(Updated) Favorite DLC year in terms of main quest storytelling?

Tariq9898

What was your personal favorite year in terms of the overarching main quest storytelling, lore, and worldbuilding and why?

metheglyn

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

Nothing can compare to Sotha Sil!

Morrowind is a lovely and strange place to quest in, and moving through the zone I felt like I really got to know the place and definitely got a glimpse into some of the Great House structure and rivalry. Lord Vivec both draws me in and repulses me--I think ZOS showed his duality very well in that sense. For the most part, I enjoyed the npcs I met and worked with, and I felt invested in making sure Vivec got his power back.

Clockwork City, however, remains my all-time favorite zone, especially as it culminates with an amazing conversation with Sil. The place is so wonderfully put together and definitely feels otherwordly--more so than some of the Daedric Planes we visit.

Nemesis7884

2015 - Wrothgar

do you notice a trend...

freespirit

2019 - Northern and Southern Elsweyr

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

do you notice a trend...

The trend is painfully obvious, hopefully someone @ZoS takes notice but I'm not holding my breath!!

Soarora

2018 - Summerset and Artaeum

Summerset made me feel something. It’s the only DLC main quest I’ve willingly replayed multiple times to show other people how great it is. It builds characters up with such depth— like they’re real people with real stories beyond the quest chain they’re in. And then it tears you down. Shatters you. If you know no lore, you’re heartbroken. If you know lore, you’re heartbroken just the same. There’s no saving the ones that have been lost. They’re gone. Not just dead… gone… and that still makes me emotional 6 years later.

I think it’s the DLC with the highest permanent death count and I like me some dark fantasy. Something I really want to stress if ZOS reads this is that Summerset made me care about the characters before killing them off. They had connections to other NPCs, Leythen had his entire redemption arc, Darien not just as a reoccurring character but him finding out more about what he truly is, the killing of the key holders to Crystal-Like-Law… they were named, described, they were people. Everyone killed at the university… just students and professors seeking knowledge. The lady in Crystal-Like-Law… doomed… laid to rest… all of the struggles of the characters who died ring with familiarity. The loss of a child, the end of doomed suffering, innocent people caught in crossfire… These days we have deaths that mean nothing in the DLCs. Everyone got brought back in Markarth… EVERYONE. Necrom, whats his face got killed briefly just to be brought back immediately which had 0 impact because I knew that would happen. High Isle had a death that was important to one character, so that was better but still didn’t matter that much to me. Make us truly care about the characters. Make them people. Make their deaths count. Summerset had plot but it was just as much a story of a bunch of people, reoccurring and not, having character arcs.

I haven’t played Orisinium because it was before my time and I was always was busy keeping up to date with DLCs and doing base game until I found questing too boring… my attention span has gone in the ditch.

YandereGirlfriend

2020 - Western Skyrim and The Reach

I'm not the biggest story-forward player but I do want to say that the worldbuilding and art team still does really good work.

I recently spent some time questing in High Isle and Galen and was reminded of how neat the various biomes of the islands are. And the sunflowers are simply stunning. The Fauns are creepy but very unique and I enjoyed watching them just sort of vibing with each other when left alone.

There's equally nice things to be said about the ambiance of all of the recent zones. They do seem to be getting smaller in size but what is there I find to be thoughtful and enjoyable to spend time with. I really, really enjoyed the West Weald and its permanent Fall aethsetic and the otherworldly atmosphere of the Apocrypha areas.

All of that said, however, the zones are definitely getting smaller and the price for the expansions is definitely not going down. So seeing them increase in size again would be most welcome.

Hoping that 2026 is Whiterun, the Pale, and Winterhold.

spartaxoxo

2018 - Summerset and Artaeum

Morrowind, Clockwork City, and Summerset are all part of the same main story arc. I picked Summerset because it was the conclusion but really it was that whole storyline that was the peak.

ETA:

Likewise, Necrom + Gold Road is one one main story arc.

LunaFlora

2025 - Western and Eastern Solstice

i have played through all the zone stories.
favourite dlc year is usually the present year.
so 2025 and i do love Solstice a lot.

some reasons why i love Solstice
(maybe i will edit this comment later for more detailed reasons)
main quest.
- sequel to the base game stories.


side quests, feels odd not to mention as it is storytelling.
- Cariel finally returned! she is one of my favourite characters, i love her in the Aldmeri Dominion quests.
- Everlasting Fair, questing with Sanguine as a goat is awesome. And the Vale of Revelry delve is one of Sanguine's realms, which is beautiful.
- Solstice is the first zone with the expanded player choices in quests. i love those and it makes it hard to choose any other year.
Relevant to main and side quests.


world building
- music, flora, fauna, fashion, housing. Non-quest reason, but important every year. Solstice is gorgeous in all those aspects.
i am happy we got purple and orange gorse to use alongside High Isle's yellow gorse plants.


if you ask me this in December 2026, my answer is probably 2026.

redlink1979

2015 - Wrothgar

Sarannah

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

Nostalgia reasons for morrowind. Also, going into a tiny clockwork city is just awesome!

robwolf666

2020 - Western Skyrim and The Reach

Looking at the list I realised that I like all of them for different reasons.

If I was forced to choose one, then: Western Skyrim and The Reach (Skyrim connection).

But my top 3 are:
1. Western Skyrim and The Reach
2. Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha
3. Morrowind and Clockwork City

The weakest of the bunch is Solstice though, unfortunately.

SkaiFaith

2025 - Western and Eastern Solstice

Solstice. There are valuable "deaths and resurrections". An hyping epilogue quest. A well designed final battle. It's a sequel to the main story. When it worked, the event was phenomenal and blew all other zone events away, ahead by miles. Good cast of characters. Varied dialogues with choices.
The more I think of it the more I appreciate it, even with its flaws.
It gave the sense of epicness, even though I'm always disappointed by the "MMO nature" of the game which doesn't consent to, for example, see lots of NPCs go through the wall when it goes down - if you had players around was epic, sure, but if you'll play this zone 2 years from now... How sad will it look? It was supposed to be a massive war but we barely see any soldier fighting on the other side, what the...
Still good. Enjoyed more than others.

Maitsukas

Could there be a poll between all post-2020 storylines, since players tend to be most critical about them?

emilyhyoyeon

2015 - Wrothgar

Wrothgar manages to beat Vvardenfell and Summerset years' main questlines since I prefer more grounded stories (minimal contact with deities, for ex.). In these earlier years, these stories are also my favorite becauses characters aren't caricatures of themselves yet and the writing takes itself seriously.

Anyway, if not limited to just MQ, Vvardenfell overtakes Wrothgar for sure, but I love both those two.

AzuraFan

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

Morrowind. It's when I finally tried this game, and I loved the zone and the story. I didn't like Clockwork City as much, though. There was tons to do, and the zone was lush and filled with stuff to discover.

Second for me would be Blackwood. I really enjoyed the main and Deadlands stories. When I used to create alts and we had a choice, I'd usually start them there.

whitecrow

2019 - Northern and Southern Elsweyr

It is a tough call between Summerset and Elsweyr.

Wrothgar was great but mentally I never think of it as DLC because it was in the game when I bought it.

I like the land designs of High Isle, Galen and West Weald, but the content is no longer adequate.

anadandy

2015 - Wrothgar

I voted Wrothgar, but after replaying Summerset on a High Elf during the event I had forgotten how good some of those quests were and appreciated the acknowledgement of my character race. That was something that disappointed me about High Isle, when playing a Breton.

Recent

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

Morrowind and summerset will always be my favourite zones and story lines. Going to vvardenfell still gives me TES vibes

ESO_player123

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

I chose Morrowind and Clockwork City because Clockwork City is actually my favorite main story of all. But I also liked Western Skyrim and the Reach.

LootAllTheStuff

2019 - Northern and Southern Elsweyr

It is really hard to pick between some of those, especially Western Skyrim/Reach and the Morrowind/CC/Summerset trilogy. But Elsweyr edges out the win for me just because that was always a place I wanted to see in-game. My only disappointment is that playing through that story as a khajiit doesn't seem to get any call-outs.

AScarlato

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

Went with Vvardenfell, where even some side quests were emotional. It's hard to top some of the moments with Vivec and Sotha Sil for me.

I do like their attempts to add in dialogue options in the present day, but the overall writing quality is just bad to me.

Ragnork

2020 - Western Skyrim and The Reach

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Morrowind, Clockwork City, and Summerset are all part of the same main story arc. I picked Summerset because it was the conclusion but really it was that whole storyline that was the peak.

ETA:

Likewise, Necrom + Gold Road is one one main story arc.

I would have voted for the combined Morrowind, Clockwork, Summerset if given as an option. I thought this was the best over arching story.
I prefer High Isle next, but never really took to Galen.
Skyrim and The Reach I enjoyed as a combined story.
I disliked The Deadlands / Fargrave and Apocrypha intensely.
West Weald, liked.
Disliked, totally disliked, Western and Eastern Solstice thankfully it was short enough to endure.

The rest Wrothgar, Elsweyr, Murkmire are good.

Mesite

2023 - Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha

I enjoyed Wrothgar, and played bits of it again, but it was Telvanni Peninsula that made me want to play through the story until I'd finished.

DoofusMax

2019 - Northern and Southern Elsweyr

That's a toughie. Wrothgar's is absolutely outstanding and I still don't understand why it's not a "chapter" other than Year One Megapack sales. Those are decisions well above my paygrade, though. I think Summerset is also excellent and improved on Morrowind's separated zone stories, but it still has two stories running in parallel. "Season of the Dragon" pretty much nailed it in terms of story, presentation, and mechanics. I think Dragonhold was the lesser of the two when it comes to story, but the addition of epilogue missions mostly made up for that.

spartaxoxo

2018 - Summerset and Artaeum

DoofusMax wrote: »

That's a toughie. Wrothgar's is absolutely outstanding and I still don't understand why it's not a "chapter" other than Year One Megapack sales. Those are decisions well above my paygrade, though. I think Summerset is also excellent and improved on Morrowind's separated zone stories, but it still has two stories running in parallel. "Season of the Dragon" pretty much nailed it in terms of story, presentation, and mechanics. I think Dragonhold was the lesser of the two when it comes to story, but the addition of epilogue missions mostly made up for that.

Wrothgar predates the Chapter system. It actually even predates the soft relaunch of the game with One Tamriel. They sell the first year of dlc as it's own thing because of that. While the chapter system began with Morrowind and concluded with Gold Road. Now we're on the season pass system.

AcadianPaladin

2018 - Summerset and Artaeum

The only DLC that I find memorable in terms of recalling the storyline is Murkmire - a wonderful DLC. Since it came out in 2018, I voted for 2018 - meaning Murkmire, not Summerset and Artaeum. I found the questline delightful and particularly enjoyed the wonderful characters Jaxsik-Orrn and Xukas.

Rkindaleft

2017 - Morrowind and Clockwork City

Damn everything post 2020 is in the gutter

katanagirl1

2019 - Northern and Southern Elsweyr

Purely in terms of story, Wrothgar would probably get my vote. It also has a great zone with no facades, all buildings can be entered and many have multiple stories. It has a rugged, natural beauty that I enjoy.

I have to pick Elsweyr though, because I love the Khajiit and of course the dragon battles were epic at the start of the chapter. The zone is also great, especially the colorful desert of Northern Elsweyr. Of course Morrowind introduced us to those facades instead of buildings, and Northern Elsweyr has a whole town of them in Hakoshae. So that is a little disappointing. The game needs more exploration not less over time.

heaven13

2018 - Summerset and Artaeum

I'm so used to people leaving Wrothgar out of these polls that I quickly picked Summerset since that's my next favorite. Woe is me once I realized that someone actually remembered Wrothgar and thus my answer is inaccurate!

LadyLethalla

2020 - Western Skyrim and The Reach

I'm kind of biased toward Fennorian. Close second is Summerset, though.

Qagh

2019 - Northern and Southern Elsweyr

I vote always for cats.