Grind zergs making Dolmen's boring.

Bam_Bam · January 2017

Sheva I 7 I wrote: »

they are not doing those dolmens for xp, they are farming them for the sets.

I use them to level fast.

victorhrpereira · January 2017

Well, in my opinion the jewelry items should stay as rewards for Dolmens and Overland Bosses, cause it's a good reason to make people complete them. I hope in the future ZOS start making rotations of the item sets through the zones, including new sets if possible to keep the interest.

Now we have the problem with the zergs and that's a problem I'm not sure can be truly solved. One idea could be having difficult caps scaling based on the amount of players around the dolmen/boss, with the minimum difficult of 1 player up to 12 players like this for example:

1~3 player: normal dungeon boss
4~7 players: vet dungeon boss
8~11 players: IC sweeper boss
12 players: trial boss? well, not quite hard as one but one that has a lot of HP at least.

We need to keep in mind that this isn't supposed to be a hardcore content and there will be newbies or badly equipped players in there, so if a group of 4 players can kill a vet dungeon boss, here we would allow up to 7 players to kill the same boss. Also, it should give some challenge if you are at the low end of the cap.

But even with the caps, the zerg could come in after the boss is spawned, killing it in seconds cause the boss was balanced for 7 players and not 20. So what could be done in to put a barrier around the dolmen just after the 4th pin is closed, preventing more people to come in to get easy loot. I believe it can be done for dolmens, but I don't know how would be to implement that for overland bosses.

smacx250 · January 2017

I've kinda become a jerk at anchors now. In the past when one dropped and I was the only one there, I'd wait a bit so that those nearby could see the drop and join in from the start. Now I start in right away regardless (so I just sit on the stairs) - it's a rare case when you can have few enough people for it to be much fun. And when you get the 20+ zerg herd that runs in I really wish I wasn't there at all (I'm just trying to do the dailies). I relish the times I get to solo one - though two or three is ok too.

dem0n1k · January 2017

I used the Alik'R dolmen train to level a new character from lvl3 to lvl10 really quickly. It used to be so tedious doing the same tired old PVE quests to get new characters to a level where they can enter Cyrodiil... now it's so quick & easy!

Pre-One Tamriel I farmed Cadwelll Gold dolmens for the Lich set. The staff drop was so low that I did 1000s of dolmens before it dropped. The vast majority of these dolmens I solo'd due to the Cadwell gold areas were generally empty of players back then. I got the "Enemy of ColdHarbour" & "Daedric Lord Slayer" titles pretty quickly & then just kept doing dolmens for what seemed an eternity. I still enjoy dolmens for the spectacle of the daedra falling like meteors... but I am kinda glad I don't have to solo them anymore.. it's not that it is difficult... it's just it's done to death.

In short, I see no real issue with the dolmen farming.

FriedEggSandwich · January 2017

OP I think your demands are a bit selfish. If you go food shopping on a saturday afternoon you have every right to be turned off by how crowded it is, but to suggest that your food store discorage people from shopping there so you can have an easier time is unreasonable. The reasonable thing to do is change the time you go food shopping. ESO is an mmo, zergs are an indication that the game is doing well, if you don't like crowds then go play skyrim or log on at 3am.

Tapio75 · January 2017

A game, is not a food store but the comparison would be, that dolmens right now, is like these shops giving everything for free with unlimited stock and the shop is so full of people, that noone sees where the free items are so they just stick their hands and fingers everywhere trying to grab at least something.

FriedEggSandwich · January 2017

Tapio75 wrote: »

A game, is not a food store but the comparison would be, that dolmens right now, is like these shops giving everything for free with unlimited stock and the shop is so full of people, that noone sees where the free items are so they just stick their hands and fingers everywhere trying to grab at least something.

Yeah I get that a game isn't a food store, and I thought my comparison was quite good. The dolmens don't give out for free; you need to invest your time for the chance of a reward. They also don't have unlimited stock; they provide a small chance at what you want once every 15mins. My point was that they are a municipal resource and everyone has the right to use them for what they were intended; completion for xp and a chance at loot. I remember empty zones and lonely dolmens and tbh I prefer the crowds.

UrQuan · January 2017

Woodenplank wrote: »

Of course, you could perhaps (as an alternative to, or as an addition) make a model like seen in Wrothgar dailies.

Just have someone (like Fighter's Guild leaders, for lore-accuracy) provide bounties for dolmens (like 3 or so a-day per character) in different zones. Completing the quests then gives "Fighter's Guild Compensation" which is a small coffer with a random dolmen'ish reward.

How's that for size?

(P.S. I still think scaling the durability of the daedra to number of players would be fine, as it does make the dolmens more entertaining IMO).

Actually @Woodenplank what you're describing already exists (well, apart from your PS). If you go to the Fighters Guild in your alliance capital city there's an NPC there who gives out daily dolmen quests. Actually, I can't remember if you can pick them up in any alliance capital, but to turn the quest in I know it has to be the capital of your own alliance.

The quest that you get is random each day for each character, and it sends you to a specific zone where you have to close 3 anchors. You can do the same one 3 times, or do each one once, or whatever. The quests can be shared in the same manner as the Wrothgar world boss quests, and it's possible to do up to 15 per day (1 for each base alliance zone) if you can get enough different quests shared. When you turn in the quest you get a rewards coffer. The coffer contains vendor trash (profitable vendor trash, mind you) along with a chance at a draugr motif page, and a chance at a style material for the draugr motif.

Or were you meaning to do something like this instead of the chest that you get from a dolmen instead of being in addition to it?

LadyLethalla · January 2017

I grind dolmens for my lowbies' overall level and FG at the same time. Hate large zergs since they just make it impossible to get any XP with the lag I have.
My newest alts are levels 12 and 7 respectively; once they're a bit higher I might try the Dungeon Finder. And once they're max level... I might do a dolmen if it's active when I'm close by; other than that, I don't usually bother with them.

ColoursYouHave · January 2017

You think its bad now? You should've seen it right after the update hit; dolmen bosses were literally dying before they even spawned from all the AOE.

That being said, there are still places where very few people actually show up to dolmens. Look for a zone where the dolmens are further away from wayshrines, as that makes it more difficult for people to come up with a rotation between multiple dolmens so unless they are farming gear they'll likely be in another zone. I've ended up soloing the southern dolmen in Stonefalls multiple times when I was farming my Silks of the Sun jewelry.

trav2609rwb17_ESO · January 2017

Think all the stances have merit but have to confess that finding a middle ground as people are pack animals and so find it easier to go with the flow.

Do know there are some zones where there is almost no one at the dolmen but am seeing that even those are having a few regulars near it. Maybe a case of moving some of the wp's so all are equal and you can't always being assured of getting to next dolmen in time so means everyone spreads out a bit.

Yep the Alik'R train can be something to see - usually pop in to do the fighter guild 3 and then duck out as spread them over 4 characters. Some do take a while and others you can miss if you blink.

Hope there are ways to balance them but worried that it might be hard to do without unbalancing other things

Jitterbug · January 2017

https://youtu.be/9Wl_uQOABxg

Cadbury · January 2017

So are those that stand on rocks, spamming heavy flame staff attack just doing it for XP? They never move and if they die they never respawn.

Seems pretty inefficient.

Epona222 · January 2017

Woodenplank wrote: »

Of course, you could perhaps (as an alternative to, or as an addition) make a model like seen in Wrothgar dailies.

Just have someone (like Fighter's Guild leaders, for lore-accuracy) provide bounties for dolmens (like 3 or so a-day per character) in different zones. Completing the quests then gives "Fighter's Guild Compensation" which is a small coffer with a random dolmen'ish reward.

How's that for size?

(P.S. I still think scaling the durability of the daedra to number of players would be fine, as it does make the dolmens more entertaining IMO).

This is one of those posts where I am not quite sure whether the person posting it is being facetious - because what they describe about daily quests already exists... idk...

Gadget4 · January 2017

Cadbury wrote: »

So are those that stand on rocks, spamming heavy flame staff attack just doing it for XP? They never move and if they die they never respawn.

Seems pretty inefficient.

PS4 EU, the dolmen nearest to Vulkhel Guard in Auridon usually has at least 15 people afk, the western-most dolmen in Deshaan usually has at least 10 people afk, other dolmens elsewhere ... they're rubber-banding, boosting ... & imo, as they are afk, they should be treated as bots & removed.

Other than that, if I'm bored, & if there's not many other active players using the dolmen, I try to make it a goal to encourage the Daedra over to the afk people, in the hope that the Daedra will wipe out a few of them .. & they do, especially when those Collossal flesh things spawn

kagorsa · January 2017

I totally disagree with what the OP said about lvl'ing. The Lvl'ing in this game is fast already, and the quests give plenty of xp. You either like doing quests or you don't, and it's pretty clear you don't, you also don't seem to like grinding, so maybe you are in the wrong game ?.

As for the dungeons you mentioned, it sounds like you upset some people, however not all people will moan about low lvl's joining, also you need to take into account the lvl range. If you are say lvl 40 and the others are high lvl, and one of them has lead and starts to dungeon you will spend most of your time dead, but if you asked them to give you lead it would be you lvl, and thus give you a better chance.

Above all else remember this is an multi player game.

Turelus · January 2017

They just need to have Dolmens scale even higher than they do now based on player numbers.

Also I prefer seeing people farming and playing the content in all the zones over the old days of wasteland zones where I was soloing Dolmans because there was no reason to run them.

Digiman · January 2017

Sheva I 7 I wrote: »

they are not doing those dolmens for xp, they are farming them for the sets.

Basically this, it depends on the zone and the time your on but most players are going after particular dolmens to get sets and the RNG system is a *** so your back often.

Woodenplank · January 2017

Epona222 wrote: »

This is one of those posts where I am not quite sure whether the person posting it is being facetious - because what they describe about daily quests already exists... idk...

Nope, just ignorance on my part.

I still think my suggestion works though, even if it is a change rather than an invention.

Tapio75 · January 2017

kagorsa wrote: »

I totally disagree with what the OP said about lvl'ing. The Lvl'ing in this game is fast already, and the quests give plenty of xp. You either like doing quests or you don't, and it's pretty clear you don't, you also don't seem to like grinding, so maybe you are in the wrong game ?.

As for the dungeons you mentioned, it sounds like you upset some people, however not all people will moan about low lvl's joining, also you need to take into account the lvl range. If you are say lvl 40 and the others are high lvl, and one of them has lead and starts to dungeon you will spend most of your time dead, but if you asked them to give you lead it would be you lvl, and thus give you a better chance.

Above all else remember this is an multi player game.

I love questing, it is best the game can offer.

Personally, i do not much do dungeons and i dont use group finder, never used it and i have played since launch and before.

I do hate zerg trains. they ruin the gane where ever they go, they dont really even play, they dont invest time to the game as most of them just spam an aoe ability while watching TV, others are plain AFK, clearly using some bot judging from repetitive action to keep them logged...

I do not much care about leveling speed, i dont speed level or anything like that, levels come naturally while questing and doing other kinds of activities around the game world.

Many however, level fast with dolmen even though its not really that fast. Thats why i suggested group finder to be tweaked so it gives extra xp and rewwards so that i dont have to see these zerg trains in open world anymore, as i said, they ruin the content they are "doing exept perphaps PVP but i dont know much about PVP so i leave it alone.

In short, i want zerg herds away from open world, i want Dolmens to be meaningful in terms of gameplay, not in terms of rewards and xp.

We coul make dolmens so, that they only grant chest once a day/dolmen and good XP only once a day/dolmen, second run would only give miniscule meaningless XP.

Also, the most important i can think of right now, is to make dolmen spawns completely random so that they cant be rotated., maybe also remove wayshrines that are right next to dolmens.

Turelus · January 2017

Tapio75 wrote: »

kagorsa wrote: »

I totally disagree with what the OP said about lvl'ing. The Lvl'ing in this game is fast already, and the quests give plenty of xp. You either like doing quests or you don't, and it's pretty clear you don't, you also don't seem to like grinding, so maybe you are in the wrong game ?.

As for the dungeons you mentioned, it sounds like you upset some people, however not all people will moan about low lvl's joining, also you need to take into account the lvl range. If you are say lvl 40 and the others are high lvl, and one of them has lead and starts to dungeon you will spend most of your time dead, but if you asked them to give you lead it would be you lvl, and thus give you a better chance.

Above all else remember this is an multi player game.

I love questing, it is best the game can offer.

Personally, i do not much do dungeons and i dont use group finder, never used it and i have played since launch and before.

I do hate zerg trains. they ruin the gane where ever they go, they dont really even play, they dont invest time to the game as most of them just spam an aoe ability while watching TV, others are plain AFK, clearly using some bot judging from repetitive action to keep them logged...

I do not much care about leveling speed, i dont speed level or anything like that, levels come naturally while questing and doing other kinds of activities around the game world.

Many however, level fast with dolmen even though its not really that fast. Thats why i suggested group finder to be tweaked so it gives extra xp and rewwards so that i dont have to see these zerg trains in open world anymore, as i said, they ruin the content they are "doing exept perphaps PVP but i dont know much about PVP so i leave it alone.

In short, i want zerg herds away from open world, i want Dolmens to be meaningful in terms of gameplay, not in terms of rewards and xp.

We coul make dolmens so, that they only grant chest once a day/dolmen and good XP only once a day/dolmen, second run would only give miniscule meaningless XP.

Also, the most important i can think of right now, is to make dolmen spawns completely random so that they cant be rotated., maybe also remove wayshrines that are right next to dolmens.

Those ideas just cause more frustration for players already frustrated they have to spend hours on end running the Dolmens to find their gear.

Rather than make the content less accessible why not make the content better scaled. Dolmens already scale with the number of players in the area to bring in more monsters, why not have that scale system also work to buff the monsters power levels and HP. Yes this slows down the content slightly for larger groups but doesn't make their gear grind a chore or daily.

Additionally they could always have the Fighters Guild daily quests give a random Dolmen jewellery item upon completion.

Tapio75 · January 2017

Turelus wrote: »

Those ideas just cause more frustration for players already frustrated they have to spend hours on end running the Dolmens to find their gear.

Afking and rotating dolmens is too easy way to gain good gear and it really drops quite easily as wwell judging from my few dolmens i done myself. I got all the purple jewellery i need after doin 6 Dolmens.

I assume they are not doing it for gear that much as they do to get gear to be sold. That gear should be BoP so they cant be sold. Getting free loot that sells for good gold with practically no effirt at all is bad for the game economy, good for gold sellers.

[quote="Turelus;3735691"Rather than make the content less accessible why not make the content better scaled. Dolmens already scale with the number of players in the area to bring in more monsters, why not have that scale system also work to buff the monsters power levels and HP. Yes this slows down the content slightly for larger groups but doesn't make their gear grind a chore or daily.[/quote]

Yes, they should scale better, not the amount of monsters but the overall streth and survivability. They should be strong enough so that players cant watch TV and afk spam AOE on dolmens, Monsters and generally maybe dolmen could do aoe damage, red zones randsomly everywhere, Molag Bal attacks, it should feel like a daedric prince is invading, not a bunch of babies.

[quote="Turelus;3735691"Additionally they could always have the Fighters Guild daily quests give a random Dolmen jewellery item upon completion.[/quote]

Yes, good idea as long as they are BOP.

All of that does not negate the need to change dolmen spawns random so that they cant be rotated.. Playstyles that do not require any skill or effort should not be encouraged, being logged on is not investing money but in this kind of activity, is waste of server resources and hurts low end machines.

Skinzz · January 2017

Just attack a couple things and let the zerg do the rest lol.

Tapio75 · January 2017

xskinzcity wrote: »

Just attack a couple things and let the zerg do the rest lol.

This is exactly what i do not want to do :P

Zergs make the dolmens feel meaningless, they need to pose a threat to be meaningful and zergs negate this.

leepalmer95 · January 2017

Tapio75 wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

Those ideas just cause more frustration for players already frustrated they have to spend hours on end running the Dolmens to find their gear.

Afking and rotating dolmens is too easy way to gain good gear and it really drops quite easily as wwell judging from my few dolmens i done myself. I got all the purple jewellery i need after doin 6 Dolmens.

I assume they are not doing it for gear that much as they do to get gear to be sold. That gear should be BoP so they cant be sold. Getting free loot that sells for good gold with practically no effirt at all is bad for the game economy, good for gold sellers.

[quote="Turelus;3735691"Rather than make the content less accessible why not make the content better scaled. Dolmens already scale with the number of players in the area to bring in more monsters, why not have that scale system also work to buff the monsters power levels and HP. Yes this slows down the content slightly for larger groups but doesn't make their gear grind a chore or daily.

Yes, they should scale better, not the amount of monsters but the overall streth and survivability. They should be strong enough so that players cant watch TV and afk spam AOE on dolmens, Monsters and generally maybe dolmen could do aoe damage, red zones randsomly everywhere, Molag Bal attacks, it should feel like a daedric prince is invading, not a bunch of babies.

[quote="Turelus;3735691"Additionally they could always have the Fighters Guild daily quests give a random Dolmen jewellery item upon completion.[/quote]

Yes, good idea as long as they are BOP.

All of that does not negate the need to change dolmen spawns random so that they cant be rotated.. Playstyles that do not require any skill or effort should not be encouraged, being logged on is not investing money but in this kind of activity, is waste of server resources and hurts low end machines.

[/quote]

Well you got incredibly lucky or are lying.

People complain when dolmens were useless and dead and now they complain when they are busy. Make up your mind.

If you are not there for gear which 99% of people are then you after achievements or quests or something which means you only have to do them once. Whats the problem.

Tapio75 · January 2017

Lets not pull arbitrary number out of hat.

anyways, the people i have talked with dolmens and in zone chat more often say, that they are doing them for xp to level fast, less people say they are there for the gear.

The problem is, that while they were useless to some people in the past, they were still part of the story for others and doing them because it is fighting against Molag Bal and its daedric invasion. We can stil do them for the latter reason, but it does not feel like dangerous daedric invasion anymore but just a joke with these zergs.

Problem with ZOS in this case as in some others as well is, that when they try to make something appealing to players, they go from one side to other extreme. Before they were there for achievments and fighters guild. Now they are there also for the gear thats too goo and drops too often, not necessarily the gear you need burt something you can sell anyways, this gear should be BoP so it cant be farmed for any other reason but to get the gear, there should also be other, less intrusive means to get said gear. They give too much XP for players, they should be so, that first time on eaach dolmen gives good xp, like it is with fighters guild xp and the second and afterwards, much less xp. If you dont bother to play to levbel up but just afk farm xp or gear, you should not be playing in the first place.

And the monsters should always pose a threat to players, no matter how many there are and they should not be so weak that they can be slayed by looking mean to them.

Sausage · January 2017

It sucks, what if there was some Dome around it and only those who were inside when it was being opened are able to do it. Yeah, kind of last man standing type of thing. I hate scaling myself, its just so unrealistic and simply stupid. Dome would make it more intensive, no more running away from it etc, fight or die.

Redesigning Dolmens wouldnt be that bad idea, what if player could choose when opening the Dolmen, solo, group or raid? Then Dome appears and its fight on! Put some love into Dolmens would increase the quality of the game.

Tapio75 · January 2017

Sausage wrote: »

It sucks, what if there was some Dome around it and only those who were inside when it was being opened are able to do it. Yeah, kind of last man standing type of thing. I hate scaling myself, its just so unrealistic and simply stupid. Dome would make it more intensive, no more running away from it etc, fight or die.

Redesigning Dolmens wouldnt be that bad idea, what if player could choose when opening the Dolmen, solo, group or raid? Then Dome appears and its fight on! Put some love into Dolmens would increase the quality of the game.

Soon after launch, i got an idea that there should be evil storyline as well, siding with Molly/Mannimarco.. By siding with Mannimarco, you would be the one opening the Dolmen with a ritual, then those accepted to Fighters guild and siding with prophet, would be able to counterattack the Dolmen site, resulting in battle between players of both sides.. That would have been interesting, but there is the problem that PVE players would be out of dolmens completely and thats not good either. Why PVP? Once, i played EVE online and the open world PVP appealed to me there, risk versus gain and what not.. It would have been interesting here as well, im not a fan of areas dedicated to PVP while other areas are completely out of PVP.

Tapio75 · January 2017

Odd, every day the zerg lot seems to get larger, at beginning of öasy week, it was still tolerable but know its just ridiculous..

Im pretty sure there is no gear farming going on here. ZOS has created the homesteads and everyone wants the most expensive house and are now farming stuff to sell and gold sellers are doing the same to sell people gold when they want their homes.

Please randomize anchor spawns and make gear bop.

Nestor · January 2017

All they need to do is revert the Dolmen Spawn Timer back to what it was a year ago. I think it was even sped up with Witches Festival making it even worse.

In the early days, I dolmen spawn was an event worthy of a Zone Chat blast as they happened every 15 minutes or so. The game was changed so that now after 5 minutes it just takes an approach of a player to spawn them. With 3 dolmens in a zone, and the travel time between them, a near constant rotation can be set up by a Zerg.

While it's nice to be able to grind out the dolmens, it does need to be reduced somewhat. Just not so much as to discourage the Fighters Guild Daily from being something people want to do.