One Tamriel From a Solo Player Perspective

Treemagnet

I understand the ideal answer is play multiplayer. Understand I DO NOT want to play multiplayer.

Keep in mind these stats are based on a low level (5 or less) character. They get better as you increase level and get better gear.

With the change to level 50/160 stats I have noticed the following:

1) Fights are much more difficult and time consuming. The target hit points have increased to10-20 times what they were before OT, The damage has increased 5 times (1,000 plus the weapon total.) It is diminishing returns as your weapon total increases versus pre OT. It takes 20 minimum attacks (weapon and spells) to kill a creature. Before OT about 5.

2) Your attribute totals reduce with every level up. Even adding level points barely increase that particular stat.

3) You cannot go anywhere you want in Tamriel. You are restricted to the first zones of each faction plus your faction starter island- You can get to the other starter islands by going to the docks in the first zones (Auridon, Stonefalls, etc)

4) Where I could solo 95% of the bosses before, now - depending on my build - maybe 30%.

As a solo player I am aware that I am the square peg trying to fit into the round hole. After all it is a Massively Multiplayer game. Before OT this game was fun. Now it is a grind

My highest level player now is a 46 summoning Sorcerer and I find myself just surviving normal battles and usually die when respawns ambush me.

Please accept this post as informative - based on my experiences. I KNOW the answer is join up with others and I may end up doing that If I want to progress. As of know I will continue to be stubborn and not change

Also, could you answer this question: Does weapon enchantment damage total change between light and heavy attacks?

Mojmir

you know the answer,it's not what you want,but to progress, it's what you need.

gel214thb14_ESO

Treemagnet wrote: »

I understand the ideal answer is play multiplayer. Understand I DO NOT want to play multiplayer.

Keep in mind these stats are based on a low level (5 or less) character. They get better as you increase level and get better gear.

With the change to level 50/160 stats I have noticed the following:

1) Fights are much more difficult and time consuming. The target hit points have increased to10-20 times what they were before OT, The damage has increased 5 times (1,000 plus the weapon total.) It is diminishing returns as your weapon total increases versus pre OT. It takes 20 minimum attacks (weapon and spells) to kill a creature. Before OT about 5.

The scaling feels off to me. I have been repeatedly told that you need all your gear to match your character level or the game adjusts your attributes poorly. In my view this is a bit of a mess and results in chaos as the player tries to figure out why things seem to have gotten so much harder as they have apparently leveled up. This is going to end up in frustrated players if no explanation is given in game notes or on the official forum.

We need an email or something explaining to us how this new scaling system works.

Faulgor

I solo most of the time too, outside of pledges, and I'm doing fine on any level character. My maxed mag sorc even solos World Bosses all the time.

Sure, I noticed too that the content is a bit harder. But I found that adjusting my builds easily made up for it, especially with all the new sets we have available now.

Treemagnet wrote: »

3) You cannot go anywhere you want in Tamriel. You are restricted to the first zones of each faction plus your faction starter island- You can get to the other starter islands by going to the docks in the first zones (Auridon, Stonefalls, etc)

I'm not sure what you mean here. You are not restricted at all, except for Cyrodiil which you can't enter before level 10, and Coldharbour which you need to complete the quest for or access through travel-to-player. Sure, the wayshrines in other areas are not unlocked, but you already discovered the new transportation systems like boats, which can take you anywhere and you can find in any zone. You can go anywhere, but you do have to go.

Treemagnet wrote: »

Also, could you answer this question: Does weapon enchantment damage total change between light and heavy attacks?

Nope, it's alyways the same.

buxuus

I mostly play solo and have seen the issues you mention on my characters...

Treemagnet wrote: »

1) Fights are much more difficult and time consuming. The target hit points have increased to10-20 times what they were before OT, The damage has increased 5 times (1,000 plus the weapon total.) It is diminishing returns as your weapon total increases versus pre OT. It takes 20 minimum attacks (weapon and spells) to kill a creature. Before OT about 5.

I have been finding this to be the case... up to a point.

Now that toons can't out level content, gear and skill ranks play a much more significant role. In my experience it really helps if the toon is using gear that is within 10 levels of their level (preferably within 5 levels, but sometimes gear just doesn't drop).

Using skills that are ranked up from skill lines that are levelled up also helps. It appears that the devs intended for the most used skill lines to level at approximately the same rate as the toon. So if you're using skills from a skill line that has a much lower level than the toon, content will be more difficult.

As for the bosses, my take is that a regular player should be able to take down a "Scary" boss (1*) aka. solo bosses. The "Hard" (2*) and "Deadly" (3*) bosses are targeted towards multiple players and might be soloable for better players.

When using level matched gear and levelled skill lines, questing content becomes much easier and while the occasional "Scary" boss will still get the better of me, that is probably my bad

As a consequence I see One Tamriel (1T) pushing players towards more focused builds, the generalist builds that could be easily created by out levelling content are more difficult to play while levelling. The increased difficulty of combat also means that dodging and blocking are more important than before, as is the use of heavy attacks instead of light attacks.

One thing I've found helpful is to use an analysis add-on such as Combat Metrics to see how your toon's damage/healing output is doing. I've found that this helps identify problem skills

Treemagnet wrote: »

2) Your attribute totals reduce with every level up. Even adding level points barely increase that particular stat.

Since the reported attribute scores reflect the toon's lvl 50/160 state, the initially start off really good and very generalised. With each level gained they reduce and reflect the more specialised focus of the toon's build. This feels a little counter intuitive to begin with. The basic principle now is that to maintain an attribute level, you have to allocate points to that attribute. Again this pushes towards specialisation as the toon levels.

Treemagnet wrote: »

3) You cannot go anywhere you want in Tamriel. You are restricted to the first zones of each faction plus your faction starter island- You can get to the other starter islands by going to the docks in the first zones (Auridon, Stonefalls, etc)

This is in keeping with the Elder Scrolls ethos, your toon cannot fast travel to places it has not discovered yet. As noted by @Faulgor there are surface transport options available that will let you find new places, and each alliance zone has options to travel to the corresponding zone in the other alliances. So you can go anywhere, it just make take a while to get there the first time.

Treemagnet wrote: »

4) Where I could solo 95% of the bosses before, now - depending on my build - maybe 30%.

My finding has been that this depends on the "rank" of the boss.

* "Scary" (1*) bosses are doable solo with an ad hoc build as long as the gear is close to level and the equipped skills are from a well ranked skill line. * "Hard" (2*) bosses require a more focused build to solo, or can be handled with other players * "Deadly" (3*) bosses require multiple players, soloing these typically results in death for casual players

From the solo play perspective, you might want to consider how solo you want to play. My take is that there are currently three categories of play available:

* One player content: most PvE quests and some PvP missions. * Multiplayer content: multiple players required, but suitable for turn up and pitch in. Dolmens, world bosses and public dungeons are the main examples. * Group content: multiple players forming a group with defined roles and working together. For example: group dungeons, trails and some PvP missions

So if you don't want to play in group content, there are options to consider that involve other players. For example: world bosses (3*) are popular targets, as are dolmens and public dungeons. Since they drop loot from the region at your level, they are also a handy way to improve your toon's gear, which helps address some of the difficulty problem. Given that dolmens and public dungeons are part of the daily quests for the Fighters and Mages guilds (and help level those skill lines), I think there is little reason not to do them when soloing. That said the large populations for some of these can make it a little difficult to get a hit in

Another possible option, although a bit lacking in loot, is to consider exploration play. Since finding locations gives exp. and there is always the need to find more Skyshards and Lorebooks, this can be a low combat option to get more skill points. I've found that exploring and adding notes to the map using the Harven's Custom Map Pins add-on while on scouting missions in Cyrodiil, has provided an interesting option for gaining exp. while not killing much.

menedhyn

An excellent and informative post, @buxuus - thank you. I'm on console and so waiting to experience the new 'Tamriel with the stabilisers taken off'. Your feedback is most helpful

Treemagnet

THANKS all for the posts. You have opened my eyes to new avenues available and clarified some issues I had. Thank you buxuus for a very informative post.

ArchMikem

Concerning number 3, yes you can go wherever you want, you just need to ride there. ZOS isnt gonna discover all those wayshrines for you.

lillybit

I'm on consoles so don't have OT yet but my last alt I've just finished levelling almost entirely in DLC's and Cyrodiil. I'm hoping it'll work the same.
I found it hard going to start with and spent the early levels sneaking through Thieves Guild quests and trying to avoid too much combat. But I did find it improved considerably once I'd unlocked some decent skills. Actually, past a certain point combat was actually easier than after I reached level 50 and jumped to cp380ish. The scaling is obviously much better than my not-entirely-figured-out build!