Should you Play ESO in 2024? 

Overland and Questing needs a veteran mode

As a new ESO player with a month under his belt now (and coming from a WoW raiding position), the atmosphere here is way better. The level-scaling is absolutely incredible and I love it. A lot of things I probably may not like as a long-time player somewhere may be exactly what was needed to create more player base.

This guy played eso for years which means he did enjoy it. It truly is a huge game with so much to do. Everyone should try it. Ive played it for 5 plus years and theres still things i havent done. When something gets boring try something else in game.

For me is the other way around, maybe I used too much to ESO and I tried a toons of MMOs, but at the end I return again to ESO, for me the combat is great (or maybe I am so used to the ESO system) that I find the combat of another MMOs kind of boring and without personality. Monetization is almost the same and in many cases way worst than the cosmetics in ESO (but you are right about the inventory capacity). I found my fit and of course my fit is not for everyone. Cheers 👋

I really like getting to explore wherever I want in Tamriel. They’ve made so much of the map and it’s just amazing to see all the places I’ve heard about.

I'm with you on this one... I've gone through ESO phases multiple times, but they just don't last for me. If you just lay out everything the game offers, it should be the perfect mmo, but something about it just doesn't click.

Interesting that most players report less toxic behavior in ESO than other MMOs. I think you might have had one of those bad encounters because most people will help, share loot and more. I had many vet players see me struggling at the start and encouraged to a point that they would just not give up on you and help make it happen.

I wish ESO had done something similar to Guild Wars 2. Enemies don't go down to your level, but they do go up with it. However, if you go to a lower level zone you still feel more powerful than you did previously. Yet it is still worthwhile to go to those lower level areas for events and such. As for dungeons.... yea, I love the story and I couldn't follow any of it because everyone wanted to speed through. I don't have friends that play MMOs, so I had to stop doing them (plus not a fan of random groups). I enjoy the companion system, but I hadn't built my companion up far enough to really do instanced dungeons well alone. Public dungeons were perfectly fine. I have a love/hate relationship with ESO. I think I lean more towards love, but I think I have just played through the stories so many times I get bored (which I suppose doesn't say anything bad about ESO, just that I have done it a lot already).

Wow, I had written up this huge comment on what made me quit the game and you said both of them near the end of the video. Having to pay a monthly subscription for the crafting bag and the leveling of the zone up or down to your character and not being able to go back to kill bosses that you just could not beat. Both of which Guild Wars 2 handles much better. Good job and good video.

The greater the challenge the sweeter the victory.

I agree with you big on the combat, with the scribing im curious how that will workout and will change the view on how combat is right now

I see your point of view and it I see how it is tough for you to enjoy it. MMO's are not fun unless you are specifically playing with a friend or friends. Playing with random people in an MMO is worth-less and that's a fact. I have come to realize that MMO's are not fun for me unless I am playing with people from my social circle. If you have fun playing an MMO without friends that's fine , but bring a friend or two in to the game and play with them and my enjoyment multiplies exponentially. For me there is enjoyment in an MMO runs out after a certain point, but having real friends to play the game with is what makes it fun. Without the friend factor I only enjoy MMO's to a small degree. MMO's are fun because they are social and if you don't socialize then a person will lose interest after a short time.

I just finished the Necrom msq today and there was a boss fight toward the end that could have been pretty cool, if the mechanics did actually ANY kind of damage and boss didn’t die in 10 seconds. ESO is the one mmo that would benefit for an optional veteran mode in all the solo content since it’s 99% of the game.

After playing for 8 years in cyrodiil it feels like a shart at work, you just want to go home.

I do wish overland content were more difficult, but I enjoy helping my friends level up, so it's a bit of a trade off. Just try soloing that dragon at level 2, and it's a completely different experience.

ESO is probably the best mmo on the market. PvP and PvE is top notch. Graphics, world building and content as well as systems are above all others in terms of quality. Story is bar none. I’m new and loving it.

15:42 I used to hate the combat.. then I got the oakensoul ring and made a heavy attack build. It basically skips all the combat. I know it's lazy but I didn't like the combat anyways (especially being a Nerco that feels like I spend 60% of my time buffing and debuffing). I do miss the MMO side of combat of having cooldowns

I will agree with one thing in this video, for the sake of our friendship.... I would rather have a mentoring system instead of the world scaling of One Tamriel. I will agree with that. :P

I had an identical experience. I really wanted to like the game, and have tried to play it multiple times since launch, but could never stick with it more than a few weeks. Not the game for me.

I want to love ESO but I cant get past the "optional" subscription on a game that is buy to play and also has a cash shop and loot boxes. Looks fun though... The combat I think is deceiving because it is marketed as an action combat but it is really watered down to the point where it is more like a tab target system wearing a facade of an action system...

There are guilds that do the dungeons for the story, I'm in one of them and people are great. Use the guild finder, look for social guilds, newbie friendly guids, etc. You can be in 5 guilds at once, so there is space to participate in diferent activities ingame with good people.

I watched two videos on the topic before this one, I did not played enough to get to lvl 20 even, but the game seems so unenjoyable even on those few hours to me. Thanks for the shared perspective, along some needed positives about what makes it good too

I went for the Master Angler achievement before One Tamriel. It was crazy hard to get to some of the areas, especially PVP areas. It felt like a real achievement when I got my last fish. I actually stopped playing then for 6 months and only came back for housing. I agree about the underwhelming 2023/2024 ESO. I also am a huge TES 3 fan but haven't done the Necrom story yet. I tried FFXIV's free trial on PC a year ago and really haven't gone back to Tamriel. Let's see what happens when FFXIV comes to xbox.

ESO rocks. I just wish the overland content and quests were challenging and worthwhile doing. So much great content that is too easy for 99% of the player base.

I came back to eso after like 6 years cause I played the heck out of elden ring and dunno what else to play. I already paid for eso so why not

"you can kill a dragon at level 2" runs in and immediately dies

biggest problem I had is that I feel like my hits don't mean anything, they are just dust in the wind. Plus, I had no strong connection to any class because they all felt the same

What are you talking about? The game's way more like an Elder Scrolls game now than it was at launch.

I have played ESO since its beta in 2014 right before it officially launched, and I 100% agree with you that it'll only be around until a better MMO dethrones it.

I also wish they made the dungeons and trials have a story mode that you can play through alone, with mobs at story level with maybe slightly harder bosses

I have only played ESO like an MMO in the beginning. Now, I play it as a single player. I have only teamed up a few times since launch. One of was with my son. But we like playing Destiny 2 together, and Destiny 1, but that is gone now. 😞

The level scaling system is what kills this game. But it’s also in place because of the lower player count in a mega server which resulted in very long ques.

RED!!!! Are you going to play this years EverQuest TLP? Hope so, look for Sabra (dark elf cleric)! See you in Unrest

I've got 1500 hours in ESO and I just can't play anymore because of the combat. It's floaty and spammy and I hate being expected to animation cancel with light attack weaving

I tried to get into ESO multiple times. I always felt it was too brainless and couldn't keep up with it.

I don't think I have ever agreed with an MMO review more than this! I share exactly the same thoughts on this game in every way. I started my MMO experience with Everquest, then Everquest 2, then dabbled in many others, and played ESO for maybe 2 years total. I'm still looking for the perfect replacement for EQ, but haven't found it.

I love the elder scrolls franchise and rpg/mmos in general but i never could play eso for more than a couple of days... I can't explain what but the games aways seens to be so lacking in a real purpose and direction that you feel really lost playing it. And i too bought the game when it launched and i totally agree with you: it was a mess but i really hopped the game was going to be better in the future but... sometimes we don't get what we want.

I'm with you on rushing the game to get the stuff. I avoid groups in any game that care only about the loot. You might as well play an afk game.

Nine years eso now I still love the game the only thing that might make me leave is the Combat bug we've even been on the forums as a community talking about this Zoss needs to fix the bugs and the status of their customers will be much better. They said in 2023 they were going to fix pvp the bugs but I haven't seen it.

I loved tanking dungeons with my Necro, but I just couldn't enjoy the game involving anything overland.

This was exactly my experience with ESO. I loved the World, the Music, and the Voice Acted Quests, but I hated the Game Design and Community.

Questing in ESO is boring, feels like a chore just like other MMOs. But end game content like DLC vet dungeons and trials are super fun. Worth the grind to get to them.

Havent played for five ish years till last week came back and was the same power still had roughly the BIS for all my classes. The fact that they have 0 power creep at all doesnt make me excited to come back. The story is ok it is hit or miss but the new things I did felt the same as when i played 5 years ago.

To me, ESO has many problems and early on you summed it up. It's trying to be an Elder Scrolls game and a MMO. The issue is that they do both badly. The overland and questlines are just too easy. Are you really supposed to believe that Tamerial is in trouble if the main boss dies after 3 hits? It makes the questing more of a speed run then something to sit through. It kills the immersion. Point and case, when you first run into a frost troll in Skyrim, you are scared for your life. Where as ESO, its like oh, ok, light attack , light attack and ittttsss dead. Don't get me wrong, their are some overland bosses which require more then one person, but at the same time, i made an AFK build that could kill 90% of overland bosses, by standing still... As for the MMO perspective, dungeons and trails are done well, but things like dailies, socialising , theory crafting (apart from PVP) is just so bland. Even crafting is dumb because you have certain level materials that are used for different level gear, which is fine...but...the issue is, any material rated at between champion rank 10 to 160 is redundant, because you hit the top level of 160 champion points within a day. It means there is a whole range of materials, which are just useless. This has been the case for over 8 years, with one tamerial being introduced and they never fixed it. This is a common theme with ESO. And lets not forget, they have mobile game mechanics where you have to wait 24 hours to progress your horse or crafting unless, you guessed it, you buy a booster from the crown store. The devs are happily adding in new stuff, new systems, but they never go back and address old systems. They wanted to switch the way gear works to make it hybrid, so they would move away from gear focused on magika and gear focus on stamina, the same with spell damage and weapon damage... To do this, they basically made all gear do both, which then had a knock on effect of just making 90% of old gear redundant. Good news though, all the new gear that they add is over powered and usually pay walled. Imperial city, Dragon Star Arena, Malestrom area, vateshran arena all content that has aged horribly without ever being updated. They are too hung up on shiny and new, then addressing old systems. The main issue, is that they are top heavy on monetisation. 3 DLC's a year and 1 chapter, which you have to pay for consistently for 9 years, causes a lot of bloat. Chapters do eventually become free for eso subs, but you are basically forced into buying content every other quarter. All decent cosmetics, mounts and whatever else is only acquirable through gambling crates. They added endeavours due to legal issues, which means you can now get items which are in crates, for free in theory, but the system is a grind and it will take you a year to get a shiny mount. They are also infamous for farming new players for money by offering them stuff in the cash store which is essentially free in game. Rich Lambert was famously caught defending their shady practices many a time. The best thing about ESO is its community, but even that over the years has become an echo chamber of toxicity, that even when people give good meaningful suggestions, they are basically told to shut up. And PVP...well it hasnt been updated in over 5 years with a consistently laggy and neglected world vs world. So neglected, that they havent even updated the campaign names in 3 years, which they use to do to match the latest chapter. Combat, well this is simply tab targets vs action combat... except ESO's combat has been broke since day one which they claim is a feature not a bug. Yes they totally meant to allow you to cancel animations..... Long Story short... ESO can be good at times. I think for new to mid players theres an experience to be had, but its also becoming more and more watered down. I think at this point theres a lot of sunken cost fallacy within the player base. On paper, people think the game is value for money, due to the fact its on sale for half the year at $5... once you start playing you begin to realise what a money pit it is with everything you need to be able to keep up with end game, being once again in the crown store. If you like Elder Scrolls lore, you will enjoy some of the back stories, just try to ignore that no other elder scrolls title has shiny mounts and a card game. We also wont talk about how the rift, windhelm and cyrodiil look nothing like its previous titles. Theres also a massive dark anchor in Cyrodiil that players havent been able to explore since release... Good video, keep it up. This has been my ted talk.

I really wanted to like this game but I really could not get into it, far to many things I disliked, especially the combat, character models and animations. Though I was surprised but how good a lot of the voice acting was which was one of the few things I liked.

I played for about a month when it first came out and bounced off it. I've tried it again several times and always seem to bounce off it again, very quickly. Often, within a few hours. I'm glad some MMO players enjoy it and call it home, but it turns me off.

regardinfg inventory menagment you can make your own guild and use it as bank for materials

Inventory management is easily solved with addons, I haven't used ESO+ in years because I own all DLC/expansions, one thing that separates this from other games (WoW is similar here though) is the complete customization with addons. I use an addon that automatically deposits all my materials into my bank, you can buy a banker from a player for about 10 million gold, permanent across all your characters.

One Tamriel is fine except it makes it hard to follow the story in order. Thee game would benefit from an option in character creation to play through the content in story order for those that prefer that over the freedom One Tamriel allows.

Its all i played for years. I just burn out on it. But it is the best for exploring the world which is the real only thing to remind you of a real tes game. All the other stuff is typical mmo stuff.

I love house decorating, reading and collecting all the lore books and leveling characters. I have leveled and deleted so many characters in the game it is insane. I buy other accounts when there on sale just to play and collect all the stuff again. I also enjoy doing delves, public dungeons and doing the few group dungeons I can do with my companion. I am NOT a min/maxer. I do about 35k max dps and enjoy the game still to this day. I have been playing since it has started.

Coming from Everquest (day of release until ESO released), I played ESO for a long time. However the thing that broke me in ESO and made me uninstall it was the fact that I could explore everywhere at any level. There was no anticipation to get to a new zone like other MMOs. I like Guild Wars 2 today. While ESO wasn't toxic in my eyes, neither is GW2. I have a ton of fun in GW2 without being strong armed into subbing to maintain inventory like ESO. ESO to me was playing inventory management more than I want to even when subbed. Crafting gear in ESO was kind of worthless too compared to other MMOs imo.

Eso had potential bit feel its been largely missed on execution

Things i would like to see ZoS address: 1.) Class identity 2) the 40k+ hp PvP meta ( buff oblivion damage via glyph cooldown and mild damage increase. Raise knight slayer to 12% from 8%) 3) reduced healing done by 80% for dps roles in dungeons. Reinforced roles like ffx14 4.) Reduced ranged on templar execute 5.) Give vampire stam morph options 6.) Revert major/minor defile (not vitality) 7.) Arena weapon that gives access to a third morph further specing into a playstyle 8.) Remove cp from cyrodiil just like bgs 9.) Increase Ap gains from no proc campaigns in cyro to increase traffic and tel var from no proc IC. 10.) Stop healing from pulling NBs outa stealth (Vigor/structured entropy) 11.) Increase fighters guild damage against undead/daedra bonus is doubled if enemy is in WW form or vampire lord form. You don't have to agree with all my suggestions I tried to compromise nothing to over the top ect. Even if only one of these got implemented id be over the moon

If you run with a PUG groups you will play with some pll that just want to rush. Try to find friends and guilds that goes along your playing style. Truth is that ESO has content for everyone but sometimes is hard to find the right groups to play with. As per adventure and progression, you still have vet content and so many achievements. Of course, you will need proper gear but equipments is also part of lvling. And you still have vet trials, infinite archive...

I think my biggest issue is how One Tamriel, and by extention ZOS, basically wrecked the main story by letting you go and do whatever, whenever. There is a main story, but it's incredibly disjointed unless you look up a guide online on how to quest in the correct order.

Totally agree Something else I always hated aswell is that every class feels kinda the same, plus every class feels like a magic class, there is no pure warrior class well except if you go with only weapons skills but come on.. And about the scaling system, a good idea could've been that scaling turns on at max level? so low level zones don't become forgotten about, but then again it only takes some hours to get to max level

it's nice to see someone critique the game in a fair manor. I love the game but also am pretty disappointed at certain elements of the game. Needs more RPG. A lot of youtubers suck the D of zenimmax and only do paid promotions.

I very much enjoyed One Tamriel and what it let me do as a casual player but i understand the issues with it. The dungeons are a huge issue in most modernish MMOs and I end up hating doing then with other players. In ESO I was able to build around soloing them to experience the story luckily. The monetization is what finally got me to leave though. $40 mounts, $150 houses, loot boxes... It was just too much for me.

I want to like ESO. I love Elder Scrolls but each time I go back I find myself playing it for a few weeks then putting it down. It's been a few years maybe it's time I give it another try but I'm also really focused on FFXI and Ember's Adrift right now lol

I tried ESO back at launch,As veteran elder scrolls player it just didn't feel right to me. It's a shame,I had high hopes for it,evidenced by the fact I bought the Imperial edition. I'll just say that at this point if I want a multiplayer elder scrolls experience,I'll stick with TES3MP .

You are spot on here! Main issue for me is definitly the level scaling. I want a sense of progression. I want to be like a god one hitting mobs when I am a high level in the starter area and I also want to be punished for moving to an area I am not ready for at a low level. I hate when you encounter that weird point where you almost seem weaker when you level up because you still have crappy gear and the level scaling screws you over.

I still luv ESO! There is so much to explore & do. I never get bored! Plus, there are so many events all year round! I think ESO has only gotten better & better! I try lots of games, but nothing compares to ESO. It's so wonderful!

Having watched Josh's video on Guild Wars 1, I think a version of ESO where the world and its zones etc are instanced rather than a fully open world would make much more sense. Having your own instance with the option to adventure with a party or not could balance out all the maps and dungeons, you could bring followers like the Guild Wars 1 henchmen or heros in areas that require a larger party size if you still want to solo the content.

Min.Maxing is appealing to me (I grew up with Diablo 2), but the One Tamriel change is overall a negative. It is necessary so people can try out new updates/etc., but it would be better if there were 3-5 zones of different difficulties like in the original game and most others.

Im a relatively new player, but am addicted. Wish i didnt have to go to work lol. I'm only CP300 on my main started 6 months ago but im focussing on main story, and am being completionist on the zones (Audiron and Grahtwood so far in my case). Also playing it with my GF. This means I've never played without One Tamriel. For my playstyle, I really would not have minded if there were zones I couldn't survive at lvl 1. I *want* to play the game as if I'd started in 2014 as the devs first intended and will keep on doing that - slowly levelling but enjoying the scale and beauty of Tamriel. OTOH, I can see that nowadays, people want access to the entire place straight away. I can understand how this would make things repepetive and frustrating for vets. There's one main way I can see to improve this, and it essentially reverses "One Tamriel". More content. The devs could do that by adding more zones - where even the overworld is almost impossible without being, say, CP600 and using sets efficiently. An alternate (please, please, please!) Is to open up some of the rest of Nirn - allow vets to travel to a whole new continent! Either way, I'm ESO+ and will probably get Gold Road. I'll carry on like this while I still enjoy the world so much. Hopefully by the time Im getting bored of the existing content, somthing else will have been sorted. For me, I think I still have several thousand hours in the game before that happens, though. Thanks for the vid!

I just started i am enjoying it.

Eso, despite being mundane at times, is the best game I've ever played. My biggest problem with the game was that all base game content was too easy, but I later came to be fine with it as zos continuously increases the difficulty with each passing dlc. I've noticed that the necrom storyline had some tough fights, unlike the cakewalk that is the base game storylines.

I tried this game once, I fought my first monster and was hitting for like 5k. I immediately logged out and never came back.

Im sorry you are done with it. Me personally ive been playing since launch and find it way better than any other mmo ive played.

11:20 thats exactly how an mmo should be. As to any videogame. If ur good enough and if u spend more time than others youre more likely gonna be able to solo dungeons compared to the guy who only plays a quarter of your time. And youre also thinking of speed runs. Peopel have beaten entire games that have stories and great gameplay in under 50 mins. Speed run challenges .nothing wrong with that almost every gane has speed runners

welcome to the "why i quit ESO" community, brother

I played during the ESO beta ( Have the monkey) and a year or so after launch. Went back during the Covid lock downs and went for about a year after that. This game is good, but not really something you can sink a LOT of time into. It gets a bit boring.

I quit wow after many years only eso was able to catch my eye I still love it to this day and is what I current play.

I left Eso after over 9K hours on PS4 and some 1200+hours on PS5. For me combat wasn´t really an issue, it was more like, ok that´s how it goes, fine. You mention leveling in Eso, as something you liked. I liked it too with one exception - dungeons. While overland was about finding gear from chests, and get gear up to level as you progress, and make it fit - sometimes it didn´t, so better luck next time. I liked overland leveling. As I started to level my alts, healers and tanks, and ready for dungeons, it became frustrating. No time for chests, no time for quest and needed skill point. Eight out of ten groups, just ran through dungeons - maybe I should mention in chat I was doing the quest for skill point, which I started to do after some bad runs. It didn´t really help and just go me more frustrated, and stressed out. I didn´t feel happy doing dungeons. I have to mention that before all that happen, I did run vDungeos - normal, and vet trials back to back. To be fair I didn´t know, what was going on in normal "leveling" dungeons before I started to level my alts. My tank was put on hold as my healer was almost ready to be geared up closing on cp 160 ( I had a lot of gear from my DD runs), like SPC and stuff plus monster sets ready to go. Fake roles became bit of a problem, if it not already was a problem in both vet and normal. To round it all up. I decided to look for another Mmo and found one, where level synce is part of the balance, which I find very useful. It doesn´t matter, which level you are at, you are scaled down, have to do the mechanics. There is no rushing ahead because you will go down, tank, healer, dd. It doesn´t matter. I like the way it´s all done in that Mmo. The community is also very different. For me Eso (ZoS) have a lot in the Mmo part of Eso upside down. For me it was not the right game, even all the hour that went into it. You mention GW2. I play GW2 as my 2nd Mmo, when I need a break from my main: I don´t believe Eso will ever take that spot from GW2. I still follow the forums to see, what´s going on: The problems seems to be the same. For me the most important is, I found a new home and happy. I got away from, what I wanted to get away from. Thank You for a good video and good luck with everything.

I'm a veteran player playing costantly since beta (3156cp). Perfect video coulden't have said it better.

"ESO has taken the worst bits of MMO combat systems and combined them into one" I couldn't agree more, and that's been so many people's gripes about ESO since the BEGINNING.

Honestly, with the 10 year coming up, I'd hesitate to put the nail in the coffin. I'm not a steady player or anything, and have only perused the game, but it seems they still have a decent population and keep adding stuff. I imagine they'll do something for the anniversary.

I agree that One Tamriel killed something important, exactly as you described it. But I don't agree about itemisation because of... One Tamriel. You can do a lot of content with... Any gear, even non optimise. Open world espacially. But dungeons are not that difficult that you need optimized gear for all of them. Normal dungeons are no challenge. Vet dungeons it depends. The part requiering better stuff but also better game play are Hard modes. Same goes for trial but now vet needs a little optimisation but no need to be META to do most vet trial (but it helps for sure 😁). Dont agree for combat system but here it s more about likes and dislikes. I like the fact been active is rewarding, that ressource managing is still important and that timers still are even if it's not cooldown style. Thanks for your video anyway. It's a pleasure to see content critizising but with argument and with love !

I play ESO for like..2-3 months, and then disappear for years. This game would take a major overhaul to be what everyone wants, and all they want is money. I saw something recently that said the game made a billion dollars in its 10 years? I'd say the shareholders are happy with that without spending 100's of millions for renovation. I'd say we'll get a new game before this gameplay equals the story, and that won't happen for a good while. They will milk this thing because lower capital and profits.

I think Guild Wars 2 did overland content a lot better. One of the features is level scaling where higher level players get scaled down in lower level zones. Lower level players can join their higher level groupies in harder zones but will need a carry.

It’s very odd to me that you used the argument, “slaying dragons at level 2 makes bandit killing at 30 underwhelming”…. You didn’t kill dragons at level 2… you got one shot and other high level players killed the dragon and you did some damage to get credit 😂

Good luck, Buddy. Don’t let the door hit your backside on the door out. Greatest thing about life in America is everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it’s all good. Keep bringing them on. It’s always entertaining listening and watching you on RU-vid and I’ll keep doing so. Even when I don’t agree with what you say. These are games we are referring to. More serious things in life to challenge people on in “my” opinion. So all good. Thanks for the content.

hit the nail on the head! its sad to say that shortly after 200 hours at cp lvl 213, i decided this game was not worth my time with the lack of enjoyment and engagement and the list goes on!. i hope they make some big changes because i really want to enjoy this game but unless they can turn things around in a positive direction for the community im never coming back. i dont deserve to be treated like a whiny baby when giving the devs feedback.

I feel like one of the biggest weaknesses ESO has is the limited action bars. Having only 12 skills available to you at any time is what lends to the spamminess feeling. I get that every class, or specialization, should have their staple abilities. But it has to be more than just spamming 2 skills, and applying 5 dots or debuffs and 3 buffs. Action combat really shines when skills play off each other, like when getting a crit with one causes another one to become instant cast. Or if you cast ability 1, then ability 2 has a chance to apply a slow, which will then trigger ability 3 to deal area effect damage. Those "trigger" abilities really help to make action combat come alive. It's reactive, instead of spam. I think the auras and finishers of GW2 is a great example of this. Comboing different abilities for different effects. And I'm sure many people have not heard of it, but AION had a good system of certain skills triggering other linked skills. The only problem there is that then people complain about forced rotations. "You mean I can't cast Y unless I cast X first? Lame!" That said, ESO does have something like this, to a small degree. The sorcerer's crystal fragments, for instance, and the necromancer's venom skull sort of play along with this reactive ability idea, but to a lesser extent. The management of buffs and debuffs really does make ESO combat feel more like "spam 1 ability (maybe 2) while waiting for timers". The fact that builds even call it their "spammable" is pretty telling. I feel like if they extended the ability bar by even 1 slot for each weapon, a little more wiggle room for skill variety, it could help alleviate that. Another good example is WoW. As a mage, you could specialize as fire, but you could still have your ice abilities on the action bar. You may not use them often, but they were there, for those times you did want to use them. Variety is the spice of life. ESO gives you plenty variety with how you want to build your character, but being restricted to so few skills at a time makes every character start to feel repetitive... Monotony is no bueno.

I really loved ESO * as well as Neverwinter (till their mod 15 change) but I quit ESO as soon as level scaling was implemented. My fav thing early on was trying to get bitten by a Werewolf, took like 5 days of camping the area where they we rumored to be, this was early in the game way before you could just buy it

One Tamriel was the best update ever, the reason I went back to ESO. Sometimes I want to PLAY BY MYSELF!!!!!

Outland content is just to easy. Need more zones like craglorn.

Combat is terrible. 1/3 of your skills are self buffs, 1/2 are AOE's that you drop on the ground, and the rest is just spam, like lightning spam if you are a try hard. I played off and on for about 7 years and then one day I just logged off and uninstalled the game. I agree with pretty much all of your pros/cons.

One Tamriel was the best update that that game has ever seen imo. But it would be better when the main-quests of the zone would be actually tied to the progression of the main quest in the specific alliance, so that people are not thaaat confused about what to do first to get a coherent storyline. All the side quests should be available always. I don't like the daily-reward for dungeons with the transmute stuff. Players who want to farm these crystals seem to feel forced to do as many dungeons on different toons as possible to get the most crystals... That has gone to a point that you really feel like you would play mario kart instead of a mmorpg. BUT that counts for random groups. If you want a slower paced run through the dungeon you could just ask in your guild or in zone chat for exactly that. You don't HAVE to go with randoms who will often speed through the content. Just take your time. But for your consideration: on the one hand you complain about the loss of power identity, on the other hand you see higher leveled players able to rush through dungeons with the rest of the group not beeing able to keep up... Think again about that point. :) Also I don't really see the min/max point you are talking about. The only point were that really could be a thing are the hardest veteran dlc dungeons or hard veteran trials. For anything else (yes even pvp in cyrodiil) you can do what you want and see fit. I never had a proper pvp build in all the years and yet I had my heroic moments or just fun defending and attacking keeps with siege weapons, if nothing else. I was even able to take out an entire group by simply surprising them. rezzing people who actually have proper pvp gear, taking out enemy rezz-camps and providing camps to your own faction is meaningful for the outgoing of sieges as well. As is stealthing behind the enemie lines to set their sieges on fire or simply distract them. that doesn't count for battlegrounds. I dont like battlegrounds but some of my pve chars are also not bad in doing them and can contribute something to the group. Also I want to see you killing dragons solo on lvl 2 (technically you are not even able to meet one until lvl 3). Make a video of that or be a liar, sir. :D even on champion ranks there are not a lot of people / builds who could solo them. I know you talked about "killing" them and not soloing them, but I think it is a whole different feel to compare killing a dragon together with other players or killing a bunch of bandits solo. For me it is not fancy to play the next themepark mmo where I have to do the same sh... all over again on different toons. FF14 has a way around that with the class swap system, but that kills character identity for me totally. I like to have different toons in a different style doing different things, so FF14 is no mmo for me personally.

I've owned the game since like 2015. My highest character is like level 31 or 32 or something. Needless to say, I've never been able to stick with it for a long span of time.

Yes, good video with several good points. It’s tricky. They care about the game, they care about the players and they want everyone to have a great experience, but it’s difficult to balance in a landscape that is constantly configured. Well, it isn’t a perfect game, it’s a little repetitive, even with so much to do. Right now I can’t think of anything better and I’ve tried pretty much all of them.

Ugh... Same with me I last maybe a month in ESO think I'm getting into it and then buy a player home annnnnnnnnnnndddddd finish what I wanted to do and leave cause, there is not much to chase or keep logging back into for. I am happily waiting for something that tries to replace ESO on the market using the ES franchise.

14:27 on the issue of people rushing through dungeons and how devs can try and slow that down - maybe they should take a page outta the GTA missions book - make the rewards greater the longer you take to complete the mission/quest/dungeon… which I always thought was backwards in GTA, but if the devs really want players to slow down and experience ESO in its full glory, they gotta give players an incentive to stop and smell the roses.

One Tamriel Update: It doesn't take very long to get to level 50. I started a fresh character during Elsweyr after having attempted to play the game several times. Honestly, I didn't even focus on gear. I didn't feel like anything was under or over whelming. I was immersed in the story and didn't notice. Dungeons: I FUCKING HATED that I still didn't know the story behind any of the dungeons. There's AT LEAST one GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO player in the dungeon. I HATED it. Even if I said, "I need to do the quest" they basically ignored it and I was doing nothing but trying to catch up to the rest of the group. I pay SWTOR now and at least they have Story Mode dungeons where you can just solo it and experience the story at your own pace. Combat System: I didn't think it was too hard to master, but it just felt stupid. Having to alternate between abilities, light attacks, and weapon swaps just felt like an arbitrary system rather something that felt intuitive. How the hell does someone actually put a greatsword away and get out a bow and launch a bunch of arrows within a second? The only class that made me feel better is the Arcanist since it was much more ability-based. Gear and builds: This is part of what made me quit. Everything is so homogenized that if you want to have an optimal DPS set, you need a certain gear set. While it makes it very convenient if all you have to do is reconstruct, it makes all the DPS classes feel the same. Let's not forget having to regear and respec every 3 months because they change so much shit. There were periods I could no-life this game and other times I had to take time off. I hated having to hunt for crap instead of enjoying the new content in their supposed horizontal progression. Subscription: It is so fucking retarded to have to create a problem to get people to subscribe to your game (cough craft bag cough). I understand there should be incentives to subscribe, so actually create them instead of creating solutions to problems. Crown Store: Why do trials and achievements when better looking stuff can be bought with money? Also, while I understand that ZOS was trying to prevent people abusing the currency conversion system with crowns, I hated that I met the requirements to be able to gift crown purchases, but yet, I was still unable to have access. They said to send a ticket and I sat on my hands and have yet to receive a response. Which leads me to... Customer Service: ABSOLUTE DOGSHIT. Issues with the game, other players, etc, and all I received was the middle finger. Hell, I got reported because some stupid Warden refused to move their bear from the writ turn-in location (before a fix was patched into the settings). Yes, I got frustrated, but all I said was "move your fat bear out of the way" and I was given a 72 hour suspension. I tried to appeal it and all I received was a copy/paste response from a different GM each time. This game is great if you want to dive into some story. Past that, I can't recommend it. Group play sucks because ZOS gives the opportunity for other people to be shitty assholes. Just like any other MMO, doesn't expect much from PVP.

As someone who likes to play story content together with friends, I don't think there is any MMORPG which provides that experience perfectly. You either have MMORPGs like FF14 with a good story, but you are basically on your own while leveling (except for the dungeons), or you need to carefully monitor each others progress and are basically banned from playing a character if you want to play the story together and your friend has a different gaming schedule than you. Guild Wars 2 does a better job at it due to partially replacing quest system with dynamic events, but it is still not without issues. Level scaling, mentor systems or a level agnostic system can solve some of the issues that stem from the level difference, so you can actually do something somewhere else while your firend is not around (or rest assured that your friend doesn't really on your presence to enjoy the game). But I can agree with you that only scaling down seems more appropriate in order to provide a sense of progression. Again GW2 does a good job at it, but once you got to max level it basically turns into the level agnostic experience you already know from ESO. I know they didn't increase the max level in their expansions for good reasons, but I still think some people would have enjoy the game more if the expansions increased the max level and the new zones introduced would have even higher level requirements (HoT level 85, PoF level 90, EoD level 95, SotO level 97 (as a smaller expansion). As there is a lot of stuff based on not increasing the max level in GW2 (aka horizontal progression), it would require a ton of other changes to make it work and feel good, so it is not going to happen. It is more likely to have a new game which is leaning a bit more into vertical progression to pick up the good ideas about it. Group content like dungeons and raids always have one problem for players like me: I only go there to learn about the story. I like to take my time, explore the place, maybe peak into some less visited areas, maybe even have some little RP while taking a break. In short: My personal approach on dungeons is completly incompatible with how dungeons are designed and most players do the dungeons. If you are not going with a group of like minded people - which you can only do if you form a group before - there will be some friction between you and the people who rush through dungeons in optimized ways and are only there for the loot of the final boss. This is another thing btw: I am not engaging in content _because_ of the reward, I am doing it for the fun of facing and overcoming challenges with friends. I won't reject rewards though and beating the final boss should feel rewarding, but for me it is not the reason I am there in the first place. Most of the time I am not even aware of what a boss might drop. I am just happy if there is something useful for me - and it doesn't even need to be gear. Instanced group content is designed to be played over and over again, and yet there is a story to be told within them. For me this kind of doesn't fit together, as nobody - not even me - cares about that story on the 28th run of that dungeon/raid/... anymore. And yet it is there and causing friction in case you care about the story on yor first run. Offering a way to experience this group content on your own, like either having a simplyfied version of the boss fight in your story and offering a more challenging version seperatly (strikes in GW2) or offering NPC companions as an option for your dungeon runs (FF14) are promising ways solving some of these issues and I hope more games will implement and improve on these ideas. And yes... a good story and solving all of the issues above doesn't help, when the combat system feels bad and the game isn't fun to begin with.

Pretty much agree with everything you said about ESO

I feel like ESO is missing that " Yay we beat the lich king on uber mythic plus " or lore

To be honest, I don't like MMO's. I'm more of a single player and I still tried some MMO's like Neverwinter, Terra and Final Fantasy but Eso is the only one I like because you don't need to do the MMO stuff. You can play it single, you can't do the big dungeons or the Raids but there are a lot of stuff you can do single. The main Story or the Zone stories and you can do it in you own time and explore every zone at every level which I really like. When I play then I only play it single and I take my time and enjoy the stories. Thanks for the Companion you can also do the dungeon, they may be a bit though but possibly. And I really like the lore and that you can visit all these interesting zones.

Bruh really? This is the best game I ever played lol. This game literally took me away from CoD. I’m new to this game but this game is incredible.