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PTS Update 48 - Feedback Thread for Eastern Solstice

ZOS_Kevin
ZOS_Kevin
Community Manager
This is the official feedback thread for Eastern Solstice, mainly focusing on the zone, side quests, and other types of content found in the area. If you have specific feedback on the main story, please visit this thread so others can avoid spoilers. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:
  • Entering Eastern Solstice
    • Were you able to get through the wall okay after the Writhing Wall event concluded?
    • Were you able to find the main quest givers to continue the main quest?
  • Quests
    • Did you engage with the Main Story?
    • Did you find it easy to get the Main Story quests?
    • Did you engage with any quests outside of the main story? If so, which ones?
    • Did you find any quests to be problematic from either a directional or difficulty standpoint?
  • World Bosses
    • Did you fight any world bosses? If so, which ones?
    • Were any of them too easy or too hard?
    • Were mechanics clearly communicated?
  • Public Dungeons
    • Did you go into the new public dungeon?
    • Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged?
    • Did you go in with or without a companion?
  • Zone
    • What did you think of the Eastern Solstice environment?
    • Did you encounter any new enemies you haven't seen before? What did you think of them?
    • Now that the entire Solstice zone has been unlocked, what do you think of the overall process for Seasons of the Worm Cult unlocking access to part of a zone?
    • Do you have any other general feedback?
Edited by ZOS_Kevin on 16 September 2025 14:06
Community Manager for ZeniMax Online Studio and Elder Scrolls OnlineDev Tracker | Service Alerts | ESO Twitter
Staff Post
  • Freelancer_ESO
    Freelancer_ESO
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    Were you able to get through the wall okay after the Writhing Wall event concluded?

    I was on a template char so I was able to get thru the wall.

    Were you able to find the main quest givers to continue the main quest?

    I was able to complete the Eastern Main Quest on the Template char. The Template char got stuck on part of the Main Quest for the West and is unable to turn in Support the Fellowship. I also had spoilers for the West Main Quest in the dialogue of other quests.

    Did you engage with the Main Story?

    Yeah, I completed the Eastern Section and Bonus Quest

    Did you find it easy to get the Main Story quests?

    For the East it was

    Did you engage with any quests outside of the main story? If so, which ones?

    I think I did most of them.

    Did you find any quests to be problematic from either a directional or difficulty standpoint?

    I didn't have any serious issues. Seaside caves lacked a visual map.

    Did you fight any world bosses? If so, which ones?

    I fought Zyv with a sizeable group. He wasn't too bad with a sizeable group once you knew the mechanics. I took a bit of a performance hit when the waves occurred.

    I didn't bother with the others after him because he looked like he'd be horrible to fight without a larger group and I assumed the others would be similar.

    Did you go into the new public dungeon?

    Yeah I cleared it with a companion.

    Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged?

    It felt like the difficulty/time to kill varied a fair bit. At one point you go from a boss with like 300k hp (which respawned rather fast) to a boss with six million. The six million wasn't exactly hard but, it was a slog.

    What did you think of the Eastern Solstice environment?

    I liked that the Hadolid's are continuing to learn magic.

    It really felt like the Worm Cult put tons of effort into decorating and that perhaps Tamriel would have fallen if they focused a bit more on other things. Sections of the Worm Cult areas did remind me of stuff from LOTRO so it felt perhaps less new to me than it might have otherwise.

    Visually, it felt like significant sections of the Overland areas felt quite similar to other existing Overland areas.

    The delves definitely delivered when it came to overall visual spectacle and I liked that you didn't have quite as much of a maze to get the skyshards. However, it did feel that they were a bit less "alive"/interesting than some of the game prior delves to me.

    It can kind of feel like the zone is sitting in the past after you clear the story stuff since so much of the zone is about fighting a single faction.

    Do you have any other general feedback?

    I really liked the choices in dialogue response. I liked the quest where the npc ended up actually dusting a few other npcs. Even some of the really short quests felt interesting enough and made the world feel a bit more alive.


    Now that the entire Solstice zone has been unlocked, what do you think of the overall process for Seasons of the Worm Cult unlocking access to part of a zone?


    I'm not sure it's an approach that you'd want to take regularly as it can leave players a bit unclear as to what they are buying and the quality of the experience can potentially very dramatically depending on how the work together parts actually end up going on live.
  • Syldras
    Syldras
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    So, I finished East Solstice on PTS twice. First time on a template character in week 1. There I needed to do the West Solstice main questline to start the East Solstice one (which was done in half an hour), but except for that, that character had finished no quest content. Second time was now in week 3, on my copied EU main character who has done all quest content in ESO (except for the quests in PvP Cyrodiil, and a few dlc dungeon and trial quests). I wanted to be able to compare how much dialogue options may differ, and also, I wanted to be absolutely sure of the judgement I make.

    Talking about time, the quests of the East Solstice questline took me about half an hour each, which means about 3 hours in total. When dialogues are fully voiced (for German, they weren't on PTS yet) and one listens to dialogues, it might take a little longer. Side quests took me maybe 4.5 hours in total, although one was bugged rather early, so I couldn't progress that one this time. I guess that would have been another half hour, so it's roughly 5 hours of side quest content - so 8 hours in total for East Solstice, including the main quest.

    To answer questions...

    Were you able to get through the wall okay after the Writhing Wall event concluded?

    Yes.

    Were you able to find the main quest givers to continue the main quest?

    Directly after the end of the last Part 1 story quest? Not naturally. I needed to use the "continue zone" thing in the menu to be directed to the next location. Overview is lacking in the Solstice main camp with there being quest markers for different things everywhere.

    Finding the quest npcs on the other side of the Wall wasn't hard, though.

    Did you engage with the Main Story?

    Finished it twice. Review here in the main story thread:
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8375141/#Comment_8375141

    Did you find it easy to get the Main Story quests?

    Yes.

    Did you engage with any quests outside of the main story? If so, which ones?

    All I could find. It were 12; and from those 12, 3 didn't seem to be tied to a locations but strewn about the landscape. Those are easier to miss. I actually think I might have missed a few (Especially the Coldharborized parts of the East Solstice landscape seemed rather empty? So maybe there was something I didn't see? Which again makes me thing this game needs a quest list in the menu somewhere, so you could easily check whether you've found all of them). When exploring, I usually follow all roads (sometimes I even go collect all side quests first before actually doing any of them - did that on my 2nd PTS run this time, took me half an hour just to collect quests following the roads), and after that, I might look at buildings/structures I see on the map that are a bit off the roads, checking whether it might be something of interest.

    Detailed side quest reviews following.

    Did you find any quests to be problematic from either a directional or difficulty standpoint?

    No.

    Did you fight any world bosses? If so, which ones?

    No. I played alone, and since soloing world bosses might take a whole while, I didn't try.

    Did you go into the new public dungeon?

    Yes.

    Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged?

    Having played all of ESO's zones, I'd say it seemed to be average public dungeon difficulty when it comes to both mobs and bosses. I didn't fight all bosses, but the ones I fought weren't hard. But they never are. I've been playing this game for 9 years and use gold quality gear sets, though. Not sure if that's what the average player does.

    Did you go in with or without a companion?

    Without.

    What did you think of the Eastern Solstice environment?

    Beautifully designed, as always.

    Did you encounter any new enemies you haven't seen before? What did you think of them?

    Looked fine and plausible, I also appreciate that we got lore books on them.

    Now that the entire Solstice zone has been unlocked, what do you think of the overall process for Seasons of the Worm Cult unlocking access to part of a zone?

    Splitting the story in two parts felt artificial/constructed. But the main problem is that it reduced the sense of urgency and immersion - you basically rush through Part 1, then have that months long wait, then you rush through Part 2. The whole pace somehow doesn't feel right. Part 1 also led to lots of lore questions or even expectations/theorizing and not seeing any of that in Part 2 getting answered or taking place was underwhelming. But that's something for the main story thread.

    I'd rather not see split stories like that again in the future. I'd say I'd rather prefer two seperate shorter stories if there's a plan to release story content both in summer and in winter (Q2 and Q4), but then again, the whole Solstice story unfortunately wasn't long either. The whole thing would have been sufficient as one separate dlc, for the typical story dlc price.

    Do you have any other general feedback?

    Side quest reviews: Giving a bit of commentary on all side quests I found, in the order I played them now during the second run. I'll usually give the quest name, unless I missed to note it or it was already translated to German, so I don't know the English name. In that case, I'll also add the name of the questgiver in brackets.
    A Fullfilled Aim(?) (Ezhkel):
    I really liked this one! My second favorite side quest in East Solstice. It was a good start for run 2, and a surprise when I came across it, as I missed this one during the first run. While I'm not sure what to think about the ongoing "humanization" of daedra we see in ESO, I think this character had an interesting background (especially if you have played other content before) and dialogues were well-written. I liked that our class was recognized, I liked the care that went into dialogues, even into lines that only come up if you talk to the character again inbetween quest steps. Some parts were genuinely funny, but not in a silly way. I liked the options we were given in dialogues, although for roleplay reasons I think it would be good to have one for characters who are rather sceptical or negative towards daedra. The "puzzle" at the beginning wasn't difficult, but it was fun nonetheless. The only thing I might criticize a bit is that our character has no dialogue option other than to be hesitant when it comes to "sacrificing" Ezhkel - since my character is very well aware that daedra don't actually die and the process of "killing" them is just needed, and nothing bad or "evil" at all, if they want to get a new body. So there's no reason to whine if a daedra wants to "die" - having our character do that doesn't consider what daedra are and how their "laws of nature" work. Quest took about 20 minutes in total.

    Dismantling the Worm Cult(?) (Ojouna): A simple rescue quest (nothing too interesting for me, but I'm fine with a few rescue or fetch quests in each zone, for the sake of variety). I liked that you can make a choice at the end. Quest took less than 10 minutes.

    Death Hounds Devotion: I just needed to kill one mob?! This was extremely short and didn't even take 2 minutes in total, including all dialogues. There are random encounters that have more content. It was a bit underwhelming, since I usually expect quests to consist of a bit more. Might have worked as the onset of a longer quest.

    Lost Among the Ashes: I really dislike this one. It's a bit sad since location and setting could have made me love the whole thing, but I absolutely dislike how we have no agency about what happens. We get dialogue options to say we spare characters, but they get killed by our "companion" in that story nonetheless - why give us that choice then? I also dislike how the murder of people who have just surrendered is depicted like a funny "joke". And most of all, our character can't even say anything about that. No dialogue options at all, no way to comment on that behavior - rather strange how we're usually supposed to be "the good hero" - would a "good hero" behave like that and just stand back and watch? Same goes for the ending, of course; it's a long quest, 25 minutes or so, and then again, we get an "option" how to treat that one npc, and no matter what we say, it gets ignored and the npcs gets murdered. It could have easily been written as knocking that character out and bringing him to a healer. We know that a cure for vampirism does exist in ESO. And when it comes to the puzzle in that quest: It's fine, but too repetative. Doing exactly the same thing thrice isn't very interesting.

    Blood on the Water: A nice and rather long pirate story (over 20 minutes), I liked the story itself, but running back and forth all the time was a little strange. Also how there's always another task more (or two more) that get added. It doesn't feel like a "natural" progress of the story, but more like "Oh, and by the way, also fetch this:" - and that's happening how often during that quest? 4 or 5 times? What I did like was that there was a variety of tasks. Giving the speech was fun. I liked that old quests were referenced. The writing itself was good. The "naval battle" was a bit disappointing since it was just another boss fight, but on a ship - no extra mechanics. I expected a bit more, especially considering what we got in the base game during the Aldmeri Dominion storyline 11 years ago. I also already mentioned it in the bug thread, but: The map of the cave system is still missing.

    The Hermit in the Hills: Bringing food to an npc. Done in a minute. A few dialogue options, which I did like (My general stance is: The more choices the better!). It was a nice little quest, I guess, but it didn't really feel meaningful or exciting. To cook soup for a granny, I don't need to play an epic fantasy game.

    The quest within Calindvale Gardens that I always forget to note the name of: A straightforward rescue quest. Not very interesting. Took about 20 minutes since the dungeon is big. It looks nice - all dungeons do - , but to really interest me, quests needs more on the story/lore side.

    A Traitor's Tyranny: Another straightforward rescue quest. Took me about 12 to 15 minutes, which seems to be the average time for a side quest. Beautiful building, as usual. Lore seemed inconsistent; we've been told that no one has been in East Solstice for 30 or 40 years or so, and then there's this school on the East, with students who, before the Wall, seemed to cross to West Solstice casually all the time?! But no one from the West ever seemed to know about their existence either, despite them being a part of that Altmer College well-known in the West. It doesn't add up.

    To Know the Void(?) (Sahmazim): A 5 minute fetch quest. Npc is clearly related to the Dark Brotherhood - why can't our character say anything about that and doesn't get dialogue choices to reflect their stance on this?

    Roots in Stone: A nice, longer, well-written quest with a variety of tasks and different dialogue options. Could be one of my favorites from Solstice. Unfortunately, it was bugged both in my 1st and my 2nd PTS run. First time, the bug was near the end, at least, so I can say it took me about 30 minutes or so, and it was generally a nice experience and well-written.

    A Cold Grave: Another 1 minute "just dialogue" quest - we saw the spirit of someone's dead husband and got the task to inform the spouse about it. Different dialogue options, including to flirt with the widow who just learnt about her husband's death. I didn't test it, not sure what the reaction would be.

    Choice and Consequence: I loved this one! Easily my favorite from East Solstice, and maybe also for whole Solstice (it's in close competition with the Corelanya Manor quest). A long quest (maybe 40 minutes), a variety of tasks, lots of different choices to make, not only in dialogue (had lots of fun with that, though, and tried different things on 2 characters). Different endings, too, I guess? And different paths to get to that point. You can even behave horribly, which I really appreciate, for the sake of roleplaying what ever character we have in mind. I wish we could have chosen to fully go that path (Why not turn Cariel in instead of a disguised Worm Cultist, if we dislike her anyway?). But the direction was a good one. Now I'd love to see that in more quests, even within a main quest. If all quests were on that level, I'd never complain again (although, of course, simple fetch quests don't need different endings - but for more complex stories, I'd like to see something akin to this). A few smaller notes: The Staff of Magnus still hasn't been fixed yet. It still looks like Vanus Galerion's staff. And shouldn't new disguises go into the collection menu now? I'd really hope we might see the new ones from East Solstice getting added (also from the quests with Sahmazim and Ezhkel). The resurfacing of Naemon also leads to a question: What happens to the Old Life quest now, where we can see his spirit sometimes? He's not dead anymore, after all. Generally, the Old Life quest could need an update to reflect the events of newer chapters. I think the updates had stopped with Blackwood.

    Generally, I enjoyed having different dialogue options or dialogues that acknowledged our class or skills. It could have been even more, for my taste, but it was a nice start. I'd especially like to see it for situations that call for a statement coming from our character, and that are more meaningful and morally interesting than whether to share soup with a granny or not.

    What I found disappointing though was that there weren't many lorebooks. I think I only found 6 or 7 or so? Yes, there were lots of letters, mostly from the Worm Cult, but that was mostly just info on recent events telling us where to go next. That's not comparable to actual background lore, from my point of view. In Solstice, we're basically running through beautiful sceneries, but rarely actually learn something about a place. Feels like a wasted opportunity to me, sadly.
    @Syldras | PC | EU
    The forceful expression of will gives true honor to the Ancestors.
    Sarayn Andrethi, Telvanni mage (Main)
    Darvasa Andrethi, his "I'm NOT a Necromancer!" sister
    Malacar Sunavarlas, Altmer Ayleid vampire
    Soris Rethandus, a Sleeper not yet awake
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