Problems with Gold Road

Jimbru · June 9

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the Gold Road expansion was rushed to release only half finished. Problems abound, particularly in the "player friendliness" area.

1. Silorn. The boss that wasn't spawning seems to be fixed as of today, but the group boss Viikor is RIDICULOUS for a PD boss. He's harder than many older world bosses. Needs nerfed.
2. A dire shortage of lootable/stealable containers throughout the expansion making life tough for thiefy players.
3. Along with that, extremely low drop rates on the new furnishing plans. I've gotten three in this whole week. Yesterday I robbed every building in Skingrad that I could get into, and found none of the new plans, just old core game plans and recipes.
4. The new furnishing plans are basically only half a style. It's Summerset and High Isle furnishings all over again, except even worse. The Colovian style has no desks, no nightstands, no cabinets. It barely has beds, with only a single bed in the "noble" style and a double bed in the "rustic" style. Only one chest, "rustic" style. Counters only in "noble" style. You get the idea. BUT, if you look in the buildings around Skingrad, you'll see a bunch of furnishings, including ones I mentioned like desks and multiple types of beds, that aren't available to players. The same goes for the other styles in this expansion. Every furnishing that can be seen in the game world should be available to players, period.
5. Connected to that, just like in Necrom, we get an inn room in Skingrad that's as big or bigger than some of the other staple houses like Captain Margaux's Place, but with only a 30 item limit to fill the space. I'm not complaining about the size; I'm complaining about the item limit relative to the size. See also #4 about there being relatively little choice of Colovian furniture to use.
6. Too much time gating on collections and achievements, which we only find out about the hard way. Get rid of it. ALL of it. Let us play the game and collect things at our pace.
7. Scribing is a kink in the tail. The full quest line took longer than some of the zone stories; thank Sithis we only have to do the full line once. And then there is all the collecting that you have to do on EVERY character, because the learned grimoires and scripts aren't account wide. That needs changed.

So overall, yeah, I'm disappointed. I'll play through it on my main of course, but once I'm done with that, I'm likely never coming back to Gold Road unless positive changes happen.

Lags · June 9

Jimbru wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the Gold Road expansion was rushed to release only half finished. Problems abound, particularly in the "player friendliness" area.

1. Silorn. The boss that wasn't spawning seems to be fixed as of today, but the group boss Viikor is RIDICULOUS for a PD boss. He's harder than many older world bosses. Needs nerfed.
2. A dire shortage of lootable/stealable containers throughout the expansion making life tough for thiefy players.
3. Along with that, extremely low drop rates on the new furnishing plans. I've gotten three in this whole week. Yesterday I robbed every building in Skingrad that I could get into, and found none of the new plans, just old core game plans and recipes.
4. The new furnishing plans are basically only half a style. It's Summerset and High Isle furnishings all over again, except even worse. The Colovian style has no desks, no nightstands, no cabinets. It barely has beds, with only a single bed in the "noble" style and a double bed in the "rustic" style. Only one chest, "rustic" style. Counters only in "noble" style. You get the idea. BUT, if you look in the buildings around Skingrad, you'll see a bunch of furnishings, including ones I mentioned like desks and multiple types of beds, that aren't available to players. The same goes for the other styles in this expansion. Every furnishing that can be seen in the game world should be available to players, period.
5. Connected to that, just like in Necrom, we get an inn room in Skingrad that's as big or bigger than some of the other staple houses like Captain Margaux's Place, but with only a 30 item limit to fill the space. I'm not complaining about the size; I'm complaining about the item limit relative to the size. See also #4 about there being relatively little choice of Colovian furniture to use.
6. Too much time gating on collections and achievements, which we only find out about the hard way. Get rid of it. ALL of it. Let us play the game and collect things at our pace.
7. Scribing is a kink in the tail. The full quest line took longer than some of the zone stories; thank Sithis we only have to do the full line once. And then there is all the collecting that you have to do on EVERY character, because the learned grimoires and scripts aren't account wide. That needs changed.

So overall, yeah, I'm disappointed. I'll play through it on my main of course, but once I'm done with that, I'm likely never coming back to Gold Road unless positive changes happen.

inb4 people running defense for zos. i like a lot of the chapter but you make some valid points for sure. I especially agree with the furnishing plans, time gating, and scribing. They probably wont improve any aspect of it, but they should.

ArchangelIsraphel · June 9

I agree with everything here. I'm particularly annoyed about the absence of a ton of gorgeous furnishings that would have been a lot of fun to collect. Instead we half barely half of the full furnishing sets and nothing matches anything else.

And barely any structural pieces to speak of. I loved all of the different fireplaces in the expansion, and I don't think any of them were included at all as player furnishings.

And that inn room really could use 200 slots. It's as big as Captain Margaux's Place and could definitely be utilized far better with more slots to add little details. 30 feels terribly spartan for someone like me.

Pelanora · June 9

Isn't that what they do? Don't release any furnishings for a while? I remember reading this about the druid stuff in high isle.

Malprave · June 9

I’m chartering the Viikor Preservation Society right here and now. Save Viikor! No nerfs to Viikor! Love that hard boss!

shadyjane62 · June 9

It's not just you.

davidtk · June 9

Malprave wrote: »

I’m chartering the Viikor Preservation Society right here and now. Save Viikor! No nerfs to Viikor! Love that hard boss!

He was... eh how to say... Interesting. But it could be better if skill would fire etc. We got him yesterday but it was more lagfest than regular fight. And except lagfest every boss spawned without problem but it was obvious that in Silorn was only few people.

Btw I always laugh... Ppl want harder content, then they get it and after they get it they want nerf it. When ZoS nerf it ppl will start complain that is to easy

Jaraal · June 9

The thing that struck me most about West Weald is the unprecedented number of chained up doors. Gives the whole area a rushed Hollywood set fake facade vibe. Most unfortunate, and disappointing.

kind_hero · June 9

I agree with all the points.

I was quite surprised to find out there were no desks, nightstands etc in the new style. Because it takes so long to get furnishing plans, I decided this year to decorate my new inn room with the new items from the crown store. But there was no desk or other items I saw playing the game. And I was willing to pay, lol, so it's your loss.

I believe this content was rushed, so many things had to be released as they were, probably furniture wasn't a priority like always.

To me, the zones didn't seem so exciting, a lot of resources from High Isle/Galen (the jungle), and I found a lot of places too baren or filled just with boring rocks impossible to climb. Certain areas lack the polish we saw in the first half of the decade of ESO. Just take any part of Wrothgar, there is nothing boring anywhere you go. Wrothgar is probably the best you have done in 10 years of ESO.

I haven't finished the story yet, even though this is my first priority when playing new content. The scribing quests really feel like a time sink and a gate, I mean you just want to get over it as soon as possible to see how scribing works and does. But coupled with the fact that ink is very very hard to come by, for most players scribing remains that feature that you might unlock, but won't use until much later when the prices have gone down. Which leaves me with the story that I haven't found to be that engaging, again a new daedric cult like always, and the tiresome Laramil that is everywhere.

My complaint with this kind of storytelling (having an NPC constantly assisting you, same we did in Fargrave and other expansions) is that it removes the agency of the player, you don't seem a part of the story, you are just a mercenary paid by a key NPC like Laramil or Lyranth. Instead of being the hero, you are just the muscle, the enforcer that has to be pointed in the right direction and remembered who is who and why we are here.

It seems to me that the ESO team just doesn't want to learn from the player feedback (not mine, tons of feedback given over the years by the community)

moderatelyfatman · June 9

I like the Public Dungeons in Gold Road: the main boss in there should be tough.
A random player and myself took down Viktor a few minutes ago. It took a while and it was a lot of fun but not something a newer players is going to do.

James-Wayne · June 9

The zone itself is beautifully created, some real talented devs at ZOS... the quality went up for Goild Road in that department.

Sadly the execution still needs lots of work. Too much grinding to enjoy the new systems, I guess we wait till Q3 update now.

VouxeTheMinotaur · June 9

i have yet to play gold road, as i'm a console player, but on the topic of the PD boss, that sounds fun! Keep doing that ZOS!

i like the idea of not being able to do everything by yourself. the older zones you can do that, but with new zones coming into play that have a "higher difficulty" is exciting to me, and something that i've seen players ask for. It's similar to a single player RPG where you get the "beginner, intermediate, challenging, and deadly" areas.

The idea of finding something so threatening and difficult to do on your own, and have to reach out to friends, guilds, zone chat, or wait for another adventurer to stumble in the bosses room and fight together is great. i like the direction ZOS is going with newer content, and it's very evident in the newer dungeons, they're beefing up the NPC's to, what i'm assuming. accommodate the powerful builds people come up with while still releasing new gear for more combinations.

where's the fun in 1-2-3 tapping trash mobs and killing bosses in a couple of minutes? a good challenge is exciting!

kind_hero · June 10

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

I like the Public Dungeons in Gold Road: the main boss in there should be tough.
A random player and myself took down Viktor a few minutes ago. It took a while and it was a lot of fun but not something a newer players is going to do.

In my opinion, they went overboard with this boss. I'm not sure what your build was, but I was there with some random players and it took us good long minutes to down that boss, which was exagerrated. It makes sense to make him tough, he's the group event boss, but he's just a "bullet sponge", doesn't do something really interesting to make the long fight more exciting or something to get better at.

Anyway.. it does't matter much. I did him once. I will just skip this encounter in the future, and am guessing that many players who play solo or with a friend will do the same. Or maybe I am wrong. But I am sure ZOS have their stats, how many kills has each boss and they'll adapt from those numbers.

Jimbru · June 10

VouxeTheMinotaur wrote: »

i have yet to play gold road, as i'm a console player, but on the topic of the PD boss, that sounds fun! Keep doing that ZOS!

i like the idea of not being able to do everything by yourself. the older zones you can do that, but with new zones coming into play that have a "higher difficulty" is exciting to me, and something that i've seen players ask for. It's similar to a single player RPG where you get the "beginner, intermediate, challenging, and deadly" areas.

The idea of finding something so threatening and difficult to do on your own, and have to reach out to friends, guilds, zone chat, or wait for another adventurer to stumble in the bosses room and fight together is great. i like the direction ZOS is going with newer content, and it's very evident in the newer dungeons, they're beefing up the NPC's to, what i'm assuming. accommodate the powerful builds people come up with while still releasing new gear for more combinations.

where's the fun in 1-2-3 tapping trash mobs and killing bosses in a couple of minutes? a good challenge is exciting!

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a level of challenge. I am saying that Viikor is too tough for what and where he is. In a dungeon or trial, you have a semi-organized group with assigned roles. In a public dungeon, you have to work with whoever is around, which is often only one or two other people and their companions, all of which may or may not be helpful depending on their builds and competence. Viikor is impossible to fight at melee range because he does one shot damage; he crushes melee companions like bugs. He is ridiculously tough; I open up with full DPS rotation and his health bar barely moves, and then I'm running for my life. And finally, like way too many bosses in this game, he runs around so much that ground AOE, which is the main push of ESO combat, is almost useless. So once again, I'm not saying it shouldn't be a challenge; I'm saying Viikor is too much for a public dungeon and needs toned down.

davidtk · June 10

Main problem of Viktor boss is shield-wave phase.IIRC you must kill ads to take his shield down and dmg him?
But yes, he is rly strong and game doesn't well in his chamber.

It some time what overland have some mechanics but ppl don't doing them.
New vents ... one valkynaz shield itself and simple BASH take that shield down but NOBODY do it and stil trying to kill him....

Shadowbinder7 · July 6

kind_hero wrote: »

I agree with all the points.

I was quite surprised to find out there were no desks, nightstands etc in the new style. Because it takes so long to get furnishing plans, I decided this year to decorate my new inn room with the new items from the crown store. But there was no desk or other items I saw playing the game. And I was willing to pay, lol, so it's your loss.

I believe this content was rushed, so many things had to be released as they were, probably furniture wasn't a priority like always.

To me, the zones didn't seem so exciting, a lot of resources from High Isle/Galen (the jungle), and I found a lot of places too baren or filled just with boring rocks impossible to climb. Certain areas lack the polish we saw in the first half of the decade of ESO. Just take any part of Wrothgar, there is nothing boring anywhere you go. Wrothgar is probably the best you have done in 10 years of ESO.

I haven't finished the story yet, even though this is my first priority when playing new content. The scribing quests really feel like a time sink and a gate, I mean you just want to get over it as soon as possible to see how scribing works and does. But coupled with the fact that ink is very very hard to come by, for most players scribing remains that feature that you might unlock, but won't use until much later when the prices have gone down. Which leaves me with the story that I haven't found to be that engaging, again a new daedric cult like always, and the tiresome Laramil that is everywhere.

My complaint with this kind of storytelling (having an NPC constantly assisting you, same we did in Fargrave and other expansions) is that it removes the agency of the player, you don't seem a part of the story, you are just a mercenary paid by a key NPC like Laramil or Lyranth. Instead of being the hero, you are just the muscle, the enforcer that has to be pointed in the right direction and remembered who is who and why we are here.

It seems to me that the ESO team just doesn't want to learn from the player feedback (not mine, tons of feedback given over the years by the community)

I unlocked fractured glory skin achievement today. Finished all zone quests. I love the lore and i was so interested in Ithelia and the related stories

And I’ll say it blatantly. Gold Road felt rushed in story, followed the same fetch pattern, and was disconnected along the quests. Many gaps. It was so sad to see right till the end. And yes too much “treat my char like he’s a dumb muscle merc” to accommodate all char types… when in reality there’s so much more interactive intersting quest turns that could have been implemented. It was too repetitive and reminiscent of the past 3 years instead sadly

Hoping for a true deeper, cohesive storytelling and questing delivery next time, for the next dlc. Otherwise… honestly I think a lot of even the diehard Elder scrolls fans like myself… are really just bored. And not saying this lightly. It’s all about execution and planning of quest style structures etc.

Praying for improvements

LunaFlora · July 6

update 44 will likely have more Colovian and Dawnwood furnishings similar to update 40 last year which had Apocrypha and a few Necrom furnishings.

i agree that the drop rate for furnishing plans is awful, however we do have quite a lot of places to farm them regardless:
Silorn, Rustwall, Outcast inn, and of course containers in homes.
so i am confused how there are somehow not enough containers.

what are you referring to with timegated collections and achievements? there are no achievements that are time gated as far as i know.
if you're referring to the crown store items that require an achievement to acquire? those are for the anniversary spotlights, not Gold Road.

StarOfElyon · July 6

Jimbru wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the Gold Road expansion was rushed to release only half finished. Problems abound, particularly in the "player friendliness" area.

1. Silorn. The boss that wasn't spawning seems to be fixed as of today, but the group boss Viikor is RIDICULOUS for a PD boss. He's harder than many older world bosses. Needs nerfed.

Oh hell yeah. Gonna try fighting this mofo today.

AzuraFan · July 6

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Jimbru wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the Gold Road expansion was rushed to release only half finished. Problems abound, particularly in the "player friendliness" area.

1. Silorn. The boss that wasn't spawning seems to be fixed as of today, but the group boss Viikor is RIDICULOUS for a PD boss. He's harder than many older world bosses. Needs nerfed.

Oh hell yeah. Gonna try fighting this mofo today.

LOL I just did this guy yesterday, by myself. It took me about 10 minutes to get him down. At one point I had 935 health left. Fortunately my heal kicked in just in time. I do think it's a bit much for a PD group event, given that most PDs are dead after a while. Even Silorn was dead (I mentioned I was the only one there) a month after release. The designers need to start realizing that these types of group events need to be soloable by the average player because there often isn't anyone else around.

ETA: And I agree with the "player friendliness" criticism. I've already said in other threads that there's less to do for the solo player. This seems to be a trend, which is crazy because normally MMOs become MORE solo friendly as they age, due to reduced populations (and in ESO's case, the population spread over an ever-increasing number of zones).

katanagirl1 · July 6

AzuraFan wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Jimbru wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the Gold Road expansion was rushed to release only half finished. Problems abound, particularly in the "player friendliness" area.

1. Silorn. The boss that wasn't spawning seems to be fixed as of today, but the group boss Viikor is RIDICULOUS for a PD boss. He's harder than many older world bosses. Needs nerfed.

Oh hell yeah. Gonna try fighting this mofo today.

LOL I just did this guy yesterday, by myself. It took me about 10 minutes to get him down. At one point I had 935 health left. Fortunately my heal kicked in just in time. I do think it's a bit much for a PD group event, given that most PDs are dead after a while. Even Silorn was dead (I mentioned I was the only one there) a month after release. The designers need to start realizing that these types of group events need to be soloable by the average player because there often isn't anyone else around.

ETA: And I agree with the "player friendliness" criticism. I've already said in other threads that there's less to do for the solo player. This seems to be a trend, which is crazy because normally MMOs become MORE solo friendly as they age, due to reduced populations (and in ESO's case, the population spread over an ever-increasing number of zones).

I attempted this one yesterday by myself…and with all companions I had unlocked. My poor stamblade didn’t have a chance.

The boss is invulnerable 90% of the time, summons more than one wave of adds (maybe three?) and actively engages you in melee range while invulnerable. To add insult to injury those turret things on either side will keep blasting you with fireballs or something too. This one boss is ten times harder than the group event, lol. I had to completely stay off the dual wield bar and just run around and use ranged bow attacks, and looked like a total noob doing it.

I was able to get credit when fighting with at least 3 other players. Everyone just keeps running and hopefully not everyone gets killed all at once to reset the boss. This guy drops a lead for the Ayleid blacksmithing station. I got one so far but would love to get 2 more.

I had to wait a long time to find anyone to help, after calling out on zone text chat several times.

Rkindaleft · July 7

katanagirl1 wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Jimbru wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the Gold Road expansion was rushed to release only half finished. Problems abound, particularly in the "player friendliness" area.

1. Silorn. The boss that wasn't spawning seems to be fixed as of today, but the group boss Viikor is RIDICULOUS for a PD boss. He's harder than many older world bosses. Needs nerfed.

Oh hell yeah. Gonna try fighting this mofo today.

LOL I just did this guy yesterday, by myself. It took me about 10 minutes to get him down. At one point I had 935 health left. Fortunately my heal kicked in just in time. I do think it's a bit much for a PD group event, given that most PDs are dead after a while. Even Silorn was dead (I mentioned I was the only one there) a month after release. The designers need to start realizing that these types of group events need to be soloable by the average player because there often isn't anyone else around.

ETA: And I agree with the "player friendliness" criticism. I've already said in other threads that there's less to do for the solo player. This seems to be a trend, which is crazy because normally MMOs become MORE solo friendly as they age, due to reduced populations (and in ESO's case, the population spread over an ever-increasing number of zones).

I attempted this one yesterday by myself…and with all companions I had unlocked. My poor stamblade didn’t have a chance.

The boss is invulnerable 90% of the time, summons more than one wave of adds (maybe three?) and actively engages you in melee range while invulnerable. To add insult to injury those turret things on either side will keep blasting you with fireballs or something too. This one boss is ten times harder than the group event, lol. I had to completely stay off the dual wield bar and just run around and use ranged bow attacks, and looked like a total noob doing it.

I was able to get credit when fighting with at least 3 other players. Everyone just keeps running and hopefully not everyone gets killed all at once to reset the boss. This guy drops a lead for the Ayleid blacksmithing station. I got one so far but would love to get 2 more.

I had to wait a long time to find anyone to help, after calling out on zone text chat several times.

I managed to solo this on the first attempt after about 10 minutes, because as you said the boss is gold barred 90% of the time and actually does a lot of damage, give it 1 million more health and I frankly wouldn't've been able to tell the difference between this boss and a boss you would encounter in a DLC dungeon, It does seem like it's scaled a bit heavily for a group event boss compared to the rest.

AzuraFan · July 7

katanagirl1 wrote: »

The boss is invulnerable 90% of the time, summons more than one wave of adds (maybe three?) and actively engages you in melee range while invulnerable. To add insult to injury those turret things on either side will keep blasting you with fireballs or something too. This one boss is ten times harder than the group event, lol. I had to completely stay off the dual wield bar and just run around and use ranged bow attacks, and looked like a total noob doing it.

I was so busy dodge rolling, frantically hitting skills as soon as they became available, and running for my life at times that I didn't notice the turrets! But yeah, wave after wave of mobs lobbing fire at you, and the boss itself immune and able to practically jump right to you and really hit hard.

I play bow/bow, so I used a lot of ranged attacks lol. My poor bear died and had to be recalled about 10 times. Azandar faceplanted very quickly (as with a lot of the newer content, the companions are useless). And like I mentioned, at one point I glanced at my health bar and I was down to 935. Luckily my heal popped right then (my heal potion was still timed out).

Honestly, I was shocked that I managed to pull it off on my own. There was a lot of luck involved. But I was there fighting for at least 10 minutes and not a single other player ran by or jumped in. ZOS needs to give its head a shake and get some of these bosses back to a reasonable fight. Should it be tougher than a regular PD boss? Yes. Should it be impossible for lots of players to solo? No. There aren't crowds of players at these group events. To me, the boss encounters in Gold Road (WBs and this PD boss in particular) are over the top and just not fun.

katanagirl1 · July 7

AzuraFan wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

The boss is invulnerable 90% of the time, summons more than one wave of adds (maybe three?) and actively engages you in melee range while invulnerable. To add insult to injury those turret things on either side will keep blasting you with fireballs or something too. This one boss is ten times harder than the group event, lol. I had to completely stay off the dual wield bar and just run around and use ranged bow attacks, and looked like a total noob doing it.

I was so busy dodge rolling, frantically hitting skills as soon as they became available, and running for my life at times that I didn't notice the turrets! But yeah, wave after wave of mobs lobbing fire at you, and the boss itself immune and able to practically jump right to you and really hit hard.

I play bow/bow, so I used a lot of ranged attacks lol. My poor bear died and had to be recalled about 10 times. Azandar faceplanted very quickly (as with a lot of the newer content, the companions are useless). And like I mentioned, at one point I glanced at my health bar and I was down to 935. Luckily my heal popped right then (my heal potion was still timed out).

Honestly, I was shocked that I managed to pull it off on my own. There was a lot of luck involved. But I was there fighting for at least 10 minutes and not a single other player ran by or jumped in. ZOS needs to give its head a shake and get some of these bosses back to a reasonable fight. Should it be tougher than a regular PD boss? Yes. Should it be impossible for lots of players to solo? No. There aren't crowds of players at these group events. To me, the boss encounters in Gold Road (WBs and this PD boss in particular) are over the top and just not fun.

Congrats on a job well done!

Usually Bastian will be able to tank for me but he didn’t last very long. He’d been able to tank Tho’at arc 1 for me until I got good enough to solo it.

I wanted to get the achievement for clearing the PD on my main but I will try again on another character. That was probably the worst class to try it on to be honest.

ellmarie · July 8

Same. Bastian and Azandar are pretty good tanks for me, but they've been dying alot quicker lately. Just did this boss, and my templar which is amazing with health, got zapped very quickly. There were no mechanics as far as trying to get away, it was one shot and done, like a vet four man dungeon.

Vonnegut2506 · July 8

In cloth, the boss hit me with a normal hit for 23k damage. There isn't much I can do but dodge roll his hits and hope my stamina doesn't run out.