Which alliance's questline did you enjoy the most?

Actually_Goku

Hey guys,

I've personally noticed a decent influx of new players the last few months - at least on XB1 NA. Anyway, I often hear, see discussion, and get asked by newer players which alliance has the best zones and questlines. Obviously you get to experience all 3 via Cadwell's.

Try and keep personal alliance preference out of the answer you give - I've made it anonymous for that fact.

Which alliance's questline did you enjoy the most of the 3?

I personally can say that I enjoyed the Covenant one the most. I feel as though that it had the best variety of zones, the best NPC's on a broad scale (best singular NPC would be a coin flip out of Raz and Darien, though) and at least in comparison to the Pact, you feel as though you actually mean something to your alliance and it's leader.

Aldmeri Dominion is not far behind, but it's a little too much Wood Elf for my liking.

Lyserus

DC all the way

I hardly remember a thing from EP questlines...nothing impressive at all, probably except the argonian genocide.

AD has Raz, the sad story of the Hound and probably that's it. The twin kitties are interesting characters...their questline is less impressive.

Korah_Eaglecry

I think I like the Ebonhearts storyline the most. The reason I enjoy it is because by the end of the storyline I feel like the Alliance is stronger than ever. Youre confronted with numerous atrocities committed by the other two Alliances and it makes it easier to sympathize and root for the EP.

The Aldmeri Dominion leaves me with the impression that it wouldnt take much for everything you worked hard for to come un done. Especially with the final storyline in Reapers March where you basically see an alternate timeline where Aryenn fails. As much as I liked the leaders of the AD.

Maybe it was just questing fatigue but I just wanted the DC storyline to be over. I was tired of the zombies, vampire zombies and more zombies. I found it hard relating to or sympathizing with any of the characters in that storyline. The most memorable part of the DC storyline was probably Rivenspire but it was mostly the lore that was placed through out the zone about the regions history rather than the actual storyline. I was way more intrigued by the throne being stolen by the last king than the whole "muh wife died, i go rampage now" storyline.

pinkempyreal

DC for me! I may be a bit biased as it is the one alliance I have played through the most. I have completed the other two but the quests are no where near as memorable... except maybe a few in Reapers March.

teiselaise

EP, the characters can be a little dull, but it's the only alliance I can sympathize for

pandoraderomanus

I managed to go through Cadwells silver and gold twice, DC has the best questline in my opinion. AD has too many bosmer, and EP has too many dunmer, don't really like both. I'd put AD on 2nd place though.

Flameheart

Uh.. why so many votes for AD ? Sorry, I quested 4 chars through Cadwell's Gold and AD has by far the most boring quest lines and this in combination with the most boring landscape. While EP and DC flew by while questing the 3rd and 4th char through, AD - always - was a major pain.

Although I am EP I have to say, that DC has the werewolf saga in Glenumbra and the vampire saga in Rivenspire and alone that beats everything by miles.

Pele

Daggerfall Covenant

I can't remember anything about the EP storyline, and the only thing I remember about the AD storyline is Queen Ayrenn because she doesn't like the racist High Elves.

jssriot

AD. Even though i like Rivenspire's main story the most, I really like AD as whole over the others. It's the only alliance that I don't grit my teeth at the thought of doing all five zones again on an alt and it's the one I've completed on the most toons for that reason.

MattT1988

I liked EP’s the best. AD’s was ok but I found DC’s a bit boring and generic.

Aisle9

Little premise: while the first time is enjoyable (kind of), playing through them multiple times is a pain, all 3 of them.

That said, DC, and not just because Bill Nighy is the High King.

AD has the worst combination of unrelatable characters, hard to navigate worldspace, and missed opportunities, not to mention Kate Beckinsale's flat dialogue delivery. The only saving grace was Razum Dar, but only because it was quirky. The quests were forgettable and the racist subtone becomes old really quick, while villains are almost cartoonish in their "evilness" (with a few exceptions, the Hound storyline was kinda relatable). Auridon's main quest was interesting, but the "big reveal" was completely anti-climactic and had no build-up to it. Also, the characters didn't have any sort of growth, if a "racist" character was introduced, they would die later on, while the "good guys" were against racism at the beginning, and against racism in the end. There was no racist character that was then forced to work with a member of another race and gradually grow to respect each other, or vice-versa.

EP was just a series of terrible mistakes, How do you come to the conclusion that Jorunn is the best choice as head of the alliance is beyond me. He's whiny, rash, but riddled with indecision, and has no tactical mind (his winning tactics is to keep charging until you reach the enemy, then a Deus Ex Machina will save us) all traits you really don't want in an emperor, and while the argonian story was interesting, the area itself was a nightmare to navigate (I know it's supposed to, so, good job, but that also means my first reaction would be "yeah, you got problems? though luck, later folks"). The plight of the freed slaves in the whole dunmer section was only understandable for people that played TES3:Morrowind (or real lore hounds), or it otherwise relied on exposition (which is bad in storytelling) and a whole section of the story relied on a single event that happened in a cutscene in which your agency was taken away, and you had no choice but to look, despite having a number of possible choices available. That's bad.

I found DC's stories more compelling and the characters were much easier to relate to, even though they had their fair share of cartononish NPCs, and their fair share of unskippable dialogue cutscenes during main quests (damn you Verandis, and your penchant to exposition). Not saying it was a masterpiece, but the characters had some sort of growth. Specifically, while Darien Gautier is over the top and cartoonish, you can see him growing and changing over the course of the story in a way Telenger or the Vanos brothers don't.

That said, all 3 story lines end with you saying: "Yeah, look, I really don't care, just let me go to Coldharbour, and you guys can kill each other, bye" and that should speak volumes on what you have to go through, despite which alliance you choose.

FloppyTouch

My fav was the one I started out in DC

Only thing I liked about AD was the queen

Beardimus

EP all the way, except Shadowfen, terrible zone. Not a fan of deshaaan too but the rest

KeiruNicrom

AD felt the most like a quest line as it was all one big mission to unite the Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit. But damn did it feel shallow. Smaller quests within the zones were fun but if you focus just on the main quest it was basically a game of "who will betray us this time?" Just felt repetetive. Would play the wilderking quests over and over though.

EP was not all that memorable. Maybe because it was my cadwells gold or maybe because i am not a fan of nords nor dungmer. Most memorable things are the zones which are lovely and varying

DC was great. Both because it was my first alliance so i experienced it first and because of how the zone questlines were seperate stories, and had a kind of zero to hero feel. You start out just so happening to help Daggerfall stop werewolf maulings and get request to help investigate this matter. Stop the zombie werewolf and gain recognition as a hero. Then immediately you stumble upon a daedric ritual that leads to saving the king from possession and gaining more recognition. From their Emeric becomes your pal and asks you to help the other 3 zones with their problems and you end up saving his life. Such a ride with only a slight over arcing story to tie the various ones together. I love it

lientier

thieves guild

FrancisCrawford

DC and it wasn't close. This is for main storyline and side quests alike.

AD had some merit, but it really bogged down in the 3rd and 4th zones. The shipboard battle was fun, but that's pretty much all I remember with pleasure. By way of contrast, in the DC:

• I loved the characters in the main Stros M'kai storyline. Except Neramo. He's meant to be annoying, and he annoys me.
• Betnikh was blah.
• The Daggerfall city stuff was excellent.
• The first skill point in Glenumbra was blah.
• The second had good story and characters -- Darien Gautier and Gloria Faustus in particular. It did get a little long, but otherwise was good.
• The third is short and fun. Gabriele Benele. More Darien. NPCs with strong opinions about each other. Etc.
• The first Stormhaven story section (Alcaire Castle, etc.) is excellent (but long).
• The second and third were more meh, but had good characters -- King Emeric! Plus the orc abbot and so on.
• Rivenspire was outstanding from beginning to end. Best zone in the whole game. Everything hangs together. Verandis is an outstanding character. The Tamrith sisters and Baron Dorell are fine. Darien is back. Adusa and Gwyneth are hilarious. Gargoyles -- well, would it be OK to say that they rock? Etc.
• Alik'r Desert could get a little ponderous, since all the males took James Earl Jones elocution lessons. But on the whole I liked it. Besides, Redguard design is the best in the game.
• In Bangorkai they threw everything at the wall. Quite a bit stuck. Endless plot twists. Emeric again. And I really liked the final fight sequence -- hordes of Imperials, then hordes of Daedra, then a pretty unique challenge in the final battle.

Shardan4968

I'm loyal to EP, but seriously, nothing can beat epic Rivenspire story and music. I also like european swamps in Glenumbra. AD was the most boring for me.

Varana

The Daggerfall Covenant was my last alliance, and I rushed a bit through Glenumbra and Stormhaven (I desperately wanted to get to the Redguards, and I find pseudo-European knight-in-shining-armour design quite boring these days, plus vampire stuff has been done to undeath).
But then, the Redguards. Sorry, but refusing to fight against the Undead in a fantasy (!) world where necromancy is widespread (!) and in a land where the dead decay only slowly (!) and that is littered with ancient tombs (!) - that is genre blindness turned up to eleven. Fortunately, the latter parts saved them a bit, but the first impression of the Redguards in Sentinel painted them in an exceedingly stupid light.
Their design (esp. architecture) is by far the best, though.

The Aldmeri Dominion was fine at times (Auridon was quite good but dragged on for too long, and I really liked the Reaper's March) but had too many Bosmer. The Silvenar and Green Lady was a good story by itself but had lots of very similar stuff around it. With Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, and half of Greenshade, there's just too many trees around.

The Ebonheart Pact had good individual story lines - the Stonefalls story is still one of my favourites, and the Eastmarch and Rift stories were nice, as well. Deshaan and Shadowfen were a bit shallow. All in all, the EP stories provided a decent enough enemy with the ever-threatening other alliances (the greatest enemy of the AD is the AD itself, by far...) but felt quite disjointed on the Pact side itself - while Emeric and Ayrenn appear quite early on, it took a long time until Jorunn became relevant. So there was no one really representing the Pact during the first three zones.

Enslaved

Whoever voted DC has low to no standards at all and like pathetic whiny whimp lady in distress character that is not even a lady to start with.

starlizard70ub17_ESO

I picked AD only because of the Reapers March questline. The story with the 2 sisters and exploring Khajiit mythology was really interesting.

Honestly the question really shouldn't be which alliance but which region's questline did you enjoy the most. Rivenspire had a great story and lore, Bangkorai was good, but who here kept thinking his sister would have made a better ruler? Wrothgar had the best over all storyline. At times you really felt like you were racing against time.

Korah_Eaglecry

Aisle9 wrote: »

Little premise: while the first time is enjoyable (kind of), playing through them multiple times is a pain, all 3 of them.

That said, DC, and not just because Bill Nighy is the High King.

AD has the worst combination of unrelatable characters, hard to navigate worldspace, and missed opportunities, not to mention Kate Beckinsale's flat dialogue delivery. The only saving grace was Razum Dar, but only because it was quirky. The quests were forgettable and the racist subtone becomes old really quick, while villains are almost cartoonish in their "evilness" (with a few exceptions, the Hound storyline was kinda relatable). Auridon's main quest was interesting, but the "big reveal" was completely anti-climactic and had no build-up to it. Also, the characters didn't have any sort of growth, if a "racist" character was introduced, they would die later on, while the "good guys" were against racism at the beginning, and against racism in the end. There was no racist character that was then forced to work with a member of another race and gradually grow to respect each other, or vice-versa.

EP was just a series of terrible mistakes, How do you come to the conclusion that Jorunn is the best choice as head of the alliance is beyond me. He's whiny, rash, but riddled with indecision, and has no tactical mind (his winning tactics is to keep charging until you reach the enemy, then a Deus Ex Machina will save us) all traits you really don't want in an emperor, and while the argonian story was interesting, the area itself was a nightmare to navigate (I know it's supposed to, so, good job, but that also means my first reaction would be "yeah, you got problems? though luck, later folks"). The plight of the freed slaves in the whole dunmer section was only understandable for people that played TES3:Morrowind (or real lore hounds), or it otherwise relied on exposition (which is bad in storytelling) and a whole section of the story relied on a single event that happened in a cutscene in which your agency was taken away, and you had no choice but to look, despite having a number of possible choices available. That's bad.

I found DC's stories more compelling and the characters were much easier to relate to, even though they had their fair share of cartononish NPCs, and their fair share of unskippable dialogue cutscenes during main quests (damn you Verandis, and your penchant to exposition). Not saying it was a masterpiece, but the characters had some sort of growth. Specifically, while Darien Gautier is over the top and cartoonish, you can see him growing and changing over the course of the story in a way Telenger or the Vanos brothers don't.

That said, all 3 story lines end with you saying: "Yeah, look, I really don't care, just let me go to Coldharbour, and you guys can kill each other, bye" and that should speak volumes on what you have to go through, despite which alliance you choose.

Funny you call Jorunn rash and rushing the enemy. Then praise the DC storyline where Emeric does this very same thing

and gets himself killed, and you have to save him from his own egotisical mistakes.

ThinkerOfThings

I am EP all the way but I felt the AD story line tied itself together better, with DC coming in a close second.

dodgehopper_ESO

This is a tough one. Raz and Ayrenn really make the story shine although I find the Bosmer influence a bit heavy. Ebonheart pact really has a great shift in climes from frosty north to deep dark swamp and jungle as well as alien volcanic-mushroom terrain. The fun of running the PvE stories of EP is the broad range of characters but I find I'm less connected with them. The Dunmer are as always atrocious and a bit nuts, the Argonians are self sacrificing in large part because they know they'll just return to the hist and the Nords are a bit over-caricaturized as being pantsless and drunk. The King of the Ebonheart Pact though is a really great character but the alliance itself seems really weak and fragile. Daggerfall Covenant from a thematic perspective seems the strongest of the factions innately. They've got all the powerful magic of the elves without all the elven hangups. They've got bloodthirsty Orc berserkers and Breton knights. They've got Redguard corsairs and cavaliers. They also range from various types of desert climes to deep forests and glades and even some swampland. There are some fairly memorable recurring characters in this faction (like AD's Raz) and some pretty interesting stories that delve into ancient Ayleid (direnni) history. In order to answer what is best for you it really depends on what you're looking for in the story. My suggestion is to do all 3.

luen79rwb17_ESO

DC by far, overall very well done quests, zones, stories, dialog, and sooo many memorable characters: Gabrielle, Darien, Eselde, Emeric, and so on.

Rivenspire by far the best zone in the base game, questline is one of the best in the game, more unique characters and the zone has distinct visuals and scenarios.

JKorr

Disliked DC the most, actually. The scenery wasn't bad, but Divines I hated the story.

The other two factions had problems not directly caused by the king/queen. Ayrenn's brother and his wife were ambitious and Ayrenn too naive to see it, Joruun's brother was ambitious, and Joruun too merciful. DC issues were all Emeric and Emeric related. He wouldn't pick a king, so the nobles decided to start a revolt/takeover with the added fun of being vampires. He couldn't/wouldn't pull up his big boy pants and be a king, so the daedra took advantage with the dream thing. He finally decides to play "I R TEH KING!!" and gets the whole royal guard killed, gets abducted by Tharn, killed, and stuck in the land of the dead because he's an idiot. Only the fact the player has to be the "hero" and rescue him made me save him. I did google whether it was possible to leave him there before I let my character save him.....Even the spirit guardian doesn't think he deserves to be in the redguard heroes afterlife....

Spacemonkey

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

The Aldmeri Dominion leaves me with the impression that it wouldnt take much for everything you worked hard for to come un done. Especially with the final storyline in Reapers March where you basically see an alternate timeline where Aryenn fails. As much as I liked the leaders of the AD.

Thats because kinmune >.> (yes yes)

But while i loved the brothers of strife and bleakrock, -> deshaan was ok, -> I could not get into the storylines of shadowfen, eastmarch and the rift. at ALL.

DC -> Rivenspire is a good storyline and bangkorai was fun. The rest of DC was a painful slog.

AD -> makes up so much for it with Raz, the green lady, the silvenar, the hound, the veiled inheritance. The mane kinda sucks. But I feel AD is the most consistant alliance line. The entire thing revolves around the political machinations of making the alliance work, and starts right away in knenarthis roost where the maomer try to screw everything up. I didnt get that feeling from DC or EP. AD is self centered and it helps hold the different zone main quests together as a whole. (where as EP is constantly about them being victims to the other 2 alliances, and DC basically a mess)

Its much easier for me to decide which zones i prefered etc than to name one favourite alliance, but overall i prefer by far AD, not for the individual zones but for the complete picture it gives us.

as for (vanilla) zones, something like this:

1) Bleakrock
2) Kenarthi's Roost
3) Stonefalls
4) Malabal Tor
5) Rivenspire
6) Bangkorai
7) Auridon
8) Grathwood
9) Greenshade
10) Deshaan
11) Reaper's March
12) The Rift
13) Eastmarch
14) Bal Foyen
15) Alik'r Desert
16) Stormhaven
17) Glenumbra
18) Stros M'Kai
19) Beknith
20) Shadowfen

Epona222

Most of my characters are EP, but I loved the Covenant quests the best. There seems to be a bit more overall cohesion and memorable NPCs there. Coldharbour zone quest is more enjoyable and poignant if you have done the DC zone quests first.

Sibenice

Flameheart wrote: »

Uh.. why so many votes for AD ? Sorry, I quested 4 chars through Cadwell's Gold and AD has by far the most boring quest lines and this in combination with the most boring landscape. While EP and DC flew by while questing the 3rd and 4th char through, AD - always - was a major pain.

Although I am EP I have to say, that DC has the werewolf saga in Glenumbra and the vampire saga in Rivenspire and alone that beats everything by miles.

My guess is because different people like different things.

Minyassa

I personally liked some of the characters and situations in the AD questline better, but I also HATED a lot of the characters and situations more in that one. Questing through that whole alliance has given me a deep-seated hatred for the Ayleids, and modern Altmer seem to have a slightly watered-down version of their attitude. Role-playing aside, I find racist cultures incredibly hard to find sympathetic on any level. But I like Razum-Dar and I like the Queen, and I found the whole arc of her having to prove herself, and getting to beat up the racist jerkholes of the Heritance to be pretty satisfying.

ProfessorKittyhawk

AD has the most solid storyline. It all feels connected and like it builds off what came before. I feel like you get a better sense of Ayrenn's dream of uniting everyone under one banner than you do either of the other alliances. Like she truly believes in herself and her alliance. I don't get that sense of unification from DC and EP. But overall the quests in AD seem like they have a more emotional punch. As a storyteller you want to make your readers or viewers feel something. I have to say playing through the AD quests hit my emotions a bit more than the others did, because they felt more relatable in some way.

Not to say DC and EP don't have good quests or storylines. But saying I felt AD gave it's cast the most development throughout.

Jarryzzt

Personal opinion:

- AD has the best setup and supporting characters - the framework is essentially that of a "buddy secret service agent action comedy" with you and Raz in the lead roles. Except that the story itself quickly veers off into...something different. Some people will love having to spend the entire middle of the quest line resolving a stupid, juvenile and mostly chaste (!) love triangle (though I suppose the time-traveling interlude was diverting enough). Others will find it a bore, especially the second or third time through. My point is that the quest line sets you up as one thing, and then...well, then you go off and do other things, often even without your "partner". Honestly, every time I reach the Khajiti section I just say "sod it" and focus on the side quests because that dialogue is more interesting oftentimes...

- DC is ploddingly consistent. You start by killing undead things, you continue to kill undead things, you then kill even more undead things, and you end by...wait for it...killing undead things. Granted, I suppose the raven-hag-whatsit was not technically dead, but I could have sworn there were some undead involved there as well.

It's soft of like a bad series of Van Helsing comics. Complete with a sex-crazed sidekick who randomly shows up in all sorts of strange places. Most of it just felt bland, to be honest, except the vampire-driven subplot (and even that fairly briefly).

- EP is probably the one that is...most open? Least rammed into a "framework"? If AD is "buddy cops solve family squabbles" and DC is "Van Helsing Lite", EP is...war-hero-runs-around-and-saves-damsels? Is that a thing? Granted, I actually don't remember the latter parts of that quest line, so perhaps I am missing an overall thread (but by the by, that's how memorable the thing was in the first place). It just, and I'll be the first to admit that it's been a while since I've gone through it, felt less defined, and certainly lacking in memorable supporting characters.

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So on that basis, I'd pick AD over DC, and EP gets a participatory award for unusual visuals in the first area and a Skyrim retread afterwards (and in the prologue as well, if memory serves). On the whole, however...I think there are other quest lines that are much stronger than any of the alliance ones. In fact, I've enjoyed both DB and TG far more, despite having gone through them now a half-dozen times each, just because the writing is a lot tighter (except for one major quibble with the TG line*). And possibly because they are also shorter, which means no need to restart in a new area several times over like the alliance quests.

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* - The whole story of how Nicolas and others "died" at the tomb. You are a highly experienced thief and tomb robber. You are told to hold down a switch to prevent "evil darkness" from swallowing your compatriots while they crawl across a chasm - along a path which they cannot actually see without you holding down said switch. You see monsters lurking in the darkness about to ambush them. And so you...release the switch, allowing "evil darkness" to swallow your compatriots. And run out there yourself (how? didn't the path disappear the moment you released the switch?), so that it swallows you as well (except while they are stripped to the bone, you are merely rendered comatose and yet somehow survive and leave the tomb). Oh, you also happen to be an archer, and yet instead of holding down the switch with your foot and firing your bow at said monsters which you obviously have direct line of sight to, you...run out into melee range of the beasties. Because ponies, apparently.

I know the writers had to come up with some reason for the switch to be released and for the resultant "I killed my friends" guilt trip, but ye gods. Have a rock fall down on the girl's head, have something jump out of the dark and scare her, anything is better than the idiot scenario you've actually put into the game...

Rant mode - disengaged.