It's awesome that so many new people are checking out this video! That being said: many of you are unfamiliar with me and my content. I don't expect you to watch all my videos before commenting and even though I mention my content in this video, I may not have taken enough time to explain. My primary objective with ESO was to see if the 10-year-old content holds up in 2024. I specifically play base-game exclusively and LOCK MYSELF inside until the zone-guide has been 100% complete! In 100 hours I have just finally completed the Aldmeri Dominion storyline and had a FANTASTIC time. At the start of EVERY video I state: "I'm trying to play ESO the way the developers intended" (back when the game launched). That means going slow and steady through story content and absorbing the world of tamriel for each zone (which is 95-97% overland content). Outside of the zone guides: I've done all the (base-game) dungeons and some of the (base-game) veteran dungeons! You can see @ 16:30 some of the veteran gear I obtained. I did most of the veteran dungeons without understanding what I was doing (I thought I was just queuing for a regular dungeon) and despite being in PUGs I didn't feel like it was any more challenging than a regular dungeon; just a bit longer. Dungeons are a fun thing to do but generally only take about 20-30 minutes to complete. Depending on the zone: overworld content accounts for roughly 14-20 hours of gameplay (excel sheets are posted in every video), so group content only accounts for 2-5% of my time in this game. I am a new player, this is the perspective of a hyper-casual new player trying the $5 base-game ESO package you can get on steam. So like it or not saying: "you haven't tried endgame", "wait until you have 500 hours", "do all the DLC dungeons on veteran" aren't really applicable for a new player in my position. I'm just giving my opinions of this 10-year-old game after 100 hours based on what I have experienced firsthand! I would LIKE to do another one of these videos after I've actually done trials, PvP, and harder DLC dungeons, but at that point I won't really be a new player (more like semi-experienced). The plan was to have 2-3 of these videos as time moves on so I could reflect back and watch my opinions change as I move further into the game
overland is actually NOT a majority of what the playerbase does nor is it a big focus most players focus on high end pve content or high end pvp content. also you have only played base game overland content, its intentionally easier than dlc overland content, those areas are considered " end game overland areas" so yes things are scaled but they are still scaled higher, some world bosses are VERY difficult to solo in dlc content overland, some overland activities CANT be solo just due to sheer numbers. try soloing a harrowstorm in reach. have fun with that. and please show us in video format.
id also like to point out that you are playing as an arcanist which is currently the most overpowered class in both pvp and pve content so of course everythings easy, also gotta nitpick your statement of " playing the game the way the devs intended it to be played" .....not really thier original intentions were to lock you into one alliance and force you to create a character of a seperate alliance to even enter other alliance zones, they changed that, also the devs state almost every single live stream that they dont have an intended way for anyone to play, they made it free form so that we could all play it our own ways, therefore according too the devs there ISNT a way they intend you to play. that being said, i feel ive come off more harsh than intended, i do love your videos and i fully support your content, just feel the need to clear up some of your misconceptions in case someone who hasnt played eso sees this and gets the wrong idea.
also eso is intentionally rotation based combat, you arent supposed to be using mostly heavy and light attacks, you are supposed to weave light attacks in between your abilities while using your abilities as your main source of damage, buffs, and healing, whilst only ever using a heavy attack to proc the off balance status effect or regain your main resource which is typically determined by what resource your main " spammable" attack is , for example a magicka based arcanist tends to use the runeblades ability as thier main spammable attack and then swap to the beam as the execute because it gets bonus damage against low health targets, so its a rotation based action rpg, rather than anything else.
@@alargeshrubb7964 MOST players absolutely DO NOT focus on high end content. The vast majority of players don't play veteran content and only do the daily random normal dungeon, if that. You sound like an elitist player that laughs at people that don't play sweaty content.
@@thegrogling6505 I get your point, but there's a huge difference in wanting the overall game to have any resemblance of difficulty, versus going to a few dungeons and doing some hard challenges. You're basically saying if you want the game to be challenging and engaging, you're going to have to do this one challenge for the rest of the game, which doesn't seem like a very fun time for anyone now.
I mean, all it would be is mobs with more health. Is that really what anyone wants? I don't think it is. I think they should increase mob density. No more 1 or 2 things to kill every 10 seconds. Put big groups of them. It'll be fun to mow them down. Then make delve bosses have a little bit of mechanics to them. Maybe just like one mechanic that you have to do. Then public dungeons a little bit more, and world bosses are fine as they are in the newer chapters
ESO player since beta here. Your closing statement broke my heart. This game had so much potential and was honestly great for a short while. It's a shell of what it once was, though... The dev team unfortunately never seemed to get it to where it could have gone. Oh well...
Look at our boy! Look at him go! Still cannot emphasize how excited i am for you to experience the entire world and planes beyond. Being an absolute lore nut myself, one thing i love so much about new DLCs is the new lore i can discover. No spoilers obviously but the amount of new things that connect to previous TES games that explain things or create new mysteries or make you interpret the TES universe in a new light is brilliant and i think you'll love it. A lot of people seem to hate the fact that ZOS has the green light by bethesda to create cannon lore and they like to forget that, but i cant get enough of it. Its like getting an exclusive look under the cover of the secrets the elder scrolls hides and im addicted to it by every chapter that comes out XD. So happy for you that you've gained so much attention in so short a time. Will continue to support and cheer you on all the way through in every video. (if i don't comment on future videos, assume i've been torn apart by all the daedric princes i've sworn allegiance to that claim i'm their mortal champion/vessel)
Amazing content like always! Just one thing I have noticed. I would change thumbnail photo to your iconic Argonian :) I missed this video twice due to the picture as I though it points out to another 10 years of ESO celebration video. But I am so happy you enjoy the game. Looking forward to some DLC playthrough
Thank you for the feedback, you're not the first person to mention this! Maybe I'll make the adjustment after work today. Thank you very much for the super-thanks!
Your videos are great, a lot of fun and unique. What really makes them standout is your personality and the effort you put into them. I do want to give a couple pieces of advice if you want to take them. Don't self deprecate, it's good being humble but don't be too humble. Your opinions don't need caveats. And you just grew hugely, so it's statistically certain that you will get dedicated haters and people that are here to disagree with the title and premise of your videos without even watching them. Don't acknowledge them, they are not your audience, the silent majority is. Can't wait for the next one!
Thank for for that comment that means a lot. I'm truly grateful for all the support I've gotten over the last few months; it's unbelievable. I don't mind reinforcing my opinions with caveats or support if it helps other people understand where I'm coming from, but I get your point. Thanks again for the kind words
eso by far has been one of my favorite games and i love hoping on everyday for a couple hrs I always feel like I have something to do and I really enjoy the player base in the game they are really kind
It's become part of my daily schedule now! Jumping in for a couple hours to do a few quests a day, writing my notes, looking up new lore/info online; it's awesome. It really has that story/world building most MMOs don't; but I may be a little bias :)
Great video and set of videos prior to this! I’ve been on the fence about starting this game on Xbox. I have not played any MMO or Elder Scrolls game before so I’d be a total beginner. I am looking for a long, enjoyable grind, but am worried about the time commitment of this one and don’t wanna neckbeard it too hard that I let other life priorities go. But you’ve made me want to play the game! Also nervous (and excited) about how much there is to this game. Keep up the content and maybe I’ll jump in at some point!
If you're into a story-driven game with hundreds of hours of content to explore for like $5; I struggle to think of another MMO that has this beat (on console). I can't speak too much on the endgame/grind, but IF you want to do those activities, there's loads in this game.
@@FrostbreakYT awesome! Thanks for the reply! My main goal would be to get all of the achievements but if it’s going to take 1000+ hours, sounds like people love it and are willing to help if I need it, which is great!
@@lilblizake some fair warning, getting all the achievements will be quite difficult. Even though in the review he said overland content is easy (which it is) some dungeon and raid achievements will require you to be on top of your game. The trifecta achievements (no death, speedrun, hardmode) for group content are notoriously difficult. Good news is that there are guilds specifically made for achievement hunting so you should be able to get help with that
@@ac2.024 yeah I’ve heard that too so that is why I am hesitant to start. I’m waiting on Gold Road to drop and see what all they add to the game. Also trying to get through a few other games first so I can focus on ESO.
@@lilblizake I'm an achievement hunter too, been playing this from the start, achievements are slow going so my advice is enjoy the game and most of the achievements will happen naturally, there are of course some really long grindy ones and a couple I doubt I will ever get or even try at. Saying that there are a lot more in game achievements than just Xbox ones so I tend to focus on those now.
I've been playing ESO for 4 years now and I really agree with the points you made in this video! You really highlighted and put into words why I generally avoid overland/story content in this game. I'm a PvP player and spend nearly 100% of my time in this game in Cyrodiil and Battlegrounds, and anytime I've tried to give the story content an honest shot I always find myself speedrunning through it with a "get it over with" attitude. I know ZOS has been considering finding a way to increase the challenge of overland content and that they haven't found something they like the feel of quite yet, but I really hope they do. Anyways, I'm glad you're enjoying the game! Even though you're new to the ESO community (and ESO content creation), I really think your videos are some of the best out there right now. You're genuinely making me want to try giving story content another shot and appreciate it for what is there.
That's great to hear. I was really hoping I didn't come off as uneducated or point out issues that weren't "a real problem". I look forward to trying PvP although I've heard more warnings about that gamemode than almost anything else in this game. I've been having a great time so far doing the casual stuff; so no complaints from me there!
PvP is where the combat system and build variety truly shine. Just don't take it too seriously, as among the regulars there are some characters who never learned games are most enjoyable when everyone's having fun.
I've been jumping back into the game following your lead with taking it slow and immersing each of the zones has been fantastic. Excellent video review!
Banger of a video, I played the game at launch forever ago and have such fond memories of playing it. Every year since I have been tempted to hop back on that old account.
Great video! the editing keeps getting better, you reall wouldn't expect this level of quality from a 10k channel🙏I can't wait to see you experience all the different expansions
About the whole “I have never seen such visceral hate for a game” and comments you get about people who hate the game and want you to stop playing. I’ve noticed two things about that crowd. 1: they view ESO as an affront to TES canon and think it butchers the lore. 2: they view ESO as this massive wall blocking TES 6 from release and that ESO’s continued development is leeching resources that could go to TES 6.
Interesting, I would never have guessed those two things. I've recently been watching Fudgemuppet's podcast on TES lore and they quite often talk about ESO and how much it adds to the story. As a singleplayer fan myself, I haven't come across anything yet that would justify that opinion. Weird people think ESO is blocking TES6, I kinda assumed it was two different development teams.
@@FrostbreakYT that's the thing. there are two differents studios, not just teams. Zenimax Studios, which is ESO, is not bethesda softwares. so there is not overlapping. Sure, maybe they used some of the loremasters in ESO, but i don't think that they are the bottle neck of production of TES6 Also, i don't think that they are breaking the lore. there is a lot of space and time between ESO (Second Era) and the main TES entries (end of the third era and fourth era) that they can explored. Consider that Tiber Septim or Talos is centuries yet from being born in ESO timeline. i'm not even going to get into Dragon Breaks, that let them, in theory if they want, fuck all the timeline or create new scenarios, and it all can make sense and fit in the in-game universe. And yet, I, who have played nearly every TES game, and also have played every one of the Expansion, and currently doing the Gold road, haven't found any major attempt to break anything. More so, they are filling the space in the lore making it more rich. cheers
@@FrostbreakYTit’s mostly complaints from long time fans. Skyrim, oblivion, and ESO all retconned a bunch of older TES lore which didn’t set well with some old fans. I kinda get the outrage for when oblivion came out, but this is old news now. Bethesda clearly wants to take the universe in a different direction than they had originally envisioned. I don’t get why people would think this game is preventing TES6 tho, Bethesda clearly just had different priorities. Fallout 76 and starfield didn’t just develop themselves lol.
As someone who has over 1700 hours on ESO, I'm really glad to see you enjoying it. Really great video by the way! I have some sort of love/hate relationship with the game (although most love, otherwise I wouldn't have played it for that long). While I love the game and the community, I tend to hate the extreme monetization that ZOS enforces on the players. Granted, it has actually became better in these past few years, with the addition of weekly and dailies where you can earn currency to buy crown-crate items, and achievements that unlock mounts, skins, etc. I'd say that ESO has an insane amount of content, and the fact that older content is as relevant to endgame as newer content is very refreshing for an MMO.
That's awesome to hear, I'm glad it's kept you captivated for that long. I'm not too familiar with the monetization system (as I mentioned), but yeah I heard some mixed stuff about it. Loot boxes and whatnot. An insane amount of content is the right phrase. $5 gets you like 600-700 hours of stuff to do. Pretty hard to beat that value-wise!
Great video! I wonder how much of these points and opinions will change after you have played some newer content. Some friendly criticism: I have to say that while I do understand the reasoning for the title, I do feel like it is a bit misleading. I know you touch on it in the video but you aren't reviewing ESO as a whole after 100 hours, you are reviewing a slice of it that is 10 years old. Anyways, there is no arguing that the overland content is generally piss easy and quite honestly it is this way so that the most casual of players can explore and enjoy it. Funny enough, they have already solved the issue of how they should fix it. Dungeons have both a normal and veteran mode. This system allows almost anyone to experience the lore and feel of a dungeon without the stress. But if you want the real version of the dungeon with the real threat and hardship that the dungeon's npcs often refer to, you pick veteran. This isn't as simple as just higher damage done to players. Often times normal modes of dungeons and trials completely remove mechanics that bosses have. Veteran Trails is some of the hardest yet most satisfying content to finish in this game. And this is also where the combat truly shine. Here is a change of perspective: the combat feels bad, outdated, and easy when its paired with the stale and easy overland content. Once this combat system is paired with the harder and well designed dungeon/Trial and DLC content, it truly shines! This is also the case with the overland events in later DLCS. Try telling anyone the combat is easy and boring when trying to fight dragons in Elswyer. Anyways, I do hope you eventually touch vet dungeons and normal/vet trials because it is a massive and generally loved part of ESO. While I do understand that as a Skyrim player this may not be your cup of tea, I strongly urge you to try it one day! I was also in that same position years ago and I can tell you the dungeons and trials are often a visual spectacle and have great lore. Not to mention the mechanics and themes they explore are fun. As you said, the ingame community is super friendly. Most of the hate and toxic side of the community is on Reddit, Steam, or in RU-vid comment section. You are right, for some reason the hatred is very strong with this game to an almost irrational level. Every patch, no matter how much they add or improve, there are people claiming this is the worst content ever released in any game. I do hope you continue to enjoy the game and not let those haters change your view on the game. And to clarify hating and criticizing are two different things and this game isn't without criticism. But the hate, like in Steam reviews for example, is often ridiculous. I am excited to see you tackle Coldharbor and Orsinium next. This is when the super fun content begins and ESO began to change for the better. And I cannot wait for you to eventually tackle Necrom. I think you will love that Chapter.
That's the goal! I wanted to make 2-3 of these videos at different points in my journey so I can reflect back on what got better/worse. You're right though I'm not reviewing ESO as a whole, but I have dabbled in (almost) everything this game has to offer (minus raids). I would argue raids and stuff wouldn't be done by someone with 100 hours anyway, but I do try to explicitly mention multiple times I'm doing base-game content. Weird, I've tried veteran dungeons but just felt they took longer. Maybe because they were also 10 years old? You can see at 16:30 some gear I did from PUGs, I accidentally queued up but I didn't find it overly challenging. I never died, and mechanics were simple to understand imo but I am an MMO vet across many games. I am very excited for Orsinium and Coldharbour has been a nice change of pace. Thank you for the comment
@@FrostbreakYT Great to hear you will do more of these at different points in your journey! Yes, the base game dungeons even on veteran are really easy. You got to remember that these were meant for older sets that are now super underpowered. Also their dungeon design has greatly improved imo. Some of those old base game dungeons CAN be challenging for new players but most are super straight forward. The mechanics and difficulty comes in with DLC vet dungeons. This is when they get really creative with mechanics and if you aim for achievements there are some really great challenges. No death, all bosses, speedrun in one run for example are super popular and fairly difficult achievements the community tries to do. Be wary as you eventually do these that it is possible to get carried by others in some cases. At least damage wise. So maybe take that into account when fairly looking at their difficulty :) Anyways, enjoy what you are currently doing in ESO! This series is such a fantastic idea! You actually inspired me to remove all my endgame gear in Gold Road and only use what I find and it was a blast!
@@riplix20 The original version of the game was already badly rated and disliked so yes your opinion was shared among many. But to take a game with years of dlcs and content and only judge it based on the content available on release is disingenuous. You can also get the game and all chapters except the new one for extremely cheap. So I don't know why you would choose to not do dlc content as a normal player.
Combat is the number one system you NEED to make right for most people. Everywhere I look and everyone I talk to who do not want to play the game, says it's because of the combat. I've played this game for about 70 hours and i LOVE the amount of content. the lore and the world itself. Because Elder Scrolls games has amazing lore in general. But I also can't see myself playing this game long term and making it my main game, because of the combat. There is just something off with it. Like you said, it feels floaty and attacks have very little weight to them. I honestly think they should focus on a complete rework/overhaul of the combat system for the next big update.
Just wanna let you know, your hard work is much appreciated. This was such a well made and fair take on ESO. Props to you bro! I personally am not a huge fan of all classes can do everything in fact, it’s one of my biggest criticisms along with the level scaling. It makes classes feel like a theme then an actual class/role. Still a great game story wise and good experience for the lore!
Oh hey! Thanks for stopping by. I just finished playing LOTRO with my boys around this time last year. We had a great time running the Barrow-downs together but it sort of fizzled out. I don't think landscape difficulty was out at that point, but LOTRO has a much better difficulty system than ESO imo.
@@FrostbreakYT Yes the difficulty settings are definitely a big strength in LOTRO. Unfortunately there are other issues in that game that leads to it fizzling out. Have a good one!
I want to love this game so much and still do. What spoils for me is when you are in a dungeon, random people come and kill the enemies. Also the enemies quickly resurrect. This is so immersion breaking. I really think they should work on a single player version which fixes these issues a bit.
That would be awesome! I love that idea of like a "solo-instance server option" where you can opt-in to being alone in the world. Kinda destroys the point of ESO being an MMO but having it as a visual option so only you would know would be interesting.
Its okay, im 10 years late to this game as well. Wasnt a fan of the game when it released but over time i started to get interested in it from my love of the other games. My only complaint is that the crown store is expensive af but also not necessary to buy from. Its been a blast to finally see all the places that were mentioned in previous entires.
This is one of the better vids I've seen about ESO. I WANT to love the game and I keep coming back to give it chance after chance but the difficulty is so mind-numbingly easy. It doesn't need to be Elden Ring but just give me SOME sense of challenge. Otherwise, there just isn't any point. All of that being said, I still really like the world, environment, and lore, and keep coming back to make periodic brief visits. There just isn't anything compelling enough to keep me there for the long-term. Meanwhile, I can still go back to Skyrim after all these years and still get sucked in for days all over again. Thanks for your thoughts.
Thank you so much Yeah I pretty much feel the same as you. I wish story bosses had "killer abilities", maybe they'd light up blue or something. And if you fail to dodge the skillshot, you have to start over. That'd give people an interesting way to feel some challenge and not be able to tank every hit possible. Tamriel is one of if not my favourite universe in gaming history; I derive most of my pleasure from exploring the world in this game.
Great video man! I really appreciate how much effort and hard work you are putting into these videos. I’m currently working a ESO video and it’s taking me some time to get it done so I really do commend you for getting these videos out. Keep it up man.
My friend an I are 10 years late to the party as well. I am REALLY lucky to have a friend to play through this game with me as I do not find MMO's fun without people to play with, we had more playing with us through 2023, but most of them did not enjoy the game enough to continue on to our ultimate goal, to play through the entire content chronologically with a single character. It is probably a pipe dream, but we are going to give it a try. ESO is defiantly geared to the solo casual gamer, but if you can find at least one or two friends to play through the amazing stories this game has, it will be time well spent.
To me ESO's combat system is simultaneously simple, yet with some depth. Feedback from enemies is sorely lacking, but that is only a slight detractor in my opinion. There is quite a bit of skill expression through light attack weaving. Light attack weaving also makes the combat feel quite dynamic as you're always doing light attacks and abilities in a rhythm. Also while you can que the next ability your going to use that is the extend of it. You also get the most damage from dynamically layering your abilities, casting dots, then layering in some shorter duration abilities, with instant effect abilities (spamables) being cast where gaps appear. For tanks and healers ESO combat is all about anticipating incoming damage and mechanics and laying down damage shields, heal over time effects while ensuring you have good uptimes on buffs and debuffs. Resource sustain is also a problem every role has to solve in some manner, and sometimes you're also responsible for the sustain of other people. For the top end of PvE content there is also a lot math you have to consider if you want to squeeze everything out of your group in terms of damage. PvP is not my field of expertise, but you encounter a lot different stuff when doing PvP, some people seeming invincible, plus you have group vs group combat, including with considerable number differences, and group vs individual, which doesn't always have to go the way you expect, although it would depend a lot on the groups and individuals involved.
About the class balance, there's a few classes that simply don't do certain roles in endgame PvE. The most firm rule I have seen is that Dragon Knights don't heal, which is reflected by statistics. Although again, this only applies to endgame PvE. Every class has access to the Restoration Staff (healing staff), and could heal without any class abilities although passives still affect things. A class is better suited to healing depending on the tools it has, changing it's efficacy. Another important aspect is what unique group buff, debuff or synergies a class provides, and weather or not providing any of those buffs reduce their ability to do DPS (as in trials there's usually 7-8+ DDs, and only 3-5 supports split between 1-3 tanks and usually 2 healers). The other subpar healer for endgame content is Templar. While they have the highest healing output of any class, they lack a lot of unique utility, and that utility could also be covered by a Templar DPS without losing a lot of damage. Now dragon knights besides having a kit that is badly adapted to healing (as far as I know) are also extremely popular tanks, and popular as pot damage optimized and support damage dealers, meaning that most optimized groups cover anything a dragonknight might provide from roles besides healer. When it comes to tanks you hardly see any Templar or Warden tanks, for Templar it's that again they don't provide much utility and further has a kit that is badly optimized for tanking. For Warden it's not that they're bad tanks, it's that they are superb healers, and a warden healer can provide all the same utility as a Warden Tank, and in most cases do so better. For DPS the restrictions are lesser, and with upwards of 7-9 slots you can fit in a necromancer support damage dealer, a sorcerer support damage dealer, and a dragon knight support damage dealer who do respectable damage, but also improves the damage of every other damage dealer. When it comes to just dealing straight up damage there are pros and cones to most classes, and some are situationally well suited to certain fights over others, or might excel in different portions of a boss fight. For example both Templasr and Nightblades have strong executes (abilities that get stronger the lower the health of the target). Meanwhile you have some classes which excel more at dealing damage to multiple targets whereas other classes have higher single target damage, ranging from Arcanist's excellent multi-target damage, but relatively poor single target damage, to the sorcerer who is the inverse, excellent single target damage, but comparable worse multi-target damage. Some classes also have different skill floors and ceilings, with Nightblades requiring near-perfect execution for optimal results while on the other end of that spectrum you have Arcanists who have more stable output with a simpler rotation, featuring less skill expression in certain aspects. Arcansts also have survivability and a lot of free stats baked into their class kit, including a self heal (that used to be reliable), and a damage shield targeting themselves whereas for most other classes survivability comes at the cost of damage output. There's also the matter of balancing done for diffrent parts of the game effecting PvE. For example Nightblade has been quite dominant in PvP for a long time, and has received many nerfs because of that affecting their ability to perform as DPS in PvE content. Due to a lower DPS output you see them more as Healers. They also not usually the best tank. For four man content all of the classes automatically become more competitive in support roles as you have fewer people overall, and sometimes you have only one support (usually a single tank). DPS are still just as competitive as before, and class utility might be more useful.
This is a pretty great video, appreciate the perspective of not only a new player but one more focused on the story & solo content. I've been playing ESO off and on for 10 years, so it's cool to see what someone who just started recently thinks.
I've been wanting to give ESO a chance for a long time, having been a huge fan of the previous games. Thanks to your video im gonna give it a shot. You did such a great breakdown of all the important aspects without going too deep as to be overwhelming! Thank you for this video!
Another great video, full of interesting points and suggestions. After playing a nightblade for 10 years, this encourages me to start a new character... 😀
I randomly clicked on accident but watched the whole vid due to its excellent narration. Never even played this game before but now I'm curious. Mission accomplished sir.
@Frostbreak thank you for taking the time to make this video. As an avid Elderscrolls fan it warms my heart to see others give ESO the love and attention it deserves. I picked up ESO in 2017 after my 3rd copy of Skyrim became unplayable lol. I played and beat Oblivion and all its DLCs and even played Morrowind for a hot minute. ESO is the closing thing to Skyrim thats not Skyrim and is my go to sorce of entertainment on a daily basis. I have about 5 solid years of 2-4 hour nights logged into this game and I love it so much. Some nights im killing dragons and running through beautiful dungeons and other nights I might be immersing myself in the Story Zone quests and playing with gold in a live real time on game economy. Theres so much you CAN do that i understand people being overwhelmed by the amount of choice you have but thats one of the main reasons why this game is my go to thing on my spare time. Some nights I just crack a beer and hang out and socialize in games with friends. I have a buddy that bought an island Home and I helped him decorate it. We set up a secret spot on the island where we go to smoke before our dungeons and adventures lol
On the topic of getting help in-game: I've always had good luck joining trading guilds that require no dues. Group chat is a friendly place to ask noob questions, or for help with, say, a world boss. Or to just get some water-cooler chatter on what's going in-game. And selling looted gear through the guild gets far more gold than selling it to NPC merchants.
Hey man, First of all thank you for your great video it was so good and thoughtfully, you helped me decide to download this game and start playing it as a completely new player, I played WoW so much and Skyrim when I was teenger and I really enjoyed that game, Now Im ready to play this game without any doubts and I know ill enjoy it so much because as you said Most of the content of this game is about Story and that's why I'm here thank you again
Speaking of Voice Acting if you didn’t realize it Lyris Titanborn is played by Jennifer Hale the same chick that played Bastila and Satele Shan in KOTOR AND SWTOR. Sai Sahan is played by Kevin Michael Richardson who also played JOLEE in KOTOR. And Cadwell is played by the great John Cleese. Truly incredible voice actors and maybe apart of the reason I love this game so much because of Jennifer and Kevin KOTOR was my game when I was a kid so seeing them together in the story again was amazing.
Oh I had no idea she played Satele Shan. I just barely dipped my toes into the DLC and I basically only played darkside so I wasn't able to recognize her voice that much! Thank you for that info though!
I really appreciate that you started the video talking about difficulty! I haven't played MMOs but I have played some games where difficulty is way too easy and yeah it definitely runs the risk of making me bored. --- Still I do love Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and I'm excited to watch the rest of your video :)
Been playing this game off and on for 9 years since 2015 and its always nice to see new people joining the game and loving it. Only clocked about 7000 since 2015 and there is still tons of stuff i haven't done 🍻
I completely agree, the only problem I have with it is it's aggressive monetization where as a newer player it's almost required to get the monthly sub and if you want to start being a crafter you need the monthly sub. And I completely agree on the combat, it doesn't have any weight to it, I still think it's better than a majority of mmos out there today tho
Awesome video!! Very well thought out and articulated, am loving this series. Just a correction on the npc heavy attack knocking you down, but your heavy attack not knocking them down. Its confusing cause its the same indicator, but they only knock you down if youre off balance or with some of those abilities you mentioned. Eg they look like theyre charging up a heavy attack but its an upercut which is one of the abilities you can knock down with. Other times youll see the same charge up and itll just be a horizontal slice which will not knock you down. Enemies tend to have very similar skills (class and weapon) to us.
Thank you Skylar! I appreciate that information, it's hard to tell without any indicators on what kind of attacks their doing. I must be off-balance a lot because most of the time when I see them charging a heavy attack and I miss the block, I get thrown across the room (which I like, adds more interactivity to encounters, I just wish I could do that too!).
@FrostbreakYT no problem! If you're getting thrown across the room it's likely a two handed Uppercut rather than a heavy attack, alot of enemies have that set up/skill. I still expect to be knocked down when it was a heavy attack and vice versa, it's confusing.
Happy to see you're still enjoying the game! I have to wait for the next chapter before I get any more new content. I finnished Gold Road so I could get the new skin and mount.
Man I'd kill for a system like LotRO. Every single player of ESO has been BEGGING for more difficult overland/quest for years, both noobies and veterans alike...
Noticed you sneakily mentioned SWTOR, any thoughts on maybe making a video on it some day? One of the greatest mmos ive played in my life. 8 class stories that are different from each other plus bunch of DLCs gave me so much joy expiriencing for the first time and by now I think i played all of stories 2-3 times at the very least since there are bunch of impactful choices to make. If not, would just like to know whats your opinion on it
I have a video on it! The video I mention (in this video) is the one on my channel! I played for about 200 hours and made that review video (about 2x the time I've spent in ESO). It's a fantastic MMO for a story-solo-enjoyer like myself. (Probably better than ESO in the narrative department to be honest). But hey, it's bioware, not many other companies can hold a candle to their story team.
I'm glad you are having fun. I'd argue that picking a class that only came out recently and doing 10-year old content is already changing your perception as well. Arcanist came out with the last chapter, so it's still a bit OP compared to classic classes. All classes/races have been changed over the years and the base game maps are intentionally the easiest to help you learn all the aspects of the game. But I get you intention was to stick to base game first. "Content too easy to require teamwork" overland, I'd say is definitely only true for base game zones, DLC zone world bosses and events have lot tougher mechanics and you will die if you are not a proper high-end solo player or in a big group. And when I was a new player (3000 hours ago, lol) I often died to even dolmens if I was alone, but maybe I just sucked then, haha. Also, most DLC zones now come with the base game for free, so hopefully you will get to try them out, see for yourself and see how you feel about overland enemies then. Sure, random mobs will always be easy, but that part of the game is for story really. Also, you do knock back or knock down enemies or incinerate them if yo crit with fire etc, you might just need to try out more stuff.
I know this is a month old video so some info may have changed (I.E. not doing pvp or raids) but i can actually provide my own experiences and hopefully it is insightful! I played ESO on and off since release until about 4 years ago, so ive missed out on a lot of the current content. What i can say is back one of my favorite memories of this game was in PvP. I was a mid level player, champion rank 80-100 or if i recall, and i had hopped into some PvP to give it a shot. Someone posted in the world chat about looking for people to group up and go hit some enemy bases and forts, so i joined up. To my surprise there were at least 20 people in that chat, all with voice coms on, and they were in a discord call with another team or two, so in total we had around 50 people that ran around the map and wrecked some forts, got our team wiped a few times, made some great plays and i was actually able to steal the enemies Elder Scroll and make it back to our home fort successfully! (One of the points of PvP). So all in all for PvP, i don't know if its changed, but i highly recommend it to anyone. Will you die? Yes. Will you have fun? I sure hope so. Now for Raid dungeons. These are sweaty and how you expect them to be. Min maxed players who are wanting to get some top of the line gear, and holy cow is that gear good. They may be sweaty, but some of the coolest forms of sweaty players. They are chill but competitive, and just want to clear the dungeons. I will give it up to Zenimax and the devs because these boss dungeons are some of the most fun i had in the game when i was doing them, but im also very competitive. In summation: there are times you will love this game and times you will hate it, but it has come a long way since its release and it was a blast in playing for the time i did. Going down memory lane like this makes me want to pick it back up for another go
Amazing video as always! About the community I heavily disagree. I've been playing for around 2 months now, and my community experience (in game) has been amazing. The best way to find people to play with is through the guild section. I found a guild called Story Mode, who focus on playing the game at a story pace instead of just focusing on loot and grind. Honestly some of the nicest people I've ever met, and veterans helping me to experience the group content at my own pace! It also allows me to do group content such as vet dungeons and Trials which are amazing! Would definitely recommend looking for guilds. Or starting your own since you have the audience xD
Thank you, but I said that! I specifically mention how awesome the in-game community is, and differentiate it from the out-of-game community you can find online. You're not the first person to comment this, so maybe I spoke too quickly in that segment. But I have nothing but positive things to say about the in-game community!
Yeah I think I was mainly commenting on the closing statement, I know you mentioned midway through that the in-game community was great, but the way you ended the video about the community felt a bit pessimistic! But if that has been your experience then it is in your rights to complain about it 😄.
I love ESO but I wish they kept the standard leveling system or at least let us choose what system we want. Maybe they could launch a ESO Classic with same leveling system than on launch... Anyway, great review!
The advantage this game has is that you don’t need to download a million mods and worry about the load order every time. It’s that good of a single player content
I have just purchased this game. I’ve never played this game so I’m new even though I have played Diablo. 4 for many months since it first came out so I thought I’d give this ago. I’ve just purchased the ultimate version £78 pounds UK. But I don’t mind that it’s just the fact that I’m trying other games now there are new games coming out like Star Wars and newer sings that as well which I’ve also purchased but this because it’s online I’m going to give it a try.. I’ve done raids in division 2 I used to teach them. Because the division now has dropped off, I’m trying all the games out which I’ve never done and I’ve been to enjoy it.. I’ve recently subscribed to you. I listen to what other people say and I make my own mind up as regarding the types of games that I want to play. if I think it’s appropriate, I try. I’ll make my mind up accordingly to what I like. Like everybody they all have different tastes which I respect, but in the end my time is very precious and the industry and Verbee needs to know this. But as far as I’m concerned, I don’t mind. I’m in the same boat as yourself. I’m learning as I go by my mistakes and I don’t mind that in the long term I’ll be going to understand how the game mechanics work and then that way, I can gain enough experience with the game itself I’ve also just purchased the Chinese video game is coming out day which graphics are fantastic on the PS5 but they go. I shall be looking at your videos with anticipation in the first super future and watch with intrigue because I have a new, I would appreciate you tips and tricks, especially when it comes to newcomers and I know there’s an offer online but because you’re in the same boat myself, I would appreciate it having said that it’s not easy but again we will see how it goes but I won’t play every day but I’ll give it a go if and when I can, I appreciate your time and patience that you’ve done a decent video in a comprehensive explanationI would appreciate it. Thanks again. Take care of your friends and family and bye for now.
Keep in mind that he's reviewing the early portion of the game. The "elite" mobs he's talking about are just some mobs in the open world, during quests or public dungeons. These are very easy to clear. However ESO shines in the DLC delve and raid content. This is where the actual challenge and fun starts. Some veteran raids are extremely difficult, and the only way to clear them is with a skilled and coordinated team/guild. And from there you can go another step up and do the challenges in those raids like no death. Doing those higher level raids actually requires you to practice the combat instead of just mashing random numbers. There's also the maelstrom arena, which is a very difficult solo arena with waves of enemies. I remember staying up a few nights in a row till I was finally able to complete it. 😂 I have been away from the game for a few years though. So things might have changed by now.
you can outscale zones in the base game but only in difficulty based on skills and gear, its not just about having any better gear, sets are the most important thing in ESO and you have a broad choice of how you want to build your character in that way which is totally unique to any mmo but this is only really important once you get to max level for endgame content. there is a general storyline you should follow in the game to reach the end of the main story. for instance if you are an Ebonheart pact member if you don't do the zones in order the story wont make much sense and most of the enemies even elites in the lower zones don't have a lot of abilities to challenge you. also once you make it around to doing dungeons especially veteran ones you have to prioritize skills points to abilities that further your role rather than the balancing act that is solo content so it's an entirely different strategy. As far as building your character how you want and having the type of gear you want ESO gets the highest approval from me and it makes pvp extremely diverse. once you finish the main story you have the option of experiencing the other zones from other factions perspective but then there is also the DLC's too which are numerous. you can put a lot of time into this game and be behind but still get to experience the game with those ahead of you in content. it takes a lot of time to really get the full experience from this game so if you're looking for that type of game that has depth and diversity and something you can really sink your teeth into for an mmo ESO is a really great option. it's also great if you're an elder scrolls fan as this game has almost more lore than all the other elder scrolls games combined. Also public dungeons can be challenging to solo, but you can also do those with a group and world bosses are really tough too. I disagree with the game being 90% solo play honestly any of the content that really matters is grouped. Raids/vet dungeons/trials/world bosses/ pvp there is a lot of content that requires group play but if you don't play the game you aren't going to get that full experience.
brooo glad ur one of the players who plays with skill bar off, all enemy glows off, etc. i even turn combat cues off for dat max immersion. best way to play for sureeee. i even use skylike dialog cuz as a skyrim player myself i love when eso feels like skyrim. edit: but i don't like friendly glows either, still, almost same playstyle. nice. double edit: damn the initial footage was a bait, u got all the glows and skill bar on ;_;
Great review! I love the story and content, it's what gets me to play. I end up quitting after a while do to how easy overland is, which is generally an indicator that I'm getting bored and drifting from the story. After a few months to a year I come back for a while and that happens pretty much every year. :D
I haven't played the game very much but now that you mention it I did plastic quite a few enemies without even breaking a sweat. I don't even think my health went down. At this rate Skyrim may stay my favorite game forever lol also I wonder, if they shut the servers down one day you can't play it... An offline mode?
Having played more than 6000 hours, I can safely say that 100 hours are not enough to have a deep idea of the game. You've barely scratched the surface. There is an important aspect of the game that is related to difficulty. If you only delve into the overland content you will not find any challenge. It's a great mode to explore the vast world of ESO, take on quests, learn about lore, etc., but where the game really shines is the group end game content (Wow, the MMO aspect of the game). Trials, dungeons or any group content has its normal, veteran and hard mode versions, which forces you to make the most of your skill as a player in the role you play (healer, dps or tank). There must be a fairly important synergy and cohesion as a group to complete that content on the maximum difficulty (Trifectas) and that is, as I say, where the game really shines. Even the PVP content in Cyrodiil with hundreds of players on battlefields fighting for their respective factions, besieging the opponent's castles or defending them is insane. It is a fairly extensive game with content for all tastes. You just have to go a little deeper, but as you mention, if your reference is Skyrim, the differences are obvious, it is difficult to compare a single player game with an mmorpg and that is where the comparison fails. Not exploring the most important aspect, that of MMO, that is, playing with others
We have been asking for a difficulty slider for years. This is definitely the biggest pain point in the game and from what ive read in the forums and reddit over the years, the biggest issue with player retention.
And it’s honestly pretty crazy when talking with the few people who are so vehemently against it and defend the current status quo which is incredibly boring
I played the beta back in 2014, Im from Australia and it’s practically unplayable due to high ping which is a shame! Id love to try ESO properly it looks like a good game.
I use to play like you. Starting my trip a week ago focusing on narrative, hiding my hud but adding some stats addon in order to get a closer look of what a good Elder Scrolls crpg would be like. I’m still a novice but i don’t care about my progression, just roleplaying alone. If you want to join to my empty guild, it’s called Exilio Hispano. 😅 Good video!
Looking at how you were playing the game, I'm starting to realize why the divide in how people like ESO's combat, and I'd say it's the players compliance to its mechanics. I already tried getting a friend to play the game, and he said he hated it because his "bare handed" build wasn't working (the bitch). Seeing you just shooting arrows at 19:32 made me realize that I love this game's mechanics because I'm compliant to how it wants me to play, and that applies to my friend too. I don't know if there's anyone right or wrong in this situation, but while you complained that enemies wouldn't get knocked around after getting hit, which doesn't bother me, I was thinking of vet content, solo vet arenas full of mechanics and stuff you have to do to win, amazing group cooperation you need to get through vet trials, and I think I can enjoy it because I realize what the game wants to be and so I don't compare it with other styles. Again, no right or wrong, I just noticed it after you were just light attacking when I would be trying to apply dots, going around, stuff like that, what the game intends for us to do.
Now that I come to think of it, I remember a time I got scolded for just using snipe on a dungeon boss from the farthest I could get because I thought that would be good damage because of passives. Instead of getting mad, that was the moment I started looking for guides on how to properly play the game, with weapon swapping, leaving dots on the ground, attack weaving (which another friend of mine hated because he says a bug shouldn't be the norm on how to play a game), and then I finally started liking the game.
Huh, I did'nt knew there already was an MMO using difficulty slider, neat, yeah it would make total sense for ESO to have one, so both pure lore and combat oriented players can enjoy questing on the overworld.
Ever wonder why certain mechanics in singleplayer games are rarely seen in MMOs like ragdoll physics? MMOs use authoritative servers to verify all player actions, which helps prevent cheating. Implementing something like ragdoll physics would require the server to handle complex physics calculations for every mob everywhere to verify what happens to the mob and make sure that everyone sees the same result. It is computationally expensive but possible with enough resources or limitations like ragdoll physics for death blows only.
Love the vids, couple of notes, the overland activities will get harder as you play dlc zones. The world bosses mostly. 2. I don’t know if the bad comments are really people hating on the game as much as they are people telling you to stop playing because the high level raiders hate role players. Keep up the great work on the vids and try to make it to the dlcs. You won’t regret it
Thank you Samuel! I'm looking forward to Wrothgar (once I finish up Coldharbour). I've actually found Coldharbour pretty tough. There's only 1 world boss I've been able to solo, and the public dungeon was also more of a slog than normal. Regardless, I'm looking forward to a change of pace :)
This video made me want to get back in real bad. The problem? I only played maybe 20 or 30 hours when I started. It didn't have anything that made me stay. I started doing dungeons, but they felt repetitive. It just felt like a grind. I don't mind griding but I just don't want to waste time. Also, It sucked to not have anyone to play with.
I played this mostly for the PvP for nearly 5 years after launch. They balanced that into the ground. Server performance also didn't help, exacerbated due to Cyrodiils design: it encourages players to zerg. Still best PvP experience I had.
With the new chapter, they have really upped the anty with WB. I'm a Vet player, but they have been super challenging. It's been fun of course, but I can't just stroll into a WB in West Weald and solo it (well I can't).
I feel like One Tsmriel should of JUST been the Alliance restriction removal and not also included Level Scaling. That way, overworld is harsh but dungeons could be level synced (by choice) if players were higher level being group with low-level randoms.
One Tamriel ruined the experience for me as well. Same exact scenario as yours. Avid Skyrim and Fallout 4 player. Delved into ESO early, felt challenged, felt rewarding, etc. Now it feels more like a chore, a task list for achievements just to say I did it, etc. They really need to revamp this in my opinion. I am also an ultra casual at 36 years old with a 4 year old and don't mind the slow drip of progression. I don't need a lightning fast path to max level and content. It watered down the experience.
I love seeing things from the new single player perspective. I'd like to add that the single player aspect has been pushed harder, after devs couldn't get a big enough pvp crowd. It was touted as a big pvp game at the start with sandbox morpg pve elements. The ability to balance the three aspects has been shakey.
ESO was originally pushed as a PvP game? I did not know that... that seems really out of place for a bethesda game especially with this much story content on launch.
Ran a very dungeon for the first time in years. One dude dropped but the other remained and was chill despite me as a healer and the dps not understanding the fights fully.
I think you are absolutely right about the difficulty options for the game. I came to my own conclusion for the game to add a difficulty slider when I thought about the level scaling myself and also found out about LoTRO's implementations of this. I do also believe that the animations absolutely need a revamping to make the combat feel heavier. As a GW2 fan, floaty combat is something I'm used to, but it would just be objectively better with better reactions. Really love your vids man, keep going and I'll keep supporting!
As someone who has been following ESO at launch, my friend who played day one made the game look so fun and enjoyable at launch with solid progression, as he completed all base game zones. And as someone who joined in late 2016 I still am yet to complete more than one base game zone due to destroying everything. On top of it feeling like a chore there is also endless content eg dlc to do as well Yet I play pvp the most and still play, just avoiding those topics and getting the meta armour sets
Dude, you didn't even touched the housing system. That's like another game in itself 😂 Awesome video, btw. I'm also enjoying this game so much. The only thing that breaks the immersion for me is immediate respawning of enemies. Everything else is top notch tho.
I know! We all got a free house a month or so ago and I really want to try out the housing stuff. From what I've seen on twitter it's pretty phenomenal what some people can do.
So as someone who rotates MMOs every so often and has done some of the hardest content ESO has to offer, I can give a good insight as to why some changes might or might not be a good idea. Regarding your idea for knockback heavy attacks: You have to remember this is an MMO first. Yes, it's entirely possible to implement. However, and as such with nearly every MMO out there: Knockbacks in group PVE content is typically bad. You knock enemies out of alignment/grouping, which can take that enemy out of the AOEs, effectively reducing the overall DPS. Combined with this, heavy attack builds are a thing in ESO. They play completely differently than light attack builds, and are an easy way to bypass "weaving" by making it easier (LA weaving being more difficult because you have to find the sweet spot of when you can attack/cast again, and HA weaving being "push another button while holding LMB and wait for finish, repeat.") I'm at 21:50 on your video currently, so I'm not sure if you speak of the weaving system, so I'll go ahead and talk about it a bit here. DPS in ESO is heavily reliant on weaving abilities (There are a ton of resources out there to learn what this is and how to do it properly). In recent years, ZOS has helped alleviate this by introducing mythics that can change your playstyle while keeping similar DPS (Oakensoul restricting you to one-bar while giving great buffs, Velothi-ur giving your attacks a 99% damage reduction while increasing ability damage, and the Empower buff increasing heavy attack damage mixed with off-balance). This is all a great step forward as long as ZOS refuses to change the core of the combat system (Weaving. Which is the main complaint of the players: a lot of players don't like how weaving feels). However, there remains a problem: Understanding how ALL of these buffs, mythics, gear sets, abilities, and passives work in conjunction with each other. To put it in perspective: There are MULTIPLE content creators that literally sell courses on how to create viable builds in ESO because of how complicated/complex it can be. Anyone can slap some stuff together, but only a couple of combinations will get you to 100k+ dps. In that regard, I think ESO is creating a divide. And this is all ONLY talking about PVE. You try talking about PVP and how all of this interacts and affects each other and understanding what your opponent is doing and how it affects them? That's a migraine. I think ESO needs a better system of showing interactions and overlapping abilities/buffs. For instance: Multiple abilities can provide major breach (Caltrops, necromancer's AOE, tank's puncture, and scribing skills). It would be nice if we could see a list of buffs achievable, and then see when abilities are providing the same buff, so we can tell more easily if we're stacking unnecessary abilities). I know I wrote a whole book, and I could continue going on, but I appreciate anyone that's taken the time to read this far. I do love ESO and I find it's combat system very unique, but that's for both better and worse.
This is really helpful thanks for taking the time to type out that stuff. I understand your point about heavy attacking. Some MMOs do have it like New World, but I get your point. ESO isn't setup (at least in end-game) to deal with interactivity, that suggestion for more for overland trash mobs. I've heard of weaving, and am somewhat familiar of it; but I've yet to find it relevant for dungeons or vet dungeons. Perhaps it's more of an end-game concern. I had no idea the gear disparity was that big; I get the set system adds complexity but that's interesting to hear. I want to make another video after I've done 200/300 hours to see if my perspective changes. I will have done a raid by that point, so it'll be interesting to see.
@@FrostbreakYT For sure. Normal raids are mostly relaxed. But the raid that's probably farmed the most is Cloudrest due to it dropping some of the best sets (Particularly Relenquen), which also has a pretty interesting mechanic to get access to more variety of loot. Weaving isn't necessarily a requirement in most accessible content. However, as you get to DLC dungeons and harder content, you'll start to feel your DPS just not getting the job done as much without weaving. On top of this, there's a ton of small mechanics the game doesn't tell you about that gives a reason to keep weaving abilities (The most prominent one being ultimate generation: Every weapon attack gives you a 6 second buff that gives ultimate generation over time. You can watch this in effect if you just attack something once, and you'll see your ultimate continue to go up for a few moments). Which kind of ties back into my earlier point: This game does you no favors at explaining any of this, or making it obvious/apparent. The game still allows you to access most content without it (Mostly due to how easy the story and overland content is), but certain group content will start being near impossible without weaving, like veteran DLC dungeons (Side note: Base game dungeons and DLC dungeons are night and day in terms of difficulty. I'm not sure what ZOS was thinking by putting them into the same queue, but veteran DLC dungeons and veteran base dungeons are completely different classes, and nearly everybody agrees that they should not be in the same 'random dungeon' queue).
Very well said! I'm very sorry you've received some appalling messages during your time, but I'm very glad you didn't let them stop you from enjoying ESO. It truly is a wonderful game and I am so grateful I found your series to rekindle my enjoyment of the game as well!
Thank you Eric! I've received some questionable messages off of this video already, but all good lol. Tamriel is probably my favourite fantasy world/universe so I don't plan on stopping until I've had my fill of checking out all the stories and lore I want!
Not sure your final assessment is entirely fair as you don't seem to have interacted much with the endgame community of the game. Now I am also not in a position to comment on the endgame community as I haven't interacted with much of it, but there is more challenging content in the game requiring teamwork and communication to complete. Newer DLC trial trifectas (meaning no death speed runs completing bosses on hard mode) can be quite difficult, and after that you have score pushing, where you compete to get the highest trial score possible for a given trial.
Been playing for 4 years mainly PVP. You're right about the overland content it's a joke. They should have regular and veteran overland where the Veteran version gives you more of a challenge. It's the same concept for dungeons, might as well do it for overland too.
i love eso, i have close to 1000 hours in it but some little issues stop me from wanting to play it more, mainly how easy the overland and quest content is, as well as super high ping and sometimes the game opens and is stuck at 10 fps when i normally get 100+ :(
