Update 49 is now available for testing on the PTS! You can read the latest patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/pts
Maintenance for the week of January 26:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – January 26
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – January 26
Overland Content Feedback Thread
-
ZOS_KevinCommunity ManagerWe do want to stress, both for the starting difficulty levels and rewards, these are starting points. We want to make sure we hit the right balance and reduce opportunities for exploiting based on rewards. The system is being build to expand over time.Community Manager for ZeniMax Online Studio and Elder Scrolls OnlineDev Tracker | Service Alerts | ESO Twitter7 -
ESO_player123✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭We do want to stress, both for the starting difficulty levels and rewards, these are starting points. We want to make sure we hit the right balance and reduce opportunities for exploiting based on rewards. The system is being build to expand over time.
@ZOS_Kevin We understand this, and I think that it's good that you are working on this because clearly a lot of players want it. However, could you please address a bit the possible exploit situations like the one @DenverRalphy described in the post above yours? This type of situation is the first that comes to mind when players on different difficulties are playing in the same instance. And the article does not mention anything about this. Naturally, people are concerned.1 -
AdmiralDigby✭✭✭✭I've been spamming this solution for awhile and I'm glad the Devs have listened.
I think there needs to be more unique rewards for playing on higher difficulty. Alot of players don't need gold or XP. I think making the higher difficulties have unique drop items (scribing ink, small transmute packs, Gold crafting mats, Higher % drop for overland set items, etc.) needs to be implemented.
Make players CHASE that reward. This will help players develop builds on their own so when they progress to Vet Trials or even HM's. THey are used to that type of challenge because they were so tempted by the better loot they optimized their builds (versus the players who just light attack everything to death cause overland is easy).2 -
AlexanderDeLarge✭✭✭✭✭
✭AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »I've said it a million times already ITT but it's strange that people draw the line at veteran overland when we have veteran dungeons, trials and arenas. Why should difficulty be the only reward in challenge difficulty for overland and what makes that different from perfected drops in arenas and trials?
The whole game's reward structure is more challenge = more reward in every other activity, so drawing the line here is arbitrary at best.
"Why should difficulty be the only reward in challenge difficulty for overland and what makes that different from perfected drops in arenas and trials?"
==> Because providing increased armors, weapons, and posts, has caused players to be over geared for standard game play and now they are demanding more challenging content because they are bored with dungeons and refuse to take the group dungeon gear off to complete standard content. Higher gear perpetuates the problem.
People complained about the gap in difficulty because there was a gap and now they've addressed it with this system scaling all the way up to 600% dmg received/20% output. They're not exacerbating a problem because the problem has been addressed.
Depending on how this scaling actually works in practice, this overland content may be more challenging than most DLC dungeons on veteran.
In arenas, you have perfected gear. In trials and dungeons you have epic and legendary tier drops. I've gotten gold jewelry from trials. The average person is still able to refine their gear up to gold if they want. I don't see any reason to break that consistency, reward structures should be consistent and predictable without having to wiki everything and discover the odd exception to a general rule. Purples should drop.3 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️Edited by spartaxoxo on January 22, 2026 9:27PM6 -
ESO_player123✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
They said that these rewards are just the starting point. It might be not that big of a deal for just xp and 300gp instead of 150gp, but once they start adding more interesting rewards I bet people will start exploiting it this way.1 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
They said that these rewards are just the starting point. It might be not that big of a deal for just xp and 300gp instead of 150gp, but once they start adding more interesting rewards I bet people will start exploiting it this way.
Oh, yeah. A friend might help someone get a golden pursuit done and get the 20th non-combat pet. Not worried about that either. Overland rewards are always the cheapest items in guild traders because it is by far the most played content. And the rewards from golden pursuits are never stuff that can be used to gain advantage over others. I don't care about policing cheap and easy to get rewards that confer no combat advantages. Overland rewards have always been the stuff that everyone can get quickly ad easily. I don't really care if that continues to be the case as it has no impact on things like pvp and vet trials. It's always been cheap stuff too so there's little economic impact as well.
For me, this concern is a "some people don't like the idea on principle," thing rather than anything that I'm concerned about having any real negative impacts on the game. People already power level others.Edited by spartaxoxo on January 22, 2026 9:48PM4 -
DenverRalphy✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
It's not just XP. The injection of gold into the game world will have an impact too.2 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭DenverRalphy wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
It's not just XP. The injection of gold into the game world will have an impact too.
200% of 5 gold is 10 gold. So, not really. The game already rewards meager amounts of coin from overland mobs and has anti-botting measures in place.Edited by spartaxoxo on January 22, 2026 10:09PM6 -
Franchise408✭✭✭✭✭
✭Franchise408 wrote: »Agreed with this, personally I feel harder overland is a waste of ZOS's time. ZOS has already announced there will be some better rewards, though not big ones, for those opting into harder overland. Which means if we don't use that toggle and turn it up to the highest, it will feel punishing to do anything in overland, due to missing out on rewards, no matter how small those rewards are. If I ever feel like I am missing out on something for doing overland or for already having completed overland, I don't know if I would even want to keep on playing this game.
Do you feel like you're missing out when you do a dungeon or trial on normal instead of vet?
Because the difference in rewards is likely to be the same. Instead of green loot drops in normal overland, you'll get blue drops. There won't be new or unique items.
Yes. And having forced group play for those dungeons just makes the bad feelings worse.
idk what to tell you then, because it's literally the same gear, just slightly different stats due to the upgrade.
And of course the dungeons are group play. They are group content.
This is an MMO, not a single player game.2 -
shadoza✭✭✭✭Franchise408 wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Agreed with this, personally I feel harder overland is a waste of ZOS's time. ZOS has already announced there will be some better rewards, though not big ones, for those opting into harder overland. Which means if we don't use that toggle and turn it up to the highest, it will feel punishing to do anything in overland, due to missing out on rewards, no matter how small those rewards are. If I ever feel like I am missing out on something for doing overland or for already having completed overland, I don't know if I would even want to keep on playing this game.
Do you feel like you're missing out when you do a dungeon or trial on normal instead of vet?
Because the difference in rewards is likely to be the same. Instead of green loot drops in normal overland, you'll get blue drops. There won't be new or unique items.
Yes. And having forced group play for those dungeons just makes the bad feelings worse.
idk what to tell you then, because it's literally the same gear, just slightly different stats due to the upgrade.
And of course the dungeons are group play. They are group content.
This is an MMO, not a single player game.
No it is not "literally the same gear" if the stats are different.
Dungeons does not have to be group content.
This is an MMO, NOT a Co-op. MMO = shared map Co-op = required grouping
Seriously the gold gear makes a huge difference. I used it in PTS and I cannot get it in Live because I do NOT group.1 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Franchise408 wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Agreed with this, personally I feel harder overland is a waste of ZOS's time. ZOS has already announced there will be some better rewards, though not big ones, for those opting into harder overland. Which means if we don't use that toggle and turn it up to the highest, it will feel punishing to do anything in overland, due to missing out on rewards, no matter how small those rewards are. If I ever feel like I am missing out on something for doing overland or for already having completed overland, I don't know if I would even want to keep on playing this game.
Do you feel like you're missing out when you do a dungeon or trial on normal instead of vet?
Because the difference in rewards is likely to be the same. Instead of green loot drops in normal overland, you'll get blue drops. There won't be new or unique items.
Yes. And having forced group play for those dungeons just makes the bad feelings worse.
idk what to tell you then, because it's literally the same gear, just slightly different stats due to the upgrade.
And of course the dungeons are group play. They are group content.
This is an MMO, not a single player game.
No it is not "literally the same gear" if the stats are different.
Dungeons does not have to be group content.
This is an MMO, NOT a Co-op. MMO = shared map Co-op = required grouping
Seriously the gold gear makes a huge difference. I used it in PTS and I cannot get it in Live because I do NOT group.
You can upgrade the gear to have the same stats cheaply only doing normal overland activities. It is the same gear set. It is the application of upgrade mats that are different. You can get gold upgrade mats on live by doing crafting writs. No grouping or combat required.Edited by spartaxoxo on January 22, 2026 11:20PM3 -
shadoza✭✭✭✭spartaxoxo wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Agreed with this, personally I feel harder overland is a waste of ZOS's time. ZOS has already announced there will be some better rewards, though not big ones, for those opting into harder overland. Which means if we don't use that toggle and turn it up to the highest, it will feel punishing to do anything in overland, due to missing out on rewards, no matter how small those rewards are. If I ever feel like I am missing out on something for doing overland or for already having completed overland, I don't know if I would even want to keep on playing this game.
Do you feel like you're missing out when you do a dungeon or trial on normal instead of vet?
Because the difference in rewards is likely to be the same. Instead of green loot drops in normal overland, you'll get blue drops. There won't be new or unique items.
Yes. And having forced group play for those dungeons just makes the bad feelings worse.
idk what to tell you then, because it's literally the same gear, just slightly different stats due to the upgrade.
And of course the dungeons are group play. They are group content.
This is an MMO, not a single player game.
No it is not "literally the same gear" if the stats are different.
Dungeons does not have to be group content.
This is an MMO, NOT a Co-op. MMO = shared map Co-op = required grouping
Seriously the gold gear makes a huge difference. I used it in PTS and I cannot get it in Live because I do NOT group.
You can upgrade the gear to have the same stats cheaply only doing normal overland activities. It is the same gear set. It is the application of upgrade mats that are different. You can get gold upgrade mats on live by doing crafting writs. No grouping or combat required.
You can't get the dungeon and arena gear from writs or not grouping. I tested the variances in the dungeon gear / pots versus what can be obtained in the overland in PTS. I had my gaming friend test against it since he had gold overland gear. It is NOWHERE near the same level. The gear/pots from group content is better.1 -
BHoth_✭✭✭I don't know of a single MMORPG that doesn't have group content, that is, content which has you group up with others in order to face it (which is good. I, and many others, expect this from multiplayer games: content that neccesitates and rewards group play!).
And in ESO, perfected vs non perfected gear is very much trivial, most sets only adding 129 weapon and spell damage (for reference, I currently have 4,285 w+s dmg. This would represent around 3% of a difference in having vs not having perfected gear).
Finally, gold gear isn't sourced exclusively (or even primarily) through Vet Dungeons and Trials. Most people get their golden materials through writs, refinement or by buying them from other players.
Here is the ESO Hub page for the same set, both in Perfected and non-Perfected. You can see for yourself what exactly the difference is:
https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/perfected-arms-of-relequen
https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/arms-of-relequen3 -
shadoza✭✭✭✭I don't know of a single MMORPG that doesn't have group content, that is, content which has you group up with others in order to face it (which is good. I, and many others, expect this from multiplayer games: content that neccesitates and rewards group play!).
And in ESO, perfected vs non perfected gear is very much trivial, most sets only adding 129 weapon and spell damage (for reference, I currently have 4,285 w+s dmg. This would represent around 3% of a difference in having vs not having perfected gear).
Finally, gold gear isn't sourced exclusively (or even primarily) through Vet Dungeons and Trials. Most people get their golden materials through writs, refinement or by buying them from other players.
Here is the ESO Hub page for the same set, both in Perfected and non-Perfected. You can see for yourself what exactly the difference is:
https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/perfected-arms-of-relequen
https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/arms-of-relequen
I tested the difference, I don't need your office site propaganda telling me different.
I also have no cares for what you know of MMOs. I have my own experience to speak of.
2 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭spartaxoxo wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Agreed with this, personally I feel harder overland is a waste of ZOS's time. ZOS has already announced there will be some better rewards, though not big ones, for those opting into harder overland. Which means if we don't use that toggle and turn it up to the highest, it will feel punishing to do anything in overland, due to missing out on rewards, no matter how small those rewards are. If I ever feel like I am missing out on something for doing overland or for already having completed overland, I don't know if I would even want to keep on playing this game.
Do you feel like you're missing out when you do a dungeon or trial on normal instead of vet?
Because the difference in rewards is likely to be the same. Instead of green loot drops in normal overland, you'll get blue drops. There won't be new or unique items.
Yes. And having forced group play for those dungeons just makes the bad feelings worse.
idk what to tell you then, because it's literally the same gear, just slightly different stats due to the upgrade.
And of course the dungeons are group play. They are group content.
This is an MMO, not a single player game.
No it is not "literally the same gear" if the stats are different.
Dungeons does not have to be group content.
This is an MMO, NOT a Co-op. MMO = shared map Co-op = required grouping
Seriously the gold gear makes a huge difference. I used it in PTS and I cannot get it in Live because I do NOT group.
You can upgrade the gear to have the same stats cheaply only doing normal overland activities. It is the same gear set. It is the application of upgrade mats that are different. You can get gold upgrade mats on live by doing crafting writs. No grouping or combat required.
You can't get the dungeon and arena gear from writs or not grouping. I tested the variances in the dungeon gear / pots versus what can be obtained in the overland in PTS. I had my gaming friend test against it since he had gold overland gear. It is NOWHERE near the same level. The gear/pots from group content is better.
Oh. Yeah. Yeah, you're mostly right about that. I misunderstood what you meant by gold gear, my bad. There are a few overland and crafted sets that are on the same level for the majority of content. These are even used in group stuff.
Most notably
Oakensoul Ring - Overland Sourced Mythic
Tide-born-Wildstalker - Crafted Set
Order's Wrath - Crafted Set
Highland Sentinel - Crafted, but you have to stand still
Deadly Strike - okay this one is technically from Cyrodiil overland but you can also get it from traders
You may want to check this guide out and pickout the overland/crafted sets if you would like to have similar power as your PTS charcter on live without having to group.
https://www.skinnycheeks.gg/top-dps-sets
Anyway, just wanted to direct your attention those few sets. But you're correct that the vast majority of the good gear comes from group content.Edited by spartaxoxo on January 22, 2026 11:54PM2 -
Cooperharley✭✭✭✭✭
✭Listening to the reveal (belatedly), and I'm concerned that the overland difficulty feature is being touted as something for "solo players." I almost always quest with a friend. I almost always go through overland grouped with a buddy. Why is it assumed that only solo players want this, and does anyone know if the implementation isn't viable for grouped players?
Of course it's viable for grouped players. Especially at the vestige level. Why would it not be?PC-NA | @Cooperharley2 -
Cooperharley✭✭✭✭✭
✭DenverRalphy wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
It's not just XP. The injection of gold into the game world will have an impact too.
Most quests give you a wet napkin and a slap on the back. You'll get 2 of those now.
It's a non-issue for the masses. Will some super sweaty player find some exploit? Probably. That can get addressed at that time. Not the end of the world IMO.
The sharding for me would make it feel cleaner. I don't necessarily care about the gold exploit or w/e. I'd just like to see someone else in the wilderness and both of us be walking up to an enemy camp on vestige mode. It's more immersive that way.PC-NA | @Cooperharley3 -
BHoth_✭✭✭I don't know of a single MMORPG that doesn't have group content, that is, content which has you group up with others in order to face it (which is good. I, and many others, expect this from multiplayer games: content that neccesitates and rewards group play!).
And in ESO, perfected vs non perfected gear is very much trivial, most sets only adding 129 weapon and spell damage (for reference, I currently have 4,285 w+s dmg. This would represent around 3% of a difference in having vs not having perfected gear).
Finally, gold gear isn't sourced exclusively (or even primarily) through Vet Dungeons and Trials. Most people get their golden materials through writs, refinement or by buying them from other players.
Here is the ESO Hub page for the same set, both in Perfected and non-Perfected. You can see for yourself what exactly the difference is:
https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/perfected-arms-of-relequen
https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/arms-of-relequen
I tested the difference, I don't need your office site propaganda telling me different.
I also have no cares for what you know of MMOs. I have my own experience to speak of.
So are the differences shown on the tooltip wrong?
Also what the hell is "office site propaganda".Edited by BHoth_ on January 23, 2026 12:01AM6 -
ESO_player123✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭spartaxoxo wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
They said that these rewards are just the starting point. It might be not that big of a deal for just xp and 300gp instead of 150gp, but once they start adding more interesting rewards I bet people will start exploiting it this way.
Oh, yeah. A friend might help someone get a golden pursuit done and get the 20th non-combat pet. Not worried about that either. Overland rewards are always the cheapest items in guild traders because it is by far the most played content. And the rewards from golden pursuits are never stuff that can be used to gain advantage over others. I don't care about policing cheap and easy to get rewards that confer no combat advantages. Overland rewards have always been the stuff that everyone can get quickly ad easily. I don't really care if that continues to be the case as it has no impact on things like pvp and vet trials. It's always been cheap stuff too so there's little economic impact as well.
For me, this concern is a "some people don't like the idea on principle," thing rather than anything that I'm concerned about having any real negative impacts on the game. People already power level others.
I do not care about the overland set rewards either , but I saw what some players proposed as rewards. Not all of them do not affect gameplay (like better versions of Mythics). We do not know what ZoS might include as rewards later, so I think the concerns about exploiting are valid.3 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
They said that these rewards are just the starting point. It might be not that big of a deal for just xp and 300gp instead of 150gp, but once they start adding more interesting rewards I bet people will start exploiting it this way.
Oh, yeah. A friend might help someone get a golden pursuit done and get the 20th non-combat pet. Not worried about that either. Overland rewards are always the cheapest items in guild traders because it is by far the most played content. And the rewards from golden pursuits are never stuff that can be used to gain advantage over others. I don't care about policing cheap and easy to get rewards that confer no combat advantages. Overland rewards have always been the stuff that everyone can get quickly ad easily. I don't really care if that continues to be the case as it has no impact on things like pvp and vet trials. It's always been cheap stuff too so there's little economic impact as well.
For me, this concern is a "some people don't like the idea on principle," thing rather than anything that I'm concerned about having any real negative impacts on the game. People already power level others.
I do not care about the overland set rewards either , but I saw what some players proposed as rewards. Not all of them do not affect gameplay (like better versions of Mythics). We do not know what ZoS might include as rewards later, so I think the concerns about exploiting are valid.
The planned rewards that ZOS themselves outlined were moreso stuff like Golden Pursuits though. As currently implemented and with the current plans they have shared, I think such concerns are already addressed. If they do something like add a superior pvp mythic to this system, then I'll definitely agree it would be cause for concern. But that seems highly unlikely as ZOS has already stated that the rewards will be limited to address exploitation. And someone getting another player to carry them through Skyreach or joining a dolmen farm for exp doesn't bother me. Some of the behavior being described as exploits already happen regularly. I would not consider that stuff exploits. And I do worry that using that feedback to make rewards even worse would have a negative impact on the system and lead to people feeling punished for even using it.Edited by spartaxoxo on January 23, 2026 12:10AM2 -
disky✭✭✭✭✭
✭Thank you ZOS. I'm looking forward to testing the new modes, and I'm excited to really get into the meat of the game. For me personally, this is a whole new lens through which to view this game.4 -
Franchise408✭✭✭✭✭
✭Franchise408 wrote: »Franchise408 wrote: »Agreed with this, personally I feel harder overland is a waste of ZOS's time. ZOS has already announced there will be some better rewards, though not big ones, for those opting into harder overland. Which means if we don't use that toggle and turn it up to the highest, it will feel punishing to do anything in overland, due to missing out on rewards, no matter how small those rewards are. If I ever feel like I am missing out on something for doing overland or for already having completed overland, I don't know if I would even want to keep on playing this game.
Do you feel like you're missing out when you do a dungeon or trial on normal instead of vet?
Because the difference in rewards is likely to be the same. Instead of green loot drops in normal overland, you'll get blue drops. There won't be new or unique items.
Yes. And having forced group play for those dungeons just makes the bad feelings worse.
idk what to tell you then, because it's literally the same gear, just slightly different stats due to the upgrade.
And of course the dungeons are group play. They are group content.
This is an MMO, not a single player game.
No it is not "literally the same gear" if the stats are different.
Dungeons does not have to be group content.
This is an MMO, NOT a Co-op. MMO = shared map Co-op = required grouping
Seriously the gold gear makes a huge difference. I used it in PTS and I cannot get it in Live because I do NOT group.
It is literally the same gear. Get some very easy to obtain upgrade mats, and you'll have the exact same stats.
You say this isn't a co-op game, and there is plenty of solo friendly material. In fact, the majority of the game's content is solo friendly.
By being an MMO, having some co-op content literally is part of the point. A game that is all for solo'ing doesn't need to be an MMO.3 -
Ruthless✭✭✭Well 300 pages of us discussing brought the changes, took some time but happy to see it1 -
mocap✭✭✭✭✭
✭Vestige difficulty can be real challenging in Public Dungeons. Even on par with solo vet dlc dungeons. No way you can pull 20+ mobs that easily, unless your are in Magma Shell or something. That's gonna be interesting.2 -
Attorneyatlawl✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Well 300 pages of us discussing brought the changes, took some time but happy to see it
It's been over 10 years since any challenging overworld. I'm looking forward to doing the expansion quests finally. I've only played sparsely since the first couple of years and closed beta due to rl and health issues, but I have a lot of free time and am doing better finally. Now with the road map, eso is looking like a good mmorpg to come back to this year.-First-Wave Closed Beta Tester of the Psijic Order, aka the 0.016 percent.
Exploits suck. Don't blame just the game, blame the players abusing them!
-Playing since July 2013, back when we had a killspam channel in Cyrodiil and the lands of Tamriel were roamed by dinosaurs.
________________
-In-game mains abound with "Nerf" in their name. As I am asked occasionally, I do not play on anything but the PC NA Megaserver at this time.4 -
loveeso✭✭✭✭✭We do want to stress, both for the starting difficulty levels and rewards, these are starting points. We want to make sure we hit the right balance and reduce opportunities for exploiting based on rewards. The system is being build to expand over time.
@ZOS_Kevin Please check out the solution (ghost phase) proposed earlier in this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8369635/#Comment_8369635
Uses elements that you already have in the game and doesn't require separate instances so should be reasonably easy to implement and deploy.MMOs: ESO (PS & PC), GW2 (😍) & Souls/Elden (😍)2 -
loveeso✭✭✭✭✭We do want to stress, both for the starting difficulty levels and rewards, these are starting points. We want to make sure we hit the right balance and reduce opportunities for exploiting based on rewards. The system is being build to expand over time.
@ZOS_Kevin Please check out the solution (ghost phase) proposed earlier in this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8369635/#Comment_8369635
Uses elements that you already have in the game and doesn't require separate instances so should be reasonably easy to implement and deploy.
Also, if this (or similar) solution removes the problem of exploiting the overland difficulty system, I believe it would be a great idea to make mobs drop gold gear on vestige, and purple on master.MMOs: ESO (PS & PC), GW2 (😍) & Souls/Elden (😍)0 -
twisttop138✭✭✭✭✭
✭spartaxoxo wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »DenverRalphy wrote: »Hi All! We have a new article with more information on overland difficulty, now officially named Challenge Difficulty.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69313
Wow.. hmm.. what the...?
It's a simple debuff mechanism, that doesn't seem to address a rather disturbing exploit. Player A dials it all the way up to Vestige difficulty, who then suits up in tanky gear and runs around tagging and pulling everything they see. Then Player B leaves it at Adventurer and plays clean up by mowing em down with Fatecarver.
And not for nuthin, but Gold and XP is pretty much meaningless to players who've played long enough that they can run around with increased difficulty.
Speaking only for myself... I likely won't be dialing up the difficulty. I've got more gold than I'll likely ever spend in game, and I stopped chasing XP a long time ago. For me, this is a swing and a miss. At least, as it's presented in the article anyway.
I actually am completely unbothered if people do this and don't consider it an exploit. I don't think we need to be worried about policing exp. It's really not a valuable item and people already power level their friends this way to no ill effects on the overall game. People sold Skyreach carries before this change and they'll sell it after. 🤷🏽♀️
They said that these rewards are just the starting point. It might be not that big of a deal for just xp and 300gp instead of 150gp, but once they start adding more interesting rewards I bet people will start exploiting it this way.
Oh, yeah. A friend might help someone get a golden pursuit done and get the 20th non-combat pet. Not worried about that either. Overland rewards are always the cheapest items in guild traders because it is by far the most played content. And the rewards from golden pursuits are never stuff that can be used to gain advantage over others. I don't care about policing cheap and easy to get rewards that confer no combat advantages. Overland rewards have always been the stuff that everyone can get quickly ad easily. I don't really care if that continues to be the case as it has no impact on things like pvp and vet trials. It's always been cheap stuff too so there's little economic impact as well.
For me, this concern is a "some people don't like the idea on principle," thing rather than anything that I'm concerned about having any real negative impacts on the game. People already power level others.
I do not care about the overland set rewards either , but I saw what some players proposed as rewards. Not all of them do not affect gameplay (like better versions of Mythics). We do not know what ZoS might include as rewards later, so I think the concerns about exploiting are valid.
The planned rewards that ZOS themselves outlined were moreso stuff like Golden Pursuits though. As currently implemented and with the current plans they have shared, I think such concerns are already addressed. If they do something like add a superior pvp mythic to this system, then I'll definitely agree it would be cause for concern. But that seems highly unlikely as ZOS has already stated that the rewards will be limited to address exploitation. And someone getting another player to carry them through Skyreach or joining a dolmen farm for exp doesn't bother me. Some of the behavior being described as exploits already happen regularly. I would not consider that stuff exploits. And I do worry that using that feedback to make rewards even worse would have a negative impact on the system and lead to people feeling punished for even using it.
Yeah its a nothing burger. It trips me out a bit seeing people want to police others xp and 10 gold. Let's save the pearls till something actually happens. We killed the big trash pack before the last boss of vKA on Wednesday and from all those enemies I picked up 1 gold. I'm not worried.5 -
BagOfBadgers✭✭✭@shadoza I'm trying to understand your point and problem with Dungeon/Arena/Trial gear.
Is it that you don't want it because it's in grouped content? Is it that you can't get because of a skill issue (people will be more than willing to help you with that, I'd even group you, and I sure others would also, so that you can get Monster Helms/Perfected, CR+2/3 might be the only issue)? I really can't get my head around what you want or see as a solution.
As an aside, “Pots” don't need any group content as all the ingredients are overland, or so I though? Same goes for food as well, I think?
Just a last thing. Later I'll be doing a vMoL HM for the weekly and if I use my PetSorc my gear will be:
Oakensoul/Sergeants Mail (Wayrest 1 & 2 Normal)/ Tharriker's Strike (Craftable) & 1 piece Slimecraw (Wayrest 1 Vet but any 1 piece will work or buy from the quest giver)
If I take my Arc it will be:
Oakensoul/Deadly Strike (Guild Trader/PvP Vendor/Burma Daily's). Tide-Born Wildstalker (Craftable) & 1 piece Slimecraw)
Only one set, Sergeants Mail and a Monster set, Slimecraw (shoulders can be purchased from the quest give, so my point is moot) would need a group. I will out DPS most in the group and before any of you naughty scamps say “but they're not meta/best”, I have spent too long dummy humping and these are my most consistent DPS sets and style.
So there you are. Open hand to help you and your crew (if you are on PC, I think you are as you have previously stated you tested on the PTS & I can EU or NA) to help.
I'm expecting a rebuff but I live in hope.
Anyway back to difficulty levels.......Proud member of the "One shot boss, wipe on trash" club.
Believe in the KISS priceable "Keep It Simple Stupid".
My Dyslexia makes the forum the true Vet HM for me.2