Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

High Isle combined with ESO+ subscription will get you access to everything. Only the latest and greatest Chapter requires a separate purchase. Old chapters get rolled into ESO+.

PeacefulAnarchy wrote: »

Don't think about "waste," consider only what you're getting vs the actual alternatives.

Things to consider:
Are you a "never ESO+" player, "sometimes ESO+ player," or "always ESO+" player?
How much do you care about the collector's edition cosmetics?
Are you wanting to get High Isle in you "get up to date" mission?
Is buying crown items with gold an option? A preference?
Do you play and want things on both servers.

ESO+, starting at High Isle release, will include everything except High Isle. If you're an "always ESO+" and don't care about cosmetics then High Isle upgrade is the obvious choice.

If you do care about cosmetics but are an "always ESO+" then your choice is either buy the CE upgrade, and then buy the two missing CE packs, 2100 crowns each, or spend the extra cash for the full CE. If you're flush with crowns and/or gold then maybe buy just the upgrade. If you'd be paying for the crowns with a bought crown pack then buy the full edition.

If you're a "sometimes ESO+ player," then when you don't have ESO+ you'll be missing the content, you'll also be locked out of antiquities from Skyrim. You probably want to buy the full edition and get both Skyrim and Blackwood permanent. Missing out on the smaller DLC zones when not ESO+ probably isn't a big deal.

If you're a "never ESO+" player then you probably don't have many crowns, so the choice is clear. Pay the extra cash to have two extra chapters, that you'd otherwise be spending more cash on to buy with crowns. The one exception would be if you have a lot of gold and want to buy them from other players that way.

There are, in addition to the chapters, the zone and dungeon dlcs, I'm not sure if those are included in your "get up to date" desire. If so those can only be bought with crowns.

TLDR: unless your going to be buying crowns with gold or have ESO+ most/all of the time, buy the full collection that includes past chapters. Yes you're "wasting" the Elsewyr part of the purchase, but you're still getting two extra chapters you wouldn't get otherwise and would cost more separately.

The above goes double if you care about having things on both servers, since the collection goes to both servers, while crown purchases would have to be done on each server.