Dynamic Encounters are soul-destroying, and not in a good Mannimarco Way

Romilly · July 23

At this point I'm only doing them for the Emerald for Prowler Talisman. I recently hit the 30 mark and got the achievement, and still no gem.

It's making me not want to play the game any more. Please make them start on the hour and half hour, so we don't need to put our lives on hold.

I literally am porting from guildie to guildie in Glenumbra, Stonefalls and Auridon, in the mostly vain hope that the Dynamic Encounter has started. If I don't I'm just sat there with 20 other people listening to poor choices of musical emotes for 15 mins. I can't go into a delve, I can't port away, etc, etc.

I quit ESO a few years back now because doing daily writs on 18 toons became a chore rather than fun. I'm feeling the same way right now about Dynamic Events...

Dax_Draconis · July 23

Yeah, I can't do them anymore. I just don't have the time to waste for them and can't do anything else in the game while waiting for them to start. Is it going to be only 5 minutes until it starts or 30 minutes? No way to know.

Wasting players time like that is not satisfying content.

Dalsinthus · July 23

I hate them too. One of the worst experiences I’ve had with this game, 11 years in. It’s at least reassuring to read that others feel the same way.

tsaescishoeshiner · July 23

I almost never sit and wait for DEs because I don't enjoy it. Just like doing writs on 18 characters, these are activities that have rewards but are optional to overdo.

Best thing I've done is post in my guild chats when DEs are active—now others post that too, saving everyone time.

A timer for them would be nice and improve everyone's DE experience, even if it was just a 5-minute heads up. That would also make Group Finder viable for DEs, like "DE at 7:00".

Romilly · July 23

Yeah, I've thought about asking my biggest guild to allow us to do that, it would be really helpful. I even though about writing an addon to allow people to 1-key a message like "DE starting Stonefalls Now, port to me".

tsaescishoeshiner · July 23

Romilly wrote: »

Yeah, I've thought about asking my biggest guild to allow us to do that, it would be really helpful. I even though about writing an addon to allow people to 1-key a message like "DE starting Stonefalls Now, port to me".

Do you need permission? I just say it and people say thank you. It's very fair to do while many people are farming these this month.

shadyjane62 · July 23

Spent 20 seconds in a DE the first day. Never went back.

Romilly · July 23

My main PVE guild has 500 players in it, and it could get annoying. Personally I'd love it if people did it.

Silaf · July 23

Romilly wrote: »

At this point I'm only doing them for the Emerald for Prowler Talisman. I recently hit the 30 mark and got the achievement, and still no gem.

It's making me not want to play the game any more. Please make them start on the hour and half hour, so we don't need to put our lives on hold.

I literally am porting from guildie to guildie in Glenumbra, Stonefalls and Auridon, in the mostly vain hope that the Dynamic Encounter has started. If I don't I'm just sat there with 20 other people listening to poor choices of musical emotes for 15 mins. I can't go into a delve, I can't port away, etc, etc.

I quit ESO a few years back now because doing daily writs on 18 toons became a chore rather than fun. I'm feeling the same way right now about Dynamic Events...

I got mine at 105 you are close never give up!

miloflipper · July 23

I did 4 of them and already I am too bored to do another.

Hapexamendios · July 23

I did then a few times and I'm not doing them anymore. Wait period is far too long.

Diebesgut · July 23

... i did them maybe 50 times.

At first to get the fragment for the house.
Then to get these housing gold piles in glenumbra.
Then maybe this werewolf recipe i will never use - i never get it there, someone gave it as a present to me because he dont want it.
10 of 10 Fragments for Vampire and Werewolf Skillstyle.
Oh and some golden style recipes... (not so beautiful, found 2 of them)
Maybe a key.. (found 1)

Its boring sitting there... waiting for the start... or a million players around and you never see an enemy, just loot the chest...

I wish they had included a time indicator like the one at the Night Market.

If I do go to Glenumbra these days, it’s only rarely, hoping for a pile of gold—though that happens pretty seldom now.

Sithilid · July 24

I'm struggling to find much to enjoy about season one tbh.
In fairness, I did like the new Thieves guild quest line, and the addition of an extra daily,
but once that's over, the rest of it for me - in particular the Endeavours - amount to too much frustration for too little reward.

Sindarin · July 24

more dynamic are vents/geysers/harrowstorms than this thing :x

Ragged_Claw · July 24

I don't understand why they can't just do like Fallout 76 and have the events start on the hour/half hour in every zone/instance. Then players can choose which one to go to whenever they want. I'm done with them now, I got the skill style pieces, never had a key drop and don't believe I'll ever see the recipe so I'll just buy it.

Ezhh · July 24

It feels like non-content rather than content when far more time is spent waiting than taking part. And to make it worse, from what I saw if you look away for 5mins then you can miss the whole thing as well.

I'm amazed that after years of complaints about player time not being respected this still happened.

ZOS_JasonBarnes · July 24

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re gathering an incredible amount of data on the Dynamic Encounter system and are already discussing and working on adjustments going forward.

Many of the pain points raised in this thread are already part of those conversations. We want to continue investing in this system, make the encounters feel more dynamic and exciting, and improve how players track them and understand their progress.

One change I can confirm is that we plan to cut the respawn time in half. While this is not exactly the fixed hour and half-hour schedule being requested, Dynamic Encounters will be able to start every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes in Update 51. This should significantly reduce the amount of time players may spend waiting for the next encounter.

We’re also investigating several other areas, including:
• How encounters scale when larger groups of players are present
• Drop rates and the experience of pursuing specific rewards
• Better messaging and clearer ways to know when an encounter is active or approaching

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we review the feedback and work toward broader improvements to the system as a whole.

Please keep the feedback coming. We want to hear both the pain points you’re experiencing and your ideas for making Dynamic Encounters better.

agelonestar · July 24

ZOS_JasonBarnes wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re gathering an incredible amount of data on the Dynamic Encounter system and are already discussing and working on adjustments going forward.

Many of the pain points raised in this thread are already part of those conversations. We want to continue investing in this system, make the encounters feel more dynamic and exciting, and improve how players track them and understand their progress.

One change I can confirm is that we plan to cut the respawn time in half. While this is not exactly the fixed hour and half-hour schedule being requested, Dynamic Encounters will be able to start every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes in Update 51. This should significantly reduce the amount of time players may spend waiting for the next encounter.

We’re also investigating several other areas, including:
• How encounters scale when larger groups of players are present
• Drop rates and the experience of pursuing specific rewards
• Better messaging and clearer ways to know when an encounter is active or approaching

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we review the feedback and work toward broader improvements to the system as a whole.

Please keep the feedback coming. We want to hear both the pain points you’re experiencing and your ideas for making Dynamic Encounters better.

I've been wanting to comment on this subject, and replying to your note seems like the best opportunity.

First, there's nothing "dynamic" about a world event that spawns in the same place every time, on a timer. Maybe it's just the wrong naming convention, but this isn't dynamic.

When you introduced Skirmishes in Night Market, there was at least a countdown so we all knew when the event was going to commence. Something like that would help a lot, whether it's on the half-hour, 15 minutes, or whatever.

Finally, I get really fed up with ZoS when the message to us is how you want to make the game easier for people to get into, and reduce the issues around FOMO, and then you then release content with truly abysmal drop rates, that drop unique items that you know we all want, in a cycle that's a big secret, leaving us all waiting around for 20 minutes doing nothing. Please, get your story / strategy straight! Sort out your RNG, your drop rates, or just stop releasing content with super-rare drops.

I love that this is new content and I want to see more of it - but right now this doesn't feel well thought through at all.

Gabriel_H · July 24

ZOS_JasonBarnes wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re gathering an incredible amount of data on the Dynamic Encounter system and are already discussing and working on adjustments going forward.

Many of the pain points raised in this thread are already part of those conversations. We want to continue investing in this system, make the encounters feel more dynamic and exciting, and improve how players track them and understand their progress.

One change I can confirm is that we plan to cut the respawn time in half. While this is not exactly the fixed hour and half-hour schedule being requested, Dynamic Encounters will be able to start every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes in Update 51. This should significantly reduce the amount of time players may spend waiting for the next encounter.

We’re also investigating several other areas, including:
• How encounters scale when larger groups of players are present
• Drop rates and the experience of pursuing specific rewards
• Better messaging and clearer ways to know when an encounter is active or approaching

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we review the feedback and work toward broader improvements to the system as a whole.

Please keep the feedback coming. We want to hear both the pain points you’re experiencing and your ideas for making Dynamic Encounters better.

Great news. As someone pushing for a set start time, I'm happy to sacrifice that point for a cooldown of only 15 minutes.

As I've said before, the flaw in the DEs was the same as in Siege Camps. The sheer number of players. What ZOS did with NM and capping instances was great, and something similar needs to happen with DEs or the fights are just meaningless. Doing them with only 5 other players (at 4am) they were a lot of fun. Doing them with 50 players (at 4pm) they were uninspired.

Dalsinthus · July 24

ZOS_JasonBarnes wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re gathering an incredible amount of data on the Dynamic Encounter system and are already discussing and working on adjustments going forward.

Many of the pain points raised in this thread are already part of those conversations. We want to continue investing in this system, make the encounters feel more dynamic and exciting, and improve how players track them and understand their progress.

One change I can confirm is that we plan to cut the respawn time in half. While this is not exactly the fixed hour and half-hour schedule being requested, Dynamic Encounters will be able to start every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes in Update 51. This should significantly reduce the amount of time players may spend waiting for the next encounter.

We’re also investigating several other areas, including:
• How encounters scale when larger groups of players are present
• Drop rates and the experience of pursuing specific rewards
• Better messaging and clearer ways to know when an encounter is active or approaching

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we review the feedback and work toward broader improvements to the system as a whole.

Please keep the feedback coming. We want to hear both the pain points you’re experiencing and your ideas for making Dynamic Encounters better.

Thanks for listening and being open to making adjustments. These sound like positive changes overall. The sooner these come, the better. I am personally feeling put off from the game by this system and I'm hearing the same sentiments expressed by my friends.

While I do think that the changes here would be an improvement, particularly if the RNG drop rates are drastically improved, I would caution against investing in this system beyond the current three dynamic encounters. Please don't add more of these to the game; it's not a good system at its core.

There have been a lot of great things done with the game this year. I've enjoyed the night market, class revamp, class masteries, veterancy system, thieves' guild questline, and even favors. But dynamic encounters just aren't it.

Destai · July 24

ZOS_JasonBarnes wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re gathering an incredible amount of data on the Dynamic Encounter system and are already discussing and working on adjustments going forward.

Many of the pain points raised in this thread are already part of those conversations. We want to continue investing in this system, make the encounters feel more dynamic and exciting, and improve how players track them and understand their progress.

One change I can confirm is that we plan to cut the respawn time in half. While this is not exactly the fixed hour and half-hour schedule being requested, Dynamic Encounters will be able to start every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes in Update 51. This should significantly reduce the amount of time players may spend waiting for the next encounter.

We’re also investigating several other areas, including:
• How encounters scale when larger groups of players are present
• Drop rates and the experience of pursuing specific rewards
• Better messaging and clearer ways to know when an encounter is active or approaching

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we review the feedback and work toward broader improvements to the system as a whole.

Please keep the feedback coming. We want to hear both the pain points you’re experiencing and your ideas for making Dynamic Encounters better.

Thanks for the reply.

In terms of better messaging and scaling, I would encourage you guys to look more deeply into the Guild Wars 2 dynamic events and meta events for inspiration. Obviously it's a different game, but it's something they've been excelling at for a long time. I find them quite fun. The map meta events and dynamic events are usually telegraphed zone-wide or area wide, so if you're there, you can do them. ArenaNet maintains their own wiki and that has event timers. Some food for thought if nothing else.

In terms of drop rates, it's discouraging that each release continues to suffer from the old pain point of poor drop rates. It makes me want to avoid new content because it's expected at this point.

For me the big question is - how does this keep happening?

At this point in the game's life, I'd expect the studio to better understand what a fun drop rate is, or maybe just not rely on RNG so much. Instead, it feels like we're starting fresh with each new feature, rather than previous debacles being considered.

This is why some people feel like ZOS isn't listening to us, or more accurately, understanding us. Because you'll go back to the team, and tweak a few numbers, but then continue to deliver content has problematic or poor rewards next time around. Yes, the numbers need to be tweaked, but the underlying way of thinking about content delivery is what needs to change.

If you're worried about people getting all of the rewards too quickly with a generous drop rate, and then err on the side austerity to prevent that, then you do not have enough rewards in that new system. Again, we shouldn't be starting fresh, ZOS should know what features are attractive and what gets people doing content. Especially with how frequently ZOS mentions data-driven approaches.

And honestly Jason, you guys really have to start asking yourselves if the engagement incentives are more important than us having fun. There's been years of ZOS trying to stretch content out and keep people engaged, but it seems like people just get burnt out instead. People will exhaust content. Trying to avoid that is not worth frustrating your playerbase.

Jimbru · July 24

Speaking as a beta tester who is still around in 2026, there is NOTHING good about the Dynamic Events. "We want to reduce grind," ZOS has said. So, I find myself sitting in Stonefalls, waiting for the Dynamic Event to spawn. I can't go anywhere else or do anything else in the game because I'm having to sit here waiting on an invisible timer; "We want to reduce grind," has been replaced by literally just standing around waiting. I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I need to go to the bathroom; after a while I finally give in and step away to take care of my biological needs. I'm gone maybe five minutes. When I come back, I find that in that short time window when I looked away, the event spawned and is already almost over, and now I have to start the uncertain wait all over again, knowing that when I do eventually catch the event, unless I get lucky with a "coin lands on edge" drop rate, the loot will not have been worth the time.

Turning off the rant to speak as a tester, my recommendations are twofold.

First, the Dynamic Events need a fixed time schedule tied to the real world clock, similar to GW2's meta events, so people will know the event times and can do other things while waiting, or be able to run the events in a timed rotation, again like people do in GW2; the meta train over there rolls 24/7 just like the dolmens in Alikr.

Second, the Dynamic Events also need better loot and drop rates, so people have reasons to keep doing the events after the attached achievements are done. I recommend the new furnishing plans that were added to the Alinor and Breton styles as a starting point.

katanagirl1 · July 24

Thanks for the update @ZOS_JasonBarnes the reduced time should help a lot.

I mentioned yesterday that I just had to stop doing these DEs. I don’t have the Eel Pie recipe that supposedly had the drop rate increased, I don’t have all of the style pages, and I don’t have the gem yet. I did get the house fragment. The waiting is just awful for the Stonefalls DE, pretty sure it is near 30 minutes every time. Two pieces of gear to decon is definitely not worth it.

I am afraid that those who are lucky enough to get their drops will leave, then those of us who have not will slowly dwindle down to the point where it will be difficult to finish the encounter in time and possibly fail every time. Many others here on the forums have said they just can’t go this anymore either. I hope any changes can be made quickly to avoid this.

Jimbru · July 24

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Thanks for the update @ZOS_JasonBarnes the reduced time should help a lot.

I don’t have the Eel Pie recipe that supposedly had the drop rate increased, I don’t have all of the style pages, and I don’t have the gem yet. I did get the house fragment.

The good news on the style pages is that they're available on guild vendors. I ended up buying the last few I needed just so I would have it done.

As for the "drop rate increase" on the eel recipe: I don't have it yet either. Most people don't, and the few I've seen for sale have been for six digits of gold. It's been seeming like MAYBE one person in the crowd per round of the event gets the recipe. Yes, doubling the drop rate from 1 in 10K to 2 in 10K is technically an increase (I'm just saying that as an example, I don't know the actual drop rate) but if an increase is not actually visible to the players in the results, then it's not enough of an increase.

Vonnegut2506 · July 24

Jimbru wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Thanks for the update @ZOS_JasonBarnes the reduced time should help a lot.

I don’t have the Eel Pie recipe that supposedly had the drop rate increased, I don’t have all of the style pages, and I don’t have the gem yet. I did get the house fragment.

The good news on the style pages is that they're available on guild vendors. I ended up buying the last few I needed just so I would have it done.

As for the "drop rate increase" on the eel recipe: I don't have it yet either. Most people don't, and the few I've seen for sale have been for six digits of gold. It's been seeming like MAYBE one person in the crowd per round of the event gets the recipe. Yes, doubling the drop rate from 1 in 10K to 2 in 10K is technically an increase (I'm just saying that as an example, I don't know the actual drop rate) but if an increase is not actually visible to the players in the results, then it's not enough of an increase.

It took me 6 Stonefall events for the recipe on EU and 22 on NA once they fixed the drop rate. Several people in my main guild have gotten the recipe the last two days. They definitely upped the drop rate if it even had one before.

Gemini_Girl · July 24

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Thanks for the update @ZOS_JasonBarnes the reduced time should help a lot.

I mentioned yesterday that I just had to stop doing these DEs. I don’t have the Eel Pie recipe that supposedly had the drop rate increased, I don’t have all of the style pages, and I don’t have the gem yet. I did get the house fragment. The waiting is just awful for the Stonefalls DE, pretty sure it is near 30 minutes every time. Two pieces of gear to decon is definitely not worth it.

I am afraid that those who are lucky enough to get their drops will leave, then those of us who have not will slowly dwindle down to the point where it will be difficult to finish the encounter in time and possibly fail every time. Many others here on the forums have said they just can’t go this anymore either. I hope any changes can be made quickly to avoid this.

I brought up this same point in another thread. I'm worried about the same thing. When there's no one around doing these DEs anymore, how are players going to get their drops? Someone told me that the DEs scale to the number of players there in the encounter. That may make it easy enough to solo or to complete with fewer players. That's my hope anyway. I still haven't gotten the gem of agility. I'm tired of trying.

Maybe with the 15 spawn timer I can farm them more reliably. We'll see.

Rishikesa108 · July 24

Enough with the low drop rates!
Players are suffering because of leads, suffering because of furnishing plans, suffering because of style pages, suffering because of the Prowler's Talisman gems... is it really necessary for everything to be such a struggle?
There is a fine line between being too generous and too stingy: heaven forbid crossing it either way!
But ZOS should know these limits, perhaps by testing them and using a bit of common sense...

katanagirl1 · July 25

Jimbru wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Thanks for the update @ZOS_JasonBarnes the reduced time should help a lot.

I don’t have the Eel Pie recipe that supposedly had the drop rate increased, I don’t have all of the style pages, and I don’t have the gem yet. I did get the house fragment.

The good news on the style pages is that they're available on guild vendors. I ended up buying the last few I needed just so I would have it done.

As for the "drop rate increase" on the eel recipe: I don't have it yet either. Most people don't, and the few I've seen for sale have been for six digits of gold. It's been seeming like MAYBE one person in the crowd per round of the event gets the recipe. Yes, doubling the drop rate from 1 in 10K to 2 in 10K is technically an increase (I'm just saying that as an example, I don't know the actual drop rate) but if an increase is not actually visible to the players in the results, then it's not enough of an increase.

Yes you can buy the style pages, I did actually buy a couple, but the two I am missing now are the arm cops and the helmet, and they are listed for much more than the others for some reason, like perhaps they don’t drop as often for everyone else too. I did also price the recipes and saw the same prices, those are too high, I hoped I could get lucky enough to get a drop but it just isn’t happening.

I wonder if there is some mechanic that, on top of the drop rate, limits the number of players who can get the drop to the 1 or 2 that I also have been seeing. Several players have also said they got multiples of the recipe when many others have got none. Is there some other unrelated condition that is preventing some players from getting it as well? This all just doesn’t add up.

As for the gem drop rate being so low, I don’t understand that one either. We got the mythic from the questline but are being prevented from upgrading it. Why?

CatalinaWineMixer2 · July 25

ZOS_JasonBarnes wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re gathering an incredible amount of data on the Dynamic Encounter system and are already discussing and working on adjustments going forward.

Many of the pain points raised in this thread are already part of those conversations. We want to continue investing in this system, make the encounters feel more dynamic and exciting, and improve how players track them and understand their progress.

One change I can confirm is that we plan to cut the respawn time in half. While this is not exactly the fixed hour and half-hour schedule being requested, Dynamic Encounters will be able to start every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes in Update 51. This should significantly reduce the amount of time players may spend waiting for the next encounter.

We’re also investigating several other areas, including:
• How encounters scale when larger groups of players are present
• Drop rates and the experience of pursuing specific rewards
• Better messaging and clearer ways to know when an encounter is active or approaching

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we review the feedback and work toward broader improvements to the system as a whole.

Please keep the feedback coming. We want to hear both the pain points you’re experiencing and your ideas for making Dynamic Encounters better.

This is some great news! These types of events are something I and many of our Guild members asked for! I am so very glad to see them. There is a lot of potential. Please consider offering Holiday and Weekly ones, rotating rewards and perhaps even Group Finder ones.

Calastir · July 25

During the final fight of the DE in Glenumbra in the stone cricle, out of the blue the game keeps hitting me with a "you'll be killed on sight"-bounty.

Now I know there are NPC soldiers around but I'm not a necromancer, not a werewolf or vampire, not pickpocketing and not attacking anyone, just walking along casting healing spells.

This seems like a bug to me.

Grega · July 25

Calastir wrote: »

During the final fight of the DE in Glenumbra in the stone cricle, out of the blue the game keeps hitting me with a "you'll be killed on sight"-bounty.

Now I know there are NPC soldiers around but I'm not a necromancer, not a werewolf or vampire, not pickpocketing and not attacking anyone, just walking along casting healing spells.

This seems like a bug to me.

It’s because you’re casting healing spells. You healing anyone else who has a bounty, it is shared to you through healing.

People are getting bounty by being all of the above you listed, but also people here on this forum have said they are doing it on purpose because they find it fun.