Should the PvE ( "old" open world) area difficulty be increased?

TheRealPotoroo

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas somewhat.

Once upon a time, stumbling upon level 43 spiders in Bangkorai as a newb was exciting and scary. Then One Tamriel happened and overland became a bland, boring mush.

MikaHR

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Once upon a time, stumbling upon level 43 spiders in Bangkorai as a newb was exciting and scary. Then One Tamriel happened and overland became a bland, boring mush.

Im glad to see there are many more people that agree that INSANE power creep needs to be dealt with and gear+CP significantly NERFED and brought more in line with base game.

jainiadral

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

alanmatillab16_ESO wrote: »

TequilaFire wrote: »

alanmatillab16_ESO wrote: »

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

Already have done a character not using any CP and only using gear from quest rewards or random drops that character got and open world pve content was still too easy.

What do you suggest? level naked and punch mobs to actually have some challenge?

Play end game PvE or PvP, you are done with overland.
You can't expect to play the same thing over and over and not get good at it.

That is irrelevant, the discussion here is about overland content. PvP is little about skill and more about picking the fotm class and going round in a blob steamrolling people then coming here crying for nerfs when it doesnt work. I doubt anyone is after every fight with a wolf being an epic encounter but there is no need to block or dodge large mob abilities or traps in delves, you know, the stuff that in instances later on you DO need to avoid.

Why not get players used to that through the levelling process instead of dropping it on them in dungeons for them to be exposed to the abuse from "veteran" players because they stood in the fire?

A lot of people won't touch that content with a 900 foot pole because they're not interested in it, not because they're afraid of "veteran" abuse.

MaleAmazon

The problem is in the ZOS design. In my opinion they've veered off in the wrong direction. It's either 'very easy mode' or 'perfected gear speedrun'. PvP and PvE. Even when playing Kyne, it is extremely durable werewolves, you get hit by lvl 30s with dawnbreaker of smiting, more or less constantly stuff like that. The learning / gearing curve is a wall. I'll admit I am part of the problem here since I don't play with newbie gear, but at the same time the problem is inherent in the design, since there is no separation of players by power.

I joined up with people at a dolmen recently, since someone advertised in zone chat that they wanted others for it. I've done the same with world bosses. It made me think about how much more fun it was when you were challenged when playing overland.

You see it on the forums and in-game. People go into PvP for events, get insta-killed and then never go back. People quit nMHK and unsub in order to do content...


If I could redesign things I'd do something like this:

- Create veteran difficulty by putting in an optional debuff with some kind of reward, meaning overland is interesting for older players while not separating the playerbase.

- Have a newbie-only PvP campaign. I don't know how to do this best; maybe have a campaign you can only play for a limited time on your account, maybe disallowing purple+ gear, maybe disallow all other PvP while you opt into newbie PvP... maybe just ask people nicely to stay out of one campaign.

Personally I'll play Elsweyr, but otherwise I really feel like taking a break. And it isn't really that I'm tired of ESO, it is more the combination of wanting a new interesting challenge and not having the time or interest in an endgame raiding guild.

MartiniDaniels

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

I am rather casual player, and i remember my days in overland in beginning as extremely easy and boring. And I was dunmer stamblade in heavy armor in those days, hardly a good combo. Only discovery of Craglorn and then group content prevented me from leaving ESO.
Good example of overall correct difficulty are public dungeons imo. They were rather challenging but still can be completed solo at below cp160.

A_Silverius

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

Overland mobs and quest bosses are pushovers imo, I'm a casual player but I feel the difficulty is lower than casual standards. Mobs need to hit harder and faster and use their skills more often, same for quest bosses too except they need more health to make them feel more like boss fights. Nothing is more disappointing when you hear/read about how badass and terrifying they are from quest dialogues and books only to kill them in less than 10 seconds. That's lame man..

Numerikuu

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas somewhat.

I think overland mobs should stay as is. However, I think that bosses/minibosses/story bosses really need a change.

You know there's something wrong when you kill a story boss before he can get off two words of his monologue, nor get to use ANY of his unique skills.

kylewwefan

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Not even a little bit. You’ve got no idea what you’re asking for.

TequilaFire

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Ashtaris wrote: »

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

I have, created an account on the EU megaserver and played there up until I was about CP400. If you know the game, what kind of gear is available, how to do rotations, etc., it’s still pretty easy going up against open world NPC’s even with no CP’s. Although they don’t need to go back to the old Vet difficulty level, which was brutal at times, it wouldn’t hurt if they turned up the difficulty a bit.

Even more difficult games are easier the second time around as you have experience and know what to expect and how to go about progressing and what to use in game. You can't compare that to someone who doesn't have that knowledge.
I don't even waste time on most overland stuff unless I need to farm.

craybest

if it can be done in a way that doesn't force everyone to use the specific meta of the moment and people cna still use whatever skills they refer for open world content, then I'm all for it.

Druid40

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

Agreed.

If you start a new character and play with no CP or switch server regions, you quickly understand that taking on 3+ enemies is not easy. An optional increased difficulty for players that have reached CP 160 would be nice, but complicated.

commodore64

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

They start introducing the mechanics to open-world play and there will be about 3 players left. All Tanks.

Kolache

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

There's no reason for all new solo content to be focused on new players alone. People have argued in this thread that even as a new player with 0 ESO experience and 0 CP the content was easy (and I'd agree with them).

Even if that wasn't the case, why should anyone have to reroll just to experience solo content? I have like a dozen max level characters, why can't I get any new content that is designed for any of them to solo? Why does every DLC have to be focused on overland content/quests with 0 difficulty and DLC veteran dungeons with borderline unpuggable difficulty? There's a huge gap in the middle.

BNOC

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

We all started on a virgin account with no CP, without a lot of what is available today.

Playing now with a scaling environment, no limitations and whatever else has changed, not to mention all the resources to learn the game you could possibly want, would be much easier, don't you think?

You can finish nMA naked at level 20 - Overland content is even easier than that, it shouldn't be that easy.

Based on that, content should be upped in difficulty, it's much easier today than it ever was.

barney2525 wrote: »

I don't play games for the STRUGGLE.
..

You want to make it more challenging for yourself? Fine. Pick ONE ability and only use that. Don't use any other buttons. Just light attack, heavy attack and ONE ability. Don't even slot anything else.

I imagine what the OP was getting at is that what you described as "a challenge" is actually unbelievably easy to do, you could actually even drop the skill and manage overland (many new players do, let alone a vet).

You might not play games for the struggle, but do you play them for the thumb twiddling?

essi2

Characters on none-CP accounts would get wrecked.

If you want the open world difficulty increased, ESO needs world tiers ala The Division.

Mik195

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Well, i did, and overland content was still too easy, but i already had experience in this game.[/quote]

I think this is the basic problem here (and hopefully I removed the quote ID properly because not calling out this person, just using it as an example). There are a lot of people here who feel the game is facerollingly easy. And it probably is for them. But, I have 9 characters and facing 3+ enemies is hard except for one of my characters. So when we say the game is not easy FOR US, please believe us.

DenMoria

And chase away new players?

Tsk...tsk...

Ydrisselle

Ashtaris wrote: »

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

I have, created an account on the EU megaserver and played there up until I was about CP400. If you know the game, what kind of gear is available, how to do rotations, etc., it’s still pretty easy going up against open world NPC’s even with no CP’s. Although they don’t need to go back to the old Vet difficulty level, which was brutal at times, it wouldn’t hurt if they turned up the difficulty a bit.

That's the problem. You have that kind of information - but not everyone has that.

Tasear

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas somewhat.

Just make fights fun by making mobs smarter.

I just can't bring myself to quest most of time because how boring combat is during it.

DenMoria

Tasear wrote: »

Just make fights fun by making mobs smarter.

I just can't bring myself to quest most of time because how boring combat is during it.

I can't bring myself to do dungeons, PvP, Alliance War, Trials or group activities because of how boring the other players are.

Jeremy

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

At the same time - playing my 810-tank - it takes ages to kill stuff on overland.... .

My tank has like 5 ~7k DPS and he kills most overland mobs in a matter of seconds. World Bosses are really the only thing my tank ever encounters on the overland that can take awhile to burn down and those are supposed to be "world bosses".

Jeremy

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

Tasear wrote: »

Just make fights fun by making mobs smarter.

I just can't bring myself to quest most of time because how boring combat is during it.

Same here. Which is a shame - because this game has such a rich world that should be a lot of fun to explore and quest in if they would just make the combat more challenging.

Sylvermynx

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

russelmmendoza wrote: »

All tes games have difficulty tab, which you can change on the fly, why not put 1 in eso.
Change the difficulty before choosing a character.
Normal to very hard, lets not make it too easy with a easy mode.

Ogou wrote: »

Voice_of_Chronicles wrote: »

I don't think upping the difficulty by a certain degree will scare new players. Because they, like us who have alot of exp and know when to heal, block, shield etc will come to appreciate eventually, that this change was made to keep rest of the vast world which they haven't explored yet, interesting, entertaining and a tad challenging gameplay-wise, besides being grind with an amazing story.

You say that, yet, we did have a similar situation when early on when the game first launched. And people were calling for nerfs on some of the question bosses (anyone remember Doshia and, to a lesser extent, Faolchu).
And in case you think that the situation has changed since then, I remember seeing a request to nerf the Wraith of Crows from the Summerset prequel quest. And I had to help guildies kill the sload boss from the Summerset main quest.

That Wraith of Crows.... good LORD. I tried the prequel quest after I found out about it. And well before I knew I could find stuff online (if I'd realized that, I'd never have gone there). After the 4th time dying, I just rez'ed and ran..... should have done that to begin with, but hey, I was really new at that point.... Later I looked it up after I realized there was a lot of info out there. But the mechanism isn't fun anyway, so yeah. Should I ever get that wild hare again, I'll just fight it until I wind up dead, and rez/run.... Probably not going to happen anyway!

Stuff like that is SO not fun with mega-ping.

Oh, and the part of the Summerset MQ where you have to go into the Rellenthil Sinkhole and "defeat" the pearls.... Eh. Ain't hap'nin. I've died there so many times I just bagged that whole quest line.

asuzab16_ESO

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

I am surprised by the results of this poll.

Yes, higher difficulty is often associated with frustration but it also brings a lot to immersion, combat, social aspects of the game. The game is still enjoyable without it but it becomes only a mere shadow of what it could be and has to offer.

In my case, the main reason I get bored of an MMO is if it has an unchallenging world and it is the case with ESO too. The world doesn't provide me with occasions of using the potential of my class, to improve myself or to socialize to overcome difficulties.

I am curious to know when players started hating challenge in video games. I don't know if it's a generational issue, but it seems like at some point, players started liking being unchallenged because that makes them feel stronger and in control, rather than having to improve themselves and feel happy with the results.

Personally, I am sad to see that ESO's quests and zones exploration have to be seperated from challenging content and class gameplay learning. I strongly believe that the world of ESO would be way more captivating if the difficulty was increased and players were able to face danger in the zones.

Linaleah

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

essi2 wrote: »

Characters on none-CP accounts would get wrecked.

If you want the open world difficulty increased, ESO needs world tiers ala The Division.

first division where you could switch tiers at will, not the second one, where once you move on - that's that no going back.

some of us just play to relax and unwind. some of us as hard as it may seem to accept, deliberately do NOT play for a challenge. at least not all the time.

increasing overall difficulty non optionally IS going to drive a lot of players away. becasue its done so in other comparable MMO's

Linaleah

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

asuzab16_ESO wrote: »

I am surprised by the results of this poll.

Yes, higher difficulty is often associated with frustration but it also brings a lot to immersion, combat, social aspects of the game. The game is still enjoyable without it but it becomes only a mere shadow of what it could be and has to offer.

In my case, the main reason I get bored of an MMO is if it has an unchallenging world and it is the case with ESO too. The world doesn't provide me with occasions of using the potential of my class, to improve myself or to socialize to overcome difficulties.

I am curious to know when players started hating challenge in video games. I don't know if it's a generational issue, but it seems like at some point, players started liking being unchallenged because that makes them feel stronger and in control, rather than having to improve themselves and feel happy with the results.

Personally, I am sad to see that ESO's quests and zones exploration have to be seperated from challenging content and class gameplay learning. I strongly believe that the world of ESO would be way more captivating if the difficulty was increased and players were able to face danger in the zones.

news flash. there were ALWAYS players who didn't look for challenge in their video games, preferring to seek out challenge in real life. this is why almost as long as we had video games, going back decades - we had variable difficulty. the moment games started expanding from arcades (which difficulty was designed to get you to throw as many quarters at the game as they could manage) to homes - there was variable difficulty selection in video games.

its not generational. its priority based. as in.. what is the player's priority when it comes to their leisure activities.

I mean... even in real life, you have variable difficulty when it comes to games. you have your pickup games in a park. you have your amateur teams of varying degrees. you have professional athletes. people who play poker to pass the time, and people who play poker as their job, and so on and so forth.

people. have. different. priorities. and. preferences.

and people who would rather just relax and chill - pay money too. quite often - more money than your average challenge seeker.

max_only

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Every day I see requests to help with quest bosses. The kind in the faction main quests. Do not make overland harder. It’s easy for you now. Furthermore there was a vet overland called Craglorn and it was a failure. There aren’t enough masochist gamers in eso versus the amount of amusement park gamers to justify any time spent on this.

Jeremy

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

max_only wrote: »

Every day I see requests to help with quest bosses. The kind in the faction main quests. Do not make overland harder. It’s easy for you now. Furthermore there was a vet overland called Craglorn and it was a failure. There aren’t enough masochist gamers in eso versus the amount of amusement park gamers to justify any time spent on this.

It was only viewed as a failure because it was a single zone and most players were busy completing all the other zones first - which took a lot of time.

If I had a choice between questing in an easy zone and then a veteran zone then I would pick the veteran zone every time. And I imagine there are plenty of others who would do the same. But I'm fine with making in optional: that way newer players don't have to worry with the higher difficulty if they don't want to.

zyk

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

Craglorn was not considered to be a "failure" until it had been untouched for years going into 1T. And even then, I don't recall complaints about the zone other than requests to update some of its sets and the fact some puzzles required more than one player to complete when it could otherwise be done solo np.

In 2014, Crag was very popular and active until multiple level cap increases rendered it irrelevant as it was no longer challenging and all of its gear was outdated.

The revisionism that happens in this forum. Eeesh.

RogueShark

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Nah.
One thing nice about this game is that there are a lot of different difficulty levels. Overland stuff is fine. If you want a challenge, do some vet HM trials. This game has a decent learning curve and a lot of people play very casually. You still get some posts where people have trouble with quests or overland and need help or advice. Making the basic/introductory content too hard could frustrate or alienate some new players.
It's also nice as a tank or healer build to not have to switch up too much crap to do some casual/relaxing soloing/questing. Just swap some skills and go.