Endgame Megathread (PvE, PvP, Raids, Crafting, Fishing + More)

tinythinker

THIS POST IS LONG.

OK, well, I've offered various suggestions on the forums and I am integrating/updating some of them into an issue that has come up more frequently lately--endgame content for ESO. I will update this post as necessary or as I feel like it. I use "endgame" here broadly to refer to things people can do for fun after they beat the main quest and have done the primary DLC quests.

Group PvE Content

This originally comes from ideas I had as a response to this endgame thread. The premise is to make things that can be published in a timely fashion and appeal to both more casual players and more hardcore players.

A variation on competitive Trials would have an edge if you had three six-player teams trying to get the highest score (trade points for speed for points for kills/small completions, or vice versa). So this could have some PvP elements to it or not. More information about the PvP version (which could be used as a template for a PvE-only version, because we could have both types) is found here.

Raids (or extended Trials) could take a page from FFXIV and ESO's own two-part group dungeons. Start a story with a trial. People could run Part One all day long if they want getting unique challenges and rewards (yes some gear but be clever about other suitable rewards, there's so much that could be woven in).

Eventually add a Part Two for the next part of the area being run. That area could be run on its own all day, or, you could do Parts One and Two back to back. Hook in some buff from Part One that helps with Part Two but that isn't necessary. If that goes well leave room for a Part Three, a Part Four, etc. Tell a story. Make it modular. The individual parts would be somewhat short yet stitched together it could be quite impressive.

For those who like challenges add achievements or leaderboards for individual Parts as well as running the whole thing consecutively. Since it is build-as-you-go, it doesn't have to come out all at once and you can adjust based on feedback of previously released Parts. Just keep making each installment a new revelation in the story and have some fun new mechanic or twist. Give the extended Trial its own music.

More two-part Group Dungeons, please. And give more old dungeons their part two.

These types of content cater to both the more casual/just trying it out crowd and to longer term players, especially if you can't just super-DPS your way through it all.

The "raids" or extended trials being modular means that each piece can be played individually but the whole story (and some buffs/achievements) could be added for those running it from start to finish. ZOS could put out those modules (i.e. parts one, two, three, four, five, etc.) in a timely manner for those wanting more regular content updates.

The competitive trials offer a more direct sense of competing with other players, regardless of whether or not there are parts which include chances for PvP. You could keep things fresh by being able to challenge other players in a head-to-head race to see which team has the best strategy and skill.

PvP Content

I've posted a few things about improving AvA in Cyrodiil. What's below goes beyond that.

Like making Cloud Ruler Temple a PvP-based trial or special battleground. If it is successful the entrances to such multi-team trial instances could be placed anywhere in or beyond Tamriel with the right story.

It isn't a new suggestion, but ESO could also have it's own version of FFXIV's "Feast" as an enhancement for whatever arena/battleground system is eventually added. It involves teams queuing up for relatively short fights over the course of a fixed time period ("a season") where different factors such as winning, speed of win, and other objectives could enhance each fight's score. The scores are used for leaderboard calculations with the winners being determined at the end of the season. This need not be a rip-off of FFXIV, but the basic concept could be used as inspiration for a more robust and competitive form of instanced PvP for ESO

Crafting

Everyone can learn to craft anything and everything as well as anyone else. How terribly boring. It leaves nowhere to go and does nothing for the ESO economy. Let's fix that.

Just starting to think about this so this section may get edited quite a bit. But let's add another layer to the existing crafting system and require choices -- you specialize in this *or* that. So in rough outline:

Specialization Type I: for either Blacksmithing, Clothier, or Woodworking.

What is this specialization? Who cares? It could be adding a 10th trait. It could be learning variations on a motif. It could be adding a new type of bonus to a crafted item. Over time, it could be all of the above and something more. For example, being able to "reskin" something to a different style. So it would look something like this:

My crafter can:

• craft an item in the 10th trait but only for Blacksmithing (had to choose one of the three equipment crafts, not all of them)
• use the Fellglass variation of the Glass Motif when crafting any equipment (wood, metal, cloth) but not the Lucent Glaze or Dim Shine variants.
• alter your gear to the Argonian, Barbaric, or Primal styles (sorry, limited to three)

Notice that you lose no functionality whatsoever that you currently possess, but to become a specialist you have to, well, *specialize*. And yes, you could reset these things for a particular amount of gold after a waiting period. But it wouldn't be cheap and resetting would not be quick and you couldn't change them all at once.

To get specialization would require mats, books, and training. The mats and books come from the other end-game things you see littered about this post. So you would have to find roll or find a specialist for end-game level crafting. Because yeah.

Fishing

I borrow a quite a bit from my riff on another player's fishing improvement suggestions, but now with an eye toward fishing as a rewarding part of end-game. My proposal here is not 100% identical to that old comment. Note that I don't want to take away from the basic fishing experience as it currently exists for those who love a grind challenge or a zen period with their fishing pole.

The Elder Scrolls Online already has a functional, easy to use, and rewarding fishing system as well as a challenging set of fishing-related achievements. Yet fishing is still under-utilized as a part of game development. To that end, something more needs to be added for players to catch besides rare trophy fish. Even trophy hunters will eventually earn all of the base-game achievements related to such fish.

NEW CATCHES/DROPS

Therefore new catchable fish and other creatures (perhaps special kinds of crustaceans, large worms, etc) are part of the expanded fishing system proposed. These new catches and existing catches will have new drops. Both catches and their drops, like perfect roe (but not nearly all of them so rare as perfect roe and none of them tied to hard to get alternatives to Crown Store convenience items), will have great value, such as being sold for varying amounts of gold, being included in Provisioning recipes, being used as part of an expanded set of Alchemy reagents, and perhaps even being used in other types of crafting as well. Plus the value of fish for vendoring should you choose not to fillet them will be substantially increased.

As for drops, players will be able to fillet rare fish in this expanded fishing system. The odds of obtaining perfect roe or the new rare drops from this are as follows:

White-level (common): stays the same as it is now
Green-level (fine): 5%
Blue-level (superior): 10%
Purple-level (epic) 50%
Yellow/Gold-level (legendary): 100%

Any new catches (i.e. new fish or other critters you hook), however common or rare they may be, will not *not* part of the existing base-game trophy system for catching rare fish in terms of things like "Covenant Angler" or "Master Fisher". They offer a separate, but complimentary, incentive for players to take up or renew an interesting in fishing. Legendary fish (i.e. those with yellow/gold names) are also introduced with this system, and are extremely rare (in other words, your prayers to RNGesus will go unheard).

To find these new epic and legendary fish you will need to use something like the Hissmer Fish Eye Recipe which makes some ordinary fishing holes glow distinctly, allow you to fish their for these super-rare fish.

Other new drops include old chests that are very rare but include really nice items besides just the generic crafting mats from wet gunny sacks. These can be rare crafting mats, any kind of motif page or recipe, and even set pieces of armor or weaponry. Have at least one motif set and one gear set uniquely tied to fishing.

CRAFTABLE FISHING POLLS

The automatic fishing pole to which every player already has unrestricted access and use will remain and become the standard for a white-level, or common, fishing pole. The time between casting and getting a bite and the odds for catching common fish, gunny sacks, and rare fish will not be altered.

Players will also have the option to craft additional poles using Woodworking. These can be substituted for the automatic standard pole when visiting a Fishing Hole. The material needed to make these poles comes from a special drop that occurs when refining wood, as finding just the right branch to fashion into a special fishing pole takes effort. These drops are *somewhat* rare (though nowhere near "whyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!11!!" rare) but can come from refining any type of wood. And you only need one per pole.

Crafters will need to find instructions for making special poles, which can be found out in the world like regular drops but more likely to be found at fishing camps (just like getting motifs but not the whole "find ten pages per chapter" deal, just a page per type of special pole). These are not so insanely super-rare that you have to buy them in the Crown Store, just something you need to keep and eye out for when traveling near bodies of water.

These crafted poles can be upgraded using the existing wood tempers. Each upgrade significantly increases the chance of getting particular (types of) non-trophy catches with rare/valuable drops. However, crafted poles have a limited number of uses. Every fish caught adds wear to the pole, and the rarer a fish is, the faster the pole will expire. Crafted poles cannot be "repaired". Once they are used up, they are gone. The player will need to craft or purchase more. The more you upgrade a poll the longer it lasts.

CRAFTABLE FISHING LURES

Good news metal workers, you can get into this as well!

Fishing lures *slightly* reduce the time it takes for fish to bite. They must be made specific to a particular water type (foul, river, lake, ocean) and can be substituted for regular bait. Like crafted poles, though, they come from somewhat rare drops (from any type of metal ore refined), have "motifs", can be upgraded, and have a limited number of uses before being worn out.

COMPETITIVE FISHING AND ADDITIONAL REWARDS

Other than new crafting mats and other direct rewards, new achievements, a costume or dye, etc. would also be appropriate. These are earned through competitive fishing. Because let's face it, people can be competitive about anything. Add an NPC who talks about bragging rights for Tamriel's Greatest Angler whom you can interact with to enter the weekly contest. Have achievements for getting certain scores (based on quantity and quality) as well as rewards for topping the leaderboard. This goes with other competitive PvE events, and isn't just some odd outlier.

Competitive Non-Combat Events

Add a new set of leaderboards that aren't for Trials, but are instead for player competition in things like racing games and fishing competitions.

Racing Games can be foot races like the one NPC quest in Reaper's March called Spikeball where you hit other players with an object to slow them down or it could be a really fun mounted racing course (or multiple courses) involving strategy and riding skill. Mounted parkour anyone? Give suitable rewards such as gold. Lots and lots of precious, precious gold.

Tavern Challenges can be part of a proposed set of tavern activities. These don't have to be part of leaderboards but can still allow for competition between players.

Fishing Competitions are described earlier in this same post. If you missed it: Add an NPC who talks about bragging rights for Tamriel's Greatest Angler whom you can interact with to enter the weekly contest. Have achievements for getting certain scores (based on quantity and quality) as well as rewards for topping the leaderboard. Offer achievements, costumes, dyes, even unique motifs and other valuable items for rewards.

Character Customization

Because just buying superficial customization in the Crown Store simply isn't enough.

For example, class morphs such as turning a Dragonknight into Coldfired DK who does more damage with DoTs and who now does cold damage while acquiring the weaknesses of Daedra. Or perhaps installing a Character Background System that runs off of achievement points. So keep expanding options to earn them, such as through repeating content.

More repeatable dailies could involve working for your home Alliance via the Hidden Armigers, the Ring of Daggers, or the Eyes of the Queen in a manner similar to various repeatable guild quests. These could even include running the new multiple-team competitive PvE and PvP-based trials as well as the extended Trials (i.e. "raids") described above in other sections of this post.