"To group or not to group" - How do you spend the majority of your time in ESO?

NobleNerd

I am interested to find out how most of you spend your time in ESO. With much of the game setup encouraging more of a solo play mentality, do most of you play solo or endure the lack of good grouping experience?

Give me some feedback if you wish to elaborate on your choice (remember.... let's be constructive with our criticism please).

Merkabeh

A mixture of both - I am just loving it!

Both.

Questing, Dungeons, random exploration; almost always in a group with at least 1 other person. Often in much larger groups in my guild.

Not uncommon for us to have 6-12 people in a group (perhaps not all playing together exactly) in the same area; all doing things.

When I am just farming mats or in the mood to be anti-social, I'll solo for a bit.

One of the things I love about this game is the balance between solo and group play.

Heromofo

Solo play - finding it faster experience playing this way.

1-50 easy just to think of it as a solo game
v1-14 start to bring in small groups for dungeons, everything can be soloed.

Reverb

A mixture of both - I am just loving it!

I do pledges everyday, so have to group. I always solo in the open world and about half the time recently in Cyrodiil

Prymael

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

Using group finder did nothing for me in the ten or so minutes waiting around spindleclutch to group up with randoms and even then I had saved it for last in glenumbra, so not being the party leader meant my rewards were only quest items since I was over the limit level wise in comparison to the party leader.

KingRebz

Single player only because theres nobody i can play with

Zusia211

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

For most part it depends on time I am playing. During the day my friends aren't typically on so I just end up doing solo on one of my other characters. At night I tend to get on my primary character and group with a friend.

traigusb14_ESO2

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

I group with my higher level characters, but usually solo with lower, unless invited by friends to do dungeons.

Group tool could use some works still.

Kendaric

Solo play - finding it faster experience playing this way.

Solo play, I´ve no interest in group content except possibly normal dungeons at all.

adriant1978

Missing an option for duo play.

NobleNerd

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

Some great feedback so far!

Looking forward to see where this goes over the weeks to come.

I manage a guild, so I try to group play as much as possible, BUT with that said.... what I have discovered while leveling through Vet. is that you can get through Vet. levels much easier from solo or with 1 other player to group with. You have to avoid any group oriented content like: Public Dungeons, regular grp. dungeons, Craglorn, etc because you will lose 50% experience in this content. Even dungeon delves will give low experience compared to soloing out in the open world.

For me this is frustrating, because for my guild members to plow through Veteran levels it is best for them to run in only Duo mode or solo.

Zazaaji

Solo play - finding it faster experience playing this way.

Considering about 75% of the main quests are forced solo, mostly solo. I'm not in a guild yet that I feel comfortable voice talking in.
-

lolo_01b16_ESO

Group play - ZOS has made it so easy to group and enjoy content together.

If i wanted to play solo, I would play Skyrim.

But I don't get why there are xp related options in this poll. There is no way to solo level as fast as it is possible in a small group.

GreySix

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

adriant1978 wrote: »

Missing an option for duo play.

That's been my preference. Cannot dual-play much of the original story though. Hoped they'd fix that in the beta over a year ago, but they never did.

Vyle_Byte

Didnt have an option for my playstyle.

My husband and I play together as a duo and have everyday since launch over a year ago. Sure, 1-50 is solo-able but its more fun for us to play together and the XP is the best at 2 people. We don't really group up with others but we don't really play solo either.

Psychobunni

Solo mostly now.

The first guild my husband and I were in fell apart shortly after vet ranks, and then 1.6 and the Champ System w/o any new content ran off the remaining people we grouped with Throw in a job change for hubby and I simply don't have the patience or desire to run with people I don't know for lackluster rewards if I'm lucky and usually I am not.

I'm okay with this for now tbh

ADBliss

My first group experience was at lvl 20, because that was the only time the queue popped. But I figured hey at least these people will be experience and know what they are doing.
Oh how wrong I was. I had never before done a group dungeon in ESO and I was apparently the most experienced.

Every one travelled to me even though I wasn't even at the dungeon then spent 5 minutes running about thinking they were in it.
Two people had queued as both tank and healer then did neither.
One of those that had queued as tank then didn't proceeded to order everyone about.
One guy thought the Dungeon was over when we had to speak to an npc and exited, when he realise it was still going he waited for us to get more done before coming back.
One of the guys that had queued as tank apparently didn't have the first clue what tanking was or how it works as when ever he did get aggro he'd say things like 'oh he really doesn't like me lol lol'

The second time i grouped was for pvp and the dumb ass crap that spews from peoples mouths is so intensely cringe worthy and embarrassing I won't be doing it again.

Fartman

Solo play - finding it faster experience playing this way.

I tried to talk a friend in to getting it, he said he didn't have enough time for a game like this... so he stuck with destiny. A brain dead game. That's the only person I even know with a ps4.

newtinmpls

adriant1978 wrote: »

Missing an option for duo play.

^^^ this.

#1 reason I subbed at all was to play with my spouse. That's still 90% of my play.

AnAngryGinger

Solo play - finding it faster experience playing this way.

No option for solo play that doesn't sound presumptuous? I obviously don't know experience difference if I don't play in groups.

Anyway Elder Scrolls does solo play best and I'm doing fine. It's still fun interacting with people using emotes. I also like assisting random players. It's like I have a constant troupe with me I heal and pull enemies off of when they need it.

IrishGirlGamer

Solo play - finding it faster experience playing this way.

AnAngryGinger wrote: »

No option for solo play that doesn't sound presumptuous? I obviously don't know experience difference if I don't play in groups.

Anyway Elder Scrolls does solo play best and I'm doing fine. It's still fun interacting with people using emotes. I also like assisting random players. It's like I have a constant troupe with me I heal and pull enemies off of when they need it.

Thank you for saying that.

I play solo mostly because of time and time zone issues. I've do play with groups, though, and I sometimes I run dungeons or grind with friends or group. It's not like I say "This is how I play and that's it." Sometimes I play solo but chat with friends or run a mic.

I guess I play the way I want to play. When I can't, I play something else. Really, it's that simple.

Sausage

Group play - even though exp. drops drastically, I Gots to have my boys with me!

Im group/MMO player myself. I jump into dungeon occasionally even Ive done most of the dungeons already. Cyrodil takes too much time sadly so I leave that for the max level.

NobleNerd

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

newtinmpls wrote: »

adriant1978 wrote: »

Missing an option for duo play.

^^^ this.

#1 reason I subbed at all was to play with my spouse. That's still 90% of my play.

The group play options would be considered for Duo... anything outside of solo is a group.

traigusb14_ESO2

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

NobleNerd wrote: »

Some great feedback so far!

Looking forward to see where this goes over the weeks to come.

I manage a guild, so I try to group play as much as possible, BUT with that said.... what I have discovered while leveling through Vet. is that you can get through Vet. levels much easier from solo or with 1 other player to group with. You have to avoid any group oriented content like: Public Dungeons, regular grp. dungeons, Craglorn, etc because you will lose 50% experience in this content. Even dungeon delves will give low experience compared to soloing out in the open world.

For me this is frustrating, because for my guild members to plow through Veteran levels it is best for them to run in only Duo mode or solo.

You may lose XP, but public dungeon group challenges give you a skill point. So do group dungeons, if you didn't do them pre-VR.

I'll often get a few people together and VR run World Bosses, Anchors and public dungeons in a few VR zones then we'll spit up and go back to soloing or whatever.. maybe a VR dungeon or PVP a while.

I feel it is important to mix it up.

A5ko

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

Mainly solo. I'd love to group up, but between the non-responding posts I make on this forum and reddit, and the Group Finder being a massive waste of time, I'm forced to solo.

Xbox One EU.

demendred

A mixture of both - I am just loving it!

If I'm not helping fellow guildies, I solo.

Iluvrien

Solo play - using guild chat(s) as my social background.

Solo play though I would prefer to do more in-guild grouping.

Sadly ZOS CS put paid to that when it took them 4 months to transfer Guild leadership after our GM abandoned us...

... by which time many had abandoned us due to the lack of progression, bank and recruiting access.

redcomyn

Solo only. No interest in grouping, so I just skip the group dungeons. Since I am just a casual player, I can live without the extra skill points, and I have absolutely no interest in pvp. Basically, I treat this game as a single player game, just with a lot of npc's running around with really good AI (and are sometimes annoying).

Although, if I see somenone in trouble, I will help out.

Ruthven

I've only grouped once and it was a pretty lame experience. I think the reason is I'm really taking my time with the game; reading the books, taking a slow pace with the levels. Most people I see are just grinding as fast as they can to the next level.

Until I find a group at my (slow ass) pace, I'll be solo'ing.

newtinmpls

NobleNerd wrote: »

anything outside of solo is a group.

I don't agree, as that doesn't reflect my game experience. With my spouse (#1 way I play) we have a good synergy, and don't need teamspeak or skype as we are literally sitting right next to each other. We roleplay as we gameplay and easily get distracted by sad looking quest givers, fishing, or interesting scenery.

The other common way I play is grouped with another couple so there are four of us; and some of our "groups" make sense in terms of game/power balance and some .... just don't.

But my point is that duo play is as different from group as it is from solo.

NobleNerd

A mixture of both - game still needs improved tools.

traigusb14_ESO2 wrote: »

NobleNerd wrote: »

Some great feedback so far!

Looking forward to see where this goes over the weeks to come.

I manage a guild, so I try to group play as much as possible, BUT with that said.... what I have discovered while leveling through Vet. is that you can get through Vet. levels much easier from solo or with 1 other player to group with. You have to avoid any group oriented content like: Public Dungeons, regular grp. dungeons, Craglorn, etc because you will lose 50% experience in this content. Even dungeon delves will give low experience compared to soloing out in the open world.

For me this is frustrating, because for my guild members to plow through Veteran levels it is best for them to run in only Duo mode or solo.

You may lose XP, but public dungeon group challenges give you a skill point. So do group dungeons, if you didn't do them pre-VR.

I'll often get a few people together and VR run World Bosses, Anchors and public dungeons in a few VR zones then we'll spit up and go back to soloing or whatever.. maybe a VR dungeon or PVP a while.

I feel it is important to mix it up.

Yes. I do the same thing with my guild. I put together group runs to complete the Public Dungeons and even Group Dungeons for the skill points. Many players and members of my guild usually skip them when leveling due to the difficulty in finding groups and also the huge exp. nerf ZOS put on anything group oriented. Craglorn is just a wasteland or a few players in Northern Craglorn grinding for Nirn Crux because the exp. was nerfed there by 50%.