At VR4 my leveling is about to hit a brick wall

Xjcon · February 2015

Every v14 before you figured out how to do it, I'm sure you can.

Kalman · February 2015

I'm sorry there is no f'n way you have completed all the quests in each VR zone and are under-leveled for your current VR zone. I've done it a couple of times. I currently have one that is about to hit VR4 and is still in the VR3 zone with several quests not completed in zone.

firstdecan · February 2015

seanvwolf wrote: »

firstdecan wrote: »

It's different once you get to the VR zones. At regular levels it's hard not to over level. At VR you have to work hard to keep pace with the zone.

Not that it's actually hard, tedious(ly) is a better word.

Are you suggesting I'm not at v14?

If you somehow managed to stay 2 VR levels above the VR zones just by questing, I'd like to know your secret. This is a bit removed from the experience most players have written about.

Folkb · February 2015

grindscar ftw

Feimerdre · February 2015

dietlime wrote: »

Yeah that's when I quit the game, too. I was soloing VR3 dolmens using max-craft potions and self-made glyphs and gear, which felt awesome, but at the end of the day I didn't see another ~100+ hours of that same routine being worthwhile.

Soloing dolmens is nice but not how you are supposed to make your needed xp (you will need them for level 10 in fighters guild tho if you dont want to grind on undead). As I said, it is pretty easy to sit at 100-120k xp/hour with normal questing and killing some mobs while doing the quests. If I encounter some easy mobs I do some extra rounds on them (never that much that I feel like grinding tho). Why exactly does 100+ hrs for VR14 feel so bad for you guys? You will never be stupidly doing all the same all over again as the quests give plenty of story and dont feel like grinding even if I am right now doing them for the 3rd time. Besides my crafter is stuffed for anything coming on my way now, including food, potions, armor and runes. So I dont have any real problem with the leveling speed.
Btw. even if you might not want to hear it: doing a night or 2 in Cyro is pretty rewarding if you get a nice group. You can go for some extra skillpoints there and maybe start to collect some points if you need some of the accessoires like a 3 pcs set of rings and necklace wich is not very hard to get (like 90k points).

Kragorn · February 2015

seanvwolf wrote: »

Have you been neglecting World Bosses and Public and Group dungeons? Those play a huge role in your exp gain for those zones. If you can't get a group for this content you should find an active guild that helps their lower level players.

As I said, the zones are largely empty, so no, I've done less than a third of them.

I completed the zone at 588k/1m, nothing else I can do without resorting to spamming /shout and frankly that got old 10-years-ago as a way to just get leveling XP.

neueregel wrote: »

I got to VR 12 on my first player easy by doing all the quests/bosses/dolmens in each zone. I also did some quests in Cyridil each day when I could. That was by design. I dont think they thought people wouldn't level this way.

XP from that kind of content has been nerfed hugely over the course of the game, the first wave of players hitting VR10+ benefited from massive XP/hour figures which were nerfed underground some time after, same with 'boss' XP (not to mention the boss kill timer).

UrQuan wrote: »

You say you've done all of the Cadwell's quests for the zone, and you've done all quests for the previous zones. Are you sure you've done all of them, and not just Cadwell's quests and some of the side quests? Did you do the VR version of the starter islands?

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

I would ask the OP if he has the Master Explorer achievement for each zone,

Yes, I have all quest/pathfinder/delve achievements for all zones up to and including Eastmarch. The only zone achievements still grey for this faction are those for The Rift.

I appreciate the helpful comments from many who replied.

One thing I hadn't really taken on board I guess was that the mobs in a VR zone are of course all the same level so being 1 or may 2 levels below when entering a zone isn't as handicapping as doing so in the 1-50 zones.

I was perhaps to pessimistic about my ability to reach the Gold content and maybe I'll make it through some of it.

One thing some asked was if I skipped mobs. Yes I did, in some delves and open world content I used Sneak to avoid dealing with trash groups. I figured 'losing' 400 XP per mob wasn't going to be a huge deal in comparison to the massive 400k deficit, I'm used to mob grinding in other games but ESO wasn't supposed to be thhat kind of game according to what ZOS were preaching before launch: and the 1-50 has no such problems, I usually ended zones with green or even grey quests early on.

Not sure why the game has to morph to a 1990s-like group-or-die and/or grind-fest so hard post-50.

Feimerdre · February 2015

Kragorn wrote: »

One thing some asked was if I skipped mobs. Yes I did, in some delves and open world content I used Sneak to avoid dealing with trash groups. I figured 'losing' 400 XP per mob wasn't going to be a huge deal in comparison to the massive 400k deficit, I'm used to mob grinding in other games but ESO wasn't supposed to be thhat kind of game according to what ZOS were preaching before launch: and the 1-50 has no such problems, I usually ended zones with green or even grey quests early on.

You will find yourself getting more XP if you enter a zone underleveled.
Skipping mobs is indeed a bad idea. Better get a AOE skillset for all purposes and deal with all trash you might encounter - the more the better. Sure 400 isnt much compared to your 400k deficit - but given you kill like 40 mobs per bigger quest this will be most likely what you are missing ;-)

Sandmanninja · February 2015

dietlime wrote: »

Kragorn wrote: »

Okay, this is not a 'whine', I seriously want to know how I'm expected to progress further in the game as it exists today.

How the hell am I going to level beyond VR5?

I'm in Eastmarch on my first post-VR3 character and finished all the Cadwell's quests for the zone and have only 3 or 4 quest hubs left .. I am less than 400k into VR4, having entered here at 180k short of VR4.

I've done all the quests in the earlier zones and will finish this one with likely less than 500k/1m. By then I'll have cleared all delves and everything else I can do solo.

There are precious few players doing this content so I rarely get to do a Dolmen and never see groups of the group dungeons in the zones. Not that would help much as ZOS have nerfed the XP from such content so I'm not likely to make up my missing 500k from those any time soon.

I figure I'll likely be able to complete The Rift at VR4 (I doubt I'll even reach VR5 by the time I've cleared the zone) but that means I'll enter the VR6 zone at VR4 .. I don't see much progress being possible shortly after that.

Do ZOS really expect me to grind 500k per zone killing mobs, because there's little else to do?

The XP per level needs halving now that the initial rush of players has ended and the sources of XP have been nerfed to the ground. VRs are going to be around for likely at least another 6 months, without the XP per rank being seriously cut I don't see how anyone will reach VR10 these days.

Please don't say PVP, I don't PVP, I hate PVP and don't see why I should be expected to do something I loathe in order to progress .. and equally I know some people only want to level by PVP and really hate having to do PVE content, especially group stuff, to progress.

Yeah that's when I quit the game, too. I was soloing VR3 dolmens using max-craft potions and self-made glyphs and gear, which felt awesome, but at the end of the day I didn't see another ~100+ hours of that same routine being worthwhile.

I am going to try again at 1.6 and perhaps start a new, and try the game out on Xbox One. I'll probably pay their $20 for an account copy even though i don't know if I am going to play the game.

ESO has a lot going for it, but the VR ranks are boring and I would rather play Morrowind (or almost any other single player RPG) if I was going to play a video game alone.

My DC Templar just hit VR7 and I'm in Reaper's March. I do ALL of the quests in each area until I get the achievement for doing 'x' amount of quests. I kill mobs and pick herbs and mine nodes as I see them. All give xp and the mobs give me loot & gold. I've recently begun testing my build by tackling dolmens solo but by no means do I do them to just level. They're a great test of spells, rotation and armor/weapons. I'd go insane if I felt I needed to level simply by grinding mobs and anomalies and dolmens. This is my 3rd VR toon (DK and Sorc are others) and I've done the same play style with each. I get xp, i get loot to deconstruct, i get gold and I get knowledgeable in the lore.

phtony06b14_ESO · February 2015

I hit a wall at VR7 & have completed 1 zone of Cadwell's Gold. At this pace I may be VR 10 once I finish Cadwell's questline leaving me 4 VR levels to grind. So I've decided to shelve the VR play until 10% Sub boost & XP pots become available. I absolutely don't want to do the Craglorn grind so that seems to be my only option.

I have a VR 3 also so I THINK that means I have 40 CP points. I can live with that. It's not max but then I'm not pushing endgame content anyway so no biggie.

badmojo · February 2015

Port to spellscar wayshrine in craglorn, head north of it and kill the groups of enemies, repeat for desired result.

UrQuan · February 2015

Kragorn wrote: »

Yes, I have all quest/pathfinder/delve achievements for all zones up to and including Eastmarch. The only zone achievements still grey for this faction are those for The Rift.

Hmm, that's surprising to me then, because it's very different from my experience. Maybe the difference is that my VR characters hit VR 1 very early in Coldharbour, so maybe it's just that I had most of a zone earning vet XP before actually going to the vet zones. Or maybe I'm just more bloodthirsty than you when it comes to killing just about everything I run across

AlnilamE · February 2015

dietlime wrote: »

Arwen_7 wrote: »

Most of this seems to be moaning about how slow it is to level. Would you be happier if it took 500000 to level, but there were 28 vet levels?

I play for 3-4hrs at a time, maybe 3 or 4 times a week and I think levelling is fine. I at least get a sense of achivment when I go up a level since I have actively worked to get there.
It seems everyone just wants to reach V14 as quick as possible then moan that there is nothing to do now they cannot level any more.

No, they want to reach VR14 after a reasonable amount of time spent alone and proceed to a multiplayer challenge mode where the content is extremely difficult but repeatable and finding groups is easy.

Define "a reasonable amount of time".

Considering that you can level by the Silver/Gold quests, it's not unreasonable to expect that leveling from V1 to V6 will take the same amount of time it took to get to 50, and then from V7-V12 again. And at V12 you can pretty much do everything.

Morshire · February 2015

@Kragorn - Alright, so this may sound bad, so I want to start by saying this: If you are on the NA server, look me up. I have a friend who is currently at your level and I go back and do anything and everything she needs to complete a zone. I would be more than happy to take you or help you complete whatever you are missing. @Morshire in game.

Now, I finished Coldharbour at level 47-48, and went to Silver. I was VR6 when I stopped the questing, and I still had dolmens, group dungeons, and a few solo dungeons left. So I am not sure what got missed, but then I am not you right? People calling for easier progression through the vet levels need to realize, vet implies that they should be more challenging, hence they warrant the significant increases in weapons/armor, etc that come with them. We don't need any of that made easier. A real fix would be to make it more desirable to people. I mean, people don't complain when they are having a blast. If you were loving the challenges, excited by the path ahead, immersed in the quests, then no one would be worrying about how long it took, but more upset that it ended so soon. That would be the real fix, IMO.

People also need to take into account, this game wasn't designed to just solo everything and get to end game. This game has many facets for gaining XP. If people choose to partake, or not partake, of a certain XP gaining experience, well then that is their right. I do not see how making the devs redesign the game, or the XP gaining part, should be the method to making them happy. And don't get me wrong....vet levels stink XP progression wise. Quests, for me, became tedious at best after VR4. Want to know what I did....I did one of the many other methods for gaining XP so I didn't have to do them. Nothing in the game mechanics makes it impossible for you to reach VR14. Nor do you have to do just X to get there. If getting to VR14 is the goal.....grind it out in Spellscar, go PVP, do dungeons, solo quest....Actually, if just getting there is the goal..grind. It will get you there fastest. And before someone screams "I don't want to have to grind"...my quick come back "I don't want the VR levels easier to get". It works both ways.

No one is the same when it comes to the game. People should not be treated like they are. Each of us wants something from the game. That something should not come at the cost of someone else. How to fix it.....force the devs to make the game better so we all forget about what we don't like, because we are too focused on how fun the whole thing is.

Go ahead, now you can flame me.