Blackwood is great!

Lugaldu

I haven't played the stories yet (I'll save them for later), but I really like the companion system and hope that it will be expanded in the future. When I look at the innovations of the last three chapters - necromancer, antiquities, and now companions - I find that it is nicely balanced and varied. More interesting than if there was just a new class every year.

Chadak

I've been enjoying it right proper-like. I don't have any major complaints about it, and my minor complaints aren't worth regurgitating; they're trivial, personal and sometimes downright petty rubbish that wouldn't generally be worth wasting anyone's time with.

On the whole, I think my biggest criticism of it is that I wish companions weren't constantly getting in the way of my trying to loot things and getting me into a zoomed-in face-to-face with Mirri yet again.

"PROBLEM SERRAH!?!??!?!?!?"

YES MIRRI I HAVE A PROBLEM, GET OFF MY STUFF! SHOO!

biminirwb17_ESO

Blackwood is OK but compared to Summerset or earlier chapters it seems small. WB tend to be squishy and the deadlands thing is a little sad.

Still enjoying it.

Tommy_The_Gun

I am starting to love it actually. I did some "main story" quests, but not all. They seem kinda "generic". But then I started doing side quests.... OMG, side quests are soo cool and well designed. I missed that.

Besides:

dubbmixx wrote: »

As a guildie put it, its like Summerset and Murkmire wrapped into one.

That was also my observation !

The zone has a certain unique charm. It is huge, and it may be just a swamp, but it is not like Shadowfen nor it is Murkmire. It is... um... different. And "Summerset" actually fits ! It is as if you replaced trees & grass with marsh flora. Also, the big reason why it feels that way are multiple Ayleid ruins.

Tbh. Only thing I think that I miss is some "Argonian Style" Ancient City. Like a old Xanmeer style Architecture. But I guess, it is just an "entrance" to Black Marsh, so maybe, in the future we will have new zones that cover deeper part of the Argonian homeland, so those kind of Architecture will be there.

Wolfster

I also really enjoyed Blackwood.

I don't know where the comments about the zone being empty are coming from - except for when I'm in the middle of the actual wilderness (and it's really nice to have a zone where the hubs aren't just in a chain 100 yards apart) there are players everywhere. Even during the quiet hours.

markulrich1966

I started on xbox, 8th of june.
Got Mirri, rushed through worldbosses and delves to level her up.
Then started to grind, mainly mages/fighters guild dailies.

So had no real impression yet of blackwood.

Tired of the grind, I returned yesterday, and strolled through the region.

Discovered a large ruin, looks great. Close by, the city of Gideon. The redguard there with her romantic story sent me back to the ruin, filled it with life, and the story was heartwarming.

Although I miss more trees in a "wood", I think the landscape still is nicely done. Less trees means that you easier see interesting locations like the ruin mentioned above.

Someone complained, there would not be enough monsters, but you will see many bears, dogs etc. A little less than in western skyrim, but I prefer it, as this makes the setting feel more realistic.

I leave out issues like cp/set nerfs, focussing on the content itself, I like it.
Not spectacular, but wide, calm. Perfect to walk around for exploration after my hectic worldboss dailies, and if the other sidequests have a similar quality like the romantic one, I definately will spend more time in Blackwood.

Gary404

Blackwood is still a forest and it reminds me of the forests here in Colorado, the ones closer to the cities that are sparce copses of trees rather than a full all dense wilderness. The vibe I get in Blackwood and Summerset actually, is a well maintained forest where underbrush has been cleaned up regularly to prevent constant wildfires; which I would imagine wold be very common with fire magic.

The rivers and lakes are nice to, I like to follow them sometimes and just see where they lead.

CoronHR

i like blackwood a lot better than greymoor, but i liked elsweyr, summerset and morrowind better than blackwood.

that said, i enjoy blackwood and i like hanging out in it. i think the crafting area is situated well enough to station yourself there. (i wish they'd nudge the drop-off boxes forward a bit)

Salmeyna

I really like Blackwood too.
The atmosphere is really nice, though i prefer the light forests on the western side, it has a nicer view.
The quests are well-written, and the world bosses interesting. Zenithar's Abbey was awesome too.
Right now i'm levelling my companions, their presence certainly made me care about overland mob kills again. They died quite often at low lvls, but now both are already above lvl10, and they only die from world bosses anymore. My tank is glad about the dd support, it really makes the content much more enjoyable, if you don't have to hit a mob for half a minute.
The oblivion portals are interesting too, i think they are the best world events at this point (from dolmen, geysers and dragons).
Oh, and the doomvaults! Such interesting delves! I really like their concept.
To me, this chapter was worth every euro. ^^

dubbmixx

Hotdog_23 wrote: »

Enjoying the chapter, myself. Glad the bank/craft bag and sell to merchant is fixed.

Enjoying companion's more than I thought I would. Wish I could see the companion’s stats like I can on my character so when I change gear it would be easier to see. They do die a lot as a tank. Maybe not leveled enough or geared good enough but I see most of them commit suicide on the portals last boss all the time or world bosses. Almost decided that one will be a healer and one a ranged DPS and give up on the tank role for now. Plus, glad it's not like a 4-5-hour grind to unlock them on each character. Thanks for that ZOS. Love how the companion system encourages going back and playing older content again. Hope they continue to add more companions.

The zone is big with lots of wayshrines which is nice. Glad ZOS remember the community feedback from last year and needing to add more wayshrines.

Like how all the delves continue to be different and not just like a hole in the ground like most of the base delves. Public dungeons are fun. The Stibbons quest was the best yet. Glad to see the crows made it to the new zone.

We need a 2nd or even 3rd quickslot menu. 8 is not enough. By the time I have food, potion, banker, merchant, companion 1, companion 2, antiquarian's eye I only have one slot left. What’s the point of having so many emotes/collections when we can’t slot them?

Wish each companion could hold like 30 items each of only their own companion gear. Also, it would be nice if ZOS would add companion gear to the stickerbook system.

Ability bars are a welcome edition for console players, but I do hope they continue to improve on them and fully show both bars. If the issue is screen space, I would forgo the buff and debuffs to fully see both skill bars. Honest now the only buffs I really what to see is my food timer and any exp bonuses. It would be so nice if we could have that as an option to only show those 2. Since I have and play 18 different characters that are all set up different just seeing a little bar for the backbar abilities is not nearly as helpful as being able to fully see both ability bars.

The new scaling system for sets has killed off a quite a few of them. Most are not worth using anymore. Guess this is a good overall thing for PVP but it killed PVE side. Don’t have an answer for it but I do hope it stays on the drawing board for ZOS.

The Shadowfen lead…nothing to add

The reduction is the CP tree has now with over 2300 CP given me the flexibility to be able to change between 2 different setup which is nice, but the green tree is starved for CPs. It either needs more passives or at least 2 extra skill slots like 6 abilities vs. 4. The micromanagement of it is not fun at all and just a punishment for console players who cannot use add-on such as Jack of all trades add-on. C’mon you can no better by console players.

Please given us skill layouts or dressing room add-on that PC players have next. Oh, a mini map as well, be nice if you could add it to the quickslot menu. Pretty please with a dose of Sithis on top.

Stay safe

Praise the craftbag/merchant fix! Gaht dam that was crazy! So many good points here

dubbmixx

Indigogo wrote: »

You know what I like most? The looting. So many wardrobes and backpacks!

Hunting down alllll the furnishing plans.

100% YES. I havnt robbed this much in i dont know how long!

Grandma

it definitely beats greymoor for me, but that was a pretty low bar already. i wish the southern and eastern parts of the map felt more swampy [sometimes its just grass with a few trees and its supposed to be a marsh?] but aside from that i enjoy the zone a lot. I like how the water spaces are used.

dubbmixx

colossalvoids wrote: »

Would agree that overall questing and zone feels way better than greymoor was, that's already something. Happy that didn't went full nostalgia trip and made it differently without loosing too much.

Im enjoying this way more than Greymoor!

dubbmixx

Chadak wrote: »

I've been enjoying it right proper-like. I don't have any major complaints about it, and my minor complaints aren't worth regurgitating; they're trivial, personal and sometimes downright petty rubbish that wouldn't generally be worth wasting anyone's time with.

On the whole, I think my biggest criticism of it is that I wish companions weren't constantly getting in the way of my trying to loot things and getting me into a zoomed-in face-to-face with Mirri yet again.

"PROBLEM SERRAH!?!??!?!?!?"

YES MIRRI I HAVE A PROBLEM, GET OFF MY STUFF! SHOO!

HAHAHA true story!

dubbmixx

I also dig how Bastian gives you a heads up on heavy sacks! Nice! Another guildies said he does the same thing with Fpsyijiik portals!

Alurria

I am enjoying this chapter and I really like companions.

Galbsadi

dubbmixx wrote: »

I also dig how Bastian gives you a heads up on heavy sacks! Nice! Another guildies said he does the same thing with Fpsyijiik portals!

I didn't even notice that (the character of mine that has portals unlocked is more likely to use Mirri the way I set the companions up), but that's awesome!

Faulgor

Waffennacht wrote: »

First chapter i decided not to buy

Same. Didn't really offer anything I liked, and wasn't happy with their flanderization of Eveli.

Deadlands looks interesting though, I'm looking forward to Q4.

Nareya726

I was worried the companions would be bland since they're new characters, but I'm actually really liking them and enjoying the new system. It's too early for me to tell how I feel about the main storyline, but at least there's no annoying princess archetype this time and I feel like my character is more than just a mindless lackey.

Spoiler

The fact that they brought back Elam Drals has me excited too. He might've been a minor character before but I loved his sass.

ArchMikem

I'd wish I could give a .5 Agree instead of +1. This Chapter has been very mixed for me, several elements that are nice but also SEVERAL that are irksome. This is practically Murkmire Extended since a majority of the playable land is in the Marsh, and I'm not the biggest fan of swamps and gloomy wetlands full of carnivorous plants and insects.

Leyawiin is nice. Gideon should be larger if its supposed to be a City. Zenithar's Abbey, like with Summerset and Elsweyr's Public Dungeons, is frustratingly misused. The place would've made an amazing Player Hub, I absolutely love the layout. Instead it's like a map out of Resident Evil.

My happiest moment so far is being able to dance with Jarl Woof.

SilverBride

I like it but I don't love it, for a few reasons.

I love clearing public dungeons, but the ones in Blackwood are harder and I have not been able to solo clear them like I have every other public dungeon in the game.

The companions aren't all that helpful, but I haven't developed and geared them up much yet, so I will wait and see.

Rapport is just one big headache and I dread doing it on one character, let alone all of them. I don't need someone who is supposed to be my companion judging me for being in the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood. So if we chose to take these paths in the game our "companions" will shun us. If Bastion likes being a Goody Two Shoes that is on him, but don't force players to be the same.

Veinblood1965

I like it so far, the thing I've not liked about any of the recent expansions is the lack of PVE open world mobs. The zones just seem desolate. I'm surprised this has continued to be the case. In the older zones you can't throw a stick without hitting a wolf.

Necrosaro_123

I found Blackwood boring and empty. It feels like everyone already left the zone after week 1.

Daily Rewards are poor, Content is poor too. And the main story is bad.

Sylvermynx

biminirwb17_ESO wrote: »

Blackwood is OK but compared to Summerset or earlier chapters it seems small. WB tend to be squishy and the deadlands thing is a little sad.

Still enjoying it.

Eh, with my high satellite ping, that Argonian Behemoth is ANYTHING but squishy. There were only a couple other players for that daily, each with a companion, and me with the pet. Died three times as ping wouldn't let me move out of red fast enough.

Painful and annoying. At least I got in enough damage that I did get the completion on the daily.

frompa

New content is always nice but this chapter seems underwhelming at best

Supreme_Atromancer

I love Blackwood - what is the most apparent thing to me is that there is a very obvious and deliberate effort to take on board a lot of feedback in how they design the chapter and the world. The zone has space to breathe, which for those of us who like to savour the exploration of the world is a good move. I remember, especially in base game zones, how freaking annoying it was that you couldn't go two steps without aggroing an horde of annoying mobs, when I just wanted to get to some point - to check out the cool structure or landscape, to get the lorebook, or to find a new quest or something. Its like *** off, just for one second, I just want to explore! And for this game, there are soooooooo many places where you can be constantly sorrounded by a constant stream of 1-hit trash, Blackwood included, it doesn't have to be over every single bit of the map.

As to the emptiness, I haven't found that, because there's so much going on over the map as you explore. Sure, not every pixel is jam-packed with mobs, but I don't have to go far before I'm encountering a Point of Interest, a spontaneous vignette (all of which were really fun to explore), NPCs to interract with, a quests to take on, a world boss, and now, with how the world events work - I can even encounter an Oblivion portal anywhere. I really feel like they've been moving in the right direction for a long time, and they've finally got the balance between space, action and stuff to do. If anything, making the mobs more dangerous would probably make them worth more, and make exploration more fun or dangerous but that's a debate we've all been having for a very long time.

As for the landscapes that we now actually have a moment to enjoy for a hot second, I think they're beautiful. I think that by far the world crafting (raw landforms) is the best feature in this game, and one that I think almost everyone would agree is perhaps the one thing that they always get right, and I think they've met the high standard they've set in previous years. I guess they have a tricky job with it because for some reason swamp landscapes tend to be more divisive than other types. I love the evocative, moody feel they can give, and I know that many people (some developers amongst them) really love the Argonian world and story, so it makes sense that they were going to revisit it. The contrast between the swampy south and the woodsy north is nice too, and I think they've done a fantastic job not only creating a seamless transition between those two different landscapes, but also having the world and story match that transitional landscape perfectly with the hybrid argonain and imperial world it represents. Speaking of transitions, my one wish in this department regards one thing they actually did do really well in the base game - transitions between zones. Travelling between the high rock zones, for instance felt organic - you could see where you were about to go, and so it made the world feel more connected. The Ebonheart Pact zones did it even better, where they were able to merge drastically different landscapes such as The Rift and Stonefalls, then Deshaan and Shadowfen with so little fuss, but in a very satisfying way. Elsweyr is just over the hills from Niben Forest, but there's no hint that this is so. Having said that, making sure that there are gates between zones is again something I think shows the developers take on board feedback, and its hugely appreciated.

On the balance, I've enjoyed the writing. Its far better than last year's, feels far less formulaic and cringey, and maybe as a result of that, there's been some really cool elements and plot devices, and some great writing. For some of the stuff, I still implore the writers to take off the kid gloves and dare to write for the weight, grit and provocation to think and explore that Tamriel deserves, but that's more about formula and the game's overall philosophy and direction than it is with quality per se.

I think there are some really glaring hooks that were criminal to miss for this region! How can you have a Trans-niben without the Renrijra Krin!! That group was one of the most important story- and character- defining elements of Leyawiin and its sorroundings. And the Archiens!? Weren't they based in Gideon?? From what we've seen so far these guys offer a fascinating opportunity for cool story-telling, and because so little has been written, there was some amazing opportunity to do something cool with them. Given that exploring Tamriel is not complete without exploring its rich history (usually through dungeons and structures) it would have been cool to see some nod to the Nibenese pre-alessian Nedic roots, too.

Having said that, what was done FAR better than any title so far, including TESIV, was to finally add some dimension to the Nibenese. They've done a fantastic job drawing on inspiration to make them feel like a real, unique and distinct group amongst the Imperial peoples. I think this is the most significant contribution to explorable lore ZOS has ever done.

Leyawiin is a beautiful city, and I love the feeling of being able to explore it in relevant content for the first time since playing Oblivion. But its pretty, even if you don't give a rat's about nostalgia. Having the crafting stations arranged as they are has given me reason to actually be in it. I thought Gideon was really cool too, it gives a good contrast to Leyawiin and a sense of thematic cohesiveness and tangible history that brings the world to life. It felt a lot like I'd imagined it when reading The Argonian Account. In both cities I took the time to stand by and listen to the bards - one criticisim: the singers are freaking amazing, and the music is perfectly evocative. The lyrics? Really need work!

As for the delves, I think they're really hitting it out of the park. They really took the criticism about the base-game structure (or lack of) to heart, and each one is unique and actually fun to explore. I've particularly liked Arpenia, which in Oblivion was pretty much a nothing ruin, and made it into something really cool. It was great to get a bit of a taste of Evergloam again! As an aside, I think that at this stage, more now than ever, with daily delve quests for all the recent zones and such, you could play this game like a modern-day TES2: Daggerfall - taking on dailies and being sent to these cool, diverse, labyrinthine dungeons to find objectives and build rep.

I haven't quite finished the zone yet. I haven't finished the main story, and there's maybe half of the zone quests to go, as well as the two pub dungeons, which I'm really looking forward to. But yes, I agree that Blackwood has been awesome - its heartening to see feedback so clearly taken on board, and I think that Blackwood is amongst the best they've done so far.

AvalonRanger

The companion system and sub quest were great.
However...I thought main quest of blackwood DLC is the worst ever.
It was shallow and boring adventure. My final verdict is 4/10.
It totally doesn't fit for price of DLC.

Moreover, lot of "doppelganger" companion character walking around
field including last of main quest story. When I talk against NPC version
character with the same character of my companion, I felt VERY STRANGE feeling...

The companion appearance should be custom made character
same as player one.

LittlePinkDot

grizzledcroc wrote: »

I like it a lot also, its just a quite slow year for new new systems . Honestly really excited for q4 cause sounds like its gonna be a real unique zone.

I haven't heard anything about Q4. What is it?

Dojohoda

I like it too.

SeaGtGruff

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

show previous quotes

grizzledcroc wrote: »

I like it a lot also, its just a quite slow year for new new systems . Honestly really excited for q4 cause sounds like its gonna be a real unique zone.

I haven't heard anything about Q4. What is it?

The Q4 zone DLC will be in the Deadlands. In fact, I believe it will be called "The Deadlands."