Gear Chase in Eso?

XSTRONG · December 19

I play another game where you slay demons and in that game youre chasing the best gear to be as powerful as you can be, but how would a Gear Chase work in Eso?

Danikat · December 19

You are allowed to name other games on this forum, you just can't make a topic entirely about another game.

Gear grind in this game mostly revolves around sets. Even when sets aren't a straight upgrade having the right one for your build makes a huge difference, and a lot of the best ones come from dungeons and trials, so collecting them is a big part of the game for a lot of people.

We used to have a straight-forward gear treadmill where every so often new tiers would come out that were stronger - that's why the best gear in the game requires a seemingly random amount of CP, that's what they got up to before they stopped. It was never very popular with players because it just meant wasting time grinding for basically what you already had but with slightly bigger numbers whenever a new tier came out, before you could go back to getting new stuff.

I suspect scrapping that also gave ZOS the opportunity to add a lot of the QoL improvements we've had since. I doubt they'd have made things like the armoury and set collections if they were still relying on players re-grinding stuff they'd already collected every time there was an update.

XSTRONG · December 19

When I read Matt firors letter it looks like they are or want to have some kind of gear chase in the new seasons but im curious how that would work in a game like Eso where we have stickerbook, easy trading, transmute station etc

colossalvoids · December 19

You're taking it too literally I'm afraid. It's "another" gear chase, not "the" gear chase he's talking about. It's already there, with each update there is a new desirable piece(es) for the min max crowd out there, if you're competitive player you're constantly upgrading and as a newer growing player you do the same to a different extent, that's the gear chase. Just more specific sets for the appropriate content.

jaws343 · December 19

It will work the same as it always has. They release new sets every update, and players farm those sets, and some of those sets are better than others.

Necrotech_Master · December 19

well when they introduce new dungeons thats a new "gear chase" due to the new gear, the amount of chase though varies from people not interested, to collectors who need to have all the gear (thats me lol), and if 1 or more of the sets gets deemed to be the new "meta" and then theres even more trying to get the gear

Finedaible · December 19

Standardization and the design philosophy that 'sets are intended/balanced for the content that they came from' pretty much killed any gear chase for me. You sacrifice a lot of power for flavor and variety but you can't have both in this game.

The constant nerfing of usable sets has also killed any desire to chase gear from the newest releases. If a set is great now, it will be trash in a month or so and you won't ever get your upgrade materials back.

XSTRONG · December 19

Ok so its just 1 or 2 new sets thats mostly useless. Ok thanks now I understand

Avran_Sylt · December 21

XSTRONG wrote: »

When I read Matt firors letter it looks like they are or want to have some kind of gear chase in the new seasons but im curious how that would work in a game like Eso where we have stickerbook, easy trading, transmute station etc

If they really wanted a grind they could replace the majority of gear drops in a dungeon with other currency, seldom drop set pieces, make them unbound for all (not just group) until equip, and make them tradeable (such as in guild traders).

It’d create an economy for selling gear to players that don’t want to grind a dungeon, and also make it more of a chase than it already is (where you mostly get all armor/jewelry you need in a couple of runs, only the weapons being more annoying due to only dropping at the end boss, or in chests).

Djennku · December 21

We call "Gear Chase" in this game "fill the sticker book". I am totally down for more cool sets. Lots of things I'd love to see have not yet made it in.

Kyip · December 21

I just hope we see less bind-on-pickup gear chase sets from all their their new content ideas.

Dagoth_Rac · December 21

XSTRONG wrote: »

I play another game where you slay demons and in that game youre chasing the best gear to be as powerful as you can be, but how would a Gear Chase work in Eso?

There are absolutely sets that are best for certain classes and builds, but it is a real min-max thing. You can clear pretty much every piece of vet content in game in crafted gear or just gear you pick up along the way. Having good knowledge of mechanics, a tight rotation, and coordination with group members is more important than gear. If you are going for high end trifecta hard mode leaderboard stuff, then you will indeed need the right gear to squeeze out that extra bit of performance to kill the boss at 295 seconds instead of 305 seconds because they enrage at 300 seconds in hard mode.

But other than situations like that, you can get by just fine with mediocre gear if you know the content and know your groupmates. It'll never hurt to have better gear, but I would not obsess over it unless absolute top-notch performance is key to you. Even then, skill choice and rotation and timing and rhythm are better places to focus on for high DPS, not gear. A good player in mediocre gear will easily outperform a mediocre player in meta gear.

Healing and Tanking can be a bit different. Since those roles are often more about buffing DPS than about tanking or healing, gear can be very important because of how helpful it can be for other players in group.

XSTRONG · December 21

Lets say I start a Templar character in a new season I can just buy Deadly Strike and craft Orders wrath, the only gear i need to 'chase' a little is a monster set or a mythic.
When you have that you can do about all content in Eso except for the high trial achievements.

The only thing I can see would be a Gear Chase with how sets are obtained now in Eso is if Zos will have a seasonal server with a server reset after each season.
If this will happen everyone will start from 0 on everything, No gold, no endless amount of crafting materials to start with. It would for sure feel very fresh and make the gear drops ALOT more important and rewarding.