How is the Witches Festival?

susmitds · October 2016

@Armitas You can run dungeons or even nMSA after activating the memento for the goodies.

GreenhaloX · October 2016

I love the double XP. For someone who is trying to level up one character as high as can, I'm back grinding dolmen and leveled up 7 times during this past two days, which I would probable only 1 or 2 times, otherwise. It was so monotonous grinding dolmen before when chasing the Daedric Lord Slayer and Enemy of ColdHarbour, but with the double XP, it has become more worth it to grind dolmen again. However, after over 150 dolmen runs so far, I literally stopped picking up those skulls the first day. So easy to get those skulls, but just clogging up inventory space. Big kudos to ZOS for this free event. It is fun. Back getting lich drops for sales!

Tandor · October 2016

Armitas wrote: »

Here is how it went for me.

Step 1. As soon as I got on I opened my mail for instructions on how to start the event. There were none. So I asked a friend and apparently you have to dig around the crown store (wai) for a whistle that summons a quest giver. It's very easy for a player to miss the fact that any holiday event is even happening. All so they could direct your attention to the crown store. Pretty disgusted with that.

Step 2. The quest giver said I need to kill delve and dungeon bosses for a death essence so I went to two delves that were packed and finaly went to a public dungeon and waited at the boss spawn point. After 3 kills and 15m nothing dropped so I went to two more delves and finally found a boss that wasn't dead.

Step 3. Where to turn in the quest. There was no indication on the quest as to where it was supposed to be turned in. The "show on map" just told me to leave my zone. I finally had to ask someone where to go. They only found out because people were asking in zone.

Step 4. I completed the quest and suddenly turned into a skeleton. Okay now what? Thankfully I had an addon that told me I had a new buff, so I checked it out and it said I needed to kill bosses for trick or treat bags.

Step 5. 2 hours of standing around doing nothing but waiting for bosses to respawn so I could kill them and get bags.

I'm glad they did something but they really did it poorly and so it just became a frustration for me. I was really looking forward to holiday events but standing around waiting for respawns for 2 hours is not fun.

You should have received an email telling you step-by-step what to do, and there's an article about it on the website I think which is linked from an official thread on the forum. Players would have to miss quite a lot of automatic information to have no clue what they're supposed to be doing, but even then as you say they can always ask.

tinythinker · October 2016

Extra xp as well like that cake boost in the spring? Nice. While I can't see for myself right now, I can understand some of the complaints made. ZOS doesn'the want to blow immersion out of the water by going too campy or cartoony, but maybe there could be depth or dev interaction. Or that's what I'm picking up anyway.

Given that this is their first effort at such an event, no doubt they are reading feedback and checking numbers based on things like frequency and duration of log-ins, how much time is spent on festival activities, whethere people just grind for achievements then drop the festival, whether people keep/use festival items, etc. Rich loves his graphs. Should help them plan out improvements to their initial festival program for future events.

Nic727 · October 2016

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · October 2016

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witche's Brew buff active

Nic727 · October 2016

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witche's Brew buff active

Yes I'm transformed into a skeleton, but I have 0 drop.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · October 2016

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witche's Brew buff active

Yes I'm transformed into a skeleton, but I have 0 drop.

Weird. Have you been following a giant farming group or going off on your own in a delve?

Nic727 · October 2016

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witche's Brew buff active

Yes I'm transformed into a skeleton, but I have 0 drop.

Weird. Have you been following a giant farming group or going off on your own in a delve?

Max 3 people and most of time I'm alone.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · October 2016

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witches Brew buff active

Yes I'm transformed into a skeleton, but I have 0 drop.

Weird. Have you been following a giant farming group or going off on your own in a delve?

Max 3 people and most of time I'm alone.

That's really weird.

FelixTheCatt · October 2016

Love the loot and the idea of ZOS adding seasonal events already was completely unexpected as a console player. I'm in the minority from the looks of it , the grinding for the motif chapters and hats are kinda fun. I'm not big on group dungeons etc so its right up my alley.

That being said , two things I'd change is I'd have expanded on the lore end of things to make the story feel more immersive. Make the Witches more interactive , make me feel like I'm part of a bigger story. Second ,I'd work the style mats into something farmable year round somehow. Limit the quantities maybe but still doable.

Other than that ,I'm pretty impressed so far with the event overall!

Nic727 · October 2016

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witches Brew buff active

Yes I'm transformed into a skeleton, but I have 0 drop.

Weird. Have you been following a giant farming group or going off on your own in a delve?

Max 3 people and most of time I'm alone.

That's really weird.

I killed the boss 4 times in a row... 0 drop.

Loralai_907 · October 2016

It has been fun. I have been more social in game than I ever am. Talking with lots of people, trading the holiday items, just giving people things I didn't need. I got the title on my main and have moved on to leveling my lower level alts. Here in a bit I will be up to 4 characters done and should be able to get at least one more done before the end of the weekend. My priority for the rest of the event is to take advantage of the double xp and level. IF I happen to have time after that to get the title on any more characters, that would be nice but not necessary I guess.

Silverado · October 2016

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Nic727 wrote: »

I'm killing bosses everytimes, but no drop of skulls for me.

What's wrong?

I killed almost 50 bosses and no drop.

Make sure you have the Witches Brew buff active

Yes I'm transformed into a skeleton, but I have 0 drop.

Weird. Have you been following a giant farming group or going off on your own in a delve?

Max 3 people and most of time I'm alone.

That's really weird.

I killed the boss 4 times in a row... 0 drop.

Make sure you are in a zone that matches your character level. If your character is at a significantly higher level than the zone, you won't get drops.

YeOldeGamer · October 2016

I think they did a great job. Ty ZOS.

fgoron2000 · October 2016

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

It's ok. It's a fun little RNG thing with the plunder skulls and some new achievements. I definitely don't see what it really has to do with Halloween though lol. There is nothing "spooky" about it.

For lower level players though, the xp bonus while you are in skeleton costume for the festival is probably the best benefit.

I woulda thought the same thing as far as the lower level players. My chars are all still between 20 and 30, so I still think of myself as a lower level player. That also means that I'm still researching traits, and leveling the crafting skills as well. So beyond just the festival-specific items in the drops, I'm getting a soul gem in each drop, and at least 1-2 pieces of gear, usually green or even blue, and often set-gear, plus multiple health potions & a couple other things as well. Further, sometimes even when you kill the boss too soon before the 3 minutes are up, you won't get the skull, but you still might get these otherwise uber-drops. Now I haven't done many bosses since OT, so I don't know if these pumped up boss drops are from OT or the event or a combination of both. But since I still get the XP buffs from killing the bosses & their lackeys, and as often as they're spawning for the event, enough to continue leveling, I may just continue skull-farming for now...MQ story & zone quests will still be there on Nov 1, especially since they're no longer under-leveled (one of my favorite parts of OT).

OTOH, for the same reason, the new bosses (they're not the same as the old bosses, thanks pete) are one of the most difficult things for me. Since OT, I'm finding it always difficult at best, and sometimes impossible, to beat bosses solo, ones that I had beaten before OT. I'm sure that was partly because I was between same level and 5 levels above, but still it's making it harder overall for me. So during the event, since everybody's farming, I don't have to wait long at a boss before someone comes along, then we can kill the boss together.

tinythinker · October 2016

mommadani907 wrote: »

It has been fun. I have been more social in game than I ever am. Talking with lots of people, trading the holiday items, just giving people things I didn't need. I got the title on my main and have moved on to leveling my lower level alts. Here in a bit I will be up to 4 characters done and should be able to get at least one more done before the end of the weekend. My priority for the rest of the event is to take advantage of the double xp and level. IF I happen to have time after that to get the title on any more characters, that would be nice but not necessary I guess.

Hmm yeah I have 3-5 characters I try to keep up with but even just one or two would be fine for this year. Glad to hear the event is encouraging more people to be social.

runagate · October 2016

I sent you recipes and motifs and then partway through realized I didn't actually keep track of which. 30 combined, whatever they were, and I'll send along more at some point. Sorry you have to miss out on dolmen camping with 429 other people all at once.

DoctorWho1975 · October 2016

It was going great until i got turned into a newt... i got better.