DRAGONSTAR ARENA and the LENGTH of it...

Avagoth

Hello everyone, I am a casual player. I play on average 2-3 h a day since I have a job and other duties blablabla...

After the glorious day that the Arean update arrived I finally decided to give it a try. It was Saturday and i started at 12 noon, and still didn't finish it by midnight....

I took me 1h+ to find a team, and then because of the leader bug and the fact that the whole thing took 12h, people left my team and the progress on the whole thing reset like 3 times...

You may argue that I am a noob and dont know how to play and so on, but the point here is that apart from people with no life noone has hours and hours stright to spend on finishing the arena.

My suggestion is to make it possible to freeze your progress at some stage and then be able to come back to this stage with your team at some other point in time.

Btw. this was NORMAL arena, I only wonder about the difficulty/time needed in vet.

Thanks for your comments

Garion

I think if you find a decent group then you won't encounter the problems you are having. This is one of the biggest problem with pugs and I don't believe that they should alter the game to accommodate for this. I think what they should do is revamp the group tool and grouping functions, so it becomes an easy and effective way to join a group.

Might I suggest you join a guild? 2 - 3h is enough to do the Arena with the right people (and you don't have to be pros). If you find a guild with decent membership and use Teamspeak to coordinate I don't think you would have a problem.

pppontus

Well, I also have about 2-3 hours to play on normal weekdays and have finished the arena. I second the above suggestion to join a guild, we got a couple of people together and finished in 2 hours or so. I have to say that the length of it was one of the key points making it probably the best experience I've had in ESO so far, that you really have to commit and fight for it, first time we gave up on the last boss because it was getting late and we all had to sleep and get up for work. Well, that happens, we just got together again and finished that time. It makes it more of an accomplishment, for me at least. There are still multiple delves and group dungeons that you can do if you don't want to put the time in to Arena, personally I think we need more of the longer challenging content. This is pretty much all we have

DDuke

Besides the above points, you could also try keeping an eye out on zone chat.

There are plenty of groups trying to find a replacement for some part of the Arena.

I also have to agree with the above post, the length of the arena is one of the main reasons which make it enjoyable and I hope they add more content that takes hours to clear instead of minutes.

DDuke

*double post*

Stratti

I suggest join a guild that has this as an event. Daggerfall Knights Do this Weekly as an official event and of course many ad hoc. That is if you are DC and Oceanic. Do some research on guilds . Its really vital in this game that you are in a good one it is the difference between an OK game and a Fantastic one

Avagoth

Thanks guys, I will defo look for an organised guild, maybe it will turn out better this way

Hypertionb14_ESO

a bad group will take 12 hours, and a good group of friends and guildes who you raid with, can do it in just under 2 hours easily..

the problem with the arena is that its effectively a RAID zone... not a small dungoen.

its a unspoken rule that expects true RAID fights to be either exceedingly hard, or exceedingly long in a mmo.

Causal players should never play a MMO imo... simply because you wont have the time to put the effort needed into it.

its like raising a child when you can only actually have time to interact with them for one day a year....

the best thing you can do is get a good guild who is willing to help.

smeeprocketnub19_ESO

Hypertionb14_ESO wrote: »

a bad group will take 12 hours, and a good group of friends and guildes who you raid with, can do it in just under 2 hours easily..

the problem with the arena is that its effectively a RAID zone... not a small dungoen.

its a unspoken rule that expects true RAID fights to be either exceedingly hard, or exceedingly long in a mmo.

Causal players should never play a MMO imo... simply because you wont have the time to put the effort needed into it.

its like raising a child when you can only actually have time to interact with them for one day a year....

the best thing you can do is get a good guild who is willing to help.

MMOs are not like raising a child, lol.

like1tiger

smeeprocketnub19_ESO wrote: »

Hypertionb14_ESO wrote: »

a bad group will take 12 hours, and a good group of friends and guildes who you raid with, can do it in just under 2 hours easily..

the problem with the arena is that its effectively a RAID zone... not a small dungoen.

its a unspoken rule that expects true RAID fights to be either exceedingly hard, or exceedingly long in a mmo.

Causal players should never play a MMO imo... simply because you wont have the time to put the effort needed into it.

its like raising a child when you can only actually have time to interact with them for one day a year....

the best thing you can do is get a good guild who is willing to help.

MMOs are not like raising a child, lol.

Agreed you have no kids I take it. Thats a terrible comparison.

Merlin13KAGL

like1tiger wrote: »

smeeprocketnub19_ESO wrote: »

Hypertionb14_ESO wrote: »

a bad group will take 12 hours, and a good group of friends and guildes who you raid with, can do it in just under 2 hours easily..

the problem with the arena is that its effectively a RAID zone... not a small dungoen.

its a unspoken rule that expects true RAID fights to be either exceedingly hard, or exceedingly long in a mmo.

Causal players should never play a MMO imo... simply because you wont have the time to put the effort needed into it.

its like raising a child when you can only actually have time to interact with them for one day a year....

the best thing you can do is get a good guild who is willing to help.

MMOs are not like raising a child, lol.

Agreed you have no kids I take it. Thats a terrible comparison.

You have to admit, some of the interactions do seem a bit daycare-ish, though!

Rodario

like1tiger wrote: »

smeeprocketnub19_ESO wrote: »

Hypertionb14_ESO wrote: »

a bad group will take 12 hours, and a good group of friends and guildes who you raid with, can do it in just under 2 hours easily..

the problem with the arena is that its effectively a RAID zone... not a small dungoen.

its a unspoken rule that expects true RAID fights to be either exceedingly hard, or exceedingly long in a mmo.

Causal players should never play a MMO imo... simply because you wont have the time to put the effort needed into it.

its like raising a child when you can only actually have time to interact with them for one day a year....

the best thing you can do is get a good guild who is willing to help.

MMOs are not like raising a child, lol.

Agreed you have no kids I take it. Thats a terrible comparison.

Yup, MMOs don't make you grind your teeth and pull out your hair.

MorHawk

Rodario wrote: »

Yup, MMOs don't make you grind your teeth and pull out your hair.

Or force your attention at all hours of the night.

drkeys143

So casual players have no right to be playing an MMO then? Really? It should only be for people who don't work or have any kind of life?? It may well be that the "casual" players are the ones who keep the game dev going with their subs, either way, they have just as much right to play, question, praise or moan as anyone else

timidobserver

The time comittment is a little steep even for a solid group. I would like to at least be able to save my team's progress.

firstdecan

The ability to "save" progress is an interesting concept, and might be helpful to those who don't have hours to invest at a time in some of the more interesting game content. You wouldn't be able to "save my exact progress" at any given point in time, but a system of checkpoints could work. They do it with the quests, why can't they do it with something like DS Arena? There's 10 waves, once you've completed a wave you can restart at the same wave with anyone else who has gotten just as far. It would also make pugging these easier, since pugs who are not capable of completing certain levels won't be able to get that far. You wouldn't have to go through 5 waves to find out someone just can't cut it at wave 6.

Off Topic \ Rant

I find it interesting how many people have effectively answered with "l2p" by saying "get a better group, it should only take 2-3 hours." I think you should be ashamed of yourself. Not everyone is the best player in the world, and playing the content that challenges you is how you get better.

For comparison, how would you like it if you showed up at a job, and the next day your boss walked you out the door saying "l2w, maybe then you deserve a paycheck." At a job, most people have to be taught about the organization and their specific function before they can be effective, a social game like this is a microcosm of that. Players need an opportunity to explore the game mechanics and roles they can play, and those who are time constrained simply haven't had as much opportunity to explore those mechanics and roles.

Sorry for the rant, but as @Merlin13KAGL mentioned, many aspects of this game, and these forums, do feel like a daycare.

briandivisionb16_ESO

It takes 2-3 hours? WTF that's more time than there is in the world!
This game is becoming too involved...

GwaynLoki

drkeys143 wrote: »

So casual players have no right to be playing an MMO then? Really? It should only be for people who don't work or have any kind of life?? It may well be that the "casual" players are the ones who keep the game dev going with their subs, either way, they have just as much right to play, question, praise or moan as anyone else

I'd rather say the high-end content is something for people who put in some time and effort into making efficient dungeon-builds and groups. I have been to only a few times but the amount of people going in there with inefficient builds (only single-target, no cc and such), not dodging red circles or rezzing, running away from each other when healer tells them not to for easier healing, etc. is a bit shocking. Coordination and preparation and I think a casual player can do this arena too. At least on normal mode.

Dunkmeister

timidobserver wrote: »

The time comittment is a little steep even for a solid group. I would like to at least be able to save my team's progress.

I like the idea, but I tend to group with different people everytime. Why not present the group with the option to A. Start from the beginning or B. Whoever has progressed the least in Arena, start from their furthest clear. ?

kitsinni

For me it took about 4+ hours .. oh wait that was just time trying to find a group for it I never actually got in

manny254

IMO you can't pug high end pve content in this game, and wanting things to be easier so you can pug it is not going to happen.

Martinus72

Rodario wrote: »

Yup, MMOs don't make you grind your teeth and pull out your hair.

Reading these forums very often makes you think that actually they do, big time...

SweetRoll

2 to 3 hours every day is casual? I wonder what I am then, at about 3 hours per week?

timidobserver

pcdunkleyub17_ESO wrote: »

timidobserver wrote: »

The time comittment is a little steep even for a solid group. I would like to at least be able to save my team's progress.

I like the idea, but I tend to group with different people everytime. Why not present the group with the option to A. Start from the beginning or B. Whoever has progressed the least in Arena, start from their furthest clear. ?

My take:
A. Your current progress is saved and resets when you finish.
B. The group can start at the lowest saved progress or the beginning.

That said, I think Dragonstar Arena is a timesink on purpose. It is to keep those unemployed people that play 16 hours a day every day and complain about lack of content subbed.

Merlin13KAGL

SweetRoll wrote: »

2 to 3 hours every day is casual? I wonder what I am then, at about 3 hours per week?

@SweetRoll , Uncommitted. We may have to take your name away.

What the hard-core's forget is that sometimes, that pesky real-life stuff gets in the way.

Even with Guilds, sometimes it's not as easy to find a group with the same amount of time available, at the same time, to pursue some of these things with a measure of success.

I do like the idea of pausing the progress, though I can see the issue with getting back to the same circumstance with the same people, restoring the same status (gear, wear, etc) as when you left.

Aoife32001

Causal players should never play a MMO imo... simply because you wont have the time to put the effort needed into it.

I'm a casual player and find more than enough time to play an MMO to my satisfaction. If MMOs didn't have a casual player base, I doubt there would be enough "focused" (I refuse to use "hardcore" for an activity that never requires you to leave a chair) players to keep the game afloat.

I won't comment on the comparison of MMOs to raising children...

As to the OP, I agree some sort of saved progress would be nice.