Am I reaching the end?

JARTHEGREY · March 2021

So, just to give the backstory - I'm playing completely solo (no guilds) and do not have any of the DLC.

I've reached 350 level and I've explored all the available maps (bar Craglorn - more on that later). In my Quests I have just 1 (The Tharne Speaks - Talk to Varen Aquilarios). I'm about to go and continue with this quest - but in the meantime I visited Craglorn and ... wtf?

Almost every quest I've seen have been 'group quests' and when I've tried to do them alone, I get obliterated. I can't even collect the skyshards since they are all in 'group delves'.

So my question is this - where do I go from here? Am I close to the end as far as non-dlc solo play is concerned?

Freakin_Hytte · March 2021

Probably yes, altough the craglorn is easily soloable if you have a decent build with a basic rotation. A tip is to get eso+ for a month or two. That way you can play every single dlc and chapter except the latest chapter.

Have you been to vvardenfell and done the Morrowind dlc? I believe it's included in the base game.

Hymzir · March 2021

Don't know how things would work out with the current Champion Point XP curve since they keep adjusting it all the time, but I find it odd if doing all base game stuff would only leave you with 350 CP.

So to make sure I understood you correctly - you've explored all 15 base game faction zones, done all the quests, cleared all the delves and fought all the world bosses and done the dark anchors in each. You also went though the 5 smaller starting locations (AP and DC get two, AD only have 1 - Khenarthi's Roost) Your zone guide tells you you've done pretty much all there is to do in each zone, and you have most of the achievements unlocked in each zone to prove it.

What about Cyrodiil? The PVP zone has a bunch of PVE content - quests, and delves and Sky Shards to collect in addition to the never ending Three Flags War. And of course PVP was the original endgame the game launched with. Have you given that a spin? What about them battlegrounds that were added later? I understand that PVP is not everyone cup of tea, but it's still content you can approach solo.

What about thievery? Not Thieves guild DLC, just the base game system of Legerdemain? What about Fighters Guild and Mages Guild quest lines? Have you done those and maxed out the skills?

And like the previous poster mentioned - isn't VVardenfell part of base game these days? Lot of stuff to do there too.

What about dungeons? You know the 4 man group content and maxing out Undaunted skill? You can do most of the base game dungeons solo on normal difficulty, some you can do solo on Veteran too, but it's gonna be too much of a hassle for most people to bother with. Doing base game dungeons solo on veteran takes a lot of time and doesn't reward anything of interest to warrant the time and trouble it entails.

"The Tharn Speaks" is not even the halfway point for the main quest, so there's still a fair bit of stuff to do there, and if you are at that point, have you been to Cold Harbour yet? That's another whole zone onto itself.

As for Craglorn... Well Old Craggie is a pale shadow of its former self. It was originally released as THE endgame zone, and was meant to be completely group based in format. But players being players, we just went at it solo. It eventually got reworked and balanced to allow less frustrating solo experience, but it still has a lot of group based stuff. Though with a proper build and some top tier gear, you can do most of it solo just fine. Do note that some of the delves there are harder than many base game dungeons. The game does inform you quite clearly these days when you enter a group area, so you should know when the difficulty is about to ramp up rapidly for solo players.

Then there are stuff like collecting recipes and motifs and mastering crafting and doing master writs and housing stuff. There is a lot of repetitive grindy crud built into the game on the accounts of this being an MMO and stuff. I don't agree with that line of reasoning, but thems the breaks, and housing is quite fun but will require horrendous amount of farming mats, searching for plans, and grinding for gold to buy all the stuff you need. Again, not everyone's cup of tea, but for those willing to bear with it, it can offer plenty of entertainment.

If you have done all of that then... Well, maybe get a sub for a month or two and do the DLC zones, or wait till one of the expansions goes on sale. Eventually you will run out of stuff to do, especially if you are not willing to do the various daily quests grind, but... Well I find it hard to believe that you managed to do that while only collecting 350 champion points.

And finally, you can always go look at sites like UESPwiki to see what the game has to offer and what stuff you've missed.

JARTHEGREY · March 2021

Thanks for the reply - there are a few things in there that I hadn't done and I definitely need to work on my build and rotation. I'll look into the Undaunted quests and some of the other things you mentioned.

If as you say, I'm just half way through the main quest then I guess there is a bit more yet for me to do. That was the main reason for my question, as I didn't know how far along the main qust I was.

Many thanks for you reply.

MerguezMan · March 2021

Hi,

- Go over each map, there are 4 zones and 1-2 tutorial zones per alliance, the map will tell you if you cleared all main quests (I still find unmarked map quests after 1+ year of playing, so you may find some by avoiding shrine travel).
- Colharbor and Craglorn are also a thing, Craglorn can be hard to solo.
- Cyrodiil has solo quests too, you can find repeatables in cities, and clear delves solo.
- Imperial City is free, and has quests too.
- You may get Prologue quests from starter zones or Crown store, that's free too.

Once done with that, there are repeatable quests from Fighters guild, Mages Guild, and Undaunted in your Alliance main city, and Most vanilla dungeons can be soloed (you will probably be blocked in those with "II" in title, and Direfrost Keep due to mechanics).

You may still get DLC items, as styles and crafted gear, by talking to other players. Assuming you're on an IRL budget, you can trade ingame to get some story DLCs (beware those with low achievements, you may get scammed ; it's better to trade such in guilds or with trusted players if you know some).