For the Grind I blame . . . myself (partially)

Messy1 · April 2017

A lot of players complain about the grind to get certain gear, crafting writs, motif collecting, etc.

Well, I'm just beginning to realize that I have inflicted a sense of grinding on myself!

I have 10 characters, 1 master crafter (who crafts everything and furnishings), 4 other crafters, 5 thieving characters, 1 dungeon runner/trial character, 3 other respectable dungeon running characters, 1 lame duck character, maybe some other categories.

Maybe I just need to delete some characters so I don't feel so overwhelmed. Only problem is that 9 of them are now at CP 750+

I love making alternative characyers, but the biggest issue is the grind to get skill points, but then again I look at it as an opportunity to farm mats at the same time.

Curragraigue · April 2017

I share with you the confusing feelings of both joy at the diversity and options that it gives to have multiple characters for getting multiple dailies done to the despair of grinding levels, skill points, guild skill lines, PvP skill lines and obtaining BiS gear for them all. I have nine max another in the high 30s, two lowby mules and plans on two Wardens.

Pity me as I exalt in my confusing emotions at the bottom of my new character screen of altoholisim.

PS if they ever raise gear cap without an easy way to increase current gear to the new cap you will find me curled up in a ball in the corner.

Turelus · April 2017

ESO is not an alt friendly game.

Just find the bits which are fun and do that with each character. The main story for your faction will give you enough SP. Do a single good build.

Knootewoot · April 2017

Once you start the grind madness it is probably hard to stop. You make 10 alts and you feel you HAVE to do all writs on all characters. Even days you don't want to do it, you still do it afraid you might miss out on something.

I am glad I look past that. I have one toon (yes a mastercrafter as well) but I never do writs. It is not fun and I only do things in a game which are fun. Alts are no fun either. I don't like any of the other classes. I tried though. I do want to do the story once again and hope Warden will keep my interest longer then leaving the wailing prison.

I remember when I first played SWG where you could only create one toon per server (in the pre-CU era). People felt more connected to their character as they infested all the time they had on that toon. These days people have so many alts, even their main character is nothing but a grind mule and is a mere toss away product.

In the end though, people who grind have more mats/gold and whatnot. But after the end, when (maybe 10 years from now) @Zos pulls the plug... we all have the same.

raglau · April 2017

Indeed, there's very little grind if you have 1 char as you can naturally get all you need from just experiencing the content. When I had only one char I found ESO a thoroughly enjoyable game.

When I wanted to try to make some different chars, the grind kicked in. The game is not alt friendly at all, I mean even the fact the achievements are not account wide is a bit peculiar for this type of game.

I'm now max level and have a char of each type and for what? The end-game is so thin and poorly implemented that I realise there was no point arriving at the end. I now seldom play, I come here to read what you lot have to say, but I've actually not logged in a char for 10 days and I've cancelled my sub. All these games suffer from this sort of thing to a certain extent, but in ESO the problem of no end-game seems particularly obvious. I guess they want us to PvP as the end-game, but it's so horrid and very badly implemented.

I advise all new players to just enjoy the journey, because for the most part that is very well implemented.

Beardimus · April 2017

I'm with you @Turelus, focus on the one Main and do it all with him. Then the Alt's are just for fun.

I guess mainly as my play time is VERY limited. if I diversify too much I don't get everything done I want to.

ScytheNL · April 2017

This is why I have one character. Sure I made two more in both other factions, but they both sit at level 5, which they gained traveling the country to secure the deed for each of the free Inn rooms.

Duiwel · April 2017

Can confirm it takes me forever to just log in on all my alts for the mails, if I do writs on them all I run out of cloth and wood so fast...

Turelus · April 2017

Beardimus wrote: »

I'm with you Turelus, focus on the one Main and do it all with him. Then the Alt's are just for fun.

I guess mainly as my play time is VERY limited. if I diversify too much I don't get everything done I want to.

I know that all too well. I hate playing my alts and knowing nothing I do will help my completionist character. One thing I enjoyed about the SWTOR legacy system was it was account based and very alt friendly.

Kiralyn2000 · April 2017

Huh, and here I was thinking ESO (between the Collection which gives all characters access to mementos/mounts/costumes/etc; and CP being shared) was very alt-friendly.

But I suppose it's different depending on how focused one is on things like "all skill points" "all crafting traits" or "Vet Trial Geared" for ones' alts. Yes, if you have to have all your characters super maxed out, I could see it being alt-unfriendly.

Alpheu5 · April 2017

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

Huh, and here I was thinking ESO (between the Collection which gives all characters access to mementos/mounts/costumes/etc; and CP being shared) was very alt-friendly.

But I suppose it's different depending on how focused one is on things like "all skill points" "all crafting traits" or "Vet Trial Geared" for ones' alts. Yes, if you have to have all your characters super maxed out, I could see it being alt-unfriendly.

We've entered a period where it's extremely alt-friendly because the gear cap hasn't been raised in a year and a half, when you reach level 50 you're immediately made your maximum CP level, any gear you have on one maxed character can be transferred and used between other max characters, and getting most sets that were difficult before are way easier now, in better slots and traits.

When vet levels were still a thing, I don't know of anybody that grinded their crafting characters all the way to v16. Maybe v1 or v2 at the most to get access to Belkarth, but that was it.

I myself started playing my Nightblade waaaaay more often when vet levels were removed (it was v5 when that happened, after months of slogging through content), because I didn't have to deal with having to craft new armor for him every 2 levels, and I got access to all of Tamriel.

max_only · April 2017

Turelus wrote: »

ESO is not an alt friendly game.

Just find the bits which are fun and do that with each character. The main story for your faction will give you enough SP. Do a single good build.

Disagreement.

I have two AD Bosmer and I play the quests with both of them, choosing opposite dialogue choices just to see the outcomes. I like seeing the changes in game. For example that one village in greenshade is different for each of them, and the npcs reaction speeches are different. I found the AD quests very fun to play. Also it lets me flex my critical thinking skills because I have to strategize differently for their classes. I'm going to do the entire game, including Cadwells with each f them and I enjoy it.

I have two Blues as well but I found the quests to be boring. I leveled them though, and one is a master blacksmith but eh.

I had two Reds but I couldn't stand the community - maybe I just keep getting unlucky being rezzed in with the worst. :shrug

I don't call them alts, I call them my 2 mains + one blue.

Fleshreaper · April 2017

Turelus wrote: »

ESO is not an alt friendly game.

Just find the bits which are fun and do that with each character. The main story for your faction will give you enough SP. Do a single good build.

I have to disagree with that. Sometimes when farming alts are a must have. Trinimac, Malicath, Order of Hour, Minotar, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Glass, and holiday Motifs are all easier to get when farmed on alts as well. You can run dailies once and have one chance at a motif or run it 5 times for 5 chances. I suggest focusing on one motif at a time, run your alts through that daily, then if there is enough time, move to a different motif. This is how I have completed most of my motif sets.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · April 2017

Playing alts can give the game a new lease of life for you.
Yes getting skill points, undaunted, mages guild, horse training etc is a hassle but it's worth it.

Think of it like this: you're a max cp player who's only ever played a mag sorc; you create a new character let's say a mag dk, the play style is completely different and you may find you prefer one of your alts over your main.

Making alts of each different class spec is so worth it imo, the grind is annoying but not so bad. Before you had to get the alt all the way to v16.

psychotic13 · April 2017

This is true, I deleted a few of mine and focused on about 4 rather than 8, I enjoy the game more now cause the 4 characters I have left are all geared and I can spend time doing what I want instead of running dungeon after dungeon

MakoFore · April 2017

i have 1 main that i have all my achievements with- 3 others that I do crafting writs with- and the other 4 I'm levelling. i simply get bored playing one class- i like the diversity of the four classes- and magicka and stamina on both. it gets boring wrecking blowing with one guy- and all classes are fun in their own way. its fun going from being a templar magicka healer to a night blade stamina tank- to a stam DK session- to going out into cyro with my stam sorc, to doing my DB pledges with my stam blade. its grindy building them up and getting the shards- but once you complete the set- you feel a sense of emptiness- so much so that some are tempted to start again....which i have done. i ve done all of the above on the EU server- 8 complete toons- and now am starting on my NA set- i have to say - if you embrace the grind- its fun starting over with no resources, but I'm looking forward to getting to BG and having both servers available with all classes. Need a stamplar in the team ? let me relog- need a stam sorc tank? yeah gimme a minute. thats going to be awesome. but building them all up with undaunted and all that is a big big time investment. but the more time I've invested in each character- the more i love em i guess. the one thing that does suck- completely - its having to re-farm all the gear. if there was one thing that would make ALT life friendlier- it would be making the farming of gear less RNG- and easier. would it suck so bad if evyerone had access to BIS gear? then we could all focus on actually playing the game and not accumulating and farming all the time.

seriously my weekly distribution of time is roughly like this
5 % - writs , feeding horses , shopping- looking for deals, and posting things for sale.
5 % - brotherhood, craglorn quest dailies, etc for motifs and stuff.
5 % - undaunted dailies- hardly any time for this nowadays.
10 % - grinding- skyshard catacombs- sewers, cold harbour, etc- though some weeks- this can be like half my time...esp during 2XP periods
20 % - collecting shards, lore books, skill quests to build up my newer alts.
40 % - farming for gear like BSW, spinners, BSW, necropotence, BSW, rattle cage, BSW, BSW, BSW, BSW
5 % - inventory management- a little game i like to call INVENTORY TETRIS.
5% - actually PLAYING end game content- i.e., fighting in cyrodil, Imperial city, duels, Trials, dungeons challenges, the stuff that you actually build your character to do.

how can we get around this ?
- by making sets easier to obtain-
- by making aLTS quicker to level. e.g give alts starting amounts of loreboks, shards and skill pts dependant on levels. sure there are ideas about this
- by making some achievements account wide- and hence skill points too. there are ways to integrate this to give account achievements - to not dilute the activity too- for example - give points account wide for completing certain quests and dungeons, quests , etc, but give further rewards for doing more- for example an avhiemevent for completing maelstrom with all classes- account wide. a title too. give ahicemenvets and skills for doing each dungeon with each class- but moreso with each role- healer, tank and DD. ahicement wide titles thru cyrodil- for getting AP, etc.
- sure there are plenty of ideas out there- but ZOS seem reluctant to implement what we want- so who knows. guess we re stuck with the system we have.

Inklings · April 2017

I have 20 Max level characters. 12 of them are cp907 and 8 are cp390. All 20 of them have all six of the writ professions maxed out and 80%—100% traits learned depending how long I have had that character.. That means I do 120 writs a day and I have so for almost 8 months straight. I do not feel bogged down or that it was a worthless grind. The key to playing many alts and being happy is efficiency. I could go into details but it would be a really boring wall of text to most players.. I'd be happy to answer any questions asked about how I play so many toons or you can catch me stream sometime for an even better understanding how I manage so many characters. I can't post my twitch info but you can find me easily via my forum name.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · April 2017

Inklings wrote: »

I have 20 Max level characters. 12 of them are cp907 and 8 are cp390. All 20 of them have all six of the writ professions maxed out and 80%—100% traits learned depending how long I have had that character.. That means I do 120 writs a day and I have so for almost 8 months strait. I do not feel bogged down or that it was a worthless grind. The key to playing many alts and being happy is efficiency. I could go into details but it would be a really boring wall of text to most players.. I'd be happy to answer any questions asked about how I play so many toons or you can catch me stream sometime for an even better understanding how I manage so many characters. I can't post my twitch info but you can find me easily via my forum name.

Damn that's some dedication, you must've a lot of free time to do that 8 months straight.
20 characters a day, are you a gold hoarder by any chance?

parkham · April 2017

I got 4 to CP level and had all I could stand. Now I just cycle through 3 of them daily, but mainly play Nord DK

WalksonGraves · April 2017

I have been on a tank since launch and I'm just hitting cp 560 now.
LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!
roll dps, grind, respec.

Inklings · April 2017

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

Inklings wrote: »

I have 20 Max level characters. 12 of them are cp907 and 8 are cp390. All 20 of them have all six of the writ professions maxed out and 80%—100% traits learned depending how long I have had that character.. That means I do 120 writs a day and I have so for almost 8 months strait. I do not feel bogged down or that it was a worthless grind. The key to playing many alts and being happy is efficiency. I could go into details but it would be a really boring wall of text to most players.. I'd be happy to answer any questions asked about how I play so many toons or you can catch me stream sometime for an even better understanding how I manage so many characters. I can't post my twitch info but you can find me easily via my forum name.

Damn that's some dedication, you must've a lot of free time to do that 8 months straight.
20 characters a day, are you a gold hoarder by any chance?

It actually only takes me a little over and hour to do 120 writs. Again its all about efficiency.

I'm not as much of a gold holder as I am a gold seeker lol. I have millions of gold and can't spend it faster then I make it. What I find most impressive from the amount of writs I do is my hoards of thousands of legendary upgrade materials.

DaveMoeDee · April 2017

Turelus wrote: »

ESO is not an alt friendly game.

Just find the bits which are fun and do that with each character. The main story for your faction will give you enough SP. Do a single good build.

Single good build? Seems like a major loss. Playing each class, especially the wildly different magicka versions, is a ton of fun.

DaveMoeDee · April 2017

Inklings wrote: »

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

Inklings wrote: »

I have 20 Max level characters. 12 of them are cp907 and 8 are cp390. All 20 of them have all six of the writ professions maxed out and 80%—100% traits learned depending how long I have had that character.. That means I do 120 writs a day and I have so for almost 8 months strait. I do not feel bogged down or that it was a worthless grind. The key to playing many alts and being happy is efficiency. I could go into details but it would be a really boring wall of text to most players.. I'd be happy to answer any questions asked about how I play so many toons or you can catch me stream sometime for an even better understanding how I manage so many characters. I can't post my twitch info but you can find me easily via my forum name.

Damn that's some dedication, you must've a lot of free time to do that 8 months straight.
20 characters a day, are you a gold hoarder by any chance?

It actually only takes me a little over and hour to do 120 writs. Again its all about efficiency.

I'm not as much of a gold holder as I am a gold seeker lol. I have millions of gold and can't spend it faster then I make it. What I find most impressive from the amount of writs I do is my hoards of thousands of legendary upgrade materials.

Writs are really fast on PC with the right addons. And if you have the space, you can just stockpile instead of crafting each time since it just repeats. If you are all max level at crafting, you can grab writs in craglorn, open banker assistant to auto-pull food and potions with the character specific stuff in personal inventory, and drop off immediately. Just craft items with the more active characters who can't keep slots full.

Even if you people go to crafting stations, it is pretty fast with the right addons.

BRogueNZ · April 2017

If you're a fan of micro management and logistics then alts at least keep your mind occupied.

I've a single main but want some non craft skill points back so I now have an Orc slave for mastering consumables
Some crafting passives are pretty nice to have so most of my alts are a jack of all trades to an extent.

If you craft on them all the craft bag pretty much a necessity which I think is a shame.
That's the grind you just not bother with and the need to feed mounts -login- talk -to -npc, log out that's the game play we are forced to experience... unless you buy crown packs. also a shame

flguy147ub17_ESO · April 2017

Think about how you played your first MMO ever at the beginning of it. You never felt the grind cause you didnt feel "obligated" to do things in it to not get behind and progress. You did what was fun. If you didnt log on for a few days its no big deal you didnt progress. Well atleast that is how i played my first MMO, now i get caught up in, "i have to do this so i dont miss out or get behind" instead of doing what is actually fun. Its my fault pretty much everytime.

parkham · April 2017

My view is "you'll never catch up". So I don't let anything in this game dictate to me that I should log on every day to do writs or anything for that matter.

Keep playing if it's still fun and just quit if it no longer is. No game is supposed to be tantamount to a second job.

zaria · April 2017

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

Playing alts can give the game a new lease of life for you.
Yes getting skill points, undaunted, mages guild, horse training etc is a hassle but it's worth it.

Think of it like this: you're a max cp player who's only ever played a mag sorc; you create a new character let's say a mag dk, the play style is completely different and you may find you prefer one of your alts over your main.

Making alts of each different class spec is so worth it imo, the grind is annoying but not so bad. Before you had to get the alt all the way to v16.

This, I did an sorc from start, then started an templar as sorc did not work as healer at that point and was nerfed hard.
Returning I'm slowly questing with my templar, sorc is master crafter, an healer is way easier to pug with

Messy1 · April 2017

Duiwel wrote: »

Can confirm it takes me forever to just log in on all my alts for the mails, if I do writs on them all I run out of cloth and wood so fast...

I've recently started disabling all addons except for the "lazy writ crafter" in order to log in quicker and take care of daily tasks lol