Returning player question

Kynetik · January 2021

Hi everyone,

I took a break from ESO at the launch of Update 25 and I was curious as how the game is going these days.

Is the population still strong?
How’s performance?
Any notable QoL improvements over the last year?

Sarannah · January 2021

Welcome back!

We do not know how the population is, as ZOS never releases numbers. The PC EU servers seem to be filled really really well though. And ZOS still releases content on a regular basis. So the game seems alright.

Performance is kind of a mixed bag. In PvP there are quite a few issues, mainly Cyrodiil lag/delay/issues. And since the most recent major update, a small amount of players are experiencing crash issues. Besides Cyrodiil, the game runs fantastic for most players though. The year of performance improvements reduced the loading screen time, and character log-in time, by a large margin.

QoL: Crafting quests now have markers next to what your quest needs you to build, we can store transmute crystals up to 1000 with ESO+( 500 without ESO+ ), and we have recently had the collections system added to the game. The collections system stores all set items you have ever acquired and bound to yourself. I'm probably forgetting some other things, but the QoL improvements have been quite nice! And if there is anything else specific you are looking for, there is probably an add-on for that.

Hopefully this info helps you somewhat.

Rehdaun · January 2021

Two game breaking bugs still exist from the most recent, November update.

1. Missing/extra skills from the soul trap and werewolf skill lines. "Official" thread can be found Here
Full explanation and plan to resolve from @ZOS_GinaBruno can be found Here

2. Crashes, Hangs and Blue screens have plagued the game since November. "Official" thread can be found Here
Last update was from @ZOS_SarahHecker on January 4 saying..

Hey all, while we're still in the process of testing the next incremental patch, it will include several crash fixes and will be coming later this month. The maintenances this week are once again for server reboots and won't include a patch.

No communication since then.

There used to be a pinned post in ESO General explaining all the issues from U28. However it's been long-since unpinned, replaced by the two threads above that routinely get buried after a couple of days until revived.
Reference: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/551180/update-28-known-issues-updated-11-24-10-30am-est

caperb · January 2021

Depends on what you used to play.

Is it endgame PvE or PvP content? Performance has become worse with constant crashing in both PvE and PvP (though less now than two months ago). Also the little performance improvements that were made like shorter loadscreens were mostly rewinded by update 28 (5 minute total for login + character select is back). The new dungeons are fun with extra mechanics but once you reach a certain DPS treshhold they're just speedruns, though the hardmodes are a bit more interesting. There is a new solo arena but it is not very difficult even on veteran, has cheesy sets as a reward.

Combat? We are in the most boring meta ever with very high damaging proc sets and a mythic item set that boosts them, so everyone in PvP can just forget half the stats when making their build.

Is it casual PvE like housing or role playing? There are more motifs so I guess it has improved?

Is it the solo one-off content? New quests have been added but they are quite short and dull storywriting.

Quality of life has seen a big improvement with the sticker book (item set collections) added to the game, which also lowers the transmutation stones needed the more set items you know. I think ZoS has really spent some time this year for QoL improvements and hope they continue with it, but they have mostly forgotten about performance and their long time players.