Elsweyr is amazingly done.

Scaletho

I just wish to say how I appreciate Elsweyr (north and south) design. Despite that weird and nonsensical "gap" between the two regions, I think North Elsweyr is perhaps one of the most amazing work of ESO design ever made by ZoS.

The light, the landscape vegetation and geography are careful placed. The dragons, fantastic. I remember the first time I saw a Dragon, it seems so incredible! The Elsweyr DLC Event launch was, until today, the most fun and rewarding of all, IMO. The N. and S. Elsweyr main quest's history arc are the best. North Elsweyr is particularly incredible to me.

I miss Khamira, one of ESO most delightful characters. I wish she could appear more often in other story lines.

With all bugs and disappointments I felt about ESO's last DLCs, I always remember Elsweyr and think, "At least ZoS gave us THAT".

It seems very strange but I've been avoiding to go to North Elsweyr nowadays. Its too depressing to me 'cause now the region is almost completely abandoned by players. Dragons are bored and sleeping at their spots, mostly unchallenged. I travel the region and is empty of people. The dailies became kinda sad to play. And the Dragons, as I said, are impossible to fight alone or with too few players along.

I hope ZoS revamp the region attendance again, somehow.

Anyway, I wish to congratulate ZoS' devs for that real work of art. Thanks. Very well done.

Nairinhe

Have you listened to Daahin, the bard in Rimmen crafting area?

As for zone emptyness... Dailies get boring fast, especially with sad motif drop rate, and their and dragons' loot is not really worth the effort outside of events.
But I noticed that if you start poking a dragon and live long enough after that, you may see some other players joining you.

Tandor

The problem with a number of decent zones regarding the population is that there are simply too many events, they focus all the attention on specific content at the expense of everything else. I don't knock events, and I'm running the New Life one myself but with other stuff while I travel from one event zone to another. I'd be happy with a decent interval between the events.

phantasmalD

The downfall of N.Elsweyr is thanks to the immense lack of Wayshrines. The zone has lowest wayshrines/m2 ratio and they are placed in somewhat awkward places, making repeatable content, especially dragons, beyond frustrating.

It was cool how it treaded on new grounds lore and artwise and brought back/created some cool characters, but the issue of not being able to get around efficently just kills the zone. Southern Elsweyr improved on this aspect and as a result it's still quite populated.

linuxlady

Much better done that greymoor.

Calm_Fury

phantasmalD wrote: »

The downfall of N.Elsweyr is thanks to the immense lack of Wayshrines. The zone has lowest wayshrines/m2 ratio and they are placed in somewhat awkward places, making repeatable content, especially dragons, beyond frustrating.

It was cool how it treaded on new grounds lore and artwise and brought back/created some cool characters, but the issue of not being able to get around efficently just kills the zone. Southern Elsweyr improved on this aspect and as a result it's still quite populated.

This is true.

I liked N. Elsweyr, but every single time I need to do that I get annoyed at how bad the wayshrine placement is. There is just so much riding and moving around mountains to do a bunch of stuff.

Araneae6537

I love Northern Elsweyr too! It has really interesting terrain and very unique and atmospheric. The placement or lack of wayshrines can be a good thing or bad — it does make getting to certain areas more of a challenge until you know the way, but then that does force you to engage with the terrain and the map more.

First time seeing a dragon overhead and then engaging in the fight was really epic! And I enjoy the changes that were made to the dragons as well! On PC NA, people still regularly take on the north dragon at least, especially during prime time.

I really enjoy Tamriel’s wonderful bards, but Daahin of Rimmen is my absolute favorite!

I started ESO in 2019 so Elsweyr was my introduction to the game and I did enjoy the story and characters, except the villains to me seemed a rather odd band and I wasn’t sure how and why they were all working together, but maybe it makes more sense if you’ve played through the main story arcs first.

Tharonil

After Sommersend I didn't thought it could get better, but Elsweyr is love! I love the buildings, the cats and colors. Everyday at the daily writs I enjoy the khunzar-ri song. For me, skyrim is meh, but that's only my opinion. Maybe the next chapter will be more interesting, but until then I have my Elsweyr.

SammyKhajit

Elsweyr is also my favourite. The landscape, music, storyline, characters, quests and the various tiny details. Khanmira is superb and I hope she will return.

Greymoor: a huge disappointment because it lacked the care and attention compared to Elsweyr, and felt like an “earlier” Chapter (ie not fully fleshed out and ESO is still learning). Markath is an improvement, but due to bugs (has the void mother WB quest been fixed???), it felt like grinding just to go through and finish the main quest line.

Iccotak

I think ZOS could bring new life to Elsweyr at least once a year by having events around the Dragons in the zone

Like XP & Gold boosts along with unique rewards to encourage players to participate in the Dragon Hunts.

My only issue with the Main Quest really is that the Main Story Bosses were WAY too Easy and it killed my immersion in the story

No turning off CP or using a bad build does not help. It's still easy - just tedious at that point rather than engaging. Also intentionally playing badly is not a solution to the problem.

Kalik_Gold

I really enjoyed Elsywer also. Wish they would make a central zone as a PvP area. (Similar to IC, but with no zoning, in sewers and districts). Corinthe would be the main city, would be spectacular using the geographic region of the other 2 zones North and South Elsywer.

tyran404_ESO

Easily my favorite content they released, it was wonderfully done and i always smile whenever the rare surge of folks in zone actually gather to kill some dragons. I really hope they do a Elsweyr celebration at some point soon so the zone gets busy again.

Iccotak

Kalik_Gold wrote: »

I really enjoyed Elsywer also. Wish they would make a central zone as a PvP area. (Similar to IC, but with no zoning, in sewers and districts). Corinthe would be the main city, would be spectacular using the geographic region of the other 2 zones North and South Elsywer.

agreed, there is a war still going on and it would make sense that there would be an area in a zone where the alliances could duke it out.

Like an Alliance themed battleground instance

Razzledazzle_dar

I liked Elsweyr! However, I'm still in the firm belief that they best chapter/dlc was Summerset.

Everest_Lionheart

Northern Elsweyr is 1-2 wayshrines short of perfection. Also on my wish list would be an undaunted enclave in Rimmen which would 100% bring that zone to life. If the devs ever decided to finally put one in any city outside of the vanilla game Rimmen would be my top choice.

rpa

To me N.Elsweyr feels both too small and too large at the same time. Like inconvenient to play which feels kind of bad idea if intentional. But I admit I'm not a qualified AAA game designer.

Everest_Lionheart

rpa wrote: »

To me N.Elsweyr feels both too small and too large at the same time. Like inconvenient to play which feels kind of bad idea if intentional. But I admit I'm not a qualified AAA game designer.

Many of the zones have that though. A bunch of small areas separated by mountains and valleys, some rather inaccessible without having to take the long way around. After you’ve done enough surveys and treasure maps you begin to understand. It’s why I bank about 9 of those malabal tor alchemy surveys before even thinking about going to collect them. Or take the giant land mass that is Vvardenfell and look at the actual playable parts of the map mostly along the edges. I’m ok with it all, only annoying thing can be the occasional invisible wall that I know I can jump up somewhere and bypass the long walk around but the magic barrier prevents me from doing so. Like I can see the path right there just let me go!

LanteanPegasus

Oh yes, Elsweyr is ESO's masterpiece (so far)!

They didn't have much to work with from previous games, and they actually did a wonderful presentation of Khajiit homeland and culture!

I fell in love with the people, the land, and so many wonderful characters! They had great stories, some funny, some sad, some adventurous, a very enjoyable mix.

I absolutely loved their main quest line!! One reason are the characters, because Khamira, Abnur Tharn (no, I won't call him just "Abnur", he despises that), the Cygnus Irregulars and the Shields of Senchal have a very special place in my heart. The other is the wonderful journey into Khajiit myth that was amazingly done!
And despite always thinking the TES dragons rather tedious (Skyrim is my least favourite TES game by far) I was fine with their appearance here, because the writers managed to keep their presence to a minimum, and they left room for things like the Plane of Jode instead of yet another stupidly boring Daedric prince/realm.

The wayshrines are a little inconvenient, indeed, but that doesn't bother me, because I don't get tired of travelling through beautiful Elsweyr.

So yes, thank you ZOS for giving us Elsweyr as you did!

Regarding Summerset: That one feels more like a masterful painting to me. The cities, the landscapes, they are beautiful, but at the same time they feel a bit... artificial. Which may be an intended effect, given that the Altmer like to "perfect" their land. But where the Khajiit are an intriguing, manifold culture to get to know, the Altmer are rather plain and stiff. Probably intended, too, because that's what they are. So Summerset might be equally well done, but it just isn't half as enjoyable. (And for me, personally, not half as interesting.)

Ryuvain

Still my favorite two zones. Khajiit, Khamira, Daahin, Zaji, dragons, martial arts, pirates. Whats not to like? I keep my main house there too.

For a khajiit main since my first scrolls game it was all worth every penny.

Sylvermynx

My favorite zones as well. The ambience is perfect for me, since my first character in TES - when Arena released - was a khajiit.

I AM a khat. And that TES II Daggerfall catsuit.... yup.

katanagirl1

The dragon fights when the chapter first released were awesome! I was so glad to finally see the homeland of my main character at last.

I really liked Khamira, she was a great character, but the story was really disappointing to me.

***SPOILERS***
Really, an orc necromancer reanimates Cadwell’s bones and suddenly there are now two Cadwell’s? Necromancy just animates dead bones, nothing more. Also, somehow the lead dragon’s power is stored on a moon? How does that work?

***end spoilers***

ESO has some really great sidequests, but generally the chapter and dlc storylines are hard to believe even for a fantasy game. They break the immersion for me.

It is too bad that you can hardly find people to fight dragons, but like harrowstorms the loot is too poor quality for players to keep coming back.

Narvuntien

I still prefer Summerset, because its quests and main story were better but as a zone, Elseweyr is beautiful. It feels properly large and you aren't running into impassable terrain like you are in Morrowind and Summerset. You can basically ride anywhere.

I love fighting dragons, to actually feel some challenge from a world event after the easy dolmens and geysers, it felt amazing. But it sucks that people literally only ever fight the one that is right next to a wayshrine. Perhaps they just need to put in wayshrines specifically for the dragons.

I haven't been there in awhile I was planing to run a second character through it but then Greymoor came out.

SeaGtGruff

I can't say that Elsweyr is my favorite province-- or pair of zones-- because I don't really have a favorite. To me, all of the zones are well done, and I love the tremendous variety that they all add to the game. Even if I don't spend equal amounts of time in each zone, it's always a pleasure to visit each of them.

As far as the number and placement of wayshrines, I'm of two minds.

On the one hand, the ability to fast travel instantly and conveniently from place to place is one of the things I like about ESO.

But on the other hand, you can tell by how the lore books, skyshards, treasure map locations, and crafting survey locations are spread around, often in off-the-beaten-path locations, that the devs have gone to a lot of trouble to encourage you to explore every nook and cranny of the world they've made. If all of the "important" spots in the game were just a stone's throw from a wayshrine, players wouldn't have as much need to explore on foot or mount.

As it is, I think it's kind of unfortunate that a lot of players use in-game add-ons and external websites or apps that show them precisely where to go to find every lore book, skyshard, treasure map, crafting survey, etc., because I'm afraid it means that a lot of players aren't exploring, but are just riding directly to some marker on a map, then riding or teleporting away.

Aliyavana

elsweyr's biggest weakness was too many characters. We could cut characters like Zumog Phoom and had giver his role to Euraxia Tharn for example. The Year of the Dragon's biggest strength was the addition of the new furstocks and pre riddle'tharrri religion

Nairinhe

Aliyavana wrote: »

elsweyr's biggest weakness was too many characters. We could cut characters like Zumog Phoom and had giver his role to Clivia Tharn for example. The Year of the Dragon's biggest strength was the addition of the new furstocks and pre riddle'tharrri religion

I doubt that Clivia would be necromancing in Elsweyr, or that she would serve Euraxia. Especially given the plot of WGT quest.

Iccotak

Aliyavana wrote: »

elsweyr's biggest weakness was too many characters. We could cut characters like Zumog Phoom and had giver his role to Clivia Tharn for example. The Year of the Dragon's biggest strength was the addition of the new furstocks and pre riddle'tharrri religion

I would say that the bigger issue with character villains like Zumog Phoom is that they're built up like these big bad dudes that are a real threat but really aren't.

As for writing I did think it felt a bit like we weren't the main character but rather that the Princess was.

Aliyavana

Nairinhe wrote: »

Aliyavana wrote: »

elsweyr's biggest weakness was too many characters. We could cut characters like Zumog Phoom and had giver his role to Clivia Tharn for example. The Year of the Dragon's biggest strength was the addition of the new furstocks and pre riddle'tharrri religion

I doubt that Clivia would be necromancing in Elsweyr, or that she would serve Euraxia. Especially given the plot of WGT quest.

It was 4 am when I wrote that message, fixed.