new player - what alliance?

Chilledbones

hello everyone.

so i just bought ESO and were curious about how the population is among different alliances?

i havin't been able to find much about it searching through web.

Fat_Cat45

Aldmeri had the largest player count at launch, probably because of elf races and linking of other fantasy games with elves. It seems they don't lead anymore. I feel as if Daggerfall has the most loyal players, ones who resub most often. And I can't really say about Ebonheart, I don't know anything about them

Whisper292

I've played all three factions, and they all have benefits and drawbacks and one really isn't better than the others. I personally like Daggerfall best, but not because it is any better than the other two. Maybe it's because I've gotten the farthest in that storyline or I like the NPCs better. They really do have some great NPCs.

Maybe I can help by describing the "feel" of each faction. By the way, the Main Questline, Mages Guild and Fighters Guild questlines are identical no matter which faction you choose.

Daggerfall Covenant has a medieval, feudal feel to it. The different races get along pretty well, and there's very little tension between them. The questline goes from Glenumbra--a widely varied area comprised of cities, wooded areas, swamps, and giant spiders--to the Alik'r desert and back again. And as I said above, I feel like the NPCs are a lot more memorable in DC. There are a few that are just so vivid, you can really grow to love or hate them.

Ebonhart Pact is more practical, a bare-bones, meat and potatoes sort of atmosphere. I think this alliance is much more shaky than the other two. There's a lot of animosity between the races, and it really feels like the whole thing will break apart at any moment. I haven't gotten very far in this questline yet, but the first zone is snowy Skyrim and the second is plagued by ash and erupting volcanoes.

The Aldmeri Dominion is more exotic, provides a nice contrast of a cosmopolitan setting and back to nature. Sounds weird, I know, but that's really how it goes back and forth. Tension between the races is not widespread and the leaders hold things together very well. The racism the High Elves and Thalmor perpetrated in Skyrim hasn't taken hold yet, and there really is quite a bit of harmony between the races--although any of them will tell you the Bosmer are crazy. The Summerset Isles have an upscale, urban atmosphere, whereas Valenwood is full of humongous trees--one of them city-size--and giant insects.

All in all, I think it's a good idea to try out all three factions. You have a limit of 16 characters you can play with, and there are plenty of choices. Hopefully these little descriptions will help you decide what you want to do.

AreoHotah

I play in Ebonhart but i recommend Altmeri for its npcs, exotic starting locations and quests. Maybe u dont know but you will be able to visit the other 2 aswell after finishing main story line so... toss a coin

Chilledbones

im happy for the replies from you all, but i wanted to know about how population on the different alliances are, how much activity there is and participation in PvP.

lores and stories of races and alliances isnt the most importent thing for me

Taz

From what I've seen in a few PvP campaigns, AD tends to lead in population, with EP and DC coming in roughly the same. I might venture a guess that there's a little bit more on DC than EP. But it really depends on your PvP campaign, each will vary.

The alliances themselves seem populated out of PvP so I've seen no huge difference there.

Knootewoot

I played all 3 alliances

- DC has for me the best overall story and quests. Enviroments are great
- EP had the best enviroments, from vulcano's to swamps to winter wonderland
- AD had the most crappy story, a whiny queen who (spoiler) is crying in a house sometime and some great and some not so great enviroments

- You want to save the best for last? Then play AD as on VR you get DC to play last
- You want to start out good and love the game, play DC and hope they change VR content before you reach AD
- You want to have a good time and like the game and torture yourself in the end, play EP which have to do AD as last.

In PvP, DC is less organized most of the time then the rest. AD is well organized while fighting for their whiner queen. Mostly they backstab you when you attack another. EP is a good bunch in PvP who only win in numbers. If they see blue or yellow they run and come back with twice the amount.

IcyDeadPeople

Chilledbones wrote: »

im happy for the replies from you all, but i wanted to know about how population on the different alliances are, how much activity there is and participation in PvP.

lores and stories of races and alliances isnt the most importent thing for me

Right now I'd say there are too many campaigns, resulting in several with low population and only a couple with high population.

This is going to change with update 1.3 in a few weeks. We will have only 5 campaigns, and hopefully they will all be high pop. Also we had a low frame rate issue in Cyrodiil during the past two weeks that resulted in a lot of people taking a break from PVP, so it's hard to provide any kind of accurate estimate.

From playing on several campaigns during the past month, I'd say EP and AD seem to have about the same numbers, perhaps EP has slightly more. DC seems to have fewer total numbers than the other two factions. (I'm just referring to Cyrodiil populations on NA megaserver, no idea about the PVE populations.)

EDIT: Wabbajack was locked for all three factions yesterday, when I queued to enter there were 84 ahead of me waiting to get in. I noticed Dawnbreaker was also locked on the EP side.

PBpsy

Ebonheart -for Mer of honor, Drunken Smelly nerds and filthy lizards.Best alliance ever

Covenant - Pathetic hug a vampire adopt a zombie bunch of honorless scum.Worst alliance. They do have nice deserts though.

Dominion - The Queen is hot but the rest are a bunch of helpless tree hugging cannibals and smelly wet drugged up pu55ies. For people who do not have what it takes to go Ebonheart pact.

LarsS

Try EsoStats.com there you get information on how sucessfull the alliances are in various campaigns in NA and EU.

Whisper292

PBpsy wrote: »

Ebonheart -for Mer of honor, Drunken Smelly nerds and filthy lizards.Best alliance ever

Covenant - Pathetic hug a vampire adopt a zombie bunch of honorless scum.Worst alliance. They do have nice deserts though.

Dominion - The Queen is hot but the rest are a bunch of helpless tree hugging cannibals and smelly wet drugged up pu55ies. For people who do not have what it takes to go Ebonheart pact.

Dude. Don't be a hater.

Lynx7386

Here's some info that may help you decide:

Landscape and environment

The Covenant has what you'd expect of typical medieval terrain - everything from rolling hills to coastal cliffs. At higher levels when you get to alik'r, you're in what essentially looks like ancient egypt. Daggerfall zones have a fairly neutral color scheme and saturation to them, making them look a bit more realistic than most.

The Pact is very dreary and drab. Most of the terrain is either swampland, frozen tundra, or volcanic ashlands. Just the environment alone is depressing, but that combines with mostly desaturated colors in the zones to make everything look grey-ish. I will say that, out of the pact's zones, the argonian zones are the most appealing to me, with interesting plantlife and architecture.

The Dominion has the most fantasy-esque zones, with very saturated colors and very vibrant, mostly tropical zones. Greenshade ends up being a little more drab and swamplike, but that's probably the only zone I really didnt like for the dominion.



Quests and Characters

The Covenant started off fairly boring for me, personally, but after the first couple of zones the quests pick up and you start seeing more 'epic' storylines. The races of the covenant, despite supposedly being longtime enemies, appear to get along very well with one another. Everything about the covenant's characters screams your typical medieval, arthurian atmosphere.

The Pact is made up of three races that really hate each other. The dark elves used to enslave the argonians, so both of those races constantly argue with each other. The nords hate elves in general, but dont seem to have any ill feelings towards argonians. As far as quests go, the pact's quests 'try' to feel epic, but sometimes it's like they're trying too hard and it ruins the effect. I never felt overly powerful or important in the grand scheme of things with the pact.

The Dominion races seem to get along fairly well, except that there's a large percentage of high elves that look down on both the wood elves and khajiit. Razum-dar is definitely one of the most interesting npcs in the game, and sticks with you throughout the duration of the dominion questline. You also feel more important and connected to the events going on with the faction.

PBpsy

Whisper292 wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

Ebonheart -for Mer of honor, Drunken Smelly nerds and filthy lizards.Best alliance ever

Covenant - Pathetic hug a vampire adopt a zombie bunch of honorless scum.Worst alliance. They do have nice deserts though.

Dominion - The Queen is hot but the rest are a bunch of helpless tree hugging cannibals and smelly wet drugged up pu55ies. For people who do not have what it takes to go Ebonheart pact.

Dude. Don't be a hater.

I am no hatter, That is a very accurate description of DC and AD. I mean the DC guys didn't want to get of my back because at some point I

destroyed some undead WMD

. I mean that is the definition of honorless scum.

annarr1117nub18_ESO

Ebonheart Pact is for "true" champions and warriors of Tamriel!!!

annarr1117nub18_ESO

if it's "NOT" (Nord), (Argonian), and (Dark Elf Dunmer) I'm "NOT" interested folks!

AreoHotah

Chilledbones wrote: »

im happy for the replies from you all, but i wanted to know about how population on the different alliances are, how much activity there is and participation in PvP.

lores and stories of races and alliances isnt the most importent thing for me

Well its all connected no? If ppl go to a faction cuz it has the best lore and stories and locations than that faction will be the most populated in both pvp and pve.

AlexDougherty

Personally the faction stories are at similar levels, different styles, but nothing majorly different in the quality of the stories. My personal Preference is the Aldmeri Dominion faction, but I like the other two as well.