The Elder Scrolls Online

[BigWeather]

It’s massive, but while you will eventually be able to roam the length and breadth of Tamriel freely, while you are levelling you won’t, while you are levelling you are restricted to the “turf” of your character’s chosen alliance and its three races. (Of course you can play alts in the other alliances and see those areas that way).

Also, once you’ve reached level cap, you’re still only introduced to the other two areas in the context of Veteran ranking via the “cadwell’s silver and gold” trope - i.e. having levelled to 50 and beaten the big bad, you’re offered the opportunity to magically see what it would have been like levelling through the other 2 alliances, IOW, it’s roughly the same quests as you would have done if you’d have played an alt in those alliances, except everything (mobs, drops) is scaled to your vet level (plus there are a few unique twists and turns). (For me, this means I’ve shelved my main and am doing alts in the other two alliances first, because I want to experience their stories in “native” form before I go through them silver and gold style. I guess that means I’m ultimately going to stick to one main, because good as the content is, I can’t see myself doing it multiple times for every alt.)

Only then are you, as a fully levelled and ranked character, able to freely roam the length and breadth of Tamriel - but by then, everything is out-levelled.

This may seem disappointing, but tbqh there’s tons of content, easily enough in each alliance area for a single character to level to 50 without having to do every single quest (i.e. if you aren’t completionist and just go where your nose takes you, you’ll be at-level or only one below, while if you are completionist and explore obsessively, you’ll be a bit over-level most of the time, usually a couple of levels over).

That’s an interesting approach – do they restrict you from going to the other two alliance’s areas completely or is it just that there is nothing to do there for your faction and death is likely to follow? Still, I’d be fine with playing three characters to see all the content. Is the world like WoW’s and completely realized – no zone walls, etc. or is it more like say Dark Age of Camelot or LotRO where there are well defined zones with choke-points / zone walls? Also – loading to go into buildings? That is something that really bugs me about the non-MMO Bethesda games. Thanks!

[malkav11]

That’s an interesting approach – do they restrict you from going to the other two alliance’s areas completely or is it just that there is nothing to do there for your faction and death is likely to follow? Still, I’d be fine with playing three characters to see all the content. Is the world like WoW’s and completely realized – no zone walls, etc. or is it more like say Dark Age of Camelot or LotRO where there are well defined zones with choke-points / zone walls? Also – loading to go into buildings? That is something that really bugs me about the non-MMO Bethesda games. Thanks!

Defined zones, zone walls, choke points, and loading to go into buildings are all present in ESO.

[BigWeather]

Defined zones, zone walls, choke points, and loading to go into buildings are all present in ESO.

Ugh. Thanks for the information – I’m thinking I may have to do some more research to make sure that’s not a deal breaker for me. I just really enjoy worlds that are wide open.

[KevinC]

Do light/heavy attacks get scaled on magicka/stamina? I was under the impression that they only scaled to weapon damage. I have no real idea though.

Half the sites/posts I see say that stamina boosts light/heavy attack damage, the other half say they do not. I just googled this again today and it’s still inconclusive. I’m just going to have to test it myself. :)

[Oghier]

Ugh. Thanks for the information – I’m thinking I may have to do some more research to make sure that’s not a deal breaker for me. I just really enjoy worlds that are wide open.

It becomes wide open ;) You adventure in the other faction areas after 50+, in a higher level version of the same content.

[gurugeorge]

Ugh. Thanks for the information – I’m thinking I may have to do some more research to make sure that’s not a deal breaker for me. I just really enjoy worlds that are wide open.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much, your alliance zones are huge and eminently wander-aroundable-in, with tons to explore and do; they aren’t pokey, dingy little zones, they’re big and worldey, dense with stuff.

I mean, Telon it ain’t, but it’s still more virtual-worldey in spirit and feel than most MMOs around today.

[KevinC]

Half the sites/posts I see say that stamina boosts light/heavy attack damage, the other half say they do not. I just googled this again today and it’s still inconclusive. I’m just going to have to test it myself. :)

Just in case anyone was interested, I did test this out. I had a L12 nightblade with a standard maple bow and no points invested in stamina. I found an area with L10 beetles and got to work. I killed 2 different beetles and did 147 damage per light attack. I then invested my 12 stat points into Stamina and attacked another L10 beetle in the same area and was doing 160+ damage per light attack.

[Hechicera]

Just in case anyone was interested, I did test this out. I had a L12 nightblade with a standard maple bow and no points invested in stamina. I found an area with L10 beetles and got to work. I killed 2 different beetles and did 147 damage per light attack. I then invested my 12 stat points into Stamina and attacked another L10 beetle in the same area and was doing 160+ damage per light attack.

I would expect majicka though for resto & destro staves. I should see if any of mine have unspent points to verify.

[KevinC]

I would expect majicka though for resto & destro staves. I should see if any of mine have unspent points to verify.

I hope so! Please let me know if you get a chance to test it, I should have testing that (vs Stamina) when I was trying out the bow, but didn’t think of it at the time.

[KevinC]

Okay, so I’ve tested both Stamina and Magicka and the effect they have on weapon damage for staves and all other weapons. Many sites and the majority of players I’ve spoken to will state emphatically that Stamina and Magicka only increase the damage of their associated weapons’ abilities, not light/heavy attack damage, or that only Stamina is tied to weapon damage (even staves). However, doing some testing, both of these claims are incorrect.

-Stamina increases abilities as well as light/heavy attack damage for all weapons except for staves. Magicka has no effect, as one might imagine.
-Magicka increases abilities as well as light/heavy attack damage for all stave weapons. Stamina has no effect.

To test this, I found a location with a VR1 wolf spawned by itself. I went and reset all my stats, then returned and attacked it with light attacks until it died. I did exactly 536 damage for every non-crit attack with my fire staff. I then waited for this same wolf to spawn twice more, to insure that the number stayed stable and wasn’t being affected by random resists on mobs or anything like that. The damage stayed consistent at 536 per attack.

I then put 5 points into stamina and tried again. The damage stayed consistent at 536. I then bumped my magicka, and I was consistently hitting the wolf for 580+ per attack.

So, I’m a few thousand gold poorer but now I’m a bit wiser. Having so much conflicting information regarding how stats impact weapons was driving me absolutely bonkers. Perhaps no one else cares, but I thought I’d post my findings just in case some poor sod in my same situation turns it up on Google. :)

[Redfive]

Thanks for doing that leg work. Sometimes it’s difficult to find reliable / current info. on the game.

[Vic_Davis]

Another nice thing about staves is that your heavy attacks will restore magicka. Healing staff with the correct passives selected the most, then lightning and then fire and frost. I run 2nd bar with restro staff so if I ever run low on magaicka in a big furball I can start channeling heavy attacks and get my magicka back to get back into the fight.

[SlainteMhath]

My gaming time of late has been very limited, but I’m loving ESO so much that I’ve spent every precious second of that limited time the past two weeks playing just this game. I really like how the crafting is almost a natural part of the gameplay. Every where I go while questing and exploring there are materials (though I wish the maple logs were easier to spot!) and when I finally do get back to town I can happily research, deconstruct and craft for a few minutes and see marked progress in my crafting levels. Instead of crafting being some arduous chore I have to devote entire play sessions to it becomes something I just take care of for a few minutes in town, like selling loot or repairing my equipment.

I don’t suppose there is any way to pull a glyph back off an enchanted piece of equipment is there? Like if I find a sword with a fire damage enchantment I can’t somehow deconstruct the sword and gain the glyph to use on something else, correct?

I also really enjoy how much there is to do (at least thus far) in the world. I finally finished all the tasks and exploration in Stros M’kai and the Orc island you go to afterwards (if you’re part of the Covenant), and am now back in Daggerfall. I started a quest for the Fighter’s Guild, and while doing that one ran into some villagers who had been chased from their homes by crazed spriggans and imps, so I checked that out, which led to a long line of quests involving the Wyrd witches, which I am still doing, only in the meantime I ran into someone from the Mage’s Guild while learning crafting skills, did a quest for that guild to explore some ruins for books, and am now traveling to the Mad God’s realm on a quest for a long dead archmage. My Tamriel To-Do list just keeps getting longer! It is so awesome that everything is fully voice acted and that things seem to flow together so well, it’s very immersive and I find myself far more interested in the quests than I would be if a generic NPC just gave me a wall of text about finding some books in a bandit cave and bringing them back.

FORMER BETA TESTERS : If you were in on the ESO beta way back when but never bought the actual game, you can PLAY FOR FREE from April 16th-April 20th.

[KevinC]

Every where I go while questing and exploring there are materials (though I wish the maple logs were easier to spot!)

Hah! Try finding sufficient quantities of Spidersilk without the relevant Keen Eye skill. :)

[Gordon_Bleu]

FORMER BETA TESTERS : If you were in on the ESO beta way back when but never bought the actual game, you can PLAY FOR FREE from April 16th-April 20th.

Kinda lame. I’d prefer a 50% discount on the game. Free weekend? Phfft!

[SlainteMhath]

Kinda lame. I’d prefer a 50% discount on the game. Free weekend? Phfft!

You can get a 33%-50% discount on the $60 retail price with a little legwork. For example, GreenManGaming has ESO Unlimited in their VIP promotion right now for around $48, and if you use the 22% off promo code they have it brings it down to around $40 total (33% off). Some folks have claimed to have spotted retail copies of the pre-Unlimited ESO box in stores for cheap, and those same pre-Unlimited retail copies pop up on Ebay for $30-$40 sometimes (I bought mine 2 weeks ago for $32 shipped off Ebay, sealed retail Wal-Mart special edition box).

So look at the free weekend as try-before-you-buy, and if you decide it’s improved enough since beta to make you want to continue playing, there are discounts out there.

[Hechicera]

Okay, so I’ve tested both Stamina and Magicka and the effect they have on weapon damage …

Well, I for one say thanks! As suspected, but now with proof. Having persistent Patch Manifest Errors here and too many family crises to debug more just now.

[glimjack]

You can get a 33%-50% discount on the $60 retail price with a little legwork. For example, GreenManGaming has ESO Unlimited in their VIP promotion right now for around $48, and if you use the 22% off promo code they have it brings it down to around $40 total (33% off).

I don’t think you can combine VIP pricing and the promo code – or at least, I was unable to.

[rei]

Well, I for one say thanks! As suspected, but now with proof. Having persistent Patch Manifest Errors here and too many family crises to debug more just now.

yeah i get 4 of these immediately upon redownloading and reinstalling the 40gb on a new install. tried twice in a clean win7 vm.

get it intermittently on loadup of launcher from then on. not going to bother going back in i guess.

to paraphrase adam jensen from deus ex: “I didn’t ask for this.”

[SlainteMhath]

Having persistent Patch Manifest Errors here and too many family crises to debug more just now.

I’ve been seeing Patch Manifest Errors frequently since the last patch earlier this week. They don’t seem to inhibit play, but they pop up when I quit a play session. Last night I walked away from the PC for a few minutes and when I came back the game was crashed and Patch Manifest Error dialog was on the screen. I think they broke something this last update. I had it do a repair and file check the first time I saw the error, but it’s obviously still saying it as of last night.