Official Feedback Thread For 2026 ESO Reveal

robwolf666 · January 12

SilverBride: They can do this by debuffing the player to make them weaker rather than making the enemies more difficult. The enemies can stay the same. It's the player that will need to be changed.

Seraphayel: They can do this in two ways:

1. Give you a buff / debuff that decreases your own potential, e.g. meaning you deal less damage / healing and receive more damage / less healing.

2. Give you a buff / debuff that increases the potential of enemies, e.g. they deal more damage (to you).

I'd say 2. is the likely option here as making players weaker seems worse than making enemies stronger.

That makes sense as scaling, but the devs didn’t say “scaling” or “stat modifiers” — they said “difficulty settings.”

If the only change is buffs/debuffs applied to players or enemies, then functionally everyone is still playing on the same difficulty, just with different math.

That’s where I’m getting stuck.

Cooperharley · January 12

majulook wrote: »

Basically its just three different tiers of the existing Endeavors / Golden Pursuits as task schedule. How much of the game will be new areas and quests?

With all the current DLC's becoming base game over time, players that don't have those DLC's will have lots more to do than those who have done them already.

Do you all think these tasking iare going to be enough to keep long term players interested?

While I think a new zone & quests is important & cool, I think we need systems like these as a veteran player. I remember finishing Solstice in very little time and saying to myself, "not only was I not a HUGE fan of this zone & story-telling, but also, what now? What is there to do?"

I think giving long-term players day-to-day things to do is good & removing the daily login rewards and endeavors is a good thing to manage the chore-like feeling of ESO sometimes. This is also the initial implementation, so I imagine it will be perfected over time just like anything else. All of these QOL additions & systems being added are incredible & I'm very thankful for the teams for finally doing it. ESO is an MMO, not just a single player RPG with story releases once a year, so I think having both things is important.

SilverBride · January 12

robwolf666 wrote: »

SilverBride: They can do this by debuffing the player to make them weaker rather than making the enemies more difficult. The enemies can stay the same. It's the player that will need to be changed.

Seraphayel: They can do this in two ways:

1. Give you a buff / debuff that decreases your own potential, e.g. meaning you deal less damage / healing and receive more damage / less healing.

2. Give you a buff / debuff that increases the potential of enemies, e.g. they deal more damage (to you).

I'd say 2. is the likely option here as making players weaker seems worse than making enemies stronger.

That makes sense as scaling, but the devs didn’t say “scaling” or “stat modifiers” — they said “difficulty settings.”

If the only change is buffs/debuffs applied to players or enemies, then functionally everyone is still playing on the same difficulty, just with different math.

That’s where I’m getting stuck.

If they are going to keep all players in the same world and not separate us, then it would probably be with some kind of debuff or modifier applied to the player. The same enemy in the same world can't be changed for just one difficulty because that woud change it for everyone.

Elvenheart · January 12

I love my Uncle Sheo and can’t wait to see him again in a new story! And I hope it has lots of butterflies! 🦋

tohopka_eso · January 13

Elvenheart wrote: »

I love my Uncle Sheo and can’t wait to see him again in a new story! And I hope it has lots of butterflies! 🦋

After reading some posts of anti-Sheo, I'm glad you o see someone else besides me wanting it. Every character I make I make it a habit to do mage guild just to do the quests again.

Lugaldu · January 13

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

I am extremely happy with this year of maintenance, there's enough content in the game. (...)

I've read this repeatedly over the last few days ("ESO has 1000 hours of content, we dont need more!"). There are still many loyal players who have been around for many years, or even over a decade, and who have already played through everything multiple times – what new content are we getting?
My motivation to play is exploring new areas and experiencing new quests, getting to know new characters, lore, companions... I have no interest in playing through the old areas or quests for the 20th time just because they might now be available on a new difficulty level or bring you another mount or style page.
I really hope the devs aren't just working for new players.

Juomuuri · January 13

After seeing the devs actually responding to concerns and questions on the PTS forum, I am positively surprised and kinda sorta considering coming back to the game once U49 comes out - if everything comes out well and not borked.

I forgot already who posted this and where, but I saw a dev reply on the PTS forum about changing lead drop rates, and hoo boy I'd LOVE to get all the IA leads I'm still missing to this day, lol. And the stupid treasure map rng leads...

I'm not sure at all how pure class tanks fare currently in dungeons/IA, or if oakensorc is still viable in those, but I sure hope that tankDK will retain its sustain and survivability. DK was my first tank class and I've done vMoS HM, no death and speedrun on my tankDK, earning Beast!

Also, I wonder if we'll start getting more character slots now that housing finally gets the furnishing slot increases, I LOVE making new characters and I had some cool ideas but I was stuck at 20/20 characters...

tomofhyrule · January 13

Juomuuri wrote: »

Also, I wonder if we'll start getting more character slots now that housing finally gets the furnishing slot increases, I LOVE making new characters and I had some cool ideas but I was stuck at 20/20 characters...

lol this is where I am right now, just in a different way. I need more characters STAT, just in a slightly different way.

I set up my roster as one-per-Class, and I have so many ideas right now, but I'm just waiting on more Classes to make them. Honestly, I've had one of the ideas for the past year and a half at least, so the fact that we may not get more Classes until 2028 at the earliest hurts real bad.

And honestly, it doesn't help that the main idea for that character came from when they dropped the Minotaur polymorph, so I really have him in mind as a Morihaus-styled gladiator. And then instead of a new class, we get this cover art for the PTS release:

Thanks, ZOS. Really makes me feel like you're looking into my mind and saying "how can we best showcase any new Classes for this dude's Morihaus gladiator character being delayed for a minimum of two years because of the Class refreshes?"

I really hope that new Classes will eventually be coming, and I'd expect that'd bring more character slots and Companions with it (because besides the obvious, they need a Companion of that class for Bahtra to namedrop for the Subclassing quest, right?)

shadoza · January 13

Medieval3D wrote: »

A little feedback from a player since 2014:

Please add some minor detailed immersive stuff, in example:

- immersive first person horse riding camera, there is an addon about it, but everytime TESO gets an update it breaks first person animation when weapons are drown (makes hands and weapon tilt), I so immersive to ride in your mount in first person view...

- Fix first person bow animation, isn't fair that at early stages of the game looked so cool and well made, now after many updates at some point the animation in first person to shot with bow always has a weird lean after shot, it seems that got permanently that way due it was removed the draw animation and never was fixed..

- Add immersion, forget new casual console players, they tend to destroy game franchises in long term, they dont really care about TES

- Please focus on immersion, details and lore

*A bit of feedback on the new announcements:
- About TESO Plus new announced features..Why do you think it is fun to have faster level up and easy gold... that's the opposite of fun, it devalues the worth of the gameplay and even worst if you have to pay for it... please do not make the same mistakes many MMORPG does, apparently many MMORPG has a decrease curve in development at some point until then all is messed up and the game has no sense at all... look at bad World of Warcraft has became is an example of how to destroy a game franchise, never be like them please! It seems TESO is at the peak of the curve, so go up, not down on the curve... please

I disagree with the easy gold part. When property and mounts cost 100s of thousands, a player needs to feel like they can obtain in a reasonable amount of time.
The faster level, I agree with. Leveling is part of the fun of the game for me. Speed leveling just moves a player to the end zone leaving very little growth beyond the 3600 Cp point. To put it into an everyday perspective: Remember when you were a child and wanted to grow up fast so you can do the things adults do? Yes? What happen to all the fun in life once you got there? Without growth, discovery, and anticipation, the world feels like work.

shadoza · January 13

Lugaldu wrote: »

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

I am extremely happy with this year of maintenance, there's enough content in the game. (...)

I've read this repeatedly over the last few days ("ESO has 1000 hours of content, we dont need more!"). There are still many loyal players who have been around for many years, or even over a decade, and who have already played through everything multiple times – what new content are we getting?
My motivation to play is exploring new areas and experiencing new quests, getting to know new characters, lore, companions... I have no interest in playing through the old areas or quests for the 20th time just because they might now be available on a new difficulty level or bring you another mount or style page.
I really hope the devs aren't just working for new players.

Have you tried creating a new character, not assigning the CP, and just adventure with standard, loosely put together gear? Most people do not play this way, but it can be a cure for boredom when everything cannot be broken with a single, well-planned strike. There are many ways to play when the story is completed. Different classes, different races, different alliances, different gear, different attitudes. (Even different subclassing options to test out.)
I don't say what's next with sadness, it is always said with a bit of excitement and a what am I going to try next? It would be sad if I was left with nothing else to try.

Juomuuri · January 13

More thoughts:

I now went and read about the Tamriel Tomes on the website itself, and I saw that a PERSONALITY is behind a paywall?? Imo these should be available for direct purchase in the crown store, and because this is behind a paywall, I won't be returning to the game. I love personalities and it already sucks that some are behind crown crates. This is true FOMO for me since I won't be spending 60 euros a year just to grind some monotone tasks so I can unlock ONE THING I actually would want. Gold Coast Bazaar was supposed to rid people of FOMO but the Tomes are only adding more of it! At least with crown crates, you just need to open your wallet, no need to grind anything (but the money irl).

Here's for hoping that you'd add a way to directly purchase singular cosmetic rewards from Tomes, but it's most likely you won't. Which means I can go back to kicking pebbles and whatnot.

Slendybro99 · January 13

I'm a bit late, but I thought I'd post my initial thoughts on the reveal now. I have not looked into any of the extra information released since the reveal, so I wouldn't be surprised if something sounds completely off-base.

I really like the idea of the Gold Coast Bazaar. Being able to earn cosmetics that have not been available for a long time is a great idea. Putting them behind yet another currency seems excessive, but as long as the Trade Bars are a semi-plentiful resource (and it doesn't become PTW), they should be easy enough to accept. Based on how they were described, it seems like they could be, but it all depends on the conversion rate between event tickets and Trade Bars.

It was not mentioned in the reveal if ESO+ subscribers will be getting the Premium version of Tamriel Tome with their subscription or not. Is that something that the team has considered? Also, 12 months of subscription (at $15.00 USD per month) earning players 1 free Premium+ Tamriel Tome voucher (valued at $30.00 USD), seems like a very poor tradeoff. For every $180 you spend per year on the game, you earn 1 thing valued at $30? Unless this reward is somehow retroactively applied, I don't see how players would be satisfied with this unless the Premium and Premium+ rewards are collectively valued at $30+ USD.

I love adding more gold-purchaseable mounts. That is a great addition! As is making outfit slots account-wide! I sincerely hope armory slots are next! A lot of the other QoL upgrades look great for new players and existing low-level players!

I really like the idea of a player house that upgrades itself based on zone progress. Obviously not for every house, but this is a fun idea. I think many players would be happy to see it reutilized one or two more times in the coming years.

The choice to enhance class fantasy and/or class experience on a class-by-class basis is a bold one. As a Dragonknight main, I don't feel like there's much I can really complain about. However, from a balance perspective, I hope the devs are trying really hard to balance all classes with/against each other, not just balancing everything around the DK changes. Now if the changes are intended to bring classes up to Arcanist's level of power, that I can get behind.

I'm glad to see there will be visual upgrades to existing class skills and weapon skills. I would like to suggest perhaps adding one or more new weapon skill lines. Guild Wars 2 seems to have seen great success with adding the spear weapon type to players' arsenal. Adding something like that to ESO could introduce a new mid-range melee option for players. Utilizing polearms in combat is quite unique compared to both two-handed and one-handed weapons, so their addition could spice things up even more. I understand this will require new animations, and that might not be in the cards right now. An alternative could be to add a pugilist skill line and recycle animations from NPCs that use their bare hands to fight. Food for thought, and definitely not something I would see ZOS considering a priority at the moment.

Syldras · January 13

shadoza wrote: »

Have you tried creating a new character, not assigning the CP, and just adventure with standard, loosely put together gear? Most people do not play this way, but it can be a cure for boredom when everything cannot be broken with a single, well-planned strike. There are many ways to play when the story is completed. Different classes, different races, different alliances, different gear, different attitudes. (Even different subclassing options to test out.)
I don't say what's next with sadness, it is always said with a bit of excitement and a what am I going to try next? It would be sad if I was left with nothing else to try.

The person you quoted said he's tired of playing the same stories for the 20th time and wants to experience new ones and also see new locations. How does a higher difficulty change that? It's still the same places (that after a decade you can basically navigate in your sleep) and it doesn't change the story either just because an enemy takes 5 hits to be killed instead of 1. It just takes a few seconds longer. Testing different classes and races, sure - but I'd be surprised if there any many long-time players who have never tried that before.

shadoza · January 14

Syldras wrote: »

shadoza wrote: »

Have you tried creating a new character, not assigning the CP, and just adventure with standard, loosely put together gear? Most people do not play this way, but it can be a cure for boredom when everything cannot be broken with a single, well-planned strike. There are many ways to play when the story is completed. Different classes, different races, different alliances, different gear, different attitudes. (Even different subclassing options to test out.)
I don't say what's next with sadness, it is always said with a bit of excitement and a what am I going to try next? It would be sad if I was left with nothing else to try.

The person you quoted said he's tired of playing the same stories for the 20th time and wants to experience new ones and also see new locations. How does a higher difficulty change that? It's still the same places (that after a decade you can basically navigate in your sleep) and it doesn't change the story either just because an enemy takes 5 hits to be killed instead of 1. It just takes a few seconds longer. Testing different classes and races, sure - but I'd be surprised if there any many long-time players who have never tried that before.

What is your complaint?

Syldras · January 14

shadoza wrote: »

What is your complaint?

I don't complain about your post. I see the good intention. I'm just saying that many people who have been playing for many years already, have already tried all classes and races and all kinds of different playstyles. And at some point, seeing always the same zones just isn't exciting anymore, no matter how difficult or not the combat is. People want to see something new, some new landscape, some new architecture style. Only a new zone can bring us this. I hope there will be an interesting one next year.

Verling · January 14

It was said about the exchange of tickets for bullion. But what will happen to Endeavor coins?

metheglyn · January 14

Verling wrote: »

It was said about the exchange of tickets for bullion. But what will happen to Endeavor coins?

I believe they will still exist, but will just be called 'seals', as the endeavor system will not be around anymore.

Verling · January 14

metheglyn wrote: »

I believe they will still exist, but will just be called 'seals', as the endeavor system will not be around anymore.

Endeavor coins have a large multiplicity when buying goods. And they get tedious daily and weekly assignments. To buy something, you have to do it monotonously for weeks. I would not like to be left with 15999 coins. and don't buy a mount. On the other hand, doing these tasks is very annoying in general. If you do them purposefully and constantly. My son and I now have more than 55-68 thousand coins each.

shadyjane62 · January 14

Will be interested in seeing what comes. But nothing so far tempts me to ever open my wallet again.

metheglyn · January 14

Verling wrote: »

metheglyn wrote: »

I believe they will still exist, but will just be called 'seals', as the endeavor system will not be around anymore.

Endeavor coins have a large multiplicity when buying goods. And they get tedious daily and weekly assignments. To buy something, you have to do it monotonously for weeks. I would not like to be left with 15999 coins. and don't buy a mount. On the other hand, doing these tasks is very annoying in general. If you do them purposefully and constantly. My son and I now have more than 55-68 thousand coins each.

The coins will still be around and you'll be able to get more of them through the Tamriel Tomes. What's going away is the specific daily and weekly endeavor system.

Jestir · January 14

With the classes being reworked to this extreme of a level I feel the need to continue asking for a class change token

Even in a post subclassing world I feel it's gonna be needed more than ever

Danikat · January 14

Verling wrote: »

metheglyn wrote: »

I believe they will still exist, but will just be called 'seals', as the endeavor system will not be around anymore.

Endeavor coins have a large multiplicity when buying goods. And they get tedious daily and weekly assignments. To buy something, you have to do it monotonously for weeks. I would not like to be left with 15999 coins. and don't buy a mount. On the other hand, doing these tasks is very annoying in general. If you do them purposefully and constantly. My son and I now have more than 55-68 thousand coins each.

The only change to seals of endeavour is that the name is being shortened to just seals, and instead of a dedicated list of "tedious daily and weekly assignments" they're being included as one of many possible rewards from a universal list of weekly and seasonal assignments (how tedious they are remains to be seen), which is our main form of content in each season.

We will definitely still be able to earn more seals, and keep the seals we already have. Hopefully we'll be able to earn them at a similar rate but that might require doing more tasks since they'll be sharing space as possible rewards with all the other stuff which comes from season passes.

AlexanderDeLarge · January 14

robwolf666 wrote: »

ESO difficulty - They, the devs, say they're going to have the overland PvE difficulty have more than one setting, while not separating players... All well and good, but I don't see how they can have different difficulty settings occupy the same place and the same time without separating players. How can a CP level player on hard difficulty, fight the same enemy as a sub-level 50 player on easy setting at the same time? The only way I see different difficulty settings working is by separate instances - like the old Vet servers. Or even solo instancing like the main story, guild stories or dungeons.

Honestly how often do you find yourself fighting the same enemy in overland? People obsess over this as a design issue but it's such a rare occurrence. Give priority to whoever hits it first. Give priority to the lower difficulty. I really don't care how they handle it, it's not nearly enough of a reason to not have difficulty options.

Skorro · January 15

Finally got around to checking this out and actually tentatively excited about ESO for the first time in a very long while 😁 also loving the communication and willingness to meet the community half way on animations, etc

I really hope the same love gets shown to templar that DK is getting 🙃

alternatelder · January 15

I didn't see any information on this question, but are housing prices (gold and crown) going to rise for those that are going from Classic to Notable? Did they mention that at all? @ZOS_Kevin
@ZOS_GinaBruno

Pevey · January 16

Juomuuri wrote: »

More thoughts:

I now went and read about the Tamriel Tomes on the website itself, and I saw that a PERSONALITY is behind a paywall?? Imo these should be available for direct purchase in the crown store, and because this is behind a paywall, I won't be returning to the game. I love personalities and it already sucks that some are behind crown crates. This is true FOMO for me since I won't be spending 60 euros a year just to grind some monotone tasks so I can unlock ONE THING I actually would want. Gold Coast Bazaar was supposed to rid people of FOMO but the Tomes are only adding more of it! At least with crown crates, you just need to open your wallet, no need to grind anything (but the money irl).

Here's for hoping that you'd add a way to directly purchase singular cosmetic rewards from Tomes, but it's most likely you won't. Which means I can go back to kicking pebbles and whatnot.

A personality (along with other things) for $15 is a pretty good deal as far as these sorts of game cosmetics go. Gambling for a personality in a crown crate might have cost a lot more money. I think this model might be successful for ESO.

If you buy the plus or premium version of the tome, there's no real FOMO or gambling. You have a long as you want to complete the tasks and get the items.

robwolf666 · January 16

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

robwolf666 wrote: »

ESO difficulty - They, the devs, say they're going to have the overland PvE difficulty have more than one setting, while not separating players... All well and good, but I don't see how they can have different difficulty settings occupy the same place and the same time without separating players. How can a CP level player on hard difficulty, fight the same enemy as a sub-level 50 player on easy setting at the same time? The only way I see different difficulty settings working is by separate instances - like the old Vet servers. Or even solo instancing like the main story, guild stories or dungeons.

Honestly how often do you find yourself fighting the same enemy in overland? People obsess over this as a design issue but it's such a rare occurrence. Give priority to whoever hits it first. Give priority to the lower difficulty. I really don't care how they handle it, it's not nearly enough of a reason to not have difficulty options.

Of course you fight enemies at the same time as other people all the time - especially in things like delves, group delves, dolmens, world bosses - there are many times. But, once again, what you're describing would be scaling, not the "difficulty settings" they were talking about.

Medieval3D · January 17

My second post.. I have to, at least... I have seen the new animations... why... what is the idea to?.. in a few more years became as Diablo Inmortal?..., it seems TESO is moving to ward to fakeness and shinny lights and sadly forgeting immersion and fantasy-realism, instead becoming pure fantasy nonsense... I know that story... it has happened before, those stories name's are Diablo and World of Wacraft..

it's so sad that game franchises get distorted by the market of casual games such as Dark Souls or God of war, etc., thinking that will be a success direction for the company because of numbers, but not having the sight or understanding what TES is about... desicions made by statistics focusing on mass but decreasing terribly in quality, starting with shinny visuals, then moving toward fakeness, then messing with lore, beyond that point, next step is to uninstall game...

There is a market for games to hack & slash, with no real lore or real immersion... played by joystick, sit on a coach, people who often do not have real interest on the game but interest on the shinny lights and shinny loot... it's horrible such markets mess and mix with quality game franchises... it is written.. there is a lot of evidence of cases from other game franchises, CEOs, directors and chiefs who takes the worst of desisions thinking on numbers, dragging the team development into an spiral of degrading and nonsense to the point to get a result of a game as a cheap marketing product...

*Now something positive.. what I like and enjoy mostly of TESO is the culture of factions, the details of the environment, cities and land, the NPC characters looks very well made mostly, the quests and the lore details on everyone of them

Syldras · January 17

While I don't want to make any judgements yet, before having seen the new content, I too do wonder if the new format with smaller expansions and stories can reach the depth that bigger stories had. A good, more complex narration needs time to develop.

Even West Solstice somehow just felt like a prologue to an actual story with the way it (re)introduced characters and that finale it had. I think part of my disappointment with Solstice as a whole is that also East Solstice then also didn't show any more depth but was basically mostly just about solving the problem introduced in the first part of the story, in a rather formulaic way.

There was no real detailed lore exploration - but how could there have been if the whole thing only was 3 hours introducing the problem, and then 3 hours of solving the problem in a very straightforward way?! Solstice altogether had about the length of the old Q4 story dlcs, but those had the advantage of building upon the summer story at least (even if the story also functioned on its own, it benefited from the background lore and situation introduced in the even longer summer story).

Now, of course I know there was also an even shorter story that worked well - the companion story of Zerith-var. But I think there it also played a role that you were travelling with him constantly between those story parts (you needed to, for the next part to unlock), so you learnt more about him as a person through his likes, dislikes and all other comments he makes even outside of his quests.

It probably also depends on the theme of a story how much time it needs to function well. A character's (or family's - see Corelanya Manor which was also an awesome quest, despite only being one single zone side quest) story can be told in a shorter time to make sense than having a "world-ending" problem introduced and solved again within just a few hours.

What the future will bring now? We'll see.

Cambionn · January 19

I'm still unsure and a bit confused after reading all the changes. I wanted to check the live-stream back to see if video cleared up my questions, but I just found out the only way is a YT that requires to be logged in. Which means I need a Google account to watch live-streams back...

@ZOS_Kevin is there no way to watch live streams without a Google (or other privacy-unfriendly) account?

All with all, as solo PvE'er, I'm carefully happy with this plan. I still have a lot of content to get trough, and I personally rather have a year of improving the game than another meh area. Very excited about all the player experience improvements!

I really like the idea of new quests in old area's! There are some area's I really like but rarely visit because I simply have no reason for after finished all content from there. Besides, area's aren't unlimited. It's good to find a way to keep going even if the whole map would be there, and doing so very far before that map is completed so you can test the waters and find a real good way while avoiding having to come up with something last minute. Hopefully, it also gives space to put more energy into story and dialogue now that you don't need to keep coming up with new area's, cultures, and other world-building elements.

Also curious for the new quests. Although I'm personally more interested in Sheogorath, I also like that we revisit guilds for the same reason as area's.

I'm mainly unsure about how I feel on the battlepass thing and the change in endeavours and how that will influence forced play, that's where I want to watch the video for. There are some crown stuff I want, especially that house in Apocrypha. I'm willing to pay good crowns for it, but if it comes in this bazar, does that mean I need to hope I can get enough gameplay-stuff in advance or would it be possible to gather a lot in a short time if needed (at worst, by paying rl money/crowns).