60 Days To Blow--Why Try Again?

RatsnevE · July 2014

Yesterday I fully respected my Khajiit Nightblade into the Blood Rogue featured here and had a full day of gaming fun finishing up two hard dungeons with different on-the-fly groups. The new Florasteel seems to be working out well. I'm sticking with the Khajiit Nightblade class because of the future likelihood of PvE Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild additions.

It seems that besides being a casual (anti-strategy and crafting) solo gamer I am also to some degree a 'completionist'. I spent some hours yesterday traveling through all the AD areas getting use to my new 'feel' picking up all the books thanks to the nifty addon that displays their locations on the map. I am not a good completionist at all if things like books or quests were just left for self-discovery. Although I have found many of them there were many I had missed stumbling across. This did not concern me at all until I found the addon.

By the end of today I might very well be back to the final forced solo boss battle with Molag Bal? No, I am not looking forward to any of these boss battles because I do not appreciate their challenge or different strategy. I've said it before and still feel it that ZOS has bit off more then they can chew when trying to create one MMO to meet everyone's needs without providing or building into the game alternate means to the end of battles. Scripting them only one way 'today' is a big AI mistake. And to add insult to injury I have to look forward to fighting these same bosses each two more times as a Veteran--where on earth is the adventure in that?

I'm feeling like I could continue playing ESO for some time so long as I get the value out of it I enjoy. This may mean periods where I stop and wait for changes and additions and balances to be made but I gather always from talking to support that ZOS does not want to see my PvE solo play-style disappear. Getting into the Veteran areas next is my biggest question mark. How I actually get drawn into any PvP and Guilds brings great resistance on my part.

I also remain very interested in the console versions coming out because I figure my coordination with a controller will offer much better battle tactics control. In yesterdays battles I finally did what I needed to do when I discovered my potions mysteriously gone. I mapped the 'Q' key to '9'. I previously mapped 'R' to '7'. I do touch type but never when gaming with W,A,S,D,Q,E,R,1,2,3,4,5,Z,`,Shift, etc.

Peculiar that my game version still reads 1.2.4.1017325 a couple days after 1.2.5 was released. Apparently the hot fix reverted the nomenclature back to 1.2.4 even though support claims that the 1.2.5 patch is still viable in the game. Based on the dislikes from Hardcore die-hards dying to easily now in Veteran areas I would believe them. Makes me want to rush through all this killing before they convince ZOS to make it harder.

poodlemasterb16_ESO · July 2014

I have 4 fighters and 3 crafters. The point of my fighters is to learn the game. I have level 38, 34, 21 and 17 fighters and my crafters are all above level 12 The point of my army is to be a force, a small one, in Cyrodill.

I have played a little PvP in the beta and some in the game and it's fun. My chars are made for PvP in the end and i will level Vetran to whatever I think useful.

RatsnevE · July 2014

Tamriel one day needs a strong Khajiit empress and chairs that don't pinch the tale.

RatsnevE · July 2014

This Blood Rogue, http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2014/07/07/battlemasters-corner--the-blood-rogue, is what I respected my VR-1 NB into with DW and Bow. I've played it finishing up all lose ends in AD culminating with kiting Molag Bal last night successfully on my first attempt.

I realize that none of this feat means anything to the 'diehard' (I'm reverting back to that label instead of 'hardcore') because, among other things, kiting to kill Molag Bal has always been the easiest way against his script I gathered but never tried until now.

I risked this build because ZOS endorsed it. And because I wasn't going to stumble across or work out my own successful build on my own. I don't apply strategy much at all unless it is seamlessly and intuitively done in the game.

I also still have no intention at this point of embracing any PvP so what this build lacks there is moot. And if spell casting staves is still the strongest class to build around all I can say is ZOS still has their work cut out for them giving the NB some equalizing advantage to them in battle maybe by increasing their stealth capabilities but NOT by building them with their own staves. Hybrid builds are just a cheap way to balance the builds.

Even the author of this Blood Rogue build acknowledges using a regenerative stave but in my case, although I picked one up in an attempt to support this option I discovered since my previous NB never used any staff when respec'ing I could not place any points into the stave skill lines nor have any opened up.

I have picked up what might be a half decent regeneration staff and a good shield as rewards I think but they both are stored in the bank. Of course if I don't ever use them I won't ever be gaining any skill points toward their skills.

Today I start slogging through Stonefalls again with this PC. It will be a drag of sorts because a couple weeks ago, leaving my first PC in an unfinished Reaper's March with Molag Bal still alive, I started a second PC in Ebonheart Pact's Stonefalls competing it entirely before finding this Blood Rogue build and feeling ready to respec and move on with my original PC again.

I was wondering how ESO was going to inject the PC into the other PvE alliances? A memory wipe was a great choice if you had to keep the main story line going in the MMO with other gamers pre-Veteran who are still progressing through those other same alliances. From my point of view of course I would have rather skip having to play the main story over again two more times. I sort of hope after killing Molag Bal a second and third time that I won't be ending up with 3 souls even if my memory is wiped 2 times?

So we move on today...

Tenofas · July 2014

Just a side note. I know you are not interested in PvP, but in Cyrodiil there are a lot of PvE quests to do too. Just choose a campaign dominated by your faction and you will hardly meet any enemy while you play there.

RatsnevE · July 2014

Tenofas wrote: »

Just a side note. I know you are not interested in PvP, but in Cyrodiil there are a lot of PvE quests to do too. Just choose a campaign dominated by your faction and you will hardly meet any enemy while you play there.

It's good to get this reinforcement on Cyrodiil. I do hope to be playing through parts of it one day but think I need to finish exploring out the two remaining alliances first.

I was also very surprised to learn from Support yesterday that you don't play out the main story line again as Veteran in the remaining two alliances twice more. So no more Mannimarco or Molag Bal. I don't know what drove me to think otherwise but if no one corrected my thinking from the start that probably drove reinforcing it. This must all turn out true too because the current Main Story quest from Cadwell's Silver is to experience the Ebonheart Pact.

Also of some note... Since respec'ing I have around 10 extra skill points to spend as reserve. I've picked up all the Passives and could spend them on other active skills but don't want to yet until I really know what new change I need to make if any from the Blood Rogue build. If I add a new skill then some old skill needs to leave that skill line too and for good reason. I don't know if this means I will always have this surplus. There are a number of passive upgrades that might become available still.