I usually just base my guess on the amount of vendor sales I get. Prior to about a year ago I'd log in and have sales all over the place. Then they dropped sharply and never recovered. Then after subclassing they are almost non-existent, maybe one or two sales a day and mostly junk sales. PS4 Na server.

I understand why also, subclassing is just too much. Not saying it's not a good idea on paper to have all sort of options but the GRIND just turns me off. Really two skill points per? While there are a lot of people that like it, there are a lot more where it was just the last straw. Sadly I signed up for the "season" and after the next release I am out.

L_Nici wrote: »

It has multiple reasons. The first Vengeance Test people were happy, finally something was done for PvP, it was something new, many participated and rightfully gave the feedback it runs great. Yet even in the first Vengeance there was a huge divide between PvP Opinion and PvE Opinion, PvE people think its great, because its so easy to get in and they won't get nuked by skilled people.

The second Test added Weapon lines, huge change and had a golden Pursuit, yet it was already evident after just a few days how the population got lower. It was not new anymore, not exciting it simply had no long term value playing after finishing the Golden Pursuit.

The third test now happens parallel to the biggest PvE Event without a golden pursuit. You could argue thats a reason people don't play it, but there is the point, PvE people do not play it because their event is more important to them, PvP people do not play it, because its just way to dumbed down. If Vengeance had any chance of longterm success people would still play it. PvP people often do not care for the Undaunted Event yet they are also not there. I think that shows very clearly that Vengeances "Success" Story is just short term, something you can do once in a while but not permanently. Those who play PvP regulary leave it be, those who don't leave after a few days, in the end thats just a downward spiral until no one plays PvP anymore.

So pve people like it because otherwise they are killed by...skilled people in a normal mode. But pvp people don't like it because it's dumbed down and now everyone is on even playing field? Is that how I see this argument? So where was that skill coming from? Dare I say...sets and overtuned skills were carrying people?

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

Just so I understand the mental gymnastics you are going through to condone speed running: You are claiming an event where the sole purpose is to run group dungeons is the "absolute worst time" to do the quick quest in that group dungeon?

Not to condone speed running, but to say that there will be a lot of speed running while the event is running, and to expect otherwise is incredibly naive. As another poster said, it's like deciding to putter around and do quests in IC when Mayhem is running and not expecting to get killed over and over again. No mental gymnastics required. Just common sense.

twisttop138 wrote: »

I had a raid lead who very much believed deep down in her soul that while in a dungeon or a trial, if you were to force the lock on a chest instead of picking it, that it would lower the amount and quality of items in the chest for everyone.

I always force locks on dungeon chests and get weapons/jewelry out of the non-simple ones quite often, so that's not true, but I can understand why someone would have that superstition.

SkaiFaith wrote: »

My opinion tends to be that anything that has RNG (crates, leads, plans, mats, motif, gear...) should have a pity system. Such bad RNG shouldn't happen IMO, because it pushes away players.

Absolutely. In the past, when there was still lots left for me to do, the only time I thought of quitting the game was when I'd tried for a lead for the umpteenth time and didn't get it. It's unreasonable to have such pathetically low drop rates when leads are at the end of long dungeons. Just disrespectful of players' time. Then there was the 10th anniversary fiasco when some players got the shinies almost instantly, and others tried thousands of times with no luck. Something that was supposed to be a happy celebration turned into a horrible experience for too many.

It's not fun, and while I know there have to be hamster wheels in MMOs, other games handle this much better than ESO ever has. They definitely need a pity system, or they need to increase the currently ultra-low probabilities of success. ZOS has never walked the grind vs. fun balance very well, something they should revisit if they're interested in maintaining a healthy population.

Soarora wrote: »

It is frustrating that ZOS has taken the stance that more variety is good and everything's possible except they won't actually buff underperforming options to make it feel possible. Sure, it's possible to do vMoL HM with builds from 2018. What is not possible is finding 11 other people, 2 of which are tanks, 2 of which are healers, and at least one to lead... who will let you do vMoL HM with builds from 2018. I straight-up quit trials because I'm over trudging through groups where I feel like a terrible player for not playing exactly how other people want me to (if I had a nickel for every time I was belittled for something small that genuinely made 0 difference to the run...) and I'm not going to fight the uphill battle of not subclassing.

No one wants to do vMoL HM without a 3 pad burn, myself included. That basically required me to run my arcanist. I basically only do trials when I need a lead or there is a endeavor or event going on now though. Basic veteran trials are boring at this point, and the gap to hardmode is night and day, some fights are totally different than vet. But that is kind of the way normals are compared to vet, you don't even have to do mechs in normals usually or actually need a tank sometimes.

In a PUG anything goes as long as you can reasonably fulfill your role and complete the task, and when I run with a random group, I usually do it with my most well-geared characters, so that it doesn't really matter what the other group members have: if there's a fake tank I can slot a taunt so that people don't kite stuff around, if there are slow DDs, I can make up for the damage, and so on. If someone is an experienced player it shows through no matter their specifics, for example, I always know it when someone who is low level/CP is leveling an alt character or a new account, and they are not actually a new player, from the way they cast skills and position themselves. Regarding gatekeeping, I don't really think there's true gatekeeping in the game, at least the way people mean it; if an organized group needs DDs to have a specific set-up, that's not gatekeeping, that's how that group runs things, and players who don't agree can make their own groups instead, so no one is barred from content. I personally dislike the new dps meta that revolve around the arcanist beam a lot, but if we need to do X amount of damage for, say, a specific speed run, then I will bring my arcanist, because that's what the group needs--if I insisted on a build that knowingly underperformed, then I would be the selfish one, because we wouldn't be able to reach our objective. Having said that, if only a HA build is available to a person, that's perfectly fine if they can play it well, because it can still do high numbers, while having sustain and mitigation built in, and it's a smart idea for safer strategies as well. A lot of groups are opting for only HA builds for certain fights, it's also good for PvP, and it's well established in the game by now, so people who are miffed by it, probably have their own issues. You can find good and bad players within any given playstyle pool, but I have noticed this happening a lot: because heavy attacking is a ranged playstyle, and because wearing Oakensoul is very forgiving, I've seen the majority of players standing in AoEs, or in front of the boss, or being really far away from group, maybe because they don't need the buffs and because the incoming damage is not dangerous, but this means that they don't get into the habit of good positioning, which becomes important in later endgame, and for me this is the only downside to the playstyle.

This should never have been introduced without an option to turn it off. Your job as a business is to improve the player experience and do so profitably. Nothing more.

And test features do not belong on a live version of the game.