Writhing Wall Event Update

kind_hero · November 18

I sincerely hope this pain point will become a turning point, and our constructive feedback will be taken more seriously, especially early feedback given on the PTS, or in general. As someone who is with you since the very beginning, I was hoping for a director that is more in touch with the players. This is good news.

I also wish to see this fortress return as you imagined it to be, and see more of such ambitious ideas. I like that you tried and risked it. But the design of the event wasn't too interesting. I am very glad for the tone of this announcement. Thank you very much!

Castagere · November 18

Wow, this was a big surprise. I was wondering if they would stand up and take accountability for this. And 8000 seals are a nice giveaway. So I will just say thank you and not add to the pile-on post, trying to find fault with this. Some people will never be happy and need to complain.

shadyjane62 · November 18

Last'One wrote: »

ZOS_NickG wrote: »

We know that the Writhing Wall event has been disappointing for many of our players, and that you were looking forward to experiencing Phase 3 and the Writhing Fortress. This event has not met the quality standards you expect and deserve from us, and it certainly hasn’t been the experience we wanted to give you. For that, I’d like to sincerely apologize.

We understand that an apology only goes so far, so we wanted to share what we’re doing to address this.

First, as a thank you for your patience throughout all of this, we’re adding 8,000 Seals of Endeavor on Day 1 of the December Daily Login Reward Calendar rewards.

We’ve been working hard over the past days to tackle multiple issues with the Phase 3 experience and the Writhing Fortress. Today, we pushed the following Writhing Wall event hotfixes (full notes here):
We removed the flying phases from the encounter with Zysax, the Titan boss in the Writhing Fortress, to fix situations where it could sometimes become bugged and not completable. This also includes any instances where the quest “Support the Fellowship” was not correctly updating.

Walks-In-Ash and the Infernium will no longer get stuck in the Writhing Fortress, preventing further progression in the instance.

Skordo will now consistently appear when you go to hand in the quest “Support the Fellowship” at the siege camp in Solstice.

We investigated the possibility of extending Phase 3 of this event, because we want everyone to have more time to play the Writhing Fortress once these issues are fixed. However, extending the Writhing Wall event would introduce technical risks and unknowns that could result in additional issues, which we want to avoid. Because of this, we’ll let the event conclude on its current schedule, and then in early 2026, we will bring back the Writhing Fortress once we’ve completed additional internal tests and have had the chance to implement additional fixes.

We were trying something new with this event, but our execution ultimately didn’t meet yours or our expectations. This was not the experience we should have delivered. We hear your feedback on Phase 3 and the Writhing Fortress in addition to your feedback on Phases 1 & 2 (especially the grind, rewards, and required activities). We take this feedback to heart, and as the new Game Director, I want to personally assure you that we hear you, we will learn from it, and we will do better.

Thank you to everyone who has shared thoughts and feedback with us – especially the constructive criticism – and told us what you want and expect. It matters, and we are listening. We truly appreciate your longstanding dedication and support to us, each other, and ESO. I (and everyone here) look forward to forging a better path ahead with you.

Nick G, Game Director

I’d like to address this part of the statement: "This event has not met the quality standards you expect and deserve from us, and it certainly hasn’t been the experience we wanted to give you."

The problem is, I honestly don’t know what "quality standards" we are supposed to expect from ZOS anymore. ESO feels like it’s sinking, players are on a ship full of holes, and every time one gets patched, two more appear. I’m struggling to understand what we’re meant to hope for at this point.

Subclassing, while maybe intended to bring flexibility, has seriously damaged the lore, identity, and fantasy that originally made ESO unique. Class identity has been watered down, and the game now feels like it revolves almost entirely around DPS numbers rather than creativity, immersion, or meaningful variety. That shift has taken away a lot of the fun.

Just days ago, ZOS replaced animations due to "lack of memory" (come on…), and now we have broken animations in the game as well. Can we really call this "quality standards"? Is this what we "deserve"?

So, when you ask us to expect better, I genuinely don’t know what "better" means anymore. At this point, a broken event unfortunately feels consistent with the direction things have been heading. It gives the impression that ZOS is no longer focused on preserving what made the game special or delivering long-lasting quality.

So please, instead of finding new ways to break the game even further, could we actually receive the "quality standards" that Zenimax claims to offer? Please, the real quality standards, not what we’ve been getting lately.

I say this not out of hate, but out of disappointment, because many of us still care, even if it’s getting harder to believe.

Subclassing has literally closed me out of the part of the game I love.

I get one shot in cyro, I have to chase unkillable tank types around the keep to stop them from remaining and retaking the keep from within. I have to chase tower humpers along with 7 others while he remains unkillable. You finally give up he take the rss again and we are cut.

8k seals are not going to help that you have ruined the game for a lot of us. I am 11 years, day one player and I'm dying to have a new game to play.

Kelenan7368 · November 18

Ty So much for addressing this! I have found the event not fun at all until stage 3. Then at 1st it was really buggy.

I'm so glad it's fixed now. So it's now actually fun.

I am not certain if my take on these things are reality but I think this all comes down to Microsofts shakeup when buying ZOS and laying off a ton of people.

Work left unfinished by other DEVS and all. So I'm certain the current team is dealing with unseen issues because they came in to other peoples work.

It sucks but understandable, The experience on this new content has been a struggle for me experiencing more frustration rather than fun for the 1st time in my years playing ESO.

But I am going to extend benefit of the doubt to the new team and allow them time to find their stride.

Good luck guys and I'm have gone through a Corporate take over before and it disrupts everyones lives.

Destai · November 18

Wow, thanks Nick. I know we haven't seen much of you yet, so this is a really good early impression of your leadership. So, thanks for this!

Those 8000 Endeavors will definitely go a long way, and I appreciate all the efforts you guys are doing to make things right. It's a welcome change. I hope that when then the Writhing Fortress returns, it's a permanent feature.

SneaK · November 18

“The next update will add 8000 endeavors as a daily reward Dec 1st.”

Nov 30th we are raising the lowest tier endeavor items to 8001 endeavors, thank you for your patience and subordination

LalMirchi · November 18

Many thanks for the direct communication, and taking responsibility.

Hopefully words will also result in tangible results.

bleissa · November 18

The Writhing Wall was a significant departure from previous content updates. Kudos to you for taking on the risk. Lessons learned no doubt.

G0K4R · November 18

Apologies on its own aren't worth much but still thanks for those words @ZOS_NickG it might not change a lot at the moment but it's a good feeling being heard. It's the right start.

One can only hope patch quality will improve in the future. It has REALLY been chaos lately and this is most probably doing lasting damage to ESO.

Also wanted to give huge credit to @ZOS_Kevin because I think he is doing an awesome job around here being present, polite and giving a lot of insightful information also giving us the feeling of being seen / heard. Give this man a raise - or at least let him know he's doing a great job.

SugaComa · November 18

I would argue the writhing fortress is integral to the story, I'm curious once this even is over and new players play solstice or we give it a run on an alt, exactly how will the story play out .. I'm really concerned ESO is doing what Bungie did with destiny creating content that becomes irrelevant once you've banked our money

JoeCapricorn · November 18

I largely enjoyed this event, even if it was a bit tedious, but it gave me something to do when I use this game as an escape from the troubles of the world.

I have to ask though, does it matter if one does the Zone quests? Do the Zone main quests for Solstice change after this event is done with? Or is that a permanent thing?

I need to know if I only have like 5 days to catch up with it all, story wise. >.<

Carcamongus · November 18

I appreciate the apology, especially since it was so detailed. It's one thing to say "sorry folks" and another entirely to say "sorry for this and this and that, we screwed up". The plans for 2025 were certainly ambitious and it could be that events outside the devs' control happened and wrecked their ability to perform well. Honestly, it'd be better to tone down the ambition for 2026 and focus on quality control. I might get some flak for this, but it was a mistake to reintroduce the second dungeon DLC (3rd quarter), as that only added things in need of quality control. The short-lived idea of dedicating a quarter to quality of life and quality control was wise and would have been useful in this messy year. But that's hindsight for 2025, though there's still time to adjust for 2026.

If 2025 was a year of transition, in ways even the devs didn't foresee, I say 2026 should be a year of healing. Actually, the healing should start now, as I've read Eastern Solstice is so buggy I'm hesitant to do much more than wander the land harvesting.

Last but not least, the 8000 seals are a nice touch.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom · November 18

JoeCapricorn wrote: »

I largely enjoyed this event, even if it was a bit tedious, but it gave me something to do when I use this game as an escape from the troubles of the world.

I have to ask though, does it matter if one does the Zone quests? Do the Zone main quests for Solstice change after this event is done with? Or is that a permanent thing?

I need to know if I only have like 5 days to catch up with it all, story wise. >.<

You can take your time doing the Solstice zone story quests. We designed and wrote the main story in such a way that there is no loss in continuity if you do them after the event ends.

Asdara · November 18

"It matters, and we are listening."

And yet you still decide to ignore the whole issue with the Lack of French Translation – Silence and Legal Concerns, and you deliberately choose to sp*t at the face of the whole French-speaking community.
We deserve a response AT THE VERY LEAST.

@ZOS_NickG @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

bobdrad · November 18

Redress is nice and easy on your part, so thanks for that. But a lot of players are concerned about your investment in the future of this game, given the end of chapters, layoffs, and studio closures. This event eroded a lot of trust in that regard. So please tell us what you are doing to understand how this happened and to ensure this sort of poor quality didn't happen again in the future, as a step towards rebuilding that trust.

karthrag_inak · 12:26AM

Yes, khajiit found the fortess itself to be quite sleek and delightful. Will be wonderful to experience it again in 2026

amuridee · 1:38AM

I’m very thankful and appreciative of the developers for addressing this issue.

However, please underline one thing: do not plan to bring back the Writhing Wall event, because doing so would remove the sense of exclusivity from it being a one-time event.

Instead, consider creating a similar event in the future—either an improved version or a “lite” version of the Writhing Wall event—as a recurring event. It could even become a daily activity or a new game mode, such as two teams of 12–24 players racing to complete tasks similar to those in the Writhing Wall event.

Threemoons · 1:50AM

ZOS_NickG wrote: »

We investigated the possibility of extending Phase 3 of this event, because we want everyone to have more time to play the Writhing Fortress once these issues are fixed. However, extending the Writhing Wall event would introduce technical risks and unknowns that could result in additional issues, which we want to avoid. Because of this, we’ll let the event conclude on its current schedule, and then in early 2026, we will bring back the Writhing Fortress once we’ve completed additional internal tests and have had the chance to implement additional fixes.

I sure hope that they bring it back, because figuring out what was going on in Writhing Fortress most of the time was impossible, and many people in a few of my guilds never could get the memento from completing it. I'll be a very unhappy camper if I paid for the DLC and then couldn't even get the memento.

karthrag_inak · 3:45AM

ZOS_NickG wrote: »

We know that the Writhing Wall event has been disappointing for many of our players, and that you were looking forward to experiencing Phase 3 and the Writhing Fortress. This event has not met the quality standards you expect and deserve from us, and it certainly hasn’t been the experience we wanted to give you. For that, I’d like to sincerely apologize.

Nick G, Game Director

Thank you for these sentiments.

Khajiit enjoyed the event a great deal, but to say he was disappointed in the loots that were made available would be a severe understatement.

This one made many posts on the topic, so instead of boring anyone with repetitions, he will provide links

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/684132/for-a-once-in-a-lifetime-event-why-are-the-rewards-so-anemic/p1
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8379635/#Comment_8379635

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8379643/#Comment_8379643

Rishikesa108 · 4:00AM

This is the right approach. 1) humility 2) listening to the players 3) generous rewards and compensation when necessary.
All right, keep it up... but for real this time!

aussie500 · 4:22AM

Thanks for attempting to appease our grumbles and I look forward to seeing a bug free Writhing Fortress at some point. I was lucky my main character went through with the first PC-NA group, but my other two accounts had trouble getting things to work in there and the last to try ended up running around an empty Fortress for a long while. It would be nice to have another go at it and be more confident it will be fun. I got the achievement eventually on all three accounts, but at the moment cannot face going in there again.

JoeCapricorn · 6:28AM

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

You can take your time doing the Solstice zone story quests. We designed and wrote the main story in such a way that there is no loss in continuity if you do them after the event ends.

That is wonderful! Thank you!