cute little Fennec Fox soon


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

I had really good fun tonight - a big trading guild that I am a member of on the NA server held a dueling tournament in Cyro, lots of 2v2 and 1v1 fights, I just went along as a spectator, there were something like 40 or more of us there from different alliances either taking part or watching.  Really good fun   (Although I had to watch it around Sonic's head, he is a bit of a fiend for getting between me and either the TV or the monitor, depending upon what is on the screen!)

Then the 2 friends that I group up with regularly came online and it's the first time we've seen one another for a few weeks due to computer problems and internet issues and work schedules getting in the way - so we grouped up and went and did some group quests in Craglorn which was really fun.

Thieves guild goes live today on PC, looking forward to that   (All PC servers will be offline from 11am for a few hours for the DLC and patch).


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

Sounds fun! I recently found out about the duelling and can't wait to try it. 
I'm part of a large guild now who have PVP sundays so I hope to join in the fun soon, I wasn't able to change my guest campaign to Haderus until pretty late last night so missed most of it. There seems to be a bug in the change campaign screen.
I'm level 26 now and am still playing a support role in Cyrodiil, I'm really liking my bow with poison arrows, also the fact that you can use it in stealth mode.
I discovered that my Dawns Wrath ultimate is pretty handy at destroying siege equipment so defending keeps has been a blast, literally.
I'm going to concentrate on crafting once I've hit level 30, as at the moment I'm mostly wearing 'fashion' items which offer next to no protection but are cute for partying in the various squares.
Question: Why is it that the Ebonhart Pact seem to dominate all the campaigns? Are their race/class skill lines better suited for PVP?


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

You don't need to change either your home or guest campaign to join in with a guild event - just ask someone to invite you to group and you can port to them in ANY campaign that they are in!  Last night I was watching dueling in Axe of Belharthingy, but that is not my home campaign, a guildmate invited me to group and then I could port there regardless.


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

I tried to but kept getting a message saying cannot travel to such and such etc. Then when trying to change my guest it said cannot change guest campaign as it was entered in the last 24hrs but it can be changed in 3 days 5 hrs etc etc but I was able to change it later in the day, it was a real pain as I was really looking forward to pvping  with my guild..


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

They have completely ballsed up the maintenance, looks like someone unplugged the wrong thing and took out the EU console servers and the website alongside the scheduled PC server outages.


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

Ohboy...


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

moon said:


> I tried to but kept getting a message saying cannot travel to such and such etc. Then when trying to change my guest it said cannot change guest campaign as it was entered in the last 24hrs but it can be changed in 3 days 5 hrs etc etc but I was able to change it later in the day, it was a real pain as I was really looking forward to pvping  with my guild..



The way to do it is NOT in the party/group screen - you have to ask them which campaign they are in, then go to the campaign screen and pick that campaign, there should be an option once you are grouped with people in a campaign that says just "Enter Campaign" - I got stuck on this too the first time I tried it, it's a bit tricky knowing where to look to join your friends/guild in Cyro - but it is possible - via the campaigns screen rather than the group screen


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

The only real difference it makes between your home campaign and guesting or porting to others is that on your home campaign, you rack up points towards an end of campaign score.  This is useful at higher levels if you want to be on the leaderboard for a "Rewards For The Worthy" reward casket/item, or if you are in the running for Emperor.

If you are on a guest campaign or have ported to friends/guildmates in a campaign that is not your home campaign, you will still earn personal Alliance Points that you can accrue and spend on things in Cyro - those points just won't count towards your score on your home campaign leaderboard.


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

I didn't have any options! 
Well maybe I tried after I left the group out of sheer frustration but I also tried using various guides on the website, which were useless as zenimax seem to change things with every update!
I tried to watch using the 'request to watch' function on my guild masters play station profile but just got the spinning circle of doom.


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

Yes I get lots of rewards for the worthy gifts, they are great for researching etc.
I'm also crafting higher level glyphs for enchantments so slowly but surely getting there
I'm beginning to realise that just collecting points is not enough, you have to learn how to play, how to use your skills effectively, make sure you're weapon and armour enchantments are adding to your dps etc.
For example I had no idea that increased stamina adds to dps of stamina based weapons..
It's making ESO an incredibly fun and complex game to play.


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

I run a trading guild on the NA server, and I just don't know what to do with myself at the moment.  Normally trader switchover happens at midday GMT, and NA server goes down at 1pm, so if I lost my bid I have an hour before the server goes offline to try to find an unhired kiosk.

Server went down at 11am today.  DLC release, so kiosk bids are likely to be higher than usual.  I do not yet know whether I have won the bid for my guild today, and it is doing my head in a bit, not knowing when the server will be back up (EU escapes it this time around their trader switchover is on Tuesday, I think about 2am).

If I haven't won my bid, the fact I don't have the fastest download speed in the universe puts me (and the 475 guildmembers that I do this for) at a disadvantage when the servers come back up.


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

The EU PS4 server is still down...
Will you be getting the theives guild dlc? Does it come with a camel mount? If yes then show us yours 
I love the mounts in this game, it makes me want to go horse riding again...


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

The PSU server should be back up now 

I have a sub so get the DLC included in that, so I won't get a camel right away (I love the idea of a camel, but I want to see how many crowns the bank assistant costs before splurging on something unnecessary iykwim.)

I am going to get the thieves guild DLC even on my second account where I don't have a sub - I don't want to spoil it (and I have not even played all of it), but the main quests involve a lot of sneaking and hiding and then more sneaking - it seems quite well designed.

I am still waiting forever for this fucking update to fucking download, fuck my ISP and fuck Zeni and fuck whatever subatomic particles may be impeding my download speed.  *cries* (only because I still don't know whether my guild got the kiosk yet).


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

They are taking the eu ps4 server offline at 17.30  last time it was 6 hrs before it came back again.. I need to feed my horse..


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

Still downloading, I'd better have bloody got my bid, because there will be people already on the server and any uhired kiosks will have already been taken.

Consoles aren't getting the DLC today, so hopefully your downtime will be a bit shorter


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

Download finished now dealing with 5 minute login screen, which is normal after a big update.  OH came home with a can of Ursus beer which was unexpected, but not unwelcome (I kind of nicked it off him, reminds me of when I lived in Romania for a while).

OMFG please just can this game load?  Taking forever.


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

Trader bid won


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2016)

Now just trying to work out which of my addons are bolloxed


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## moon (Mar 7, 2016)

I just uploaded some random exploring footage


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## moon (Mar 8, 2016)

Epona are you rocking a templar class? Apparently it has been changed with the last update..
I'm still learning the build but I've read that it will now be more powerful in pve/pvp, also one of the developers hinted at it's building defence capabilities which has lead some people to speculate that templars will receive some form of player housing.. but I think its more a nod to keep defence in Cyrodiil


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## moon (Mar 10, 2016)

The Daggerfall Covenant... yeah!!!


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## Epona (Mar 10, 2016)

Templars, yeah - I actually have quite a few templars 

The really good change that they made is they removed that annoying brief knockback (which didn't do a lot other than give the enemy a period of cc immunity!) from jabs/sweep and replaced it with a 70% movement reduction which is much more useful.  I do hope they will revisit Templar skills in the next update though and improve some of them, the class has a couple of fairly useless skills, and the defensive shield could do with some improvement to bring it up to par with what other classes have available.


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## Epona (Mar 10, 2016)

I am using the 64bit client and it has some amusing sound and graphics glitches (it wasn't ready to be released obviously, and to use it you have to bypass the launcher - but it's giving me a better framerate, so...) - sometimes the wrong sounds play, so earlier today I was switching between guild banks and every time I hit the drop down menu, it would bark like a dog 

Thanks to changes in drop-rates of VR15/16 mats in Wrothgar I now have enough rubedo leather to make my VR16 some gear - but cannot decide which style to go for.  It takes so many mats that I have to be certain about what I want before I make it!  Why oh why is there no gear preview in the crafting screen?


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 10, 2016)

That's one thing that would be such a good quality of life improvement. How on earth it's not already in the game is beyond me. It's like they've never played a game before.


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## Epona (Mar 10, 2016)

Mind you, she's been wearing one of the Orsinium quest reward costumes for months now, so any style gear would probably do


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## Epona (Mar 10, 2016)

I am really enjoying the Thieves Guild DLC btw - the zone of Hew's Bane is quite small, but the city, Abah's Landing, is incredibly well designed.  Best of all, the questline is good, and there are repeatable thieving objectives from the 'hints board' and heists (which I haven't tried yet).  And the thieves' troves all over tamriel which provide good rewards, new potions for escaping from guards, and pardon edicts which can be used to remove a portion of bounty.  And revamped dropped sets up to VR16, suitable for stealthy operation.  There are also new crafting motifs.


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## moon (Mar 10, 2016)

I just laundered a whole lot of stolen goods at the outlaws refuge in Daggerfall, I'm not sure what happened to them but I got a trophy.  
I spent a bit of time showing a level 9 around a dungeon and have called it a day, as last night I was partying in the square with a bunch of DC brethren until the early hrs


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2016)

I have sorted out some gear (at minimal cost, naturally), for thieving purposes.  I have:

Hunding's Rage:
Med Chest
Med Legs
Med Head
Med Waist
Greatsword (on 1st bar)

Shadow Dancer:
Light Feet
Light Hands
Sword (for DW on second bar)
Ring x2

Nightshade:
Med Shoulders
Dagger (for DW on second bar)
Necklace

This means that I get 5 piece weapon damage bonus for Hunding's Rage set when I am on my 2H bar; when I switch to Dual Wield I get 3 piece 2m detection radius reduction and 23% reduced sneak cost from Nightshade, and 5 piece no movement speed sneak penalty from Shadow Dancer.

This is not a setup I would use for vet dungeons or PvP as I lose some weapon crit and stam regen, but for questing whilst thieving it should work ok, even though Shadow Dancer set is not ideal for a stam build.

I will report back.


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2016)

Well it certainly works well for thieving!  Seems OK in combat too.
My other option might be to go for 5 piece Night's Silence (for the ignore sneak movement penalty bonus), 5 piece Night Mother's Embrace (which has both necklaces and rings, for the detection radius/sneaking stamina reduction), and one of the monster shoulders (whichever gives best 1 piece bonus in terms of stamina/weapon build).

I'll try that out also before making any costly (in terms of upgrade mats!) decisions


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## Epona (Mar 11, 2016)

So trying to find Night Mother's Embrace stuff with decent traits is really pissing me off right now, all the stuff I have looted have sturdy or exploration (the latter is fine when you're level 10, but wtf is a VR16 supposed to do with that?)

Someone also pointed out to me that using 7 pieces medium is better with the med armour passive for detection radius reduction than giving up 2 armour slots to use Night Mother's Embrace (which only drops in heavy).

So I will try out:

Hunding's Rage: 4 pieces med armour + Greatsword on bar 1
Night's Silence: 3 pieces med armour + 2x mace or sword on bar 2

That way I have 7 pieces of medium for better detection radius passive, can switch weapon sets to go between weapon damage and fast sneak, better 2/3/4 piece set bonuses for my build, whichever traits I like, and still have my jewellery slots free.

Now lets see if in 24 hours time I have managed to commit to this or whether I have changed my mind again


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## moon (Mar 11, 2016)

Sounds good Epona.
I recently deconstructed 2 bits of Argonian medium armour thinking I would increase my survivability by using heavy armour...
but no..no..no I felt drained of stamina the whole time and could not fight effectively at all.
So now I'm going to have to find or craft the Caiman armour set again... god knows how.. but I will learn.

I just had a read of the Skyrim thread (my first experience of gaming in 2014) and it's interesting how different ESO is, looking back Skyrim was more story led, immersive and lore heavy but the graphics were so bad that I can't replay it.
ESO is more combat based, social and with much better graphics but has less story, I'm going to pay more attention to quests though as I'm probably rushing them to level up.


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## Epona (Mar 12, 2016)

OK so I did it - a full set of VR16 gear upgraded to gold.  Didn't have enough Repora to enchant every piece mind you, should be able to finish that off over the next couple of days now that white truly superb glyphs drop in Wrothgar and Hew's Bane (which can be deconned for VR16 potency runes).

So I have:
Bar 1 - 5 pc Hundings Rage and 3 pc Night's Silence which gives me:
+688 weapon crit
+967 max stamina
+688 weapon crit
+300 weapon damage
+967 max stamina
+129 stam recovery

Bar 2 - 5 pc Night's Silence and 4 pc Hundings Rage which gives me:
+688 weapon crit
+967 max stamina
+688 weapon crit
+967 max stamina
+129 stam recovery
+688 weapon crit
Ignore movement speed penalty whilst stealthing

I also crafted a bow which I can put on bar 2 where ranged is necessary.


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## moon (Mar 14, 2016)

I spent a good amount of time in game this weekend (I think it is more of an experience  ) skyshard hunting in Glenumbra, pvping with my guild, doing some undaunted quests.
The game is beginning to give me the feels as I get to know the characters more, and make friends with more DC members, we all text each other using the playstation phone app, it's great for coordinating in Cyrodiil.
I've been starting my day by sitting in the cathedral and reflecting on the Divines and the king, the reasons we are doing this. It helps with the immersion. I'm amazed at how many other people seem to go to the cathedral too even though the priest sounds like some sort of Bronx mafia boss.
I want to practice setting up 3 siege weapons for keep attacks and zerg control ready for next Sunday's PVP, plus hopefully get to level 30.


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## moon (Mar 16, 2016)

I've started crafting and am wondering if it's worth levelling provisioning? As Cyrodiilic food seems to be pretty good and can be bought with alliance points.


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## Epona (Mar 16, 2016)

moon said:


> I've started crafting and am wondering if it's worth levelling provisioning? As Cyrodiilic food seems to be pretty good and can be bought with alliance points.



Level provisioning!  Crafted food is always better than purchased food (either in game purchases or crown store), and it is useful at all levels to have crafted food, at high levels more so.

Even if you never plan to make your own food/drink, you can take passives in the skill line that increase the duration of food and drink buffs, which is something like a 30% duration increase for blue quality food/drink, more for green.

It only takes about an hour to get provisioning up to 50, as long as you have ingredients and have been picking up recipes and learning them.  If you haven't, you can buy recipes at guild stores (and after you get the big update next week you will be able to buy some green recipes from chefs and brewers, if you need some to get started.)

When leveling, start with making level 15 recipes - they give you the most inspiration (crafting XP) out of the low level recipes that don't require any skillpoints in provisioning.

EDIT (start with making* Level 15* recipes, not VR15 recipes!)


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## moon (Mar 16, 2016)

Epona said:


> Even if you never plan to make your own food/drink, you can take passives in the skill line that increase the duration of food and drink buffs, which is something like a 30% duration increase for blue quality food/drink, more for green.


Aha!
Ok I will try, although I already have a load of pies, pan fried trout, crusty bread etc etc and never seem to run out.
I never drink drinks either, the boosts don't stack so I'd rather have more health/stam than quicker regen.
The Cyrodiilic field bar gives you 2 boosts and lasts a hr, plus there are wells which give you more health.
To be honest it will probably be the last crafting skill I level, but I will eat humble pie if I ever kick myself for neglecting it.
Btw is there something I should know about the undaunted hangouts with all the caged animals etc, I get the impression that they are a bit dodgy..

I'm currently doing quests in my second area which is around level 16 and Im 31 so not gaining much Xp there, and even managed to complete some quests in Cyrodiil by going in when not many people were camping outside the quest areas..so annoying.

I treated myself to a cute little fennec fox pet and am adding stamina to my mounts now that I've reached 20% extra speed, I'm looking forward to getting armour for my bear.

I've been grouped with the emperor for my last few campaigns and have been learning a lot, mostly that speed is of the essence, once you have a critical mass with some experienced players, standing around is not an option, keeping an eye on the health bars of your group can tell you where you need to be etc

I tried to capture a farm on my own, with a lightening ballista and it ended in tears and a burnt down siege weapon


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## Epona (Mar 17, 2016)

Besides running my own trading guild on NA, I also belong to one of the big trading guilds - and just came 2nd in one of their trivia nights - won myself part of the Outlaw motif and some mats.  Only came 2nd because some of the questions were about '80s UK music - even not being a music buff, I knew more about The Smiths and Adam and the Ants than most participants, just by virtue of being alive in the '80s in the UK LOL.


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## Epona (Mar 19, 2016)

Huh, I just wandered in halfway through another trivia night, and took 3rd place.  I really need to start turning up at the beginning of these events!


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## Epona (Mar 19, 2016)

Am now halfway through the Upper Craglorn quests with the 2 other women that I regularly group with on Friday night.  It's a bit more difficult than the Lower Crag stuff, but tonight we got through the quest alright after wiping a few times.  We don't have a full-time tank in our group, which can make some battles (especially when designed for a full group of 4) a bit "oh shit oh shit oh shit". 

Our last attempt on this particular boss, everyone else died when the boss was at about 15% health and I just got extremely lucky with getting crits on my execute.  I actually died at the same time the boss did (has this horrible stacking stun/poison aoe with a wide radius), but it counted as a win for us so it's all good


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## moon (Mar 21, 2016)

I had a fantastic time at a PvP event on Sunday, I somehow managed to turn my horse into a bomb (probably a glitch) by jumping off the high ledge at the DC gates into a huge group of EPs who had pinned us in for ages, the first time I did it I died almost immediately, the second time I managed to survive only to find I had wiped out a number of players in a wide circle around me, and the rest were looking on a bit stunned lol.. I'm not sure what happened and I didn't try it again as the EPs ran off.. 
I managed to morph my bow into an arrow spray which immobilises and then restricts movement speed, and shortly after I was able to morph Rapid Manoeuvre so that it disabled immobilising effects on allies, which was great as I was worried EP would start using my new skill on us in return.
I finally feel as if I can contribute more than keep defence etc in Cyrodiil.. I've also decided I want to be a werewolf for one of the roar abilities which grants extra weapon power to allies, mostly for Cyrodiil guild events.

I accidentally deconstructed my favourite outfit and can't seem to find the style material needed to recreate it.. if anyone knows what it is from the picture below please help.

I did however manage to make these hide jacks in the Bosmer and Argonian styles.. they have about 50 in armour rating so I'm saving them for parties etc


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## Epona (Mar 22, 2016)

I don't know what armour you are wearing in the first pic.

This site is pretty good though for browsing through to decide what you want in future:

ESO Fashion - Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Visual Equipment Database


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## moon (Mar 24, 2016)

A 28gig update???
I may have found my  lost outfit style.. Breton.. Will try to make one tonight.
I'm also thinking of creating a character as a dedicated crafter after reading how long successive traits take to research.. 64 days for the final trait...


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## Epona (Mar 25, 2016)

Wow, 28Gb?  The TG update and base game patch was about 9 Gb on PC, but they tend to sneak in assets (art, textures, voice files etc) in incremental patches spread over a few weeks in the run up to a big update, which maybe they can't do with consoles due to the procedures for getting the patches approved for release with Sony/MS or something.


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## moon (Mar 28, 2016)

I really enjoy playing a support role in this game, putting up shields, defending keeps, fixing siege weapons, ensnaring enemies etc and have spent quite a few skill points in these areas. However it has left me woefully underpowered for mellee in PVP.
I'm still using 2 handed, bow, the spear thing  and dawns wrath but when I check my character stats I've only got around 700 weapon damage.
I've read that the Templar class is essentially a support class in PVP but I would like to take part in quick mellee combat too, so I'm going to try experimenting with the quicker more forcefull skills.
My guild also has training sessions and duels in the evenings which I may take part in.
I've also been levelling at a Dolmen(?) in Cyrodiil which gives a shit load of xp if you take it on by yourself or with one other player.
However I'm not looking to level too quickly for my first character as learning to play the game properly is more important, but it does feel good to be level 38 and a Corporal in the alliance war


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## moon (Mar 29, 2016)

The scenery in this game is amazing.. Next time I'll try taking a picture from first person PoV


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## Epona (Mar 31, 2016)

Am now nearing the end of the Craglorn main quest with my two ESO friends that I group with regularly - I remember when I first went to Craglorn as a VR1 on another character it was so scary and I died a lot, but as a group of 2xVR16 and 1xVR15 it is much less intimidating (and we have been able to get through the quest stuff as a group of 3 so far).

It has taken us a while as we only tend to get together once a week for a couple of hours at most - but we have an understanding that on the characters we group with we don't go off and do Craglorn stuff without each other, so we are always at the point where we left off last session whenever we do get a chance to group up   (Once we have finished Craglorn we have a list of dungeons we need to complete!)

Just want to have a quick rave about an addon that was suggested to me and I have now tried - it is called CraftStore and in 1 low-resource addon it has enabled me to get rid of about 5 or 6 separate addons doing different things.  It has various optional settings that can:

track research for all characters and mark items as needed for research
keep track of all characters' known recipes and mark unknown ones (for any character that you select as wanting to track recipes)
keep track of any and/or all characters' known motifs and mark unknown ones
provides timer for research and horse training across your whole account - so if you are playing on 1 character you will get a message if another character finishes their research or horse training, or an alert when you log onto any character saying (as an example) "Minasi has finished researching nirnhoned swords"
adds the style of an armour or weapon item into the tooltip info
keeps track of crafting levels for all characters
a list of all set crafting stations and locations, with the option to port to the nearest wayshrine for each (and mouseover providing details of set bonuses)
new interface for provisioning and enchanting (alchemy will be in the next update of the addon)
tracks daily income and fence limits for each character
(This one is astounding and so so useful): tracks inventory items held by each character and in the bank, so if I am logged into Lyra and hover over filled grand soul gem in my inventory, it tells me in the tooltip what other filled grand soul gems I have on characters or bank for my account thus: "Sylvie 58, Salesa 50, Lucia 53, Lyra 121, Zajari 77, Bank 100".  Which lets me know where every single filled grand soul gem I have is located, _without having to relog to other characters_


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## moon (Mar 31, 2016)

I don't know what Craglorn is but it sounds fun! And the multi-character management add-on sounds super useful, I only have one character at the moment and on PS4, but I actually like the inventory management side of things, juggling what to keep, research, deconstruct etc etc It helps that I am not collecting food or many flowers at the moment.

I've read that once hitting VR1 you lose the massive Cyrodiil buff, Battle Rush (or something) so I'm going to have to craft some better armour/weapons beforehand so the drop isn't too painful. They have also made Azura a non CP campaign which has resulted in loads of AD with champion points moving over to Haderus, which is not fun at all, especially when they drop instakill bombs on you from the top of buildings.

I've realised that I really should be using my Restoring Light abilities more and so now have the ultimate slotted and will look to increase ultimate point gains where possible.
I'm still loving my bow so have Bombard, Snipe and Poison Injection on the same bar. When I get low on stamina I swap over to my 2 handed bar which also has Aedric Spear and Dawns Wrath.
I've spent a lot of points on passives rather than morphs/skills so only have a few but they are quite effective/efficient, I also invested in increasing the range of my skills which is awesome, especially combined with the Propelling Shield ability 

Now for the bad stuff.. 
Since the launch of the Thieves' Guild DLC there have been terrible performance issues on the PS4 EU server, when entering Glenumbra/Daggerfall characters are mostly black shadows, there is terrible lag, audio issues and framerate drops etc etc.
Cyrodiil seems equally laggy.
It's really spoiling the game and loads of people have stopped playing, so I hope they manage to fix it soon.


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## Epona (Apr 2, 2016)

Friday night trivia with Ethereal Trader's Union - subject matter was songs from movie soundtracks, 80s 90s and 2k+ - and I reigned supreme with an astounding 17 points (a 12 point lead).


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## Epona (Apr 2, 2016)

Did a bit more in Craglorn afterwards - the main quest there is really difficult to find the questgiver to continue it at one point, I like exploring a lot but had to look up how to start part of the quest - really bizarre location and no clues leading to it.  We're doing OK on the combat part of it though - wiped twice during part of a side-quest in the area we had to go to for the main quest, but pulled ourselves together and did it on the 3rd try.  (I think the fact that the teamspeak server we use was undergoing maintenance when we started playing was a large factor, it all seemed a lot easier once it was back up and we were able to communicate quicker!)


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## moon (Apr 26, 2016)

Popping back to say I reached VR1 yesterday whoo hoo, still really excited about the game, I've spent most of my time in PVP so am now following up on PVE mostly in Rivenspire, I so love that place.
I'm still PVPing with my guild on Sunday's and have done some duelling and taken part in training.
I've developed my character towards ranged archer, healer and ensnaring support roles using my restoring light, aedric spear, bow and dawns wrath skills.
I'm currently wearing the Marksman set plus I have a few Vicious Death pieces, however as a staminar templar I don't think I'll ever be able to utilise vicious death unless I level Dark Flare considerably, maybe combining it with Piercing Javelin.
I'm not sure I like what they have done with the armour sets as they no longer seem to fit a female body, and some just look plain awful, I had to buy a costume to cover it up... 
I managed to do the horse bomb thing again recently... I'm not exactly sure what it does, but it works!
Looking forward to Dark Brotherhood etc, the Wolf mount looks awesome!


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## Bernie Gunther (Jun 3, 2016)

A friend sent me this, which I found amusing ...


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## moon (Jun 7, 2016)

haha yes is a good video.
I'm currently still levelling my VR4 Templar, mostly in PVP with a few PVE quests and skyshard hunts too.
I've limited my skills in order to specialise a bit so mainly using crit rush, Bombard, piercing javelin, poison injection, biting jabs and razor caltrops for dps and cc.
During sieges I put up shields, fix siege weapons, heal and revive as well as picking people off walls.. I love throwing javelins at them and knocking them off the keep or outpost 

I managed to craft some Hundings Rage armour but am mostly wearing rewards for the worthy bits of Leki and Marksman. My Bow and 2 handed are both Leki. I'm going to commission some armour from my guild master as learning all the traits is taking forever, I only really want Divines, Impenetrable and a couple of others.
I'm currently levelling enchanting via the daily writs and buying glyphs to deconstruct etc etc so will hopefully be able to add these myself 

I sort of stopped doing the main quest at Coldharbour but will try to get back into it, and am currently exploring Bangkorai...
But PVP is where its at!! I'm mostly loosely grouping in Azura's star and having LOADS of fun with the regulars there, plus doing guild events in Haderus which can be quite a nasty campaign at times with over powered reds and yellows blowing you up in an instant..
Not to mention the fact that the reds and yellows are now working together there... it totally sucks.
I got a cool new costume in the crown store


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## Buddy Bradley (Oct 7, 2016)

ELI5 One Tamriel?


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## moon (Oct 13, 2016)

?
The witches festival starts today!!!
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2016/10/11/the-witches-festival-is-coming

One Tamriel concerns me due to all the new sets that are not craftable and I don't really PVE.
I've almost upgraded my current gear set to gold and it has taken ages, so am not looking forward to having to do it all again for One Tamriel...

Btw BB what is your class etc?


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## Vintage Paw (Nov 17, 2016)

There's a free weekend of this coming up. If anyone wants invites I can apparently invite people. I expect moon can as well.


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## moon (Nov 17, 2016)

I'm not sure about invites on the PS4? I think people can just download the game for free and play without a PS plus subscription from today until Monday?
Please join us U75, you have no idea what you are missing  Its like you are actually in Lord of the Rings  and there are lots of cool people there too, you will have a fantastic time.
Let me know when you arrive and I can show you the ropes on PS4 EU..

Last night I helped defend a tree (with about 4 other people) from outlaws who wanted to burn it down, I captured keeps in Cyrodiil using my new armour set which gives insane weapon damage after a dodge roll, I nearly killed an emperor with it ..
I did an Undaunted pledge with a bunch of people I met 6 months ago, they are roleplayers and deeply into the lore of the Elder Scrolls.
I then hung out with some peeps at the undaunted enclave and we talked lore, costume dying, mount speeds and had a few horse races.(because I wanted to show that the new Skyrim horse was much faster than the other eso mounts!!)
It was a fun night.


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## moon (Nov 30, 2016)

A new Elk mount has been announced in the December showcase... I cant wait!!
There will also be a new life festival starting on December 13th I think
Elder Scrolls Online


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## moon (Dec 14, 2016)

Epona!! We are waiting


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## Epona (Dec 14, 2016)




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## moon (Dec 14, 2016)




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## Epona (Dec 14, 2016)

So yeah, basically moon found me halfway across the internet and convinced me to stop in and say hello 

The trading guild I run on NA PC server is doing well and quite successful, since One Tamriel we have started doing play events too now that everyone can join in.

My PC broke a couple of days ago after months of being a bit wobbly in various ways, I am waiting for 1 more delivery until I can build my new one.  I'm going full SSD build this time, prices got low enough for it to be within my grasp (although I will have to be a bit careful about space).

Cats are all well and happy, Radar had his annual checkup last week and vet said he is in very good health for his age and his heart murmur is nothing to be concerned about.  We've had a few vet visits this year, they all had some sort of stomach thing over the summer that went on for weeks and they needed to go on a special diet and probiotics to sort it out.

I'm still having mental health issues (depression and anxiety) and physically not on top form either, but I think I'll survive.  My mum had a heart attack but is doing well now after an angioplasty thingy or whatever they call it to relieve an arterial blockage.  Nate is OK but very stressed at work.

Anyway that's a brief summary.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 14, 2016)

I'm glad to see you here, epona. Sorry things have been tough recently. Here's hoping it takes a turn for the better soon


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## Epona (Dec 14, 2016)

I actually am not sure why I said that Nate is OK, because he isn't really that OK, he's been in massive pain most of the year after something in his back went twang, and over the last few months has been referred backwards and forwards, eventually got an MRI scan, been told that he has previously undiagnosed spina bifida and a collapsed vertebrae.  This will have been going on for nearly a year by the time he will get to see a spinal surgeon.  Then there's surgery and recuperation and physiotherapy to worry about.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 14, 2016)

Nate has my sympathies, epona. My dad had spina bifida and it caused him a great deal of pain as he grew older. He never had any treatment though, as other complications took over (not from his back). I hope Nate gets some relief soon.


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## Epona (Dec 14, 2016)

I'm really excited about the Elk mount, it looks awesome!  (that is an apology for diverting the thread, and trying to put it back on track - thanks VP, your good wishes are appreciated  )


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## moon (Jan 3, 2017)

I finally got to 561 Champion Points whooo and am now doing dungeons, undaunted pledges and trials... its like a whole other world of eso.

I got the undaunted passive 'mettle' and swapped out 2 bits of medium armour for 1 heavy and 1 light for the 6% increase in stats, but I think I'm losing a lot of crit etc from the medium armour bonus..

Short video of my road to max champion points..


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## moon (Mar 22, 2017)

So Mass Effect Andromeda starts tomorrow, I was playing ESO whilst waiting for me:a and it will be sad to leave.
I have had THE MOST AMAZING times in this game, my time in Cyrodiil has truly been epic and comes close to living a dream.
I have met some amazing people from around the world, many of whom have become good friends. I've experienced the joys of shared experiences with teams of people who understand the power of 'we' and 'us'.
I've cried in real life when friends have briefly left the game. 
I think my take-away from this game is that those cherished moments of happiness that I experienced in game should in fact also be happening in real life, and I am working towards making this a reality.
Small things such as taking up horse riding again, going for walks in awesome landscapes, being with people I love, even just wearing clothes that are important to me aesthetically are all steps in the right direction.
So goodbye my dear dear ESO, although I'm sure I'll still be popping in now and again! And there is of course the Morrowind expansion in June.


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## moon (Mar 23, 2017)

Wow, new Morrowind trailer


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 3, 2017)

Dammit - made the mistake of opening this thread, and now I sorta want to reinstall the game (again)...


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## moon (Apr 3, 2017)

Come back for the Morrowind expansion in June?
The game has changed loads over the past year so it should all be new and exciting..


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 3, 2017)

moon said:


> The game has changed loads over the past year so it should all be new and exciting..


What's changed? Last time I tried it I levelled up to about 12 or so, but got bored. I think the problem is that I did all of the first two zone quests in all three factions, so starting again is a lot of repetition.


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## moon (Apr 3, 2017)

Well, they have removed veteran levels so no more grinding from vr1 to vr16, you are scaled up to max level in all zones so it's always a challenge (the zones are all at max), they brought in dueling, player housing, more group content in Craglorn, some really nasty hard trials, loads of new armour sets and costumes etc, crown crates (beware of these).
PVP is a bit broken at the moment though due to issues with unkillable tanks, proc sets that are over powered, heavy armour bonuses which are totally unbalanced etc etc etc.
I think most people are waiting for Morrowind to be honest, but there are also regular festivals such as the current Jesters festival, plus 4 man group battlefields are on the way.
I'm sure there have been more changes though.


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 4, 2017)

moon said:


> you are scaled up to max level in all zones so it's always a challenge (the zones are all at max)


I think I remember reading about that - does that mean that, at any level, you can just wander around from zone to zone and always find stuff to do? Or does it only apply to 'end game' (whatever that looks like now)?


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## moon (Apr 4, 2017)

Yes, it's called One Tamriel, you can go wherever you want now and play with people from other factions at any level.


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## moon (Apr 4, 2017)

Also if you want to level up quick there are various places in Craglorn that are good, Kevduit shows the Spellscar one in the video below, it's the best one I think


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## Buddy Bradley (Apr 4, 2017)

Meh, powerleveling.  Last time I tried to get back into it, I installed a bunch of the RP-related mods to remove things like map markers, compass icons, and instant text. Was fun for a while - maybe I'll try that again...


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## moon (Apr 7, 2017)

I guess power levelling is good for champion points and alternative characters otherwise levelling through natural gameplay can be painfully slow and repetitive.
There is a new 3 year anniversary event on at the moment which gives a 100% boost to xp


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## moon (Apr 16, 2017)

I got a little room at an inn and filled it with plants


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## mojo pixy (Sep 9, 2017)

I've got an ESO account and my main character is a healer/tank with 200CP. Still enjoying it, got fed up up with group dungeons because of rudeness and rushing. There's no time to enjoy the quest and atmosphere (and some of the dungeons are awesome) with all the rushing from spawn to spawn. Guess I'm just old 

At the moment I've done the main quest, the covenant and "cadwells silver" in the dominion, been collecting all covenant and dominion skyshards. Now I'm going back over the covenant to get the adventurer and explorer achievements, and level up some CP so I can go back to do some group dungeons again.

Account is @mojopixy and my character is called Wylim. If anyone has an account and feels like a bit of old-school slow-time in-character RP, hit me up


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## moon (Sep 22, 2017)

hello... I left the game in June as it took over my life.. like completely.. I love it too much.
I always hated doing dungeons and spent most of my time in PVP.. because it rocks.. I wish I could tell you the tales of the things we did there, I have never had so much fun in all my life.. seriously, i spent 18 months in the game, living and breathing it to the extent that my real life completely fell apart, but it was totally worth it for the memories.
The only thing I can compare it to it the Rutger Hauer 'Tears in the Rain' speech from Bladerunner


Im now battling the urge to go back in because its coming up to autumn and halloween and the game has a distinctly gothic feel (the Daggerfall Covenant did anyway) and I  miss it. 

I won't go back though..


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## moon (Oct 3, 2017)

I uploaded some gameplay footage of one of the sorcs I was levelling before leaving the game..


Can you understand why I loved this game soo much?? 
The visual stuff at the end was a temporary environment bug.


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## mojo pixy (Oct 3, 2017)

It is a _very _good-looking game world.



Spoiler














Spoiler













Spoiler













Spoiler


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## moon (Oct 6, 2017)

It wasn't so good looking around the time I left the game 
This is how Craglorn looked at that time


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## Epona (Apr 16, 2018)

If anyone plays on the NA server, look me up (username in game @Epona222) - I run a casual trading/social/play guild on the NA server, Ghost Sea Trading Co - I guess it's successful because we've had a trader every week for more than 2 years and have play events and we're welcoming and inclusive.

Would be delighted to see any urbanites in game.


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## moon (Apr 16, 2018)

Hey Epona! I just got an invite to the Summerset PTS which I can play on my Mac, so I'll make an NA account sometime this week and hopefully see you soon


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## moon (Apr 30, 2018)

I finally made a character on the pts and now it's down.. I was testing the Warden and Psijic skill Ines, they seem to work quite well together.
I'm also amazed at how strong the Warden is in PvP, it seems to have way more resistance than other classes, my health bar was only being tickled by the guards...


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## Epona (May 3, 2018)

I've never managed to get to grips with playing a warden, but honestly there is nothing like getting multiple cliffracers to the face in PvP


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## moon (May 3, 2018)

Yes, but I may need to do some PVE now, I developed a taste for Masters and Asylum weapons on the PTS 

What class do you mostly play?


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## moon (Jun 6, 2018)

I'll be streaming some Summerset stuff in the evenings on my Twitch channel here Twitch


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## moon (Nov 27, 2018)

I'm still playing this lol


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 12, 2020)

Healed a dungeon for the first time and nobody died!  \o/


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## Epona (Jan 16, 2020)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Healed a dungeon for the first time and nobody died!  \o/



Was it normal Spindle I or vet RoM though?


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 16, 2020)

Epona said:


> Was it normal Spindle I or vet RoM though?


I have no idea, the group ran through so fast I barely had time to look around.  Was some sewer location, I think.

I'm really getting into this a lot more this time around. Unlocked Psijic and all the guild skill lines, got all the crafting certifications (including jewelcrafting), and picked up the three free inn room housing locations. I think having access to all the DLC really helps; I skipped all the starting zone stuff (with all the quest chains I'd done a few times in previous years) and went straight to Wrothgar. Level 20 now, which is the furthest I've ever got.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 15, 2020)

Still playing, up to CP130 now. Was reminded of this thread when I googled how to do something, and found an ESO forum thread from years ago where Epona had asked exactly the same thing.


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## Epona (Mar 15, 2020)

As well as running a trading/social guild for many years on the NA server, I also have a small group of similarly middle-aged friends where we do dungeons together at "quest pace" for the sake of enjoyment, it's a lot of fun


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 18, 2022)

Anyone still playing? Thinking about going back to ESO since New World was a bit of a bust.


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## bmd (Mar 12, 2022)

Wrong thread.


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## Magnus McGinty (Apr 11, 2022)

I didn’t get on with this at all. Much preferred Fallout 76 but even that got boring after a couple of hundred hours.


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