Veteran Leveling (Hear Me Out, ZoS)

Epignosis

ATTN FLAMERS:
For everyone that doesn't read my entire post and/or has negative input, don't even bother replying. Don't tell me about grinding areas, quests, and Cad's Silver/Gold, XP per hour; I already know. This is about me, and those like me.

I'm very frustrated because I am not able to enjoy mindlessly grinding out 1 million Veteran experience at a ridiculously slow pace. For me, I have limited time to play, and when I do play I don't feel like spending the entire time doing quest after quest only to be reminded of how many months it's going to take me to reach V14 (currently V5). Leveling VR feels astronomically unrewarding compared to, say, pre-1.4 days and obviously non-vet levels.

I am aware that the intended way to level to VR14 is by completing every last quest, delve, dolmen, world boss, and point of discovery in every single zone. I don't think that's unreasonable at all; I think that after I complete those tasks, the progress I see is depressing given the time that I've put in. I can't clear a single zone in a week's time.

I understand that many people don't have this problem; they have nothing but time on their hands to spend grinding away for hours and hours and hours on end every single day. I've even seen a friend level to V7 in a week, but he's on almost all day every day. I can't do that. I'm busy, and I just don't have the time or patience to fry my brain like that.

I absolutely love TES lore, PvP, and leveling my crafting, which is why I continue to hop on. Unfortunately, I am constantly reminded of the looming,
seemingly endless ladder that I need to keep climbing, and it's disheartening. It's taken me 2 months to gain 4 million Veteran Experience. From the third paragraph, I make it clear that I know what needs to be done to reach the level cap, but why are we only limited to leveling in that manner (and mob grinding)? Why not make leveling in a PvP environment fully viable? Why not implement a feature where guilds participate in random, unique quests as an addition to leveling Vet Ranks? Why not accumulate increased Vet Experience gain while logged out (if subscribed)? What are people like me supposed to do?

Players should enjoy logging in and playing ESO, and not feel like they're doing another chore. Tantamount to that, every accomplishment you have in the game should feel rewarding and progressive. I don't play to get stressed, I play to de-stress. I've stayed subscribed since the option to unsubscribe became available, but I've decided to end my subscription until leveling VR becomes more friendly for people like me. I know it's nigh impossible to please everyone, but there is a solution for this.

tl;dr
Read the whole thing.

drschplatt

The game right now is not designed for casual 3 to 4 hour a week players. I started playing during BETA and have yet to reach VR12 on my main character. I just get so bored doing the Caldwell Silver and Gold stuff that I find myself trying to do other things in game like daily quests. Unfortunately those don't provide squat for exp so it's been going slow. I recently got so tired of it I bit the bullet and joined some guild mates in a mob grind just to get a couple ranks out of the way. I really don't want to grind, but I'm tired of it taking so long to get to end game.

SoonerMagicEE

I'm not arguing against any of your points, but you may want to consider detaching yourself from the rat-race concept if you have little time to play. Instead of worrying so much about what level you are, slow down and smell the roses.

The problem is you're stressing yourself out over something that you can never achieve. No matter what ZOS does, players in your situation (I'm close to that myself) will never catch up to those who play constantly. Hitting V14 will not stop this feeling...it will only lead into the CS grind.

I think you may enjoy the game far more if you stop worrying about your level or the speed at which you are gaining experience. Just my $0.02.

Edit: I did read the entire post. I'm just trying to help out....you'll drive yourself insane and start throwing cheese at people if you continue down this path!

SHADOW2KK

Hehe I feel your pain, but you are getting there, a lot of players want to get there now now now now, shrugs.

Get there when you get there, as you say, you like doing PvP , you like levelling your crafting.

Do what you enjoy doing, the xp will mount up, it is like in that eternal last hour before you finish work and you are glaring at the clock on the wall screaming inside your mind go faster!!!!!!!!!.
Take your mind off it and just play, grind, quest or w/e, and you will get there.

A lot of the old spots have been nerfed, sadly, and a lot of people level in PvP as well.

Do not listen to peeps who say oh you not Vr14 yet, or you not got any Vr14 toons yet.
I only got 2 Vr14 chars, and working on a 3rd, and it means less than nothing to me personally when some peeps with no life has a go, you will get there when you get there, just remember why you like the game in the first place, even if that is just staring at the sunset or scenery or something and rise from there.

There are a few spots for me personally which is giving me good xp or good xp for CP`s but I am not saying them here, or they will be nerfed.

Good luck.

BuggeX

IF you like PVP, why dont you just do pvp? I am doing 400k Exp (1 cp) in 2-3 hours. If you able to join a pvp guild an their raid you can do it even in 1 hour.

Depens on wath you Play, you can do this also solo, as NB or Sorc just gank lonly ppl and you get ~10kexp/kill.

You are also able to lvl you craft skill by destruct you pvp revard.

There is absolut no Need to PVE.

Sausage

You should just work on your CPs. Veteran Ranks are going to be removed, at least, well the rumors has been even before 1.6. Veteran Ranks were kind of emergency endgame fix.

Brizz

They teased us with the notion of removing veteran ranks over half a year ago...

The game would be SO much better if they just did it already.

Unfortunately I think they wont because the game currently lacks compelling end-game content unless you run with a guild.

My advice is to join a fun guild that does frequent pvp/pve that can invite you in sometimes. If you are more of a solo player then don't let the veteran ranks effect you too much. The difference between vet 5 and vet 14 isn't very large.

Sausage

Only explanation why they havent removen them yet is, maybe they hope that population on consoles are higher so they can proceed with it.

Earelith

SoonerMagicEE wrote: »

I'm not arguing against any of your points, but you may want to consider detaching yourself from the rat-race concept if you have little time to play. Instead of worrying so much about what level you are, slow down and smell the roses.

The problem is you're stressing yourself out over something that you can never achieve. No matter what ZOS does, players in your situation (I'm close to that myself) will never catch up to those who play constantly. Hitting V14 will not stop this feeling...it will only lead into the CS grind.

I think you may enjoy the game far more if you stop worrying about your level or the speed at which you are gaining experience. Just my $0.02.

Edit: I did read the entire post. I'm just trying to help out....you'll drive yourself insane and start throwing cheese at people if you continue down this path!

This 1000 times..i am a casual my self too but i dont stress myself to go to the top...if anything, i find vr levels and champion points more enjoyable than the raid grinds other mmos help..i have a very long goal to achieve in my own pace and every day i build upon it.

In other mmos once i hit the max level is almost game over for me cause then i must join the raid grinding...on eso i can login and do whatever i want..grind, questing, pvp, dungeons and all these contribute to my long term goal.

Forget your vr level, just log and do whatever you wanna do..

Titansteele

I do not see what removing the VR levels will achieve.

People fighting for Vr14 will just end up fighting for the 90CP mark followed by the 120 mark and so on.....

Chill out, join a guild for the fun and enjoy the journey without one eye on the destination all the time.

Zhoyzu

Earelith wrote: »

SoonerMagicEE wrote: »

I'm not arguing against any of your points, but you may want to consider detaching yourself from the rat-race concept if you have little time to play. Instead of worrying so much about what level you are, slow down and smell the roses.

The problem is you're stressing yourself out over something that you can never achieve. No matter what ZOS does, players in your situation (I'm close to that myself) will never catch up to those who play constantly. Hitting V14 will not stop this feeling...it will only lead into the CS grind.

I think you may enjoy the game far more if you stop worrying about your level or the speed at which you are gaining experience. Just my $0.02.

Edit: I did read the entire post. I'm just trying to help out....you'll drive yourself insane and start throwing cheese at people if you continue down this path!

[snip]
Forget your vr level, just log and do whatever you wanna do..

except if your VR level prevents you from doing what you want to do then you cant forget it or do what you want.


ZoS said they were gonna remove VR system.

They also said they would always be pay to play with sub fees.

Empty words and broken promises, thats all ZoS has amounted too in the year of ESO.

Sausage

Thats actually one hell of a question, what if one version takes off and start to sell like cup cakes.

I'd almost bet PS4/PC version goes into survival mode, thats why champion point and enlightment system is much better, but Im not so sure about Xbox, it just might lift off, maybe they should open new forum for Xbox version and go with VR system and go with grind or die, what seems to be popular.

Cazic

There will always be players who are on all day every day progressing faster than those of us who are more casual. The game isn't a race. Just slow down and enjoy the time that you can put in.

Olysja

there are players that does lvl1 to vr14 in less than 50hours with full grinding. it's an MMO and lvling is fast enough, can i suggest you a single player game maybe?

olemanwinter

Olysja wrote: »

there are players that does lvl1 to vr14 in less than 50hours with full grinding. it's an MMO and lvling is fast enough, can i suggest you a single player game maybe?

Grinding for max XP is LESS FUN than working. 50 hours is a 40 hour work week plus 10 hours more at 1.5 times pay.

Get a grip man. You are suggesting people spend over a full work-week worth of time just mashing the same button and running in the same circle over and over again just to finally get to the portion of the game they want to play.

Sounds like someone is at max VR and wants to maintain an advantage as long as possible. And I can understand that to an extent, because I have a VR14 and a VR9. I'm not exactly thrilled about the prospect of the removal of Vet Ranks.

However, I recently started a new character that I really like and have a great build for....the only problem is he's stuck at VR2 and I can't even bare the thought of loading him up. It's just brutal. I can't take it anymore.

IMHO, the solution was definitely not to leave the system broken and unbearable as it is now for an eventual complete removal. They simply needed to reduce the XP required per VR from 1 mil to perhaps 250k.

I don't understand why it's such a problem that someone might outlevel their VR zone. I ALWAYS outleveled my 1-50 zones...and those early days were the most fun I had in the game.

Why does nobody at Zos have any common sense about these things?

zeitzbachrwb17_ESO

It's amusing how it starts off with "If you don't think like me, your opinions are not welcomed"

1 mil per vet exp isn't even an issue. IT's like that because a single map now covers the whole are and they surely already tried normally playing through it once with average grind and quest ratio and end up getting 1 vet level a map.

And that's normal. Even if I run through the whole map and refusing to kill much, that's 400-500k exp easily. But in an MMO, it's normal to run through a quest area and go "OH wow, this area has really great respawn for all melee easy to pull creatures. Maybe I should make a train for a little while".

Stop treating the game as a race. You don't go "ERMAHGERD HE RUNS FASTER THAN ME THIS IS UNFAIR I SAY WE HAVE SPEED LIMIT SIGNS FOR RUNNERS." just because someone runs faster in an MMO. They run fasters than you because they want to be at the top and if you want to be at the top too then you will have to invest. Else, just look at yourself and your pace and see what you can achieve instead of demanding things from those that already achieved.

Right now, I'm in my final exams week so I only log on for an hour a day and I still get 300-400k exp in that hour from a mob that's already in a -30% EXP range. If not, I just jump in Cyrodilli and do Bruma quest for 100k in 20 minutes to gain that CP right away.

So if I play for an hour only a day and grind to vet 14 without that -30% range cause I'm a vet 14 farming from vet 10 mobs now, It only takes 2 hours per level at grind rate or 10 days of 20 minutes a day for a vet level. Your pace is the one that is horribly slow. Complaining "THEY HAVE TIME! I DON"T!" is no different from just saying "My methods are bad" because LBR, 15 days per vet level a horribad rate and it's not the game issue anymore if someone can't figure out how to gain more than 80k exp an hour.

Julianos

Epignosis wrote: »

ATTN FLAMERS:
For everyone that doesn't read my entire post and/or has negative input, don't even bother replying. Don't tell me about grinding areas, quests, and Cad's Silver/Gold, XP per hour; I already know. This is about me, and those like me.

I'm very frustrated because I am not able to enjoy mindlessly grinding out 1 million Veteran experience at a ridiculously slow pace. For me, I have limited time to play, and when I do play I don't feel like spending the entire time doing quest after quest only to be reminded of how many months it's going to take me to reach V14 (currently V5). Leveling VR feels astronomically unrewarding compared to, say, pre-1.4 days and obviously non-vet levels.

I am aware that the intended way to level to VR14 is by completing every last quest, delve, dolmen, world boss, and point of discovery in every single zone. I don't think that's unreasonable at all; I think that after I complete those tasks, the progress I see is depressing given the time that I've put in. I can't clear a single zone in a week's time.

I understand that many people don't have this problem; they have nothing but time on their hands to spend grinding away for hours and hours and hours on end every single day. I've even seen a friend level to V7 in a week, but he's on almost all day every day. I can't do that. I'm busy, and I just don't have the time or patience to fry my brain like that.

I absolutely love TES lore, PvP, and leveling my crafting, which is why I continue to hop on. Unfortunately, I am constantly reminded of the looming,
seemingly endless ladder that I need to keep climbing, and it's disheartening. It's taken me 2 months to gain 4 million Veteran Experience. From the third paragraph, I make it clear that I know what needs to be done to reach the level cap, but why are we only limited to leveling in that manner (and mob grinding)? Why not make leveling in a PvP environment fully viable? Why not implement a feature where guilds participate in random, unique quests as an addition to leveling Vet Ranks? Why not accumulate increased Vet Experience gain while logged out (if subscribed)? What are people like me supposed to do?

Players should enjoy logging in and playing ESO, and not feel like they're doing another chore. Tantamount to that, every accomplishment you have in the game should feel rewarding and progressive. I don't play to get stressed, I play to de-stress. I've stayed subscribed since the option to unsubscribe became available, but I've decided to end my subscription until leveling VR becomes more friendly for people like me. I know it's nigh impossible to please everyone, but there is a solution for this.

tl;dr
Read the whole thing.

i can feel you but with this current system best thing to do is grinding mobs my sorc was vet 9 and with 4 hours grind i hit vet 12,3 and with lots of items and gold. Im %100 agree with you they should nerf vet levels or remove them but they wont do anything like that untill console release.

Tors

I took one of my hireling characters from 15 to 50 last week, then up to VR3 in the next 3 days through general quesitng and pvp. How can this be slow?

To be honest, I think the people asking for VR removal or easier faster leveling are just playing the wrong type of game.

MMORPGs are NOT for you.

They are not about some mythical "End Game", a phrase Blizzard invented when people got to 50 in a week and said "what now?"

MMORPGS are about the jorney. Level should be an achievement not gear.

I have seen so many promising MMORPGs dumbed down and ruined by the "i want an instant hit" kids that i fear the kind of posts that the OP makes.

For him, he wants an instant max level character so he can run about in pvp, for me I see a game being wrecked by people who get board of the shiny new max level character in 5 mins and then quit the game.

LadyLothi

I'm not arguing against any of your points, but you may want to consider detaching yourself from the rat-race concept if you have little time to play. Instead of worrying so much about what level you are, slow down and smell the roses.

The problem is you're stressing yourself out over something that you can never achieve. No matter what ZOS does, players in your situation (I'm close to that myself) will never catch up to those who play constantly. Hitting V14 will not stop this feeling...it will only lead into the CS grind.

Logged in to agree with ^this.

If you think that with the limited time you have, things will get better once you are VR14, you are most certainly mistaken.

The things that you will be required to do once you are that far are at least as time-consuming as levelling is atm. And as has been said: you'll never will be able to compete with tryhards who are on 24/7.

Try to enjoy the process, "smell the roses" as they say around here. I have made it a personal goal to complete as much of the achievements as I can about manage, up and including the fishing achievements.

I even re-did some of the old group dungeons where I misses bosses before, to have all the "conquerer" achievements. I know a lot of VRs are doing this as well, it's interesting to see how many VRs you meet doing stuff purely for achievements' sake.

Julianos

Tors wrote: »

I took one of my hireling characters from 15 to 50 last week, then up to VR3 in the next 3 days through general quesitng and pvp. How can this be slow?

To be honest, I think the people asking for VR removal or easier faster leveling are just playing the wrong type of game.

MMORPGs are NOT for you.

They are not about some mythical "End Game", a phrase Blizzard invented when people got to 50 in a week and said "what now?"

MMORPGS are about the jorney. Level should be an achievement not gear.

I have seen so many promising MMORPGs dumbed down and ruined by the "i want an instant hit" kids that i fear the kind of posts that the OP makes.

For him, he wants an instant max level character so he can run about in pvp, for me I see a game being wrecked by people who get board of the shiny new max level character in 5 mins and then quit the game.

i agree with you too but 14 million xp is overkill and mindless. And quests is not enough to reach vet 14 you need to grind !! cadwells gold finish when you hit vet 10 -11. And most people leveling more than 1 char.

Tors

Axorn wrote: »

i agree with you too but 14 million xp is overkill and mindless. And quests is not enough to reach vet 14 you need to grind !! cadwells gold finishes when you hit vet 10 -11

I remember when I was a kid, it was 25 million exp before lunchtime AND it was uphill both ways to school everyday

P3ZZL3

@Tors I don't really think that's what he's saying to be honest.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are a fair number of those about in the forums. The same type of person who keeps complaining that their v14 DK is getting nerfed and it's not fair blah blah blah.

And I can sympathise. I rolled a sorc originally and he's a v14 and I'm having a hell of a time building something viable that works for me. I've got my Templar up to v6 by Saturday and with some casual grinding (1-2 hrs a time) I'm now at v9. So it can be done without massive amounts of time investment.

I suspect the frustration not only lies with the aspect of levelling a VR up to 14 - but also with the fact that so much gear that gives you a fair chance of surviving from the set bonus' are v8/9+ - Hell, look at Martial or Arch Mage at v14.

This then leads to another obvious question, how on earth will all the sets work if there is no "v1-v14" differentiator for the character? Will everyone just be able to roll the highest level gear? Will the gear be based on Champ Points? In which case, we're back to the grinding again. *shrugs*

Yasha

This is a serious question OP- normally in a game I would not be stressed out about getting to the max level; the journey of the game itself is rewarding. Can you spell out exactly why it is so important to get to max level? (I know the answer might be obvious, but I suspect the answer to this question is the crux of the issue, moreso than the time it takes to level).

zeitzbachrwb17_ESO

Axorn wrote: »

i agree with you too but 14 million xp is overkill and mindless. And quests is not enough to reach vet 14 you need to grind !! cadwells gold finish when you hit vet 10 -11. And most people leveling more than 1 char.

People that know how to play MMO and actually played them before know you don't just skip from quest 1 to quest 2 and expect to be given millions of exp that let them levle right away.

Grinding is always involved. Heck, most quests in other MMOs disguise grinding as "Kill 200-250 mobs" or "Find 1 super rate loot that won't drop until 500+ kills" to get people to grind but still believe they are "questing"

I see everyone going "VR 14 IS SO HARD" but from my curent rate, I can see my char going from 1 to VR 14 in about a 10 days top with 7 days out of that 10 spent on doing quests just to get to Cold Harbour, Silver and Gold.

Julianos

Tors wrote: »

Axorn wrote: »

i agree with you too but 14 million xp is overkill and mindless. And quests is not enough to reach vet 14 you need to grind !! cadwells gold finishes when you hit vet 10 -11

I remember when I was a kid, it was 25 million exp before lunchtime AND it was uphill both ways to school everyday

lol it reminds me old people who lived wrong entire life and force their kids or grand kids to the same mindless life. All im saying these vet levels should nerfed a bit like 5 million they are not synced with quests. When you finish all quests you stuck at vet 10 with a crapy blue ring lol. We have already champion system for grinding xp after vet levels.

P3ZZL3

Tors wrote: »

Axorn wrote: »

i agree with you too but 14 million xp is overkill and mindless. And quests is not enough to reach vet 14 you need to grind !! cadwells gold finishes when you hit vet 10 -11

I remember when I was a kid, it was 25 million exp before lunchtime AND it was uphill both ways to school everyday

25million before lunchtime AND uphill both ways?

You had it easy! *rolls eyes*

When I was a kid, it was 30million XP before breakfast, uphill both ways to the mine I worked in for 25 hours a day

Julianos

Now, when i was a little boy at the age of five
I had something in my pocket, keeps a lot of folks alive
You know baby we can have a lot of fun

Tors

Axorn wrote: »

Now, when i was a little boy at the age of five
I had something in my pocket, keeps a lot of folks alive
You know baby we can have a lot of fun

@Axorn Quoting Bo Diddly gives you an insta win on the forums.

Adramelach

Well, I only have one toon that I've played since Early Access, and he's V7... and I'm just fine with that.

Sure, I look forward to V14 and the cool gear and everything else available at that time, but until then, I just quest and grind a bit and frankly just do whatever I feel like doing at the time, and once in a while, almost by surprise, I'll see the 'level up' halo around me and think "huh, cool, another level" and that's about it.

I'd say if you're entirely focused on the "end point" of reaching V14 and want to 'suffer through' the journey to get there as painlessly and quickly as possible... man, are you playing the wrong game lol.

Acrolas

I'm pretty sure some people are reading this thread thinking,

Busy --> More Income --> Crown Store XP Potions --> Happy Customer


I mean, the business model practically writes itself sometimes...

idk

No offense but this is not the first thread about this. In fact they have nerfed veteran leveling a couple time since launch (not including nerfing to make fighting easier).

With that they have mentioned more than a few times they are eliminating VR though they haven't mentioned when or even how they will manage this.

Something is going to happen, again, be used they do seem to understand the original design was fairly flawed.