Post your Greymoor Exploration Experiences here. What WOWED you?

Veinblood1965

Post what you have enjoyed so far? Your journey? If you were a Skyrim played this expansion hits the mark.

Thought I'd add an update to this on how my Greymoor experience is going. Feel free to chime in on what you have been doing.

I started off in Solitude explored every square inch which was quite fun, it was pretty darn close to the old Solitude in Skyrim. I picked up a few dailys like Harrowstorms etc but didn't rush to complete them figuring I'd get three eventually as I explored. I left via the main gate and then went to the docks and browsed around which were really well done. Decided to stick to that side of the river and just explore everything on that side before stepping one foot on the other side no matter how interesting things looked over there. I wandered down and ran into the sawmill, the paddlewheel was VERY well designed it looked realistic! Then decided to take a right and headed up the mountain and ran into a few ruins and the huge statue and picked up a quest or two which I completed. The ruins and statue area were pretty darn close to Skyrim designs but looked even better. From there moved north along the coast and saw my first Harrowstorm up north. I didn't rush to get there as I was doing this all on foot and didn't want to be rushing through unexplored areas. Finally managed to get to the Harrowstorm on the north side after it spawned again, looked pretty darn cool actually. Lot of work went into designing that I think.

Logged out for the evening. Next evening I started along the coast again and went south and ran into my first world boss. The WB had a good balance of not being too tough nor a pushover, had to get help from one more person to complete it(Tank hybrid build lol). I'd started the artifact quests earlier and my first artifact was nearby so wandered that direction and completed my first dig and logged for the night.

Next evening started from that point and ended up in some orc camp which was well designed and had to rescue some miners. The quest was great, the town well designed and had the "orc" feel to it. The only thing I would change is the mobs in the mine were super low health, I think even a level one would have been wondering if the scaling was off. But other than that it was pretty neat. I did my first delve nearby which was mid sized and looked pretty neat actually. Unlike Elsweyr the boxes and crates where lootable which I enjoy so I took my time exploring the delve and opening up every container. Logged for the night.

Next evening I started from there and completed everything on that side of the river with still a LARGE part of the map unexplored. I stepped my toes onto the other bank and ran into my second Harrowstorm, it was near some village with diseases and red swirling dust. The dust was well done, it was thick enough to not be able to see mobs sometimes which was a nice touch. Hat's off to whoever thought that up as ZoS and coded it also. Did my second delve as Chillwind Depths I believe which had FALMERS! Was quite fun and brought back the old Skyrim days. The right side of the river was completed and logged for the night last night.

Tonight expecting to do a tiny sliver on the right side of the river near the map edge then cross into the mid section of the map. Looking forward to it.

BTW I stepped into Blackreach also that map is HUGE. I've not even completed a tiny portion of the outdoor content so I tagged the wayshrine and left saving that for later. I expect my exploration to take a good month and half of everything maybe more. My favorite thing of all is wandering along the River, it's so well done and the background music is perfect. It's Skyrim all over again but with actual real players.

Hats off to ZoS on this one.

preevious

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !
I wish they'd expend it big time.
No, scratch that. I wish they'd made ESO2 as big as ESO1, but located only in blackreach mapped as it is now.
It's a wonderfull, labyrintic place, with so many nooks and cranies.

Also, the delves on the surface are incredibly well made. A real pleasure to take a stroll into them.

SolidusPrime

I was pretty impressed the first time I went down into Blackreach. I expected a rinky-*** little cave area and avoided going down the first couple of days, but was truly wowed by the scenery and big sweeping views. It feels very Underdark-y.

Haquor

Going down into blackreach and realising its like a whole new zone. I yhought my map had bugged out

Other than that i just felt it was more of the same.

RaddlemanNumber7

Geodes

LadyNalcarya

Getting that dance emote after running into a dancing ghost was pretty cool. I hope they will add something like this in future dlcs as well.

precambria

Not sure about WoW but the skeever kabobs made me laugh

Destai

Blackreach is incredible. The giant geodes and mushrooms add a lot of ambiance and castle Greymoor is creepy in a good way. I was expecting it to be hard to navigate but was surprised it's not that bad. I think they nailed it on the mood down there. It was a little reminiscent of Moria from LOTRO.

Dragon Bridge and it surrounding areas are nice looking, some good screenshots to be had there. Shadowgreen stood out to me too, having some striking locales.

Vevvev

Sadly I was spoiled by the trailers so Greymoor keep didn't wow me. The music didn't sound all that great so not wowed there, or by the landscape I had explored before.

Instead what got my attention was the Dwemer Public dungeon, Nchuthnkarst. After beating the quest I was awarded with one of the coolest vistas in the game, and I went back a couple of times just to see it again.

Elsonso

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

Asardes

I loved the quests, especially the main one. I mean rushing up a tower to save the world from apocalypse is a highly original theme, never before seen in TES games

asuitandtyb14_ESO

Elsonso wrote: »

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

Sure, but Skyrim gave us well, Skyrim. By that logic, ZoS showed how small and limited Skyrim is, because the overland is paltry in comparison.

Elsonso

asuitandtyb14_ESO wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

Sure, but Skyrim gave us well, Skyrim. By that logic, ZoS showed how small and limited Skyrim is, because the overland is paltry in comparison.

This does not make any sense.

Rake

price compared to size of "chapter"

SidraWillowsky

Elsonso wrote: »

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

TES V Blackreach >>>> ESO Blackreach. It is perfect in TES V.

Starlock

Elsonso wrote: »

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

Yeah, I was skeptical that they'd one up themselves on Blackreach, but they absolutely did. Overland Western Skyrim is kind of "meh" but Blackreach is gold.

Tandor

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Post what you have enjoyed so far? Your journey? If you were a Skyrim played this expansion hits the mark.

Thought I'd add an update to this on how my Greymoor experience is going. Feel free to chime in on what you have been doing.

I started off in Solitude explored every square inch which was quite fun, it was pretty darn close to the old Solitude in Skyrim. I picked up a few dailys like Harrowstorms etc but didn't rush to complete them figuring I'd get three eventually as I explored. I left via the main gate and then went to the docks and browsed around which were really well done. Decided to stick to that side of the river and just explore everything on that side before stepping one foot on the other side no matter how interesting things looked over there. I wandered down and ran into the sawmill, the paddlewheel was VERY well designed it looked realistic! Then decided to take a right and headed up the mountain and ran into a few ruins and the huge statue and picked up a quest or two which I completed. The ruins and statue area were pretty darn close to Skyrim designs but looked even better. From there moved north along the coast and saw my first Harrowstorm up north. I didn't rush to get there as I was doing this all on foot and didn't want to be rushing through unexplored areas. Finally managed to get to the Harrowstorm on the north side after it spawned again, looked pretty darn cool actually. Lot of work went into designing that I think.

Logged out for the evening. Next evening I started along the coast again and went south and ran into my first world boss. The WB had a good balance of not being too tough nor a pushover, had to get help from one more person to complete it(Tank hybrid build lol). I'd started the artifact quests earlier and my first artifact was nearby so wandered that direction and completed my first dig and logged for the night.

Next evening started from that point and ended up in some orc camp which was well designed and had to rescue some miners. The quest was great, the town well designed and had the "orc" feel to it. The only thing I would change is the mobs in the mine were super low health, I think even a level one would have been wondering if the scaling was off. But other than that it was pretty neat. I did my first delve nearby which was mid sized and looked pretty neat actually. Unlike Elsweyr the boxes and crates where lootable which I enjoy so I took my time exploring the delve and opening up every container. Logged for the night.

Next evening I started from there and completed everything on that side of the river with still a LARGE part of the map unexplored. I stepped my toes onto the other bank and ran into my second Harrowstorm, it was near some village with diseases and red swirling dust. The dust was well done, it was thick enough to not be able to see mobs sometimes which was a nice touch. Hat's off to whoever thought that up as ZoS and coded it also. Did my second delve as Chillwind Depths I believe which had FALMERS! Was quite fun and brought back the old Skyrim days. The right side of the river was completed and logged for the night last night.

Tonight expecting to do a tiny sliver on the right side of the river near the map edge then cross into the mid section of the map. Looking forward to it.

BTW I stepped into Blackreach also that map is HUGE. I've not even completed a tiny portion of the outdoor content so I tagged the wayshrine and left saving that for later. I expect my exploration to take a good month and half of everything maybe more. My favorite thing of all is wandering along the River, it's so well done and the background music is perfect. It's Skyrim all over again but with actual real players.

Hats off to ZoS on this one.

My experience has been much the same, but not yet as far advanced.

It's great to see someone taking their time and smelling the roses, so much more constructive (and enjoyable) than the usual "Waste of money, finished Greyrip-off in a couple of hours" nonsense.

Hurbster

Going back to Meridia's statue was pretty nice. Of course we got zero explanation about why she abandoned them during the quests there.

ArchMikem

I have a new tradition of traveling into a new Chapter zone from a base game zone on foot. Elsweyr was easy, there's a land connection to Reapers March. But Greymoor was tricky. There was no way to get into West Skyrim on foot, but there was a work around. I used the prologue cavern of Blackreach. Used the Tavern in Eastmarch to get into Prologue Blackreach, then through the Dwemer ruin on the west edge to enter Blackreach proper. Then just found the nearest Dwemer Lift and got to West Skyrim. No wayshrines or Navigators used.

Unfortunately, nothing wowed me. Sure it's pretty and nostalgic, very well recreated. But I was looking for the TES 5 environment I fell in love with. Thick forests, random streams. The zone still has sparse tree placement to save on performance, making everything look open.

What did catch my eye though was a jump in the grass draw distance, as well as how cool the Inns look with the new Nord architecture.

Watchdog

I have been travelling all around Tamriel and beyond, hunting for Antiquities, since the launch of the chapter. I have not really managed to get to playing Greymoor, apart from running to the Antiquarians from the nearest wayshrine, to learn how to scry.

MartiniDaniels

Elsonso wrote: »

asuitandtyb14_ESO wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

Sure, but Skyrim gave us well, Skyrim. By that logic, ZoS showed how small and limited Skyrim is, because the overland is paltry in comparison.

This does not make any sense.

Your comparison doesn't make sense. You are comparing small piece of a masterpiece, to the half of the "chapter", for same money. You may then say that ESO Riften is better then Skyrim's Riften, because it is bigger and there are more NPCs, but I hope you understand that quantity and quality are not the same...

P.S. I never heard a single complain on Skyrim's Blackreach, never. People often whine about other "linear" dungeons/barrows, but Blackreach with it's multiple connections to major quests, multiple exits, several intricately woven stories... many consider it one of the best parts of the Skyrim.

ImmortalCX

Starlock wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !

This. ZOS showed how small and limited the TES 5 Blackreach was.

Overland Western Skyrim is kind of "meh" but Blackreach is gold.

I thought that was just me. I'm struggling to get through the main quest because the side quests involve so much boring travel through grey wastes.

Iccotak

preevious wrote: »

What wowed me?

Blackreach. Definitely blackreach. That place is amazing !
I wish they'd expend it big time.
No, scratch that. I wish they'd made ESO2 as big as ESO1, but located only in blackreach mapped as it is now.
It's a wonderfull, labyrintic place, with so many nooks and cranies.

Also, the delves on the surface are incredibly well made. A real pleasure to take a stroll into them.

Blackreach is said to be below all of Skyrim even possibly Tamriel - that could be a route to take when the whole map is filled

Jaimeh

The design of Blackreach is mind-boggling! I don't think I'll ever discover every nook and cranny there. They've down an amazing job with that map. Though I have a suspicion, the reason Blackreach is so amazing is also the reason why Kyne's Aegis is so bland, as there's so many resources they can devote, and that is a pity since we only get a trial per year. The main quest wasn't very well done imo, and worse than the story were the dialogues. I liked a couple side quests though. The vampire rework was a let down, I had to cure a few of my characters just so they could be effective, which was disappointing, since I loved them as vampires. In pure numbers, Thrassian stranglers is pretty 'wow', but getting it through the antiquities system... not so much. Not that it's a bad system, and the rewards are really nice, it's just that the mini game doesn't fit the feel of the game overall, and the RNG nature of the leads is frustrating (as all things RNG). I also wasn't too pleased about re-farming arena weapons... overall, the chapter was less 'wow' and more 'meh' for me, a lot weaker release than Elsweyr.

Veinblood1965

Nice to hear everyone's experiences and thoughts on the new expansion.

Last night I moved into the middle part of the map the part that has no ice on it, ran across my favorite memory from Skyrim. In Skyrim west on the plain along the river is an old open shack that has one NPC in it kind of like a fishing hut. It was recreated in Greymoor even has the NPC which of course I assassinated lol. Then crossing the river into the middle portion I ran across a camp with NPC's practicing their archery, no quest or anything just a camp placed there for the immersion of the game, I thought that was a nice touch. Then up towards the top of the mountain there ran into a werewolf camp which was pretty cool, no quest or anything there either and thought that was a nice touch especially as they had voice conversations going on as I approached. I also spent some time scrying in other zones which I like but haven't gotten much in the way of rewards yet but no hurry really. I try to do one or two per day.

I did agree with one posted here on the lack of trees. Riften is my favorite zone behind this one in ESO the new zone could have used more trees but there are a ton of other things including chests, you can't have it all lol!

Starlock

Yesterday, I managed to actually get lost on the map. And it was a wonderful feeling. An actual feeling of exploration in this game is something it's lacked for a long time. If the people who worked on Blackreach don't get a raise, that's criminal.

PrimusNephilim

I haven't been hit with blue screen death since Greymoor launched

emilyhyoyeon

IMO, like most of TES5 stuff, Blackreach was massively improved upon visually and thematically in the TESO version. I never found it particularly enthralling in the first place though.

I actually haven't done much of Greymoor yet, but the northeastern icy coast really got me. I don't really like ice and snow stuff, but the visual there is just great. I love the blue ice. I wish it were bigger.
I also think the harrowstorm visual and theme are pretty incredible. They feel actually compelling.

Shantu

The artistry was once again stellar. As for the game within it? Heh.

Veinblood1965

Well last night I explored the snow covered portion for the first time. Ended up running into the ships that were frozen into the ice and well done I must say. I didn't have a lot of time but I did manage to finish the delve near there. It was an open world delve not underground like most tend to be. It was well designed and rather large!

The one thing I noticed is that ZoS IS listening, the delve boss had over 400k health which is unusual and a nice change of pace. Wasn't hard however but I'm 810 CP and tanky/hybrid DPS build. It would have given a non-CP player a challenge.

Must say I'm enjoying the antiquities, gives a reason to visit old zones and help struggling newbies there when possible with WB's etc. Also tons of treasure chests galore, since I like to explore every nook and cranny they are tucked away everywhere. Nice touch.

vibeborn

Blackreach.

And the fact that Lyris went from being as tall as my main Nord, to like 3 times the size