Imperial City solo friendly

HisShadowX · March 2023

Evening everyone,

So I know when Imperial City was released you could solo it but it would be hard. I know the Hardcore Minority claims One Tamriel made the gamer easier when it didn’t. I am curious if this DLC was made easier to where it is fairly simple to solo now?

MrGarlic · March 2023

Last time I tried, it was still as hard compared to when it was released.

I still have not completed the storyline for Imperial City, despite years of attempts.

I found it hard to encourage someone to come along and give it a go with me. Last time I tried, I was continually ganked and killed by other players, so I have more or less given up trying.

It is content I will have to accept I will not complete.

I think part of the problem is wearing PvE optimised gear in a PvP zone is not a good option, but attempting the storyline in PvP gear is also not ideal. I am not sure if there is a compromise somewhere.

It is a shame as I think the Imperial City content is wasted in a PvP zone. So few players venture there compared to other zones.

That's my view. YMMV

MrGarlic · March 2023

Luth7 wrote: »

MrGarlic wrote: »

-snip-.

-snip-

Ideally you should get defensive gear (eg pariah + mara's balm, -snip-

In case of normal IC, you could also get the stealth CPs (piercing gaze from red and several that help you to stealth in green).

The storyline can be easily done with defensive builds, it doesn't matter if the NPC's are dead in 0.7, 1 or 2 seconds.
-snip-.

All good advice there, thank you.

cyclonus11 · March 2023

I was able to complete it solo, but it is hard and it took a while. A lot of it has to do with the PVP zone debuffs and of course the occasional gank squad.

MafiaCat115 · March 2023

I was able to do it, but I did it during low population times and campaigns. Being a Nightblade helped get away from attackers, and even with all that I still had to always be on watch. Definitely not a simple task compared to normal questing.

Hapexamendios · March 2023

Sneaking and invisibility potions help a lot.

BlueRaven · March 2023

The real shame is that the main story line is really well done with an amazing climax. I luckily got it done on two characters, (with a friend of mine who was a real pvp monster acting as a bodyguard). This was also at a time when IC and cyrodiil were still kinda linked, so the population inside was really low.

There were a few quests that were NOT solo friendly as well (if I remember correctly, but I had awful gear at the time), but the ending is solo friendly, so don't worry about that. AND the ending is in a protected (pve only) area as a bonus.

Anyway, I hope those of you who wish to can someday see the ending, it was super memorable. It's just too bad it's kinda hidden in an awful pvp zone.

katanagirl1 · March 2023

I did it solo but it was quite a few years ago. I was on PvE NB, don’t remember it being overly difficult and my dps was not OP by any means.

Snamyap · March 2023

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I did it solo but it was quite a few years ago. I was on PvE NB, don’t remember it being overly difficult and my dps was not OP by any means.

Same, I died a few times to other players but I just accepted that as the risk of being there

Clyde_BlueSnake · March 2023

Yes, kinda, it depends mostly of time of day when going into it, player population, otherwise will be hard. If one prepared one could complete the IC zone story, the skyshards, all the bosses (due to AwA if you already gotten the achievement before with another character you can skip these bosses) & points of interest in the sewers (even more prepared one can even soloed the center of the sewers) all within a day. If manage, try to run away & hide from other alliance players if you got a solo PvE build that you think won't be good in PvP.

ApoAlaia · March 2023

I've done it on both accounts without much of a hitch, however both times were week days during unsociable hours and on kitty nightblades.

The only remarkable thing I can remember is that when I was doing it on my alt account another player from a different faction turned up for the same encounter.

They were there for the same reason as myself so happy days; I just didn't use any AoE/splash offensive skills to avoid hindering them and they did the same.

Otherwise my experience was wholly unremarkable from a PvP perspective and pretty 'solo friendly' from a PvE perspective. There was only one encounter - the one the other player turned up for - that required paying attention because the titan has an unpleasant AoE.

Michae · March 2023

I soloed the story years ago on my basic af PvE nightblade build. I regularly do the 6 dailies there and have no problem, I got all cosmetic rewards that you could get there, still on my PvE build. I also explored the whole sewers and got all skyshards.

I'd say it depends on your attitude. I sneak a lot, avoid fights with players and generally employ guerilla tactics and I find it quite fun. Sure I tent to die in encounters with players, but unless you aim to farm a lot of Tel Var in short time it doesn't really matter. You'll accumulate them with time anyway, and now I don't have anything to spend them on anymore, unless I want to turn them into gold by selling runes and such.

JARTHEGREY · March 2023

Yes I have to say I echo the sentiments expressed here. I've completed all the Quests 'Solo' but I'm very disappointed to find out that to finish the game and do the Imperial City quests I have to join/form a group. I wasn't even aware (until reading this) that I could still get killed by other players - which will make it doubly difficult for me to complete.

I don't have 'great' gear and I don't do a lot of DPS so in general I just like to go at my own pace rather than join groups / guilds because I like to explore places and take it all in. Having played Computer games since their first inception (with blocky pixels etc) I never get tired of the outstanding visual and incredibly beautiful vistas in ESO.

I know that ESO is 'meant' to be played in groups & guilds - but it's frustrating that while most of the PvE can be done solo - the Imperial City quests are just too hard (for me at least) to be solo'd by anyone other than those with really good gear and DPS.

lillybit · March 2023

I soloed it fairly recently on my low level alt account, I managed it by using quiet times and switching campaigns when I was getting ganked. The one tricky part I remember was the arena - I was constantly getting attacked in the CP enabled campaign and it was challenging in no CP, but once I got through that it was plain sailing

Danikat · March 2023

I did the main storyline and a lot of the other PvE content in Imperial City solo, and I'm not the best player and was using a very squishy character. There was one boss battle (in the arena) where I was having trouble and then someone else who happened to be in the same alliance showed up and we did it together. We weren't in a party and didn't communicate, but I assume they were on the same quest and we killed the boss at the same time.

I did sometimes get killed by other players, but that just meant respawning at a base and going back out. I only remember once when I decided to do something else that day and come back to it later because there were too many people around.

(I don't mind PvP but I prefer to either do PvP or PvE so when I'm in Cyrodiil or IC for PvE activities I don't fight. If they want to kill me I let them and then respawn, if they don't we both leave each other alone. But it might help that I don't really care if someone kills me. It's a minor annoyance at most, whereas I know it can really bother some people.)

jaws343 · March 2023

The only thing I have yet to do solo in Imperial City is Molag bal at the center of the sewers. I think I could probably manage it by now, it's just not something I've attempted in a long time.

Everything else in Imperial City is perfectly soloable. Every boss, and roaming boss, both in the sewers and up top. All the quests, taking districts, etc.

There are only two things that can really prevents one from soloing the content:
- Other players
- Not having the right level of experience soloing content

Point 1 applies to the entire zone. Point 2 mostly only applies to the roaming bosses and maybe a few of the stationary ones. The story content is no more difficult than overland craglorn, or maybe a few normal dungeon experiences.

Luth7 · March 2023

MrGarlic wrote: »

I think part of the problem is wearing PvE optimised gear in a PvP zone is not a good option, but attempting the storyline in PvP gear is also not ideal. I am not sure if there is a compromise somewhere.

Don't do it with PvE optimised builds; min/maxing maybe helps a few gankers to get cheap kills when their victim is surpised/distracted, but other than that it is generally not a good idea to go into PvP zones with glasscannon builds.
Increase your HP pool, the higher the better. Not only does it buy you reaction time, it also filters a lot of stealth gankers who won't even try to attack you, as they would have a way harder time to kill you with their burst rotation.

Ideally you should get defensive gear (eg pariah + mara's balm, all parts with impenetrable trait) too, but that might be too expensive to buy just for the quest line.
I think it is easier to do the quest in the no-CP imperial city. In that case mara's balm would not work (proc set), but you could replace it with something like ancient dragonguard. Has more offense than MB, part of it switches to defense when on low HP and it can be crafted, ergo cheaper.

In case of normal IC, you could also get the stealth CPs (piercing gaze from red and several that help you to stealth in green).

The storyline can be easily done with defensive builds, it doesn't matter if the NPC's are dead in 0.7, 1 or 2 seconds.

Edit:
In case you are on PC, this addon might be helpful https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info2737-TelVarCounterTelVarLogger.html
It automatically deposits your Tel Var stones when you visit the bank, to avoid loosing them in case you forgot to do it manually.
If you feel like you have too many stones in your inventory, you can always join the normal cyrodill campaign and then join the imperial city again for a free port to your faction base to store them in the bank.

Necrotech_Master · March 2023

in my experience (someone who actually spent hundreds of hours farming in IC while it was still vet ranks), it is certainly far far easier than it used to be

not to say some of the encounters still arent a challenge if you are not prepared for them (banner bosses in particular can still pack a punch, but i certainly no longer fear them as when IC launched lol)

if your trying to do the quests, those can be challenging mostly because almost all of them take place on the surface, which is where you encounter the most pvp, so it can make things tough if you dont know where things are or are not running a stealth character to avoid mobs

i usually try to do the IC story on all of my characters, cause the final mission is worth 1000 tel var, and each mission per district is at least 200 tel var + whatever you get for the normal event there (such as the arena in the arena district, or the temple in the temple district)

as other posts mention, there are numerous addons that can auto-deposit tel var in the bank when you visit the banker (assuming your running on PC)

Feljax · March 2023

I was able to solo it recently. The PvE stuff was certainly soloable. It's the other players that make things...err...interesting. Here's a post I made about it from late January that can give you a sense of the atmosphere in IC as far as I experienced it.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/625924/i-had-fun-playing-solo-in-imperial-city-over-the-weekend#latest

HisShadowX · March 2023

Feljax wrote: »

I was able to solo it recently. The PvE stuff was certainly soloable. It's the other players that make things...err...interesting. Here's a post I made about it from late January that can give you a sense of the atmosphere in IC as far as I experienced it.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/625924/i-had-fun-playing-solo-in-imperial-city-over-the-weekend#latest

I like to second this statement. Clearly, though it seems players would love to experience this story content. The problem is it was built for grouping when the majority of this game is build for PvE content.

I loved PVP during release but I would much more enjoy it if that entire zone could be made one big PvE instanced zone or PvP zone that you can go into.

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Imperial City solo friendly

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