Zenimax Need to Re-Think the Craglorn Anomaly Nerf

Phantax · July 2014

I've touched on this before but when Zenimax nerfed the hell out of the Craglorn anomalies they almost overnight turned most of Craglorn into a ghost town !
I've just been doing my usual mats farming round Craglorn and well... take a look....

@Zenimax @ZOS_MattFiror
Now I'm not suggesting you guys completely reverse what you did on the nerf, but this is a joke ! You should at least look at doing another balance of the rewards / xp gained from anomalies.
Anomalies were a crowd puller for those that didn't want to level by questing grind or PvP. It was pretty much always possible to find a group running anomalies, now you're lucky to even see another player !
So come on guys... take another look at this. Find us a happy balance between what we had and what we have now, lets get people back into Craglorn !

Lunerdog · July 2014

Yeah I took a waltz round the Crag the last night, every anomaly was deserted and nobody remotely interested in doing one.

I know they were exploited but they were FUN to do and got people working together.

nerevarine1138 · July 2014

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Lunerdog · July 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Rubbish

Play how you want to and allow others to do the same, who told you your way was the only way ?

Unknown_poster · July 2014

What a worthless rant. People never left craglorn they just went on to farm other stuff. I'd tell you where, but then it would get nerfed into oblivion too. Was on last night in a group of 20. Personally I think they should take the inevitable *** and moan fest and level lock it to vr10 and above. But not going to happen now that they let that current genie out of the bottle.

LariahHunding · July 2014

I was farming last night 9-11PM EDT with a group of 10-12 others.

nerevarine1138 · July 2014

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Rubbish

Play how you want to and allow others to do the same, who told you your way was the only way ?

I didn't say it was the only way. I'm saying that it's annoying as all hell to have most people using Craglorn so they can farm the same spots over and over again instead of actually getting out in to the world and experiencing the content. Because these are the same people complaining the ZO didn't give them enough of an endgame.

LariahHunding · July 2014

I'm VR11 at 80% and Tamriel Hero. Seen enough of the world. Just want to get to VR12.

$infraction2008b16_ESO$ · July 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdofmoYcJNE

Phantax · July 2014

Lunerdog wrote: »

Yeah I took a waltz round the Crag the last night, every anomaly was deserted and nobody remotely interested in doing one.

I know they were exploited but they were FUN to do and got people working together.

Agreed !

davidgawronrwb17_ESO wrote: »

What a worthless rant.

You must love it here on the forums if you consider what I said to be a rant ??

Fairydragon3 · July 2014

on the bright side, Ive been seeing more people in the other VR areas, but in the road ahead article posted yesterday, they said they are going to revamp the vet point system completely, so this would have an effect on what they would change with anomalies

Lunerdog · July 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Rubbish

Play how you want to and allow others to do the same, who told you your way was the only way ?

I didn't say it was the only way. I'm saying that it's annoying as all hell to have most people using Craglorn so they can farm the same spots over and over again instead of actually getting out in to the world and experiencing the content. Because these are the same people complaining the ZO didn't give them enough of an endgame.

A lot of folk don't like the Vet zones because of the playing for the other side thing, I'm going through some of it but it doesn't sit well with me either.

I can't see why people get worked up about it, if people want to farm something then hey, it's no skin off my nose, all I see is others pulling folks to bits instead of getting on and playing their game.

And yes, I did grind in the Crag for a bit, but I did it as I suddenly found out that I thoroughly enjoyed playing a healer and the Crag was the ideal place to get my Healing Staff skill line up to the high forties, now when I'm running with the guys I know I'm very effective at keeping them alive.

Sometimes when I'm running solo I just head out and help others and generally get a lot of thanks for it.

Phantax · July 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Funny that you consider Anomalies not to be 'actual' content? Is it just some kind of pretend content then? Maybe you consider it to be fake content?

As for the other bit of you're comment I don't fully disagree. However if people wanted to just farm one spot, they should be allowed to (play as you want remember) although not my thing.

Close to the point I was making though is the fact I wouldn't have been able to do 'any' of the anomalies I passed today (whether once or multiple times) as there was nobody round at all to do them with !

I'm fairly sure the Devs didn't spend all that time and effort for them to be nothing more than glorified 'eye candy' !

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · July 2014

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Rubbish

Play how you want to and allow others to do the same, who told you your way was the only way ?

I didn't say it was the only way. I'm saying that it's annoying as all hell to have most people using Craglorn so they can farm the same spots over and over again instead of actually getting out in to the world and experiencing the content. Because these are the same people complaining the ZO didn't give them enough of an endgame.

A lot of folk don't like the Vet zones because of the playing for the other side thing, I'm going through some of it but it doesn't sit well with me either.

To me the factions are an irrelevance, an entirely artificial aspect to provide a basis for the unnecessary PVP part of the game, as such the VR content is great now it's playable in a sensible fashion.

mumok · July 2014

I think I am out of the loop on the anomalies nerf. What did ZOS do to them?

I did one last night and I think I got the same XP, around 9k.

I can say that there was no one doing them and zone chat was full of people looking for anomalies groups.

Phantax · July 2014

mumok wrote: »

I think I am out of the loop on the anomalies nerf. What did ZOS do to them?

I did one last night and I think I got the same XP, around 9k.

I can say that there was no one doing them and zone chat was full of people looking for anomalies groups.

People used to farm them over and over as an alternative way of levelling.
However anomalies also gave greatly inflated rewards, purple items almost every kill and people abused this. Zenimax more than halved the amount of xp you got and removed almost all the loot gains making the ghost town you see in the pics.

Grinding has always been a legitimate way of levelling in MMOs fair enough.
The loot drops ok... they needed nerfing some, and maybe even a 25% total reduction in xp, but Zenimax just went in with the nerf-hammer and went OTT.

What I'm suggesting Zenimax do is find a balance between what was and what is. Then maybe we will get large groups of players, playing together, riding around Craglorn like we used to !

$infraction2008b16_ESO$ · July 2014

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Rubbish

Play how you want to and allow others to do the same, who told you your way was the only way ?

I didn't say it was the only way. I'm saying that it's annoying as all hell to have most people using Craglorn so they can farm the same spots over and over again instead of actually getting out in to the world and experiencing the content. Because these are the same people complaining the ZO didn't give them enough of an endgame.

A lot of folk don't like the Vet zones because of the playing for the other side thing, I'm going through some of it but it doesn't sit well with me either.

I can't see why people get worked up about it, if people want to farm something then hey, it's no skin off my nose, all I see is others pulling folks to bits instead of getting on and playing their game.

Anomaly grinding was an insult to everything the TES series stands for, MMO or not.

While I fully support alternatives to questing, but there has to be some variation to what you do in order to progress through the game. You can't have a game where the most efficient process to progress is farming a particular spot or boss mob. There should be incentives to go around and explore different avenues rather than just grinding away.

Phantax · July 2014

infraction2008b16_ESO wrote: »

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Lunerdog wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

There are plenty of people in Craglorn: just not at the anomalies. And the faster they get those people away from grinding, the faster everyone can start doing the actual content instead of farming the same spot for hours on end.

Rubbish

Play how you want to and allow others to do the same, who told you your way was the only way ?

I didn't say it was the only way. I'm saying that it's annoying as all hell to have most people using Craglorn so they can farm the same spots over and over again instead of actually getting out in to the world and experiencing the content. Because these are the same people complaining the ZO didn't give them enough of an endgame.

A lot of folk don't like the Vet zones because of the playing for the other side thing, I'm going through some of it but it doesn't sit well with me either.

I can't see why people get worked up about it, if people want to farm something then hey, it's no skin off my nose, all I see is others pulling folks to bits instead of getting on and playing their game.

Anomaly grinding was an insult to everything the TES series stands for, MMO or not.

While I fully support alternatives to questing, but there has to be some variation to what you do in order to progress through the game. You can't have a game where the most efficient process to progress is farming a particular spot or boss mob. There should be incentives to go around and explore different avenues rather than just grinding away.

Agreed, but there is a big difference between tweeking something (what they should have done with anomalies) and smashing it to a pulp with the nerf-hammer (what they in fact did)

However.. You can't have a game where the most efficient process to progress is farming a particular spot or boss mob.
Why not? if that's what people want to do... let them. Nobody was actually being forced t do this, it was their choice !

Innocente · July 2014

The ESO Group Content ship has sailed. ESO is moving more toward being a single player game more and more with each passing week. And, that is really ok. There is room in the online gaming space for a game like ESO, plenty of room. That it is not a true MMO is also fine. Heck, call it an MMO if you want to, that's ok as well.

But, no point in complaining about group content or group participation starting to fade away. Sure, it will still be here in ESO as long as there are some reasons for folks to randomly converge. And, that's fine as well. It is just that group content is falling away as a focal point of ESO design.

Bottom line is that if whatever ZOS decides to make ESO into, if it fits your play style, then good. If it does not, well there are other alternatives.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · July 2014

Phantax wrote: »

However.. You can't have a game where the most efficient process to progress is farming a particular spot or boss mob.
Why not? if that's what people want to do... let them. Nobody was actually being forced t do this, it was their choice !

He never said that method of play shouldn't be allowed, reading comprehension difficult for you perhaps?

Making it possible for someone to something is entirely different from making that the most efficient way.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · July 2014

Innocente wrote: »

Bottom line is that if whatever ZOS decides to make ESO into, if it fits your play style, then good. If it does not, well there are other alternatives.

The problem for the hardcore who were largely the ones arguing for more group-only content is that there are very FEW alternatives, the time of the group-or-die-for-everything MMO passed a decade ago. The ones complaining about this nerf are in a minority which is why no recent MMO is based on such a model any more.

Cogo · July 2014

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Innocente wrote: »

Bottom line is that if whatever ZOS decides to make ESO into, if it fits your play style, then good. If it does not, well there are other alternatives.

The problem for the hardcore who were largely the ones arguing for more group-only content is that there are very FEW alternatives, the time of the group-or-die-for-everything MMO passed a decade ago. The ones complaining about this nerf are in a minority which is why no recent MMO is based on such a model any more.

How many times are you going to state things without any base,

Show me the number about this minority you are talking about.

Also, show me where it says in ESO "choose your way", that it seams whatever what you choose, you can do everything.

Please, you need to start showing some base for your quite harsh accusations to a lot of people who tend to disagree with you.

There are rules on this forums to follow, you are not breaking them. But you do need to start to show some base for your statements against so many different people.

You might be correct! I am not saying that. I am saying you need to start to show where you get this info from, where you jump on so many people.

kitsinni · July 2014

Grinding in craglorn is still the most used way of leveling the higher end of VR. There are ALWAYS grinds going on. The only difference is this one grind was nerfed in to the ground and is just worse than all of the others ie: Tower, Thief, N Burial, S Burial etc.

Cogo · July 2014

Why do people "grind". Sounds soooo boring. So far, up to Vet 2, I havnt grinded a single second! I level when I level. In the meantime I have fun!

kitsinni · July 2014

Cogo wrote: »

Why do people "grind". Sounds soooo boring. So far, up to Vet 2, I havnt grinded a single second! I level when I level. In the meantime I have fun!

Because it takes about 1/10 of the time it takes to level through questing and some people just want to get to V12 for PvP or Trials. For those that already did all those quests it is actually more fun to grind with a group of people than sit through the same quest dialogue for the second, third or fourth times.

$infraction2008b16_ESO$ · July 2014

Phantax wrote: »

However.. You can't have a game where the most efficient process to progress is farming a particular spot or boss mob.
Why not? if that's what people want to do... let them. Nobody was actually being forced t do this, it was their choice !

Forced, no... Having the only choice other than group quests/instances and PvP is to swarm a crystal like a bunch of flies around turd was the problem.

Even after the nerf though I feel that they've only solved half the problem, they've pushed people away from anomalies but I feel the real reason why anomalies were so popular was the way most of craglorn was designed to be a group only experience. Despite this being an MMO most people are simply disinterested in joining dedicated role based groups just to do questing or 4 man delves.

I feel this forced role-based grouping strategy needs to change as it's currently the thing that is killing craglorn, not the anomaly nerf.

Anastasia · July 2014

Cogo wrote: »

Why do people "grind". Sounds soooo boring. So far, up to Vet 2, I havnt grinded a single second! I level when I level. In the meantime I have fun!

Because they want it faster. Its a means to an end for those who are on their way to capping levels so they can head into PvP competitively. I can completely support their reasoning tbh.

For the PvE players here who subscribed based on the fabulous original vision and creativity that ZOS advertised and promoted heavily pre- launch where Vet content would be grouping centric-focused - well, thats become a take-back.

It literally is no longer a primary goal for ZOS, nor available now for those PvE Vet mmo players who based a large part of their decision to buy and sub to this game and who looked forward to mixing it up in Vet content before heading on to endgame.

I do wish Zeni had created NEW content to provide fun for those who like to primarily solo instead of nerfing the group-encouraged zones we had. But they didn't. I actually still think the larger proportion of players just hadn't hit Vet content yet and would have been arriving soon, NOT that they were there but quit the game because it was too difficult. Doesn't matter now though - the demand for soloing more conveniently and especially more quickly was heard and answered.

It is what it is now. C'est la vie for MMO's now. ;o(

wrlifeboil · July 2014

Keep Craglorn the way it is now. Let the VR5+ who want difficult solo content to go to Craglorn for the challenge.

NerfEverything · July 2014

No OP, just no.

People on these forums want everything handed to them. They already ruined VR content by making everything solo-able naked. Go level up there. The anomaly farming should have been considered an exploit and I hope it never gets un-nerfed.

kitsinni · July 2014

Yes OP, just yes.

People on these forums want everything handed to them to be fun. They already fixed VR content by making everything solo-able by classes other than DK and Sorc now. Go level up there at anomoliles. The anomaly farming should have been considered a great way to level and I hope it gets un-nerfed.

sagitter · July 2014

It's ok now, it is better "anomaly ghost town" that "the whole veteran content ghost town" and all players zerging anomaly. The xp there is still awesome, 37k for an anomaly and if u build a group of 6 ppl you can do it. Ah before the xp encounter was not guaranteed all the time, now it is ,if you build the group is 5x 37k with almost no cooldown.