I have commented before about the differences of this games gearing system, as compared to other MMO’s with loot systems. The generic loot systems have it’s ‘demons’ and I suppose that eso wanted to do away with them. Basically there isn’t really any decent gear that is locked behind certain elements of game play in eso, such as finding 24 other players to kill a boss that drops one piece. Also, the gear drops in those other loot based MMO’s usually already had optimised gear rations on the pieces. There is no rail-road gear design in eso, so you can create very quirky builds. But now I can see new demons. With the boss-drop loot system, there was always new content released that you needed to do in order to get those drops, and the new content was what you were hanging out for, the loot was just a bonus. I have never before seen a patch in another MMO where there was a higher tier of gear being released where I didn’t think, wow, check out this new gear tier, it is awesome, I have to get that. It would take you some time to gear yourself BiS, but while doing so you were also progressing through content. You were not just gearing for gearing sake. Well, in eso twice now, there has been a new tier of gear released, and I just slump and think I cannot be bothered with it. On one hand we are told that the new tier of gear is not absolutely necessary in any sense, but ofcourse if you want to be competitive, in either, or both PvP and PvE, chances are you are going to get yourself decked out in a new tier of gear. But the methods of gearing in eso are essentially just farming/grinding. The first time I grinded for veteran rank 10 gear, it was ok, it was new and exciting. Veteran rank 12 arrives.... umpf, hmmmmk, and we needed to farm/grind some more. Seemingly in no time at all the gear sets were changed, and at that point the grinding was just plain tedious. Just finishing off the latest tweaks to my gear, and now we have veteran rank 14... yipeee more grinding/farming. ESO has sucked the fun right out of gearing! Every other MMO I have played when a new tier of gear has been released, there has always been a hive of activity around the gear vendors or when viewing the new schematics where everyone was drooling with envy. But in eso, a new tier of gear arrives and I feel like it is Monday morning and my boss has just dropped a ten feet high stack of nonsensical, monotonous and menial tasks on my work station. Can you at least make it easier for us poor drudge hands on the factory floor and improve our working conditions. Where is our union anyway? At least in EvE online we could go on strike!

At the very least, why are veteran dungeon bosses, or perhaps just the last boss in a dungeon not dropping purple and gold crafting mats like elegant lining, mastic, rekuta, dreugh wax, rosin and kutas etc? Wouldn’t this give players an incentive to actually play the content in the game, and group up. I would much rather do that then pulling weeds, chopping wood and scratching rocks all day!