How to Have Fun and Make Friends in the In-Game Dungeon Event Nov 30-Dec 6

VaranisArano

Dapper Dinosaur wrote: »

It is not my fault Zenimax designed this event so poorly. If they had made it to where you could get the box by completing any dungeon without the group finder, everyone could go about this their own way, but Zenimax did it this way, forcing us all together, and I'm not going to let randoms slow me down whenever possible. I am going to attempt every skip I know of in the dungeons I get put into, and if my teammates don't follow, I'll be leaving them behind.

So for a positive suggestion, perhaps you could start the dungeon by asking for a speedrun? Just like with questing, most groups will be happy to do so, especially during this event where everyone is going to be feeling the pressure to run 8-14 alts through all the random dungeons.

There's a world of difference between a player asking "Hey, speedrun?" and then we all blitz the dungeon together, following that player's lead...and a player rushing ahead killing everything without waiting or so much as a by-you-leave to the rest of us. It won't cost you more than a couple of seconds to ask for a speedrun, the vast majority of groups will be happy to be asked, and you'll get much greater cooperation from your party members as opposed to ignoring and irritating your group members.

On my healer, I was delighted to be asked for a speedrun and we all ran that dungeon quickly. However, when a DPS rushes ahead and starts fighting, I'm watching their health bar plummet and gritting my teeth thinking "You'd better not blame me if you die before I get there." A little common courtesy makes a world of difference for your fellow players AND gets you better, faster dungeon completes.

JasonSilverSpring

mommadani907 wrote: »

Thanks for this! I am still a wee bit on the fence with joining this event or not. My dungeon experience is so close to zero it might as well be none. I don't want to hold other people back with my lack of experience..

I second my thanks for this guide. I started ESO when it was in beta and played regularly until I took about a year off and returned with One Tamriel. I have been actively playing since. My main character is now at around 460 champion points.

I have played only one group dungeon in all that time. And, that one time was the first group dungeon that becomes available in Auridon. I joined via the group finder and we all ended up being damage dealers (or at least attempts at that). We all died so many times it was not funny but we finally finished it. It took so long that I never tried it again as my time to play is usually limited per session (darn life/work commitments).

I wish there was a reward for doing a dungeon with guild mates or a pre-formed group. I would find that far less intimidating since I could communicate it clearly before joining my lack of experience.

I am one that loves to take in the story and loot everything so I feel like I would be holding everyone back even if I was holding my own combat-wise.

I wish there was an option in the group finder to indicate in some way if you want story or combat focus. Something like that to group those that like to take it slow together and those that like to knock it out and do the other dungeons together.

I will most likely give it a try, but since I have ESO+ and high CP I fear I will land a DLC dungeon my first time.

Tasear

My plans

Okay guys on healer 1...2...3...4...5

Guys guys I actually need a healer on tank 1 ..2

Carry me on dps now...( day 2)nevermind its not working... this is tank 3
.
By chance I see some of you in random dungeon....I really like when you are stuck on last boss... kidding but it's fun recovering. On a real note...pop the orbs for stamina magicka and maybe more if I am using twlight

Tasear

VaranisArano wrote: »

mommadani907 wrote: »

Thanks for this! I am still a wee bit on the fence with joining this event or not. My dungeon experience is so close to zero it might as well be none. I don't want to hold other people back with my lack of experience..

In a normal dungeon, you won't hold people back. I mean, sure, I anticipate a whole bunch of people who are going to be all annoyed with anything less than the fastest speedruns possible, but that's not something that reflects on you being a new player, that's their attitude. You'll find just as many players willing to help you figure out the mechanics and help you through the run. (You'll probably also find some players who could melt everything in the dungeon by themselves and you are just along for the ride. I've been in one like that where me and the other two high CP players were all like "thanks for the carry, man" when we aren't slouches at our roles either.)

Normal dungeons are designed for pretty much any player to be able to complete them with a little practice and I'm sure there will be tons of new players or players new to dungeons coming out to play. Just like there was during the PVP event, you'll find veteran players willing to help you figure things out.

Something I did when I was learning dungeons on a new role (my healer, where I normally main a tank) was to queue for specific normal dungeons to practice and make sure I was up to snuff. I started with the three easiest: Spindleclutch 1, Fungal Grotto 1, and Banished Cells 1. Once I'd successfully healed those, I moved on to the next three until I was pretty confident I could manage healing and started doing random dungeons with a chance at harder ones. So if you want to practice but don't want to risk getting a DLC dungeon on your first random, you can try queuing for specific dungeons to try them out. Starting with the easiest, you'll also probably get lower level players which is nice because either they are learning the dungeon too or they are someone's leveling alts.

Another good way to practice dungeons is to do the Undaunted Pledges for the day. With the Pledges, you'll have more people wanting to do them which makes for a nice mix of group members and its often people who have done the dungeon before.

Finally, don't be afraid to ask what to do. I remember one tank on the City of Ash 1 pledge asking us if there was any special mechanic for the final boss. There really isn't, but he was in the dungeon for the first time and wanted to do his best, and we really appreciated that.

I hope that helps!

Just a reminder you don't get dlc dungeons till lvl 45 now.

Betsararie

mommadani907 wrote: »

Thanks for this! I am still a wee bit on the fence with joining this event or not. My dungeon experience is so close to zero it might as well be none. I don't want to hold other people back with my lack of experience..

Dungeons are an incredibly central part of the game, and the source of a great deal of endgame gear as well as skill points. If you are playing this game, dungeons are a must.

If you're a beginner, not to worry simply queue up for a normal dungeon, which are very newbie friendly. You shouldn't encounter any issues there.

Hold off on vet dungeons until you feel you can reliably perform your role at a medium-high level.

Shardan4968

/yawn I just want to be done with it. I was pugging a lot before I joined guild so I can do it a few more times. When I say "hi" and no one response until end of the dungeon when they asks me If I need that lighting staff, then I just laugh and don't response.

VaranisArano

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

I wish there was a reward for doing a dungeon with guild mates or a pre-formed group. I would find that far less intimidating since I could communicate it clearly before joining my lack of experience.

I am one that loves to take in the story and loot everything so I feel like I would be holding everyone back even if I was holding my own combat-wise.

I wish there was an option in the group finder to indicate in some way if you want story or combat focus. Something like that to group those that like to take it slow together and those that like to knock it out and do the other dungeons together.

I will most likely give it a try, but since I have ESO+ and high CP I fear I will land a DLC dungeon my first time.

If you have a guild group or a pre-formed group, you can still queue for a random dungeon in order to get the rewards. So if you are more comfortable doing dungeons with a group of guildies or people from your friends list, that's totally an option for this event!

There is no option for story focus, but with a pre-made group you can certainly ask people to let you quest and read the dialogue. Or even most random groups will let you do that, though this event when also have a bunch of people rushing. One idea here might be to combine both your needs. Try asking in your guilds or friends for other people who are nervous about doing the dungeons and really just want to take them slow and enjoy the story during the event. Then make pre-made groups with those people and you can all make the experience you want happen when you queue for random dungeons.

Dapper Dinosaur

However, when a DPS rushes ahead and starts fighting, I'm watching their health bar plummet and gritting my teeth thinking "You'd better not blame me if you die before I get there."

That's one hell of a bad dps player if their health is getting destroyed that much in a normal dungeon.

VaranisArano

Dapper Dinosaur wrote: »

However, when a DPS rushes ahead and starts fighting, I'm watching their health bar plummet and gritting my teeth thinking "You'd better not blame me if you die before I get there."

That's one hell of a bad dps player if their health is getting destroyed that much in a normal dungeon.

Well, sure. Either that, or they are a pure glass cannon who will successfully kill all the mobs and not die even though they drop to lower health than my healer likes. When people rush ahead, I tend to figure they know what they are doing and can deal with the amount of damage that they are taking. If they can't, they better not blame my healer.

Its still annoying, and I'm far more likely to be happy with them and in fact actually present when they start the fight if they would have asked for a speedrun.

Rawkan

Thankfully, the entries for the sweepstake is per account. Good for us without a bazillion alts.

monktoasty

I'll kick anyone running too far ahead and not waiting.

Tasear

Tip get an add on that shows allies health. Solves so many many issues when you realize they didn't eat or bring food.

Linaleah

Dapper Dinosaur wrote: »

I disagree with this strongly. If you are good enough to solo normal dungeons, run vet dungeons or bite the lemon and go slow. If you are not, stick to your role. Normal dungeons are for newbies who should also get to play as intended, with all roles etc. and not have to try to keep up with some guy at CP cap who is rushing through the dungeon not leaving any mobs or mechanics behind. That is not fun at all but very frustrating, I can assure you. Sometimes some guys are so fast that as a magicka user you cannot keep up with them even though they are killing mobs while the magicka user is only running.

It is not my fault Zenimax designed this event so poorly. If they had made it to where you could get the box by completing any dungeon without the group finder, everyone could go about this their own way, but Zenimax did it this way, forcing us all together, and I'm not going to let randoms slow me down whenever possible. I am going to attempt every skip I know of in the dungeons I get put into, and if my teammates don't follow, I'll be leaving them behind.

I was originally going to support what you said, until you basically said that you are going to skip without showing everyone else those skips and essentially leaving them to possibly die on their own, missing out on boss loot etc. I can sympathize with desire to get through quickly for the purposes of getting yet another alt through, but.. this is just being a jerk.

that said, on topic. I did give basically every low level stam alt I have a sword and board and leveled it up far enough to have taunt and that one AoE slash available, while most of my lowbie magika alts now have a healing staf, healing springs and well on their way to mutagen morph. I think at this point only 2 of my dps are still purely dps and well... I can work with that.

my question is and this is something I asked in a separate thread, but since this one is more active, might as well ask here. does anyone actualy know how/when random dungeons reset? its not with the other daily reset. how do you even tell? will the event go by daily resets? or will the event have a different timer of when for its purposes one day ends and next begins?

zaria

Tasear wrote: »

Tip get an add on that shows allies health. Solves so many many issues when you realize they didn't eat or bring food.

You don't need an addon for it, just enable in settings. No you need too look at them to get health but its usual enough.
10-14K and they don't have food.

VaranisArano

Linaleah wrote: »

Dapper Dinosaur wrote: »

I disagree with this strongly. If you are good enough to solo normal dungeons, run vet dungeons or bite the lemon and go slow. If you are not, stick to your role. Normal dungeons are for newbies who should also get to play as intended, with all roles etc. and not have to try to keep up with some guy at CP cap who is rushing through the dungeon not leaving any mobs or mechanics behind. That is not fun at all but very frustrating, I can assure you. Sometimes some guys are so fast that as a magicka user you cannot keep up with them even though they are killing mobs while the magicka user is only running.

It is not my fault Zenimax designed this event so poorly. If they had made it to where you could get the box by completing any dungeon without the group finder, everyone could go about this their own way, but Zenimax did it this way, forcing us all together, and I'm not going to let randoms slow me down whenever possible. I am going to attempt every skip I know of in the dungeons I get put into, and if my teammates don't follow, I'll be leaving them behind.

I was originally going to support what you said, until you basically said that you are going to skip without showing everyone else those skips and essentially leaving them to possibly die on their own, missing out on boss loot etc. I can sympathize with desire to get through quickly for the purposes of getting yet another alt through, but.. this is just being a jerk.

that said, on topic. I did give basically every low level stam alt I have a sword and board and leveled it up far enough to have taunt and that one AoE slash available, while most of my lowbie magika alts now have a healing staf, healing springs and well on their way to mutagen morph. I think at this point only 2 of my dps are still purely dps and well... I can work with that.

my question is and this is something I asked in a separate thread, but since this one is more active, might as well ask here. does anyone actualy know how/when random dungeons reset? its not with the other daily reset. how do you even tell? will the event go by daily resets? or will the event have a different timer of when for its purposes one day ends and next begins?

Most Dailies reset on a 20-24 hour timer. However for the purposes of the event, it doesn't require running your "Premium" random dungeon, just "a" random dungeon. So that seems to indicate that you need to run a dungeon once in the 24 hour day starting when the event starts, just like the killing an NPC mob was a daily thing the last reward event.

"Event is live from Nov. 30 at 10 a.m. EST until Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. EST. Complete a random dungeon via the Dungeon Finder – Normal or Veteran mode – to earn a Mysterious Reward Box. This curious cache could contain loads of awesome in-game rewards: consumables, pets, costumes, and even a massive collection of super rare mounts and houses. You can obtain a Mysterious Reward Box once per day per character."

In the Discussion Thread for the announcement, ZOS said they'd release as article with specific details, where they'll hopefully either confirm or correct me here, so keep an eye out for that! https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/378643/official-discussion-thread-for-enter-the-10millionstories-sweepstakes/p1

altemriel

nice!!

VaranisArano

zaria wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Tip get an add on that shows allies health. Solves so many many issues when you realize they didn't eat or bring food.

You don't need an addon for it, just enable in settings. No you need too look at them to get health but its usual enough.
10-14K and they don't have food.

Just to build off of this for players who aren't sure what to aim for in terms of health.

Leveling characters - your health will scale off of your gear, primarily, because of battle-leveling. You want your gear to be semi-close to your current level. If you can have training gear made for you by friends or guildies, staying with 5-7 levels of your current level is usually about my sweet spot for gear. If you are just running dungeons, try collecting the gear drops you get in the armor weight you want so you keep your armor updated. Holiday food/drinks scales to your level and are pretty easy to find. If you like to craft, the Witchmother Festival recipes are a dime a dozen right now.

Tanks - health depends on your build and resistances. For normals, I suggest around 25k health. For veteran, aim for 30-35k unless you are doing a high health build or using skills that scale off max health. Personally, I bring my vet tank build to normal dungeons when I want an easy run no matter who I get in group as random teammates. Having slow DPS isn't a problem when, in the words of Captain America, "I can do this all day." Having a self-heal is nice, but you can also rely on your healer. If you have skills that increase your physical and spell resistances, use them.

DPS - Most end-game DPS will run 15-18k health. The more familiar you are with the dungeons, the less health you need...but its beneficial to have at least 18k so you have less risk of getting one-shot by mechanics. Believe me, it makes your healer's life much easier and a happy healer is a happy DPS. Especially if you are unfamiliar with the dungeons, don't be afraid to stack a little more health since that will let you survive making mistakes as you learn the mechanics. Food/drink buffs are super beneficial for giving your more resources/sustain which directly translates to greater survivability. Its nice to have a self-heal, but you can also rely on your healer. If you think you are taking too much damage, make sure you are in front of your healer and stick closer to the tank, who's usually getting plenty of heals in his/her general area. Ranged DPS, standing behind the healer is not a great idea since the healer has to turn around to target you with heals.

Healers - the same general idea as for DPS applies to you, except that sustain is your life and that of the party. Your heals ought to be able to keep you healed (Physician, heal thyself!) but if you find yourself out of resources when the boss starts whaling on someone, its bad times all around. Have enough health to feel comfortable (I found about 18k worked for me on normal dungeons) and if you find yourself out of resources constantly, try using heal over time skills to keep your group member's health up instead of frantically spamming heals when there are big hits. Your group shouldn't need constant major healing spam, so you can use heavy attacks to regain resources.

So in general, everyone will benefit from food/drink buffs. Tanks need the highest health and resistances, since they should take the hardest hits. DPS and Healers should aim for 15-18k health, skewing higher if you are unfamiliar with the dungeons. Leveling characters should try to keep their gear/weapons close to their current level for the greatest benefits from battle-leveling.

DMuehlhausen

Saved a lot of timing...

don't be a ***..there that's how it works. If your getting through stuff who cares if they aren't optimal class/race/spec. Don't be a ***.

FrancisCrawford

PrinceShroob wrote: »

If you get queued in to replace a group member, you'll get credit for the completion as long as you beat the final boss. I've been called in to replace a healer or two and in one instance only the last boss was left, and I still got the completion exp.

That said, often when I need to replace a group member, I'll get the "instance is full" error message, which requires a group member in the dungeon to leave, then you port in, then they port back in. It's not a huge problem but some people are impatient (ex. rushing to fight mobs while another member is trying to port, which cancels the port because the group is in combat).

And, of course, beating only the last boss won't give you credit towards the bosses you didn't kill for a pledge for that dungeon.

And you can also get screwed up on how much reward you get.

I recently queued as healer for vet WGT, and instantly got a group, who were already at the Planar Inhibitor. We killed her and Molag Kena. I got my quest reward (first completion) and helm. But to make it easier on myself (I thought), I queued again for normal mode to pick up the earlier bosses.

I wound up getting only one key for the exercise. Further, my "easier" plan didn't work anyway; the group broke up after multiple wipes on, you guessed it, the Planar Inhibitor.

FrancisCrawford

I agree completely about learning specific dungeons by queuing for them on their pledge days. I've been doing that recently in preparation for the random dungeon event, and it's gone pretty well. Specific notes include:

• When queueing as a healer, I always, always get a group right away when I queue for vet mode. The same is not as true for normal mode.
• You can and should check out guides before going in. I like the standard online written guides, plus the "Ecstatic Static" series of videos.
• My worst experience was the WGT one noted above. WGT is also the only DLC dungeon I've tried.
• My only wipe-fests were in WGT and Selene's Web. In Selene's we had two underpowered DPS -- low CP, one of them a templar who started Jesus beaming while bosses were over 50% health. I voted yes on votes to kick each of them. We got two much better DPS, and took down Selene promptly when they both joined.
• My best experience was doing vet Spindleclutch I for the first time, in what turned out to be vet HM. I could NOT handle the boss' one-shot threat (i.e., I didn't know her tell to keep her from blinding me). I died several times, the first time causing a wipe. After we won, I apologized, and they told me I'd done fine. Then they proved they meant it by asking me to heal the day's other pledge, which we did in a cakewalk.
• No matter how decent people basically seem to be, communication via text chat on the PC is difficult and sparse.
• In particular, swapping gear never has worked for me.
• But I've never had trouble with people waiting for the quests.

Speaking of quests:

• If you take it, share it. If somebody else needs it, there now are two of you doing the quest.
• In a few dungeons (e.g. Banished Cells 1), there are extra bosses out of the way for the quest. In those cases it might be asking too much to want the group to help you through the quest.

TheLebowsky

Thanks for your post. Really encouraged me to try group dungeons for the first time.

vamp_emily

Also you can join Friendly Dungeon Runners ( PC/NA ) for the event. You won't have to worry about being kicked by groups or sitting in the group finder for hours. We have plenty of friendly members.

The link to the guild page is in my signature.

altemriel

this is the best guide I ever read on these forums, great job!!!

TheLebowsky

Unfortunately I am on eu servers

altemriel

TheLebowsky wrote: »

Unfortunately I am on eu servers

what do you mean by "unfortunately"? this in-game dungeon event is for all players, not just some countries (like the sweepstakes event)

Golnebo

Have an awesome!

Betsararie

monktoasty wrote: »

I'll kick anyone running too far ahead and not waiting.

Why that's not a reason to kick. Does it just "bother" you? I know some people don't like people who are good at the game

JasonSilverSpring

altemriel wrote: »

TheLebowsky wrote: »

Unfortunately I am on eu servers

what do you mean by "unfortunately"? this in-game dungeon event is for all players, not just some countries (like the sweepstakes event)

I suspect this was in reference to vamp_emily's invite for people to join the Friendly Dungeon Runners guild.

altemriel

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

altemriel wrote: »

TheLebowsky wrote: »

Unfortunately I am on eu servers

what do you mean by "unfortunately"? this in-game dungeon event is for all players, not just some countries (like the sweepstakes event)

I suspect this was in reference to vamp_emily's invite for people to join the Friendly Dungeon Runners guild.

aha , ok then

EvilCroc

So, It's PER CHARACTER after all. Damn it. Time to make and level 13 alts again.