Will you Nerf your Wallet or buff your wallet with Blackwood?

ThorianB

I always buy pre order. It's $40, i spend that on a pizza that becomes fertilizer the next day.

PrimusTiberius

I pre-ordered the day it went on sale, despite some of the short comings (green tree needs to be all active passives) its a pretty good game overall and enjoy the main quest stories. Looking forward to Blackwood dropping.

wrote

looking like a nerf thus far since I can't even use the mail system.

Riptide

This year I managed to get my lovely lady into gaming, after 25 years of marriage. She caught the ESO bug after I asked her to give it an earnest effort for my birthday. So yeah, we’ll cruise into Blackwood, because I love her and because I’m responsible for having drug her into what I consider my “home” game.

But am I looking at alternatives?

Yes I am.

Am I encouraging her to get into housing and other stuff?

No I am not.

Same goes with my buddies and such from other games. I can’t justify agitating for them to jump over over or back over, presently. I haven’t yet told them to avoid it.

We’ll see how things go.

TwinLamps

Will wait till sale.

Surprisingly, I like the looks of zone. Wast fields and river that looks sailable. As much as I was disappointed with Greymoor looks, Blackwood seems more interesting to me.


On the other hand, I am not interested in p2w gear that every Tom, [wow, the saying is censored] and Harry will wear in PvP because I main a sDK and there aint no thing for me in there.

And companions, beside the clear RP elements they are made for, are not my priority.

Unlike Greymoor that I bought 5x for all my accounts, I am pretty sure I wont do the same with Blackwood.

Hymzir

Yeah, I also share many of the concerns posted by others in this thread. Endeavors sounds like yet another skinner box attempt to get people stay online with bribes, companions don't sound like they will be much use, for an "Imperial" expansion this thing features a lot of lizards (which, like someone posted before me, are cool but not my cup of tea either), the constant nerfs to everything, and a combat system devoid of direction and doing alpha style wild swings 7 years after launch, what's not to like?

The Elder Scroll brand still carries this ship, and enables it to stay afloat, despite the best efforts of the devs to torpedo it.

And it's not like I'm immune to that lure either. I'll get the expansion too, though when and at what price is still open, and wont depend on what ZOS does, but what it's sister company does. There's a lot of rumors going about a certain space trip style game launching later this year... If it does, and is revealed around what used to be e3 time, then I suppose I'll get the next expansion before that other game launches, and play through it during the summer. If that space thing wont happen this year though, then I will quite happily wait till the expansion gets a heavy sale.

Leyawiin holds a strong enough lure for me, that I will eventually want to visit ESO version of it. Have a lot of good memories down there in the south, and based on the previews, ESO version of the town is looking pretty nice too. Without it though, I might have just ignored the whole thing. Maybe wait till next year and see if there was some sort of bundle deal available. But with Leyawiin in it, I'll get it eventually, though how much I will slog through it is still an open question. Still got half of Elsweyr to do, most of Gryemoor, haven't stepped a foot in Markarth yet, and I really need to finish Murkmire one of these days. (It's nice enough a Zone, but lizards just aint my cup of tea...)

The thing with ESO is, that too much of it's focus is on monetization, on trying to get you drop just a bit more extra on cosmetics and houses and overpriced blingy mounts, or why not drop few coins on a gambling box. Most of the "content" is too formulaic to be all that interesting. The writings is nice and all, but quest structures are too static, there are no real choices involved, all actual questing boils down to going to a location and wading through a sea of pointless mobs till a boss appears you need to kill. Too much combat and little of anything else, and what else there is is monetized to a sick degree.

And through all that "narrative" you end up feeling more of a witness than a protagonist. Eslweyr was not about you, it was about that princess and her people. Same seems to be about Greymoor, and no doubt Blackwood will end up being a story that happens on it's own, and you'll end up once more as a bruiser type passenger that clears the monsters, so that the real protagonists of the story can act out their narratives.

And in addition to all that, everything else is formulaic. You got your group themed "dangers to the very reality itself" - i.e. oblivion gates, this year's iteration of dark anchors, dragon attacks, harrowstorms, abyssal geysers. You get the standard number of dungeons to clear, the standard number of busybody "collectibles" to grind, and set of arbitrary "achievements" to chase. At least add a bloody new heist and murder mission for Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild located in Leyawiin. You know something other than just mindless slaughter of mobs. Hundreds and thousands of pointless mobs to slaughter while praying for RNGesus to bless you with a piece of one collectible or another.

But yeah, I like Leyawiin, and that bridge house looks nice and, as negative as I sound about it all, the game play is still entertaining enough to provide something to do while I listen to various podcasts. So I'll bd there, at some point, along with all the rest of us Elder Scroll fans.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

I've stopped subscribing and don't intend to get the new chapter until it goes on sale this fall. With the horrible Green CP tree being the tip of the iceberg of bad changes I am only interested in doing the content to see the story and not the hours I use to spend running around the open world.

Destai

I was really excited for Blackwood. Then consoles started getting bugs with traders and merchants, and it took the wind out of my sails. I unfortunately pre-ordered the CE and don't feel like going through the hassle of refunding it. But my ESO+ comes up in May and I don't think I'll be renewing it again. This pattern of patches introducing major bugs coupled with the poor performance of ZOS CMs makes me want to not give them anymore money for a while.

Ashryn

I've paid a sub since I started ESO years ago and have pre-ordered every chapter that has dropped, but was fairly disappointed in Greymoor. This year I wasn't very excited over all the Dagon/Oblivion portal storyline, so did not pre-order. The news of companions drove up my interest some and I was looking forward to using them to help SOLO some of the harder content I cannot do just by myself. After testing them out on the PTS server, they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag; get in the way at times; and just become more of a hindrance then help. Their special armor has an abysmal drop rate and trying to get them to 'like' you is a grind.

When I explored the zone the more forest terrain appealed to me and the main city is a beautiful work of art, but then the zone turned to the swamps of Murkmire. It wasn't all that long ago that we had that sort of thing and its just not something that makes me want to explore it. Unfortunately it seems that the majority of the zone was like this.

So far, the side-quests I have done were certainly more interesting then Greymoor and I like them. I didn't (and won't) do the main quest line until I purchase the chapter...ON SALE. The failure of companions (unless they improve them a lot), the excess of swamp, and the lack-luster Oblivion portals will cause me to wait.

Samadhi

started subscribing to ESO before it went buy to play
keep my subscription active even if I don't play for months to a year+ at a time
get the deluxe edition of each chapter; but this is the first time I will actually be playing it right when it comes out instead of months and months after the release

neither buff nor nerf; just more of the same

phileunderx2

I bought Blackwood for pc. For ps4.. No way. Can't list anything on the guild traders right now and no word on when this bug will be fixed. So nope. May Uninstall the game all together. Tired of nothing working.

mikemacon

I've already thrown money at the screen for Blackwood.

All. The. Money.

warg_derpin_gdf

I plan to, but it's going to be a while.

I began TESO Nov of last year (High Elf DK) and have completed all the base areas except for the Argonian area dir south of Morrowind . . . sorry, Blackmarsh right? and completing all the zone achievements assoc with public dungeons. I can't deal with Argonians stressing out right now, I'm having a lot of fun in Tamriel. Able to blow through a zone and complete all the quests in about a week or so, barring complications with dailies and finding the all the black arrow quests and points of interest.

My plan before this Mehrunes hooha began was to tackle the Thieves Guild line, then Summerset (Psijic), and then the dragons in Elsweyr and then play it by ear, maybe get minorly involved in a guild to make some extra coin. We'll see about this helping-a-Daedra-out business one thing at a time; Cyrodiil will be acting as a break from storyline once I reach sufficient levels.

Personally, I think a LOOOOOOOT of work has been put into this iteration of the Elder Scrolls. They do a very excellent job of maintaining NPC tone and world tone. Do you know what I mean? I wouldn't be able to differentiate the styles from the different writers or story developers or anything without a microscope (or specific examples and analyses don't get me started lol)! About the only thing I check for is to see if I'm reading a lorebook book written by Narsis Dren or Sheograth lol. Anyway, anyway, I have NO doubt that this new DLC will live up to the standard I have been practically bombarded with throughout my Elder Scrolls experience. Honestly, all you fans out there, even when there is a cop out with the writing, not only does it pretty much never disrupt my 1 in 1000 tolerance quota, it usually goes hand in hand with a character who has absolutely had it. For instance, we all know Queen Ayrenn is an eagle eyed ruler, but she doesn't strike me as much of a talker, and that goes for all the high elves in my opinion. Khajiit never cop out because they are either always speaking eccentrically or not speaking unless in need or jest. Nords and Bretons are ready to say just about anything, but the differences in motivation are obvious. The only cop out flubs that ever take me by surprise are, like, Redguards in failure situations lmao.

warg_derpin_gdf

SilverBride wrote: »

I'll buy it because I love this game.

hahahaha could have saved myself a lot of time hahahaha !

FrancisCrawford

I'm on track to skip Blackwood. Companions currently:

• Seem super-grindy, although that's not certain because ...
• ... their grindiness is also still too buggy to test.
• Die in content where they'd be useful, due to a suvivability system that is worse than pets' and NPCs' alike.

dillonES

Already preordered, they sold me on Companions.

amgame308_ESO

I'll buy. I should be able to solo well duo 90% of the 4 man dungeons with a companion a lot faster.