Western Skyrim: Now a dead zone?

Avoranti · October 2020

PS4 NA,

It’s sad to see. Since the event has ended, Western Skyrim has become even more of a ghost town than Murkmire or Clockwork City. Can’t even complete the dailies because there just aren’t enough players in the zone to help. The harrowstorms wouldn’t be so bad to solo if the crows weren’t so OP. Are the other platforms experiencing a similar situation in Skyrim? Just curious.

dazee · October 2020

I think the problem is without the event Harrowstorms reward is not even close to a match for the effort. For something most people cant solo at all, it gives basically the same reward as a Dolmen, which is easily soloable by a level 10 character in basic gear.

ccfeeling · October 2020

I think ZOS only listen the feedback from high tier players ?

Vevvev · October 2020

The zone is boring and not worth sticking around in and has several issues like...

1. It has a terrible crafting area plagued with load screens.
2. Harrowstorms don't drop loot good enough to be worth doing.
3. The zone is empty and lacking good grinding spots.
4. The city of Solitude acting as a separate instance so you can't log out instantly inside, but you can near the battlegrounds guy. As you can guess this is very annoying for alting.

Lord-Otto · October 2020

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.
It's simply a terribly-designed event and everyone saw that coming since Greymoor launched. Give it a week or two, numbers should go slightly up again, everyone's burnt out at the moment. Don't expect frequent farming, though.

Mindcr0w · October 2020

Lord-Otto wrote: »

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.

Harrowstorms should be hard and the loot should be more commensurate with the effort.

Give it a week or two, numbers should go slightly up again, everyone's burnt out at the moment. Don't expect frequent farming, though.

Very much this.

Ryuvain · October 2020

Avoranti wrote: »

PS4 NA,

It’s sad to see. Since the event has ended, Western Skyrim has become even more of a ghost town than Murkmire or Clockwork City. Can’t even complete the dailies because there just aren’t enough players in the zone to help. The harrowstorms wouldn’t be so bad to solo if the crows weren’t so OP. Are the other platforms experiencing a similar situation in Skyrim? Just curious.

I feel harrowstorm mechanics and rewards aren't worth it. Technically infinite minibosses if not swarmed with players. Spammy one-shots from shrikes.

I could tank at least 4 bosses at once, but the instant a shrike comes up I instantly die to 45k damage under a second. It's not fun having to tank and then switch to running away because they spam unblockable instant death that's homing constantly. Even if I try my hardest to dodge everything, a different boss using snares or stuns and then I'm eating soul gems.

Tldr I hate shrikes. Theyre just unfair.

Raideen · October 2020

I posted in another post about this issue.
One day after the event, the current expac is dead.

I am seriously doubting the player count being healthy at all. World of Warcraft has AI/bots that mimicks PVPers and how they play. PVE is much easier to create AI/bots for. I have to strongly consider that the game is not as heathy as we are led to believe.

Lord-Otto · October 2020

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.

Harrowstorms should be hard and the loot should be more commensurate with the effort.

Give it a week or two, numbers should go slightly up again, everyone's burnt out at the moment. Don't expect frequent farming, though.

Very much this.

Harrowstorms should be ENJOYABLE with WORTHWHILE loot. If they're fun and rewarding, does it really matter how difficult they are and how many people you need?

zaria · October 2020

Lord-Otto wrote: »

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.
It's simply a terribly-designed event and everyone saw that coming since Greymoor launched. Give it a week or two, numbers should go slightly up again, everyone's burnt out at the moment. Don't expect frequent farming, though.

Yes, trough zone on many alts so some time to I will be back.

I say its too many harrowstorms so its hard to find one who is up, this was an issue even at launch.

Ratzkifal · October 2020

ccfeeling wrote: »

I think ZOS only listen the feedback from high tier players ?

If only that was true... The way I see it ZOS is not currently listening to feedback from anyone. Not even class reps. They are just doing their thing, which is sometimes pretty misguided.

Mindcr0w · October 2020

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Harrowstorms should be ENJOYABLE with WORTHWHILE loot. If they're fun and rewarding, does it really matter how difficult they are and how many people you need?

Given how much the community is constantly clamoring for more difficult overland content I would say yes.

SydneyGrey · October 2020

I love that zone, but I was there every day during the event. Now I want to go somewhere else for a while. A lot of other people probably feel the same way I do.

Lord-Otto · October 2020

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Harrowstorms should be ENJOYABLE with WORTHWHILE loot. If they're fun and rewarding, does it really matter how difficult they are and how many people you need?

Given how much the community is constantly clamoring for more difficult overland content I would say yes.

Well, that's what we have now. They're definitely hard and no one's bothering.

Lord-Otto · October 2020

zaria wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.
It's simply a terribly-designed event and everyone saw that coming since Greymoor launched. Give it a week or two, numbers should go slightly up again, everyone's burnt out at the moment. Don't expect frequent farming, though.

Yes, trough zone on many alts so some time to I will be back.

I say its too many harrowstorms so its hard to find one who is up, this was an issue even at launch.

You can see them from far away if you're in a good spot. Morthal wayshrine is my favorite. Easily accessible and you can see three storms from there.

Mindcr0w · October 2020

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Well, that's what we have now. They're definitely hard and no one's bothering.

Becase they aren't hard and commensurately rewarding. The rewards are pathetic.

Magdalina · October 2020

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.

Harrowstorms should be hard and the loot should be more commensurate with the effort.

Give it a week or two, numbers should go slightly up again, everyone's burnt out at the moment. Don't expect frequent farming, though.

Very much this.

Harrowstorms should be ENJOYABLE with WORTHWHILE loot. If they're fun and rewarding, does it really matter how difficult they are and how many people you need?

Difficulty has a direct correlation to fun though. It's just for some it seems a straight one, while for others it's a reverse one ;P Personally, I don't find it fun when I can do content with my eyes closed, basically mashing random buttons or a single skill, and still win the thing without ever dying (*cough* dolmens *cough*). I like challenging content. Some people don't. Fortunately for them, there's the other 99% of the open world for that.

Rewards do suck though, I think everyone can agree with that. I don't really get why ZOS was ready to listen about HS location and spawn timers (they added wayshrines and seem to have made the spawns more consistent+it's now only 1 HS for quest), showing they care about this content, but refuse to add worthwhile rewards. Heck, mudcrabs have better rewards than HS...how could you get rewards so well with dragons then again fail so bad with HS?

Reverb · October 2020

It’s interesting how some new zones hold people’s interest and others don’t. Vvardenfell and Summerset are both still busy all the time. Partially for crafting convenience sure, but that’s not the only factor. Rimmen is pretty dead despite having great crafting layout, and Wrothgar is always busy despite having an abysmal crafting layout. Surely not everyone there is farming Briarheart all the time, so what’s the draw?

And dlc zones, Gold Coast and Hews Bane both have a good number of players every time I’m there. Both in the cities and in the Thieves Den and Sanctuary. Why do those zones still draw people but murkmire, cwc, and southern elsweyr don’t?

Skyrim is probably a little dead right now because people are burnt out after the event. But it’s also not somewhere I see many people spending much time in long term.

Hapexamendios · October 2020

Still busier than Murkmire.

Nairinhe · October 2020

SydneyGrey wrote: »

I love that zone, but I was there every day during the event. Now I want to go somewhere else for a while. A lot of other people probably feel the same way I do.

This. Sky isn't falling, every zone gets dead after its event.

Personally I've already returned there for fishing and will return again to get my dailies achievements at least. But a bit later.

volkeswagon · October 2020

People are just taking a break from it. It has a gloomy feel to it so it isn't exactly a nice zone to hang out in like summerset, reapers march or Alikr is

TwinLamps · October 2020

Vevvev wrote: »

The zone is boring and not worth sticking around in and has several issues like...

1. It has a terrible crafting area plagued with load screens.
2. Harrowstorms don't drop loot good enough to be worth doing.
3. The zone is empty and lacking good grinding spots.
4. The city of Solitude acting as a separate instance so you can't log out instantly inside, but you can near the battlegrounds guy. As you can guess this is very annoying for alting.

1. Yeah, doors kill the mood quickly. Too bad, cause layout is nice and boards are close + quest return as well
2. Possibly worst overland event I saw in ESO so far.
3. I dont mind this part at all
4. I fail to see why is this a thing. Why would anyone log out in Solitude and be forced to wait? What about players with alts? Complete bs

Ratinira · October 2020

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Harrowstorms should be ENJOYABLE with WORTHWHILE loot. If they're fun and rewarding, does it really matter how difficult they are and how many people you need?

Given how much the community is constantly clamoring for more difficult overland content I would say yes.

Well, that's what we have now. They're definitely hard and no one's bothering.

Because not much people like doing something hard just for the pure process of doing something hard.
More would like to have a proper reward for the time/effort/nurves they spent.
And with current rewards doing HS is more for the process, nor the result.

And well, yes, like most of zones after you do all quest there is little to do. Only dailies, but after the event many fed up with them already

Stinkyremy · October 2020

I play on PS4 and while it is not a complete ghost town I have to agree with OP.
The event ruined everything there.
We all now have both the motifs or they are cheap as anything in store.
Everyone has the jewellery from harrowstorms or they are cheap in stores there is no reason to do them.
All the gear is cheap in stores as the event flooded us with it.

markulrich1966 · October 2020

during the event I could increase my stock of vile from 100 to 350, farming and buying cheap.
As vampiric furniture does not sell that good, this will be enough for half a year or more.

I still miss purple solitude and vampiric motifs, but I do not need them so urgently, so I will focus on different tasks. I have more than 10 sorcerers, and since crystal blast was removed, I lost a lot of fun playing them. So I focus on crafting writs instead, Rimmen is much better than Solitude to do them. With a daily now and then to fill up shimmering sand.

Skyrim looks nice, but it is not very rewarding, and the difficulty especially after the latest nerfs keeps me away from there.

Another issue are the constant crashes on xbox leaving/entering solitude. Craft clothes, leave the crafting room - crash.
Leave the maingate to reach the stablemaster - crash. This occurs in 30-50%. This is too bugged to play except on events.

joerginger · October 2020

The zone really seems to be dying. Yesterday it took me about an hour to find three people to try the world boss Skreg. I found a busy Harrowstorm eventually, but I guess it won't be long until the only daily one can do in Western Skyrim will be the delve quest.

Sarannah · October 2020

PC EU. It is not unusual for players to abandon a zone after an event. Many players burn themselves out farming the same zone for hours, me included. Has nothing to do with the population.

Besides that, western skyrim is a terrible zone. Many cliffs, drop-offs, and dead ends making it hard to navigate. Harrowstorms are absolutely terrible. And wayshrines are placed too far from alot of places, like the eastern elevator and harrowstorm. Or the middle/western world boss and harrowstorm. The excavation spots are also almost all very far from wayshrines, so not many players would go there to excavate(add to that the hard to navigate thing).

Personally I have gone back to tanking, doing pledges in groupfinder!

PS: ZOS should make harrowstorms soloable for many reasons, including yours.

Jaraal · October 2020

Hapexamendios wrote: »

Still busier than Murkmire.

I played in both places today, and have to disagree.

Fischblut · October 2020

I didn't like doing Harrowstorms even during the event, so of course I will not do them any other time of the year

I was just doing them for daily tickets once per day. They give bad loot, and they are not fun at all (I don't like difficult content, especially overland)

I explored Western Skyrim before the event, and I still explore Western Skyrim. But I don't go near Harrowstorms even if I see people asking for help in chat. That's what the game looks like when overland content is difficult - it looks empty

The only thing I liked - double drops from harvesting nodes (and purple boxes from them too).

gatekeeper13 · October 2020

ZOS has added Dragons and Harrowstorms which are almost impossible to solo and a pain to complete without enough people but rewards are total trash. It doesn't make any sense. Why not add sth rewarding that will lure people into farming them? Why not make them drop e.g. an account bound special weapon or armor set with a very low drop rate, like those we get in Arenas? I think sth like that would make people really motivated to go back to farming them.

Most of the time Harrowstorms and Dragons are dead areas. Yesterday I visited N.Elsweyr to farm the lunar phases lead and there were 3 Dragons spawned and 0 battles taking place. And when a battle finally started, we were 4 people against the dragon.

Xebov · October 2020

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Lord-Otto wrote: »

That was to be expected. There was a discussion here recently, some said Harrowstorms are awesome and should be hard, some said the loot is not worth it, etcetera pepe yada yada.

Harrowstorms should be hard and the loot should be more commensurate with the effort.

They should be easy. Having them hard is only working when enought players are in the zone to do them. Like with Dragons or the pearl stuff from Summerset the number of players drop and the hard version becomes unplayable.