@Athory

https://youtu.be/UK7MhcEHGhk

There you go. Kill 75 enemies done mostly solo with 1 other solo player randomly following me for a bit and then leaving. On a heavy attack sorc, not a build I recommended up here but not one crazy different in power and generally considered a casual friendly build. I chose this character because you're the one that brought it up, so I hope that since it's one you recommended that you'll accept it as a fair choice.

I was there for about a half hour. I died twice, both because I pulled more than I meant to pull. Other than that, I stayed alive. I sped up the video for most of the successful trash packs because it's boring. But I have it normal speed at the start to see it in action, when I died so you can see how I died, and at the puzzles.

Unfortunately, I ended up in an instance alone because I traveled straight to the Night Market instead of following my own advice for finding populated instances. Because the section about group finder/guild roster is about finding a populated instance so you can treat it more like going in solo during the Writhing Wall event rather than putting people into situations they have to socialize and work with a dedicated group. The instance cap in Night Market is only 36 people so it's way easier to end up alone. The tips in this guide can help players workaround that without needing to already have a good guild or friend group to play with because they usually play solo.

There are gear recommendations in my opening post if someone prefers to fight the enemies and there are also some good recommendations made by others in the comments section. You don't have to skip the trash packs by sneaking around. It's just a really accessible option. That's why I recommend it.

There's a big daily for doing a race. The fire puzzle that I have in this video is one of those races. You can do it from stealth but you'll get discovered when you go to the light the lantern near the double trash packs. Save it for last and then quickly get away back into stealth, die, or clear them out ahead of time. Either way it's a couple of minutes anyone can do with a sneak build. Sneak is also useful for the district dailies. It's not a whole lot of favor but it's something doable completely alone with little combat experience.

That's why I recommended the sneak build. Not because solo players are required to use it.

I have mostly enjoyed the Night Market so far but I do have a couple of criticisms.

The trash packs respawn too quickly. I actually like the difficulty level they are but they respawn too quickly and drop nothing, making dealing with them feel unrewarding. If clearing some out actually gave you enough time to really look around for the various quest objectives, it would more worth doing.

The quest markers are too small and buggy. It makes finding a target, even when you're practically on top of it, more difficult than it should be. This should be how solo players can pickup a bit of favor and a little extra favor for groups but instead they aren't worth doing because of how long they take.

The instance cap is too small. This is group content. It shouldn't require so much workarounds to run into groups.

I don't think the blue set pieces help anyone, casual or not. I don't think there's any person who has been playing ESO for longer than a few days who has trouble getting Plague Doctor or Mother's Sorrow items. So that's a very strange reward choice which makes me wonder why.

I'm still not a fan of the fact that you can barely group "organically" because you rarely come across another player at all. Sure, group finder works. But it means: Stopping somewhere to write a notice - which is, to me, already an interruption of the game's "flow", if you want to play it as an immersive roleplaying game. Then you wait for the group to fill, which can take a bit off-time. Then you wait for the people to arrive, which can also take a whole while. I personally don't play ESO to fill out forms and wait, this is not Bureaucracy Simulator. I know I will need to do that, several times, until I get all relic fragments, and I will do it. But it's really not ideal.

I really want something for New Life and Witches Festival. Maybe something like… for New Life, a zone where you choose teams and it’s kind of like Cyrodiil but entirely with snow. And no killing, just getting smacked with snowballs.

Witches Festival could focus more on being sneaky, making use of the “guard holding a light”/“dogs who can smell you” stealth suppression mechanic to avoid creatures of the night. Could also use the priest clothes mechanic to dress up in a costume and walk around without sneaking.

Bguk wrote: »

You see it the problem as being "used by ZOS". I see it as a player refuses to play content unless it's how they want it. You, and others, who refuse to group (yes, you are refusing to group or try to tag along), are acting very childish. Life is not catered to all, including video games.

Of course a player will refuse to play content that isn't what they like. Refusing to group for very difficult content that is not what the player enjoys is not childish.

Best thing to do is join a guild. A lot of people are extremely anti socializing, but there are social guilds whose entire purpose it is to help players get started. Many social guilds exist that will have events where they go help players do content like WB runs or dungeons that many newer players can't do alone, and some even have training sessions designed to help bring people up to the level for higher level content.

Another thing: just because you find a build online doesn't mean you're getting everything out of it from putting it on. I see this a lot from people using Oakensoul builds - they put on the ring and then expect that they're getting the max value from it. But Oakensoul, like every build, still does have a learning curve - I have seen two people with the exact same build, sets, gear, everyting do an Oakensoul parse, and one person is clearly doing twice as much DPS as the other. Why? Because the one player is better at managing how and when to cast skills. Practice really does make perfect.

Above all, death is not failure, it's a learning opportunity. A lot of people are scared to be in a situation where they could die, or they think that if they die people will get toxic. But think of it instead as a way to learn. Sweaty players weren't born with Godslayer, they had to work for it and die - repeatedly - in order to train up to that.
Again, a good guild will help here.

There are a lot of people who prefer ESO as a TES game - solo. But this is an MMO at heart, and you want to see that as a benefit, not a problem. Other people are not an annoyance, they are a way to expand your horizons and open up more of the world for you.
I know - I started ESO the same way. I didn't want to play with other people at all. But then I saw some of the things I could get from working with others (the Beast personality), and I realized that if I wanted them, I would have to find a way to think about this differently. And then I joined a guild (full of lore nerds!) and found some people to train me. And now I love ESO more than I did because there's more of the game open to me. And I'll even say that I'm able to solo so much more now because I know more about the game - I'm one of the people who has no issue soloing the mobs in the Market because I learned how to deal with my build from my guildmates.

This is a really cool feature for rp stuff and in general for meeting new people.

I know there is discord etc on pc but it's not integrated in the game and doesn't allow for random voice that in the open world.

Would be cool if it was made available(optional) for pc as well when cross play comes so we can freely talk to console players if we want to

Paramedicus wrote: »

[snip]

Right? Idk why people *keep* engaging with these.
[edited to remove quote]

I’m fine with this being group content. I would have appreciated if they were more clear about group size and difficulty. Again, yet another reason the devs should be streaming their own game.

Where they’ve lost me is the rewards. I simply don’t understand how we are still at a point where features are launching with lacking rewards. I’m honestly not even giving them examples anymore because I don’t feel like it’s being heard or translated into institutional knowledge at ZOS.

Also the amount of reused assets makes this feel so recycled that there’s very little novelty. And seeing the challenges with grouping, I don’t want to even participate.

Athory wrote: »

Bguk wrote: »

The only issue I see is the mentality of locking oneself out of content they want to play by refusing to group with others. Being a mainly solo player myself, I understand the reason why one does play solo. Simply refusing to group is childish. There's been multiple posts with suggestions on how solo players can do the content, yet you continue to hold your hands up to yours ears. Is it harder solo than not? Yes. Can it be done? Yes.

Prove it. Make a video and show it. Go play solo, engage in fights, kill a boss, just participate in the event, and prove it with a video. You can do it solo!
And read the topic again, because for me the problem isn’t joining a group. The issue is; I simply refuse to be used by ZOS. I refuse to be turned into “event fodder” just so others can participate.

You see it the problem as being "used by ZOS". I see it as a player refuses to play content unless it's how they want it. You, and others, who refuse to group (yes, you are refusing to group or try to tag along), are acting very childish. Life is not catered to all, including video games.

EDIT: And I left out a key part in what I posted originally. The NM can be done solo by following groups around.