You have one hour, what would you do?

fgoron2000

An hour is such a short time in this game to try to do as much as you can, considering how much content is available, and that's all the time I have today. My 12 chars are all between lvl 20 and lvl 30, they're spread out among all alliances, and as I'm leveling them, they struggle to stay only 5 levels above the content I'm doing. The original 8 have already maxed out inventory and speed, and currently working on stam at the stables. The other 4 are much lower in the stable upgrades. It prolly doesn't matter, but I'm on NA/PC. If it was you, how would you best spend that hour today, and optionally, why?

Star_Carrier

Grind mobs.. That way you can get to some end game content where the fun is.

kongkim

If i were you i do some questing and listen to the story

Tandor

I'd think "Wow, I've got longer than usual today!".

Most of my gaming takes the form of shortish sessions, and I just carry on leveling up my many characters without worrying about making sure I do every crafting writ or every stable upgrade every day. In short, I do what I fancy doing - and that is the essence of my reply to the OP, I'd do what I felt like doing at the time. It helps, of course, that partly with that in mind I focus solely on unguilded solo PvE play so have no obligations to anyone else as to how my time is spent.

The OP's comment about struggling to stay no more than 5 levels above the content is a very real one I sympathise with, especially as it pretty much means doing no DLC content until the character has reached level 50. The complete removal of this problem at a stroke is for me (and perhaps the OP depending on his other views and circumstances) the single biggest advantage of One Tamriel. No matter where you go, what you do, when or how you do it, you will always be "on level". Of course, that just gives you more options to consider when deciding how to spend that rare hour of gaming time !

Alucardo

If I had an erratic schedule with long periods and short periods, which I actually do, I use the short ones for grinding, farming and trading. Then the long sessions I use to enjoy pvp.
Like, I wake up at 3-4am, and have a couple of hours before I get ready for work. It's pretty quiet, so I farm tel var in IC. It's boring, but tel var is useful to buy mats with, and you can exchange it for gold. Considering I don't have enough time to really get into PVP it's the perfect time to do that kind of thing.
When I get home I have a bit longer, so now that all my dirty work was done earlier that morning I can just enjoy myself. Having erratic schedules isn't really a bad thing. I found when I was on holiday and I had a lot of time, I was losing money because I just did whatever I enjoyed.
So if you only have an hour to kill, make the most of it so you can actually have fun when you do have more time, and won't have to worry about grinding/farming during that period because you've already done it, if that makes sense.

Soundwave

Mount train on my three toons, do my writs, check my auctions and get my mails. Thats,my eso fun 4 the pass 2 months.

mrowmrif2

Well i have been a filthy casual myself lately with 3 kids and a new house move in progress, so i have little time each play session as well... i have a little different situation than you it sounds like (with 3 max toons for endgame), but here is what i do:
-spend an hour doing my crafting writs (3 toons have 10/10 ranks in all crafts, so this amounts to lucrative surveys and gold mats galore, which takes up time traveling through wrothgar map to collect the surveys)...
-i may run the two undaunted pledges with guildies or shout pugs depending on which pledges they are... this is a 45+ activity so not something you can do yet.
-jump into a nonvet trial run with one of my guilds that are always farming them (again not somehing you can do yet)
-go finish cadwells silver or gold quests in a zone i havent gotten to on one of my max toons
-work on IC, orsinium, hewsbane or gold coast DLC quests on one of my toons
-decon/research banked crap gear on one of my other 5 newer toons to get their crafts maxed
-fish! Always more fish to catch for my master fisherman title...
-harvest nodes in wrothgar... so many nodes.
-jump into wrothgar to get some world boss quests done for items/motifs
-browse rawl'ka guild stores for endgame items for a particular build/motifs i may not have yet that are prices low
-browse new zone guild stores for low priced items i can resell on my guild stores for profit...
-buy up a ton of raw mats to decon on my 9 trait crafter for possible gold mats...
-claw my eyes after out reading auridon zone chat (**not recommended)

BruhItsOver9000

Relax in mournhold and hear all the drama, it's makes my day.

Ggrab

im still lvling and i would normal log in an hour before work

i lvl by clearing out the maps so i just continue making everything white lol i can normally free a village or clear a public dungeon in an hour

runagate

Assassinate all of the bards who sing that Ayrenn song. Loading screens would take over an hour traveling around, though.

Luckily, I had the foresight to make a map of where all my victims lie.

catsgomeow

go to wrothgar and farm durzogs for leather

ColoursYouHave

An hour? I'd go try to play a couple games of Hearthstone.

Since I pretty much only PVP, and find it difficult to get particularly into things in only an hour, I usually don't play ESO unless I have at least a couple hours to play. I will go and do my horse feeding, research (if needed), check the Cyrodiil golden vendor (if it is the weekend) and stuff like that, but that takes much less than an hour to do.

ESO is by far my favorite game, but I do like having Hearthstone as a backup when I either don't have much time to play, or want to play something a bit more casual and relaxed. You could also give Elder Scrolls: Legends a try. I believe they are currently in open beta, and I find card games to be great for when you have very limited playtime.

Majic

Buy more time from the Crown Store.

Rohamad_Ali

If I only have an hour I'll play the forums .

disintegr8

As someone with 6 characters trying to do crafting writs and dungeons every day, if I only have an hour to fill it will be doing some of the daily writs, harvesting any survey maps I have or deconstructing gear/inventory management. Those pesky little 'must do' chores that can sometimes get in the way of doing the more enjoyable stuff.

AlnilamE

It really depends on the day. Some days I would focus on getting one or two quest hubs done. Some days I focus on doing some writs and making sure my guild stores are stocked up. Others I'll run a random dungeon.

waterfairy

One hour is my normal playtime most nights so I would do what I normally do- a daily or quest, feed my horse, get my delivery and do a bit of crafting...that's about an hour worth of play right there.

ArchMikem

fgoron2000 wrote: »

An hour is such a short time in this game to try to do as much as you can, considering how much content is available, and that's all the time I have today. My 12 chars are all between lvl 20 and lvl 30, they're spread out among all alliances, and as I'm leveling them, they struggle to stay only 5 levels above the content I'm doing. The original 8 have already maxed out inventory and speed, and currently working on stam at the stables. The other 4 are much lower in the stable upgrades. It prolly doesn't matter, but I'm on NA/PC. If it was you, how would you best spend that hour today, and optionally, why?

That alone already makes me think you're overburdening yourself. I only play two characters and that alone feels more than enough.

Just an hour? Go farm Rubedo Leather in Old Orsinium, or waltz around Hew's Bane picking up Ore, Wood, and Silk.

Tabbycat

Check on trait research and then set up more trait research items.

Upgrade my horse.

Go steal some things and sell them to the fence. If I don't have much time to play, I'll still need to make money for my horse training. Theft makes it pretty easy to get some gold for that when I'm pressed for time.

Complete another step in a quest chain even if I can't finish the whole thing because I don't have time.

Alternatively, go around just collecting materials for crafting and occasionally looting whatever treasure chests I happen to run across.

That's usually my morning routine. I have about 45 minutes before work that I get to play.

LadyLethalla

Thanks to the maintenance today -______- I'll get an hour, hour 15 max playtime today. Unless by some miracle it's over by say 10pm my time, which would make it 5 hours' maintenance, which just ain't gonna happen.

So I'll be logging in to all three characters, training horses, starting research in free slots, clearing delves, dolmens and skyshards on my Templar and taking my poor squishy level 10 out of Cyrodiil because he's really not comfortable there. Might do some quick questing on him to level him up a bit. But I probably won't get even half of that in.

laurajf

This is definitely a personal thing as far as what you enjoy most in the game.

I, for example, have little time to play on a daily basis because of work and life, so that 1 hour of play time is my norm (and that's not even a daily possibility). This is why it took me since beta to level 1 character to CP 360ish. Granted, that was a combination of little time to play and starting and deleting multiple alts who each made it anywhere from level 10 to 20. My highest current alt who I plan on eventually leveling is level 20. The only reason she hasn't gotten further is that I'm trying to finish up every quest/exploration/shards on my "main." She's my crafter with all crafts leveled to 50 except for enchanting, which is in the lower 40s. No hurry, though, since I don't run "end-game content." I don't PVP, run dungeons or do trials. I mostly solo and I mainly quest and try to clear content in terms of getting the achievements for questing/exploration.

The nice part about the way I play is that I have no burning need/desire to be or do anything in any sort of time frame. Everything gets done when I get to it. My main a magicka sorc.

My next alt that I am currently focusing on is raising her clothing/woodworking (so far) only through decon with stuff she finds while questing. She's a magicka templar. I actually enjoy her more than my sorc but again, no plans for end-game stuff, so no pressure. I'm starting to focus on her more since I enjoy her so much.

For my limited play time, which falls into the "1 hour to play" on a regular basis, I focus on questing and making sure I clear the map with what I can do solo. This includes anything that happens to come up in my 1 hour or so of play for that day. It could be that my alt is ready for new gear (I upgrade it to blue every 4 or 5 levels, so this requires logging into my main, going to the appropriate crafting station, depositing in the bank and then grabbing the stuff from my alt, enchanting the gear, etc.), then maybe doing some crafting writs, upgrading mount, and then some questing and some exploration. This is relaxing for me. No pressure but just doing what I feel the character needs (whichever one I decide I'm in the mood to play). If I have stolen stuff, need to get that taken care of. Stuff to repair, sell, etc. Keeping a low inventory level is crucial to me even if I have a ton of space. I hate clutter.

Even if I wanted to, I can't image trying to do end-game content with limited play time plus everything else to keep well-rounded characters. I do kind of envy people who have time to do everything but I think I would probably burn out if I tried to do all that and spend hours a day in the game.

AmberLaTerra

Farm mats or fish, as they are going to be the only two reliable ways left to make any money after the update on the 5th in selling perfect roes, tempers, flowers, or pots.

Mojmir

Why even bother,do something else.BTW this sounds a Facebook post,lol

ku5h

I definately wouldn't spend it on forum waiting for someone to give me an idea what to do.

fgoron2000

Well thanks anyway...but the question was serious, not just a poll-type of thing on FB

Frank

fgoron2000

I'm at work now, and will be home in a couple hours, that's why I'm on the forum rather than the game

fgoron2000

Tandor wrote: »

I'd think "Wow, I've got longer than usual today!".

Most of my gaming takes the form of shortish sessions, and I just carry on leveling up my many characters without worrying about making sure I do every crafting writ or every stable upgrade every day. In short, I do what I fancy doing - and that is the essence of my reply to the OP, I'd do what I felt like doing at the time. It helps, of course, that partly with that in mind I focus solely on unguilded solo PvE play so have no obligations to anyone else as to how my time is spent.

The OP's comment about struggling to stay no more than 5 levels above the content is a very real one I sympathise with, especially as it pretty much means doing no DLC content until the character has reached level 50. The complete removal of this problem at a stroke is for me (and perhaps the OP depending on his other views and circumstances) the single biggest advantage of One Tamriel. No matter where you go, what you do, when or how you do it, you will always be "on level". Of course, that just gives you more options to consider when deciding how to spend that rare hour of gaming time !

Thanks to all for your responses, especially the "...longer than usual today..." quip from Tandor <g>. Because of my work schedule, my play sessions are usually very long marathons like 12 hours or more, or else 1-2 hours max, and I've been wondering for a while, how to best use those short sessions. So maybe it makes more sense to focus on the writs & stable upgrades, and checking mail, etc...during the longer sessions, due to the many log off/on cycles, and those few extra minutes can be spent without as much concern, and then the short sessions, just work with a single character so as not to waste the time as much.

Tandor, I also like your thoughts on OT very much, I hadn't thought about it that way before. It makes me look forward to it going live this week...that is if we ever survive the two maintenance windows on Monday (infrastructure) and Wednesday (OT itself)

fgoron2000

Alucardo wrote: »

If I had an erratic schedule with long periods and short periods, which I actually do, I use the short ones for grinding, farming and trading. Then the long sessions I use to enjoy pvp.
Like, I wake up at 3-4am, and have a couple of hours before I get ready for work. It's pretty quiet, so I farm tel var in IC. It's boring, but tel var is useful to buy mats with, and you can exchange it for gold. Considering I don't have enough time to really get into PVP it's the perfect time to do that kind of thing.
When I get home I have a bit longer, so now that all my dirty work was done earlier that morning I can just enjoy myself. Having erratic schedules isn't really a bad thing. I found when I was on holiday and I had a lot of time, I was losing money because I just did whatever I enjoyed.
So if you only have an hour to kill, make the most of it so you can actually have fun when you do have more time, and won't have to worry about grinding/farming during that period because you've already done it, if that makes sense.

more good advice...thanks very much. When I have the 1-2 hour max, it's always just one time during the entire day. When I have the long periods available tho', it's like that over the course of several days in a row, so yeah, the schedule is pretty extreme <g>.

fgoron2000

thanks again to all...some imaginative and creative approaches to using that hour of "golden time" <g>... I appreciate the input...

fgoron2000

ArchMikem wrote: »

fgoron2000 wrote: »

An hour is such a short time in this game to try to do as much as you can, considering how much content is available, and that's all the time I have today. My 12 chars are all between lvl 20 and lvl 30, they're spread out among all alliances, and as I'm leveling them, they struggle to stay only 5 levels above the content I'm doing. The original 8 have already maxed out inventory and speed, and currently working on stam at the stables. The other 4 are much lower in the stable upgrades. It prolly doesn't matter, but I'm on NA/PC. If it was you, how would you best spend that hour today, and optionally, why?

That alone already makes me think you're overburdening yourself. I only play two characters and that alone feels more than enough.

Just an hour? Go farm Rubedo Leather in Old Orsinium, or waltz around Hew's Bane picking up Ore, Wood, and Silk.

yeah, I understand what u mean, but during my longer sessions, that's not really an issue...besides, it gave me the freedom of going to all the different alliance areas (no longer a factor with OT, tho), also the expanded inventory space, and the chance to experiment with various race, class and weapon combos. When I first started, I set up the various chars, with crafting in mind, so after making my first 2 to dip my tootsies in the waters, I then created the next 6, each focusing on a specific crafting skill. That way I figured that each could progress and master that craft most quickly. When I was doing that, I started seeing the need for more skill points, and realized that I couldn't just leave them static at low character levels, and just level crafting, but needed to level the char in general, for a good influx of skill points to add things like the extra food/drink created, shorter research times, etc...also, mats being farmed and gear being crafted would then stay more in line with the char's levels themselves, as all leveled together. (at least that's been the plan so far)...

...and I just continued in that path. I then started thinking of all my chars together almost as a team, supporting each other as they all leveled together. The last 4 chars that i got from the crown store just allowed me to create more combos with races I hadn't yet tried so far, plus once again the extra inventory space. It's a much longer and slower process, but I'm enjoying this approach. Plus, I'm much more of a solo/PvE type of player and not PvP, so the PvP content later in the game isn't beckoning me to hurry up & level up, and get there <g>.

Now, I don't jump back & forth each time a char levels, but I've been basically taking each char up 10 levels at a time. It's a nice round number, plus I get the extra points, a new MQ, a good taste of the storyline progression, and a nice starting place, for the next time I start leveling that char again.

I guess the bottom line is that ZOS created a really nice complex but varied and open-ended game so that there are as many different approaches to gameplay as there are players.

Frank

fgoron2000

Tabbycat wrote: »

Check on trait research and then set up more trait research items.

Upgrade my horse.

Go steal some things and sell them to the fence. If I don't have much time to play, I'll still need to make money for my horse training. Theft makes it pretty easy to get some gold for that when I'm pressed for time.

Complete another step in a quest chain even if I can't finish the whole thing because I don't have time.

Alternatively, go around just collecting materials for crafting and occasionally looting whatever treasure chests I happen to run across.

That's usually my morning routine. I have about 45 minutes before work that I get to play.

funny, that's what I ended up doing today w/my hour...I logged just the one character that I'm currently leveling, and I did the horse upgrade, checked researching, and then the rest of the time, I just stole and fenced...made about 3-4k...

Mady

Turn back time....