Writhing Wall Event Update

ZOS_NickG

We know that the Writhing Wall event has been disappointing for many of our players, and that you were looking forward to experiencing Phase 3 and the Writhing Fortress. This event has not met the quality standards you expect and deserve from us, and it certainly hasn’t been the experience we wanted to give you. For that, I’d like to sincerely apologize.

We understand that an apology only goes so far, so we wanted to share what we’re doing to address this.

First, as a thank you for your patience throughout all of this, we’re adding 8,000 Seals of Endeavor on Day 1 of the December Daily Login Reward Calendar rewards.

We’ve been working hard over the past days to tackle multiple issues with the Phase 3 experience and the Writhing Fortress. Today, we pushed the following Writhing Wall event hotfixes (full notes here):

• We removed the flying phases from the encounter with Zysax, the Titan boss in the Writhing Fortress, to fix situations where it could sometimes become bugged and not completable. This also includes any instances where the quest “Support the Fellowship” was not correctly updating.
• Walks-In-Ash and the Infernium will no longer get stuck in the Writhing Fortress, preventing further progression in the instance.
• Skordo will now consistently appear when you go to hand in the quest “Support the Fellowship” at the siege camp in Solstice.

We investigated the possibility of extending Phase 3 of this event, because we want everyone to have more time to play the Writhing Fortress once these issues are fixed. However, extending the Writhing Wall event would introduce technical risks and unknowns that could result in additional issues, which we want to avoid. Because of this, we’ll let the event conclude on its current schedule, and then in early 2026, we will bring back the Writhing Fortress once we’ve completed additional internal tests and have had the chance to implement additional fixes.

We were trying something new with this event, but our execution ultimately didn’t meet yours or our expectations. This was not the experience we should have delivered. We hear your feedback on Phase 3 and the Writhing Fortress in addition to your feedback on Phases 1 & 2 (especially the grind, rewards, and required activities). We take this feedback to heart, and as the new Game Director, I want to personally assure you that we hear you, we will learn from it, and we will do better.

Thank you to everyone who has shared thoughts and feedback with us – especially the constructive criticism – and told us what you want and expect. It matters, and we are listening. We truly appreciate your longstanding dedication and support to us, each other, and ESO. I (and everyone here) look forward to forging a better path ahead with you.

Nick G, Game Director

skinnycheeks

Huge W. Thank you for the acknowledgement and the big Dec 1st gift in the login rewards! Seeing a post like this that takes full accountability for the situation is exactly what players want to see. Screwing up is fine. Screwing up and not taking accountability and doing better is not. We appreciate it!

Erickson9610

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

SpiritKitten

I appreciate the communication. It isn't just the Writhing Wall event, it's Eastern Solstice. There's a lot of bugs there, too. I am aware of the employee shake-up there and this is why I am cutting you all some slack. I actually restarted my sub. Let's see what 2026 brings. I'm still having fun because the bugs didn't affect me until yesterday, when I discovered the E Solstice wbs don't count towards the Sunport dailies achievement. I would like to see the bugs fixed for everyone, including the skyshard issue. This rollout was pretty shocking in its unfinished state going to live, so let's see more quality control. I still have a lot to do in-game, so I'm not going anywhere for now. 2026 will tell the tale of whether or not this quality issue is going to be the norm. Hope not.

ShawnF

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

I would argue that this event hasn't actually happened yet, nothing is being "brought back", we're just beta testing on the live servers instead of the PTS. Hopefully we won't see that pattern again in the future.

skinnycheeks

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

I think the idea is that not everyone is getting to experience it because of the technical issues. So they'd like to bring it back to give them a chance. It's not undermining anything, it's allowing people that couldn't experience it properly to get to.

SpiritKitten

skinnycheeks wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

I think the idea is that not everyone is getting to experience it because of the technical issues. So they'd like to bring it back to give them a chance. It's not undermining anything, it's allowing people that couldn't experience it properly to get to.

And the same could be said of any dungeon/delve/trial. Repeating content is normal in this game. Writhing Fortress should be repeatable.

birdmann1230

I really did like the event and the Writhjng Fortress was a really cool thing - I hope you don’t give up on the idea and hopefully the fixes and things learned help make things better moving forward. I’m glad you’re going to give the community another chance to do this part of the content to help balance this out. Thanks for working on trying to fix this, it’s a bummer the issues didn’t present earlier.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

To clarify, we are only planning on bringing back the Writhing Fortress. We've seen feedback that players generally like it and think it's cool, and just wish it were working better and bug free. So that is the piece we plan to bring back.

code65536

Thank you for listening.

LunaFlora

thanks!
it is awesome that the Writhing Fortress will return and 8000 seals of endeavour is good too.

Darrell9090

Thanks for keeping us in the loop nick keep putting this effort in and let’s make eso the best place to adventure together.

Orbital78

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

To clarify, we are only planning on bringing back the Writhing Fortress. We've seen feedback that players generally like it and think it's cool, and just wish it were working better and bug free. So that is the piece we plan to bring back.

The bugs are/were very frustrating, but the public dungeon itself is a nice change. It just felt like a part of the testing was missing or skipped. I kind of wish there were more ballistas in parts as well, it feels like your fighting over them or just waiting around.

allochthons

Being forthright about this event and its issues is greatly appreciated.Thank you for this.

AllenaNightWood

me and my friends didn't have issues really and had alot of fun doing the fortress but this post goes to show that this wasnt supposed to be like this and are doing everything possible to fix it and let us run it again, the Writhing fortress is a great idea and baseline for future content

NoticeMeArkay

What I appreciate most in your message is not the promise of 8.000 seals as an apology of sorts, but the actual transparency you showed us here:

"[...] it certainly hasn’t been the experience we wanted to give you."

Good to know! Honestly! Because this year has felt like a steep decline in QA across all boards and the event, which the majority of people were looking forward too with great excitement, mirrored a lot of previously expressed concerns by the playerbase in regards of quality assurance and the prioritization of an update schedule over the update's actual quality.
If this truthfully isn't what you expect us to happily accept in exchange for our trust and money then this year leaves a lot less sour aftertaste in my mouth then it did before your post.

"[...] However, extending the Writhing Wall event would introduce technical risks and unknowns that could result in additional issues, which we want to avoid."

Greatly appreciating the transparency here. You express that you're looking into it but already note that it might not be possible to bring back the fortress in 2026 due to technical issues. It is what it is. In the end, you aren't wizards and there's absolutely no reason to be mad about an honest attempt without raising false hopes. And if you'd update your message by tomorrow, stating that you and the team would rather not toy around with the fortress too much and would like dismiss the idea of bringing it back for the sake of your sanity and the game's delicate code, so be it. - You warned us beforehand.
That is the kind of communication we wish to see!

Thank you Nick!

AlienatedGoat

This is exactly the kind of transparency and communication that we need. Thank you for coming right out and owning this mistake. I just hope this is one step of many towards rebuilding - there is a lot of goodwill that needs to be re-earned here.

React

This is a great acknowledgement of the reality of this event.

Really hope to see this same transparency and accountability applied to other areas of the game, such as combat balance and endgame PVP/PVE. The community needs it now more than ever.

Mathius_Mordred

That's awesome, thanks.

spartaxoxo

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It's an interesting decision to bring back the Writhing Wall event, which undermines its significance as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Should we expect future events like this to return as well?

I think it's absolutely the right move given the circumstances. I hope no other future events come this bug ridden. I'm glad to see the devs acknowledge the feedback here and the 8k Seals is a great gesture to make things right as well.

I like to seeing acknowledgment of the issues and I hope we can see more of this transparency in communication in the future.

valenwood_vegan

Appreciate this - early in the event I posted on here calling out zos leadership and I expected *nothing*, but this is what I hoped to see - some real communication from the top, acknowledging player frustrations and taking accountability for the problems with the event. Thank you, and I sincerely hope this is a first step toward a better year for eso in 2026.

StytchFingal

Thank you.

allmyxlvntx

Nov17 evening I have been to Writhing Fortress now 5 times in bugged instances. Well I should clarify that I ended up in the same bugged instance on two different characters... on PCNA - west side infernium is stuck and ballista not doing anything. The other bugged instance(s) are even more frustrating in that we reach the soul spire... destroy it... and the quest is not updating to show that I actually reached that location. So no portal, no quest completion with Skordo. I cannot believe that this was actually happening. It is nice to see the Game Director making a comment about this issue. This has really made many players shake their head at this game. Long time players included.

Leighlaa

Thank you! I appreciate the communication and the free apex reward!

TomCat

Wow, I wasn't expecting that.
No excuses or evasions like, "...but look at all the other great things we've accomplished..."
The facts were simply laid out. Great response, @ZOS_NickG .
You've regained the trust I thought I'd lost.

ZOS_NickG wrote: »

[snip]
... and then in early 2026, we will bring back the Writhing Fortress once we’ve completed additional internal tests and have had the chance to implement additional fixes.
[snip]

Thank you for that

Maythor

It'll take more than a forum post to repair trust for me, though we'll see how much this "new" attitude actually transfers to action in the next year!

DragonRacer

SpiritKitten wrote: »

I appreciate the communication. It isn't just the Writhing Wall event, it's Eastern Solstice. There's a lot of bugs there, too. I am aware of the employee shake-up there and this is why I am cutting you all some slack. I actually restarted my sub. Let's see what 2026 brings. I'm still having fun because the bugs didn't affect me until yesterday, when I discovered the E Solstice wbs don't count towards the Sunport dailies achievement. I would like to see the bugs fixed for everyone, including the skyshard issue. This rollout was pretty shocking in its unfinished state going to live, so let's see more quality control. I still have a lot to do in-game, so I'm not going anywhere for now. 2026 will tell the tale of whether or not this quality issue is going to be the norm. Hope not.

I want to echo the above quote.

I am biased since I was fortunate enough to be part of the opening Writhing Fortress siege on PS NA, so I experienced it (incredibly cool, agree with everyone else on that) without the instance bugs/issues and got my title/quests done that opening night on my server/platform. And I was very much looking forward to finally exploring Eastern Solstice.

And then I read the story quest I'm currently on is bugged.

And that you can't collect skyshards on your main character if they collected all Western Skyshards first.

And people dying and getting trapped in a delve there, having to go through work-arounds or support tickets to resume gameplay.

And I decided that the new zone is simply not worth the risk right now. If I can't explore with the ability to complete achievements or without fear of getting a character stuck... if I can't reliably progress the questlines... then literally WHAT is there to safely do there?

Instead, I sit on the sidelines and wait potentially weeks for all the bug fixes to come to make the brand new zone I prepaid for actually safely playable.

THAT is also a huge, huge issue aside from how the entire Writhing Wall event played out. I've been here since about 6 months post-console launch of ESO and have dove into every new chapter and zone mostly on or shortly after release, and we have had some issues but I cannot recall almost every facet of a new zone being broken or flat-out dangerous like this one is. How does ZOS plan to address this in future releases?

Above griping aside, I do very much applaud acknowledging the positives and negatives of the Writhing Wall event, and greatly appreciate the apology and in-game gifts for how poorly many aspects of it played out. But the overall poor state of rolling out a brand new zone also needs to be addressed and it's equally concerning to me.

DragonRacer

ZOS_NickG wrote: »

We investigated the possibility of extending Phase 3 of this event, because we want everyone to have more time to play the Writhing Fortress once these issues are fixed. However, extending the Writhing Wall event would introduce technical risks and unknowns that could result in additional issues, which we want to avoid. Because of this, we’ll let the event conclude on its current schedule, and then in early 2026, we will bring back the Writhing Fortress once we’ve completed additional internal tests and have had the chance to implement additional fixes.

Also, really want to highlight THIS. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for desiring an extension of the Fortress so everyone has a chance to experience it but NOT doing so by simply extending the current event and potentially breaking a ton of unknowns. Honestly, absolutely, genuinely appreciate seeing you state "doing a thing many want might break more things, so this will end on schedule and we will try to fix/bring back when it is safe to do so" rather than blithely surging forward into risky waters.

Please, dear sweet 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus, more stable quality focus and less deadline-pushed buggy quantity that nobody can play for a month after release.

Sythen88411

8k seals of endeavors is nothing compared to the hard earned money and hopes many poored into buying and pre-ordering the battle pass.....id highly think about raising it to 16k seals of endeavors. Apologies only go so far as to if others including myself to pre-order the next time or even buying the next expansion..

@ZOS_NickG

tom6143346

That it definitely a big step in the right direction. Great to see improvements there. Thank you keep it up.

16BitForestCat

Appreciate the update of bringing back the Writhing Fortress, @ZOS_NickG and @ZOS_JessicaFolsom! My partner is one of the people who paid real money for the content, including that ridiculously time-limited Wall Breaker title, only to be unable to PLAY the Fortress at all due to a sudden family emergency calling him out of state. (We don't know the exact situation yet, but there are funeral and estate plans being discussed.)

Like, he tried to do the Fortress the night it went live, which was also the night before he had to leave on his two-day drive. The Infernium was bugged, nothing was happening, we couldn't find a working instance, and he just gave up because he really needed some sleep before hitting the road. The only reason he got that irritating Wall Breaker title is because I had to play through a miraculously working instance of the Fortress for him later, then myself to get my own title. By the time he gets home again, the event will be over, and he'll have missed the whole Fortress thing he paid real-world money for. I just don't understand why anyone at ZOS thought this extremely limited "event" was a good idea. Events in video games should be fun, not stressful grinds against the clock. FOMO needs to go-mo', plz.

Also, even as someone who generally dislikes combat in games, I actually had a pretty good time playing the Fortress. Part of that was the fun of being surrounded by dozens of other people working together, engaging in a giant battle that's not PVP for once. But I also just liked zipping around on grappling hooks and bombing things (though the ballistae really shouldn't break after only two hits. That was an unnecessarily tedious grind, constantly stopping the action to go source more repair parts.) I'd like it if the Fortress could become a permanent public dungeon option, once it's scaled down so it's not a giant lengthy hassle to solo when it's no longer full of player life. I also support the people who want options for it to become a group dungeon and/or trial.

Or, even if ZOS doesn't make it permanent, I'd like if you brought back the Fortress (and the ability to earn the Wall Breaker title) every now and again, make it seasonal or something to bring back the players. I took a lot of screenshots that make me smile, of the chaos of all those people running around, pew-pewing bolts at the giant Harvester, or taunting the Bone Colossus with /kissthis when they realized you can't directly attack it, or soaring through the sky on grappling hooks during the final battle. That's my kind of chaos: the cooperative and playful type on a mass scale.