Should the PvE ( "old" open world) area difficulty be increased?

Aireal · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

lagrue wrote: »

Voice_of_Chronicles wrote: »

The poll didn't have my answer; yes and no. Firstly, no they should not change the default values of the stats in regards to normal content - what they should do, is exactly what every other ES to date has done... a toggle for difficulty which modifies the incoming and outgoing damage by set amounts. Have a Veteran Mode toggle where all of a sudden the player is only doing 0.75x the damage, while taking 1.25x you know? (just random numbers, not actual recommended values.)

This game is largely casual in its playerbase, and so messing with the baseline game would mess with the majority of players - but a simple toggle makes it so it doesn't even have to be that way.

.25x dealt damage by player = 3x damage by NPC's... is the way Legendary difficulty works in Skyrim.. and while the lower levels can be.. tough, once you start leveling the crafts it becomes insanely easy.

Which mean's by the time the players that already think this game is easy.. reach a high CP, with top tier armor and weapons, the best potions and provisions and actually know how to use those skills they have.. the difficulty becomes moot.. same as it does in Skyrim.

That, by the way, is the main problem with making the game generically harder... how are you making it harder? Can it be gotten around by just crafting better armor, weapons, potions, enchanted items? Because if it can.. why bother?.

So for instance, Zos makes a "veteran" mode that works like Skyrims Legendary.. . You can just make better gear to compensate for the greater damage dealt by the NPC's.

So how do you make a game a challenge for players with a 400cp and not insane for those with a 160cp and not a walk in the park for a player with a 600cp?

That is my main issue with making the overworld harder.. who exactly is your base? And really what does one consider hard?

The "legendary" route is.. easy to get around.. A Survival mode ( like in FallOut ) is tedious for some people. What is hard for one person, might be easy to someone else.

Ratzkifal · May 2019

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

Just went onto NA and did just that. To challenge myself I went into a delve and fought 6 enemies at the same time with two armor pieces on (light chest, medium pants). It's still pretty easy. The delve boss was a bit tougher, but not an issue. If I had worn a full set of armor, eaten some food, used my potions, that fight would have been very onesided. Even without cc on my skill bar, no food, no potions and obviously no weapon swap, the game is very easy. Experience just makes too much of a difference. As soon as you got the hang of it, the overworld is not challenging anymore. That can be completely fine if the rewards for Overworld content are still good and worth it, but I miss the times when I knew running into an area like a mad person was a bad idea.

Public dungeons are a different story. I went into Crow's Wood with the same equipment and two new levels. While wolves were no problem even in packs of 10, 4 wisps were already able to overwhelm me. I had no chance to win against one of the bosses there alone. While I find public dungeons not very challenging on 810CP, they are about the right difficulty I would want to see Overworld be. Public dungeons may very well be buffed too to become an actual challenge for veteran players looking for a solo challenge, or something you can do in a group with friends.

Generally I feel like adding new rewards would be the best solution as everyone profits from it. Mounts, pets, cosmetics, perhaps special lore related crafting motifs like a House Dres style we are still missing, a latent vampiric outfit from Rivenspire, Alik'r Bedouin style, Wood Orc style - there are so many options! The investment for ZOS would be worth it too, because more content to grind means more active play time, means more ESO+ subscription, healthier queue times for content and more potential purchases.

Voice_of_Chronicles · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

Aireal wrote: »

So how do you make a game a challenge for players with a 400cp and not insane for those with a 160cp and not a walk in the park for a player with a 600cp?

That is my main issue with making the overworld harder.. who exactly is your base? And really what does one consider hard?

The "legendary" route is.. easy to get around.. A Survival mode ( like in FallOut ) is tedious for some people. What is hard for one person, might be easy to someone else.

That's absolutely true...it will be for the devs and players to decide that. Maybe split it into CP tiers... or maybe just increase difficulty somewhat overall but...

Right now the way PvE in overland zones and delves feels just doesn't bring across the element of threat the quests suggest. This needs to be addressed imo. ^^

Aireal · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Voice_of_Chronicles wrote: »

That's absolutely true...it will be for the devs and players to decide that. Maybe split it into CP tiers... or maybe just increase difficulty somewhat overall but...

Right now the way PvE in overland zones and delves feels just doesn't bring across the element of threat the quests suggest. This needs to be addressed imo. ^^

I like the Tiered CP idea..

Some area's of the overworld I find.. a challenge, some are pretty easy. Of course, it also depends on the character. Though as I said before, none of them are over 50...and none of them will get over 50 till most of them are right around there.

Poor Baran will have a pretty long wait.. my Thief is pretty slow ( or I just don't have as much fun playing a Thief)

srfrogg23 · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

I think it's fine. Play a character without crafted/dungeon sets, food buffs, or CP and the open world content will feel very different.

Strider__Roshin · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

When I first started this game after it freshly launched it was too easy. My buddy and I 2-manned group dungeons for fun, and this was before we had a heal. I also used to go to zones back in the day that we double my level for fun, and craglorn was amazing back in the day! I remember being VR1 soloing the area and feeling like a boss, and I took pride in soloing the story. And when they came out with imperial City doing vWGT and vIP was challenging and enjoyable, and I used to live in those sewers. Then after that they came out with vMA and man was it great going through that. I wore stormproof with pride until I got Flawless Conquerer.

Now everything scales to your level, and they've nerfed the difficulty to Oblivion.

I used to enjoy killing NPCs in this game, but now it's an absolute joke. The game went from enjoyable to boring as hell in order to appease entitled players that hate the idea of struggling.

Now I only play this game for PvP, and I play games like Monster Hunter World, Sekiro, or Dark Soul like games for PvE. Code Vein has actually caught my attention, and I'm looking forward to MHW's Iceborne expansion in September.

mateosalvaje · May 2019

I think it would be great if the Normal/ Veteran toggle could apply to more content like delves and overland. But that's something I've been saying for years

AndyMac · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

I’ve levelled a toon with no CP applied and under level gear - the game seems stuck on easy mode.

I can agree that maybe not ALL areas in a particular zone should be hard but there should be at least some areas/quests/delves whatever that should be challenging without needed to run a dungeon or trial.

Newer players would be advised they may need to return to them - doesn’t seem a big deal to me.

SydneyGrey · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

jainiadral wrote: »

Making the game more difficult by default will drive ME as a vet away. And that's using all my CP. I don't play games for a challenge. I play them for story and to chillax in an immersive world. I don't play to have an adrenaline rush-- well, maybe if I find the combat enjoyable. But then only in small doses. And only if the game has a gentle learning curve.

For the most part, that's how I feel. I like a challenge, but I don't want every trash mob in the place to be a life-or-death struggle. I like questing and immersion, not just randomly killing mobs. If people want a more difficult zone, they can solo Craglorn, or solo world bosses, or do DLC dungeons/trials.
The biggest point, though, is that an overall harder difficulty across-the-board would drive away new players, who would just get frustrated because they were always dying, and just leave to play another game.

Aireal · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

SydneyGrey wrote: »

jainiadral wrote: »

Making the game more difficult by default will drive ME as a vet away. And that's using all my CP. I don't play games for a challenge. I play them for story and to chillax in an immersive world. I don't play to have an adrenaline rush-- well, maybe if I find the combat enjoyable. But then only in small doses. And only if the game has a gentle learning curve.

For the most part, that's how I feel. I like a challenge, but I don't want every trash mob in the place to be a life-or-death struggle. I like questing and immersion, not just randomly killing mobs. If people want a more difficult zone, they can solo Craglorn, or solo world bosses, or do DLC dungeons/trials.
The biggest point, though, is that an overall harder difficulty across-the-board would drive away new players, who would just get frustrated because they were always dying, and just leave to play another game.

I bought this game to explore... that was the main reason. When I bought it, I used my cell phone as a hot-spot and could not do most dungeons, world bosses or even Dolemans.. the lag was sooo bad that half the time my character was dead before they knew it!

It took me 2 days just to download the game.. I played for a day or so and really thought about if the game was worth paying for just for the exploration. I explored more... and decided I did want the game, I could deal with just exploring ( and fighting regular NPC's that attacked ).

We moved to town and got regular internet.. and i've been able to solo dungeons, solo a couple of Dolmens on different characters and follow questlines.

Maybe my expectations are low... but I'm happy with the world NPC's just the way they are.. I understand that those people with really high cp's or those who love the combat, would like a tougher world space and as long as it can be done without making my life miserable, I'm good.

A tiered CP difficulty is the way I think they should go, but also a toggle for those who like to RP and aren't as interested in combat.

Wandering_Immigrant · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

For the record I'm one of the newer players who people are worried about struggling, been playing for 5 or 6 months but my highest character is still only 36. I work long hours and also have 8 characters (10 as of last night) that I play and I treat the game as more a hobby than a race to the end so I don't level super fast.

Even still I'm soloing world bosses (not all of course but I've been to every base game zone and every one has at least one WB sometimes two that are easy prey. I solo Dolmens, solo group dungeons. I have fun doing these things but if the general difficulty was raised, not even necessarily to that level but somewhere in-between I could have just as much doing quests and exploring delves, saving the content intended for groups to do with other people. Quest bosses and delves bosses are a joke, sure there's been occasions these things have killed me, one time I even had to walk away from a quest boss and come back after having put more SPs into combat abilities (was my NB and up until then most of his points were in sneaking and the ledger man/TG skill lines). But I don't see dying and having to rework your strategy with a fight as being terrible, kinda makes it more fun to me.

The most fun I had in an MMO and the one that kept me hooked the longest was Final Fantasy XI, any who's ever played that (at in the 75 cap days idk about now) knows the over world there was no joke, going into a new zone gave a genuine sense of danger and you walked into it with a bit trepidation, even zones you'd out leveled could wreck you in some cases. Now that's a bit extreme for here, but I think raising the bar to at least craglorn levels in more zones would be reasonable. The starter zones should be easier, with DLC and chapter zones being harder, and everything in between being similar to Craglorn. The thing with ESO is you have actual stealth gameplay, so people could go anywhere and do anything, some of it would just it would just be a bit harder and require more strategy.

I don't like at all the idea of segregating veterans from new players through different server whatever mostly because that would thin the population, it be especially noticeable on the new player side as the game ages giving future new players the impression that the game they just started playing is already dying even if the vet side is actually still thriving. My solution would be better rewards in the overland. I could be wrong but I suspect the biggest difference between new players who are struggling and new ones who aren't is that the ones who are struggling are equipped in hodge-podge gear they picked up from quests and random drops whereas the one aren't discovered and started experimenting with sets early on. So give the trash mobs in every zone a decent chance to drop white versions of sets from the zone. Eventually wearing set pieces just become standard anyway so why not acclimate new players to that mind set early on and let them start experimenting with what works for them right away. You raise the difficulty while at the same time making worthwhile gear more accessible and you're simultaneously giving experienced players somewhat more of a challenge while at the same time making things easier for new players, it's win/win. I don't think this would be game breaking as it's just whites, but if there's any chance it could be just make it so 9 times out of 10 they drop with the intricate or ornate traits making then worthless on the market and not for people who can get their gear from other means.

Anyway, that all turned out much more long-winded then I'd planned so I'll leave it that, just saw a lot of people speaking for the new players and wanted to share my experiences as one and my thoughts on the matter.

Aireal · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Wandering_Immigrant wrote: »

For the record I'm one of the newer players who people are worried about struggling, been playing for 5 or 6 months but my highest character is still only 36. I work long hours and also have 8 characters (10 as of last night) that I play and I treat the game as more a hobby than a race to the end so I don't level super fast.

Even still I'm soloing world bosses (not all of course but I've been to every base game zone and every one has at least one WB sometimes two that are easy prey. I solo Dolmens, solo group dungeons. I have fun doing these things

I don't like at all the idea of segregating veterans from new players through different server whatever mostly because that would thin the population, it be especially noticeable on the new player side as the game ages giving future new players the impression that the game they just started playing is already dying even if the vet side is actually still thriving. My solution would be better rewards in the overland.

Anyway, that all turned out much more long-winded then I'd planned so I'll leave it that, just saw a lot of people speaking for the new players and wanted to share my experiences as one and my thoughts on the matter.

Sorry I snipped your reply..but it would be a wall of text before I could answer!

I'm in the same boat... with the length of time I've been playing. and yep, I solo Doleman's and dungeons.. sometimes getting a little help here and there ( because the players are there ) and sometimes helping others when they need it.

Their are pretty few ways that can be used to make the game more challenging for high CP players and still not make the overworld so difficult that will drive new players away as well. There are of course those who thrive on the challenge.. but often what is a challenge for one player is a deal breaker for another.

That is the hard part.. making the game what everyone wants.

The question that Zos could ask themselves isn't how do I make the game challenging to everyone? Answer is, you can't unless something about the individual player's changes. You can't make the extremes of either end happy.

Thing is ( and why I've stressed 'new' players ) if the game is too hard for new players ( in general ).. they won't play, Had I started my free trial and found the overworld majorly difficult. I would never have bought my Subscription, the DLC's or anything else. (btw my load order for Skyrim would make a lot of people cringe )

On the other side, Zos could lose many of their "vet" players if they get bored because the game is to easy and getting dull... they will move on.

-Nerfing skills is one way...but tends to make people angry.

- make the overworld harder in general ( which may make it too hard for some new players. Not everyone likes the general NPC's to be really hard.. that makes the world bosses not spectacular or insane.. depending on the way they go.

- CP tiers.. which yes, would mean that the world would seem emptier ( well mostly )

- Take away the CP sharing.. or put a toggle on it... That way each player can decide if they want a new character to 'start fresh' or to start with higher XP..

Of course, their are other ways as well.. those are just a few that have already been mentioned. I like the idea of a toggle for CP the most.. why? because if I want my brand new Templar to find difficulty in leveling up, already having skill ( CP ) points is not really the way to do it. At the same time, I probably wouldn't mind that my Crafting character is getting free CP points to put into skills that she otherwise would not get to as soon.

errrfff.. to much text, sorry.

max_only · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

You know what? Increase the difficulty just for you lot but no extra brownies, real hardcore gamers know the suffering is it’s own reward. Take 5 minutes to kill 1 thing, feel proud and accomplished, brag on forums, link your hard mode achievement... and get the same 19 gold and green rubedite helm we all get.

Michae · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Aireal wrote: »

Wandering_Immigrant wrote: »

For the record I'm one of the newer players who people are worried about struggling, been playing for 5 or 6 months but my highest character is still only 36. I work long hours and also have 8 characters (10 as of last night) that I play and I treat the game as more a hobby than a race to the end so I don't level super fast.

Even still I'm soloing world bosses (not all of course but I've been to every base game zone and every one has at least one WB sometimes two that are easy prey. I solo Dolmens, solo group dungeons. I have fun doing these things

I don't like at all the idea of segregating veterans from new players through different server whatever mostly because that would thin the population, it be especially noticeable on the new player side as the game ages giving future new players the impression that the game they just started playing is already dying even if the vet side is actually still thriving. My solution would be better rewards in the overland.

Anyway, that all turned out much more long-winded then I'd planned so I'll leave it that, just saw a lot of people speaking for the new players and wanted to share my experiences as one and my thoughts on the matter.

Sorry I snipped your reply..but it would be a wall of text before I could answer!

I'm in the same boat... with the length of time I've been playing. and yep, I solo Doleman's and dungeons.. sometimes getting a little help here and there ( because the players are there ) and sometimes helping others when they need it.

Their are pretty few ways that can be used to make the game more challenging for high CP players and still not make the overworld so difficult that will drive new players away as well. There are of course those who thrive on the challenge.. but often what is a challenge for one player is a deal breaker for another.

That is the hard part.. making the game what everyone wants.

The question that Zos could ask themselves isn't how do I make the game challenging to everyone? Answer is, you can't unless something about the individual player's changes. You can't make the extremes of either end happy.

Thing is ( and why I've stressed 'new' players ) if the game is too hard for new players ( in general ).. they won't play, Had I started my free trial and found the overworld majorly difficult. I would never have bought my Subscription, the DLC's or anything else. (btw my load order for Skyrim would make a lot of people cringe )

On the other side, Zos could lose many of their "vet" players if they get bored because the game is to easy and getting dull... they will move on.

-Nerfing skills is one way...but tends to make people angry.

- make the overworld harder in general ( which may make it too hard for some new players. Not everyone likes the general NPC's to be really hard.. that makes the world bosses not spectacular or insane.. depending on the way they go.

- CP tiers.. which yes, would mean that the world would seem emptier ( well mostly )

- Take away the CP sharing.. or put a toggle on it... That way each player can decide if they want a new character to 'start fresh' or to start with higher XP..

Of course, their are other ways as well.. those are just a few that have already been mentioned. I like the idea of a toggle for CP the most.. why? because if I want my brand new Templar to find difficulty in leveling up, already having skill ( CP ) points is not really the way to do it. At the same time, I probably wouldn't mind that my Crafting character is getting free CP points to put into skills that she otherwise would not get to as soon.

errrfff.. to much text, sorry.

You can just not assign the cp on new character. That's the toggle.

barney2525 · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Aireal wrote: »

barney2525 wrote: »

I have to admit, the CP share thing, I really like it.

But I am surprised it exists. I would have expected Zos to require each character to gain their own CPs.

Probably at this point tho, changing it would cause a revolt.

It probably would, but other than making the game too hard for new players or those like me that just play / level really slow. What would be the best way to make the game harder for those with high cp?

Without some Major code added? Hard to say. Give the players a flip switch in settings for open world normal (as it is now), Hard, and Extreme modes. Let the player decide on their comfort level, and let the harder modes give better rewards.

barney2525 · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Daus wrote: »

I don't know how people can stand how pathetically easy overland PvE is. The worst thing about questing in this game is how mind numbingly easy this game is.

OR.... the Best thing about questing is how mind numbingly easy this game is. I want to be able to GET TO the quest areas with minimal issues. I don't want to have hard fought, possibility of dying fights with a couple of skeevers. It's not like you are getting a bunch of rewards for fighting the wandering monsters. They should only be a nuisance. The Bosses should be the challenges.

IMHO

nihoumab14_ESO · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas somewhat.

I'm new and barely level 50 (just hit CP 100), and honestly, open world content in this game is too easy. Even if I was wearing outdated leveling gear (no matching sets), I still would rarely have issues against enemies. And if I did, you just rez where you died. Takes a lot of the challenge away. I feel like PVP is the most challenging area, since most of the time, enemies won't let your allies rez you, and you can't just rez where you died.

In PVE, bosses usually die instantly if there is a high end player in your group (which is not fun at all for the boss to die before the music even starts), but in groups where there isn't a high end person, the bosses can kill you, and you can't just rez unless an ally rezzes you until the end of the boss fight. Of course, usually you'll die to trash, and for that, there is no penalty, just rez where you died, in the middle of combat.

In other MMOs, you usually at least have to respawn at the end of the dungeon, or at the nearest town, which is an acceptable penalty for death. But just rezzing where you died makes dying not something to avoid. As a matter of fact, sometimes I just jump off of cliffs and rez at the bottom instead of finding the proper way down, because I know I can just rez. Or I'll just run through a delve to a skyshard, wait for the 20 things I agro'd to leash or kill me, then respawn, with really no penalty. Even if mobs were scarier, because you can just respawn where you died, they still aren't really that scary. I've soloed world bosses (took a long time), but dying wasn't scary because of any penalties, except resetting the encounter. Just rez right there and try again

The only time I've really been scared of dying was doing delves in Cyrodil when an enemy player appeared, because even there, the enemy npcs aren't a challenge if you don't pull more than 2 groups at a time, but enemy players are, and dying there means I have to run all the way back, and go through the delve again.

barney2525 · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Michae wrote: »

Aireal wrote: »

Wandering_Immigrant wrote: »

For the record I'm one of the newer players who people are worried about struggling, been playing for 5 or 6 months but my highest character is still only 36. I work long hours and also have 8 characters (10 as of last night) that I play and I treat the game as more a hobby than a race to the end so I don't level super fast.

Even still I'm soloing world bosses (not all of course but I've been to every base game zone and every one has at least one WB sometimes two that are easy prey. I solo Dolmens, solo group dungeons. I have fun doing these things

I don't like at all the idea of segregating veterans from new players through different server whatever mostly because that would thin the population, it be especially noticeable on the new player side as the game ages giving future new players the impression that the game they just started playing is already dying even if the vet side is actually still thriving. My solution would be better rewards in the overland.

Anyway, that all turned out much more long-winded then I'd planned so I'll leave it that, just saw a lot of people speaking for the new players and wanted to share my experiences as one and my thoughts on the matter.

Sorry I snipped your reply..but it would be a wall of text before I could answer!

I'm in the same boat... with the length of time I've been playing. and yep, I solo Doleman's and dungeons.. sometimes getting a little help here and there ( because the players are there ) and sometimes helping others when they need it.

Their are pretty few ways that can be used to make the game more challenging for high CP players and still not make the overworld so difficult that will drive new players away as well. There are of course those who thrive on the challenge.. but often what is a challenge for one player is a deal breaker for another.

That is the hard part.. making the game what everyone wants.

The question that Zos could ask themselves isn't how do I make the game challenging to everyone? Answer is, you can't unless something about the individual player's changes. You can't make the extremes of either end happy.

Thing is ( and why I've stressed 'new' players ) if the game is too hard for new players ( in general ).. they won't play, Had I started my free trial and found the overworld majorly difficult. I would never have bought my Subscription, the DLC's or anything else. (btw my load order for Skyrim would make a lot of people cringe )

On the other side, Zos could lose many of their "vet" players if they get bored because the game is to easy and getting dull... they will move on.

-Nerfing skills is one way...but tends to make people angry.

- make the overworld harder in general ( which may make it too hard for some new players. Not everyone likes the general NPC's to be really hard.. that makes the world bosses not spectacular or insane.. depending on the way they go.

- CP tiers.. which yes, would mean that the world would seem emptier ( well mostly )

- Take away the CP sharing.. or put a toggle on it... That way each player can decide if they want a new character to 'start fresh' or to start with higher XP..

Of course, their are other ways as well.. those are just a few that have already been mentioned. I like the idea of a toggle for CP the most.. why? because if I want my brand new Templar to find difficulty in leveling up, already having skill ( CP ) points is not really the way to do it. At the same time, I probably wouldn't mind that my Crafting character is getting free CP points to put into skills that she otherwise would not get to as soon.

errrfff.. to much text, sorry.

You can just not assign the cp on new character. That's the toggle.

Agreed. I don't understand the ' CP makes things too easy ' rhetoric when you do NOT have to use it. It's optional.

I just don't get the position that it's OK to ruin the game experience for others is fine, so long as I get the game experience I want. You CAN "dumb down" your character to make things more of a challenge, if that is what you want. Don't use CPs at all. Restrict the skills you put on your bar. Wear bland gear. Use bland weapons. There is a Lot you Can do to make the game more enjoyable for your particular taste.

But there is NOTHING that players who enjoy the way things are now can do IF they crank up the difficulty and make just getting from point A to point B a challenge. At that point the Bosses become almost unbeatable (they are Not going to have any bosses at a lesser power level than the wandering monsters ). And you can forget about soloing dungeons and world bosses. Would never happen again.

That is Not the experience a lot of people are looking for.

IMHO

bmnoble · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

I will just say this not going to read everyone's post at this point since there are more than 6 pages. I have had friends who I have had to help with quest bosses and overland content.

Just because you have reached the point where it is easy either from reaching the level cap or being a skilled player, does not mean all the new and low level players in the game have.

You want an increased challenge reset your champion points and then don't reassign them. Or just go and do some vet content with other like minded players who are up for the challenge, don't assume content you now find easy is easy for every player.

Jadde_dahlbergb16_ESO · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

I've heard that one plenty of times, even in one of my own posts about the same thing.

I have 4 friends that I finally convinced to get the game. They all started fresh and 2 of them got to CP 200+, the other two got to about just over lvl 50 in about a month.
From beginning to end they complained about what a cakewalk everything was. And how boring it felt that their character never really became stronger until cp160. I kept promising them vet dungeons and trials/pvp for challenge. Which they really enjoyed and felt as a challenge. Only 2 of my friends stayed. The other 2 left the game and went back to Albion and didnt even bother getting to try the vet dungeons..

This game isn't for everyone. But saying that starting fresh will be a "Challenge" is just mediocre at best. There's no challenge until end game. I feel like increasing the normal pve contents difficulty would turn people away.

Tabbycat · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

It used to be harder. People were complaining right and left about Dosha, for example.

It is the way it is now to accommodate all players' abilities, not just you.

Rev Rielle · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

TequilaFire wrote: »

Start from scratch on a new virgin no cp account, then come back and discuss.

I absolutely have done this recently, and yes, it is laughably easy. They really need to improve things. They need to make it harder, but more importantly, they need to make it more enjoyable. The enemies are glorified Target Dummies that almost attack as fast (i.e. basically not at all).

duddjoyri · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas somewhat.

The reason my wife and I started playing was because the challenge generally seemed to be a little higher than other MMOs and the combat slightly more in depth. That really appealed, and that element is now largely trivial now that we are getting to higher CP levels unless in a Vet or DLC dungeon. This is a real shame.

I think general content can stay easy, so trash mobs don't become even more annoying as you roam about, but there does need to be some sort of tier or scaling for quest content in more advanced zones to make those quests more challenging and fun. After all most of us only spend a small amount of time levelling to 50 and a lot more time in the CP and higher CP levels. The games needs to appeal to all, not just new users.

Smellfire · May 2019

Vet instances of current Zones would be a + from me. Loved the old Age of Conan vet instances.

It would be optional so new players play the normal one, CP players play the vet ones.

You can solo the vet ones at CP lvl though hard (World Bosses and Dolmens should need a group), or get a group together for non CP players to get more of a challenge.

shadowwraith666 · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

The current difficulty is fine, if ZoS does increase the overland difficulty how long will it be before your back here asking for another increase? because you will eventually overcome that increase and the game will become "too easy" again.

Itzmichi · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

Either that or an introduction of craglorn 3.0 aka a new area.

Kolache · May 2019

Agreed, please increase the difficulty in PvE areas greatly!

"People will leave if it's any harder". People already have left because it's too easy. I have thousands of hours in the game and now just watch the forums hoping for some word on engaging combat for solo players.

I want new content and new story with new action and adventure feel for my existing characters. I don't want yet another area designed for people that have never played the game before. If they haven't played the game before there is plenty of "old to me, new to them" places to go.

I want appropriate difficulty for my character regardless of what level they are. I want areas difficult enough to warrant taking a friend or two even while leveling--especially while leveling since this is the time when I've tried to get friends to get hooked on the game. Taking turns who hits stuff because it dies so quickly is boring. "You'll eventually hit a level when it will make sense for us to fight together" in a game that is supposedly scaling to encourage this is brokenly ineffective at scaling.

Too much hangs on end-game DLC/vet dungeon difficulty. Not to mention nothing prepares people for DLC dungeon difficulty because everything before it is incredibly easy in comparison. It's 0 to 60 in 1 second when you first queue and get the wrong dungeon--welcome to content you should have been prepared for along the way.

Most of all I don't understand why people assume that tweaking anything means breaking everything. There are a million ways to increase difficulty and to make it optional and/or rewarding. "Dosha used to be harder 5 years ago, don't mess with difficulty anymore" sounds like a joke.

Laz · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

People want to live that power fantasy, let them. I know I want to be able to go back and beat the crap outta something easily like an old dungeon though I know this is focused on open world PvE.

probabkyravi · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

Try start fresh on NA/EU or 2nd account and its pretty challenging, the dwemer sphere in Stros M'kai quest is evil and you kinda need help. It is actually very fun too starting again with foresight.

For an old account you don't really want long fights while doing survey maps or grinding out some quests for that house you want so its nice how it is.

CivilDisobedienceVII · May 2019

No thanks, PvE difficulty is fine as it is.

So then increase difficulty for brand new players? Where the majority is probably casual? Way to kill a game. LOL