It's good to see you @MaximillianDiE . My husband and I are also "old school" beta players and have taken numerous breaks over the years. Some of those breaks were intended to be permanent, but somehow we always find our way back.

There are certainly still issues, some are controllable by zos and some are not. The "cannot mount in combat" feature is still very much alive and well as is the (I hate to use this overused word) toxicity among some players.

I cannot speak for other platforms or campaigns, but as of today's PC/NA GH, it is hard mode for AD. The "glory days" were mostly that first year and ever after, many players have either left the game entirely, or moved to another faction. However, I will say that recently, a few players have returned to AD and have made a positive change for this alliance. I will not name them, but I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those players. Thank you for returning, for staying, and for doing your best to make a difference.

For the most part, the game itself is beautifully done. Especially if you partake in pve content.

There have been a few changes to the landscape of Cyrodiil, ie. breakable bridges, towns, and of course, everyone's favorite, Volendrung. Some would argue that the towns offer an advantage to both DC and EP and one specific breakable mile gate shows favoritism to DC. There are also a few "streamers" who make it their form of entertainment to only focus AD keeps and especially AD resources. As a matter of fact, I asked one just the other day (again, I will omit names) who when asked, stated that he only focuses AD because it is "easier" and that DC brings an entire raid or more for just one resource. So, there lies part of our issue. It is a snowball effect. One faction has numbers more consistently and the other is, shall I say, afraid to confront said numbers.

Some players do still play the map and care about the score (even though they will swear up and down they do not).
The cycle of being overrun by an entire faction stacking among themselves (and frequently with the other faction) is slightly disheartening. I will not speak for AD, but as for myself, I do not see fights as purely "AP opportunities". I actually care about fair fights, similar numbers, and healthy competition. Unfortunately, these usually do not occur in the current state of Cyrodiil. The battle is typically determined by sheer numbers. I'm not complaining. I've decided to accept it as it is for now. I enjoy spending time with the many people I've met along the way and that is the main reason I keep returning to this "temporary" fix to the in between moments of my day.

merpins wrote: »

PVE is doing fine.
PVP still needs some work. Unless you wanna run Battlegrounds, I recommend waiting until the end of the year. There's supposed to be more stability and bug updates through the year, so it might improve.

Battlegrounds are just as bad, they're just disguised by a neat, instanced package.

There's a plethora of fundamental balance issues with the majority of the modes, a terrible MMR system that pretty much only amounts to # of games played, and a queue system with issues exacerbated by low population. The scoreboards still don't count basic things like Pet Damage/Healing or Shielding (rip Necro and Arcanist), and the medals you get in game are tangentially related to the actual objectives at best. You can easily win matches by building a speed/block tank build and avoiding fights the entire time because none of the objectives require you to even do any damage or healing, let alone actually kill other players. To top it all off, ZOS took away the ability to choose our gamemode, shoving the opposing crowds of "im just here for my daily" and "i only want to deathmatch" together. They seem to have no intentions of adding a custom lobby system, something that should've been present from Battlegrounds' inception.

And yet, it's still (sadly) the most consistent place to go for PvP.

MaximillianDiE wrote: »

So its been a long time since I last logged into this game (played launch in 2014 - 2018) and years since I felt the urge to log into these forums. I was getting all nostalgic for ESO as in its day as other than DAOC and WAR in the 2000s I had some of the most fun in mmos in this game in its golden age. I thought I'd check the forums to see if it was worth coming back for another look but then I see complaints about ball groups is the top thread. The same as it was the last time I looked and nothing much looks to have changed since the pvp side of the game turned to an playable lagfest.

Shout out to any first gen players left. Is this game is worth another look? God knows the mmo landscape is devoid of any other options these days.

Good to see you. I'm still running around in the game but I don't play near as much. Still some K-holers on from time to time.

I didn't know there were any of us left lol . ESO is always interesting so it's worth doing imho. Yes the mmo options these days are pretty abysmal so it's still nice to put some time into. Same old ESO meta issues in pvp however.

Still here. Still not do doing PvP. Playing since launch and my Alliance rank is only 8.

PvP class and gear balance is the worst it’s been in my 3 years of playing ESO.

Basically only 2 classes and 2 or 3 builds if you want to be competitive against skilled players.

Very narrow, proc-driven meta. Let your gear and passives win the fight while you spam incap merciless concealed wep…

Repetitive, and boring.

Telel never left, and never quit.

They're also still having fun in PVP despite the best efforts of the hard core scrubs who think sportsmanship is a naughty word.

It depends on what you're trying to do. Not sure it will ever get back to 2014 days but if you're just looking for some fun and messing around in PvP then it might be at least worth a look. PvE side of things is good. Forums can be both brutally honest and over-dramatic.