It's a doomer take, but the chances are 0 for any of these changes made in the past 6 months being reverted. No changes have ever been reverted no matter how damaging they are to the game. The most that you can hope for is the slim chance that maybe, just maybe, it's overhauled within the next 2-3 years, but by then, more damaging changes will be stacked on top of what's already there, and anybody who had loved the game would already move on. It's like watching a loved one slowly die from cancer. You just have to accept it and make most of the time you still have left with them.

Yes, subclassing added more variety to the lower end, allowing players to make a build tuned to them and their character. This isn't a bad thing at all. Nobody who dislikes subclassing thinks it is. In a perfect world, subclassing would've been implemented in a way that gave everything a roleplayer could wish for while making it properly balanced so it didn't cause major damage in the mid and high end. But it wasn't, and any long term player knows it's not going to improve. People can continue believing that the game is fine just because they see John Skyrims walk around that they will never interact with, but as soon as they open up the group finder, queue for a DLC dungeon, queue for a BG, or open up the campaign list, they will start to wonder why everything is empty. It's because everyone who played this game as a MMO left for something better.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I also think Ghish's health is lower once he's back on the other side of the wall where he's supposed to be.

Eastern Ghish has half the health. 10M instead of 20M. However, the fight is harder.
At least when I did it today, once the wall mechanic started at around 75%, it ran for the rest of the fight. Wall after wall after wall after wall after wall after ...

I hope that's a bug. Because we could barely damage him, since there's no place to avoid the wall so you have to get the bubble every time. I got a sticky DOT on Ghish about once every 2 walls, and that eventually killed him, but I was exhausted by the end.

I ran this Fortress event once and only once and will likely never run it again.

I was in the area by coincidence when it opened, and I didn't bother going in immediately because as with all things ESO, I avoid places where people are flocking like the black plague. I refuse to be another locust who'll swarm content, devour everything, and leave it barren just days layer. But since this thing was limited time, I figured it was now or never and ended up going in. Some people in my guild were trying to make a group, but seeing as the instance said nothing about it being a group instance, and I figured it would be a recycled version of the microscopic Oblivion portals in Blackwood, I went in alone.

I spoke to the NPC there. "Way is blocked, pick a side." I picked a side. Ended up on a pathway, running after a billion other people. 5FPS much like I was back in Cyrodiil. Such fun. There were NPCs talking and the quest objective kept moving forward with NO action on my part, so the only thing I was doing was chasing it a mile away.

Finally managed to reach somewhere where people were blocked. A linear path with ethereal grapple points and a constant beam of damage hitting the middle corridor. What's this? The NPC kept yelling something. People kept going into the red and dying (hah!) so I did the same, trying to see if this was serious or not. It was not. It barely even hurt, but I was on a tank so it made sense. Eventually since people were all there doing nothing but die to the beam, I backtracked enough to find the one working grapple point. Now there were some enemies to kill, nice I guess I'm the first one here. Immediately swarmed by the locusts, and as always in every random normal dungeon, they ran ahead, did whatever was supposed to be done, and left me alone in the middle of some 20 enemies with no chance to kill them alone. Why are people in this game so goddamned selfish?? It's this attitude that makes me feel ever more disgusted when I need to group up for content. There's no more enjoyment in the game, there's only RUN AHEAD AT MAX SPEED.

Eventually a pair of DDs came by and killed the stuff, and again I was left to run after a quest point that kept moving with no action on my part. Some NPCs kept talking and I'd love to stay and talk but no time. Their voiced lines were already overlapping because people were just rushing and triggering everything ahead.

Ran into a dead end. No indication of how to advance apart from some NPC yelling to wait until the other side of the group opened it. So I stood there with a few more waiting. Exciting! Finally the blockage vanished.

Then I was at a place where there were some ballistae to do.... Something. Luckily there was no one else around, them bloody locusts. So I tried to figure it out. The NPC kept yelling at me to break the crystals I think.... What crystals? The ones on the top of those pillars? Tried hitting them, I believe at one point somewhere there was a damage number popping so I guessed I had hit something that was meant yo be hit. But almost instantly the way opened.... By the swarm of locusts that was probably somewhere else. Time to keep running.....

Ended up in what was the boss for that side. I had been criticising already that scaling an enemy model to 500% does not make something new and unique. But at least the mechanic of defeating it was smart. Shame it was again poorly implemented. The locusts were everywhere. There was not a single free siege weapon to do anything. People kept yelling HIT THE SIGILS!!!! As if the average ESO player would have the brains to actually play mechs instead of rushing through everything like mindless apes with their buns on fire..... But I digress. So I just stood there. Pinging the neverending waves of enemies with my frost staff while the others did stuff. Such fun. It took soooooo long........ At least there was a chest with some decent loot.

Time to go to the other side and repeat this thing....

The other side was even worse in the sense that I saw and did nothing but rush after a quest marker I never managed to catch, and didn't get to fight a single enemy. I did run past a dead infernium which was blue, I would have liked to actually see it in action but alas. (It's also telling that the most exciting thing here was a palette swap which I could have done in Photoshop in 5 minutes, but again I digress). Finally saw what was probably the boss for the branch, some old-old enemy scaled up to 500%. #Original. Didn't even get to see it properly but I think it was a bone colossus. It was dead, and at least the loot chest was there. Small mercies.

Finally the middle section was open. Got to a lake area with some islands, people were dying in the azure plasma so I stopped to watch.... I guess these floating orbs give you a shield. That's a little smart. And at least a little different. So I kept moving but it's kind of hard when people are just swarming ahead and leaving me to be swamped by mobs they don't bother killing. Freaking selfish, man. I'm a tank. I'm not even using a taunt. How am I supposed to get rid of these??

Ended up in a big lake with some floating islands and ballistae. Okay I guess we're meant to hit something again. Where's the ammo? Yes because the ballista parts are definitely not duct tape and some nails. They have to be the ammo since it gets consumed so quickly. Oh it's.... It's waaaaaaay over there. So you're telling me I have to navigate down the lake again, into a pile of enemies, to get two bolts to throw at.... I don't even know what? Yeah.... No thanks. Oh there's someone dead next to me. I picked their ballista parts which they dropped on death and aimed the thing at what I assumed was the boss. Aaaaand it flew away before getting hit. Really....? Guess I'll just stay here and wait. The others seem to be having fun and I refuse to run around like a headless chicken chasing things someone else will always be 2 seconds faster than me to do/get.

The boss died. Ping! I got a title. Uh. Wait. Was that it? No..... No animation for opening some gates, no.... Nothing? Just grab the chest, run into the next room and touch a thing. The thing by the way is beautifully made. The art department is always on point in ESO. Shame everything else just falls so far behind. I would have LOVED if they added a little something actually unique. Imagine a video section, I don't even want a studio Blur quality one. A simple cutscene where we for once in the whole game actually get to see our characters do stuff. Like the time Mannimarco drags you down in chains? That would be so, so cool. But, you know, done better.......

So I touched the thing. Back in the camp. Skordo is there. The lens is still borked, with the laser coming out of thin air because the actual lens isn't being rendered at all. "Thanks for the help let's not do that ever again, here have some pocket change and a crown."

Was.... That was it. That was it, right??? Well. I can't say I'm disappointed because it's exactly how weak as I expected it to be...... But I've grown jaded. So that's on me.


Switched to a different account, see if it's different not having the expansion. There's actually a little more quest to it in Stirk. Cool, I get to talk to NPCs and actually do something, even if it's just go here go there go there go everywhere chasing after quest markers. It is, after all, what ESO is all about. The little area with the two tiny "bosses" is interesting. They wanted to show people without the expansion how things looked on the other side, and that was cool. Pique the curiosity. See this architecture? It's what you're missing out.

Went back to Skordo. Oh you saved us, awesome, buddy! Big nice speech, made me feel a little warm and fuzzy on the inside! Really did. Normally NPCs are like, oh by the divines!!!! You saved the world/map/king/whatever! Here, have some coins.......... Nice day for fishing, huh?

I also got the crown, which was odd.... But sure. I get it.

All in all. It was..... Different. It was something they tried to make new. It was poorly implemented, leaving most people with the feeling we didn't get to contribute anything other than running after the quest markers, seeing nothing of what it was meant to actually be, and oh here's the reward, given in the same manner thousands of other quests already do. No fanfare. No uniqueness. No sense of having been present at a one-of-a-kind happening.

I'm not doing it again. It was okay but..... IMO not enjoyable enough to repeat. Also, I bet going in when there's no one online is going to be a horrible, HORRIBLE slog. So as with all things ESO, it's either all or nothing. Swarms of players, or not a single soul. Even the siege camps are already mostly empty.


It would have been so, so much better if it was done like a group instance. Like a mini trial. No normal/vet variants. Just an instance for 12 people. Make people play together. Make us cooperate. Make us split up to complete smaller objectives, some stay here to hold the line, others go around to open the gate/drop the bridge. Have each player actually feel needed and useful, instead of just sitting there watching as all spots are full, and being unable to contribute apart from pinging the endless mobs that keep spawning. Make it feel like an actual coordinated group effort. Not like.... A media market in Black Friday rush.

Anyway. That is all.

No... the grind got boring very quickly. I prefer the Chapter way of doing things anyway. Still undecided whether I'll buy another season pass... they need to give more detailed info on what will be included and when. But, gatekeeping the second part of the story/zone behind WW isn't cool in my book.