Trial length and difficulty / End game PvE content for solo and group.

Erzats · August 2016

I am getting closer to 50 and I was wondering how is the end game PvE is in ESO.

I am in no mean a PvP type of person and I overheard that there isn't ''raids'' in ESO and that trials are far from being close to what a traditionnal raid his in term of required skill (here I mean other than following a strict strat to avoid artificial difficulty as one shot attacks) and length.
I've tried to find some information about it on youtube and all I got was 20 - 50 minutes videos which seems odd to me as 50 minutes to complete the hardest PvE content of MMORPGs is the very minimum I'm used to.

Could you guys enlighten me on this subject so that I can decide if it is worth dedicating myself to this game in order to do good and renewable end game PvE?

More specificaly of what I am asking myself:

+ How are the trials:
..........Difficulty?
..........Length?
..........The feeling of the mechanics?
..........Specific build restrictions? (erh, please tell me that's not a thing...)
+ Except trials, how and what is the rest of the end game PvE content for solo and group experience other than going through other faction's zones (which I find it to be a pretty nice addition, I have to say)?
+ Are the veteran dungeons challenging? And are they the carbon copy of their normal counterpart but with more numbers or do they have more stuff like, for exemple, FFXIV does?

-A concerned player.

Milvan · August 2016

Erzats wrote: »

+ How are the trials:
..........Difficulty?
..........Length?
..........The feeling of the mechanics?
..........Specific build restrictions? (erh, please tell me that's not a thing...)
+ Except trials, how and what is the rest of the end game PvE content for solo and group experience other than going through other faction's zones (which I find it to be a pretty nice addition, I have to say)?
+ Are the veteran dungeons challenging? And are they the carbon copy of their normal counterpart but with more numbers or do they have more stuff like, for exemple, FFXIV does?

-A concerned player.

1) Vet are really hard, like top players content. Normals are difficulty running with pugs but a coordinated group can do it easily. Also very good to train for vet.
2) Vet can take 1h30m if you know what you doing, if you don't you probably wont finish it anyway. Normal 40min tops.
3) I love the mechanics, check a few youtube videos;
4) ESO is very open and anything can actually work out, but some elitist people have they preferences...
5) 90% of ESO content is soloable, but the only solo-only content that is a really tought challenge is Maelstorm arena;
6) Vet dungeons are challenging, especially the newer ones. The only ones where normal and vet modes are the same (the mechanics change a little bit) the only thing that change is hp amount, damage etc are the newer ones, but they are also tougher, even on normal.

leepalmer95 · August 2016

Normal runs are like 20-30m

Vet runs we usually do in like 50m-1h depending on the trial.

Vet maw is longer of course.

This is for vet trials...

Vet dungeons are very easy to be honest the only hard ones are the imperial city dungeons (they are easy for maxed players) and the hist dungeons.

lolo_01b16_ESO · August 2016

Trials are pretty short when you have an experienced group. Apart from Maw of Lorkaj hardmode (which has only be cleared by one guild so far) every trial can be done in ~30min or less. This is already an improvement compared to previous times, I remember speedrun times of about 8min in the past, so the devs are trying to create longer fights now.

DschiPeunt · August 2016

Erzats wrote: »

+ How are the trials:
..........Difficulty?
..........Length?
..........The feeling of the mechanics?
..........Specific build restrictions? (erh, please tell me that's not a thing...)
+ Except trials, how and what is the rest of the end game PvE content for solo and group experience other than going through other faction's zones (which I find it to be a pretty nice addition, I have to say)?
+ Are the veteran dungeons challenging? And are they the carbon copy of their normal counterpart but with more numbers or do they have more stuff like, for exemple, FFXIV does?

1. With the latest update all trials got a normal and a veteran mode now. In the veteran mode there is a possibility to activate hardmode (this only changes the last boss). The normal versions are pretty easy and a group of experienced players facerolls through them. Veteran mode is a lot harder and requires some tactics and a good group (especially Maw of Lorkhaj). Hardmode is really difficult. Like REALLY difficult. Some really good guilds are still working on the hardmode of Maw of Lorkhaj (release date was March 7th).
The length varies a lot, but if you kill all bosses on the first try, a trial run takes somewhat around 30-45 minutes.
I am not entirely sure, what you mean by build restrictions, but some things work much better than most of the rest. There is not much variation in gear setups, skill rotations etc.
2. Besides trials, there is a 4 player arena (Dragonstar Arena) and a single player arena (Maelstrom Arena). Both have veteran and normal difficulty modes.
3. Sorry, but there is no way to tell, if you will find the dungeons challenging. For experienced groups they are not hard. For not so experienced groups, well, you can spend hours in there.