The Elder Scrolls Online Catch-All

Is there an active GWJ guild for ESO? I'm just getting into it and would love to join in if there is something active. Not seeing anything on the guilds sticky.

Stryker wrote:

Is there an active GWJ guild for ESO? I'm just getting into it and would love to join in if there is something active. Not seeing anything on the guilds sticky.

Not sure anyone is super active. Bunch of us dabble from time to time.

I'm at kind of a lull in my gaming life, poking around a bunch of different options with no big releases appealing to me in the next couple of months, and I was thinking about how much fun I had playing through the main campaign in ESO via Game Pass last summer and how maybe I should look into the expansions. How does buying an expansion work?

When you buy one expansion, does it include any of the previous expansions, or does each need to be purchased separately? If I buy, say, the Summerset expansion, would I be missing out on stuff from the earlier Morrowind expansion? Is it better to buy the most recent expansion, maybe even wait a few weeks for Elsweyr, or if I'm not planning to be engaged with the broader community, might I have just as much fun getting the first expansion?

I see ESO Morrowind is on Amazon right now for $12, so I'm leaning heavily towards picking that one up, but if there are other ways to buy that might include multiple expansions and be more cost effective, I'd think about that...

Variety of options, beware of some of the lower priced offerings as they are purely a digital upgrade code for that particular part of DLC.

The retail and digital pre-order full versions of each new chapter (so Elsweyr being the next in June) typically include all prior chapters (note this is the chapters aka the annual expansions, Morrowind, Summerset, Elsweyr, not the intervening quarterly dungeon and story DLCs).

Each of the DLCs and chapters can be purchased in-game, with all but the latest purchase-able with in-game gold as well as cash shop currency.

The alternative is grabbing the base game and going the subscription route (ESO+) which gives you access to all DLC (while you subscribe), as well as things like an xp bonus, double the bank space and a bottomless crafting bag for materials so they don't take bank/inventory space.

So, and before anyone points it out, yes I am completely biased being someone who works on it, right now I would recommend one of two routes for you:

- If you think you are likely to be very invested, the full digital pre-order for Elsweyr is a solid way to catch up on all the prior chapters for a single fixed price.

- If you are interested in seeing more, but not sure how deep you will dive (especially if you still have Game Pass - I'm assuming from your comments you're looking at XB1 here), it might be better to subscribe to ESO+ (and then cancel after a month if need be) to get a better feel for all of it.

I should also mention that all of the chapters are designed to be self contained story-wise, so playing Elsweyr without having played Morrowind or Summerset is fine and vice versa; their stories do not build on top of each other. There may be recurring characters in some chapters, who may or may not note previous adventures you have had together. For Elsweyr in particular, having completed the base game's main quest will give you a better appreciation of one of the main characters you will encounter/work with.

Interesting, an active ESO+ sub gets you access to the expansions? Sometime last year I had a trial to ESO+ but hadn't realized that, I wish I'd checked out the expansions at the time. As it is, with Amazon offering Morrowind for $12 via Prime that will arrive at my door tomorrow, I'm going to try that way. Slightly tempting seeing I could buy Elsewyr and get all the expansions, but even if that's a good value for a full price game, I think I'm better off paying $12 and having the option to buy the other expansions (and/or ESO+) if, after completing Morrowind, I decide I want more.

Are characters and progression still platform-locked? I can't bring my PS4 character and items to PC or Xbox, right?

mrlogical wrote:

Interesting, an active ESO+ sub gets you access to the expansions?

No. ESO+ gets you the DLC, which is different (confusing, but here we are) than the chapters. The Chapters are the expansions (Morrowind, Summerset and the Upcoming Elsweyr). DLC are things like the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines, Orsinium (Orc questline), Murkmire (Argonian questline), etc.

ShynDarkly has the best advice (this coming from someone who plays on both Xbox and PC), it depends on how much you think you will play. For our situation, my wife and I got into the game during a free weekend about a year ago. We loved it, so we bought Morrowind (x2) and have been playing a ton of that. I did not buy Summerset as we have plenty to do to keep us busy.

Recently I decided I wanted to give it a go on PC (thanks to another free weekend) and really liked it a LOT better there. Since I knew I would play a lot, I went ahead and bought the full-priced Elsweyr pre-order, as that gave me the base game, Morrowind, Summerset and Elsweyr (when it comes out).

If I am not mistaken, Morrowind became available as DLC some time after Summerset came out, although I don't know if it's included in ESO+.

Finally, I did not know that you could buy any DLC with in game gold. I have never seen that option, would love to know if that's possible, since we only have one ESO+ sub and I would be happy to get the DLC for my wife through in game means.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Are characters and progression still platform-locked? I can't bring my PS4 character and items to PC or Xbox, right?

Unfortunately, yes.

Regarding the ESO+ access to chapters, yes it is a little confusing, easiest answer is the FAQ on the website (general concept being 'older' chapters get rolled into ESO+ after new chapters come out).

Abu5217 wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Are characters and progression still platform-locked? I can't bring my PS4 character and items to PC or Xbox, right?

Unfortunately, yes.

Bummer. I keep wanting to pick it back up, especially with it being included with Xbox Game Pass, but I have a couple dozen hours of progress on character on PS4 who I also spent a fair amount of coins on. I want to play on the hardware I prefer, but I don't want to start over from scratch, either.

As with many things in the area of cross-play and bouncing content/playtime back and forth between different platforms, there's a ton of stuff we can do from a technical standpoint (and do internally within the studio), but are gated by what first parties are willing to allow us to offer to the player base at large.

I totally understand. I know that it took tremendous effort for Epic Games to get Sony to budge and allow cross-play with mother-flippin' Fortnite, and even there, I think purchases might still be platform-locked. I don't expect the barriers to be on your side of things so much as with the various platform holders. I'll just keep dreaming of a future where online games are all cross-play and this seems like a weird anachronism.

I kinda figured that was the issue with moving/having characters on multiple platforms. Sadly, Destiny did it so well BITD (I played the same characters on XB360 and XB1 with absolutely no issues, very seamless) that I know it's possible. Sad that platform holders dictate where we play, although I understand it.

Abu5217 wrote:

(I played the same characters on XB360 and XB1 with absolutely no issues, very seamless)

I assume that it's a lot easier to move vertically within the same ecosystem (360 to XBO or PS3 to PS4) than to move laterally. If you move vertically, the platform holder still gets your money from future play; if you move laterally, you're effectively jumping ship for the competition.

I haven't looked at Microsoft's Xbox financials in awhile, but looking at Sony's last investor release, the PlayStation division makes most of its money through the sale of digital goods by a fairly significant margin. Since their digital to physical sales ratio is still 1:3 (one digital to each three physical), you can see that most of the digital goods they're selling are add-ons and in-game currency. They have a vested interest in not allowing you to buy those things elsewhere or take your business elsewhere.

mrlogical wrote:

Interesting, an active ESO+ sub gets you access to the expansions? Sometime last year I had a trial to ESO+ but hadn't realized that, I wish I'd checked out the expansions at the time. As it is, with Amazon offering Morrowind for $12 via Prime that will arrive at my door tomorrow, I'm going to try that way. Slightly tempting seeing I could buy Elsewyr and get all the expansions, but even if that's a good value for a full price game, I think I'm better off paying $12 and having the option to buy the other expansions (and/or ESO+) if, after completing Morrowind, I decide I want more.

The soundtrack alone from Morrowind is worth 12$ IMO. The story is also fun to go through.

It was a little hard to jump back in to this after a year away and get my bearings and figure out how to start the Morrowind content, but I've started rolling in it a little bit.

I've been interested to find the combat to be a touch more challenging than where I'd left off--in playing through a little mini-dungeon last night (a side quest involving a Khajit who may or may not be making skooma), I was on the verge of dying a bunch of times, but managed to heal myself promptly enough to survive. But I also realize I have something like 10 unspent skill points, so I gather I should start doing something with those points, but I am really unsure on how to spec out my character. I'm using a restoration staff but all of its skills seem to be focused on healing, which doesn't seem that necessary right now. Maybe I should just start playing with different weapons and develop those skills instead? Is there a good website for ESO character builds, or is that not the sort of thing I need to worry about playing with a level 30 character and not having any interest in PVP?

Depends if you want really focused late-game character builds, or PVP Builds etc... there tend not to be detailed build guides for 'General PvE player' because ultimately, anything is workable in this game.

If you do go down the route of a specific build (even one you craft yourself). by the time you respec (forced or otherwise) and *only* pick the skills and morphs you want, you'll have about 40+ skill points left over unused... at least, that's my situation, also having not played in about a year.

I think I took inspiration from Alcast for my main character build (~300CP) - https://alcasthq.com/eso-pve-builds/

there is also Dottz - https://dottzgaming.com/category/build/

and probably a bunch of info on the ESO Skills Factory - https://www.eso-skillfactory.com/en/...

I'd play around with different weapons, stick points in this and that to see what you enjoy using, what works for your playstyle etc. a full character respec isn't *that* expensive, so you really can't go wrong. There are some races/classes that lend themselves better to a character type (DPS, Heals, Tank, etc), but anyone can be anything, especially if you're not looking to min/max.

The trouble I had levelling a healer was trying to play solo in PvE... where damage isn't your strong point, and there's nobody really to heal

Thanks for the info--sounds like I should just screw around with different options and see what's fun and not worry about it. Hard not to worry I'm doing something wrong, but on further reflection I think I will have a worse time with the game if I'm trying to minmax things.

mrlogical wrote:

Thanks for the info--sounds like I should just screw around with different options and see what's fun and not worry about it. Hard not to worry I'm doing something wrong, but on further reflection I think I will have a worse time with the game if I'm trying to minmax things.

Big thing to remember is to not split your resources. You want to go all in with Magic or Stamina on your builds. It's exceptionally inefficient if you try and split them.

Also, make sure your armor and weapons are appropriately leveled.

mrlogical wrote:

Thanks for the info--sounds like I should just screw around with different options and see what's fun and not worry about it. Hard not to worry I'm doing something wrong, but on further reflection I think I will have a worse time with the game if I'm trying to minmax things.

If you are anything like me, this is 100% true.

Also if you are anything like me, you will still find it frustratingly difficult to remember to just have fun, you can always respec.

While what Ran says is completely true for an optimal build, if you find yourself dying a lot soloing, feel free to throw up to 25% of one of those stats into health. It will drop your DPS, but you may find it gives you a little more time to heal and recover on multi-pulls, especially if you're still getting back used to the mechanics and flow of things. For money, remember to do your writs each day, and if you need access to a bunch of crafting stations/bank/merchant in one spot, feel free to throw @shyndarkly a friend request and I'll stick you on my housing list; you can travel there from anywhere.

ShynDarkly wrote:

While what Ran says is completely true for an optimal build, if you find yourself dying a lot soloing, feel free to throw up to 25% of one of those stats into health.

I was primarily talking skills, but yea do health as you see warranted and focus as you see fit. Most skills will branch off to either a stamina or a magicka version. You need to stick to one side or the other. Also both sides have builds that incorporate either the healing staff or self heal skills.

This works for classes you wouldn't normally think of as well. One of my favorite builds is a magicka based nightblade along with a magicka dragon knight. I also had a stamina based warden.

I've yet to try the necro so guess we'll see at some point how that goes. I also recommend the alcasthq.com site for builds.

Created a new necro last night and played through the intro Elsweyr area. I’m very impressed so far - the new zones remind me of an Indiana Jones movie and it’s a lot of fun fighting wandering dragons. I haven’t played the necro enough yet but it might just be my new main.

jdzappa wrote:

Created a new necro last night and played through the intro Elsweyr area. I’m very impressed so far - the new zones remind me of an Indiana Jones movie and it’s a lot of fun fighting wandering dragons. I haven’t played the necro enough yet but it might just be my new main.

So is it live or still on the PTR?

It went live yesterday.

ruhk wrote:

It went live yesterday.

If you preordered on PC. I think the launch date for consoles is still in June.

May be the SLOWWEESSTTT download patching system ever..... Im playing on PC - havent fired it up in ages. Necromancer has me interested, I may play in May of 2020 at this rate.

Yeah, patching performance if you're not up to date is not one of its strengths :/

I briefly logged in last night and noticed a message about rewards that will be earnable if I kill a monster at some point on Sunday around the time of the Bethesda press conference. From their website:

To earn your rewards for PC/Mac, simply watch the stream while logged in to your linked Twitch account. Reward delivery starts the morning of June 10, and continues for several hours after that.

If you are on console, you can earn your rewards by logging into the game on Sunday, June 9, between 8:00PM BST and 4:00AM BST (Monday, June 10) and killing a single monster. You will receive your rewards by June 19.

(which translates to Sunday between 3PM ET and 11PM ET)

I think you get a mount and a crate...