Official Discussion Thread for "Update 44 Preview—Battlegrounds, New Companions, & More!"

MAOofDC · September 11

Zachary_Shadow wrote: »

Aliyavana wrote: »

please dont abandon balfiera. taking out the tutorial is fine, but we are now losing our only direnni content in the game. the base game is already oversaturated with ayleid content on base game high rock. now direnni are not going to have any content left. please do something again with balfiera in the future

I assume that's why they are retiring that tutorial and bringing back the main quest as the tutorial. Given how many tutorials ZOS introduced before the Balfiera one became the standard and highlighted ESO's "choose where and how you play" style, I can't see why they'd change it once more besides wanting to use the Isle and the Adamantine Tower elsewhere. That's my hope, at least, as these tutorial changes highlight how much time and money was used in the previous tutorials that could have been used elsewhere given players can't play them any longer (which was and still is a missed opportunity given the context they provide when starting in those Chapters).

ZoS had been changing where new characters have started with every new chapter they introduced. The reason they did that is because they wanted to give new players who bought the game to play that expansion a chance to get right into the expansion they just purchased.

But by going back to the vanilla tutorial and reworking it a little bit to make it a better tutorial, it not only makes new player entry easier, it gives the Lore reason as to why all players can be brought back from the dead. According to the Lore set by the Main Quest until players encounter Mannimarco for the first time and become Vestiges they should only have one life just like most NPCs do, companions being the only exception and they only have the ability because of gameplay reasons.

As someone who has multiple characters who haven't even started the Main Quest of the whole game for various reasons, I can see it being slightly immersion breaking if when you find out the reason you can resurrect is because of your encounter with Mannimarco which only just happened. Even though they might have died while playing the tutorial or didn't even start the main quest until they were working on CPs. A lot of people like doing all the side quests first.

Hell IMHO the final quests of the Main Quest only makes sense if you have helped out all three factions. Why would the kings and queens of the alliances believe an agent who has (to date) has only helped the lands of one alliance?

Fischblut · September 11

I did not watch the stream, only read this news article. So all my feedback is based on it.

1) Just based on their pictures, upcoming companions don't really interest me

Their special perks are not too bad, but nothing that would actually make me think "I must have them at all costs."

I didn't expect another Khajiit, while there are still people who wait for Bosmer, Nord and Orc companions!

Altmer's short hairstyle is not good for my taste, so it would not be pleasant to look at her by my side. The need to put helmets on companions strikes again

I was just recently talking in other thread how I want male Altmer necromancer like Caluurion for some of my characters. I expressed my concerns about such ungrateful personality as his, but now I think I would happily tolerate him just for his looks with my ladies

This reveal twisted every part of my wish (expect for the race) of the High Elf companion

2) Two teams in Battlegrounds is something I always wanted.

3) Scribing skill would be interesting, but I don't like "be in my group" requirement. I dislike that many abilities were butchered to apply buffs/heals for other players only if they are in my group. I don't like to be in group, but I like to heal and buff all allies nearby.

4) Return of original tutorial is very nice. Too bad that there are no additional character slots...

5) Imperial City rewards rework is both interesting and scary, without more details.

6) Golden Pursuits are also both interesting and scary.

7) More skill styles, especially that they still don't require to be purchased in crown store, are always nice.

8) Increase of furnishing materials is really bad for me, because I used to sell them in trading guild... But I've left the guild now, because it's already too difficult to sell enough stuff to meet weekly requirements

9) Bonuses for tel var and AP gains for subscribers are too good!

NyassaV · September 11

No Cyrodiil stuff? Well that sucks. BGs are good fun every now and then but a lot of people who are really into PvP don't do them that much.

Ajaxandriel · September 12

Aliyavana wrote: »

please dont abandon balfiera. taking out the tutorial is fine, but we are now losing our only direnni content in the game. the base game is already oversaturated with ayleid content on base game high rock. now direnni are not going to have any content left. please do something again with balfiera in the future

Absolutely agree.

Not only Coldhabor is dull and boring, but forcing new characters into the base storyline is a waste.
As reworked as the new version is, it will still let a rotten corpse aftertaste to any new character experience.

The base starting zone removal -back in Morrowind chapter- was a good decision, and the freedom offered by the newer Balfiera zone was even better.

I do not understand such a downgrade.

Artem_gig · September 18

1. I like that the prologue will now be logical. Still, as for me, the character's story should start with this.
2. Of the companions, I am only interested in Khajiit. [snip]
3. I am not very interested in the new grimoire (although it is quite interesting) I am more pleased with the fact that it will finally be possible to choose the types of fire and poison damage from the soul grimoires.
4. The houses are beautiful.
5. I will still agitate for adding the ability to choose the type of heavy attack from the bow in the gameplay settings (automatic - as it is now, classic - as it was on release)

ketsparrowhawk · September 18

Elsonso wrote: »

ketsparrowhawk wrote: »

Jsmalls wrote: »

We as the PvP community have serious concerns for the PvP content being introduced with update 44 and for PvP content for years to come .

Introducing a 8v8 that is completely Open que will very quickly kill the content. There are players (like myself) that have been playing for 10 years and you're expecting new players to compete against us?

The same issue will exist for 4v4 if it's open Que. Pre-made 4 Man groups will decimate any uncoordinated group there is. Group comp is extremely powerful in this game with the cross healing and group buffs available. If you are depending on MMR to separate top tier players from average players then que times are going to be horrendous (what were are currently experiencing on Live). Additionally if I'm a high MMR player that means queuing as a Solo player would be a death sentence.

Not to mention the 1 life ruleset is going to push this content to low damage, Tanky builds, which the vast majority of the community agrees... ISN'T FUN. No one wants to sit there doing 6k DPS on a brick. You said it yourself on live, if you go into PvP expect to die. The one life ruleset punishes this. I'm very skeptical on this.

For the 8v8 open Que concept to succeed you would need to drastically nerf cross healing that is present (1 instance of each HoT is the bare minimum).

But ultimately... There is a reason why Battlegrounds is "dead" content. I know you'll never release the actual numbers but I know you have the data... Open world Cyrodiil is you're most popular PvP content and even that has dwindling numbers.

You need to build in PvP integration into the game at early levels and give new players an Area where they can actually grow as PvPers (< Level 50 Cyrodiil is a failure from things like running around with no mount speed to veteran players in all gold level 25 gear griefing the server).

There is strong evidence that battleground will be equally as low participation a month after this content releases.

Fix the servers, Update Cyrodiil, Save Cyrodiil.

You don't speak for the entire pvp community. My guild (which is battlegrounds-focused) is ultra hyped for this update.

You are OK with the new battlegrounds replacing the 3-way ones?

I like the 3-team system but there are

Elsonso wrote: »

ketsparrowhawk wrote: »

Jsmalls wrote: »

We as the PvP community have serious concerns for the PvP content being introduced with update 44 and for PvP content for years to come .

Introducing a 8v8 that is completely Open que will very quickly kill the content. There are players (like myself) that have been playing for 10 years and you're expecting new players to compete against us?

The same issue will exist for 4v4 if it's open Que. Pre-made 4 Man groups will decimate any uncoordinated group there is. Group comp is extremely powerful in this game with the cross healing and group buffs available. If you are depending on MMR to separate top tier players from average players then que times are going to be horrendous (what were are currently experiencing on Live). Additionally if I'm a high MMR player that means queuing as a Solo player would be a death sentence.

Not to mention the 1 life ruleset is going to push this content to low damage, Tanky builds, which the vast majority of the community agrees... ISN'T FUN. No one wants to sit there doing 6k DPS on a brick. You said it yourself on live, if you go into PvP expect to die. The one life ruleset punishes this. I'm very skeptical on this.

For the 8v8 open Que concept to succeed you would need to drastically nerf cross healing that is present (1 instance of each HoT is the bare minimum).

But ultimately... There is a reason why Battlegrounds is "dead" content. I know you'll never release the actual numbers but I know you have the data... Open world Cyrodiil is you're most popular PvP content and even that has dwindling numbers.

You need to build in PvP integration into the game at early levels and give new players an Area where they can actually grow as PvPers (< Level 50 Cyrodiil is a failure from things like running around with no mount speed to veteran players in all gold level 25 gear griefing the server).

There is strong evidence that battleground will be equally as low participation a month after this content releases.

Fix the servers, Update Cyrodiil, Save Cyrodiil.

You don't speak for the entire pvp community. My guild (which is battlegrounds-focused) is ultra hyped for this update.

You are OK with the new battlegrounds replacing the 3-way ones?

Pros and cons to both systems. I've done quite a lot of PTS BG's this week. 2 teams means more fighting, less stalemates since no need to worry about getting sandwiched. But it seems that certain playstyles may be less effective. I played solo in 8v8 and it was very fun. With that many teammates the cross heals and body blocks are ample so it's not hard to stay in the mix and do stuff. Long term ppl will probably change how they build for BG's.. probably will need to invest more in sustain since fights are non stop the whole time. Pros and cons but I'm glad we're trying something different.

MaisonNaevius · October 22

Hello.

What about Fanged Worm Style and Horned Dragon Style with this Update ?
Will they still be lootable?

I'm worried because I've been trying to farm the Horned Dragon Hat for several days without success. I need it for one of my roleplay characters whose conclusion is approaching faster than I had expected.

This is the hat I need and nothing else. The choice is symbolic without going into details.

At the time, I had already started farming the hat by doing the Battleground but without any real urgency. And one day, I forgot the reasons for farming.
Today I'm kicking myself.

syntaxsue_ESO · October 26

I'm also wondering what's going to happen to the style pages we could get from the current Battlegrounds. Will there still be Firedrakes, Stormlords, and Pit Demons? Some of us haven't completed getting those and we still want them.

Shourrs · November 17

Let's start with the positive sides:

1. Companions
Congratulations. With Tanlorin you've created a interesting persona that drops out of most systems - ingame society, class-focused build, gender ... nicely done. The quest? Well. After the big friend betrayal in West Weald main quest, the plot twist didn't work this time. Sorry. But that's some minor thing.
Zenith-var's story convinced me, too. And surprisingly so I don't like necromancy. It doesn't fit for heroics in my opinion. This cat proved me wrong. I do like his story, I do like his skillset, I even do like his comments. <sarcasm>He could say tamiit more often, though. </sarcasm>
My only negative point: Moving the companions to crown store feels like a step towards the dark side.

2. Scribing banner
That was a good decision. I did take a short look on the new skills and didn't bother to scribe any. For Solo-PVE you don't need them, for group-PVE I couldn't contribute anything with scribed skills. This changed. I suppose there is nothing to be done about the triple marker showing that the skill is active (banner, circle, sounds). It's too much for me but with all the bling-bling rides, actions and skills that are welcome by the community, I seem to be part of a minority to be overwhelmed by that.

3. Skill styles
For me, this is something not important enough, but I think it's okay. Exchange animation skins for coin. I prefer pay-to-bling over pay-to-win mechanics and somehow you need to make money. So let there be skill styles. Maybe I even buy on myself.

4. Golden Pursuits
Nothing to say, yet. Please do move "special" endeavors there. I hate to see that I've finished 3 dailies just to realize that a fourth one was worth 75 instead of 15 tokens, or to see that "complete weekly endeavor" cannot be done as I finished it one day earlier.

5. Game tutorial, Imperial city
Didn't check this, yet.

6. Battlegrounds
This has gone bad to worse. Sorry. 3x3x3 solo/group was bad enough. You had bad teams or opponents so much stronger than you that it wasn't fun to play. The balance of a third team, which distracted the good one or gave you the possibility to score at least a little, is missing now.
8x8 is a mess. Most people are just fighting someplace useless, you need 2 cracks to completely destroy the other team. I've seen even one-player-armies to win the whole game. So either you are a crack, or you will depend on luck to win or lose. And there is no balance mechanic to counter it. I hope that some ELO-System will take care of it sooner or later, until then: Why bother with different modes? Just make a big death-match killing field and everyone will be happy.
I didn't try group 8x8 this could be fun.
Solo-4x4 could be fun. But I'm too bad to judge and don't feel that I belong there: Opponents are killing me with two blows, teammates have to carry my load and go 3x4. There is no chance to learn as you die too fast. Maybe ELO will solve this, too.
I didn't try Group-4x4 as with former system, this was something you can do after finding your built and a group to fit in or you were destroyed. Without the third group I won't even try.

This is just about changes. Crazy-builds like deadlands demolisher, unkillable tanks, or one-shot-combos you need to learn how to counter are just stupid in a game where noobs and pros meet. This is a general PVP problem. Same for the toxic and intoxicating environment that PVP often is. I don't want to lose too many words over bugs and endless queues.

This far: okay. BGs aren't designed for me (anymore). That's not too bad. I never liked them too much in the first place. I wouldn't miss PVP if it would be removed from the game completely. If other like it, please feel free to ignore my comments.

There is only one thing I really hate: The default setting for random battlegrounds is in Solo 4x4 and it doesn't remember me selecting solo 8x8. Could you please change this? There is so much info saved in my char, there should be space for one more marker: last-bg-mode-played.