I'm open to the possibility of buying a premium or even premium plus pass at some point if it's worth it to me, but the current one is not.

My way of deciding these things (for any kind of bundle) is to add up what I would be willing to pay for the items individually and then compare that to the total price. Importantly what I would be willing to pay isn't necessarily what it would typically cost. For example I might decide I'd be willing to pay £5 (about 900 crowns) for a mount knowing full well ZOS would typically charge about 2,500 crowns for it - that just means I'd be highly unlikely to ever buy it. Also that does mean what I'd be willing to pay could be 0 if it's something I don't think I'd ever use.

I won't do a full breakdown here but the short version is that for the current season pass what I'd be willing to pay is a lot less than it costs, so I won't be getting it, but I will consider each future one on it's own merits and maybe one day one of them will be worthwhile.

I hope to see more items added to Tomes, extra Seals of Endeavors.

But even now, first Tome seems nice

Premium ($15):
- 3 mounts (2 wolf mount variants which look more special than most of Apex mounts from many recent crate seasons; two-seater dwemer spider mount)
- 1 non-combat pet
- outfit styles
- skill styles
- Personality

I might miss some minor stuff, but even like that it's already insane package for such value. Compare it to the cost of 1 costume (1500 crowns is not that rare) or 1 skill style (based on pricing of more special styles, 2000 crowns would be just for the Vigor with rising sun special effect) in the crown store; even any two-seater mount costs 5000 crowns which is much more etc.




Premium+ is another $15 for the rather nice costume and 4000 Tome Points to spend immediately or save for time of need.



Plus, I have a feeling that Premium tome cosmetics won't return to the Bazaar or something, so their collector's value might be the highest of all we can get in the game nowadays.

Seems that 2H skill line auto integrate the go-to magical weapon, built-in...

Even a barbarian gotta wield his shiny vorpal blade.

Destai wrote: »

I'm confused why they're not moving all content to base game in one move. I feel like that would be so much easier for us as consumers and easier for them to communicate. Granted, I don't know what the technical roll out would look like, but the amount of staggered changes is a bit daunting. Buying the game has always been a confusing process, so the sooner the better.

They're balancing ease of communication about content, which would be improved but they're already used to dealing with all the fragmented dlc, vs the value of drip feed, that they still get to make money on dlc purchases and the deluxe edition, and they get to announce a new free thing every quarter or two. It's recurring goodwill instead of one lump of bigger goodwill. It's worse for the game, but not really any worse than it's always been, and better for them.

Well, with the rollout of Tamriel Tomes, I'm suddenly, strongly nostalgic for what was before. It was so much... simpler.

• Each month, I could see at a glance, in one interface, ALL the available free login rewards for the month.
• All I had to do to claim the rewards was log in the number of days necessary for the rewards I wanted. And click on them.
• My friends and I shared all the same endeavors, so you could easily make pursuing them a team effort if you enjoy group play (although it was not required except for difficult endeavors like "complete a trial.")
• Seals were auto-collected.
• Even though there is a lottery component to crowns, between seals, crowns, and gems, once I had a few gems under my belt I could pretty much always obtain exactly the cosmetics I wanted, and there was a single interface to shop through which cosmetics were available for money (with the exception of the furniture store which is only accessible within houses for some reason).
• If I couldn't afford something I really liked when it dropped, I could rest assured it would always come around again. Crown crates return on a cycle, and special limited items almost always reappear in the Crown Store, often at a discount
• Because I am an ESO subscriber, and I enjoyed pursing the endeavors with my friends, technically I could almost always obtain a desired paid cosmetic without spending any additional money with either crowns or seals, if I saved them.

It may be that we ultimately are getting more free cosmetics and a higher volume of cosmetics-per-dollar paid with this new system. but the value of cosmetics is if you like them! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that. It's why the community is often so torn about cosmetics attached to difficulty achievements. Players who like difficult achievements enjoy having something to show after having done the achievement. Players who don't like difficult achievement become frustrated if a cosmetic attached to a certain achievement is highly desired - if it goes well with a character theme, is their favorite animal or color... whatever, but that cosmetic is attached to achievement they wouldn't enjoy pursuing.

Therefore, from my perspective, things are so much worse now, because it's so complicated to determine which cosmetics are available, and for how long, and to compare and contrast which ones you might like better, and to target which things you like best. Let's divide "free" rewards and "paid" rewards into two different categories. Now:

Free Rewards

• I now have to track another currency, Tome Points.
• I have no idea how much of this currency I'll earn, because it depends on how much time I'll have in game and how many tomes points are attached to the challenges I'm able to complete. As a result, I'm kind of afraid to claim any of the free rewards, because I don't know if at the end of the three months if I'll have enough Tome Points to claim the free rewards I most want. (At this point in the discussion, boy am I missing the days where I could claim my actual free daily login reward with no hesitancy. The worst it could do was temporarily take up an inventory slot if it was unwanted, which destroy could easily remedy.)
• Can I, at least, focus on earning enough points to get the free things I want most first? Nope, most likely, I cannot, because I have to unlock EACH PAGE through earning Tome Points to even get to them. This season, if what I want most is Kireth's Kit Jerkin, and what I want second-most is Vigor, Dusk Blue, I have to earn enough Tome Points to unlock all ten pages of the Tome, and WAIT to redeem Vigor, Dusk Blue, even though I like it, until I've safely claimed Kireth's Kit Jerkin.
• Tome Points are only earned in-game from what I can tell. No money needed. Sounds great, right? Well, not really, because the cosmetics they unlock are available for a limited time, so if I get busy and don't have time to work through the challenges to earn them, I can't just spend a little bit to buy the amount of Tome Points I need to buy the one thing I want. I HAVE TO earn them in game, with a different currency than my main currency, gold, and I need to do it within 3 months to do it without spending additional money. Otherwise, the free rewards in the Tome all become... Paid Rewards!
• Technically, the only true free, zero effort rewards through this system, similar to what the daily login rewards were, are what you can buy with the Tome Points earned by logging in. This season, that calculates to 1,485 Tome Points (99 x 15). As you need 2,000 Tome Points to unlock page two, that means you're stuck on page 1. This season, the free rewards on the first page add up to 1,370 Tome Points. So for 90 days, to do nothing more than we logged in as before, we have the potential to earn a maximum of 5 rewards instead of ~90 (one for each day)! Now I understand the trade-off is that you can do other activities instead of logging in, and that the rewards/value ratio may be higher than what sometimes was provided for a daily login, but still. If I go through a busy stretch where I only have time to log in, do writs on one character, check my mail, and grab my hireling rewards... that's a HUGE downgrade in potential free, zero effort rewards.

Paid Rewards

• Paid cosmetics are now in two different interfaces, and availability is on two completely different schedules. If I want to see which hairstyles are available for purchase, before I had to check Crown Store / Style Parlor / Hair Styles and the Crown Store / Crown Crates. Now, I also need to go into the Tome section and look through every single page to see if there are any hair styles there. Repeat for each kind of thing that exists.
• I cannot obtain and target all the paid cosmetics I'd like with crowns, gems, and seals anymore. To be able to buy any of the paid cosmetics in a season, even if I only want a single one, I have to spend $14.99 or $29.99 every three months (depending on which item it is I'm really interested in) on top of my ESO subscription. I can't use Crowns I've already purchased with real money, I can't use the gold/Crown exchange, and it can't be gifted. I MUST spend this additional money. If Raynor's Traveling Robes is what floats my boat, I must spend $30.00 within three months, else I may never be able to obtain it ever again. Talk about FOMO!
  
  I'll give a real example from this season. I'd really like the Vanos Dungeon Delve Staff. I usually play a healer. I most often equip staves. I don't necessarily need or care about the Delve Maul, the Delve Bow... etc. If I don't pay $14.99, will I ever see it again? In a Crown Crate, in a weapon pack, in another season? Etc. It's so annoying that I just can't buy it with one the other currencies that I have typically used for paid cosmetics. And, can I pay a smaller amount just to unlock the paid cosmetics on the one page I'm interested in? Also, no.
  
  (Again, different cosmetics appeal to different people. I acknowledge that it's likely that the "value" of items available for $14.99 or $29.99 may be worth way more than that, but that's not helpful if there's only one or two things you want. The less items you want, the worse that price is.)
• If I purchase a paid Tier of the Tome, can I then unlock and use the paid items? Oh, no. I'm just buying access. It's the same as if ZOS started charging to be able to use the Crown Store! I still must unlock Tome Points (which I can't buy with any currency, even if I wanted to), so now I have to pay for my paid cosmetics with both real money and time! And Tome Points, which were a way to earn free, in-game items, now simultaneously also become a barrier to access something I paid for and I have to choose which to claim first.
• If I want to not worry about losing access to these paid cosmetics or the free-turned-to-paid-because-of-the-timer cosmetics, I have to pay the money within the 3 months of the season. I can't just wait for it to come around again, and pay then, when I can better afford it, or when I have more time to pursue Tome Points.

Yes, there are a few things you can earn via the ESO+ subscription to help with this, but to me it just adds another layer of confusion and pressure. When do I open my cache? Which season to I use them on? etc.

This seems to have added so much more FOMO to the game, not less, for me, and a lot less flexibility. Plus, it's added layers of complexity, multiple steps and time delays to have access to the cosmetics, and we've traded the hassle of missing a login day for currency management for the free rewards. I don't like this feeling of being "forced" to pay for something within a time period, and also having to buy "everything." Crowns generally cost between $0.007 and $0.01 USD each, depending on the pack size. Assuming the worst price... the most expensive pet in the Crown Store is $12.00 right now (the three inventory pets). And to obtain it, I can use Crowns that I have, it could be gifted, I could exchange gold for crowns, and there's no real urgency because even if it leaves the store it will probably come back, maybe even on sale. If I JUST want the Dungeon Delver Theodolite, it's going to be $14.99 plus 400 Tome Points, plus I need to earn my way through page 4 (although yes, if you buy the season eventually you will naturally since it will then be there forever), and I HAVE to decide to spend the $14.99 within three months. Something tells me I'm going to have to get used to "missing out" on getting the cosmetics I actually want to obtain way more often...

Theignson wrote: »

The only other question is how this player got all crits (aside from luck). If they are running mech Acuity, it has a 4 second duration, but this countdown is 8 seconds. Maybe @React can explain that

That's because Acuity does not have a 4 second duration. It's a 4 sec duration per stack. You can proc it up with a dot on someone to get it rolling while you set up your delayed damage, then by the time your damage starts landing you've just started to peak at your 100% crit rate. Theoretically, Acuity can last for 20 seconds (though this is highly unlikely) in a scenario where you're proccing the next stack at the last possible second and you start at a value lower than 20% crit chance.

19%> 1 stack at 39% > 2 stacks at 59% > 3 stacks at 79% > 4 stacks at 99% > 5 stacks at 100%.

Also, none of this really matters for the example above anyways, because while the countdown for proxy is 8 seconds, damage takes your crit chance at the moment the instance of damage is dealt and not the moment the ability is cast. They could have had zero Acuity stacks when starting to cast all of this delayed damage, and ended up at 85 - 100% by the time the damage landed. This specific combo has a couple of globals in the middle to throw in some dots to proc Acuity, and the Anchorite's Cruelty script will proc a stack of Acuity every tick since Oblivion damage can never crit.

They also may not be using Acuity at all. It's not impossible to get 4 or 5 crits in a row at anything above a 60% crit chance. Rare sure, but not impossible.

I've been thinking of some new Recall Animations for travelling between Wayshrines in the game, and one that wasn't in the game stood out to me. I was thinking that we should get a Recall Animation where you hover in the air, and in one hand you have a gold moon, and in the other a gold star as if the Deadric Prince Azura has taken control of you, and then you teleport to another location in the game. I'm not sure if this was put into the game yet, but I think it would make a great Recall.