Solo play too difficult

Anastasia

Zershar_Vemod wrote: »

Solo play is beyond easy.

*****
• Use tactics******
  
• Make sure you are geared up
• Know your build / class
• Know how to time your attacks

---

Good, helpful post Zershar and I'm sure some will take heed. The ones who are wanting to level fast though will chant, "Why slow me down having to get good gear when I'll just have to get More Gear when I level?"

;o/

I upgrade my gear appx each 5 levels, crafted, enchanted, etc and then I take on the next five levels and add to/exchange as I need to. Invariably most of the times I have come up against something that 'seems op' against me, I take a look at my gear - see its meh and replace some of it. Then I smack some ass and take care of business.

IF you want/are leveling as fast as you possibly can, the exchange is you aren't wanting to get/make great gear at level, so you WILL BE WEAKER, in addition to the very important utilization of mechanics - interrupt, dodge, first hit from crouch/stealth, utilize a couple of skills that are magika, and have one or two that are stam so your magika ones have a few sec's to refill --- when possible etc. Challenge yourself - you will feel good winning instead of feeling like everything is too hard for you. You can do it ^-^.

Good journeys!

Criselli

When initially playing the game I had a small amount of trouble (wandered into the lvl8 mage guild quest at lvl 6, *Fire Imp nightmares*)

Personally I think the main problem is that a lot of people focus on acquiring too many "active" skills too quickly and neglect the passives in their armor, ability, and racial trees. These dramatically improve your survivability and effectiveness.

The only other advice I can offer is don't be afraid to use your Ultimate or Potions for those extra tough named bosses. Potions drop like candy and I'm consistently selling the lower level ones before ever using them. Provisioning / Food buffs are also amazing.

Tawn

The fights all have tricks. You can't just stand still and hope to survive, you need to learn the fight, you also need to make sure your crafting is us and you must enchant your gear.

Thinking back to level 10, Doshia for example, on a caster, stand at about 10 meters and strafe left/right constantly to avoid the hands that shoot at you, after you lift into the air kill the 4 orbs to heal your health.

You can't do this on firepower alone, you need to work out and and use the mechanics.

Just to disclaim, I do die a lot as I work out the fight, sometimes I give up for the day, but they can be done.

Dark_Dread

I don't think a lot of you people realize that Elder Scrolls has never been about difficulty. Hell, even the later games matched everything to your level so you can handle every encounter.

This "challenging" content will only feel like Dark Souls Online (hard mode) to a lot of the Elder Scrolls fan base, detracting from the Elder Scrolls feel. And I think that is one of the major issues here, people are expecting it to have a better (easier) difficulty curve than it has.

And I will admit, this game is a lot more challenging than most MMO's out there. Now I know a lot of changes had to be made to transition the license from a single player to massively multiplayer but it seems to lose its essence when you suddenly have to deal with increased difficulty (sometimes down right cheap) instead of just concentrating on exploration and story like previous Elder Scrolls tittles.

Decimus_Rex

Let me break down the classes for you so as to cover the learning curve and difficulty.

Number 1. The DragonKnight.. Probably (arguably) the most well thought out class and fun to boot.

If dying is something you want no parts of this class is the one for you.

Number 2. The Templar.

This is the rinse and repeat class.

Hit Biting Jabs two or three times (magika providing) DEAD (see previous statement above)

Number 3.Sorcerer AKA the heavy hitter and dance like Fred Astaire class.

Hop around a little, pop one or two skills and maybe for good measure use your weapon of choice a little

Toast

Number 4. NightBlade AKA.. The problem child.

I have a feeling you choose this one thinking..

"oh man the easy killer with Inviso smashing abilities, Man that's FO me !"

The LighBlade or NightmareBlade (my pet names for it) is a deceptive one ,He starts out in the very early levels ok , then it hits 12 or13, then turns into..

"Hey I can't break an egg with a hammer in each hand with this guy"

Here's the secret, it is under powered compared to the other classes and it has more bugs than all the other classes as well.

Yup the NB got a double dose of PIA but even with bugs aside it is an absolute unforgiving class to ANY mistakes.

I have an LB and it has proven to be the most challenging class in that it seems out of place as far as the flow of battle compared to the other classes.

Lot's of trial and error, more setup of attacking mobs,swapping skills and also tactics to figure out something that makes it an efficient killer.

As I said recently the LB requires a lot of setup . I usually check to make sure the number of assailants first, check to see that my Mag.. and Stam.. are good,look for good vantage points to attack and most important of all look for the caster or healer in the mobs to take that one out first.

Then I start my bombing run

I start with siphon, hit inviso,use my inviso stagger ability then two more hits with my dual wield ,that one is dead.

Start over with number two (same same) if there is a third, this is were it gets tricky because magika is gone by now ,stamina is low as well and health is on the decline .

I call this spaz mode , any trick you have left you pull it out here

Now I am simplifing for effect here, I have tried bow at range, mixed armor and terrain tactics of every sort trying to make a 3 mob kill easier (not to be)

Now the NB is not completely inept but it surely isn't the quickest or most efficient killer of all the classes

I guessed your a NB(LB) when you said anything passed two mobs is a good perscription for death.

Dark_Dread

I am going to have to agree with Decimus_Rex on this, as I also play a LB (NB) I have made my character a vampire and a heavy armor wearer which has helped a lot now at Veteran rank 2.

Also choosing skills that can CC and heal (which is harder for this class since they are lacking in those abilities compared to other classes).

I normally play a bow/2h heavy armor but I am seriously considering going 1h and shield for those times where 3 or more mob encounters. If you do decide to go vampire, make sure you stack on the fire resist.

I found even as a Breton the spell resists weren't enough to mitigate a lot of the damage. So much for playing your way, I have found it rather difficult with this class and at vet 2 re-rolling is not an option.

But yes, some classes will be more difficult than others. Hopefully this will be balanced out as they continue to make class balance changes to the game.

Eats-the-Cheddar

I struggled at first. I'm playing a DPS sorcerer and found myself getting into trouble with 2+ enemies at a time. The sad thing is that a character of my class with my particular skill set should have no problem whatsoever. In the end, I had to admit that I just plain-old didn't know how to play the game. It's become one of my favorite things about ESO - it is deceptive. Things look straightforward, but you do need to think before you play. Stick with it and you will be rewarded!

RatsnevE

Dark_Dread wrote: »

I don't think a lot of you people realize that Elder Scrolls has never been about difficulty. Hell, even the later games matched everything to your level so you can handle every encounter.

This "challenging" content will only feel like Dark Souls Online (hard mode) to a lot of the Elder Scrolls fan base, detracting from the Elder Scrolls feel. And I think that is one of the major issues here, people are expecting it to have a better (easier) difficulty curve than it has.

And I will admit, this game is a lot more challenging than most MMO's out there. Now I know a lot of changes had to be made to transition the license from a single player to massively multiplayer but it seems to lose its essence when you suddenly have to deal with increased difficulty (sometimes down right cheap) instead of just concentrating on exploration and story like previous Elder Scrolls tittles.

As far as I'm concerned in this you've nailed my feelings exactly (and I'll be giving DS2 a try soon enough). Maybe, just maybe, ZO is helping to ruin the MMO genre for me?

I'm playing Xithian's "sword and board" build proven out by himself and others good through level 50 for a sp (Solo), but is it really? I'm currently level 10 but stuck and 'discouraged' now at three solo dungeon only locations: 1.) Long Lost Lore (level 8 ) Sheogorath's Shire trying to close the stupid portal; 2.) Anchors From The Harbour (level 8 ) Doshia's Lair; and 3.) Rites of the Queen (level 8 ) Defeat Norion. Who is kidding who?

Q: Even if I technically leave the Queen stuck down in Norion's lair waiting for me to return to kill Norion (which isn't going to happen any time soon) do I have to? Can I just leave these solo dungeons open and forgotten and never return to them until much much later? Does it hurt my character development?

And how funny are some of the public dungeon's fitting into MMO play... I just went through Entila's Folly only to discover it was still open and unfinished. Googled and read that I had to kill (or in this case at least register one good whack I guess) a boss monster. So I reentered and finally found in this one large enough location a hoard of PCs standing around waiting intently for "something" to happen. I decided to wait too suspecting what was happening here like it happens elsewhere. Sure enough the boss spawns for an instant and I miss my shot. Wait wait wait wait wait wait...for the second try and the boss gets killed again so quickly I hardly get a glimmer of him so I wait through the whole cycle at least a third time for it to spawn and I get my hit and kill registered and now I'm done with this 'stupid' Folly.

The point is (and you know I'm going to phone it in) that you 'crafty' die-hard PvP gamers have your private group areas I wouldn't dare tread in and the entire PvP ending to the game to have a joyous battle fest in with all your skills just 'gleaming'. A level 8 solo dungeon shouldn't be so tough on a level 10 run of the mill SP adventurer!

RatsnevE

Eats-the-Cheddar wrote: »

I struggled at first. I'm playing a DPS sorcerer and found myself getting into trouble with 2+ enemies at a time. The sad thing is that a character of my class with my particular skill set should have no problem whatsoever. In the end, I had to admit that I just plain-old didn't know how to play the game. It's become one of my favorite things about ESO - it is deceptive. Things look straightforward, but you do need to think before you play. Stick with it and you will be rewarded!

Yes, with S & B it is tough at times with two or more for me too but one curious tactic that seems to help is to never focus on both opponents back and forth. Focus on one at a time until dead and then move to the second. Anyway, sometimes this helps. I suspect this build will be resulting in some sort of AoE to develop too.

jesterstear

The thing for me is the game hits you with unexpected difficulty spikes. 90% of the time world mobs are outnumbered by player characters and you're lucky to get one hit in to claim a share of the xp. I've worked on my build and my gear, done some grinding and deeding to be a level or two above the mobs i'm fighting at all times, and can take on three with ease. But occasionally you're hit with quests that make you fight elites solo, and there seems no consistency in difficulty between elites. Many are pathetic, and require no active skills to defeat. I've found some two-diamond mobs to be quite soloable. And other, single diamond elites are just Chuck Norris, wiping the floor with your face over and over again.

I know the hardcore players love challenge, but I can spend eight hours questing with no deaths, have a great time playing, then hit a fight like this and feel angry and stressed for the rest of the day, ruining my whole experience of the game.

Is there a way to have challenge without inducing such frustration? Ah but you need these deaths to learn and improve your play, the hardcore guys say. Or its your fault for dying because you suck, deal with it.

Somehow when you die in this game it's far more frustrating than dying in a FPS. No idea why but it is, I've got bruises on my hands from punching the table with frustration yesterday. Maybe when you die in an FPS, you reload from the checkpoint, and your death is erased from history, it never happened in this timeline.

In an mmo, you have to run back from the spawn point, the consumables used in a futile attempt to stay alive are gone, your gear has taken damage and you're worried about being able to afford the repair. There is no airbrushing of the event from history, you died, other players probably saw it and the consequences linger on. And in a way, in rezzing to try again, you cheated. This is a fairly high magic universe, but people don't just come back from dead all the time. Really you should delete your character and start over.

When completing one of the main story quests, it breaks immersion, especially when the Oracle congratulates you on pulling off a miraculous rescue from Cold Harbour - I never thought you'd make it out of there alive! Well thanks, I didn't actually.

I guess you also identify with your character a lot more than in first person shooter, where you never actually see or customise the protagonist and all your deaths happen in private. It's worse if you roll a female character because you feel especially bad for having failed to protect them and get them killed. But if you roll a male, then you have to deal with the guilt of killing females - lots of them - outscoring the most notorious serial killers on an hourly basis. Not exactly chivalrous. Wheras killing females as a female is OK isn't it?

RatsnevE

Well said. I remember abandoning the Queen in Doshia's Lair yesterday thinking out loud "Good luck...enjoy your stay...I have no idea if I'll ever be back again to somehow help you or kill this thing...Next time don't just stand there doing nothing--I know you've got more AI skills in you then my pathetic PC has, etc. etc." I think in this way I avoided bruising.

Yankee

Having brought up everything but a DK to VR level, my experience is that it does not get tough until VR. At that point I have to start paying attention to skills and gear.

•Use tactics
•Make sure you are geared up
•Know your build / class
•Know how to time your attacks

I know some of you guys were offended by his posting this, but I find myself having to pay attention to the above at levels above Molag.

I worry about the future of this game if there is more than a vocal minority that really cannot get past the level 8,20,40, and 50 quests. Are these threads about how hard this game is a small minority?

Because if they cannot get to 50, they will just quit. And when the ones who have trouble on and barely defeat Molag find out how hard the mobs hit in VR, they will quit anyway.

I will adapt, but how many will we lose? I worry about having a population when I finally hit VR10.

bruceb14_ESO5

My templar can take a hit, or quite a few but knocks out the mobs too slowly to stay up when there are 5 in a group. Also has some trouble on some of the bosses that perhaps are scaled to Vet level since my hits are melee and not that spectacular. All of my skill points are in the Restoration side. Fully leveled heavy armor passives, racial passives, 2H skills and quite a few with Fighters Guild. Obviously need work to get through mobs. The bosses I normally can handle if they don't have that Doschia healing bubble mechanic that Zenimax seems fond to use (I'm too slow with the 2H weapon hit to knock out all of the bubbles and with lower DPS it can feel monotonous to get anywhere). I did start a thread elsewhere with the same question regarding progression but seems applicable here. I have not completed Molaq Bal and my gear is decent and enchanted. Question is where to put some skill points to adjust my play and handle the mobs of 4 or more. I haven't even experienced the Veteran level mobs, am I toast?

BETAOPTICS

Generally I would not say that solo play is too difficult in this game, but wait till you get into one unnamed public dungeon in the last area. It has groups of enemies and while this is nothing new, but the enemies there will run to get groups of tens against you. Even if you are 5 levels higher than the place, you get demolished there. It is crazy.

People keep grouping up in there because no one is able to solo that place. All this makes it more difficult that it also has though bosses and if you die, you have to start all over again albeit you might not have to kill every enemy before. Died there more than I had in the rest of the 50 levels I have played and never had my equipment went in such a bad condition.

It was just pure madness. Ridiculously too hard area and it is not even max level area or quests that they are supposed to be but they sure were way harder than all the way to the boss fight, elite bosses and maybe even beyond.

RatsnevE

I think you are describing areas on the map depicted with a black skull and crossbones? I have already marked these as off-limits to my Solo PvE PC.

Yankee

If you walk in to a dungeon with more than 3 mobs to a group, they were not meant to be soloed. Those are supposed to be for groups of 2-4.

RatsnevE

Yes, but you can solo them. You just have to pick your battles carefully and/or wait and track around with another group. And some PCs can hide and sneak around too. It makes it very difficult at times and I have died a lot.

Ysne58

RatsnevE wrote: »

Interesting... Does the 'Doshia' (sp?) and 'Rites of the Queen' fall under this main story line? I noticed that both of these are solo dungeons but the quests aren't listed under the 'main story line' category that some other quests are listed under later? Hopefully I'll have better success with my PC this time around so I can come back to both of these quests when I'm at least 5 levels above them.

Rites of the queen can be grouped -- it is instanced so people not grouped with you won't enter the same dungeon you do.

RatsnevE

Are you f-ing serious? Where is the indication of this? I've been trying to get past this snake off and on for a couple weeks now and watched some YouTube and discussions and nothing has mentioned that you can and need to group.

Seabreeze

RatsnevE wrote: »

Are you f-ing serious? Where is the indication of this? I've been trying to get past this snake off and on for a couple weeks now and watched some YouTube and discussions and nothing has mentioned that you can and need to group.

You don't "need" to group. I was able to solo it on my at-level Sorc with Destro staff. I think it's just really hard for certain (most?) builds and/or melee. If possible, you may want to try using ranged attacks on her.

RatsnevE

No..no.. Not my point--sorry. I thought from YouTube and every other discussion on this that Rites of the Queen dungeon to kill Norion is SOLO ONLY. Now if one waited at the entrance and joined a party then I've just pitifully mislead myself. Just imagine all the things I'm not soaking up about the game?

Either the Shadow skill is totally broken (too bad for NBs) or there is something real simple I'm doing wrong with it too.

l-wilson-1986b16_ESO

Reusing a post I wrote from another thread as it applies here (note some of the skills mentioned may only be accesible to higher levels as this was originally intended to help people struggling with vet content):

Choose the right Cyrodil home campaign: When your faction regularly owns most of Cyrodil then the bonus' you get for being in the campaign to damage, crit, spell resistance and health are exceptionally useful. On EU Ebonheart I stay in the skull crusher campaign. Try guesting on a few different campaigns over the next few days and find one that can keep you buffed the best (plus it also makes getting those sky shards and lore books somewhat easier). From level 10, you should automatically join a campaign which can boost you the most in passive buffs.

Weapon of choice: I find the bow to be the best for solo levelling as does my partner who plays a night blade (I play a templar so forgive my lack of knowledge about skill names). The primary reason is the knock back skill (morphed to also knock you back) on bow. My hubby will typically use his teleport nuke class skill then hit the knock back to get out of the pack. Since casters cut through leather wearers like a knife through butter, he will often aim for the caster when using his back stab teleport starter. If you use a gaming mouse with side buttons, secondary bind the knock back to one of those buttons, then you can hit both knock back and light attack together, optimizing damage and survival. On my sorc alt, I see so many sorcs not making use of magelight skill from the mages guild skill tree. This is a massive crit increase that it seems most sorcs are missing out on.

Always use food: Food should never be allowed to tick off, if you find yourself using the bow strategy above then use stamina food (or if you use any other skill set which is heavy on weapon skills), otherwise go with magicka food to buff your ability to use your class skills. Whenever you can then use the food which buffs both stats.

Mundus stones: I always forget to make proper use of mundus stones, a list of the affects a mundus stone can have on your character and where to find them are here: http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Mundus+Stones#.U2gz3FfAhHU

Balance your attributes: Experimentation has shown that you need to balance your stats, since players are rarely going to go all weapon skills, you are going to need magicka to improve the effectiveness of your class skills. Being all stamina or magicka is not going to be enough!

Casters can be mean: Don't be afraid to use utility spells, if you don't have room on your main bar, put them on your secondary bar and make use of them. I find in leather armor it's the casters that are a real bane. As a templar I have the eclipse spell which reflects single target spells for 6 seconds, if you have anything that can protect you from spell damage, you are going to need it!

Levelling my main was harder than my alt because I didn't make full use of the different buffs and skills which really can make the process a whole lot easier.

At the end of the day you need to make full use of the different buffs available to your character and experiment to fully take control of combat, and I love that fact.

Seabreeze

RatsnevE wrote: »

No..no.. Not my point--sorry. I thought from YouTube and every other discussion on this that Rites of the Queen dungeon to kill Norion is SOLO ONLY. Now if one waited at the entrance and joined a party then I've just pitifully mislead myself. Just imagine all the things I'm not soaking up about the game?

Either the Shadow skill is totally broken (too bad for NBs) or there is something real simple I'm doing wrong with it too.

No, the only solo-restricted content is Main Quest, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild.

And, yes, NBs are broken. I don't play one, so I don't know the specifics, but lots of people on Reddit have been discussing it. You may want to check out the ESO subreddit, if you haven't. Lots of random information to pick up from it.

Catflinger

Scratching my head a bit at this thread.

After playing post-Cataclysm World of Warcraft, when they decided to nerf everything to oblivion, remove all elites from low-level areas, and hold our hands through all aspects of leveling, the difficulty curve in ESO is incredibly refreshing. I have to think about encounters -- if the build I am using isn't working, well maybe I need to look at what other abilities I have available and swap something out. I can't just derp my way through certain fight and press the "I WIN" button at the end.

It took me five tries to defeat Norion on my nightblade yesterday, and it felt great when I did because I didn't just wait to outlevel him; I looked at the mechanics of the fight and figured out what I could do to beat it at my level.

Again, this is so refreshing and fun and it makes me sad that so many people don't care about this amazing content and want it nerfed already. BTW, I'm no elite gamer in an elite raiding guild. I'm a middle-aged woman with a disabling chronic illness that affects my vision and reaction times. Maybe it's because of my situation that I appreciate this challenge -- be that as it may, if I can do this content, anyone can. It takes a little effort, but that is supposed to be the point of the MMO genre.

Ghanima_Atreides

Seabreeze wrote: »

No, the only solo-restricted content is Main Quest, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild.

Nope, Rites of the Queen is solo-only (unless some patch has changed it since), my friend and I were grouped when we did it and we got separated for that part of the quest. Another is the Mind of Madness, Sheogorath's trials (AD quest), also solo, for some incomprehensible reason....

BETAOPTICS

RatsnevE wrote: »

I think you are describing areas on the map depicted with a black skull and crossbones? I have already marked these as off-limits to my Solo PvE PC.

Yeah definitely not elite bosses but I do know what a public dungeon icon looks like. I would be pretty damn stupid that if at 50 levels I couldn't tell the difference, don't you think.

Because I know elite bosses aren't meant to be able to solo but public dungeons. Well, they are public for sure but the amount I experienced, they were build a solo play in mind. Thus they are generally easy but not the one I mentioned. Where it was on par with a end-game group dungeon.

Yankee

Ghanima_Atreides wrote: »

Seabreeze wrote: »

No, the only solo-restricted content is Main Quest, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild.

Nope, Rites of the Queen is solo-only (unless some patch has changed it since), my friend and I were grouped when we did it and we got separated for that part of the quest. Another is the Mind of Madness, Sheogorath's trials (AD quest), also solo, for some incomprehensible reason....

It might be solo, I don't know. But a fellow I was grouped up with got put into a separate instance on a quest when we got to the boss. I thought it might be solo, but decided to try to use the travel to player function (he was leader). It put us into the same instance together to fight the boss. Might not work on that quest, just thought I would mention.

Seabreeze

Yankee wrote: »

Ghanima_Atreides wrote: »

Seabreeze wrote: »

No, the only solo-restricted content is Main Quest, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild.

Nope, Rites of the Queen is solo-only (unless some patch has changed it since), my friend and I were grouped when we did it and we got separated for that part of the quest. Another is the Mind of Madness, Sheogorath's trials (AD quest), also solo, for some incomprehensible reason....

It might be solo, I don't know. But a fellow I was grouped up with got put into a separate instance on a quest when we got to the boss. I thought it might be solo, but decided to try to use the travel to player function (he was leader). It put us into the same instance together to fight the boss. Might not work on that quest, just thought I would mention.

This. They are not solo. The game is just being stupid and putting folks in the wrong instances.

Ghanima_Atreides

Really? I had no idea people could be separated when already grouped and in the same instance and quest phase (it hadn't happened before and hasn't since). But...good to know, thanks.

RatsnevE

The really funny part about all this is I don't care at this point. It was either going up a level or two or finally getting an active skill I needed or something, but in rather quick succession I finished three old 'solo dungeon quests' I was stuck on--solo!

I was very resistant to advancing the game story/adventure leaving the queen stuck in one part of Auridon while she would be carrying on her tour further north in other areas.

The case about whether or how any of these dungeon can be entered solo only, solo if you like, public group, or private group could be easily resolved if Zenimax created sign-post warnings to adventurers at entrances or changed their once discovered map symbols with explanations in the map Keys.