did you enjoy the witches festival this year?

xencthlu · November 6

Yes

I love the Witches Festival. I love to stockpile all of the furnishings. I love how every activity I do gets me a little extra reward. This year, I somehow didn't get all of the new wickerchain style pages in spite of getting multiple gold skulls every day. That was frustrating. There's over a thousand posted on the guild traders, but for some reason, people are still posting them for 20k+. I'm going to have to wait until people come to their senses and post them for what they're really worth before I can finish that out. I find that stressful.

I didn't enjoy having to juggle two events. The Writhing Wall being active at the same time as the Halloween event made it harder to enjoy the Halloween event for me. And I have not enjoyed the WW event. I'm actually pretty sad that the Halloween event I enjoyed ended before the Writhing Wall, the event I don't.

Edit: Oh, and *let werewolves sneak!* I don't play werewolves, but it's crazy they're so heavily penalized in the Hallowjack fight.

OnnuK · November 6

No

After investing over 10,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online, I've hit a wall. For the first time, I've completely disengaged from the game's core loop, including its major events.

The issue is the severe lack of innovation. The events—even my favorites, like the Witches Festival—have become so mechanically repetitive that the rewards no longer justify the time commitment.

This shift in 2025 is significant:
I skipped my first daily and weekly Endeavors.
I skipped the entire summer event slate.
I even skipped the Witches Festival.

I purchased the latest Chapter/Season Pass, but the content alone isn't enough to overcome the stale feel of the live-service events. It's time to step away until ZOS/Devs address the pattern of recycled event content
Cheers...

Buffy121 · November 6

Yes

It's my favourite event. There are lots of furnishings to collect in the plunder skulls and the event seller. I also like the roadside interactions and that almost everything you do results in a plunder skull. The extra experience is great too.

colossalvoids · November 6

Not really participating after years in the game but that's still one of the best events ESO have for newer players. I wish there were expansions to those eventually like we have with fight encounters nowadays, but maybe some new quest or two a year would do to keep it "fresh", not just swapping the rewards. By quests I mean not a fetch "collect x" ones but genuinely good, preferably more serious and thematic ones and not just a comedic relief as we're always getting making ESO feel too artificial as everything and everyone is a running joke now.

Gabriel_H · November 6

Yes

Erickson9610 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

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.

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

Bad dog!

Grec1a · November 6

No

Titler01 wrote: »

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.

Couldn't have said it better myself - except I would add that the skeletal marionette parts should be put back in the general loot table. There is an achievement attached to them, and they are selling for 500k each - well out of reach of the average new player.

Lugaldu · November 6

No

Like so many others, I've participated in the Witches Festival countless times (7 years), and this year it felt particularly unsatisfying. Yes, there were new style pages, but I received almost exclusively Dremora and Glenmoril Wyrd stuff. Not a single Apocrypa furnishing dropped for me. The Witches Festival writs are also completely pointless if they only reward style pages that you've already learned years ago. The joy of "hunting for Plunder skulls" from previous years was completely gone.

Grafahel · November 6

Yes

I always do, favorite event of the year. Yeah some new loot from the plunder skulls and all would be cool, and I feel like last year I ran into more random encounters in the wild, like sort of ' hollowjack portals' where an assortment of enemies would pop out. But all in all, I still enjoy it. I feel like for me to say 'no I didn't enjoy it' would be to effectively say I'd rather there be no Witches festival, so the choice is a little black and white here. But could they expand upon it and refresh it? Sure.

Erickson9610 · November 6

Yes

I want to say that I voted yes because I didn't hate the Witches Festival. Actually, I enjoyed the atmosphere with the decorated towns (even Solstice had decorations!) and the furniture that dropped from the plunder skulls could go right into the Furnishing Vault to free up inventory space. It's my favorite time of the year, so I'm fond of the event.

SeaGtGruff · November 6

Yes

At first I was afraid that having two events running concurrently would be an issue, but it turned out (for me, at least) that they meshed together very well and didn't conflict with each other.

anadandy · November 6

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@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.

Better and/or less stale rewards. Curated drop rates for new items or remove some of the layers of RNG for drops.

I've been playing this event since it started. Ive always liked it as an event because you can just play the game normally and get tickets/skull drops, if you so choose.

HOWEVER: Opening gold skulls and getting [very old style page I couldnt pay people to take] [witches writ] was not rewarding - literal trash for me. I never managed to get the full new style set, I have 3 netch shreds after all the years of those being available (they got booted to grab bags, I think? Why those and not the Glenmoril Wyrd maps?)

I'm probably an outlier in that I dont need some big new super boss added to an event - I simply want the participation to be worth my time.

old_scopie1945 · November 6

No

Same old same old, after I unlocked the Coven Cottage there was nothing more in it for me. Fare enough for those that like it, for me it is just a distraction and not worth it anymore.

Aylish · November 6

No

There is far too little reward from Plunder Skulls. The same old furnishings and furnishing plans that everyone already has and just a few new style pages.
Then there are those Glenmoryl maps that just clutter up all the inventories and only drop one old style page no one needs anymore.

The good thing is that you can collect the skulls while playing the game so the actual event stuff will take less than five minutes.

I‘m almost done with the yesteryear skulls. Only two old fragments left. So next year, I‘ll be finally done with that event. It‘s just a source for event tickets.

JaxontheUnfortunate · November 6

No

Outside of boxes from daily random dungeons I didn’t really engage in it because werewolf can’t sneak during HJ event and rewards were nothing all that interesting.

Barovia87 · November 6

No

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@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.

On one side you have new players staring down 11+ years of Event loot bloat, which can be daunting and even off-putting (so many individual pet and emote fragments to keep track of, so many old styles).

And on the other hand you have veteran players who are deeply bored because there's nothing substantially new to do or collect and the loot tables are largely garbage if you've been playing for any length of time whatsoever.

So, yeah. New content absolutely needs to be rolled in to breathe some life into this event. But for the love of all that's holy: please do not just haphazardly add more stuff without ALSO streamlining the old loot tables, achievements, etc, in the process. The bloat is already a nightmare.

Also: I don't know how many times it needs to be said, but: overlapping Events suck, they have always sucked, and y'all should enshrine that truth back at headquarters. Have it bronzed.

And this was, without exaggerating, the suckiest Event overlap of them all - largely because The Writhing Wall was designed from the ground up to be a punishing, repetitive, drawn out, tedious grind-fest. The Writhing Wall - a "Once in a Lifetime!" Event - was also rolled out infested with bugs. Everyone is tired, man. People have lives. More grinding(!) for sub-par, labyrinthine rewards during Witches Festival is impressing exactly no one. ESO is a game. Games are meant to be fun. Y'all need to remember that, too.

Edit: spelling (typing on mobile)

manukartofanu · November 6

Yes

I didn’t really enjoy the event itself, but rather the few overlapping things that happened at the same time — the release of the patch with a lot of new blueprints, the transition to phase 2 on Solstice, and the event. The Witches Festival quests themselves were just as boring as ever; I only did them for the tickets.

Dojohoda · November 6

Yes/no and I don't spent much time on it because I have been here for every single time the event occurred. There's something new every year and I appreciate that, but I can comfortably choose a smaller level of participation.

Vulkunne · November 6

Yes

It was great as always and was able to finally finish my subclassing grind at same time. Did not participate in that other event. lol

scrappy1342 · November 6

No

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@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.

really like the idea of putting the old motifs/styles into books on the vendors. it is really time to retire them.

if you want a low effort idea, new furnishings and patterns are always fun. even ppl who don't do housing can sell those. the style pages are new each year but.... there should be more fun costumes. the wickerchain thing was kinda boring. that year y'all did the stuffed dino costume (may have been a daedra, but it looks like dino pajamas and it's wonderful) was REALLY popular. fun costumes would make more sense than weird dark armor imo... and now that i think about it, that dino costume may have been for jester's >.> again, costumes make sense for halloween.

if you want a bit of a high effort idea.... it's a FESTIVAL. add in a faire grounds where we could play games to earn our tickets and/or purple boxes. if it's too much trying to make something like that for the open world, make a haunted house/fun house dungeon that has mini games instead of just all combat. doesn't have to be open all year round. just during the event like the crow and hollowjack.

Vaqual · November 6

Might be a bit childish, but I was too upset about the animation changes and the related bugs to play. Only collected the daily tickets.

aetherix8 · November 6

Yes

I didn't really participate in it that much, but it was convenient how both events could be done at the same time. Very good grind efficiency. Also, some skeleton cursed me and I got for 12 hours this nice effect/animation after a fast travel.

whitecrow · November 6

No

I used to look forward to this event every year but it is stale now. The rewards are disappointing. I did Hollowjack and Skrike and wondered why anyone would do either of them more than once. The random encounters did not work for me - only heard a voice, but no one was around. So I am just doing one thing to get tickets because I would like the home.

Divine1976 · November 6

No

Too many recycled rewards.

Tommy_The_Gun · November 6

No

2 events at the same time is too much for me....

Jarakeen · November 6

No

Tbh all the annual events have become pretty stale. It's always the same loot drops and always the same quests. I understand that you want to make the achievements available for everyone and I agree, but isn't there a way to make the events special for those of us who have been playing for years. I love how generous the drops are, but I think we need something new.

No more Dremora motifs or Glenmoril maps

No more vampire furnishings - or make it easier for me to give them away. lol

What about a scavenger hunt with year specific Witch's fest pets of silly titles? Silly hats maybe? Or perhaps a haunted house themed event? I'm imagining Golden Pursuit mixed with a CoD battle pass lol.

Also a way to queue up for the hallowjack and crow fight would be helpful.

rothan117 · November 6

No

Biggest problem is no real reason to do content that is old and tired. Old motifs that everybody already has. It needs more variety.

lonewolf26 · November 6

Yes

While I did enjoy most aspects of the event I feel that the Glenmoril Maps and Dremora pages probably should be relegated to the Impersario's Witches Grab Bag or perhaps just only awarded to people who do not already have these completed. Most of us who have been through the event in years past already have dozens of these. There's just no value to selling them on the guild traders and most cannot be vendored due to their being 0-cost.

Alarra · November 6

No

The event on its own is okay, but is repetitive after this long. Adding more encounters and bosses, but not switching out old ones, just makes it feel like an even longer list of chores. Almost all the loot from it is no longer worth anything to the point it pretty much can't be given away - I was mostly in it for the event tickets and daily new style page, and to help a friend who's getting back into the game gather things that they didn't have yet. I think a better option would be to rotate activities/rewards every few years and add more new ones.

Having it run at the same time as the Writhing Wall event was a bit much. Please don't do multiple events at the same time like that.

wolfie1.0. · November 6

No

No, only because I felt pressured for time to actually enjoy it.

One of my pet peeves about eso is that both updates AND events tend to start and or end towards the end/beginning of the month. Which means they always conflict. This is fine when an updates launches with no issues. But when there are issues.... well look up all the forum posts about having events extended due to down time.

AcadianPaladin · November 7

Yes

My elf's passion is hunting bosses so this event is a winner since she just does what comes naturally. As far as the loot goes, she got the things she wanted from the Witches Fest years ago and generally doesn't care about loot - just about having fun.