I can only say try it out. Some of the complaints are valid, others are not. The early veteran ranks aren't too bad, but it does start to drag once you get to VR7 and up. The upper zones just don't have many people depending on your play time and some of the NPC's will feel very unbalanced at times.

Templar tanks are perfectly fine for dungeons. I would advise though with the current state of heavy armor, it might be beneficial to train up medium and/or light armor for questing. S&B will work, but think about other weapons (staves, 2h, etc) if you don't have them trained. You will want options, at least I like having a lot of options in weapon choice.

I think the thing that worries me, despite the game possibly changing a whole lot to something I don't like is that the add-on's have been really been dungeon add ons. Adventure zones, whatever. NOT a continuation of the game, with more stories and continuing to play the same way as we enjoyed do from levels 1-50. If they just keep adding 'zones' for multiple people as content, my interest just isn't there.

Granted, all MMO's have a cap you reach and there just isn't any more to do, so wait for new content to play new areas, but if just more group dungeons they are going to add, people will come back, but not as many as you may think. They haven't once talked about adding content that 'extends' the game.

Just roll alts for the other alliances. Zeni is going to have to address the fact that the majority of their player base doesn't want to do VR eventually. There is no prize for hitting "max level".

I'd say they are valid concerns but everybody is different and it's tough to say whether vet area are right or wrong for you. As already mentioned you could just try it.

I took the approach of wait and see but kind of regret it now. I think I would have enjoyed the new areas more on a new character that was actually part of that alliance. Now that's been spoiled a bit. I will probably finish up in the first alliance area and save the last for an alt. Vet level characters I'll just slowly level in PvP (when it's playable again).

Aside from vet levels getting "grindy" there really is no story line as it pertains to your vet character. Nothing about your alliance. No main quest line or mages guild or fighters guild quest lines either.

So...I'm in area 5 of my pact, at around level 45, hopefully hit 50 by the time I finish it. What do you after you finish the 5 area. Are there more places to go other than the forced group content? It's an MMO and that's part of it I know, but are you forced to group from level 50 on?

AngryWolf wrote: »

So...I'm in area 5 of my pact, at around level 45, hopefully hit 50 by the time I finish it. What do you after you finish the 5 area. Are there more places to go other than the forced group content? It's an MMO and that's part of it I know, but are you forced to group from level 50 on?

Once you finish the main quest line you have the option to go into the other alliances and do their quests (faction & side quests) with a higher level of difficulty added. It doesn't start out difficult though. You are not forced to group there. It is just like your first alliance area in that sense.

1-49 feeds your expectations too much. You have to be a lot lot more cautious in VR (when solo). The first 2 levels aren't too bad so you aren't instantly thrown into the grindfest but don't get too in love with your current tactics because you will have to adapt. Things have improved since money supply from loot and repair costs have become less punishing. For me, the real grind is that you are progressing to effectively become weaker, some people seem to relish the challenge others just find it really unrewarding. You'll have to decide for yourself, but there are plenty of people out there who've gone through it and thought it was tough-going so don't feel disparaged by the elitists bragging that they had no problems whatsoever using the same bow and medium armour they found at level 43 and only died once because a meteorite hit the house and they had to put the fire out.

edit: typos

Honestly, when I hit Veteran I stopped playing it for level grinding and just slowed down and was able to actually enjoy the game and not worry about having to grind through everything anymore in order to actually be competitive. Enemies are actually a challenge now and I can enjoy more of the game than I could earlier on.

I have a VR10 NB, a VR3 Sorc, a VR2 Templar, and a VR1 DK.

The NB being the first one I leveled, I never felt any need to raise an eyebrow at the difficulty until I hit VR7 and up. At VR7, against packs of three, it was almost certain death. She just didn't have the resistance to take how hard they hit. In medium, you will still lose 20% health when blocking. One or two of them, not a problem. Throw that third one in there, and it was just too much inc. damage. Oh, and gods help you if that 3rd one is a healer.

Having done it all once I refuse to level another character that high the way VR is now. My sorc is in VR4 zone, and she's just now starting to feel the difficulty start to scale a little. I highly doubt I will take her above her VR6 zone.

VR1-3 won't feel too much different than 1-50.

All this being said, and I have been one of those rather vocal about the difficulty of upper VR... I will add that I think in all honesty they hit just a little too hard. If they just toned down how hard the NPCs hit only a little, I think it would be as close to perfect as it can be. However, there is a good deal of enjoyment from the fact you will find yourself in situations that you might blow a skill point in an skill you never used before, which is fun. However they do not need to hit as hard as they do right now in order to still motivate people to change abilities up.

Keep in mind the mechanics are exactly identical to regular Harvesters are still the same, gargoyles, trolls, casters, etc. all have the exact same mechanics you saw in 1-50. None of them get any new abilities or tricks you need to be aware of. They just hit at a significantly higher ratio than say a level 20 NPC to a 30 NPC... compared to the VR5 NPC ratio that scales higher than one would expect. This is why many people are upset about it.

But, after saying that, they went ahead and changed how CC'ing works against some NPCs. Some NPCs now can only be CC'ed once every 6 seconds, and some break it right away. We have to learn which specific ones do this now...

VR is a bit of a wake up call, as Esha mentioned, three is the magic number as that third enemy seems to take your character beyond the limits of endurance and if you make one slip, your toast.

And if one of the three is a healer, you better hit it first and hit it hard and fast or your even more toast, with lots of Marmite...

I learned to cope with it but find it extremely tedious as its constantly like that with the trash mobs, to the point that finally reaching a boss makes you sigh with relief.

As such, my two Vet chars spend most of their time parked and I'm running three Alts with different play styles.

born2beagator wrote: »

That 3 can be reduced to 2 with a cc. I have agony, and if there is a healer in the group, I'll start off cc'ing him, killing one of the other 2, then cc'ing the other non healer, and killing the healer. Then I only got the one left.

Yes but someone at Zen just chucked a monkey wrench at cc. recently

born2beagator wrote: »

Luckily that only effects 2H enemies

Kindly tell that to the Dominion sword and board jockey that gave me a smacking earlier tonight, made me drink one them yucky health potions he did.

Lithion wrote: »

UnholyPerfection wrote: »

ESO is the most fun I’ve had playing a video game in a very long time. I love the game mechanics, the story, the presentation, the graphics, playing solo and grouping with people for dungeons and just randomly while questing. I am a level 42 Templar S&B tank and I have had an absolute blast up until this point.

However I am genuinely concerned about how my enjoyment will be effected once I hit VR. I have heard that it turns into a grind fest, which is very difficult for someone to solo and even more so for a Templar and especially Tank speced. Also tanking dungeons is (and always has been in other MMO’s) one of my favourite things to do in ESO and what worries me more is that I’ve heard that Templar tanks are just not wanted in groups.

Are these valid concerns or am I putting too much faith in the vocal % of the players?

In the end it won’t be the end of my ESO time is this is the case (at least not immediately). I will just roll alts until things are changed or the difficulty/balance are tweaked or I will find someone to level with.

Wow...it seems like a lot of what you said came directly out of my own brain. I was thinking the exact same things for the past few days.

I'm a lvl 46 DK and I roll S&B plus resto staff, or 2h plus resto, and I'm concerned about VR because I've heard it's quite a grind. And like someone said earlier, if something is a grind, I just don't do it. I play for fun, and if the game stops being fun at any point, I'm out. I am not goal-oriented enough to survive lengthy grinds.

That said, I really have loved the game so much up to this point! It has been the best leveling experience I've had in any game. But it has taken me a long time just to hit lvl 46. I listen to all the dialogue and I go off on tangents all the time, so I'm concerned about how many months it'll take me to get to VR12. It would be a real shame if the game stopped being fun in the VR zones. I'd like to stick it out for the long haul.

I expect to break up the questing with frequent PvP, and I may even start questing in Cyrodiil again (was much faster xp than regular 1-50 zones). Hopefully that will get me through what could be a VERY lengthy leveling process.

It is very lengthy indeed. In fact, 1-50 is only 1/3 of the progression. This will become clear to you very soon after you do a few quests in the VR1 zone. It will take roughly the same amount of game time to go from VR1-5 as it does to go from 1-50.

UnholyPerfection wrote: »

ESO is the most fun I’ve had playing a video game in a very long time. I love the game mechanics, the story, the presentation, the graphics, playing solo and grouping with people for dungeons and just randomly while questing. I am a level 42 Templar S&B tank and I have had an absolute blast up until this point.

However I am genuinely concerned about how my enjoyment will be effected once I hit VR. I have heard that it turns into a grind fest, which is very difficult for someone to solo and even more so for a Templar and especially Tank speced. Also tanking dungeons is (and always has been in other MMO’s) one of my favourite things to do in ESO and what worries me more is that I’ve heard that Templar tanks are just not wanted in groups.

Are these valid concerns or am I putting too much faith in the vocal % of the players?

In the end it won’t be the end of my ESO time is this is the case (at least not immediately). I will just roll alts until things are changed or the difficulty/balance are tweaked or I will find someone to level with.

You should be. VR1-5 content isn't really that fun, and an extremely slow grind. And, the population dies off tremendously after the first couple levels. You probably won't see another player that often unless you are in a bank. And, Dolmens will remain up all the time in the zones, unless someone starts yelling in zone chat for 10 minutes begging people to come kill it. Being a Templar, you will start to feel weaker each level, and start dying a lot more. Instead of feeling stronger every time you level like you did prior to 50. Although, they did buff Templars in the last patch some, that might help you a little.

Anyways, you will eventually get through V1-5 and once you get to V6 zones you will notice even the banks are completely empty, and most of the time people don't even bother trying to get a group for Dolmens anymore. You'll be flying solo the whole time and rarely if ever see another player, and you'll notice the mobs have abilities that can 1 shot you now and 3 packs become a lot more difficult and you'll start to avoid them. Also you will notice the grind gets worse and worse each time you get a veteran level, 6-10 are especially bad. You'll also notice you don't get any rewards for veteran levels except an ugly costume every 5 veteran levels and the chore of having to upgrade your armor that is. Probably only worth it to do that every other veteran level, especially if you craft it and use mats. Gets expensive if you do it every level.

Anyways, you'll be bored with the monotony of the 3rd alliance campaign at this point, and it will seem just like the other two, except with a slightly different story, and a much slower grind. You'll start to lose interest slowly and become more and more bored. You'll then take a break from it and try PVP to try and help with the boredom. But, then you will get 1 shot by boiling oil the first time you enter an enemy keep, right after clicking on the door to enter it, and when you run back some random DK will stun lock you and kill you in 0.5 seconds. You'll notice that every time you die you have to run a distance equivalent to the circumference of the earth and begin to realize that 90% of the time you spend PVP'ing involves running back to keeps you are trying to attack and getting ganked before you get there. Then you'll take a good look at the PVP rewards and realize they kind of suck and aren't really worth the hundreds of hours they take to acquire and you will go back to the PVE questing.

Eventually, you will get through this brutal grind to V10 and go to Craglorn. Then you will find out there is a new boring grind waiting for you there, except it requires you find a group to do the quests instead of the rest of the game which could be completed solo.

You'll start to lose interest in the game, and only log in to feed your 2nd and 3rd horse and do the last of your 6-8 trait research. Eventually, you will probably give up and go back to WoW. Or give Wildstar a try.