Cyrodiil Quests Will Soon Be Impossible for Many: Enemies Upped to VR5 in 1.1

LonePirate · May 2014

Buried within the Patch Notes for the 1.1 Craglorn release is this easily overlooked change:

NPC enemies in caves and overland in Cyrodiil have been adjusted to Veteran Rank five difficulty.

Currently, all of these enemies are level 50 and they are very challenging for players below level 50 who have been adjusted to level 50 in Cyrodiil. The elite bosses of some quests and in dungeons are particularly challenging. Not only are all of these enemies being bumped up several levels but there are no accompanying adjustments to players to keep them scaled with the zone's enemies. Even worse, the patch notes include no mention of quest rewards being increased to compensate for the massive increase in the difficulty of the quest enemies.

I am currently VR2 and this change frightens and infuriates me because the enemies will be too difficult for me to kill, especially the bosses as I almost always quest solo just like many other Cyrodiil questers. The lack of increased XP and gold for quests makes questing in Cyrodiil even less attractive as a gameplay activity. While it will be nice to receive Veteran Points for killing mobs in Cyrodiil, these new VR5 enemies are going to slaughter many people.

If you are seeking Skyshards or the quest and dungeon achievements in Cyrodiil and you are not VR4/5 or higher already, I would recommend working towards these goals as much as possible before this change goes live. Things are about to become much more difficult.

driosketch · May 2014

LonePirate wrote: »

Not only are all of these enemies being bumped up several levels but there are no accompanying adjustments to players to keep them scaled with the zone's enemies.

Actually, just before that note are several changes for player stats.

Alliance War
General
The new Battle Level option in the gameplay settings menu allows you to choose whether you want your stats to be automatically adjusted in Cyrodiil or if you’d prefer to use the raw values of your stats.
Note: This option can only be toggled outside of Cyrodiil and its caves.
Stats that you receive through battle level bolstering in Cyrodiil and its delves have been increased.
The threshold for triggering overcharge on stats has been increased in Cyrodiil.

The upscale will be increased, the soft caps raised, and if you still have better stats and gear than that, you can disable the bolstered stats.

LonePirate · May 2014

Thank you for that correction. Does the new bolstering push people to be on par with the new mob difficulty, though? Right now there is some parity. Does that continue, though?

driosketch · May 2014

Hmm, know what I should test this. It'll have to be a few hours from now when I get home. I'll let you know.

LonePirate · May 2014

driosketch wrote: »

Hmm, know what I should test this. It'll have to be a few hours from now when I get home. I'll let you know.

I appreciate your willingness to investigate this change. Thank you. I look forward to your findings.

driosketch · May 2014

Preliminary results are not good.

It's difficult to tell exactly with the shift in bonuses, but I say the new system is adding 25 to each of your stats, health, stamina, magicka, and around 50 to armor and spell resistance, give or take.

I tested out trolls, wolves, the mage npcs in Bruma, and the defenders of an enemy resource.
-Trolls (x2) difficult to tell, I got my butt handed to me pretty fast on both cases.
-Wolf, easy right now, definitely feels tougher like you're taking on an enemy a few levels above you.
- NPCs, the same. Right now they feel like any NPC at your level. With the increase, it's still manageable like the wolf, but definitely feels like a tougher fight. (Which is to say, I actually lost the fight by a hair on PTS, killed the zombie summon as I died too, mage was 1-2 light attacks from death. By contrast, killed the same mob on live with just heavy attacks, then with only half health, started and won a fight with a second pyromage.)
- Enemy mill defenders. This is the one I was hoping I would feel a little less squishy against. According to the death recap, the inital special attack out of the tower mage cost me over half my health.

Thoughts, a skilled sub 50 may do better in PvP against lower rank vets, but PvE in Cyrodiil is going to be hell for any low level going it solo. Sorry, I'll /feedback this.

LonePirate · May 2014

@driosketch Thank you very much for the investigation. Your results seem to confirm my initial fears.

These changes are going to result in even less players in Cyrodiil and/or the only people in Cyrodiil will be the PVP crowd who will suddenly have fewer targets to gank. I will need to put in some serious hours questing in Cyrodiil this weekend if I hope to hit VR3 before Tuesday in case the 1.1 patch goes live then. I suspect the patch won't be released until at least the 9th but you never know as pretty much everyone is clamoring for this patch. Again, thank you very much for your research here.

driosketch · May 2014

No problem. I never would have checked if not for this post.

Zershar_Vemod · May 2014

I'm not even surprised at this point.

Malediktus · May 2014

Great how will I ever complete stuff like the dark anchors in Cyrodiil now? I never saw anyone doing them (wurm cultists standing infront of them all day because noone came along), asking in chat didnt help. Pushing them to VR5 ruins all hope of being able to solo them at VR12 with max equip.
I dont mind grouping, hell I am even in favor for it, but for stuff like this it feels impossible to find groups

LonePirate · May 2014

@Malediktus What faction are you? I'm EP and if you are EP, I will gladly go on a Cyrodiil Dark Anchor run with you. We might need another player or two, though.

Malediktus · May 2014

@LonePirate I am on EU megaserver EP, currently on auriels bow campaign
but I am not even lvl 50 yet, so its probably better to wait until I am lvl 50

Gisgo · May 2014

They should definately buff players to a VR5 level if everything around them is buffed to a VR5 level... are we sure they are not?

Xaei · May 2014

The question I really want to ask is why have enemies at VR5 at all?

Markethemetalheadb14_ESO · May 2014

Yeah.. This doesn't look good. I actually enjoyed questing in Cyrodiil. Shame.

What is the point of this change? Easier grinding from V5-V10 along with the Vet. mob xp increase?

CoUsT · May 2014

Cyrodiil is so easy. In beta as Nightblade Archer I was able to do burst 1500 DMG. And that was in beta on level 20. Enemies are way too easy.

I'm not sure if adjusting enemy stats to VR5 can make them really harder. Maybe add one mob to pack of mobs or increase enemy HP. Anyway, adjusting stats to VR5 is fine for me.

kelly.medleyb14_ESO · May 2014

Decisions like this give me hope for this game. Remember cater to the highest common denominator the rest will follow.