Writhing Fortress was excellent, however....

Wise_Will · November 14

The Writhing Fortress was a lot of fun! everyone on PC-EU seemed to enjoy it (from the people I've seen talk about it) however it is a shame it is a 1 week thing then it goes.

Perhaps you could make it a once a week enterance activity, it could reward the following;

- New skins for Sorc Pets (Summon a different daedra)
- New furnishings like a skybox with the massive daedra looming over your house
- Azure Feet effect

these are a few of my suggestions as it seems like a waste for it to dissapear.

Thoughts?

Eliahnus · November 14

It was excellent for the fortunate players who did the very first run; very much bugged for everyone else.

Syldras · November 14

Eliahnus wrote: »

It was excellent for the fortunate players who did the very first run; very much bugged for everyone else.

I was part of the first run and even that was bugged.

Wise_Will · November 14

Eliahnus wrote: »

It was excellent for the fortunate players who did the very first run; very much bugged for everyone else.

Ahh thats a shame, didn't encounter any bugs with my run, well none that i noticed that is.

Edit: i was part of the 1st run on PC EU

sjansenb16_ESO · November 14

Did two runs on PC-EU, both worked fine, with my third character, the zone bugged and that Worm thing did not move anymore, so the zone is stuck for all players.

Syldras · November 14

Wise_Will wrote: »

Ahh thats a shame, didn't encounter any bugs with my run, well none that i noticed that is.
Edit: i was part of the 1st run on PC EU

The thing in the last room after the final boss wasn't interactable for some players. And even if it was, for some Skordo didn't show up, so the quest couldn't be turned in.

ZomZom · November 15

I had a great time last night in the Fortress. My biggest issue was probably my fault. I made it through about 75% with no quest updates until realizing I needed to select "Crossing the Wall" to track objectives. Or maybe that stale "Support the Fellowship" quest that had been sitting dormant for weeks--I just scrolled right past that one like I've been doing. Having multiple questlines for essentially the same activity has tripped me up. But I thought the Fortress was very fun.

AllenaNightWood · November 15

i really loved running through it with my friends and tons of other people it felt like a true siege and war and is a perfect baseline to do stuff like it in the future

Ursadoom · November 15

I tried to get in on it, but the event seemed bugged and no progress was being made.

acastanza_ESO · November 15

Strongly agree, Writhing Fortress was super cool, one of the better things ZOS has made outside Trials/Dungeon instances, which I guess makes sense because it's basically in that same niche, just with an open map.

I really hope they decide to keep it around in some form or another. Having a timed event in ESO would be cool. Maybe put in on a rotating schedule like Volendrung in Cyro

tomofhyrule · November 15

I very much enjoyed it, but I do think that having it active for only a week is a waste. Especially since 2025 was a very light year of content.

It seems like it'd be easy to retrofit the Fortress into being a standard 12-man trial, and in fact I feel like that would have been a lot more fun to be able to figure out mechanics instead of blundering around in a zerg and finding one was already mostly finished.

acastanza_ESO · November 15

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I very much enjoyed it, but I do think that having it active for only a week is a waste. Especially since 2025 was a very light year of content.

It seems like it'd be easy to retrofit the Fortress into being a standard 12-man trial, and in fact I feel like that would have been a lot more fun to be able to figure out mechanics instead of blundering around in a zerg and finding one was already mostly finished.

Yeah, I was lucky and was in the first group on PCNA right at open. I really think there should be an initial lobby, with like, a number of players, or a 5 min timer before the fighting starts, and don't let new people into that instance (unless grouped and porting directly). That makes sure that people get to play the whole thing. Bringing it back with a couple tweaks would be really cool.

Ingel_Riday · November 15

I feel like the odd man out here.

I hated the Writhing Fortress. Hacking away at the shins of upscaled standard daedric enemies was tedious. Every boss was just a comically upscaled standard enemy. Most fights revolved around gathering ballista ammo and then repairing tissue-paper siege weapons that break every three shots.

I won't feel bad about the thing disappearing forever at all. I was repulsed by it.

But... I spent 43 days on furlough. Beat Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Max Payne 1, Max Payne 2, 2/3rds of Donkey Kong Bananza, and a few other things. Saw a lot of great single player experiences that colored my perception.

Shooting three ballista bolts at a 1,000 foot tall snake woman (with the same model as every other snake woman that I have fought for 10 plus years), rolling my eyes as the ballista breaks AGAIN, running to get "repair parts," and then shooting three more bolts before rinsing and repeating for eight minutes before it finally died... it was so night and day from the fun I've actually been having that I was flabbergasted.

Oh well. I'm happy you all enjoyed it, I guess.

AzuraFan · November 15

Ingel_Riday wrote: »

I feel like the odd man out here.

I hated the Writhing Fortress.

I didn't hate it, but I don't need to do it again. I was fortunate in that I was right there at 8 pm and entered a fairly new instance. At times it was confusing, and I wasn't aware of the grappling, so early on I had no idea where I was supposed to be or what I was supposed to be doing. Finally I saw someone grapple, which clued me in. I'd say it took about 35-40 mins to complete it, which is way too long to be in constant combat. I was relieved when it ended. I did enjoy the times I had a chance to use the ballista.

Having said that, I don't like combat-focused stuff, so this was never going to be something I'd want to do again, even if it was the best dungeon ever created. I'd only want to repeat it if it was scaled down to public dungeon difficulty and there was some reward I really wanted. Otherwise, no.

My favourite part of the whole thing was standing on the platform that held the Meridien lens, with a whole crowd of folks, waiting for 8 pm to arrive. Lots of excitement. Then, after talking to Skordo, charging toward the portal on my mount alongside everyone else was fun. But when I was inside the fortress, after a while I found myself wishing I was back doing quests.

Anyway, got the title and the achievement, and now I'll wait for them to fix the skyshards before I do anything serious in Eastern Solstice. I'll kill the two WBs for the achievements, but that's all until that fix goes in.

SkaiFaith · November 15

Very much enjoyed it!
First run: entered an instance where everyone was already at final boss, got there and found people sieging the void... Health bar stuck at 74% and no enemy in sight. Stood there 15 minutes then got out.
Second run: entered an instance just starting, gone to the right path and had a blast completing it with other players; by the end of the wing, someone had completed the left one. Got to the final boss and the fight was smooth and awesome! Had the chance to give the final blow to the boss and loved it

Both the final room and the tear down of the wall were cool as much as the whole fight.
I definitely appreciated everything a lot... When it worked.

Mik195 · November 16

Was there a chest for the 42 million boss? I never found anything for that fight.

Gabriel_H · November 16

Eliahnus wrote: »

It was excellent for the fortunate players who did the very first run; very much bugged for everyone else.

That. I was in the first group and was GREAT fun - I ran it twice back to back so as to do both sides. Friends who were not so content obsessed as me logged on 30 - 60m later and had a buggy nightmare.

AcadianPaladin · November 16

Playing 'herd ball' while confused about what is going on and frustrated about balista parts was so unfun that I ported out about half way through with no intent to return.

LordDragonSlayer · November 16

IMO, it was the most boring thing on the face of the planet. Do it for 2+ weeks and then lets rename some quests and have them do it for another 2+ weeks. If this is what having the game pass amounts too, I will be canceling. Then you have all the quests that are just bugged and I am sorry that is inexcusable at this point in the game.

StihlReign · November 16

I really hope you guys get the fortress fixed, the quest turn in is still bugged for us, but the place is so much fun! Great job!!

You guys should def make more of these, bigger and better. It's probably 9.5/10 without the bugs.

AzuraFan · November 16

Mik195 wrote: »

Was there a chest for the 42 million boss? I never found anything for that fight.

The only chest I found was right after the end boss, just before you destroy the core. I've seen people referring to three chests in other threads, but that's the only one I saw. If there are more, they're not obvious. I only did one side of the fortress, so perhaps I should have seen another chest? Anyway, I got the usual junk out of the one I opened (including a haj moto pet part!). I don't know if there's rare drops from those chests or not.

tomofhyrule · November 16

AzuraFan wrote: »

Mik195 wrote: »

Was there a chest for the 42 million boss? I never found anything for that fight.

The only chest I found was right after the end boss, just before you destroy the core. I've seen people referring to three chests in other threads, but that's the only one I saw. If there are more, they're not obvious. I only did one side of the fortress, so perhaps I should have seen another chest? Anyway, I got the usual junk out of the one I opened (including a haj moto pet part!). I don't know if there's rare drops from those chests or not.

There's a chest for each of the three bosses that gets highlighted by the standard glowy beam, but it's definitely easy to miss. I missed the first one my first run though.

Those chests can drop the standard stuff from the event. I got some bone shards and I think a wormwrithe page, so it's just like the standard goodie boxes for the event.

AzuraFan · November 16

tomofhyrule wrote: »

There's a chest for each of the three bosses that gets highlighted by the standard glowy beam, but it's definitely easy to miss. I missed the first one my first run though.

Those chests can drop the standard stuff from the event. I got some bone shards and I think a wormwrithe page, so it's just like the standard goodie boxes for the event.

Ah, okay. Doesn't sound like I missed much, then.