Tandor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

a bit of background from me is that whenever i make a new character nowadays (which isnt too often), i never craft gear for them, i immediately port into public dungeons at lvl 3 (i skip the tutorial too) and run around with no gear until i get drops in the public dungeon, i basically port to public dungeons for the skyshard and group boss at a minimum and repeat this until about level 10

at which point i go to imperial city and farm from lvl 10 until 50

the most challenging thing i did on a low lvl character was solo kill a banner boss in IC on my lvl 14 arcanist using a mishmash of generic non-set gear, some of it a bit underleveled

i know a lot of this is because ive been playing the game since launch and have experienced virtually all content the game has to offer (at least cleared everything on vet), and i still have the reflexes to deal with the faster combat

How many CPs do you activate on those characters?

one of the things i do when i make a new toon before i actually go adventuring is various unlocks (guild skill lines: mages, fighters, undaunted, psijic (to unlock psijic portals), dark brotherhood (unlock blade of woe), thieves guild (unlock thieves troves), and bag upgrades

i dont do mount upgrades because i cant do them all at once, i dont do crafting certification because i dont like daily writs, and i level up my crafts by deconning junk i pick up

if i have the cp im going to use it, its part of making the character to me

even with that though it still takes skill to solo a boss like that, and knowledge of said bosses mechanics

I'm not raising the question of CPs in any critical way, I quite understand that if you have CPs you'll want to use them. I only asked the question (still unanswered) because when people talk about completing advanced content on naked new characters they always forget to mention the CPs !

As for your last point, I couldn't agree more. When taking on advanced content with new characters it's easy to strip off the gear and leave the CPs disabled etc, but you can never strip away the skill, reflexes and knowledge that come with the player's previous experience.

it can be a mix, as you noted you dont lose the skills and experience

ive completed vet maelstrom on a character i forgot to even apply a mundus stone too, and was wondering why it felt much more difficult lol

even something as simple as a missing mundus stone can help a lot more than one expects, but if a player has really mastered a game, they dont need a lot of the extra bonuses (gear, cp, mundus) to be effective

Tandor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

a bit of background from me is that whenever i make a new character nowadays (which isnt too often), i never craft gear for them, i immediately port into public dungeons at lvl 3 (i skip the tutorial too) and run around with no gear until i get drops in the public dungeon, i basically port to public dungeons for the skyshard and group boss at a minimum and repeat this until about level 10

at which point i go to imperial city and farm from lvl 10 until 50

the most challenging thing i did on a low lvl character was solo kill a banner boss in IC on my lvl 14 arcanist using a mishmash of generic non-set gear, some of it a bit underleveled

i know a lot of this is because ive been playing the game since launch and have experienced virtually all content the game has to offer (at least cleared everything on vet), and i still have the reflexes to deal with the faster combat

How many CPs do you activate on those characters?

one of the things i do when i make a new toon before i actually go adventuring is various unlocks (guild skill lines: mages, fighters, undaunted, psijic (to unlock psijic portals), dark brotherhood (unlock blade of woe), thieves guild (unlock thieves troves), and bag upgrades

i dont do mount upgrades because i cant do them all at once, i dont do crafting certification because i dont like daily writs, and i level up my crafts by deconning junk i pick up

if i have the cp im going to use it, its part of making the character to me

even with that though it still takes skill to solo a boss like that, and knowledge of said bosses mechanics

I'm not raising the question of CPs in any critical way, I quite understand that if you have CPs you'll want to use them. I only asked the question (still unanswered) because when people talk about completing advanced content on naked new characters they always forget to mention the CPs !

As for your last point, I couldn't agree more. When taking on advanced content with new characters it's easy to strip off the gear and leave the CPs disabled etc, but you can never strip away the skill, reflexes and knowledge that come with the player's previous experience.

it can be a mix, as you noted you dont lose the skills and experience

ive completed vet maelstrom on a character i forgot to even apply a mundus stone too, and was wondering why it felt much more difficult lol

even something as simple as a missing mundus stone can help a lot more than one expects, but if a player has really mastered a game, they dont need a lot of the extra bonuses (gear, cp, mundus) to be effective

I agree about mundus stones, and it always frustrates me when ZOS release a new Chapter with the ability just to play the game through a lot of levels without leaving the new content, and yet they never include any mundus stones in that new content. As a result new players probably don't even get to know about mundus stones - just a single one that could work for anyone's build would be worth including in any chapter in my view.

that is a good point, none of the dlc zones have any mundus stones, they are all located in base game alliance zones and cyrodiil (craglorn doesnt even have mundus stones)

i never understood why mundus stones were in cyrodiil to begin with either, its not like anyone is changing their mundus stone in the middle of pvp

they also frustrate me too how absurdly expensive they are to get from the crown store lol

For some reason I was able to beat the arc 2 boss twice now, not sure what happened. Which made me feel overconfident, and I messed up before getting to the first boss in arc 3(twice lol). Did notice my character was taking too much damage there, so I am making some adjustments to my build. The second time I beat the arc 2 boss was after changing my build a bit, with more defenses. Still want to make some more changes, as I ran into Maugogh and that wasn't pleasant.

Maugogh keeps kicking my behind.

Upgrades: Have been checking out the merchant, bought two upgrades, and am working towards unlocking the other upgrades. So far the two I have unlocked are three verses and speed.

Checking the merchants in EA I noticed the stock changed on the lead vendor. Just stating this for those who want to check it out. Not sure when the stock changed though. But might be better to change it to the same reset as the endeavours and maybe state on the merchant when it's stock changes exactly.

PS: Feeling overconfident I also tried my dps on a trial target dummy, and came out with 63k dps. As I was still feeling overconfident I also tried vMA for the first time. Which I was able to complete, with many many many deaths. All those EA runs should be good practice, I thought. This was before making any changes to my build. (not feeling overconfident anymore )

PPS: Going to look up some EA builds for my other classes. To be able to collect class gear on them at some point.

Jaraal wrote: »

Has anyone completed the "Vision of Mora" furnishing yet? It requires three gold quality leads to combine, and is interactable. I've only gotten one lead so far, when I completed the goat series quest. I'm curious what Archive benefit it grants.

I'll be the bearer of bad news, it doesn't. It just gives you a green glowy effect for your screen.

Jaraal wrote: »

Has anyone completed the "Vision of Mora" furnishing yet? It requires three gold quality leads to combine, and is interactable. I've only gotten one lead so far, when I completed the goat series quest. I'm curious what Archive benefit it grants.

This glimmering carving is still imbued with the latent power of the Endless Archive. This is a small house item. When placed in your home, allows you to interact with the latent magic of the Archive.

yes ive completed it, and its just a furnishing that has a fancy effect when you "examine" it

i think theres only 1 furnishing lead i havent gotten from the archive at least once yet (i have the furnishings set up in my house if anyone wanted to come preview)

the only archive specific benefit stuff are not antiquity related at all, they are bought from the archive merchant after obtaining the achievements for clearing all 5 difficulties of the bonus objectives (and the one bonus which is the 2 side quests)

@Jaraal

It's pure RNG for that one, some runs they're in Act 1, others I don't see one till Act 3, but they do exist, I've completed it on at least one character.

Paralyse wrote: »

Arcanist just slays everything in EA. Arcanist is easy mode. Their toolkit is incredibly OP for the content when compared to any other class, and they're just as tanky as an Oakensoul build, but without being restricted to only one bar.

I run Oakensorc and it's pretty decent but nowhere near as strong as Arcanist builds are right now. Oaken Warden is another strong tanky build that still puts out awesome DPS. Oakensorc is somewhat handicapped in EA by the fact that Sorc pets are incredibly weak in group content - they die all the time without warning and tend to randomly despawn after taking portals or killing stage bosses. I can't keep mine alive for more than half a minute on any Tho'at Replicanum pulls.

I suspect this is because the functionality that grants Sorc pets a massive damage reduction to enemy AoE damage is not working correctly, along with the changes that made it so your pets no longer benefit from damage shields.

For Oakensorc nowadays I'd lose Storm Master and run Tzogvin's Warband or New Moon Acolyte. Sergeant + Slimecraw are still your two other sets. Other options (less good but still viable) are Deadly (great set for single target) and Order's Wrath (easily craftable if you can't access the other sets, and still a solid mid-tier option.)

Worth mentioning is that Oakensoul is still bugged. If you die, you need to remove it and re-equip it, or you will not have any of the buffs it provides.

i think normally pets are actually immune to most aoes

for example in dreadsail reef warden bears and sorc scamps take no dmg when meleeing taleria in the deadly whirlpool

the endless archive seems to have made all of the aoes deadly to pets and in fact some boss mechanics are able to target them directly

when i did zhajassa with a warden, my bear pet and my companion were getting cursed even though they have no concept of the mechanic or ability to cleanse it, the large aoe also was killing them because they are too dumb to hide behind pillars

honestly i dont think pets should be able to take dmg from mechanics or aoes, because they have no concept of counterplaying the mechanic

its actually 100% the reason why plaguebreak was nerfed to not work on NPCs because "they cant counterplay" it, so it seems unfair that NPCs using special mechanics can nuke our pets/companions, but we cant use a set against an npc that kind of does the same thing

it was one of the major problems i found just using companions in the archive, against the add phases they were ok but majority of the boss phases that any semblance of a mechanic or tho'at, they would die immediately

I finally got to do my first duo run though last night and a point that hasn’t been mentioned, maybe because it’s so obvious, is that BOTH players get their own verses and visions, another reason that it’s easier for a duo than a solo with or without a companion. Too bad companions don’t get some form of random automatic verse or vision buff after each round!

Do the Sweeter Deal and Filer Kor's Truesight upgrades last for only 1 stage or 1 cycle or 1 arc or until your threads run out?

Have been wondering: Do add-ons have any effect on the difficulty of the EA? As add-ons allow players to automate quite a few functions, like repairing/recharging or switching an entire build with one button or changing CP's with one button, etc. Not to mention telling boss mechanics and telling when to dodge/block/etc. While at the same time I noticed the armory assistant was unable to be summoned. Is it fair to have the EA(and any other arena) while still allowing add-ons inside of these? (to me this seems like a very unfair advantage, especially as it results in more completion rates and more progress while at the same time granting those players more rewards/currency)
Add-ons make a world of difference, and should warrant a discussion when talking about difficulty of content. Atleast in my opinion.

Jaraal wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

(and the one bonus which is the 2 side quests)

I finished the first quest rather easily, but I'm unable to find even one of the

seven lockboxes so far. Any tips?

Some runs I found 0 lockboxes, other runs I get two in a row. It's completely random. Just keep doing runs. Same goes for the pages.

daemondamian wrote: »

Do the Sweeter Deal and Filer Kor's Truesight upgrades last for only 1 stage or 1 cycle or 1 arc or until your threads run out?

Memento's always work, and are accountwide. This is why these upgrades are in the form of memento's.

Someone said in this thread Arc 1 is "too easy".

I wonder, are you playing with a 'companion' or with another player ?
Because there is a big difference : a companion is really worthless form the Arc 1 boss onwards, whereas with another player Arc 1 is 'easy'.

Sarannah wrote: »

Have been wondering: Do add-ons have any effect on the difficulty of the EA? As add-ons allow players to automate quite a few functions, like repairing/recharging or switching an entire build with one button or changing CP's with one button, etc. Not to mention telling boss mechanics and telling when to dodge/block/etc. While at the same time I noticed the armory assistant was unable to be summoned. Is it fair to have the EA(and any other arena) while still allowing add-ons inside of these? (to me this seems like a very unfair advantage, especially as it results in more completion rates and more progress while at the same time granting those players more rewards/currency)
Add-ons make a world of difference, and should warrant a discussion when talking about difficulty of content. Atleast in my opinion.

It is slightly easier when you know when Tho'at is doing Tempered Strike with it's long a** windup but its still up to the player to do the dodge.
As for gear change, the time does not affect the score so even if you change gear by hand it just saves you time but the score will be the same. Can affect currency because you can do 2 runs instead of 1.

Eliahnus wrote: »

Someone said in this thread Arc 1 is "too easy".

I wonder, are you playing with a 'companion' or with another player ?
Because there is a big difference : a companion is really worthless form the Arc 1 boss onwards, whereas with another player Arc 1 is 'easy'.

As it stands arc 1 is about as hard as a public dungeon, sure you can encounter a boss that can 1-shot you due to RNG but that's overcome easily enough by doing the mechanics, be they blocking, standing on a light, killing adds or not standing in the red.

As a player who is almost competent, not a “top end turbo elite 9001K dps unkillable god slaying monster” but a step or two above the casual overland player that just light attacks everything, I gotta say, arc 1, solo, is so easy that it borders on tedium with arc 2 not being much better, arc 3 is where it gets interesting due to actual challenge starting to rear its head, only made it to arc 4 once however, and that was with the help of another player.

still, as rude as it might sound, one thing most people that cry for nerfs in this community need to learn is that failing in the game is only a bad thing if you refuse to learn from it.
Sitting there whining about how you died due to X is only to make you look like a fool
Getting back up and trying again, this time paying full attention to what's going on, is going to let you both learn and grow as a player, and if you stay on that path, eventually you'll reach a point where what once seemed impossible is now trivial.

So, less complaining, more growth, after all we were all new at one point.