The Elder Scrolls Online
RahnalH102
the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew Mexico Icrontian
in Gaming
I know some people don't like it nor are they interested in it, and that others (including me) are more preoccupied with WoW and other MMOs, but I figured with it's NDA being lifted and marketing ramping up due to the almost 1 month away release, I'd start a thread to house TESO's discussions, events, etc. Carry on.
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For the rest of you interested, keep watch here for any others that get more codes as all invties sent out today had a bonus code attached, if you have a twitter account try your luck with Gameinformer who's giving away 100 of em, or look around for other such giveaways. ZeniMax really wants to actually try and stress test the servers so the more the merrier.
So what server is everyone on?
I personally prefer Argonian so I'm in the Ebonheart Pact with Nords and Dunmer. There are racial benefits but I only know the Argonian ones which are similar to the racials from previous TES games, so it stands to reason other races would also have similar traits/skills too. We're given 4 character slots in the beginning so it's no problem for me to create a new character in another faction.
Here is the guide on TESO's website. Factions are at the bottom.
My Personal Experience:
Overall it's shaping up to be a competent game. It's lacking a few features (I'll address those below) I would have expected it to have from the get go, but this is still beta so it isn't technically "the get go" time yet.
I'll take a que from other reviews I've seen/read and go over the negatives first then address the positives.
The Bad
Starting Zones
Spoilered cause a bit long and potentially not needed. Read if you want.
You'll start in the Cold Harbor tutorial zone, then move to a faction specific starter zone, then (at least on the Ebonheart side) go to one more zone before I get introduced to an actual open zone that i can move on from should I chose. At that point I was around lvl 9 or 10. From what I've read from others, their reigns where also loosed at about the same level range for other factions. Now on paper that may not seem that bad but it felt and kinda did take forever. In the earlier sessions when they would wipe our characters after the session was done, I barely got to the 3rd zone. Then when they stopped wiping our toons for the next sessions, I got to the next zone finally but couldn't send much time in that area due to a very busy weekend. That 4th zone was much bigger then the previous and actually had a dungeon (or two) in that area. I'll get to explore that more this weekend.
This may seem like a lack of time management on my end (admittedly some of it was, that last weekend for example.) but this was mostly from trying to do so much. In the Ebonheart starting zone, a small island of the coast Solesthiem I have the option to save the villagers on the island or just talk to the captain and move on to the next zone. I like to think that I'm a good soul (hahaha) so I made sure I saved all that I could. All the while collecting all the mats I could find (all professions are unlocked) and looking for hidden treasure chests. "Saving" a villager was mostly just completing their respective quests. Some had me kill a named mini-boss, others to go save her friends that were transformed into skeevers, another to play "games" with a demented ghost to free a Nord that the ghost had imprisoned. The quests have had varying ranges of yay and boring. And there was fruits from that labor. Not only did I save all those characters I just met, but they continue the little story with me and the other "essential" NPCs (essential to moving the story of that zone, they can die as well should the choice/event arise.)
A way to summarize it would be that the beginning felt like a standard MMO with Elder Scrolls skins and hints of a greater potential. The later zones that I got to swapped that and began to feel much more like an Elder Scrolls game that a ton of people were playing alongside me.
Grouping/Phasing/Instancing
If they work on the phasing/instancing compared to what it's been like in the past few beta sessions, then this will be a wondrous game overall. Arguably it's the biggest flaw right now, because this will stay throughout the game, the other flaw stated above only lasts in the beginning zones. No shared quest progression, and you're still having to work with everyone else in the zone on the same quests. As it stands currently (as of last beta test) the only real reason to group with friends is so that you can skip spamming the zone chat for a dungeon group, and to make it easier for the healer to do his/her job. It's not that challenging in the beginning though so that later point is kinda moot. Hopefully, with the emphasis on bringing a friend this time around, they have new group features ready that they are wanting to test out. Not much more to say on it because there isn't much there.
This is probably the games strongest feature that it has going for itself. They take the tried and true Elder Scrolls methods of "Freedom of Choice" and "Learn as You Use" and run with it. Example: I tend to play the "rogue" type in Elder Scrolls games. That did not change for these beta sessions. If I want to heal, I throw on a healing staff and my appropriate rogue abilities (one I had was a leech life spell that when morphed could heal nearby allies as well) and go to town. Do I want to tank? Equip a sword and shield combo and throw in some self sustain spells from my rogue tree and I'll be a sort of vampire tank. If I become more proficient in Heavy armor I'll be even better. As an Argonian, heals of all kinds are amplified on me so this sort of option fits me well. If ZeniMax has these sort of combos in mind when they design their dungeons and raids, they'll be able to make some interesting fights.
There are tons of skills and passive traits. There are 3 base skill trees for each class, of which there are 4. There are trees for all weapons and armors, a tree for each guild (I thinker there are 5 guilds in this one,) racial traits, and all characters will have a Soul magic tree. They may not look like trees at first but once these skills reach a certain level (usually 5) you can morph them and gain other traits. Another example I can give is I could evolve my execute spell to become ranged or heal me for a % of the damage that I dealt, which would be a lot since it was an execute (for those that don't know, "execute" refers to an ability that gains damage the lower the targets health is.)
Aesthetics
It'd be hard for them to mess this part up with Elder Scrolls having such a history and being so well fleshed out in each game. Zones in particular areas look familiar when they should. Many armors, architecture, flora, fauna, and geology fit their respective areas. I can't speak too much on this since I haven't played all the factions. As for the areas that haven't been touched before, either we still can't see them yet (Eslwyre some of Black Marsh) or they take ques from the established history and make due. Some things seem to be create for the first time in this game. Such as Argonian's having a Mayan style to their armor and weapons.
Professions
In the past sessions, all professions are unlocked for everyone right off the bat. There is Blacksmithing (most weapons and heavy armor), Tailoring (cloth & leatherworking), Wood Working (staves, bows, shields) Alchemy (exact same as in previous Elder Scrolls games), Enchanting (made similar to Alchemy), and Provisioning (cooking and brewing). As a whole, the professions are pretty detailed so I'll have to summarize this. They to follow the "Free Choice" and "Learn As You Use." There are many separate recipes and facets you can learn for each. For example the style. You'll start off with only your race's style but can learn other race's styles (even other factions) from sources found throughout the world. I believe it's books you may find while looting stuff but I haven't had the luck. So everyone may have access to the professions but each will have their own specialties.
The Mediocre
Combat
This is pretty good actually but misses the mark in some spots. While the controls and mechanics (bash interrupting, telegraphed specials) are good, it doesn't FEEL good yet and it's pretty easy. I've pretty much been steam rolling all the fights I've been in regardless of if 6 other people are fighting the same thing. The FEEL part if something you'd have to do on your own. The FEEL part is probably just polish they haven't put on yet while working on more important stuff. .... FEEL. When this all gets properly tuned, it will upgrade to a good thing.
The Unknown
I haven't been able to try the following for various reasons so my knowledge is incomplete.
PvP
Mostly takes place in Cyrodil. appears to be similar to Guild Wars 2's WvWvW.
Player Guilds
Guild bank, Guild Auction House
Dungeons
Taken from a seperate source:
Apparently combat, and "a reworked introductory experience" are the main changes to this weekends test session. They are adding the ability to test out the pre-order specials, the Imperial race and Explorer pack. We shall see.
Whoa, hold up. Skyrim, Black Marsh, and Morrowind have forged an alliance? A.K.A. the Nords, Dunmer, and Argonians; the three races most known for hating the other races.
Yup, and this takes place before Morrowind yet slavery appears to be ... not practiced. I'm not 100% sure on slavery not still happening so don't quote me on that. Just what it looks like.
Well, TESO has announced it will be dropping it's subscription fee and moving to a buy once model with the usual paid, DLC, cosmetic, and convenience stuff.
I enjoyed my time in the betas but never actually jumped into it afterwords because I was stripped for cash at the time and already had enough recurring bills to pay. Main downsides I remember was the huge amount of players at the time, and the bad phasing at the beginning zones. Maybe with a less crowded population this will be more enjoyable.