Old School Players

MaximillianDiE

So its been a long time since I last logged into this game (played launch in 2014 - 2018) and years since I felt the urge to log into these forums. I was getting all nostalgic for ESO as in its day as other than DAOC and WAR in the 2000s I had some of the most fun in mmos in this game in its golden age. I thought I'd check the forums to see if it was worth coming back for another look but then I see complaints about ball groups is the top thread. The same as it was the last time I looked and nothing much looks to have changed since the pvp side of the game turned to an playable lagfest.

Shout out to any first gen players left. Is this game is worth another look? God knows the mmo landscape is devoid of any other options these days.

IxSTALKERxI

I just came back to try arcanist for lolz. Game is same old eso. idk if it's worth another serious look but it's okay to fool around in as a casual. Also depends on your timezone. Server is dead during oceanic and it's like 3 AD vs 20 red / 20 blue. Playing solo is rough unless you're a ganker, kinda need a small group to play with to have fun tbh which is the main problem since no one plays anymore.

Marcus684

Welcome back!

Ball groups have taken everything new that ZOS has introduced and become even more dominant than ever. The best groups stack tons of DoTs and shields and zip around at speed cap basically unkillable, shrugging off damage from unlimited numbers of soloers and avoiding most siege to endlessly farm AP. They can still die to a well-timed ult dump but it takes overwhelming numbers and a good opposing group or lucky timing from the pugs to do it. Most times they farm until they get tired/bored and jump out or get too strung out and wipe.

I've been PvPing since day 1 but mostly now just queue into to Cyrodiil to do daily quests and work on achievements. As Stalker said it's pretty rough these days for a soloer. ZOS has introduced so many game elements that increase player power exponentially as you increase group size that it's all but killed off solo play.

endgamesmug

You had the best years unfortunately, it was rather intense in the learning dept for me in the beginning but my best memories are between 2015 and 2018!😁
Its just a habitual timesink for me these days

Delphinia

It's good to see you @MaximillianDiE . My husband and I are also "old school" beta players and have taken numerous breaks over the years. Some of those breaks were intended to be permanent, but somehow we always find our way back.

There are certainly still issues, some are controllable by zos and some are not. The "cannot mount in combat" feature is still very much alive and well as is the (I hate to use this overused word) toxicity among some players.

I cannot speak for other platforms or campaigns, but as of today's PC/NA GH, it is hard mode for AD. The "glory days" were mostly that first year and ever after, many players have either left the game entirely, or moved to another faction. However, I will say that recently, a few players have returned to AD and have made a positive change for this alliance. I will not name them, but I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those players. Thank you for returning, for staying, and for doing your best to make a difference.

For the most part, the game itself is beautifully done. Especially if you partake in pve content.

There have been a few changes to the landscape of Cyrodiil, ie. breakable bridges, towns, and of course, everyone's favorite, Volendrung. Some would argue that the towns offer an advantage to both DC and EP and one specific breakable mile gate shows favoritism to DC. There are also a few "streamers" who make it their form of entertainment to only focus AD keeps and especially AD resources. As a matter of fact, I asked one just the other day (again, I will omit names) who when asked, stated that he only focuses AD because it is "easier" and that DC brings an entire raid or more for just one resource. So, there lies part of our issue. It is a snowball effect. One faction has numbers more consistently and the other is, shall I say, afraid to confront said numbers.

Some players do still play the map and care about the score (even though they will swear up and down they do not).
The cycle of being overrun by an entire faction stacking among themselves (and frequently with the other faction) is slightly disheartening. I will not speak for AD, but as for myself, I do not see fights as purely "AP opportunities". I actually care about fair fights, similar numbers, and healthy competition. Unfortunately, these usually do not occur in the current state of Cyrodiil. The battle is typically determined by sheer numbers. I'm not complaining. I've decided to accept it as it is for now. I enjoy spending time with the many people I've met along the way and that is the main reason I keep returning to this "temporary" fix to the in between moments of my day.

Necrotech_Master

ive been playing since launch, do remember cyrodiil back in the day, back when they had more campaigns and the buffs carried over to pve so each faction had their own fully captured campaign, it was honestly the best time of the game to actually enjoy the pve side of cyro because there were few to no enemies anywhere on the map

game balance changes over time so things feel a little different than they were back in the day but i still really enjoy pvp from time to time

merpins

PVE is doing fine.
PVP still needs some work. Unless you wanna run Battlegrounds, I recommend waiting until the end of the year. There's supposed to be more stability and bug updates through the year, so it might improve.

Marcus684

MaximillianDiE wrote: »

...The same as it was the last time I looked and nothing much looks to have changed since the pvp side of the game turned to an playable lagfest...

If you left when Cyrodiil performance was at its low point (like I did) then you should be much happier with it now. While there are still some major issues (stuck-in-combat, memory leak), the data center refresh last year resulted in a massive improvement in server stability. Former players like me heard about the refresh and returned in droves and were all amazed with how much better Cyrodiil was. Unfortunately this resulted in performance degrading somewhat but it's still night and day versus what it was at its worst.

CameraBeardThePirate

merpins wrote: »

PVE is doing fine.
PVP still needs some work. Unless you wanna run Battlegrounds, I recommend waiting until the end of the year. There's supposed to be more stability and bug updates through the year, so it might improve.

Battlegrounds are just as bad, they're just disguised by a neat, instanced package.

There's a plethora of fundamental balance issues with the majority of the modes, a terrible MMR system that pretty much only amounts to # of games played, and a queue system with issues exacerbated by low population. The scoreboards still don't count basic things like Pet Damage/Healing or Shielding (rip Necro and Arcanist), and the medals you get in game are tangentially related to the actual objectives at best. You can easily win matches by building a speed/block tank build and avoiding fights the entire time because none of the objectives require you to even do any damage or healing, let alone actually kill other players. To top it all off, ZOS took away the ability to choose our gamemode, shoving the opposing crowds of "im just here for my daily" and "i only want to deathmatch" together. They seem to have no intentions of adding a custom lobby system, something that should've been present from Battlegrounds' inception.

And yet, it's still (sadly) the most consistent place to go for PvP.

VagabondAngel

Howdy old timers. After an addictive first 2 or 3 years playing little else but alliance war pvp, the lag and endless meta exploitation killed me off. I think I log in about once every 2 years to see if anything has changed. Would be nice to see that Cyrodiil got the tlc it so richly deserved seeing as it was the over-sell of mass pvp that made me buy ESO in the first place.

Would be nice to see some old faces and names too. Warbow was still running amok last time I logged on.

Synozeer

MaximillianDiE wrote: »

So its been a long time since I last logged into this game (played launch in 2014 - 2018) and years since I felt the urge to log into these forums. I was getting all nostalgic for ESO as in its day as other than DAOC and WAR in the 2000s I had some of the most fun in mmos in this game in its golden age. I thought I'd check the forums to see if it was worth coming back for another look but then I see complaints about ball groups is the top thread. The same as it was the last time I looked and nothing much looks to have changed since the pvp side of the game turned to an playable lagfest.

Shout out to any first gen players left. Is this game is worth another look? God knows the mmo landscape is devoid of any other options these days.

Good to see you. I'm still running around in the game but I don't play near as much. Still some K-holers on from time to time.

IndyMike26

PvP is dying a slow painful death. Running around the same map in circles still, a tank meta ruining everything, they keep nerfing bombers even though Zergs seem to keep getting stronger, and proc sets and server lag make thumbless potatoes OP

noobfury

I didn't know there were any of us left lol . ESO is always interesting so it's worth doing imho. Yes the mmo options these days are pretty abysmal so it's still nice to put some time into. Same old ESO meta issues in pvp however.

Erikx

PVP died after update 35. Most of the old school players agreed it was the most balanced then. Then they removed animation canceling and that's when performance tanked. So in conclusion its not worth the time to come back right now. They just keep making it worse after each update.

Nestor

Still here. Still not do doing PvP. Playing since launch and my Alliance rank is only 8.

LittlePinkDot

Erikx wrote: »

PVP died after update 35. Most of the old school players agreed it was the most balanced then. Then they removed animation canceling and that's when performance tanked. So in conclusion its not worth the time to come back right now. They just keep making it worse after each update.

It doesn't look like they "removed" animation cancelling to me.

SandandStars

PvP class and gear balance is the worst it’s been in my 3 years of playing ESO.

Basically only 2 classes and 2 or 3 builds if you want to be competitive against skilled players.

Very narrow, proc-driven meta. Let your gear and passives win the fight while you spam incap merciless concealed wep…

Repetitive, and boring.

DarcyMardin

I’m still here and have been since the beginning, but since I rarely enter PvP, I can’t comment on that. I’m still having fun and really like the new arcanist class.

My game does crash a lot, though.

Telel

Telel never left, and never quit.

They're also still having fun in PVP despite the best efforts of the hard core scrubs who think sportsmanship is a naughty word.

FoJul

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Erikx wrote: »

PVP died after update 35. Most of the old school players agreed it was the most balanced then. Then they removed animation canceling and that's when performance tanked. So in conclusion its not worth the time to come back right now. They just keep making it worse after each update.

It doesn't look like they "removed" animation cancelling to me.

was finna say the same thing.

ESO_CenturionPlayer

MaximillianDiE wrote: »

Shout out to any first gen players left. Is this game is worth another look? God knows the mmo landscape is devoid of any other options these days.

100% NO. (not 1st gen but close)

xFocused

IndyMike26 wrote: »

PvP is dying a slow painful death. Running around the same map in circles still, a tank meta ruining everything, they keep nerfing bombers even though Zergs seem to keep getting stronger, and proc sets and server lag make thumbless potatoes OP

Zergs are bad right now, like really bad. They all run 40 deep with 45k health, lol.

OtarTheMad

It depends on what you're trying to do. Not sure it will ever get back to 2014 days but if you're just looking for some fun and messing around in PvP then it might be at least worth a look. PvE side of things is good. Forums can be both brutally honest and over-dramatic.