I'm having a rather negative experience playing ESO in 2025.

Parasaurolophus · June 23

The laser show. Yes, much has already been said about it - but still, I hate it. I hate subclassing with all my heart. I’d even say PvE DPS gameplay has become outright toxic. I now prefer to play healers or tanks instead. And I have to admit: for support roles, subclassing doesn’t look nearly as bad as it does for DPS. Balance is in the worst place it's ever been in the history of the game.

I tried to enjoy myself. I thought I’d finally be able to play my main Nightblade again, since the meta now includes Arc/NB/Templar. But no - because the class scripting for the banner lets you use the beam even more frequently, which renders most other setups meaningless.

And you know what’s the worst part? The only real solution here is to overhaul a massive portion of the game’s skill lines - something ZoS will never do, because it would demand too much of them. Otherwise, any nerf to Fatecarver would cause massive collateral damage to the entire community - maybe even worse than Update 35. And honestly, I don’t see any way out. Subclassing is a problem in itself. Fatecarver is another problem on its own. And the new content seems tailor-made for Fatecarver.

Another issue: players fundamentally do not understand the importance of personal performance in group content. In pug raids, 50% of DPS are still heavy attackers - even though the Fatecarver meta isn’t that much more difficult, and in some ways is even easier than heavy attack builds. Another 45% are players trying to reinvent the wheel, creating off-meta builds that inevitably underperform. The rest? They’re the ones carrying 50-80% of the total raid DPS.

I used to think the combat system was just too complex for the average player and required a significant learning curve. But when top DPS now requires so little mechanical skill, I find playing off-meta almost disrespectful to the people who carry most of the raid. And it’s not like these are newbies - we’re talking about players with 2k+ CP. I can’t come up with an explanation for this that isn’t insulting to someone.

So yeah, some of you probably won’t understand why I both hate the current meta and insist that people follow it. I have no answer for you.

Next point, which ties into the last one: there’s no fun outside of scheduled raids. The game offers either very easy PvE content or scheduled raid content. I still have some dungeon achievements I’d love to finish - I really enjoy dungeons. But finding people capable of completing DLC hardmodes is nearly impossible. My friends either aren’t interested or are too hard to schedule with. And the majority of players only show up during raid hours.

ZoS has said they want to focus on repeatable content and that the game needs more variety. But in the three years since the content cadence changed, the only major addition has been IA and it’s suffocatingly dull, repetitive, and poorly balanced.

So, my typical ESO day consists of doing crafting writs, Endeavors, a couple of random normals on alts… and that’s it. Sometimes I seriously wonder why I log in at all. Why am I hoarding gold and materials? Why am I doing any of this, if I can only really enjoy the game two nights a week, for two hours each? If you're wondering why high-end players are leaving the game - this is it, 90% of the time.

The only thing that showed real promise for repeatable engagement in ESO has been PvP. But after subclassing launched, I’m afraid to even imagine what’s happening there now. I’ve never liked Cyrodiil - for me, it’s just a place where baiters farm new players, ball groups farm everyone else, and the heavy attack meta trolls the whole zone. I hate it.

I’ve always focused my PvP efforts on battlegrounds. And you know what? I love 8v8. Seriously. But poor matchmaking and how much a match depends on how many healbots your group has has completely turned me off from modern BGs. Tiny maps and game modes like Chaosball with transformation mechanics should honestly just be removed.

And that’s very characteristic of ZoS - one good decision, ten awful ones.

Solstice was awful. Just a tossed salad of old assets with a High Isle color filter slapped on. Yes, there were a few new models, but not enough to make a difference. And don’t even get me started on the main quest - short, predictable, and tonally like a Disney musical.
I genuinely don’t understand why I should be paying $50 for this. That’s double the price for half the content.
And the new “Akatosh Crate Mount” feature is outrageous.

Let’s be honest: this game is over 11 years old. In all that time, ESO never became a truly popular project. It was never a hype beast like some Chinese gachas, and it never became an immortal classic. The only time a surge of players arrived was during COVID - and because the word “Skyrim” was in the name of the chapter.

For too long, ESO was designed purely for box sales to new players. ZoS was very successful at that - 26 million original accounts. But it was a purely consumerist strategy, and it’s run dry. I think the genre itself - MMOs with hardcore content - is mostly a thing of the past. And you can’t keep a large playerbase engaged with just quest content forever.

So, yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if ZoS decided a long time ago that ESO just wasn’t a long-term priority anymore.
Although some recent announcements and changes - like addon support for consoles - might suggest otherwise, to me it all feels more like a last-ditch effort.
I would love to be wrong about that.

FeedbackOnly · June 23

O.o calling us healers healbots is not nice

karthrag_inak · June 23

Wow, that's a lot of words. Must be very important.

Khajiit is having loads of fun, as always.

cyclonus11 · June 23

"The laser show."

So your issue is with one skill from one class. Maybe they should focus on that, yeah?

Personally I'm having fun with subclassing, and I haven't had interest (yet!) in leveling that one subclass.

Thysbe · June 23

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

So yeah, some of you probably won’t understand why I both hate the current meta and insist that people follow it. I have no answer for you.

Nah - I understand you 100% and my feelings are exactly the same. I use my NB as main class now since I detest the banner, but honestly - its an Arcanist now, like all the others. As soon as you beam/tentacle it is an Arcanist and not a nightblade - period.

I am only logging in for my dungeon group once a week, and that is just because its an awesome group going for years - but with the current power creep we are clearing the dungeon trifectas twice as fast as before. Wont be long and we have all the missing ones. Then we probably take a break until new ones are released.

Same seems to happen with the raids but I quit raiding.

I even stopped doing writs or anything like that. Waste of time.

karthrag_inak · June 23

Something to think about - it's going to be very easy for the PTB to adjust the arcanist skills downward to make them less attractive - much easier now that they don't have to worry about 'class balance' consequences - should they wish to.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 23

Do you need to play only one meta subclass combination to meet your DPS minimum requirements? On esologs, it looks like there are a couple non-arcanist builds mixed in with the parses above 100k.

You might need to join a guild that does vet dungeon achievements, or just spend an evening saying lfg so-and-so achievement and meet people that way.

If you're not enjoying the game, it's always good to take a break until something inspires you to come back.

BahometZ · June 24

People here don't get it.

Desiato · June 24

All good things must come to an end.

Bubosh · June 24

Grab some popcorn play something else and enjoy watching steam player population charts of ESO. Kinda was rly funny to read all the statements of ppl defending subclassing before U46 came out, they told so many stories like "this will get ESO so many new players" and "this is the path eso has to go" and blablabla but Steamchart already now telling the opposite. You are not alone and this is the worst time of ESO sadly. I mean what company would knowingly divide its own player base by such change rather than getting a solution for all of us. "You belong" the biggest lie of U46 since it divided its own community that bad so ppl leave rather xD

francesinhalover · June 24

But i like Beam. Its awesome, makes eso fun

What others play doesnt brother me at all.

colossalvoids · June 24

Can't disagree with anything here, it's all just becoming more obvious every new update.

Bubosh · June 24

@francesinhalover and it's not only about you and that's what some ppl won't understand. We all want this game to success but with a stale boring looking endgame full of lasers and broken mixed classes the game doesn't look any appealing to new players I bet. Just watch yourself few raid trials of U46 and tell me you think ppl would get interested to try out ESO after seeing that stale beam gameplay. It's pure visual chaos because of subclassing.

Aliniel · June 24

Another 45% are players trying to reinvent the wheel, creating off-meta builds that inevitably underperform.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this. DPS roles got such a power spike this update, it doesn't matter if someone underperforms. The upper limit of the DPS moved up, but the content difficulty stayed exactly the same. So, while you can nuke bosses faster, this only further increases the problem of meaningless Veteran content. What's the point of "challenging" boss fights if you can simply nuke the boss and get on with it?

Sure, if someone does 10k dps in a veteran dungeon - kick him out. He's a troll and has no place in group. But you don't need to do 100k. I play what I like - it's not optimal, but it's far from being "useless". I don't want bosses getting nuked in seconds. And I actually hate when some hardcode Vet. Trialist comes nuking everyhting with a beam. What's the point? Just go to a public dungeon and bother someone else...

Anyway, I fully agree the game is busted as it's never been before. We have "Normal" and "Veteran" dugneons, but it's actually several levels of difficulty based on which dungeon you actually play. WTF!? All "Veteran" dugneons should feel similar. But currently, in some of them bosses melt in seconds, while in others you need to sweat through. The entire PvE system needs a serious rebalancing. Maybe even a new tier of difficulty since the range of player performance is now way broader too.

Sarannah · June 24

francesinhalover wrote: »

But i like Beam. Its awesome, makes eso fun
What others play doesnt brother me at all.

This!

But I do kinda agree every class needs to get their own channeled skill to build around, similar to the arcanist's beam. This way the focus is off of the arcanist's beam and players have more options in what to use. Subclassing isn't the issue here, the issue is that the only class that has a worthwhile easy-to-use/easy-to-build-around channeled skill is the arcanist.

Beam is not overpowered. But I have noticed that even if I do not want to I will slot the arcanist's beam, simply because it is an easy to use/convenient skill.

Nemesis7884 · June 24

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

The laser show. Yes, much has already been said about it - but still, I hate it. I hate subclassing with all my heart. I’d even say PvE DPS gameplay has become outright toxic. I now prefer to play healers or tanks instead. And I have to admit: for support roles, subclassing doesn’t look nearly as bad as it does for DPS. Balance is in the worst place it's ever been in the history of the game.

I tried to enjoy myself. I thought I’d finally be able to play my main Nightblade again, since the meta now includes Arc/NB/Templar. But no - because the class scripting for the banner lets you use the beam even more frequently, which renders most other setups meaningless.

And you know what’s the worst part? The only real solution here is to overhaul a massive portion of the game’s skill lines - something ZoS will never do, because it would demand too much of them. Otherwise, any nerf to Fatecarver would cause massive collateral damage to the entire community - maybe even worse than Update 35. And honestly, I don’t see any way out. Subclassing is a problem in itself. Fatecarver is another problem on its own. And the new content seems tailor-made for Fatecarver.

Another issue: players fundamentally do not understand the importance of personal performance in group content. In pug raids, 50% of DPS are still heavy attackers - even though the Fatecarver meta isn’t that much more difficult, and in some ways is even easier than heavy attack builds. Another 45% are players trying to reinvent the wheel, creating off-meta builds that inevitably underperform. The rest? They’re the ones carrying 50-80% of the total raid DPS.

I used to think the combat system was just too complex for the average player and required a significant learning curve. But when top DPS now requires so little mechanical skill, I find playing off-meta almost disrespectful to the people who carry most of the raid. And it’s not like these are newbies - we’re talking about players with 2k+ CP. I can’t come up with an explanation for this that isn’t insulting to someone.

So yeah, some of you probably won’t understand why I both hate the current meta and insist that people follow it. I have no answer for you.

Next point, which ties into the last one: there’s no fun outside of scheduled raids. The game offers either very easy PvE content or scheduled raid content. I still have some dungeon achievements I’d love to finish - I really enjoy dungeons. But finding people capable of completing DLC hardmodes is nearly impossible. My friends either aren’t interested or are too hard to schedule with. And the majority of players only show up during raid hours.

ZoS has said they want to focus on repeatable content and that the game needs more variety. But in the three years since the content cadence changed, the only major addition has been IA and it’s suffocatingly dull, repetitive, and poorly balanced.

So, my typical ESO day consists of doing crafting writs, Endeavors, a couple of random normals on alts… and that’s it. Sometimes I seriously wonder why I log in at all. Why am I hoarding gold and materials? Why am I doing any of this, if I can only really enjoy the game two nights a week, for two hours each? If you're wondering why high-end players are leaving the game - this is it, 90% of the time.

The only thing that showed real promise for repeatable engagement in ESO has been PvP. But after subclassing launched, I’m afraid to even imagine what’s happening there now. I’ve never liked Cyrodiil - for me, it’s just a place where baiters farm new players, ball groups farm everyone else, and the heavy attack meta trolls the whole zone. I hate it.

I’ve always focused my PvP efforts on battlegrounds. And you know what? I love 8v8. Seriously. But poor matchmaking and how much a match depends on how many healbots your group has has completely turned me off from modern BGs. Tiny maps and game modes like Chaosball with transformation mechanics should honestly just be removed.

And that’s very characteristic of ZoS - one good decision, ten awful ones.

Solstice was awful. Just a tossed salad of old assets with a High Isle color filter slapped on. Yes, there were a few new models, but not enough to make a difference. And don’t even get me started on the main quest - short, predictable, and tonally like a Disney musical.
I genuinely don’t understand why I should be paying $50 for this. That’s double the price for half the content.
And the new “Akatosh Crate Mount” feature is outrageous.

Let’s be honest: this game is over 11 years old. In all that time, ESO never became a truly popular project. It was never a hype beast like some Chinese gachas, and it never became an immortal classic. The only time a surge of players arrived was during COVID - and because the word “Skyrim” was in the name of the chapter.

For too long, ESO was designed purely for box sales to new players. ZoS was very successful at that - 26 million original accounts. But it was a purely consumerist strategy, and it’s run dry. I think the genre itself - MMOs with hardcore content - is mostly a thing of the past. And you can’t keep a large playerbase engaged with just quest content forever.

So, yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if ZoS decided a long time ago that ESO just wasn’t a long-term priority anymore.
Although some recent announcements and changes - like addon support for consoles - might suggest otherwise, to me it all feels more like a last-ditch effort.
I would love to be wrong about that.

?? Eso is one of the most played mmorpgs globally - probably the second largest western one and contributes a significant amount of the overall zos revenue....not sure what you mean by never became popular...

MJallday · June 24

long way of saying "i want an arc nerf"

Rungar · June 24

Sarannah wrote: »

francesinhalover wrote: »

But i like Beam. Its awesome, makes eso fun
What others play doesnt brother me at all.

This!

But I do kinda agree every class needs to get their own channeled skill to build around, similar to the arcanist's beam. This way the focus is off of the arcanist's beam and players have more options in what to use. Subclassing isn't the issue here, the issue is that the only class that has a worthwhile easy-to-use/easy-to-build-around channeled skill is the arcanist.

Beam is not overpowered. But I have noticed that even if I do not want to I will slot the arcanist's beam, simply because it is an easy to use/convenient skill.

i dont agree that every class should have a channelled skill but it is a condemnation of the combat system that everyone chooses the channeled skill to avoid having to weave etc. crux is just advanced form of merciless resolve or even an ultimate but the idea here is sound. You build up and then unload at the right time. It has impact without the need for busywork so its very popular. Zos could learn something here.

GloatingSwine · June 24

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Something to think about - it's going to be very easy for the PTB to adjust the arcanist skills downward to make them less attractive - much easier now that they don't have to worry about 'class balance' consequences - should they wish to.

Yeah, but will they?

Or will they nerf everything else to keep the darling safe?

ThetaSigma · June 24

OP is right, I agree with everything. Game over.

CalamityCat · June 24

Subclassing is one of those things that if you don't engage in it, you don't feel welcome in groups so much. So I haven't done a dungeon/trial since just after update 46 hit PTS

All the subclass builds I see just look like a nonsensical pick-and-mix mess. I like my pure classes - that's why I created them! Why on earth would I want them all running the same three class skill lines? LOL. It seems stupid to expect the entire player base to subclass, instead of making it a genuine choice where we can play the game with a real variety of builds and playstyles.

While I can do good dps and heal well, I play ESO primarily to have fun. Repeatedly parsing and changing builds is just a time-wasting grind to me. So I'm not going to follow the trendy players into more meta build nonsense now. I tried it several times before, then just as I was happy with most of my char builds, ZOS announce subclassing and the "balancing" changes turned my pure builds into trash now. It makes no sense for me to redo builds again, even if I did want to subclass. I want to actually play the game, not spend my days building and re-building after the latest nerfs and buffs.

So I've switched to solo playing and stopped doing all the ESO daily chores now. If I fancy a quick ESO session I log in. Most days I don't. I still have things I'd like to do and finish in ESO, but right now the game doesn't feel like somewhere I'm really welcome. Especially with all the breathlessly excited players incessantly telling me how I should subclass. Some players genuinely can't understand that I don't want to hear about every single iteration of their latest subclass build either. Maybe it'll be less annoying when the novelty wears off!

ADarklore · June 24

Bubosh wrote: »

Grab some popcorn play something else and enjoy watching steam player population charts of ESO. Kinda was rly funny to read all the statements of ppl defending subclassing before U46 came out, they told so many stories like "this will get ESO so many new players" and "this is the path eso has to go" and blablabla but Steamchart already now telling the opposite. You are not alone and this is the worst time of ESO sadly. I mean what company would knowingly divide its own player base by such change rather than getting a solution for all of us. "You belong" the biggest lie of U46 since it divided its own community that bad so ppl leave rather xD

You do realize that only a small portion of ESO players play on Steam, right? So it's not a real indicator of the actual player count.

Desiato · June 24

CalamityCat wrote: »

Subclassing is one of those things that if you don't engage in it, you don't feel welcome in groups so much. So I haven't done a dungeon/trial since just after update 46 hit PTS

I can't even imagine this.

I guess for dungeon trifectas, someone might care about subclassing builds, but outside of that subclassing is irrelevant in dungeons. GF pugs are full of bad builds because of low level skill lines while players level subclassing and I haven't observed anyone caring.

Trials are different because raid leads need to cover all bases in terms of passives, buffs, debuffs, etc... but that mainly applies to supports. Even then, many open trial groups are just happy to get any kind of tank or healer.

The DD role is far more flexible as there are a lot of different combinations that can result in good damage. Just because everyone seems to follow the latest trends doesn't mean they have to. Those who do want to do the most damage possible, even if it's just 5% more. This was also true in all previous ESO updates to varying degrees.

Yet I've been in plenty of open raids with no requirements. A small trial guild I'm a member of composed of both tri and more casual players has no subclassing requirements at all. I have observed the same in many smaller open trial communities. We've been running with 2 pure necro tanks lately because who cares? Vet trials are easy anyway.

IMO, only a small percentage of the eso trial community has rigid requirements. They only usually manifest for tri/hm/speed farming groups which is totally fair.

In games like ESO, metas will always emerge. Most players want to do their best and thus will follow them. There will never be total balance. Go back to u45 and there was actually a more rigid structure.

I didn't want subclassing to happen either. But it did and I'm so glad I let go of the past and chose to embrace it because there is fun to be had.

Soarora · June 24

Desiato wrote: »

CalamityCat wrote: »

Subclassing is one of those things that if you don't engage in it, you don't feel welcome in groups so much. So I haven't done a dungeon/trial since just after update 46 hit PTS

I can't even imagine this.

I guess for dungeon trifectas, someone might care about subclassing builds, but outside of that subclassing is irrelevant in dungeons. GF pugs are full of bad builds because of low level skill lines while players level subclassing and I haven't observed anyone caring.

Even for dungeon trifectas. Most dungeons aren't hard and even with regular powercreep have become pretty easy once you're good at the game. If you want to full burn all dungeon trifectas then yeah subclass, but if you wanna do mechanics then you don't need to. Can even burn several dungeons WITHOUT subclassing... my dungeon group will not be enforcing subclassing and half of us have already decided to not subclass.

Koshka · June 24

ADarklore wrote: »

Bubosh wrote: »

Grab some popcorn play something else and enjoy watching steam player population charts of ESO. Kinda was rly funny to read all the statements of ppl defending subclassing before U46 came out, they told so many stories like "this will get ESO so many new players" and "this is the path eso has to go" and blablabla but Steamchart already now telling the opposite. You are not alone and this is the worst time of ESO sadly. I mean what company would knowingly divide its own player base by such change rather than getting a solution for all of us. "You belong" the biggest lie of U46 since it divided its own community that bad so ppl leave rather xD

You do realize that only a small portion of ESO players play on Steam, right? So it's not a real indicator of the actual player count.

You don't need the entire population if you just want to see trends.

Bubosh · June 24

@ADarklore my god another U46 defender which shines in without any legit proof of your sentence, insane don't Tag me if you don't have valid data and a proof for what you are stating pls. Check ESO charts on steam it's a valid source for the Steamplayerbase of ESO and tells at least something. If you are not willing to accept truth then go enjoy your laser show. Peaks of 50k + players online on steam but the guy says without any proof "only small portion plays via steam" I don't get such ppl no offense. Your senseless sentence is hitting hard rly so in your illusion if already steamcharts for ESO going down you don't believe also those Playercharts of the ppl which play via ESO launcher are decreasing?

Bubosh · June 24

Thanks @Koshka you nailed it better with less words

Pixiepumpkin · June 24

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

The laser show. Yes, much has already been said about it - but still, I hate it. I hate subclassing with all my heart. I’d even say PvE DPS gameplay has become outright toxic. I now prefer to play healers or tanks instead. And I have to admit: for support roles, subclassing doesn’t look nearly as bad as it does for DPS. Balance is in the worst place it's ever been in the history of the game.

I tried to enjoy myself. I thought I’d finally be able to play my main Nightblade again, since the meta now includes Arc/NB/Templar. But no - because the class scripting for the banner lets you use the beam even more frequently, which renders most other setups meaningless.

And you know what’s the worst part? The only real solution here is to overhaul a massive portion of the game’s skill lines - something ZoS will never do, because it would demand too much of them. Otherwise, any nerf to Fatecarver would cause massive collateral damage to the entire community - maybe even worse than Update 35. And honestly, I don’t see any way out. Subclassing is a problem in itself. Fatecarver is another problem on its own. And the new content seems tailor-made for Fatecarver.

Another issue: players fundamentally do not understand the importance of personal performance in group content. In pug raids, 50% of DPS are still heavy attackers - even though the Fatecarver meta isn’t that much more difficult, and in some ways is even easier than heavy attack builds. Another 45% are players trying to reinvent the wheel, creating off-meta builds that inevitably underperform. The rest? They’re the ones carrying 50-80% of the total raid DPS.

I used to think the combat system was just too complex for the average player and required a significant learning curve. But when top DPS now requires so little mechanical skill, I find playing off-meta almost disrespectful to the people who carry most of the raid. And it’s not like these are newbies - we’re talking about players with 2k+ CP. I can’t come up with an explanation for this that isn’t insulting to someone.

So yeah, some of you probably won’t understand why I both hate the current meta and insist that people follow it. I have no answer for you.

Next point, which ties into the last one: there’s no fun outside of scheduled raids. The game offers either very easy PvE content or scheduled raid content. I still have some dungeon achievements I’d love to finish - I really enjoy dungeons. But finding people capable of completing DLC hardmodes is nearly impossible. My friends either aren’t interested or are too hard to schedule with. And the majority of players only show up during raid hours.

ZoS has said they want to focus on repeatable content and that the game needs more variety. But in the three years since the content cadence changed, the only major addition has been IA and it’s suffocatingly dull, repetitive, and poorly balanced.

So, my typical ESO day consists of doing crafting writs, Endeavors, a couple of random normals on alts… and that’s it. Sometimes I seriously wonder why I log in at all. Why am I hoarding gold and materials? Why am I doing any of this, if I can only really enjoy the game two nights a week, for two hours each? If you're wondering why high-end players are leaving the game - this is it, 90% of the time.

The only thing that showed real promise for repeatable engagement in ESO has been PvP. But after subclassing launched, I’m afraid to even imagine what’s happening there now. I’ve never liked Cyrodiil - for me, it’s just a place where baiters farm new players, ball groups farm everyone else, and the heavy attack meta trolls the whole zone. I hate it.

I’ve always focused my PvP efforts on battlegrounds. And you know what? I love 8v8. Seriously. But poor matchmaking and how much a match depends on how many healbots your group has has completely turned me off from modern BGs. Tiny maps and game modes like Chaosball with transformation mechanics should honestly just be removed.

And that’s very characteristic of ZoS - one good decision, ten awful ones.

Solstice was awful. Just a tossed salad of old assets with a High Isle color filter slapped on. Yes, there were a few new models, but not enough to make a difference. And don’t even get me started on the main quest - short, predictable, and tonally like a Disney musical.
I genuinely don’t understand why I should be paying $50 for this. That’s double the price for half the content.
And the new “Akatosh Crate Mount” feature is outrageous.

Let’s be honest: this game is over 11 years old. In all that time, ESO never became a truly popular project. It was never a hype beast like some Chinese gachas, and it never became an immortal classic. The only time a surge of players arrived was during COVID - and because the word “Skyrim” was in the name of the chapter.

For too long, ESO was designed purely for box sales to new players. ZoS was very successful at that - 26 million original accounts. But it was a purely consumerist strategy, and it’s run dry. I think the genre itself - MMOs with hardcore content - is mostly a thing of the past. And you can’t keep a large playerbase engaged with just quest content forever.

So, yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if ZoS decided a long time ago that ESO just wasn’t a long-term priority anymore.
Although some recent announcements and changes - like addon support for consoles - might suggest otherwise, to me it all feels more like a last-ditch effort.
I would love to be wrong about that.

?? Eso is one of the most played mmorpgs globally - probably the second largest western one and contributes a significant amount of the overall zos revenue....not sure what you mean by never became popular...

....

Dude, ESO is no where close to being the 2nd best MMORPG, certainly not 1st place. WOW and FFXIV smoke the living heck out of ESO in player numbers.

@Parasaurolophus You are correct on many fronts. Ignore the mean spirited commenary.

Giraffon · June 24

For me, so far subclassing has been a slight quality of life improvement for solo play. In Battlegrounds...well it feels the same. There's always going to be apex predators. You just gotta' figure it out. I'm good with all of it. I didn't expect to be, but I am.

Vonnegut2506 · June 24

Koshka wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

Bubosh wrote: »

Grab some popcorn play something else and enjoy watching steam player population charts of ESO. Kinda was rly funny to read all the statements of ppl defending subclassing before U46 came out, they told so many stories like "this will get ESO so many new players" and "this is the path eso has to go" and blablabla but Steamchart already now telling the opposite. You are not alone and this is the worst time of ESO sadly. I mean what company would knowingly divide its own player base by such change rather than getting a solution for all of us. "You belong" the biggest lie of U46 since it divided its own community that bad so ppl leave rather xD

You do realize that only a small portion of ESO players play on Steam, right? So it's not a real indicator of the actual player count.

You don't need the entire population if you just want to see trends.

And the trend on Steam charts for the last three months and six out of the last seven are increasing players. So I am not sure claiming subclassing is hurting the game is supported by the data you are referencing.

Bubosh · June 24

@Vonnegut2506 not even a month from 26k to 15k ish