The Alikr dolmen madness

GimpyPorcupine · December 2017

I just don't get grinding anyway. You don't learn the character, and you don't have enough skill points to have any flexibility in your build. I've leveled all my characters by questing, and that was even faster for my two Wardens since the Morrowind update increased the XP you get from quests. During a double-XP event, you can do the newbie zones for all alliances, then start the alliance story quests, and if you get the public dungeons, all skyshards, and all delves in the zones, you'll hit 50 by the third alliance zone, which is Rivenspire for all of my toons. Plus you actually have enough skill points to work with.

randomkeyhits · December 2017

If I have a character that is not level 50 then dolmen + event + spare exp scrolls and just get them to 50 asap. Afterwards I'll even park the character for a while just logging in to do mount training and the next research items.

When I'm ready I'll take the character through the story missions knowing all drops will remain relevant and it all contributes to CP.

I don't use it to skip doing any content, just the annoying levels 1-49 and constant gear discard as I progress.

bhagwad · December 2017

To people saying that leveling with Dolmens is useless, and you can't do anything after you hit 50, that's not true. I levelled up my Sorc with Dolmens and hit 32k DPS on the target dummy on day 1 since I had all the gear lying around.

Never played a sorc before. No undaunted. No mages. Even some of my skill lines were not levelled up! Here's the dummy parse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdzZLtQCSVY

Dolmens are a perfectly legit way to grind up. You can learn your class for real afterwards.

tinythinker · December 2017

phileunderx2 wrote: »

For some players the dolmen grind is their primary playing experience on ESO. There is a person who posts streams all the time and this is what they do 70 % of the time. Every now and then they que for a dungeon and single spam skill their way through it. Fun stuff.

Do people watch?

phileunderx2 · December 2017

tinythinker wrote: »

phileunderx2 wrote: »

For some players the dolmen grind is their primary playing experience on ESO. There is a person who posts streams all the time and this is what they do 70 % of the time. Every now and then they que for a dungeon and single spam skill their way through it. Fun stuff.

Do people watch?

Yes, they get views. Varies from 2 or 3 to around 100 ish. I fast forward to see if there are any dungeon runs. Kinda train wreckish.

ADarklore · December 2017

So apparently "I" am the ONLY person who actually enjoys Dolemen grinding? I honestly find it a lot of fun, don't know why, but look forward to it on every new character I create. It's an easy way to level your skill lines and also receive several Dolemen achievements along the way- including the General Executioner achievement and receive the Daedric Lord Slayer title.

Although, before even doing the Dolemens I complete the first eight Main Quests, so I already have extra skill points. After running the Dolemens and leveling a character and all the skill lines I want, I then head out and collect Skyshards and Lorebooks before beginning the other quests.

Also keep in mind that I have a full set of Training gear for every 10 levels in both Light and Medium armor... level 1, 6, 10, 20, 30, 40, and CP150. After leveling, I switch to my primary CP160 gear. I've leveled numerous characters, probably the funnest time I have in ESO is just leveling... but after leveling I usually get completely bored with the character. Not because of the grinding of Dolemens but because of the lack of actual character 'growth'. Once you have everything your character needs, there really is NOTHING left for you to work towards to benefit your character growth wise; I'm already a year ahead in CP so gaining more right now is pointless. That was the one thing I really liked about DCUO... each new 'zone' was a higher level and offered new gear to attain in order to raise your 'level'... with One Tamriel, growth at the max end is non-existent. One Tamriel was both a blessing and a curse... a blessing because I no longer needed to stress out about going to higher level zones to collect skyshards/lorebooks but also a curse because there was no longer any growth to be gained for open-world solo players.

leeux · December 2017

I dolmen-grinded 3 of my alt-chars back to back on the Halloween event in 2016... and almost got a fourth to L40. And I'm just now finished to grind MG and skyshards on the last one I got to CP cap back then

@Nestor is right about the fact that is more efficient to level up while doing the skyshard and lore book hunt, but there's another fact about it... Dolmen grind is easier and you don't need to worry about gear at all, just follow the train and you'll be safe.

In my case, at that time, I preferred to wait until my alts were at CP160 to start doing "serious" activities, since I know that as soon as I hit the cap I can equip all the juicy gear I have hoarded on them.

Truth is, I haven't leveled a single extra char since then... that event killed my will to level new alts at all

lol

If I ever decide to level up a new character, I'd probably do it as Nestor says it and take it easy and slowly, day by day.

EDIT: typos

duendology · December 2017

This Alikr's "Triad" as I am calling it, is an utter madness! The dolmen then looks like explosion in a fireworks factory!
If you don't throw some AOE or alike it's difficult to do some damage as mobs drop like flies... the boss included. It's hilarious in a way. Dolmens are fun when there are 5 players...not 50/100!

When I first discovered it, the horde of players (so often with the triple horde of pets) going from one dolmen to dolmen I was like "wtf". I joined this "raid" one time.. but after one "rotation" (three dolmens) I wanted to cut my wrists with stale bread..
so... nope..

monktoasty · December 2017

I rather be lvl 50 doing quests and sky's hard hunting..adding to my cp then do it lower lilting slow. It's super slow leveling g with quests

Kuramas9tails · December 2017

The area chat drama is great though.

dainswulf · December 2017

I've leveled up multiple accounts/characters bouncing from PC to console to PC. 1-50 is just old, and if I really feel like 'grinding' then I will and then get burnt out, go do dolmens and watch tv while I'm 'running' them.

I don't necessarily agree new players should never do this, even after lvl 50 they open world content is so easy compared to other MMO's they can learn how to play then if they choose to.

I think that's the one feature ESO trumps all other MMO's on, you can do what you want when you want and there's usually multiple different ways to accomplish these things.

I wouldn't tell a new player to learn crafting by gathering all the mats and crafting all the items, trying to sell lvl 40 food to support their crafting costs. Instead I'd tell them to craft nothing, deconstruct everything they aren't researching and 'learn' crafting and the markets for crafted items after they're max level in all crafts.

D0PAMINE · December 2017

Dolmens used to be a special solo event for me. I cant do them now because it's not fun for me with 32+ players spamming arrow spray, steel tornado and lightning flood before I can even get a hit in. The only way I can finish General Executioner is by joining a group? What a waste.

D0PAMINE · December 2017

Dolmens used to be a special solo event for me. I cant do them now because it's not fun for me with 32+ players spamming arrow spray, steel tornado and lightning flood before I can even get a hit in. The only way I can finish General Executioner is by joining a group? What a waste.

kringled_1 · December 2017

Alik'r is a special case. During the Witchmother event, I got some of my bosses from whatever dolmens were my Fighter's guild daily. Most of them, no issue getting credit for the boss kill. Auridon, I missed one, Deshaan I missed one one time. Alik'r I missed all of them. Most of the other zones have at least 1-2 dolmens at which you stand a good chance of only being there with a few players, just find the more out of the way ones.
And yes, I agree with the OP, dolmens get old fast. I can see the advantage in that you can level without finding effective gear but it just sounds like no fun to me. I only do them for Fighter's guild or when it's a zone I'm looking for the jewelry.

LadyLethalla · December 2017

While I don't think I'll make another character unless there's a new class, a few of my characters still need skill points. If you're looking for 7 easily obtainable skill points then look no further than the CWC main quest.

Mind you... after doing it 4 or 5 times now I'm totally damn sick of it xD

TazESO · December 2017

Nestor wrote: »

Here is the worst part about Dolmen Grinding a character, you only have 64 Skill Points when your done. No matter what your CP Rank is, a 64 Skill Point character is pretty useless.

What people really need to Grind are the Skyshards and Lore Books. And, here is the other irony, if you just chase the skyshards, your at L50 before you find enough to have 150 Skill Points so your not wasting that initial L50 Grind. So, it's kind of a waste of time in the long run to just get to L50 first.

Here is a better way:

Let me give you an example of what I did with my leveling characters.

1. I collected all the Skyshards in the zone. I avoided any and all quests other than those that show up in the delves that have skyshards. These quests do not give set items for rewards so no loss there.
2. I would farm the dolmens a few times to get set jewelry that helped my character
3. I would do the Public Dungeons including all the bosses
4. Then I would move to the next zone. Figure about 2 to 3 hours per zone all in all. Less if you rush it.

In doing this, I could fully gear up my character with level appropriate stuff, and it was helpful gear. May not have been the best, but you don't need the best while leveling. Any gear I farmed from Dolmens or PD's is repeatable, so I can get it at CP160 by just repeating. Then, I had all the content quests left for me once I reached CP160 as those can give you sweet Set Drops in good traits you want. And, Quest Experience is huge for gaining CPs once your past CP160. Kind of a waste before that.

In about 8 zones (16 to 25 hours), I would be fully leveled in Mages, Fighters, Class, 3 Armors and Weapon Skills. Leaving only Undaunted to level, although I would get to almost 3 in that from Dungeon Achievements. Sure you can get to L50 in 4 to 10 hours with a Dolmen or Skyreach Grind, but your still going to spend the 16 to 25 hours on the other stuff afterwards.

This is basically how I level my characters now.

zaria · December 2017

Note that the huge dolmen zegs don't give good xp, your xp gain is reduced in large groups. Solo you have an hard time doing enough damage on mobs to get xp, you might even not get it on boss.

However dolems with 4-12 players give lots of xp, you will be able to tag most enemies and dolmen scaling give lots of mobs to kill. Its probably smart to go for less used ones even if you only manage two in an rotation.
i used the Ardudin ones in off hours, focus on the two top ones, the lower was always zerged even in slow hours during the witchmother event.

Public dungeons is nice for grinding, might be a bit to crowded however.
normal maelstrom arena is nice to do during peak hour, same with the daily random normal dungeon

Betsararie · December 2017

Grinding alikr is incredibly unfun, which is what it is supposed to be.

Grinding xp is never fun, you do it to achieve the end result of a leveled toon.

So the question of- "where is the fun", is of course ridiculous. There is none. You're grinding xp.

Runefang · December 2017

The fun is getting to max level faster.

We've all smelt the roses, now we just want to smell Rakkhat or St. Olms blood!

I don't get why people care that other people are playing the game differently?

I don't care that you're doing these 'quests' that are so 'fun' even though they're so easy its pointless.

pod88kk · December 2017

Storm_knight22 wrote: »

You should join the group and place witch mother's brew , the jubilee cake or strange meat over where the chest spawns. It is also fun to aggro the daedroth near the stables dolmen just before the chest spawns, It will use its knockback AoE attack and the whole group will be sent flying!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Ul0qSQgeA

You've just earned yourself an insightful