Is Blackwood any good?

Vasoka

Give me some opinions lads, thinking if to buy it.

jircris11

I think most are waiting until it launches on live.

Wing

i mean its content, and it cannot be worse then greymoor.

the worst part about it is balance changes and your getting that regardless of if you pay for anything or not.

GreenHere

It's a neat zone with lots of cool content. Pretty large, too. It's Cyrodiil-y and Blackmarsh-y, so if either of those places / aesthetics tickle your proverbial pickle, then you'll probably like the zone itself. I can't comment on the story stuff yet, but I expect it's on-par with the rest of ESO... so take that as you will. lol

The Companions gimmick is sort of a flop if you expect them to enable harder content, but they still suit a lot of people just fine; just don't have very high combat performance expectations and you might enjoy them a lot!

No one can really answer if it's "worth it" to you, but as a whole I'd say it's more or less equal to the other Chapters. It'll go on sale before long, so if you're on the fence feel free to wait. Or if you're itching for new stuff, pull the trigger on it now. Blackwood is solidly in the "yeah, it's decent" category, imo; nothing mind-blowing or going-down-in-video-game-history here, but it's good enough to buy and enjoy now -- if you've got the coin to spare. Don't borrow from a loan shark to get it, or anything. ;P

Aquatorch

I wanted to buy it, but I really can't see any reason to throw money away on it since the gear is all sub par. The only piece that was hopeful was the Sithis helm, but I was 1-shot killed from an archer in vMA while wearing it. (I'd normally just block the hit, but you can't with Sithis and roll dodging everything is too expensive)

LoneStar2911

The architecture is freaking awesome. Especially in the new home.

GreenHere

Aquatorch wrote: »

I wanted to buy it, but I really can't see any reason to throw money away on it since the gear is all sub par. The only piece that was hopeful was the Sithis helm, but I was 1-shot killed from an archer in vMA while wearing it. (I'd normally just block the hit, but you can't with Sithis and roll dodging everything is too expensive)

Those red arrow one-shot jerks are annoying, no doubt. But just in case you don't know, you can Interrupt them to avoid that ability entirely -- which is generally better than blocking, since it can still put your health bar down in the danger zone.

Crushing Shock on one of your bars in vMA can make life a lot easier!

Starlight_Whisper

New trial is extremely popular and stamina gear and healer set are in high demand

barney2525

It's not Blackwood per se, but along with the expansion has come a hefty tweak to CPs.

Started a new character yesterday, with my CPs, base stats (no armor or weapon) was offense 2150

Today, started new character to do the new tutorial - base offense is 1150

pretty much the same focus for both characters. Multiple CP dots which had 4 or 5 slots were reduced to just 2.

gonna be interesting to see how this plays out

GreenHere

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

New trial is extremely popular and stamina gear and healer set are in high demand

Plus, I heard from SOMEONE *coughcough* that you can get the Perfected gear even from normal right now! ;D

Aristocles22

I've yet to try the trial. So far the zone is...

Okay. Just okay. The new gear is fine, but it's hard to say if everything will remain fine as the balance for the game keeps changing.

Little of the lore established really ties into much of anything. Leywiin's countess does literally nothing, most of the new characters don't really do much of anything either. I had expected Keshu to be more important than basically just warehousing some characters in a temple and doing a lot of standing around, especially with her adviser being the main villain of this particular zone. Maybe they'll do more with her later this year, but I wouldn't count on it. Her costume kinda sucks too; it looks like it's painted on in areas, and apart from being barefoot, she's barely distinguishable from her lighter-dressed soldiers. She's basically just the mayor of Gideon ("governor"), and her backstory doesn't play into the plot at all.

The forces of Leyawiin (Ivory Brigade) don't really distinguish themselves much either. They're just generic soldiers in a generic army. No one really stands out. The only twist is that the "weapons" we thought would appear were people, but once they showed up, I predicted that the fourth would be held out from us until later this year. Leyawiin itself looks nice, as does Mehrunes Dagon himself. As for other content, I don't appreciate anything political, but they kept it much more subtle than in some other zones I could name, so I at least acknowledge that. It doesn't ruin the entire zone.

One would think that a danger on the scale of Molag Bal's planemeld would get the attention of the mages' and fighter's guilds, or possibly the alliances, but it seems like it didn't.

The Direnni Tower tutorial is nice, if a bit bare. There's literally just one other person present, some golems and a harvester notwithstanding.

Rogue_WolfESO

wrote:

Plus, I heard from SOMEONE *coughcough* that you can get the Perfected gear even from normal right now! ;D

For real? 🤔

Chaquinho89

These "chapters" ZOS forces us to buy with money instead of already owned crowns are barely worth it imo, but it's good content if you like questing and running around looking at things.

The companions are dull and weak, the gear farm for them has a horrible low rng, if you want to make them a healer or a tank, for example, good luck spending hours and hours trying to get a healing staff or sword and board, not to mention the armor pieces and their respective traits.

The Oblivion gates offer very little incentive to experience other than simply getting jewelry.

Crafted gear sets are ok, especially if you're fresh into the CP grind end-game experience, but base game and dlc dungeons offer much stronger options.

Overall my opinion since the PTS is a hard pass, I'd get it if I could buy with accumulated crowns, but since that's not an option I'll wait until they release it as a "DLC" next year. But to each their own I suppose.

GreenHere

Chaquinho89 wrote: »

These "chapters" ZOS forces us to buy with money instead of already owned crowns are barely worth it imo, but it's good content if you like questing and running around looking at things.

The companions are dull and weak, the gear farm for them has a horrible low rng, if you want to make them a healer or a tank, for example, good luck spending hours and hours trying to get a healing staff or sword and board, not to mention the armor pieces and their respective traits.

The Oblivion gates offer very little incentive to experience other than simply getting jewelry.

Crafted gear sets are ok, especially if you're fresh into the CP grind end-game experience, but base game and dlc dungeons offer much stronger options.

Overall my opinion since the PTS is a hard pass, I'd get it if I could buy with accumulated crowns, but since that's not an option I'll wait until they release it as a "DLC" next year. But to each their own I suppose.

As one of the people who spent money to preorder the fancy pants edition (mostly because I game with a friend who wants to do new stuff when it comes out, so I kinda "have to" do it), I gotta say this is a pretty fair criticism. Blackwood is a worthy addition to ESO overall since it's pretty on-par with the rest of the game (take that as you will!). But I really don't think people would be missing much to just wait til they can scoop it up on the cheap, honestly.

Unless there's something specific that you want from Blackwood, and you definitely want it now not later, there's no particularly good reason to rush to get it. If you have to ask other people if it's good enough that you'll be happy you paid full price for it, chances are super high you're better off just waiting.

nimander99

Wing wrote: »

i mean its content, and it cannot be worse then greymoor.

the worst part about it is balance changes and your getting that regardless of if you pay for anything or not.

Ah im not the only one thats annoyed by Greymoor..

Yuffie91

Having skipped out on Greymoor I'm really glad I bought this expansion. The story is nice and the zone is lovely. The house is really nice too..also the furniture plans..I love the Imperial style

aipex8_ESO

I found the main story much more compelling than any of the previous chapters. So much so that I banged it out in a day! That and I just really like Dremora and other Daedric stuff, so any chance to hang with Lyranth is gold.

Netheniel

Overall it's OK. Content wise, I think we're getting a bit less compared to other expansions like Summerset and Elsweyr. I would say Blackwood is more of an add-on (ie: companions) to augment your open world adventures in the other expansions. I listed my pros and cons below.

Pros

1. Companions add a nice touch to your adventures, although they are a bit chatty in combat. ZoS needs to tone that down.
2. New monsters are cool and add a nice touch to liven up the game.
3. New world bosses offer a nice tough challenge.
4. The zone itself is nicely themed, but like Western Skyrim, the zone is mostly void of life and enemies. It's mostly horseback riding swamp country.

Cons

1. No new group world event equivalent to dolmens, abyssal geysers, or harrowstorms. While some people are saying oblivion portals are the new group event, it's important to state that oblivion portals teleport you to a public dungeon. It's not a world event.
2. And on that note, the oblivion portals / new public dungeon is a huge downer. You have to wait + be in the right spot to find an oblivion portal. Once you're in, you need to stay in. Monsters and bosses will respawn, so you can farm as long as you want while you stay inside the public dungeon. However, once you leave, you'll need to wait and find a new portal again (all RNG). The dungeon itself is also quite small and very linear. I'd say it's probably smaller than Bad Man's Hallows, or more like a delve with its linear playthrough. It's a shame for an oblivion themed public dungeon. It doesn't do it any justice.
3. Mirri's voice actress doesn't really vibe with me. When she says things like "Let's ride!" as you hop on your mount, it sounds really cringe. Her voice is disconnected at times too, like she's reading the script and trying her best to fit the scene, but she misses the mark. It actually breaks my immersion at times.
4. The way you unlock companions doesn't make sense to me. I was expecting a stronger narrative, but instead we get a cookie-cutter quest with no real strong tie-in. It's like if someone asks how you two met, you respond with "it kind-of just happened". Like.. really?

Narvuntien

I liked what I played of the main quest a lot better than greymoor that was extremly predictable.

The zone has positives ans negative, its big but a little empty, but the mix of imperial and argonian is really interesting.

Yuffie91

Netheniel wrote: »

Overall it's OK. Content wise, I think we're getting a bit less compared to other expansions like Summerset and Elsweyr. I would say Blackwood is more of an add-on (ie: companions) to augment your open world adventures in the other expansions. I listed my pros and cons below.

Pros

1. Companions add a nice touch to your adventures, although they are a bit chatty in combat. ZoS needs to tone that down.
2. New monsters are cool and add a nice touch to liven up the game.
3. New world bosses offer a nice tough challenge.
4. The zone itself is nicely themed, but like Western Skyrim, the zone is mostly void of life and enemies. It's mostly horseback riding swamp country.

Cons

1. No new group world event equivalent to dolmens, abyssal geysers, or harrowstorms. While some people are saying oblivion portals are the new group event, it's important to state that oblivion portals teleport you to a public dungeon. It's not a world event.
2. And on that note, the oblivion portals / new public dungeon is a huge downer. You have to wait + be in the right spot to find an oblivion portal. Once you're in, you need to stay in. Monsters and bosses will respawn, so you can farm as long as you want while you stay inside the public dungeon. However, once you leave, you'll need to wait and find a new portal again (all RNG). The dungeon itself is also quite small and very linear. I'd say it's probably smaller than Bad Man's Hallows, or more like a delve with its linear playthrough. It's a shame for an oblivion themed public dungeon. It doesn't do it any justice.
3. Mirri's voice actress doesn't really vibe with me. When she says things like "Let's ride!" as you hop on your mount, it sounds really cringe. Her voice is disconnected at times too, like she's reading the script and trying her best to fit the scene, but she misses the mark. It actually breaks my immersion at times.
4. The way you unlock companions doesn't make sense to me. I was expecting a stronger narrative, but instead we get a cookie-cutter quest with no real strong tie-in. It's like if someone asks how you two met, you respond with "it kind-of just happened". Like.. really?

I like the companions being chatty and hope it won't be toned down ^^

GreenHere

@Netheniel & @Yuffie91 , just in case y'all aren't aware theres an option in the General settings (I believe it's that submenu, iirc) that can change them between "Normal, Frequent, or Infrequent" dialogue. So if you want more or less chattiness, try fiddling with that setting. There's no option to make them totally silent, though.

Smexykins

GreenHere wrote: »

@Netheniel & @Yuffie91 , just in case y'all aren't aware theres an option in the General settings (I believe it's that submenu, iirc) that can change them between "Normal, Frequent, or Infrequent" dialogue. So if you want more or less chattiness, try fiddling with that setting. There's no option to make them totally silent, though.

You're a hero for this one.

Yuffie91

GreenHere wrote: »

@Netheniel & @Yuffie91 , just in case y'all aren't aware theres an option in the General settings (I believe it's that submenu, iirc) that can change them between "Normal, Frequent, or Infrequent" dialogue. So if you want more or less chattiness, try fiddling with that setting. There's no option to make them totally silent, though.

Thank you!

Gythral

Bugwood is fine, storywise, but way too many minor bugs...

Klad

Gythral wrote: »

Bugwood is fine, storywise, but way too many minor bugs...

Literally no one calls it that...

Smexykins wrote: »

You're a hero for this one.

Yes for once instead of Some woke rando's Bit uh I mean "step and Fetch"