It was suggested that I share this (from an email) with the forum. So here it is...or at least the gaming part.

I love your game. I don’t want to hate it. However, there are issues I have that evolved from the One Tamriel (1T) update.

The first issue I realized was that I can no longer play with my currently build on any of my characters (but the duel weapon Nightblade was especially more difficult.) It was suggested to me that I had to respect for 1T. I had some gold in game and real dollars in life, so I did this and the game because easier to play.

As I progressed past the level 50 point I come to realize an issue that repeatedly caused frustration: the skill experience does not advance at the same speed as the levels. What this does is forces the player to play under geared or with low-end crafted items. I asked in chat how others were dealing with this issue and the responses were abusive. (Your community in game and in the fora is hostile and unsupportive.) Responses like “get gud (sic)” or “learn to play” is disheartening and only adds to an already frustrating moment. Other responses sounded helpful but missed my point: I cannot use dropped armor/weapons because the drop rate for medium armor was too low (33% chance to get something in my class and only 10% of that was actually higher than what I had on.) I looted a full set of purple armor in the heavy class and a near full blue set in the light class. Using armor other than medium lowers my stamina buff with is a bad thing because I am already running out of stamina before the target dies.

So I struggled through several Champion Point (CP) levels under geared and using provisions and pots that were as much as 20-50 levels below my character level because that is the best I could do with the skills I had available. (Even after resetting my specs a second time to free up skill points for my needed crafts. The closer I get to the CP160 level the more impact the lacking in the proper level gear became. I skipped quests and avoided public dungeons because I could not defeat the final boss.

Last night my frustrations festered to a serious point. In the Cold Harbor map, the last part of a story quest, Breaking the Shackles, there are waves of monsters. I could not defend the mage. I could not defend myself. The problem was I would run out of stamina too soon. I played with the strategy, with switching my now muted abilities, tried different potions and potted boosts. Nothing worked. I was running out of stamina, running out of magic, then…with no resources to fight or defend with…I ran out of health. I asked the community if I could progress without finishing this quest and the response was that I could not. I was stalled in a fight I could not win. I actually attempted the quest stage as many as 20 times after various tweeks and changes. Very frustrating.

I decided to skip the story line in Cold Harbor, (the only quest I had left in that area) and went to a DLC map. While there I chatted with the players and explained my frustrations. Again, I received the same hateful responses insulting me and my ability to play the game. One player sent me a whisper and asked if they could make armor for me. At first I declined the offer because I was actually believing that I could not play this game even thought I made it to level 47 with only a few grumps and bumps. They persisted and I finally agreed because I wanted to see for myself if gear of a proper level would make a difference. It did. I went back into the Breaking the Shackles quest and defended the mage without any problems. It is not my gaming skills; it is the lacking of proper level gear that stalls my progress. This is a continuous problem as I cannot improve my crafting skills without making progress or at least staying alive. (I am at CP140 currently and that beautiful purple set gear that was made is already outdated. So how long before I become seriously frustrated again? How much will the next guy charge me to make a set of gear so I can continue to play for another 10 levels?)

Since there is so few drops in my armor class, I am struggling to bring those skills up. I tried discussing this with the community…well, if you read this far, you should already know how that went. They said they did have a problem and my playing skills were [lacking.] However, I see what they are doing: grouping in masses and farming dolmens, dungeons, and quest areas to get material to break down to raise their crafting skills to a useful point. The groups contain one or two CP 300+ players and several low levels. They run into the area grab agro of everything (even targets that someone other is actively fighting) in the area and kill it. Then wait for it all to respawn before repeating the process.

The breakdown:
•The gear degrades with leveling

•The skill experience fails to keep pace with the increase of the CP levels and decrease in the gear stats. (That is actually a double hit. Since the degradation is progressing opposite of the leveling, a void opens up and continues to broaden as the player attempts to progress.)

•A 33% chance of gear dropping into a specific class cannot keep pace with need. (Lower levels cannot compete with the CP high-levels at public places because of the damage relation to loot.)

•Community assistance is unreliable as the vocal community is largely hostile.

•Player’s attempts to close this void themselves results in interference of the questing of others, which further restricts progress.

As I see the situation, there are few choices: grind like the rest of the struggling players, /sitchair until the grinders go away and continue only doing quests that are not challenging my gear, or stop playing until the issues are resolved and the game because fun rather than frustrating. When not on vacation, I have only a few hours at the end of the day to play a game (any game, I chose this one.) Grinding isn’t playing; it is pushing a character around a map hoping that soon I will be at the magic level of CP160 where everything balances out. If I am going to sit in a chair doing nothing, I’d rather have a movie in front of me rather than rabid gamers. So, I am thinking maybe I should put this game on a shelf somewhere and come back when the issues are resolved.