Quest Rewards - Mostly Useless?

Allumis

I hate to compare ESO with WoW or other MMOs however I'm going to on this occasion.

When completing a quest on most of the other modern MMOs I've played you're presented with a couple of choices, you can take the really cool sword or perhaps the staff instead, sometimes you're even presented with more than two choices. Thus upon finishing a quest you can usually find an item that you would either use rather than being forced to take on items that are useless to you.

A great example for me is while in Mournhold you get pieces of the Ordinator armour while completing the cities quest lines which is as a total Morrowind geek is the thing dreams are made of! (Well if I could kill the guards problem would be solved) However the armour is (Medium) and no choice is given, I wear a mix of (Heavy) and (Light) so being presented with the only option to take a (Medium) armour it quickly went on the NPC scrap heap.

This isn't the only quest its EVERY quest! Theirs no choice to any of the rewards, you just get what you're given and if its useless to you then tough! Why couldn't we have had a more modern system offering different choices for quest rewards where we could pick items that were more suited to our characters?

KerinKor

Seems Zenimax are trying to force everyone to be a crafter and/or member of a guild so they can buy crafted items, evidenced by the lack of an AH in a game where mob drops and item rewards are, as you point out, often worthless.

Of course, this will simply drive more players into the arms of the gold sellers.

Thybrinena

KerinKor wrote: »

Of course, this will simply drive more players into the arms of the gold sellers.

Why?

mutharex

Sometimes the rewards aren't what I needed, but as someone said, I'll break them down. honestly the best gear I found was in locked chests or treasures

gimarwb17_ESO

You are forced to be a crafter but it is becoming more and more difficult to be one due to lack of resources due to all the bots gathering day and night non stop.
And yes, driving people into the arms of gold sellers too, just look at the cost of storage space for instance. Gold sellers must love this game, maybe that is why the game has so many fanbois, all the gold sellers/gatherers/bots surely praise everything about the game lol

Hawke

KerinKor wrote: »

Seems Zenimax are trying to force everyone to be a crafter and/or member of a guild so they can buy crafted items, evidenced by the lack of an AH in a game where mob drops and item rewards are, as you point out, often worthless.

As negative as this quote is coming off as to me, it seems to be the most true.

A lot of things Zenimax has done is to force players to develop mini communities, and socialization in a MMO.

I like what they are trying to accomplish, I am curious to see how this social experiment works.

Bweefk

why would you need an experiment to find out people don't like getting junk for a quest reward?
what i want to know is how many people answered they liked the rewards they were getting on the beta surveys? blame those people!

Thete

You get so many quest rewards that you end up with enough gear. I am a crafter but, apart from my weapon, I am wearing quest and drop items which are appropriate for my abilities and level.

InfernoRaven

Oh yes, you save a dirt poor village the village elder comes out and gives you a staff that has belonged to his family for four generations it is imbued with the will of his village. But what is this? Your not a Sorcerer you demand he gives you a two handed sword despite him being from a dirt poor village. Good Luck with that.

I am perfectly fine with getting one reward and only one reward. I am apart of several guilds and I find the sense of community to be better than most games. I love the way they did this system.

Phoebvs

@Thete‌ +1
currently I'm wearing 50/50 quest rewards and loot.

en plus, they give you freebies for crafting breakdowns

Gohlar

The quest rewards improve as you level up. Some quest chains offer blues at the end.

You can't choose your reward of course, but ESO isn't big on giving players choice. One of the most restrictive mmos I've ever played.

mutharex

And some quests (not only the prophet's ones) at the end of the 'chain' give you a SP. For example, if you are DC, when you get to Daggerfall after the tutorial islands, there is a quest that starts with a dog trying to grab your attention. As the quest is level 3 or 4, most people will ignore it (if you do the islands well, you should be round level 7-8 ). but it is worth doing because it will net you a SP

Gohlar

mutharex wrote: »

And some quests (not only the prophet's ones) at the end of the 'chain' give you a SP.

That's actually a really good point. Skill points are worthy rewards, can't complain there.

mutharex

Gohlar wrote: »

mutharex wrote: »

And some quests (not only the prophet's ones) at the end of the 'chain' give you a SP.

That's actually a really good point. Skill points are worthy rewards, can't complain there.

The more, the merrier

Allumis

Gohlar wrote: »

The quest rewards improve as you level up. Some quest chains offer blues at the end.

mutharex wrote: »

And some quests (not only the prophet's ones) at the end of the 'chain' give you a SP.

I apologise, perhaps I wasn't overly clear. I have no issues with some quests giving SP and as you level up the quests rewarding blue gear or better, they are both great

My issue is that from a loot stand point we get no choice, while I can understand from an RP perspective its not ideal to offer choices but for the player surely its what we want?

I was whole heartedly disappointed to find the Ordinators armour was medium only, this made it totally useless to me. Their were no light or heavy options as a reward, more options should be offered so that everyone feels as though they are benefiting from the end of the quest.
While I can break these items down for crafting, they break down mainly into items for crafting medium armour, which I'm not going to be crafting because I don't wear/use medium armour.

I don't know where the middle ground is, obviously we cant have every quest offer light, medium and heavy armour along with one of every weapon type some jewellery and some consumables just for good luck! But we should get some options at least, even if its only 2-3 different rewards.

mutharex

Honestly, it doesn't bother me a lot for various reasons. I still manage to use the loot I get (if it isn't underleveled) but I understand how others can be pissed at it

PS Are you using 5/2 with your armour or you go full on with the same type?

Allumis

mutharex wrote: »

Honestly, it doesn't bother me a lot for various reasons. I still manage to use the loot I get (if it isn't underleveled) but I understand how others can be pissed at it

PS Are you using 5/2 with your armour or you go full on with the same type?

5/2 Light/Heavy with Sword/Board and Bow as my weapon choices.

mutharex

Ok. i was asking because I use a lot of the rewards that way. I also change weapon depending on what I find and I am leveling melee weapons in parallel, so a lot of quest rewards end up being useful to me (unless they are ranged weapons)

Vikova

It is so easy to craft gear useful for your level that I view a useful quest reward as kind of a nice perk, otherwise just something to research or deconstruct.

I can't think of another MMO that made crafting alongside leveling this useful and viable. Makes me happy happy happy.

Sleepwalker

Nothing in ESO (that isn't already labeled as "trash") is useless. Not one thing. All of your quest items can be worn, sold, traded, or deconstructed to make, buy, or trade for what you actually want. There is a use for it all. Now, whether or not you are the type of player that will take advantage of the value of all items is totally up to you. Not all of your quest items will go towards your idea of a great character, but why would they when there can literally be hundreds of versions of a "great character" in this game?

The system thus far seems to provide the most for the player that partakes in the most that the game has to offer. That medium armor quest drop that I don't wear (I tend to rock only light and heavy currently), I can strip it down for some hide to be sold, and maybe even get some hemming for my trouble of carrying it into town. Gold and improvement mats... That's a double win in my opinion. The quest item is just a small piece of the reward that you've already got in your bags (and maybe didn't even notice while auto-looting?) from your hard work.

If it truly is "modern" that you're looking for, it's already here, and it is breaking the mold of what you've been used to for the past decade. If you're the type that only wants to receive their items from quests as it has been in other games, short-sighted as that is in my honest opinion, that is a very fair desire and I won't criticize. However, it does not make the items generally useless... they just so happen to be useless to you. Feel free to mail me everything that you believe to be "useless", and I promise you that I will make lemonade out of it... (not even exaggerating... go ahead, mail it all to me!)

knightblaster

The game seems designed to be more focused on crafting than gear drops. This is fine for someone like me who likes to craft, but for the more typical MMO player who doesn't like to craft that much, it can be a bit of a pain given that there is also no global AH. I support the design, and I think a global AH in the context of a game of this size would be a disastrous error, but at the same time I can understand that for the typical MMO player who wants to bash heads and get gear and not get involved with crafting, the loot system in the game can be irritating.

Osi

Many quest rewards have uncommon or rare traits on specific equipment types. Very good to research.

thedemiseraphb14_ESO

I think the other concept is you can wear every level of armor and use all forms of weapons... so it may not be part of your build, but it could be. So not useless, just, an opinion. Too many choices would just give everyone what they want, and you'd never be motivated to go hunt for better knowing your quests will always keep you uber.

Elvent

Yes mostly useless but it's a good thing crafting is easy to get into and keep up with on your levels.

Vikova

thedemiseraphb14_ESO wrote: »

I think the other concept is you can wear every level of armor and use all forms of weapons... so it may not be part of your build, but it could be. So not useless, just, an opinion. Too many choices would just give everyone what they want, and you'd never be motivated to go hunt for better knowing your quests will always keep you uber.

This. It is an intentional design to give you a wide variety of choice in how you build your character in general as well as specifically regarding what you craft - since useful crafting is so viable.

dannomite82

Quest rewards are okay... choice would be nice. Would be nice to get more bows as rewards (if for nothing else but crafting research)

MysticAura

Choice would be great, but isn't really necessary. More bow rewards would be really nice. But the lack of definitely would never drive me to some scummy gold seller. I'm amazed anyone would use them. They seem shady in the extreme, not to mention it's just encouraging them to do more spamming which no one likes. I could see people lynching them before actually using one.

Every item I've used this whole game has been either loot, quest item, or crafted myself.

Tuinslang

Quests rewards aren't useless, they are nice. And you can still deconstruct or sell them.

I think after some time when the items that quest reward get standard, and you will be unable to sell them, just deconstruct them for your crafting skills.

The game shouldn't simply give you really good items, you should work hard for the items.

Vikova

Sleepwalker wrote: »

If it truly is "modern" that you're looking for, it's already here, and it is breaking the mold of what you've been used to for the past decade. If you're the type that only wants to receive their items from quests as it has been in other games, short-sighted as that is in my honest opinion, that is a very fair desire and I won't criticize. However, it does not make the items generally useless... they just so happen to be useless to you. Feel free to mail me everything that you believe to be "useless", and I promise you that I will make lemonade out of it... (not even exaggerating... go ahead, mail it all to me!)

Of course you are exaggerating. There's no way you can make lemonade out of deconstructed armor. Sillyness.

Thesiren

KerinKor wrote: »

Seems Zenimax are trying to force everyone to be a crafter and/or member of a guild so they can buy crafted items, evidenced by the lack of an AH in a game where mob drops and item rewards are, as you point out, often worthless.

Of course, this will simply drive more players into the arms of the gold sellers.

Gold sellers have absolutely nothing to do with crafting. And, as you say, there is no auction house. So how will gold get you much of anywhere in this game? Even "huge guilds" are what, 500 people? In a game where you're playing with millions of them, 500 to sell to is nothing. Gold is practically worthless except for making repairs with.

It's the drops to deconstruct that are much more important, because only then can you get the parts to upgrade crafted gear with. And harvesting is paramount. Without it, you're stuck with random loot drops which are seldom as good as traited, enchanted, crafted gear is.

Gedalya

Adding some variety is not a bad idea; honestly it never bothered me as I am focusing on crafting largely and selling what I find (or pulling resources from it). I just hope a Pandora's box isn't opened down the line if changes like these are made.