Just started playing again, and the 'meta' is making me really concerned.

NineChameleon

So, for context. I have been coming and going from this game since release. Last time I played was several years ago and I couldn't get into it then. Coming back now I've started to really enjoy the overworld content and the story and such. I do really like the more action oriented combat system to!

Now, coming from other MMO's I naturally wanted to try and do well at my role whatever I pick. The main reason I enjoyed ESO on release and the times I've come back to it is the potential variety you can have in your builds. Even now that's the main reason I want to keep playing it. However, looking up advice I've started to see just how strict and demanding the meta is. With insane numbers that seem unreachable on my lowly level 37 sorc. I've been trying to convince myself that like... 70% of that damage comes from correct gear sets and gold quality gear and champion points etc etc.

But its really hard to keep believing it the more I try to look up advice.

I don't enjoy following build guides. I dont enjoy other people making the decisions for me about what skills to pick. But above all, I dont enjoy how vapid the skill tree system is if apparently only specific builds are viable.

I started looking up advice when I was level 20 ish 17 levels later yes my dps has gone up to around 8-9k on average. (12k if we're talking aoes) from 3-5k but that is still WAY below what most advice i've read says your dps should be as a DD. (I read 15k single target for under 50's somewhere, but I can't find the source anymore so idk if I'm imagining that.)

Its getting to the point where I dont want to carry on playing because the meta demands are honestly making me anxious. I never set out to do the hardest content in the game, but I'd like to be able to at least see the dungeons and remain useful in the dlc dungeons especially (i've heard they're a lot more demanding than base game).

I told myself that worst comes to worst I can just try and focus on making a solo build or something so I dont need to worry about letting other people down or being kicked for being inadequate at my role. But honestly I'm at the stage where I'm really considering if it's worth carrying on because of this strict build meta.

All of this is a long way of asking, Is the meta really as strict as it seems? Are these numbers you need to get to mainly based on gear and cp points? Are more skills viable than it seems so long as you have breaches and damage buffs and such? Or should I just look for an off meta guild so I can have less fear about playing outside the meta system?

Lady_Galadhiel

Dont worry about meta till later in game,I play this game over 5k hours and never worried about meta.
Meta is only important for end game content or PvP.
Play and enjoy the game your way

Disturbed_One

The "Meta" is at best a 2-3% DPS increase over about a half dozen other options, and a good player in non-meta sets will easily outperform an average player in the meta.

Now... you do need to have like ~900 CP to have most of your benefits for DPS (you get about 90% of them by this point, the next 900 CP will give you the last 10%)

_adhyffbjjjf12

eso is a great game, and i wouldn't worry about meta, this isn't WOW. Unfortunately however the animation cancelling is a huge flaw that means you need to spam light attacks between everything if you want to optimise dps. If you do that you will see one significant jump.

perfiction

You're level 37, isn't it too early to care about the meta and your dps? The gear caps out at 160CP - it's not worth to invest in any gear until then. CP starts are nice buff but with good gear and rotation you'll be able to get to around 80k without spending a single point in CP tree.

NineChameleon wrote: »

With insane numbers that seem unreachable on my lowly level 37 sorc. I've been trying to convince myself that like... 70% of that damage comes from correct gear sets and gold quality gear and champion points etc etc.

80% of the damage comes from decent (not necessarily BiS) gear and your experience with the class (mastered rotation with good uptimes, LA weaving, not wasting time between GCDs etc). CP is just the cherry on top.

NineChameleon

_adhyffbjjjf12 wrote: »

eso is a great game, and i wouldn't worry about meta, this isn't WOW. Unfortunately however the animation cancelling is a huge flaw that means you need to spam light attacks between everything if you want to optimise dps. If you do that you will see one significant jump.

Yeah the light attack cancel is what caused my first leap in dps that I mentioned. Even if I'm still not sure how to do cancels with longer attack animations. (Snipe, Uppercut, to name 2 I struggle to cancel out of so I tend to cancel into them instead.)

But even with that my single target especially seems really low.

Shantu

Nah, as a level 37 Sorc, I wouldn't concern myself with "meta". While no one would argue that meta gear is helpful at squeezing every drop of DPS out of a build, what's much more important is you develop your skills as you progress through the game. Learn light attack weaving and practice a rotation. Get experience. Start out with running normal trials and dungeons and work your way up. Concerns about being "meta" only surface in hard core progression groups working on the hardest trial content. But there are far more guilds with trial groups that won't give a hoot what your build is. Just relax and enjoy the game. If you're having fun, the rest tends to work itself out.

KMarble

1. Your char isn't even half way through max level (160). Any "meta" gear you get now will be obsolete as soon as you level up (the gear/weapons/jewelry you'll find will always be the same level as your char).
2. You do not need "meta" anything to play overland content.
3. It doesn't matter how powerful your gear is if you don't know how to play your char. A good player with no gear is still going to do more damage than a player who doesn't know how to operate their char on gold, "meta" gear.

Learn how to play your char - which skills work best for you, the best rotation for that char, how to dodge, break free and block. Try different skills, different weapons, different set ups. Use the time leveling up to learn all you can. This will make you a better player than going out and buying all the gold "meta" gear.

NineChameleon

perfiction wrote: »

You're level 37, isn't it too early to care about the meta and your dps?

Yeah haha, I suppose it does seem a little early doesn't it?

I just, guess Im worried the expectations start earlier than it seems? I have no guild and only play with randoms so like... last thing I want is to not be able to run with randoms because of expectations starting earlier than I realise.

I've already had weird encounters in extremely early level dungeons where CP players just seemed to get tired of waiting I guess? And sprint through to do everything themselves and leave before anyone can say anything.

Best experience I've had so far with randoms was a dungeons where we were all around the same level so we could take our time.

So I suppose I just want to know what im getting myself in for? I'm not opposed to soloing the dungeons. I solo'd Wayrest Sewers and it was great being able to go at my own pace. Its just also stressful and takes a really long time with my current numbers!

dlrgames

NineChameleon wrote: »

All of this is a long way of asking, Is the meta really as strict as it seems?

Only if you are in a sweaty, score pushing, high end Trial group. You will be around level 50 CP 1200 and have a lot more play experience before you get there.

Just play the game and have fun. As you level up unlock and learn to use ALL your class skills, and the same for the appropriate weapon lines.

Join a good, new player friendly guild and actively participate in any scheduled activities that will help you learn to play better. Good guilds will have a Hall with training dummies you can practice on to learn to weave and develop a rotation.

The dungeons will unlock as you level, and you won't be able to even enter the ones that are too dangerous for you. Join the daily random queue or ask in your guild chat to make a group. You will find lots of experienced people willing to run with you when you are low level since it make things easy on them. When you reach level 45 you can start doing the daily Undaunted Pledges which will cycle through all the dungeons in the game. Make friends or group with guildies and get in the practice of running them every day. The first time through take it easy, do the story, and get the skill point for the completion. As you get through the cycle a few times you can try for achievement runs. Take your time - everything will still be there when you are ready to try it.

PeacefulAnarchy

NineChameleon wrote: »

I just, guess Im worried the expectations start earlier than it seems? I have no guild and only play with randoms so like... last thing I want is to not be able to run with randoms because of expectations starting earlier than I realise.

I solo'd Wayrest Sewers and it was great being able to go at my own pace. Its just also stressful and takes a really long time with my current numbers!

If you can solo a dungeon, even as a slog, you're already ahead of the pack of your average random (normal) dungeon, especially being under 50. Don't worry about it.

I've already had weird encounters in extremely early level dungeons where CP players just seemed to get tired of waiting I guess? And sprint through to do everything themselves and leave before anyone can say anything.

Speed runners are annoying, but they aren't frustrated by you, they're speed running because the dungeon is easy to them and they want their bonus XP and transmutes as quickly as possible, sometimes they're farming gear. It's anti social play, but it's not in any way a reaction to you being too slow or not good enough, they're set on their course of action no matter what group they get.

NineChameleon

dlrgames wrote: »

Join a good, new player friendly guild and actively participate in any scheduled activities that will help you learn to play better. Good guilds will have a Hall with training dummies you can practice on to learn to weave and develop a rotation.

What's the best way to find a guild? Asking on here? Or is there a way in game?

KMarble wrote: »

1. Your char isn't even half way through max level (160). Any "meta" gear you get now will be obsolete as soon as you level up (the gear/weapons/jewelry you'll find will always be the same level as your char).
This will make you a better player than going out and buying all the gold "meta" gear.

Thankfully I'm not at the stage of buying any meta gear yet. I'm not even sure i'd want to buy it when crafting is easily accessible. Been enjoying taking time out to level that to and trying to find all the traits lol.

My struggle right now is its hard to be motivated to carry on leveling if when I get to the end I'm just going to have to change all my skills around to satisfy these meta needs.

_adhyffbjjjf12

NineChameleon wrote: »

_adhyffbjjjf12 wrote: »

eso is a great game, and i wouldn't worry about meta, this isn't WOW. Unfortunately however the animation cancelling is a huge flaw that means you need to spam light attacks between everything if you want to optimise dps. If you do that you will see one significant jump.

Yeah the light attack cancel is what caused my first leap in dps that I mentioned. Even if I'm still not sure how to do cancels with longer attack animations. (Snipe, Uppercut, to name 2 I struggle to cancel out of so I tend to cancel into them instead.)

But even with that my single target especially seems really low.

it wont be 1 specifc thing:

-Is your gearset a high performer in PVE
-Are you using potions whenever they are avail, have you tuned your build taking pots into account.
-Is your rotation good enough (ignoring cancelling) i.e is it constant, are there gasps and overlaps, are you using the best spells available.
-Animation cancelling
-knowledge of fight to minimise movement
-Are you casting dots when they are still running and over consuming resources.
- are gear enchants optimal
- super high level pro tuning - tuning your rotation to fit optimally into the fight length
- super high level pro tuning, are you casting within x milliseconds, is it all in deep muscle memory
- CP matter, e.g 10% improvement is MASSIVE over time.

I used to do hardcore raiding years ago, and its all about getting everything perfect above, but that was in a game where being number one on the server was the goal Much much better to relax and just let the above evolve naturally over time - target the minimum dps expected for a fight then go from there.

Get min dps expected then prioritise fun over meters

Hallothiel

There is a way to read through various guilds in game now (but not on at moment & play on console so might be different)

Or there are threads on here - go back to the main forums page and scrolls down to find which thread is for you & whatever you play on.

neferpitou73

Some advice I always give to new players

Don't worry about builds/dps/meta until you hit CP160 that way gear farming is not a waste of time. Instead spend your first character finding out what you like doing in the game. Experiment with PvP, PvE, what do you like about your class? etc.

Honestly I didn't get a dps toon I could be proud of until around 600cp. And once you get the first the rest start coming into place.

Build guides are junk for new players. I always tell new folks the worst thing they can do is look at Alcast's builds. You'll understand about 1/10th of what he does there, get confused and frustrated why you aren't performing as well as he does. It takes a lot of experience to really understand build making.

Aznarb

Lv 37... Why do you even care about the meta ?
Meta is useless until you do some vet hm raid.

Also, no, set are like what ? 25-30% of your dps, probably less.
Good rotation, weaving, canceling, buff & dot uptime, trait, mundus, pene cap, sustain and team composition are a huge part of your dmg.

Prof_Bawbag

edit

starkerealm

NineChameleon wrote: »

_adhyffbjjjf12 wrote: »

eso is a great game, and i wouldn't worry about meta, this isn't WOW. Unfortunately however the animation cancelling is a huge flaw that means you need to spam light attacks between everything if you want to optimise dps. If you do that you will see one significant jump.

Yeah the light attack cancel is what caused my first leap in dps that I mentioned. Even if I'm still not sure how to do cancels with longer attack animations. (Snipe, Uppercut, to name 2 I struggle to cancel out of so I tend to cancel into them instead.)

But even with that my single target especially seems really low.

Yeah, no, that's what you're supposed to do (in most cases.) There are relatively few skills where you cancel its animation with a light attack (you'll will sometimes bar swap cancel animations, though), normally you're canceling your light attack's animation with an ability activation. (Also, you can't cancel most of Snipe or Uppercut, both have cast times, and you're stuck there for the ride until it's over.)

NineChameleon

Aznarb wrote: »

Lv 37... Why do you even care about the meta ?
Meta is useless until you do some vet hm raid.

I wish I knew why I cared so much I really do. It's like a looming cloud that I'm going to have think about eventually. Although I suppose I care because I've played games where people are so ludicrously attached to the meta that it hurts. And I really hope that wont be what its like at the higher levels.

Prof_Bawbag wrote: »

I've never used those skills ever, so not sure how they work. Animation cancelling only works on certain skills, not all, Any skill that has "instant" can be cancelled. Any skill that has a cast time, regardless of duration, can't be cancelled.

They are the first skill in the bow and 2 handed skill lines respectively. They are marked as instant but definitely have some degree of animation lock before the damage actually goes out.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

Just use something to boost damage and something that gives crit chance.
There's a variety of stuff for PvE even craftables that will work fine.

Julianos+Mothers sorrow and/or Stam equivalent etc...most games work on crit and damage it's kind of the same even in games like TW3.

starkerealm

NineChameleon wrote: »

However, looking up advice I've started to see just how strict and demanding the meta is.

It's not really.

The problem with ESO's metagame isn't that you need to follow a cookie cutter to be effective, it's that there is a lot of follow the leader mentality among B and C-tier content creators. There are a lot of build guides out there that can be distilled down to, "I copied Alcast's build, but changed a few things to make it less obvious, and now it performs slightly worse, but I can say, 'it's mine!'"

NineChameleon wrote: »

With insane numbers that seem unreachable on my lowly level 37 sorc.

Yeah, if you're seeing insane numbers, chances are those are (basically) unreachable. When you someone say they pull 80k DPS... they don't. They're pulling 80k on a trial dummy. Those things have a lot of baked buffs and debuffs to simulate a fully configured trial group, and result in absurdly inflated parses. You need a well coordinated, and very practiced 12 player team to get those numbers in live content. But, they'll still say, "look at all my DPS!"

NineChameleon wrote: »

I've been trying to convince myself that like... 70% of that damage comes from correct gear sets and gold quality gear and champion points etc etc.

It's not.

At least, not exactly. If you're parsing on a normal dummy, figure your DPS will come out at roughly twice what you can pull live. Stack some on top for the trial.

At level 37, you don't even have all your racial and class passives unlocked. With some classes, you might not even have access to critical skills for your build. (Though, the only thing you're probably missing at this point is Poison Injection, if you're running it.)

So, no, it's not just upgrade everything to gold, or grind up your gear.

Some if it is just learning to play. There's a huge learning curve ahead of you, and no easy shortcuts. Tightening your weave, and smoothing out your rotation will make a world of difference. Getting the right gear will help, but remember, the QA team tests content by running in non-set blues with no spent champion points.

That's the other thing, there's a huge difference between sufficient to clear content (and even optional objectives), and the maximum possible damage. There is, literally, nothing in the game (including vet trials) that requires 70k DPS. Unless I'm mistaken, the steepest DPS checks in the game are still only around 40k. You may want more damage than that to bypass mechanics, or for other reasons, but it's not necessary.

furiouslog

NineChameleon wrote: »

Aznarb wrote: »

Lv 37... Why do you even care about the meta ?
Meta is useless until you do some vet hm raid.

I wish I knew why I cared so much I really do. It's like a looming cloud that I'm going to have think about eventually. Although I suppose I care because I've played games where people are so ludicrously attached to the meta that it hurts. And I really hope that wont be what its like at the higher levels.

Prof_Bawbag wrote: »

I've never used those skills ever, so not sure how they work. Animation cancelling only works on certain skills, not all, Any skill that has "instant" can be cancelled. Any skill that has a cast time, regardless of duration, can't be cancelled.

They are the first skill in the bow and 2 handed skill lines respectively. They are marked as instant but definitely have some degree of animation lock before the damage actually goes out.

Don't get anxious about it. When you are up there and want to get to the next level of play, there are guilds who will help you farm gear and get ready for that next level. There are always pugs in Craglorn to hop on to as well - CR and SS are always getting farmed. You can get pretty close to meta anyway usually by mixing a crafted set with an overland set, or maybe two overland sets. Some of the best players I know are using a crafted/overland combination right now.

The point is, don't get serious until you're ready to get serious. We all know ZOS is going to make some major gear changes before you hit 1200CP anyway - the meta constantly changes. If you stress about it and farm stuff now, you might end up regretting it later. You can't get that time back. ESO is one of the best MMOs for gear accessibility and flexibility, unless you are really trying to hit the absolute perfect min/max - then you'll be spending some time farming. DPS is all about the weaving. If you want to stress about something, stress about parsing, broadening your skill trees, and developing raid/dungeon awareness and mechanics. That stuff is way more important. Golded-out gear can make about 5-10% difference up at the top between "best gear" and "good enough gear". Really, that's about it. The rest is in your skills, attributes, CP, and talent.

dlrgames

NineChameleon wrote: »

What's the best way to find a guild? Asking on here? Or is there a way in game?

My struggle right now is its hard to be motivated to carry on leveling if when I get to the end I'm just going to have to change all my skills around to satisfy these meta needs.

To find a Guild in the game just press G and read through the posted ads. You can apply directly in the game. There are also subforms here where the Guilds have recruiting posts, or you can post what you are looking for and someone Guild officer will contact you.

The "META" changes constantly, that's why I said take the time to learn all your class skills and whatever appropriate weapon lines, armor, world and AvA skills. The important thing is to learn to play the game and learn the strengths and limitations of your class and playstyle.

And have FUN!! This is a game, there is no reason to work yourself up over anything.

Charon_on_Vacation

NineChameleon wrote: »

So, for context. I have been coming and going from this game since release. Last time I played was several years ago and I couldn't get into it then. Coming back now I've started to really enjoy the overworld content and the story and such. I do really like the more action oriented combat system to!

Now, coming from other MMO's I naturally wanted to try and do well at my role whatever I pick. The main reason I enjoyed ESO on release and the times I've come back to it is the potential variety you can have in your builds. Even now that's the main reason I want to keep playing it. However, looking up advice I've started to see just how strict and demanding the meta is. With insane numbers that seem unreachable on my lowly level 37 sorc. I've been trying to convince myself that like... 70% of that damage comes from correct gear sets and gold quality gear and champion points etc etc.

But its really hard to keep believing it the more I try to look up advice.

I don't enjoy following build guides. I dont enjoy other people making the decisions for me about what skills to pick. But above all, I dont enjoy how vapid the skill tree system is if apparently only specific builds are viable.

I started looking up advice when I was level 20 ish 17 levels later yes my dps has gone up to around 8-9k on average. (12k if we're talking aoes) from 3-5k but that is still WAY below what most advice i've read says your dps should be as a DD. (I read 15k single target for under 50's somewhere, but I can't find the source anymore so idk if I'm imagining that.)

Its getting to the point where I dont want to carry on playing because the meta demands are honestly making me anxious. I never set out to do the hardest content in the game, but I'd like to be able to at least see the dungeons and remain useful in the dlc dungeons especially (i've heard they're a lot more demanding than base game).

I told myself that worst comes to worst I can just try and focus on making a solo build or something so I dont need to worry about letting other people down or being kicked for being inadequate at my role. But honestly I'm at the stage where I'm really considering if it's worth carrying on because of this strict build meta.

All of this is a long way of asking, Is the meta really as strict as it seems? Are these numbers you need to get to mainly based on gear and cp points? Are more skills viable than it seems so long as you have breaches and damage buffs and such? Or should I just look for an off meta guild so I can have less fear about playing outside the meta system?

if you don't need to top meters or scores, you really do have a lot of options.
you can do all content without having a meta build.
there are a few basic rules you have to follow for a successful build, but its much more open than the few meta builds you see in most guides.
don't worry too much.
gear and skill are two important factors, so you might have to practise a little bit and you can't just wear any set to perform well.

Ilsabet

A big part of it, especially if you're looking ahead, is deciding what kind of content you'll be happy running. As many people have said, the "meta" is only really important if you want to do the hardest high-end content, which it sounds like isn't really your thing in life. If what you want is to experience dungeons, you can do those on normal and be just fine as an average player, even in DLC dungeons. If you then want a greater challenge, you can move up to vet dungeons. You place your own goalposts, based on what you want to do, and then you can build yourself up to the level needed to successfully do that content.

As you're leveling, figure out what kind of playstyle and skills you enjoy most, and what seems most effective to you. Then you can tailor your gear sets around your preferences, rather than feeling like you have to use whatever some guide says is best. For example, I know I'm not an automaton with light attack weaving, so I don't use sets that rely on light attacks to keep up buff stacks or whatever. Something like Briarheart works great for me because I use a lot of damage over time skills and have reasonably high crit so I get lots of procs.

Also keep in mind that there are general things that will make you a better player that have nothing to do with your DPS parse. Situational awareness and the ability to not stand in stupid. Familiarity with basic gameplay and dungeon mechanics and knowing what to do when. Hell, just being a nice person is a big plus in groups.

You'll unfortunately run into people with bad attitudes or high expectations from time to time, which may or may not have anything to do with you or your performance. There are always the overpowered speedrunners who just want to get their randonorm out of the way as fast as possible, and I've seen stories about people who acted super elitist but they were really just expecting to get carried through the dungeon. It's not worth being anxious about disappointing people like that, and fortunately the vast majority of people out there aren't like that.

So just do what makes you happy and what seems to work best for you, and scale your own expectations to match the difficulty of the content you want to do, and you'll be good to go.

markulrich1966

you are a victim of the traffic-light effect.
A group of people stands at the trafficlight.
It still is red, but 1 person starts to cross the street. The others see him walking, and follow.

I DO have a magica meta set like Mothers Sorrow and Medusa. Do I use it? No.
I use Mothers Sorrow and Torugs Pact instead (and other sets on other characters). As I get better results this way.
Have finished the most difficult veteran basegame dungeon (cities of ash 2) with it, together with only 1 other player.

The game offers tons of options, and instead of following what everybody repeats, you should find your own pace, and try things out. An important role plays your personal playstyle.
I see hundrets of comments suggesting light attack weaving. But when I watch people doing harrowstorms or dragons, almost nobody uses this technique.

I don't say that these advices are useless, but you have to see them from the right perspective. If you reach CP1000, and have found a progression guild where you optimize trial runs, the meta topic as well as a perfect rotation will come up. Especially in context with the role you play within your group, as you will try to spread for example group buffs so that everybody contributes the right ones. This is training, perfection.

Forget about this, as long as you have not yet reached such a level or integration into a group.
Instead, try out things, use sets that match your playstyle. Enjoy the game.
You can solo worldbosses, many dungeons, play in veteran group dungeons like this.

ssewallb14_ESO

Man, sounds like you have some WoW PTSD.

Relax, this game isn't like that.

All content in the game has a normal mode, which can be done with minimal DPS, including the DLC content. Even the veteran content is mostly demanding in terms of mechanics, not DPS. You will be expected to have a coherent DPS setup in vet content, but it's nowhere near the high-end numbers you might be seeing and absolutely does not require a specific gear or bar setup.

The vet hard modes are where you start seeing raid and build optimization you might have experienced from other games, these are completely optional.

Grandchamp1989

Personly I'm not worried about the new PvE meta as much as I just find it incredibly boring. You don't even have to ask what people wear anymore, its the same 3-4 sets for each role most of the time regardless of class.

If anything the new meta lowered the floor and heightened the ceiling, as people (who don't get their damage from weaving) can no longer rely on procs to any decent extent.

As a lvl 37 don't sweat it mate - enjoy the game and the casual stuff the game has to offer.

After cp 160 you can start to look into gathering sets you want and learn to do light attack weaving. Start with a one-bar setup and progress into two bars. You'll get it.

francesinhalover

NineChameleon wrote: »

So, for context. I have been coming and going from this game since release. Last time I played was several years ago and I couldn't get into it then. Coming back now I've started to really enjoy the overworld content and the story and such. I do really like the more action oriented combat system to!

Now, coming from other MMO's I naturally wanted to try and do well at my role whatever I pick. The main reason I enjoyed ESO on release and the times I've come back to it is the potential variety you can have in your builds. Even now that's the main reason I want to keep playing it. However, looking up advice I've started to see just how strict and demanding the meta is. With insane numbers that seem unreachable on my lowly level 37 sorc. I've been trying to convince myself that like... 70% of that damage comes from correct gear sets and gold quality gear and champion points etc etc.

But its really hard to keep believing it the more I try to look up advice.

I don't enjoy following build guides. I dont enjoy other people making the decisions for me about what skills to pick. But above all, I dont enjoy how vapid the skill tree system is if apparently only specific builds are viable.

I started looking up advice when I was level 20 ish 17 levels later yes my dps has gone up to around 8-9k on average. (12k if we're talking aoes) from 3-5k but that is still WAY below what most advice i've read says your dps should be as a DD. (I read 15k single target for under 50's somewhere, but I can't find the source anymore so idk if I'm imagining that.)

Its getting to the point where I dont want to carry on playing because the meta demands are honestly making me anxious. I never set out to do the hardest content in the game, but I'd like to be able to at least see the dungeons and remain useful in the dlc dungeons especially (i've heard they're a lot more demanding than base game).

I told myself that worst comes to worst I can just try and focus on making a solo build or something so I dont need to worry about letting other people down or being kicked for being inadequate at my role. But honestly I'm at the stage where I'm really considering if it's worth carrying on because of this strict build meta.

All of this is a long way of asking, Is the meta really as strict as it seems? Are these numbers you need to get to mainly based on gear and cp points? Are more skills viable than it seems so long as you have breaches and damage buffs and such? Or should I just look for an off meta guild so I can have less fear about playing outside the meta system?

meta has been pvp stam , pve magicka for a while now.

there's just too many insta kills in the game , so magicka's free acess to pen + long range to dodge insta kills and aoe is amazing.

francesinhalover

Disturbed_One wrote: »

The "Meta" is at best a 2-3% DPS increase over about a half dozen other options, and a good player in non-meta sets will easily outperform an average player in the meta.

Now... you do need to have like ~900 CP to have most of your benefits for DPS (you get about 90% of them by this point, the next 900 CP will give you the last 10%)

i'm cp 900 and id say 800 isn't enough
to get the last 10% he would have to be 1000 in my opinion, and maybe 1200 if we talk about dmg resistance. and maybe 1300 if we add the elemental dmg, there's cp that buffs fire , storm etc dmg, that is useful on some classes like dragon knight.

that being said a player using relequeen has like 10k more dps than a player with hunding, this doesn't look like a lot but if you are attacking a boss for 10 secs, the other player will do 100k more than the one with hundings, and i don't really need to talk about fights that last 1 min.

That being said, even when i was full meta, game was still insanely hard and annoying, the insta kills in trials and dungs are just too overwhelming , that at this point i might enjoy a vet dung sometimes, but never a trial. plus all the visual effects blinding a person.

francesinhalover

tbh and i know some fans will dislike this, but other games have better endgame even gw2.

Eso endgame is... blinding to understand,



this is a trial where i have visibility.

no srsly, this ain't nothing , and i have my special effects at like 5%

Where i think eso is better than other mmo's is in the story telling, the open world is alright for solo players also. so if your endgame is completing story mode. than eso should be fine. if it's raids, eso is a pain.

gotta join guilds, wait days, check youtube guides and you still die to insta kills, nvm if you are stam close range, because you can't dodge in time.