What has caused you to quit the game or barely play any more? What would bring you back?

James-Wayne · December 2025

Destai wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

The Paladin in Diablo 4 is so much more fun to play than Templar right now

I love its Jab animation, maybe ESO can use it as inspiration.

I love those godly light ray tendrils that whip out and crucify enemies, so satisfying!

Warhawke_80 · December 2025

Fun is a factor...and it's sorely lacking in ESO...I want to go on an adventure instead you just grind dalies and grind through phoned in quests

I just don't have the heart to play much these days.

Sarannah · December 2025

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

Fun is a factor...and it's sorely lacking in ESO...I want to go on an adventure instead you just grind dalies and grind through phoned in quests

I just don't have the heart to play much these days.

This I think is the essence of what is currently wrong with ESO, the FOMO stuff. When you log in nowadays you do the daily endeavours, the daily pursuits, the daily quests, the daily event, the daily dungeon.... then you notice your playtime is done while still not having done the part(s) of ESO that makes the game fun for you, and so you log off. Realizing you didn't have fun, but were 'forced' into the daily chore list.

ESO should be about free-roaming, adventure, discovery, rewards, the fun! Being able to play the parts of the game which we enjoy most, instead of having to go around and do what the daily lists orders from us.

PS: Personally I am at CP 3600, and doing anything in-game now feels like a waste of my time as I do not get exp anymore. Even though I still play a lot!

Tariq9898 · December 2025

Sarannah wrote: »

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

Fun is a factor...and it's sorely lacking in ESO...I want to go on an adventure instead you just grind dalies and grind through phoned in quests

I just don't have the heart to play much these days.

This I think is the essence of what is currently wrong with ESO, the FOMO stuff. When you log in nowadays you do the daily endeavours, the daily pursuits, the daily quests, the daily event, the daily dungeon.... then you notice your playtime is done while still not having done the part(s) of ESO that makes the game fun for you, and so you log off. Realizing you didn't have fun, but were 'forced' into the daily chore list.

ESO should be about free-roaming, adventure, discovery, rewards, the fun! Being able to play the parts of the game which we enjoy most, instead of having to go around and do what the daily lists orders from us.

PS: Personally I am at CP 3600, and doing anything in-game now feels like a waste of my time as I do not get exp anymore. Even though I still play a lot!

Right now, I log in just to grab my daily reward and do some Infinite Archive as I’m saving up my fortunes. Then I log off. The whole process takes about 40 mins to an hour.

Normally, I’d be doing quests and going on an adventure! But with the lack of Overland/questing difficulty slider, it’s hard for me to be immersed in any story, no matter how great it is. So I’m just waiting for ZOS to add that feature into the game.

Frayton · December 2025

I used to be an endgame raider. Constant combat changes that destroyed my progress, extreme RNG grind, and long standing bugs made raiding exhausting. Also, the raiding pop declined, so I quit raiding and became a PvPer. Constant combat changes that deleted my progress, extreme RNG grind, long standing bugs, and lag made PvPing exhausting. Also, the PvP pop declined, so I quit PvPing and became a trader and a casual. ESO was actually fun again for a bit as a casual and I figured this could be my casual game, but constant unwanted changes, extreme RNG grind, long standing bugs, and lag made that exhausting, so I quit that and became a former ESO player.

I logged in a few months ago after months of not playing, and my character was at a survey harvest point. I noped back out and haven't been back since bc that was just a reminder of the sheer amount of tedium involved in playing ESO. I don't know what would make me come back to play again, but I still check the forums from time to time to see if things are getting better, but it doesn't look like it.

FoJul · January 2

JiubLeRepenti wrote: »

Four_Fingers wrote: »

The community of players that are aways complaining about balance because they won't take the time to learn how to build which is major part of the game and wanting nerfs and to take away modes from others who enjoy them.

Just go on ESO Logs, search for any recent trial and look what the best ranked players are playing on bosses...

There is objectively a balance problem. It doesn't mean that the other classes are not playable. It means that you have to play beam if you wanna reach the top of the charts and optimize your group dps.

I wish swallow soul and merciless resolve could keep up with those numbers. kekw

Eiagra · January 3

I haven't been by in a while. For me there's just... too much. It feels more like a second job than a fun game. I'm not getting paid to play, and if I'm not having fun, then what's the point? A lot of content and systems felt like they were trying to compel me to play without being compelling -- which is to say ESO started to feel like I HAD to play it in order to stay "caught up" but the reasons for doing so were hollow.

I tend to pop in once a year for cake. That's about it. That's the only FOMO I allow myself from this game now.

I'd rather do creative pursuits, like writing or streaming, or just hang out with friends, or play games that don't have as much time and energy investment.

So, yeah. FOMO burnout, basically, and I'd rather do other things with my time.

I appreciate the sexy orcs though. Thanks for that.

Foxhearted · January 4

started in 2018, which seemed to be its peak according to many. And I did enjoy Summerset a lot. lost the spark in 2019/20, a bit after finishing the Elsweyr questline.
I think I was tired of seeing constant nerfs in favor of pvp. I'm sure it wasn't the only reason or if it even was the main reason, but it was one I remember

didn't help that skill/champion points being reset once in a while was pretty annoying if you have max characters. still haven't bothered assigning all of them for everyone since last time.
I lost track of all the changes since then, but I'm not too fond of hybridization either. I liked having many characters with different roles and weapons. I know it probably doesn't prevent me from keeping those builds, but still. I'm neutral about subclassing since I haven't tried it yet.
I even bought the DLCs with gold and started one of the quest lines when they were all on sale some time ago, but stopped shortly after... I'm not sure what could fully bring me back at this point. I still tuned in every once in a while for the occasional event, but even those I skipped most of the time. it's a shame, I used to love this game and of course the universe. maybe nostalgia will bring me back in a few more years.

agelonestar · January 4

I have been playing ESO almost exclusively since the launch. I play very regularly and have a lot invested in the game. I GM a guild.

There are three things making me reconsider whether I continue this year - and I certainly play less right now.

1. ZoS themselves. Stupid decisions, inability to listen, inability to communicate well for any length of time. We get pockets of comms, then nothing - and they always ignore the warnings of the player base.

2. PVP was fundamentally brilliant and it’s now fundamentally broken. While I like Vengeance, it seems more people dislike it. If no one is playing, it doesn’t matter what I like.

3. 2025’s disastrous content - the shift to Season Pass wasn’t well thought out, it really ripped off players with substandard content, and the main event was so awful it’s almost funny. Then they compensate everyone, regardless of whether you coughed up the cash for the Season Pass or not.

I’m the last of my friend group to still be on here because of the above - so I won’t be immediately buying this year’s content - and I have bought pre-launch every year.

Eiagra · January 4

The "2025 disastrous content" made me curious enough to look at old posts regarding it, and honestly, seeing that FOMO was EMBRACED for that event -- a "once-in-a-lifetime" event that, if you're not present for, you miss out -- it kind of reinforces the need to stay away.

It's bad enough that there's a content-and-systems deluge that creates pressure to turn ESO into a second job to stay caught up, but holding events that require you to be present or you miss them forever?

If I wanted to worry about events that I could miss by not being present, I've got real life for that.

I think I'm okay if I miss this boat. If embracing FOMO is the new direction they're taking, then I will choose to embrace the mental bandwidth I've freed up by not caring about it anymore.

reazea · January 4

Eiagra wrote: »

The "2025 disastrous content" made me curious enough to look at old posts regarding it, and honestly, seeing that FOMO was EMBRACED for that event -- a "once-in-a-lifetime" event that, if you're not present for, you miss out -- it kind of reinforces the need to stay away.

It's bad enough that there's a content-and-systems deluge that creates pressure to turn ESO into a second job to stay caught up, but holding events that require you to be present or you miss them forever?

If I wanted to worry about events that I could miss by not being present, I've got real life for that.

I think I'm okay if I miss this boat. If embracing FOMO is the new direction they're taking, then I will choose to embrace the mental bandwidth I've freed up by not caring about it anymore.

Great post!

For me the obvious turning point was U35. ZOS' refusal to revert the jabs animation and essentially ignore all customer feedback then and since created a rift so wide I'm not sure it can be overcome at this point. They ask for our feedback, then promptly ignore it. It's insulting and has become exhausting.

And as a PvP main I'll never run out of reasons why vengeance is a fail in every conceivable way. The most recent version of vengeance did not increase performance compared to GH. So why is ZOS still investing in the failed game mode? The only reason I can think of would be labeled a conspiracy theory even though it's almost certainly not.

Dock01 · January 4

Well, just got a beautiful green eyes fiancee

, and a life

PVP is the main reason why i hate eso so much, battlegrounds only - the rest are fine but wow bg , nothing is going to fix that at all, not even with the new team , they arent going fix 10 years of .. chaos in 1 year, especially with the budget

also the overpricing and false advertisement on the premium edition of eso is the nail in the coffin, bought 80$ for "everything included in past chapters" gets only a sample taste , you gotta buy the smaller ones for 20$ each , yeah no bro im out -

Juju_beans · January 4

The switch to seasons with gated content got me to unsubscribe.

Been there done that with another game and I ended up quitting it completely.

Now I log in every once in a while to quest or explore or do a public dungeon.
Don't miss ESO+ because I'm not gathering or crafting and have a stash of thousands if I need to

BretonMage · January 5

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I believe that it's because the content itself is getting a little stale (I was already tired of the worm cult years ago), with stories and writing taking a back seat to ever louder and ever more garish cosmetics. So ESO is feeling less fun and less comfortable for me to spend a lot of time in.

I'd love them to start prioritising stories and lore, and also give us an option to turn off, as much as possible, all the garish recall effects and skill styles (ZOS please, all the crimsons and violets give me a splitting headache).

DarkStrifeYT · January 5

The low population, The dishonesty of devs, the lackluster events, the horrible story line, the near abandonment of pvp, the lack of developers to players relationships, the horrible repeating stories, the sheer number of bugs, the lazy writing, I can go on forever on this.

Overamera · January 5

From a PvP perspective. Hybridization and subclassing made pure classes and old playstyles which we loved unplayable or just extremly bad and cant compete against the new playstyles.

Zero new PvP content. I don't count a few new bg maps as new content. I love hearing that we are getting a new PvP zone and really hope it becomes successful.

Something worth grinding for in PvP. Just as PvE has all these trifecta cool mounts like godslayer and more. I wish PvP had something similar A mount and a polymorph as reward. Perhaps a new rank system after 5 stars or something that will keep me in cyrodiil just for countless hours grinding for a cool reward that is hard to get.

Veinblood1965 · January 5

Overamera wrote: »

From a PvP perspective. Hybridization and subclassing made pure classes and old playstyles which we loved unplayable or just extremly bad and cant compete against the new playstyles.

Zero new PvP content. I don't count a few new bg maps as new content. I love hearing that we are getting a new PvP zone and really hope it becomes successful.

Something worth grinding for in PvP. Just as PvE has all these trifecta cool mounts like godslayer and more. I wish PvP had something similar A mount and a polymorph as reward. Perhaps a new rank system after 5 stars or something that will keep me in cyrodiil just for countless hours grinding for a cool reward that is hard to get.

A new PVP zone would probably cause me to give this a try again. But if any sets or other additions that come along with the release get hugely nerfed/changed a few months after the new zone release like most other releases the last few years I'd be out permanently. I think many of us are just tired of having to constantly move to new builds due to major set or gameplay changes. REALLY take some time to go through the entire release before releasing and make it as good as Summerset or Wrothgar releases with interesting quests and backstories.

Add a good lore story to the PvP and you might just drag in some PVErs. Maybe combine the two and offer an option that prior to entering the zone you have a toggle of some sort where you are set as a non-combatant so PVEers can enjoy the zone also so long as that could not be abused such as a spy etc.

MorallyBipolar · January 5

reazea wrote: »

Eiagra wrote: »

The "2025 disastrous content" made me curious enough to look at old posts regarding it, and honestly, seeing that FOMO was EMBRACED for that event -- a "once-in-a-lifetime" event that, if you're not present for, you miss out -- it kind of reinforces the need to stay away.

It's bad enough that there's a content-and-systems deluge that creates pressure to turn ESO into a second job to stay caught up, but holding events that require you to be present or you miss them forever?

If I wanted to worry about events that I could miss by not being present, I've got real life for that.

I think I'm okay if I miss this boat. If embracing FOMO is the new direction they're taking, then I will choose to embrace the mental bandwidth I've freed up by not caring about it anymore.

Great post!

For me the obvious turning point was U35. ZOS' refusal to revert the jabs animation and essentially ignore all customer feedback then and since created a rift so wide I'm not sure it can be overcome at this point. They ask for our feedback, then promptly ignore it. It's insulting and has become exhausting.

And as a PvP main I'll never run out of reasons why vengeance is a fail in every conceivable way. The most recent version of vengeance did not increase performance compared to GH. So why is ZOS still investing in the failed game mode? The only reason I can think of would be labeled a conspiracy theory even though it's almost certainly not.

Same feelings here. I feel like ESO still haven't recovered from U35 and ZOS just refuses to go back and fix the mistakes they've made with U35 or anything else since then. They're just full speed ahead and seem to not be worrying about the debris left in their wake.

MorallyBipolar · January 5

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Overamera wrote: »

From a PvP perspective. Hybridization and subclassing made pure classes and old playstyles which we loved unplayable or just extremly bad and cant compete against the new playstyles.

Zero new PvP content. I don't count a few new bg maps as new content. I love hearing that we are getting a new PvP zone and really hope it becomes successful.

Something worth grinding for in PvP. Just as PvE has all these trifecta cool mounts like godslayer and more. I wish PvP had something similar A mount and a polymorph as reward. Perhaps a new rank system after 5 stars or something that will keep me in cyrodiil just for countless hours grinding for a cool reward that is hard to get.

A new PVP zone would probably cause me to give this a try again. But if any sets or other additions that come along with the release get hugely nerfed/changed a few months after the new zone release like most other releases the last few years I'd be out permanently. I think many of us are just tired of having to constantly move to new builds due to major set or gameplay changes. REALLY take some time to go through the entire release before releasing and make it as good as Summerset or Wrothgar releases with interesting quests and backstories.

Add a good lore story to the PvP and you might just drag in some PVErs. Maybe combine the two and offer an option that prior to entering the zone you have a toggle of some sort where you are set as a non-combatant so PVEers can enjoy the zone also so long as that could not be abused such as a spy etc.

A new PvP zone will have all the same performance issues though. And it will almost certainly be a fraction of the size of Cyrodiil.

The plan appears to be make current Cyrodiil vengeance mandated, then tell themselves they're still supporting PvP by giving a tiny map with the same rule sets as GH, then walk away forever. That's the appeal of vengeance from the ZOS perspective. What we think about it seems to not be a factor.

Veinblood1965 · January 5

MorallyBipolar wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Overamera wrote: »

From a PvP perspective. Hybridization and subclassing made pure classes and old playstyles which we loved unplayable or just extremly bad and cant compete against the new playstyles.

Zero new PvP content. I don't count a few new bg maps as new content. I love hearing that we are getting a new PvP zone and really hope it becomes successful.

Something worth grinding for in PvP. Just as PvE has all these trifecta cool mounts like godslayer and more. I wish PvP had something similar A mount and a polymorph as reward. Perhaps a new rank system after 5 stars or something that will keep me in cyrodiil just for countless hours grinding for a cool reward that is hard to get.

A new PVP zone would probably cause me to give this a try again. But if any sets or other additions that come along with the release get hugely nerfed/changed a few months after the new zone release like most other releases the last few years I'd be out permanently. I think many of us are just tired of having to constantly move to new builds due to major set or gameplay changes. REALLY take some time to go through the entire release before releasing and make it as good as Summerset or Wrothgar releases with interesting quests and backstories.

Add a good lore story to the PvP and you might just drag in some PVErs. Maybe combine the two and offer an option that prior to entering the zone you have a toggle of some sort where you are set as a non-combatant so PVEers can enjoy the zone also so long as that could not be abused such as a spy etc.

A new PvP zone will have all the same performance issues though. And it will almost certainly be a fraction of the size of Cyrodiil.

The plan appears to be make current Cyrodiil vengeance mandated, then tell themselves they're still supporting PvP by giving a tiny map with the same rule sets as GH, then walk away forever. That's the appeal of vengeance from the ZOS perspective. What we think about it seems to not be a factor.

I agree on the Vengeance, I liked it but it got stale fast. Like I was saying though, make it an actual full fledged zone, find ways to combine PVP and PVE. Just off the top of my head, have small overland areas in the actual PVE zone that have PVP parts where there is a skull or something in the area and people have to run in and grab it and escape the zone area. Once the skull is out of the area a bonus is given in some way, while the skull is not take everyone in the zone has antlers on their head(joke but something that everyone has as a debit). No groups allowed in the PVP area, if you kill someone you get to loot an ear or something that can be turned in for a reward or a quest.