Returning after ~5 years?

_subjectnamehere_

Hey all! I am a HUGE Elder Scrolls fan and also really enjoy MMO's. I started this game in Beta and played for awhile before I had to stop for personal reasons (life changes). Now, I am ready to get back into it!

I guess I'm just looking for opinions and general advice...how much have I missed? Should I even jump back in after five years? How's the community overall? Good chance of running older content or has everyone moved on?

Any kind of feedback is welcome. Thank you!

MarzAttakz

W-as go-n-na typ-e a lon-g-er para-gr-aph but m-y in-put is lag-g-i-ng.

Chilly-McFreeze

Depends on your standards.

Community can be toxic, but most of the times it's fine. Just expect some stupid chats in group dungeons and pvp.

Old content isn't outdated per se. Since a few years characters get "battleleveled" up to cp160. So you don't have issues with being underleveled in quest content. It's more the contratry, you'd probably feel the story content is too easy.

However, biggest turn off currently is server performance. Laggy as hell, disconnects. Especially in everything endgame (again, group pve, pvp) but it's also experienced in overland stuff.
Second biggest turn off is the devs balancing approach. However, you won't notice if you're new.

Besides battle leveling the most important changes are housing, transmutation and champion points.

Give it a go if you're a real fan but may hold on to your money until you experienced more of the current issues. You might regret it otherwise.

_subjectnamehere_

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

Depends on your standards.

Community can be toxic, but most of the times it's fine. Just expect some stupid chats in group dungeons and pvp.

Old content isn't outdated per se. Since a few years characters get "battleleveled" up to cp160. So you don't have issues with being underleveled in quest content. It's more the contratry, you'd probably feel the story content is too easy.

However, biggest turn off currently is server performance. Laggy as hell, disconnects. Especially in everything endgame (again, group pve, pvp) but it's also experienced in overland stuff.
Second biggest turn off is the devs balancing approach. However, you won't notice if you're new.

Besides battle leveling the most important changes are housing, transmutation and champion points.

Give it a go if you're a real fan but may hold on to your money until you experienced more of the current issues. You might regret it otherwise.

That's too bad. I hope to find some friendly players. I'm sure once I get going, a lot will come back to me. This was my 4th MMO and I really enjoyed it.

I'm not worried about the new systems; I'll pick those up fairly quick I think, and also with help from friendly players willing to help out. I plan on building a Warden Tank.

Too bad about the server issues...I'll give it a try and see how it goes. I heard this game was growing in popularity...I figured it was doing pretty well to bring in newer players.

If you read my old posts here, I did try this game on a Mac...it actually ran pretty well, but the PvP in Cyrodiil was utterly broken...would crash the game 100% of the time if we got near a battle. No matter how many times me and my fellow Mac players brought it up, the devs did absolutely nothing to address the issue.

I will NOT be playing on a Mac this time...PC all the way

Thank you for your feedback. Hopefully others have some thoughts as well

VaranisArano

If you think you'll have fun, don't let the forum negativity scare you from jumping back in.

There's been a lot of new content.
If you like questing, it might be worth subbing for a month or so to experience the DLC stories. There are no more level-locked zones.
If you like group content, ZOS added a lot of new dungeons, DLC and base game.
If you like PVP, Battlegrounds is a 4v4v4 arena with different game modes.

As for the big points mentioned above:
Housing: you can complete a quest to earn a free inn room to get you started
Champion Points: vet ranks were converted into Champion Points and made accountwide. All overland content and characters are scaled to CP 160, which is also the gear cap.
Transmutation: you can earn transmutation crystals from PVE group content and PVP that allow you to change the trait on your gear or weapons to any you have researched.

A few points I'll mention:
New Classes: Warden and Necromancer are sold on the Crown Store
New Skill lines: Jewelrycrafting and the Psijic Order will require Summerset in order to use.

A lot has changed in five years, for better and for worse, but hopefully you have a lot of fun exploring Tamriel!

_subjectnamehere_

VaranisArano wrote: »

If you think you'll have fun, don't let the forum negativity scare you from jumping back in.

There's been a lot of new content.
If you like questing, it might be worth subbing for a month or so to experience the DLC stories. There are no more level-locked zones.
If you like group content, ZOS added a lot of new dungeons, DLC and base game.
If you like PVP, Battlegrounds is a 4v4v4 arena with different game modes.

As for the big points mentioned above:
Housing: you can complete a quest to earn a free inn room to get you started
Champion Points: vet ranks were converted into Champion Points and made accountwide. All overland content and characters are scaled to CP 160, which is also the gear cap.
Transmutation: you can earn transmutation crystals from PVE group content and PVP that allow you to change the trait on your gear or weapons to any you have researched.

A few points I'll mention:
New Classes: Warden and Necromancer are sold on the Crown Store
New Skill lines: Jewelrycrafting and the Psijic Order will require Summerset in order to use.

A lot has changed in five years, for better and for worse, but hopefully you have a lot of fun exploring Tamriel!

Thank you! So, I can't play a Warden if I don't buy it? Odd...or maybe I'm misunderstanding. I do plan to get ESO+ for a little bit to see how it goes first...maybe 2-3 months or so. Not too bad. New games these days cost more than that haha.

I like the sound of the Transmutation. Really helpful when customizing a build.

Thank you very much for your input!

VaranisArano

_subjectnamehere_ wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

If you think you'll have fun, don't let the forum negativity scare you from jumping back in.

There's been a lot of new content.
If you like questing, it might be worth subbing for a month or so to experience the DLC stories. There are no more level-locked zones.
If you like group content, ZOS added a lot of new dungeons, DLC and base game.
If you like PVP, Battlegrounds is a 4v4v4 arena with different game modes.

As for the big points mentioned above:
Housing: you can complete a quest to earn a free inn room to get you started
Champion Points: vet ranks were converted into Champion Points and made accountwide. All overland content and characters are scaled to CP 160, which is also the gear cap.
Transmutation: you can earn transmutation crystals from PVE group content and PVP that allow you to change the trait on your gear or weapons to any you have researched.

A few points I'll mention:
New Classes: Warden and Necromancer are sold on the Crown Store
New Skill lines: Jewelrycrafting and the Psijic Order will require Summerset in order to use.

A lot has changed in five years, for better and for worse, but hopefully you have a lot of fun exploring Tamriel!

Thank you! So, I can't play a Warden if I don't buy it? Odd...or maybe I'm misunderstanding. I do plan to get ESO+ for a little bit to see how it goes first...maybe 2-3 months or so. Not too bad. New games these days cost more than that haha.

I like the sound of the Transmutation. Really helpful when customizing a build.

Thank you very much for your input!

The new classes are weird because it depends on what content you own.

Its confusing because ZOS promised that ESO+ gets all DLC free, and then decided to do one bigger and better "Chapter" that everyone has to buy outright. But then a year later, the old Chapter gets converted into parts with the zone becoming DLC for the sub, and the new Chapter needs to be bought.

Warden was released with Morrowind Chapter. But a year later, Morrowind (Zone) became a DLC while Warden was sold separately.

Necromancer was part of the Elsweyr Chapter, which is likewise about to become DLC when Greymoor Chapter launches.

So if you bought the Chapters, you get the classes.
But if you didn't and you just subscribe, you'll get the zones because they are DLC, but not the classes because they are sold separately.

Now, each new Chapter tends to offer pre-purchase options that include the previous chapters, but I don't know if that includes the classes because I've always bought the Chapters already. Sorry I can't help there.

(Greymoor, the new Chapter, is about to launch. The zone is Western Skyrim, the new Antiquities system is focused on exploration, and the vampire rework is free and part of the base game. If you want the zone or Antiquities, you'll need to buy Greymoor.)

_subjectnamehere_

VaranisArano wrote: »

_subjectnamehere_ wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

If you think you'll have fun, don't let the forum negativity scare you from jumping back in.

There's been a lot of new content.
If you like questing, it might be worth subbing for a month or so to experience the DLC stories. There are no more level-locked zones.
If you like group content, ZOS added a lot of new dungeons, DLC and base game.
If you like PVP, Battlegrounds is a 4v4v4 arena with different game modes.

As for the big points mentioned above:
Housing: you can complete a quest to earn a free inn room to get you started
Champion Points: vet ranks were converted into Champion Points and made accountwide. All overland content and characters are scaled to CP 160, which is also the gear cap.
Transmutation: you can earn transmutation crystals from PVE group content and PVP that allow you to change the trait on your gear or weapons to any you have researched.

A few points I'll mention:
New Classes: Warden and Necromancer are sold on the Crown Store
New Skill lines: Jewelrycrafting and the Psijic Order will require Summerset in order to use.

A lot has changed in five years, for better and for worse, but hopefully you have a lot of fun exploring Tamriel!

Thank you! So, I can't play a Warden if I don't buy it? Odd...or maybe I'm misunderstanding. I do plan to get ESO+ for a little bit to see how it goes first...maybe 2-3 months or so. Not too bad. New games these days cost more than that haha.

I like the sound of the Transmutation. Really helpful when customizing a build.

Thank you very much for your input!

The new classes are weird because it depends on what content you own.

Its confusing because ZOS promised that ESO+ gets all DLC free, and then decided to do one bigger and better "Chapter" that everyone has to buy outright. But then a year later, the old Chapter gets converted into parts with the zone becoming DLC for the sub, and the new Chapter needs to be bought.

Warden was released with Morrowind Chapter. But a year later, Morrowind (Zone) became a DLC while Warden was sold separately.

Necromancer was part of the Elsweyr Chapter, which is likewise about to become DLC when Greymoor Chapter launches.

So if you bought the Chapters, you get the classes.
But if you didn't and you just subscribe, you'll get the zones because they are DLC, but not the classes because they are sold separately.

Now, each new Chapter tends to offer pre-purchase options that include the previous chapters, but I don't know if that includes the classes because I've always bought the Chapters already. Sorry I can't help there.

(Greymoor, the new Chapter, is about to launch. The zone is Western Skyrim, the new Antiquities system is focused on exploration, and the vampire rework is free and part of the base game. If you want the zone or Antiquities, you'll need to buy Greymoor.)

Interesting. I don't think I've seen an approach like this before, but perhaps it's been done. I'll keep this in mind. Thank you very much for your help and taking the time to explain...it's really appreciated!

zvavi

Don't let them scare you though, the community is great, us veterans(the ones that are into the more hardcore content) are just grumpy with the performance decline

_subjectnamehere_

zvavi wrote: »

Don't let them scare you though, the community is great, us veterans(the ones that are into the more hardcore content) are just grumpy with the performance decline

And that's what I'm looking for...reaching the hardcore content and wanting to learn and always improve. That's why I love MMO's. I can probably deal with the performance decline unless it's completely game-breaking, but I doubt it's that bad.

I am going to build a warden healer I think (done some research already). I'll be in-game within the week or so...finishing up some personal things in my life first.

Leslik

_subjectnamehere_ wrote: »

zvavi wrote: »

Don't let them scare you though, the community is great, us veterans(the ones that are into the more hardcore content) are just grumpy with the performance decline

And that's what I'm looking for...reaching the hardcore content and wanting to learn and always improve. That's why I love MMO's. I can probably deal with the performance decline unless it's completely game-breaking, but I doubt it's that bad.

I am going to build a warden healer I think (done some research already). I'll be in-game within the week or so...finishing up some personal things in my life first.

At the moment performance decline really is that bad. We're all fingers crossed for Tuesday

_subjectnamehere_

Leslik wrote: »

_subjectnamehere_ wrote: »

zvavi wrote: »

Don't let them scare you though, the community is great, us veterans(the ones that are into the more hardcore content) are just grumpy with the performance decline

And that's what I'm looking for...reaching the hardcore content and wanting to learn and always improve. That's why I love MMO's. I can probably deal with the performance decline unless it's completely game-breaking, but I doubt it's that bad.

I am going to build a warden healer I think (done some research already). I'll be in-game within the week or so...finishing up some personal things in my life first.

At the moment performance decline really is that bad. We're all fingers crossed for Tuesday

Ugh. How long has that been going on for?

tsaescishoeshiner

_subjectnamehere_ wrote: »

Leslik wrote: »

_subjectnamehere_ wrote: »

zvavi wrote: »

Don't let them scare you though, the community is great, us veterans(the ones that are into the more hardcore content) are just grumpy with the performance decline

And that's what I'm looking for...reaching the hardcore content and wanting to learn and always improve. That's why I love MMO's. I can probably deal with the performance decline unless it's completely game-breaking, but I doubt it's that bad.

I am going to build a warden healer I think (done some research already). I'll be in-game within the week or so...finishing up some personal things in my life first.

At the moment performance decline really is that bad. We're all fingers crossed for Tuesday

Ugh. How long has that been going on for?

It's been going on for a long time, but I would keep in mind that the forums house more negativity about the game than anywhere else. If you made a subreddit post you'd get a very different response. ALSO Greymoor just dropped and is pretty popular right now, so servers have been really busy, especially in the new zone.

The playerbase is also really not toxic. Yes, you might find some salt in Cyrodiil or some drama in Random Veteran Dungeon Queue, but people are as friendly and welcoming as they've ever been in my experience.

Same advice as always—feed your horse every day, do writs, and do what you find fun!