You are not casual. You are probably a normal player.

I am a bit wary about their plans as whilst I like harder content when I choose, I don’t want to have to engage in endless mob fights when doing surveys.

They need to be quite careful how they do this, as I can see it annoying both sides!

And may I suggest finding a pvp guild? A good one can really help open up this part of the game. Worked for me!

Casual should not be the same as bad.

[snip]
[edited for baiting]

Given that ZOS seem, belatedly, really to have woken up to just how bad, bad, bad ESO is as an experience for new players, whatever they intend it's likely they will still keep new player experience in mind. New player = player with lower skills who can't kill every single creature in the open world with a couple of mouse clicks and a shrug.

I can't see them doing as much work as the end of year letter suggests to make things better for new players, only to throw it all away by allowing lower skill players to die the moment they meet a rat.

Jierdanit wrote: »

Casual should not be the same as bad.

[snip]

Thanks for your support. LOL

[edited to remove quote]

Northwold wrote: »

Given that ZOS seem, belatedly, really to have woken up to just how bad, bad, bad ESO is as an experience for new players, whatever they intend it's likely they will still keep new player experience in mind. New player = player with lower skills who can't kill every single creature in the open world with a couple of mouse clicks and a shrug.

I can't see them doing as much work as the end of year letter suggests to make things better for new players, only to throw it all away by allowing lower skill players to die the moment they meet a rat.

You realize ESO has pushed away many new players because they find their first impressions of the game, aka the overland content, to be easy and dull? New player doesn't mean new to video games, and since they haven't shared any information on how they would go about doing this, wait until they actually share their plans before calling for doom.

Vulsahdaal wrote: »

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

Jierdanit wrote: »

Casual should not be the same as bad.

[snip]

A lot of the DLC dungeons have mobs that can one-shot players that aren't expecting certain mechanics, or who don't have dedicated healers healing the group/tank taunting everything.

Normal dungeons. Basic mobs.

(Looking at you Falkreath Hold)

Falkreath Hold really isnt public dungeon.

That said, its not too bad when you know a few mechanics (it doesnt really have that many). My friend and I often duo it. TBH I never tried it alone.

But yeah, there are other DLC dungeons we wouldnt attempt without at least one more player (preferably two).

This said, a question for OP? Forgive me, its early morning and the caffeine hasnt kicked in yet, but what changes were made to Infinite Archive? I been running it since it came out (it was exactly the thing I was looking for in the game that I didnt know I was looking for until it was there, if that makes any sense lol) and I cant remember any significant changes?

It's part of the random normal dungeons. Which is what OP is a talking about. since they distinguish between overworld and being "dumped into a dungeon", like random normal.

Slight mix-up int terminology I think. You think they're talking about Delves.

[edited to remove quote]

The capabilites of the playerbase spans ranges too broadly for a single thing to be a good fit.

A story-mode difficulty option is an easy fix other games have made use of to help the players who struggle to complete content.

Personally I play fairly casually. The closest thing to a meta build I have is a standard oakensorc, and I also have a toughened version of it with lower damage output. Those two things let me solo stuff such as harrowstorms, bastion nymics, chewy apocrypha world bosses such as libram cathedral and deepreave quag, gorne and silorn public dungeon group events, some DLC dungeons like coral arie and cradle of shadows, base game veteran hardmodes. I'm not even a good player. I'm slow and fumble a lot, but have a decent understanding of the fundamentals.

Got an arcanist too, but lazily just kitted it up in the 12-piece crafted set: shattered fate with bows and called it good. Still able to solo stuff like the toad-tounge war camp world boss in Blackwood if I mind the barrel mechanic.

That kind of play is feels very engaging to me and where ESO combat shines. Complexity arising from the combination of many simpler enemies and impactful mechanics. Especially where I've got a weaker build and have to work for success. Sometimes dying several times and letting that teach me about mechanics I'm ignoring. For example the high isle serpent caller and wildhorn world bosses killed me a lot until I understood the mechanics, then they became fairly straightforward.

Even made a tanky build and spend way too much time chipping away alone at the massive health pool of a dragon, but that was only halfway engaging whenever the dragon spawned adds, because not a lot else is going on in dragon fights. It's just chipping away at a bullet sponge while trying not to be one shotted. Which is why just altering the stats of the overland won't be enough. It also needs larger packs of enemies. Perfect example vs dragons are harrowstorms. Those are great solo fights as long as you can out-DPS the ghosts healing the pikes.

Anyway my nightblade main crafter is mostly just casually running around in the overland. Not really doing anything challenging. Wearing crafted training gear and a mythic. Heartland conqueror, telvanni efficiency and mora's whispers. Just harvesting while listening to a podcast or watching a video, killing whatever I meet to level the companions and get those passives. Still two or three shotting almost everything I meet. Also that's also the only character I do quests on.

Kind of relaxing running around mindlessly harvesting stuff, but the harvesting of enemies can hardly be called combat. This level of difficulty in quests also robs it of any engagement value. I tend to do the quests as new content drops just to complete it, and I suspend disbelief and pay attention to the story even though I feel it gets imperfectly told, as I just enjoy mulling over ES lore. But it's not a good experience to have story overexplained, only interrupted by having to slap harmless enemies to death every now and then, including the quest boss. It's like reading a children's book based mostly on big crayon pictures. ESO wasn't always like that.

In the overland, aside from some WB's and WE's, I know with certainty that I will always succeed without effort. It will just take a few seconds, even on a bad build.

Yet some people report struggling with it. I find that bizarre, but I don't doubt it. Some players just perform really badly, others have disabilities, or maybe just bad internet. Meanwhile, others are speedrunning solo DLC veteran dungeon hardmode trifecta achievements. So one approach just cannot fit them all.

I think it's easier to make an engaging combat environment first and then boost underperforming players power.

Death carries so little consequence for the vestige that it's actual immortality feels majorly underutilized. Compare it to soul reaver where dying in the living world was often a requirement to go do something in the ghost world. That's an aside though, but might be a way to implement a story mode system when I think about it. i.e., maybe if you die, you can keep fighting as an immortal ghost and with greatly increased damage output, and your companion becomes almost like a city guard. Obviously there would have to be some limitations around that kind of power, but if you wanted to guarantee that bad players could complete content, it would do it.

they should just copy LOTRO's zone/level scaling diffuculty thing tbh. It works well

I think they will not touch older zones. They will still be for people to enjoy story in very relaxed environment and feel like hero.

What i am expecting is that they will probably make a new Craglorn like zone. Maybe a fairly large zone and add stuff to it from time to time. Like new delves. New public dungeons.