Category: The Elder Scrolls Online

Is it Friday already? Huh. This launch week has gone by fast, which I guess is a good sign for ZeniMaxsince time flies when you’re having fun.

My fifth day in Elder Scrolls Online was a bit more subdued than the previous four. I’m currently floating around Glenumbra between levels 12 and 13, waiting on my healer and tanker friends to catch up so that we can run Spindleclutch, also known as ESO’s first proper Daggerfall Covenant PvE dungeon. There are numerous public crypts available for exploration and pillage prior, but Spindleclutch is the first big-boy boss-based four-man.

But I didn’t feel like pugging it last night, so instead I started crafting.

Tradeskills

For whatever reason I had been accumulating a ton of raw jute resources while adventuring throughout Glenumbra. I figured it only made sense to dispose of these and learn something about ESO’s Clothing skill line in the process.

First off, Clothing is one of six dedicated crafting skills. Like your class ability lines, your weapon and armor lines, and your guild and PvP lines, it levels up as you use it. There is no restriction on the number of crafting lines you can advance. There is, however, a maximum skill point cap, so if you specialize in Clothing, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Alchemy, Provisioning, and Woodworking, you probably won’t have enough left over to kick ass on the battlefield.

Harvesting does not have its own dedicated skill line. Anyone and everyone can harvest nodes in the wild, as all avatars come pre-equipped with the appropriate tools (aside from fishing bait, which you can loot from containers).

Thus far I’m finding the crafting UI and the mechanic itself to be both straightforward and fun. All you need do is collect the appropriate amount of raw materials and activate the appropriate crafting station. For this example, jute makes level 1 to 15 light armor, whereas rawhide, which I had also collected in abundance, makes 1 to 15 medium. Crafting stations are found in large cities and some smaller quest hubs, and ZeniMax has included that nifty little auto camera angle readjustment thing from Skyrimwhere you can see your avatar plying his trade after you activate the station.

Making a medium armor helmet for my level 10ish character was as easy as refining the raw jute (a single key press that handles the material in stacks of 10). Refining is the first tab along the top edge of your crafting menu, and it’s followed by creation, deconstruction, improvement, and research, all on their own tabs.

Moving over to the creation tab, you can arrow your way through all of your known recipes (some of which you start with and some of which you learn by finding/reading them while exploring). Just underneath that pane, there’s a material pane that allows you to add or subtract raw materials from whatever you’re crafting, which in my case boosted my helmet from a newbsauce item to a slightly less newbsauce level 10 item. The pane underneath that determines what racial style your finished armor piece will sport (you can purchase the required material addition from a nearby crafting vendor; in my case I had the starmetal necessary to get my preferred Redguard look).

You can also add a trait gem in the final pane if you’d like, but as I was fresh out of those, I went ahead with my vanilla medium armor helmet. Pressing R did the job, and voila! I equipped my spiffy new helm that blew the stat socks off the looted piece I’d been running with for a few levels.

I can’t speak for endgame yet, but at the early levels, ESO’s crafting is surprisingly deep for a themepark title. It’s also invaluable even though it’s optional. I made myself a full set of medium armor that greatly improved my survivability just by using the mats I’d been randomly collecting. There’s a lot more to ESO’scrafting minigame, too, as I haven’t even gotten into improvements and time-based research as of this writing.

Customer service

Aside from crafting, I also had my first experience with ESO’s customer service apparatus. It’s been a mixed bag so far, with the positives being that ZeniMax actually responded to my ticket inside of 12 hours and the negatives being that two days later the CS has yet to resolve it.

I can’t ding ZeniMax too much for the latter because I’m sure that a launch-week MMO of ESO’s popularity is absolutely swamped with complaints. But it is somewhat vexing because the longer it takes for my situation to be handled, the longer I have to put off joining a guild and being social outside of my real-life friend circle.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I had no idea that my account login name would be publicly visible when I made it. While several commenters have since pointed out that you can in fact set yourself as “offline” if you want to get away from your guildies for some solo play, one half of your authentication pair is still viewable to anyone in your social circle, whether you appear offline or not.

Since it’s unlikely that ZeniMax will admit its mistake here and stop handing out players’ personal information, I decided that I’d better petition to change my login name to something both more secure and less likely to broadcast my real-world identity to half of Tamriel.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, I’m having much more fun in ESO than I expected. A couple of years ago I personally wrote the game off as yet another themepark made by yet another single-player game developer attempting to cash a big fat recurring revenue check courtesy of an IP with a massive built-in fanbase.

ESO is very much a themepark, but it’s one that places a premium on exploration and out-of-the-box progression. It’s also one that’s been built with a high level of craftsmanship, which makes it worth playing for a while. I still have some long-term questions, but right now I’m happy to be eating a bit of crow and exploring Tamriel’s latest iteration.

With all that said, it’s time to wrap up this launch week diary. Massively doesn’t do review scores, of course, because frankly how could we when it takes months if not years to competently review an MMORPG. In lieu of that, here’s a bullet point summary of my personal likes and dislikes from ESO’s 1 to 15 Daggerfall Covenant experience.

The good

• Vast, immersive world design, varied topography
• Flexible skill-based progression, large number of possible builds
• Immersive UI
• Fun (and useful) crafting
• Lots of 1 – 15 PvE quest content
• Access to large-scale PvP at level 10, siege weapons
• Gameplay incentives/rewards for exploring
• Lore, Elder Scrolls story, books, etc.
• Franchise staples like lockpicking, container looting
• Subscription model (yes, I still prefer one price for everything)

The bad

• Forced public account login
• Clunky combat/movement animations
• Quickslot interface is awkward with a keyboard/mouse
• Overcrowded public dungeons
• Quest bugs

For our complete ESO launch week diary series, see the links below.

Source from:http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/04/04/massivelys-elder-scrolls-online-launch-diary-day-five-the-e/

Deshaan is a South-Eastern region of the Ebonheart Pact faction, suitable for players level 17-23. In this zone players can obtain six treasure maps and additional Deshaan CE Treasure Map, which is available as bonus only to those that pre-purchased the CE edition of the game. Don’t forger to take your map from the bank before starting the treasure hunt, or digging spot will not be visible to you without corresponding map in your inventory.

• Western part of Deshaan, next to Muth Gnarr Hills Wayshrine
• You’ll find the dig spot just a few steps west of Muth Gnarr Hills Wayshrine

Screenshot Walkthrough

• Western part of Deshaan
• From Obsidian Gorge Wayshrine head west towards the lake Hlaalu. When you arrive at the stone bridge, turn left,a nd you will spot dirt mound between two huge trees.

Screenshot Walkthrough

• Nort part of the map
• From Mzithumz Wayshrine head east. Dirt mound location is in a small passage between rocks.

Screenshot Walkthrough

• Southeastern part of Deshaan
• Use Silent Mire Wayshrine and go west until you get close to the entrance to Mabrigash Burial Circle. When you cross the bridge, turn right and go up a small hill.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Deshaan Treasure Map V

• Southeastern Deshaan
• Slightly to the west of Smuggler’s Slip, next to huge rocks.

Screenshot Walkthrough

• Southeastern Deshaan
• On a small island, between a rock and tree.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Deshaan CE Treasure Map

• Central Deshaan, south of Mournhold and its wayshrine.
• Go south of Mournhold Wayshrine until you reach the waterfall. Looking south from the waterfall you should see the scene from the TM sketch

Source from:http://teso.mmorpg-life.com/deshaan-treasure-map-locations-guide/

Elder Scrolls Online is a very traditional MMO, so those of you out there who don’t play them regularly may have some trouble acclimating initially. But like most games, if you persevere and understand the fundamentals, everything will come in time.

Before you even create a character, you should probably understand the basics of the game and how classes work. Though other MMOs rely heavily on the “holy trinity” of tank, damage-dealer, and healer, in ESO, every class is designed to have some competence in anything you want. It’s a bit of a different spin on the traditional class system that most MMO players are used to.

At first, you can select between four classes — Dragon Knight, Sorcerer, Nightblade, and Templar. As a general rule, these classes are similar to those in other games respectively — warrior, mage, thief, and priest. But again, ESO doesn’t prescribe to the typical setup, so all four classes can tank, heal, or do damage. The reason this is possible is due to the dynamic weapon and armor experience system, as well as guild and faction skill trees that unlock new adaptive abilities. For instance, if you’re a Dragonknight, you’re generally adept at hand-to-hand combat, but if you want to heal, you can buy and equip a healing staff and gain access to a number of powers that can restore health to you and your party. You’re also free to equip light, medium, or heavy armor and put points into skills that complement your playstyle. Take a few minutes to scan down the entire line to see what suits you best.

To further customize your character you’ll also have access to the Fighter’s Guild tree, as well as the Mage’s guild, and a few other factions — you can gain access to these by dropping by both guilds in your starting town and grabbing the quests. If you’re a Templar or Sorcerer you can put some points into the Fighter’s guild tree to increase your physical damage, or vice-versa for the Dragon Knight and Nightblade in the Mage tree. Practically everything is viable for leveling, and there isn’t any real “wrong answer,” unless you’re putting tons of points into powers that you never use.

As a rule, it doesn’t matter what race you pick, but all of them have special racial abilities that complement a certain playstyle — like extra power with two-handed weapons, or swords and shields, for instance. While it’s not required to match your race up with your style to succeed, if you’re a min-maxer and a competitive player you should think hard before pulling the trigger.

If you’ve pre-ordered the game or picked up the Collector’s Edition you’ll be able to choose your faction — otherwise it is dictated by your starting race. The factions basically just dictate your questline and the area you start off in, with the Ebonheart Pact sending you into Morrowind, and the Aldmeri Dominion and Daggerfall factions sending you into the Summerset Isles and High Rock. They’re generally all the same, and you should pick whatever starting area resonates with you if you’re a fan of the series — having said that, I’ve found that Daggerfall has some of the most straight-forward quests.

If you have the Imperial Edition you can head to the stables right away and pick up your first mount (a horse) for one gold. Open up your map and look for the white horse icon once you’ve completed the opening area. Note that every player can just buy a mount whenever they want once they have the scratch, and horses can be fed roughly every 24 hours to increase their stats, such as speed or resilience. Maybe horse armor will be an option down the line!

Now, you’re going to want to do the standard operating procedure for every MMO — grab every single quest you can find. In Elder Scrolls Online quest XP is massive, and grinding out dungeons or random mobs isn’t nearly as effective as completing the main storyline or sidequests. To make sure you’re always scanning for new quests, look up at the compass at the top of the screen and pay attention to black arrows — especially glowing ones. Those indicate new quests, and you should head for those immediately.

When leveling, you’ll have access to three skillsets based on your class, as well as your weapon skill tree, and faction sets as you unlock them. Cycle through all the skills, decide which ones are the most important to you, and equip at least one from each of those trees while leveling. Even if you don’t use an early skill in a tree, the mere fact that you have it on your hotbar helps that entire tree level up faster, which unlocks higher level abilities. You don’t need to bust out the graph paper, but planning ahead helps.

Sometimes you’ll have to fight very tough enemies on your own, and occasionally they’ll beat you into a pulp. Don’t just keep rushing in with the same strategy — experiment with different builds and abilities, and try to equip an ultimate ability to supplement single target damage. You can also equip your strongest abilities that use mana and stamina, rush it, spam both meters, then use a recovery potion to renew your most precious resource. Farming enemies to power up your ultimate ability to use in a boss fight is also key to bursting your way to success. Speaking of ultimates, always make sure to grab one as soon as you can early-game, as it can help you out of a jam more than anything else in the game.

When you hit level 10 you’ll be able to PVP, which takes place entirely in the land of Cyrodiil — which some of you may remember from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. To jump into the constant tug of war between all three factions, open up the menu and select the battlegrounds option, select a “campaign” (a server, basically, which all have different outcomes and results), and queue up. After a short period of time you’ll teleport to the battle, at which point you should grab every quest in sight and team up with fellow players to complete them. Do this periodically if you have trouble leveling, but don’t count on it as a primary means of working your way up the level ranks.

Once you’ve gotten accustomed to the leveling process, you’ll start to soar past 10, which means you’re ready for your first dungeon (instance). As soon as you hit level 11,three instances will pop up on your group finder tool, which allows you to select your role and match yourself with another party of players. There are three dungeons that unlock at this early stage — Banished Cells, Fungal Grotto, and Spindleclutch. Make sure to do each dungeon at least once, because each one has its own questline that gives a massive amount of experience. You can grab the quest while inside the dungeon for the first time, and you can teleport to players by opening the party menu, right clicking a member, and selecting “teleport to player.” Note that although you can technically use the matchmaking tool at 11, many parties or group leaders might prefer you to be at least level 12, even though you could easily do them at 11 — go figure. If you’re looking to practice your dungeon-running skills I recommend Banished Cells, as it’s the easiest one. Basically all you need to remember is to play your role, stay out of fire on the ground, burst damage and kill healer enemies first, and run out of red circles when boss characters charge up a power.

After you’ve gotten your feet wet in the game’s dungeons, continue questing and repeating the process, queuing up for instances when they unlock in your finder tool. Repeat that sequence of events until you’re level 50, at which point you’ll be ready for endgame Veteran content. Elder Scrolls Online has a longer leveling process than some other major MMOs on the market, but as long as you aim to double-check your achievement list to make sure you’ve done every quest in an area, you shouldn’t have too much trouble. If you’re craving functionality that doesn’t come standard with the game, note that Elder Scrolls Online supports mods and add-ons, which can be grabbed from various MMO sites like eso-gold.com.

Source from:http://www.joystiq.com/2014/04/04/stiq-tips-the-elder-scrolls-online-starter-guide/