Tamriel Hero Achievement + Favorite Alliance for questing?

VDoom1

Greetings everyone.

After a great deal of blood, sweat and tears, I have finally achieved one of the grander glories of ESO. After countless hours and countless quests, I now claim the title Tamriel Hero.


Now I can't ask you which zone is your favorite to quest in, not enough poll options. Therefor I ask you, which Alliance is your favorite to quest in? Which alliance has the best quests, stories and lore? Which alliance has the most memorable characters?

Let us know which place you enjoy the most in your journey to become a Tamriel Hero.

Cirantille

Other

I just did them so I can get skill points and dyes and go back to Cyrodiil

mague

Other

They are equally good.

Robo_Hobo

Daggerfall Covenant

Daggerfall Covenant was my favorite alliance to quest in, and is the one I start questing in again the most on new characters. It has my favorite recurring characters and the best ending to the overall storyline in my opinion, and has the most recurring characters in Coldharbour too so when you get there, especially if it's your first time, it feels more rewarding as a finale experience to the Main Quest. Even Laloriaran Dynar has some extra dialogue at the end if you did his DC time travel quest.

Aldmeri Dominion is a close second, in some ways I like the quests there more, and the environments, the culture explored in the quests, and the races in general (Khajiit are my favorite) but overall, not as much as DC.

Ebonheart Pact, I just couldn't get into very well, it might just be because it was the last of my Alliances I quested in and by that time I had some burnout, and I stopped questing there for some years on a character before finally finishing them all a year or two ago. I've only ever done the whole EP storyline once (and never on an EP character), whereas I've done a full playthrough of DC and AD at least 2-3 times. I think if I had an EP character with an EP race that storyline might be more enjoyable, since playing as an AD Khajiit through it or a DC Breton just doesn't have the same connection, given the focus points of the storylines in that faction. Still, every time I've tried to make an EP race for EP questing, I've never gotten too far in it before deciding to do another faction for questing and restart a new character.

VaranisArano

My first faction questline was the Ebonheart Pact and the thing I love most about it is that the storylines gave my Vestige a reason to care about the Three Banners War.

The EP storyline throws you right into the thick of things. First you defend all three races of the Pact from a Covenant invasion that covers three zones. Then in Shadowfen, you face the invading Dominion and stop them from committing genocide. Certainly you see that the Pact is far from perfect, but by the end you've got plenty of reasons to fight against the other alliances.

Of all three, the Pact threw me right into the action and gave me a reason to care and get invested in the story and situations facing the people of Tamriel.

Odovacar

Congrats on the achievement OP! Tamriel Hero's are still very rare to see even this many years into the game. I don't personally have it but respect those who do. Out of all the quest lines I'd have to say EP is the best, but I'm biased, lol

Nord_Raseri

Other

I like bits and pieces from all three. Eastmarch and the Rift stories for EP, Glenumbra and Rivenspire for DC, runing around with the Queen and her cat in Auridon and the Wilderking quest in Greenshade for AD.

Sylvermynx

Other

I like parts of all three, haven't completed any of the main quest lines yet. In other words, everything but Cyrodiil - don't pvp, not interested, ran into and out of there to get the fishing thing, and that's it.

opaj

Aldmeri Dominion

Every alliance has its pros and cons. My favorite was Aldmeri Dominion just for the strength of the storytelling, but I like hearing myself talk (type?), so I'll dive into more detail!

Aldmeri Dominion
This whole faction was written as a linear story, which I didn't love from a game design perspective, but it allowed them to really build up our relationship with the core characters. Raz is a delight, of course, and the Wilderking arc is probably my absolute favorite story in all of the base game.

The weakest story in the whole Dominion is Malabal Tor in my opinion, and that's largely because it's more plot-driven--we don't really spend any time with the central characters to the story, since they both spend a lot of time being damsels in distress. But at no point does the Aldmeri Dominion storyline actually get bad, and that's a great achievement in video game writing. (Har har har... )

Daggerfall Covenant
A lot of folks really like the DC questline, and... I don't really get it. There are a few interesting characters, but we don't spend a whole lot of time with them. The Rivenspire storyline is pretty great, but otherwise the characters and plots don't really excite me. They may have changed this since launch, but I also recall a lot more fetch quests in this region that weren't really covered up with good narrative. And I will never forgive Bangkorai for making me commit war crimes without so much as a "This is borderline evil, but we have no choice."

That said, DC has some of the best set pieces in the base game. If you want an exciting and dynamic-feeling castle siege, then the Covenant is your faction.

Ebonheart Pact
I guess I kind of feel like the Pact is all over the place? The only storyline that really stood out to me was Shadowfen, but I understand why most folks didn't like that environment. The Argonian lore was really interesting for me, and I love that you're rewarded for doing the side quests without being forced to do them. The amount of back-to-back-to-back face stealing that starts in this zone was a little weird, though.

Coldharbour
I didn't really love the writing--again, this is a very plot-driven zone, and I'm more of a character kind of guy. I didn't love that most of the emotionally important characters were taken from Daggerfall Covenant, which is where most of my least favorite characters come from. And I didn't find Galerion to be believable as a legendary archmage at all. (He's much better in the Summerset prologue quest.)

I will say that Coldharbour's quest design is top notch, though. The first third of the zone had this great city building going on in the background, the middle third felt like trench warfare, and the final third really captured the "if we fail here, the world is ending" feeling that it needed to.

CMDR_Un1k0rn

Daggerfall Covenant

For story writing I find Daggerfall to be much more interesting. This might be down to the rather traditional fantasy setting, with the only exotic element being a desert.

Considering my in-development D&D Homebrew takes place in a land exclusively of woodlands, plains and mountains... You might see my bias.

Coppes

Daggerfall Covenant

Three Wood Elf zones in a row was too much for me. After Greenshade I was hoping someone would burn down the Valenwood.

redlink1979

Other

I enjoyed them all tbh.

YstradClud

Other

Your not going to tell us your favourite? I've done all the requirements for that achievement except Cyrodiil champion but honestly enjoyed parts of all the 3 main alliances. I find the DLC to be better at focusing on the specifics within the alliances though even if some races seem to be ignored for now.

IndianaJames7

Cyrodiil

Cyrodiil quests = kill bananas and take their land. Yes pls

VDoom1

Ebonheart Pact

YstradClud wrote: »

Your not going to tell us your favourite? I've done all the requirements for that achievement except Cyrodiil champion but honestly enjoyed parts of all the 3 main alliances. I find the DLC to be better at focusing on the specifics within the alliances though even if some races seem to be ignored for now.

Of course I am. Just wanted to hear your thoughts first.

Honestly I find it quite difficult to narrow it down to one. Cyrodiil is my favorite zone ever. Oblivion is the game that got me into the Elder Scrolls universe and I love it. But Cyrodiil is not really a quest zone. Just town dailies, go there do that turn in. I found Craglorn quite lengthy, good but a bit dragged out. Coldharbour is basically just the main quest. I've done that so many times I'm like meh now. The main quest isn't bad just a bit tedious now.

All alliances have some really good aspects. I've always liked that the Aldmeri Dominion has a more linear story. But to be blunt the AD story is a lot of family trouble, not all of it but much. The Daggerfall Covenant is where I started with my main and I like the characters there. As for characters there is Razum-Dar, and Naryu their both epic.

I like aspects here and there, I wish DC and EP had more of a linear story.
After careful consideration I think I pick the Ebonheart Pact as my nr1. Despite the fact my first character ever and main is DC.

The pact feel like the oppressed, it's easy to have a soft spot for them. Their under attack everywhere you go not to mention the internal struggles. But the story makes you care about them. I particularly like the story in Stonefalls, the brave brothers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their home. Only to end up the new monsters. Also known as Balreth and Sadal, I really like the quests involving them!

The song Three Hearts as one is perfect for the Pact.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2-lGevvO2vw

Nerouyn

Aldmeri Dominion

AD for Valenwood.

Just like Morrowind single-player game, Valenwood evokes a sense of immersing yourself in an alien culture.

Runefang

Aldmeri Dominion

I recently got it myself so I could get the Count title for buying all the estate homes. My favourite is definitely the AD story since its linear which makes it feel much more grand.

Olauron

Aldmeri Dominion

I prefer AD storyline for it is one story, consistent story. Each part in each zone is a result of something you have done in the previous zone.

santhoranb16_ESO

Aldmeri Dominion

For me its the AD that has the best Quest/Zones from the basic game.
Second comes the DC, then EP and Cyro last as i'm not so into PvP.

Thokri

Neutral Zones (Craglorn - Coldharbour)

I like dlc/chapter zones a lot more than base alliance ones.

santhoranb16_ESO

Aldmeri Dominion

Thokri wrote: »

I like dlc/chapter zones a lot more than base alliance ones.

Well the writing and Zone Design improved for sure on all DLC, but thats no wonder cause the developers got a lot more time for each of these zones. 1 Year for a chapter zone thats a lot more then they got for the original 15 Alliance zones PLUS Cyro, Coldharbour and the starter islands(and somewhat even craglorn maybe as it got released relatively close to release so it must been somewhere in the pipeline too already).

BlueRaven

Yup. Got mine in 2014.



And this one soon after...



Definitely not achievements you want to do on multiple characters.

Of the three factions I give AD's story a slight edge up until cold harbor. But Cold harbor felt very much like it was aimed at DC, so overall the win goes to DC.

I really did not like the EP's story line. It felt very disjointed until the very end. I get it, they are the most dysfunctional of the factions, but the story line did not feel cohesive.

AndyMac

Other

My favourite quest zone was Crag before they nerfed the hell out of it.

I’ll admit, tho, needing a group at the same place in the main quest that you were was a stupid idea and when Crag died, it stayed dead. The quests - both main and side - themselves were hella fun and challenging back in the day.

Hotdog_23

Other

Congrats on the achievement. I have got it on 2 characters so and that was years ago so don't really remember which I liked best.

FrancisCrawford

Daggerfall Covenant

DC for me.

• The DC has remarkably many good characters. Most of them. admittedly, have small overall roles. Still, there are a lot of them.
• I agree with the praise for the idea of the AD linear story, but I'm less thrilled with most of its components.
• I see the stereotypical DC side quest template as: "Obviously, there's a problem. Go figure out what's causing it, then fix things." The "figure out" part makes a lot of those quests better than their AD analogs. And anything's better than the EP template of gathering hay bales or killing bats.
• Similarly. DC had most of the interesting moral dilemmas.
• My favorite comic quest line in the game is Hoarfrost Downs in Rivenspire. And it has good replayability. (I don't like idiots, so I put the Rigurt quests lower.)
• Dialog by or about Jakarn tends to be quite funny too.
• The DC dream sequences got tiresome after a while, but the AD approach to alternate reality was IMO even worse.

VDoom1

Ebonheart Pact

Lols now I feel like changing my vote a bit. xD I haven't quested in DC in a while but what I do recall is the good characters. Some quests stand out more than others such as Aldcroft, first time there I made the wrong choice. Dx Will haunt me forever...

Stormhaven has some good stories with Vaermina and the nightmares and such. Bangkorai was fun.
I have always liked the storyline in AD and I like queen Ayrenn. It's just the wood elf stuff that felt a bit more...dull.

Sticking with EP! But you all sure make some good points.

BlueRaven wrote: »

Definitely not achievements you want to do on multiple characters.

You sure got that right!