did you enjoy the witches festival this year?

LuC1ll3atTh3Wh33L · November 5

don't over-think it. keep it simple.

redlink1979 · November 5

No

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/684442/are-you-enjoying-this-halloween-event/p1

LunaFlora · November 5

Yes

yes.
- Lovely new outfit style, Wickerchain Soul
- Writhing Wall event and Witch Fest at the same time was nice. i like the Worm Cult bosses in delves and public dungeons more than most base game bosses.
- i always love the Witches Fest furniture.
- Subclassing has made combat more enjoyable for me and that includes the Crowborne Horror fight

Its_MySniff · November 5

No

I'd say no. My first one was in 2017. New things have been added, but it still feels stale.

Sarannah · November 5

Yes and no.

Yes: The witches's special bosses and added loot are fun, and sometimes even new recipes or plans. Plus new style pages, which is always good.
No: Due to the writhing wall being live at the same time, I could not make any use of the double exp event. Namely, I am still stuck farming for the house while I wanted to use the double exp event to start atleast one character on their main alliance's questline/zone completion. And due to the event style pages being only one per day, getting many duplicates caused me to have to spend event tickets on the last two style pages(only want to receive these through actual gameplay/playing the event). This daily drop restriction for style pages makes all events useless beyond the only-drop-of-the-day.

BretonMage · November 5

Yes

I enjoyed the roadside encounters, the Hollowjack quest and fight, as well as the Apocrypha furnishings.

DenverRalphy · November 5

No

I voted no. Not that I disliked it by any means. Just that the Witches Festival is more of a non-event for me now. Which is unfortunate, because I like that it was designed to get everybody out participating in a wide variety of activities. Unfortunately the rewards seem to have exceeded their expiration date, and not many players want or need them anymore.

cyclonus11 · November 5

No

Didn't really have time to fully enjoy it due to the Writhing Wall event going on at the same time. Not a fan of overlapping events, it turns out.

Also ended up having to buy most of the style pages from guild traders due to the drops not being curated (I got like 2 repeatedly), and not having the time needed to get multiple gold plunder skulls per day.

Onomos · November 5

No

I liked the novelty of the Hollowjack fight when they introduced it last year. Didn't do it once this year. I just got my 2 tickets and moved on. At least it's less annoying than the New Life event.

Syldras · November 5

They'd just need to update the content of the reward boxes to something new (with a reasonable drop rate - basically replacing the old style pages), then it would be okay.

spartaxoxo · November 5

I can't vote because I wouldn't say I liked it
But, I wouldn't say I didn't either. Overall, I felt pretty neutral on it. I was annoyed by the rewards. But, it provided a nice buff to Writhing Wall because the WW event had overlapping activities.

Besides finally getting around to doing the secret quest, which got annoying towards the end due to poor rng with spawn rates, I didn't participate in it as much as years past. The secret quest was at least interesting but they should do something about spawns to make it less time consuming so the ending lands better.

Anyway, overall the event was just kind of there for me. Like, it's just a thing that happened.

Gabriel_H · November 5

Yes

Levelled (then deleted) 5 classes and polished off the achievements. Thanks double XP.

scrappy1342 · November 5

No

as much as i'd like to say yes.... this is one of my favorite events. ghost netch pet, skelly dog pet, that year they added the weird jar furnishings in... all great stuff. had so much fun.

but this year was just the same ol' same ol'. i didn't even get my last 2 tickets this morning. the random encounters are neat, but without something to point you towards them (without having to look it all up), they get lost. it's definitely time to wipe the loot slate clean.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · November 5

No

I did one WB a day to get my tickets; that's it. There was nothing worth grinding for.

Destai · November 5

Yes

I did!

It was nice to get the double XP and the new style. Short, sweet, and productive event for me.

ZOS_Kevin · November 5

@LuC1ll3atTh3Wh33L Thanks for the thread. Always good to see what folks think here.

For those that voted no, what would the Witches Festival event need to do for you to enjoy it? Happy to send suggestions to the team.

SilverBride · November 5

No

I didn't enjoy it just because I've done it so many times through the years and there was nothing new.

Erickson9610 · November 5

Yes

I voted yes, but please let werewolves crouch/sneak so they can do the mechanics in the Hollowjack boss fight like everyone else.

@ZOS_Kevin

AScarlato · November 5

Yes

I haven't done the boss fights before, so since it was new to me- yes.

Also pretty easy event tickets and plunder from things I was doing from basic story questing.

freespirit · November 5

No

First time ever I just didn't see the point.

This was mainly due to the fact that besides the Style page there was nothing new.

If these Events are going to be repeated every year then imo they have to have a selection of new stuff!

I got my tickets each day and walked away.

I love it when there are new furnishings in the pot, they can be simple nothing fancy needed, the Apocrypha Jars etc were great.

@ZOS_Kevin I would farm skulls all day, if there was new furniture in them!!

Mattymoo92 · November 5

No

For me, I’d like it if there was maybe a rewards refresh every now and again to spice things up. The new style + body/face markings are nice but other than that the rewards are old. Maybe bringing back former event rewards such as the skele Marionette bones and those masks would be a good idea- as a rare drop so it’s valuable to sell then people will interact with the event more?

Maybe instead of the current selection of alchemy ingredients it gets expanded (since witch’s love their alchemy) or make it so there is a rare chance alchemy surveys and writs drop from the boxes
Adding more furnishings the other year was a good idea and I think every holiday event should drop unique furnishings (such as Xmas, Hearts day etc) adding a few new furnishing or plans each year would keep it fresh

Adding artefacts style pages is another suggestion since there is many that haven’t been released yet such as Sanguines rose (this could drop from hearts day boxes for example) and Auriels bow
Honestly, compared to some other events I wouldn’t change too much other than the rewards (we already have 2 quests which are great)

Personally I’d much prefer other events to be improved for the future— such as Jesters and New life event

spartaxoxo · November 5

Refresh the rewards. Stuff that's been there for years needs to be stuffed into grab bags and retired from dropping. Also, and I can't stress this enough, the rewards for events do not always need to be armor style pages. It's gotten formulaic and stale.

For the secret quest chain, Increase the spawn rate of the NPC you need if you have their item in your bag. Also make that item able to be locked. E.g. the fork, the cat-shaped ward, etc. It took an hour of running back and forth to trigger the NPC I needed, kept getting the same ones over and over. Killed what should have been a fun Easter egg's enjoyment by quite a bit.

Some way to inject new gameplay. Nothing crazy just spooky and fun. The Witches Writs were great at first and so was Hallowjack but it gets old after so many years.

Mattymoo92 · November 5

No

Buff Werewolf as a whole please 🙏 they’ve been lagging behind for too long 🥺🥺

cyclonus11 · November 5

No

The dremora motifs should be retired IMHO. Maybe put the complete motif book in Philius Dormier's list of wares for those that might still need it, or for new players.

The same with the Glenmoril style pages (both the weapons from the maps and armor styles) - you can't give those away, and most people are just destroying them.

WyldFox · November 5

No

As others have said, the event has grown rather stale. The rewards are no different year to year other than maybe a face/body skin and whichever pet pieces have to be collected.

In its current state, the Witches Festival is more exciting for new players but not overly appealing for veteran players. My wife and I used to look forward to this event every year, but that joy waned a few years back.

I think a lot refresh would help, but also maybe some other activities, as well. This may seem redundant to a degree with the Witches Writs, but maybe even a crafting element outside of crafting the event recipes for some extra rewards or unique set of crates would be a nice change of pace. Maybe even some better/different rewards that can be bought with tickets.

Having the event overlap with another event was also a bit overwhelming. I would try to avoid that, going forward.

DenverRalphy · November 5

No

@ZOS_Kevin Just a few ideas I heard knocked around during similar conversations with friends/guildies.

Retire the Dremora and Hollowjack motif drops. Make their respective full books purchasable via the holiday achievement vendor.
Retire the Glenmoril Wyrd style pages, bundle them up, and make them earnable collectibles via holiday achievements.
Start fresh with a whole new motif style to replace the Dremora/Hollowjack motif drops. Keep them a guaranteed drop from gold plunders skulls, and entertain the possibility of lowering the drop rate from the purple skulls.
Change the grab bag to drop 2 or 3 curated past festival rewards per purchase rather than 1 item at a time, as the pool of items in the grab bag is getting a bit large.

Titler01 · November 5

No

Add in a simpler way to try and catch up with the insane backlog of rewards now piling up in the Witches Grab Bag; when you need 2 tokens for each bag, and you can potentially get only 1 of 10 fragments from each, it's extremely offputting... especially when running simultaneous with a 3 part sub requirement on a 5 part house, during a secondary global event.

Maybe switch out the hoardes of duplicate recipes for Bag Credit instead; even if the odds were low, a toggle to get a quarter of a bag (say) instead of yet more Dremora would be great.

New content of course would break up the tedium; something involving less combat would be nice, maybe involving a bit sillier roleplay, such as rewarding players for running up to each other, or hiding in Delves in monster etc costumes and emoting /boo at each other. Something people can do socially as they play at their own pace. Or randomly teleporting to someone when in their homes and Trick Or Treating them...

spartaxoxo · November 5

Also, I want to say, don't be afraid to add smaller things for atmosphere. It's always seems to be go big or do nothing with stuff you guys add to events. But, it don't gotta be that way.

New Temporary vendors with festive decorations all around them could be added to sell off old stuff (and a few new things too).

New World let people trick or treat by having the event boss drop temporary costumes. You had to have one equipped to loot the treat basket. I don't want this game to just copy paste that into the game as I don't think that necessarily fits the tone of Witches Festival, but it's an example of the type of small things that can be added to make things more festive. Like what if equipping the masks/witch hat that we get from Witches Festival (or the Witches Hat) gave us a chance to drop stuff from certain fights or enter Hallowjack portals at encounter areas for some small fight and reward?

IDK just tossing out there that injecting some new things doesn't have to mean overly elaborate.

UrQuan · November 5

I didn't vote because I felt ambivalent about the Witches Festival this year, despite usually enjoying it.

I'd say there wasn't anything that I specifically disliked about the Witches Festival this year, it's just that it felt like there wasn't anything new either (yes, I know there were new style pages, but there wasn't anything new to do). Having said that, I actually really like the Hollowjack fight, but I got bored of it pretty quickly, and I realized that the reason I got bored of a fight that I otherwise enjoy and the Witches Festival in general so quickly this year is because I'm feeling burnt out by the tediousness, boredom, and many, many bugs of the ongoing Writhing Wall event.

So for me, this year's Witches Festival felt like just another dull tick-the-boxes chore because that's how I've been feeling about the Writhing Wall event that's been going on simultaneously.

Orbital78 · November 5

My only real gripe is the scaling of the Hallowjack. I don't mind running new players through it, but it is actually better to run with under 6. I noticed most pug groups forming in zone were large groups. The number of crows might be better capped lower or the resource drain toned down. There are ways to mitigate it for experienced players, but most new players were dying left and right. This is even when a few players were going around shooing the crows.

Overall the overlap of Witches fest and the Wall Event was probably good for the player base. Though it probably did deter from the event some, but then again no everyone has Solstice to do the event too.

MageCatF4F · November 5

No

It is one of the better returning events for several reasons, many of which other posters have highlighted.

I actually enjoyed several aspects. The loot, however, is old, stale, and in the case of Dremora Plunders not anything I want.

I would prefer a chance for those somewhat unique furnishings to drop in any plunderskull - both purple and gold.

But that steady, mind numbing stream of motifs (any of them) and Glenmoril things - I just deleted them all.

Change the loot, introduce more variety, and you have a good one.

The Elder Scrolls Online

did you enjoy the witches festival this year?

did you enjoy the witches festival this year? 257 votes