Molag Bal before or after Alliance/Cadwell's Silver/Gold?

Xaemyl · June 11

I'm trying to do everything in order, and im on the 2nd to last part of the main quest. Should I finish the alliance quests first then do cadwell's silver/gold before I finish off Molag Bal or does it matter (from a story point of view)?

Dusk_Coven · June 11

If you finish everything in the base game zones before going to Stirk, the game does not really account for that.
Some dialog might be fine but in the quests just before Stirk and on Stirk, the scenes with the rulers of the other alliances do not recognize anything you have done in their zones or even properly recognize that they know you.
NPCs from sidequests in all alliance zones do recognize you however, whenever they show up, and that's worthwhile if you want story richness.

Cadwell's Silver and Gold were from a time when you weren't meant to be allowed to do the other alliance zones before the main quest was done AFAIK. So there's no dialog supporting that at all.

TheShadowScout · June 11

First you do the alliance region questlines in your choosen alliance, from coldharbour tutorial (if you start in a different tutorial, go right away to your alliance starter citsy -Davon's Watch / Daggerfall / Vukhel Guard- to meet with your "mysterious benefactor" to kick off that one) to starter isles to the meeting at stirk after the last alliance region... and while going around those, the harborage questings up to the companions gathering (and the FG/MG questings en passant), then you go to coldharbour for the conclusion of the "planemeld" story... and -after- you done that the final "kick Molag in his Bal" confrontation unlocks... and once you done -that- you get your soul back and to officially do cadwells... so if story matters to you, don't visit the other alliance regions before that.

Soooo... home alliance - coldharbour - mogal bal - cadwells.

And if you wanna keep doing things in the proper storyline order...
...then you can do Imperial City (bring friends, many, many friends!), or not, as you choose (it -is- very ganky, but... does a little "aftermath sequel" to the mainstory, so there is that... but not entirely vital for the story progression, so there is that too), then go Craglorn for some fun with astronomy looking at you for a change... and then... it is time to start Orsinium, since you DO know how long Sturga has been looking for YOU!

TG and DB can technically be done whenever, though it helps if you already did All the mainstory region wayshrines as you may have to travel to various places on occasion (same applies to Psijic actually, but that should only be done with the Summerset chapter anyhow), so I'd suggest doing them after cadwells. And there is some cryptic hinting at the end of DB, so I would also suggest to do it before the whole "daedric triad plot" storyline...

Most dungeon DLCs tend to be all standalone and not having connections to the storylines... so can be done whenever. Notable exception are wrathstone and harrowstorm, though I suppose those -could- be done earlier in the story (and then assume Abner just needs the extra time to do his research and Lyris extra time to follow up all the leads or whatever) and I expect there will be the same storyline-connectivitiy for future dungeons...

After Orsinium, you may wish to look towards the next big storyline that had ben -cough- prophetized at the end of it... together with the prequel questlines - (Alessio Guilon: Missing Prophecy) - Morrowind, (Order of the Eye dispatch: Knives and Long Shadows) - Clockwork City, and (Vanus Galerion: Through a Veil Darkly) - Summerset for the "daedric triad conspiracy" plot, in that order. (and yeah, it makes a great deal of sense to leave those prequel quests lying around until that point!)

And then... its time for a little archeological expedition vacation to scenic black marsh, first the Cyrodillic Collections prep prolouge and daily questings, then the Murkmire DLC.

After that... Elsweyr is beckoning, and here it finally makes sense to do two "Wrathstone" dungeons (Frostvault & Malatar) and then the "message from Abner Tharn" to do the "Halls of Colossus" prequel and as many as the following up "prepare" dailies as you might enjoy, before... going Elsweyr and afterwards looking at the message from Kasura for the "Dragonguards Legacy" prequel and finally concluding the "Year of the Dragon" storyline in Dragonhold.

And finally... starts the current cycle, first with two "Harrowstorm" dungeons (Icereach and Unhallowed Grave), then the "Coven Conspiracy" greymoor prequel, and finally... the greymoor chapter. Oh, and the upcoming conclusion that will come out around end of Q3/beginning of Q4 I reckon...

Xaemyl · June 11

This is exactly what I needed to know. Thanks so much!

Blackwolfe5 · June 11

Tbh, if you, like me.. have at least one character on each faction then there is definitely merit to not doing cadwells silver/gold. The difference in dialogue in the dlcs isn't huge but some dialogue is different. I mean heck, you could even choose to skip morrowind and clockwork city and go straight to summerset just to get a little different dialogue. That's what I'm planning at least. My main is doing all the dlcs in order but on my other characters I plan mix it up a bit by skipping some dlcs.

As for TG/DB I only do that with one character.

Also I don't think it's a big deal if you skip dungeon dlcs.

TheRealPotoroo · June 11

Blackwolfe5 wrote: »

Tbh, if you, like me.. have at least one character on each faction then there is definitely merit to not doing cadwells silver/gold. The difference in dialogue in the dlcs isn't huge but some dialogue is different. I mean heck, you could even choose to skip morrowind and clockwork city and go straight to summerset just to get a little different dialogue. That's what I'm planning at least. My main is doing all the dlcs in order but on my other characters I plan mix it up a bit by skipping some dlcs.

Also I don't think it's a big deal if you skip dungeon dlcs.

Doing Cadwell's is a great way to collect skill points.

Blackwolfe5 · June 11

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Blackwolfe5 wrote: »

Tbh, if you, like me.. have at least one character on each faction then there is definitely merit to not doing cadwells silver/gold. The difference in dialogue in the dlcs isn't huge but some dialogue is different. I mean heck, you could even choose to skip morrowind and clockwork city and go straight to summerset just to get a little different dialogue. That's what I'm planning at least. My main is doing all the dlcs in order but on my other characters I plan mix it up a bit by skipping some dlcs.

Also I don't think it's a big deal if you skip dungeon dlcs.

Doing Cadwell's is a great way to collect skill points.

Which can be done later. Besides, there are plenty of even without doing cadwells silver/gold. And dragging oneself through the very same storyline on several characters just feels.. boring. Tbh, my non-crafter TG/DB/Antiquiarian is drowning in skillpoints and I haven't even started on the dlcs (other than TG/DB) with him. I basically just nabbed psijic for portals and went to do the scrying/excavation tutorial quest.

VaranisArano · June 11

If you do it the pre-One Tamriel way, its Alliance -> Coldharbor -> Molag Bal -> Cadwells. That's the version that will get you the handwavey lore reason for why the other two alliances don't care that a Hero of the Pact/Covenant/Dominion is roaming around their territory, helping them out. If you do this version, the Cadwell's alliances will end at the point that would normally send you to Stirk, which you've already done.

However, if you can roleplay around that sticky bit of loyalty and you prefer to know all of the NPCs before you do Coldharbor, you could do Alliance -> Cadwells -> Coldharbor -> Molag Bal. By thw internal chronology, all three alliance quests are happening at the same time.