Great game, but it should be called ESO Dungeons

Graelock · June 2014

At lvl 37, I seem to have hit a plateau that is forcing me more and more toward dungeoning, and the fact that there is an entire portion of Tamriel reserved only for groups of certain rank (Craglorn), keeps kind of forcing to send the shout-out "LFG," and trying to sell myself/ skills to willing, nit-picky groups. The game doesn't have enough plentiful and creative quests/ outlets to keep the solo player going. I have not ran into this deficit in another MMO (from a single player perspective). There's always a way to make consistent XP in most other MMO's, with PVP usually being a big one and one that works for me and my schedule. However, here, it appears only dungeoning is the best, most consistent route.

I do a lot more soloing now, in my married life. I can no longer be the 24/7 GW/ FF dedicate who professes at farming/ farming elite bosses. I learned this with SWTOR. Thankfully, there's a little grace period I get with a new MMO, where the wife is completely cool if I hammer it away for a week or two, especially if I do it in parallel with one of her projects...but I don't give it a chance to wear off. Therefore, my commitment level to groups can't be "alright, let's go and hit this string of dungeons/ places..." I may only be able to do one, before I have to get something done, or the wife wants to watch a movie etc. Heck, half the time I'm dropping where I'm at in a quest/ campaign and hiding my character in the corner somewhere.

Anywho, my point is, I was ranking reasonably well, masterings quests that were 6-7 levels over me...Bangkorai was my last zone to all but complete. Now, I'm scraping for anything to do, and spending hours just looking for a quest I haven't done. Over 98% of my available map space is charted out and conquered, dark anchors are conquered. There might be 2 or 3 crypts left, but definitely not enough to get me to my next campaign plateau of lvl 40...in fact, not even level 38. Other MMO's offer plentiful XP, per PVP match...which is nice for me and my time constraints in life, but I've heard the XP reward out is moot in ESO, and so haven't bothered.

SinBad · June 2014

I never understood how people are saying there isn't enough quests. I am lvl 38 and am still doing quests that are 3-5 lvls below me. It is a little annoying because i sometimes out level the mobs and don't get drops anymore. The zones are packed with quests.
And i have been higher level than the quests for a little while. I hate skipping areas and going to the higher leveled end, but kinda forced if i want to get drops.

If anything there are way to many o_o

LariahHunding · June 2014

If you clear the map (all symbols white), that will usually do it for you (quest hubs, dolmens, world bosses, solo dungeons).

Ardeki · June 2014

Yeah, I'm consistently baffled anyone has this problem...my templar on EP is 46, and only JUST finished clearing the Rift. She's been consistently overleveled for each area since Stonefalls.

If you're questing in each zone until you get the related achievement I have no clue how you can be behind on levels.

Lox · June 2014

Not something I have seen personally. I am currently lvl 47 in Coldharbour and have solo quested pretty much all of that.

I have done the public dungeons as I have worked through but I have only done 1 of group dungeons (first one from AD side), haven't touched any of the others.

The vast majority of those quests have been 'on level' with the occasional one going up 1 or 2. I would suggest, if you find yourself having to do quests 6-7 levels over you, that you have probably missed a good number of them, either that or there is a massive difference between AD, EP and DC!

someuser · June 2014

I agree. I am also in EP and find many of my quest to be green or grey'ed out due to over leveling.

LariahHunding · June 2014

Coming thing with my alt at 40 right now, I'm doing a much better job this time than last, and it seems as soon as I finish one Main story quest, I have the next available.

Ragekniv · June 2014

Post a follow up when you hit VR zones. I think you're in for a bit of a surprise!

Graelock · June 2014

Wow, will have to give things a look around. As of now, I see most everything on my map is white. There must be a major amount somewhere. Someone mentioned quest hubs, where are these at?

Graelock · June 2014

...and aren't all dungeons group? I tried to solo a level 12 dungeon in Glenmora as a level 36 nightblade and made it the entire way through without dying, except I couldn't get past the spawn mother doing solo.

Aeradon · June 2014

VR is waiting for you (:

ozgod22_eso · June 2014

I didn't get to Coldharbour till I was level 46. If you look at your journal you should see what completion you have of quests in each zone for their achievement. That way you can see if you are significantly missing some. I didn't even dungeon on my first toon to 50 as I didn't want to miss out on quests.

Tamanous · June 2014

The game is designed with exploration in mind. Sadly tons of players evidently only follow the main quest path and hit the main quest hubs on the map. If you do this you easily miss 1/4 of the total quests in each zone if not more.

Thulsola · June 2014

I just hit level 45, and my problem has always been that I am finishing most quests in a zone after I have exceeded their level. I do a lot of mats farming and I tend to seek out skyshards, but I have never found that there isn't enough content to get me to the next level.

ShedsHisTail · June 2014

Tamanous wrote: »

The game is designed with exploration in mind. Sadly tons of players evidently only follow the main quest path and hit the main quest hubs on the map. If you do this you easily miss 1/4 of the total quests in each zone if not more.

You miss way more than 1/4.
If you follow just the main story path for each zone, you're going to miss like 80% of the content.

Rosveen · June 2014

Graelock wrote: »

Anywho, my point is, I was ranking reasonably well, masterings quests that were 6-7 levels over me...Bangkorai was my last zone to all but complete. Now, I'm scraping for anything to do, and spending hours just looking for a quest I haven't done. Over 98% of my available map space is charted out and conquered, dark anchors are conquered. There might be 2 or 3 crypts left, but definitely not enough to get me to my next campaign plateau of lvl 40...in fact, not even level 38.

I find it very difficult to believe. I've been overeleveled for most of the game, I'm just under 42 now and I haven't finished Malabal Tor yet. I've never had to do quests 6-7 levels above me like you did. You must have missed a ton of content in the early zones, there's just no way that clearing world bosses, dolmens and quests would leave you so underleveled.

Graelock wrote: »

Wow, will have to give things a look around. As of now, I see most everything on my map is white. There must be a major amount somewhere. Someone mentioned quest hubs, where are these at?

There aren't really any hubs, you find questgivers as you explore. Walk down the road, check out every place of interest in the vicinity and you quickly have a journal full of quests.

drogon1 · June 2014

Graelock wrote: »

At lvl 37, I seem to have hit a plateau that is forcing me more and more toward dungeoning, and the fact that there is an entire portion of Tamriel reserved only for groups of certain rank (Craglorn), keeps kind of forcing to send the shout-out "LFG," and trying to sell myself/ skills to willing, nit-picky groups. The game doesn't have enough plentiful and creative quests/ outlets to keep the solo player going. I have not ran into this deficit in another MMO (from a single player perspective). There's always a way to make consistent XP in most other MMO's, with PVP usually being a big one and one that works for me and my schedule. However, here, it appears only dungeoning is the best, most consistent route.

I do a lot more soloing now, in my married life. I can no longer be the 24/7 GW/ FF dedicate who professes at farming/ farming elite bosses. I learned this with SWTOR. Thankfully, there's a little grace period I get with a new MMO, where the wife is completely cool if I hammer it away for a week or two, especially if I do it in parallel with one of her projects...but I don't give it a chance to wear off. Therefore, my commitment level to groups can't be "alright, let's go and hit this string of dungeons/ places..." I may only be able to do one, before I have to get something done, or the wife wants to watch a movie etc. Heck, half the time I'm dropping where I'm at in a quest/ campaign and hiding my character in the corner somewhere.

Anywho, my point is, I was ranking reasonably well, masterings quests that were 6-7 levels over me...Bangkorai was my last zone to all but complete. Now, I'm scraping for anything to do, and spending hours just looking for a quest I haven't done. Over 98% of my available map space is charted out and conquered, dark anchors are conquered. There might be 2 or 3 crypts left, but definitely not enough to get me to my next campaign plateau of lvl 40...in fact, not even level 38. Other MMO's offer plentiful XP, per PVP match...which is nice for me and my time constraints in life, but I've heard the XP reward out is moot in ESO, and so haven't bothered.

"ESO dungeoning" - lol OP but you do not realize just how wrong this statement is.

Did you know that dungeon xp in ESO is essentially CAPPED at probably about 3 bars of total xp out of 50? (I know of no other MMO that works this way.) What this means is that after you complete every group dungeon available to you up to max level 50, you will earn probably about 3 bars of total xp.

The game mechanics of ESO give you XP only the FIRST time you run a dungeon. Each additional time you run the dungeon nets you essentially ZERO xp. ESO is designed to force you to quest or grind mobs (or PvP, lol) to level 50 (anything in fact except dungeoning).

So, if you are underleveled, you will need to find a source of XP in the game from anywhere you can - except dungeoning.

Note: after you reach max level and enter VR content, dungeon xp apparently changes.

Shanna · June 2014

Try downloading an addon that shows undiscovered places? I managed to lvl to 50 and beyond, solo (without dungeons.)

Magdalina · June 2014

Ahahahaha...no.
Forgive me, I couldn't resist:) Posts like this always give me such a great laugh.

Clearly, you are missing like (bigger) half the quests. I outleveled every single zone I was in til vet(actually, I still reach next vet in the middle of my lvl zone). 90% of quests I did in the Rift(EP here) were GREY, and you say you do quests 5-7 lvls ABOVE you after having done everything? You might want to reconsider your definition of "everything", then. Check your journal, I bet you're missing most "<place> adventurer"/"locales of <place>"/"<place> cave explorer"/"skyshards of <place>" achievements. Besides, there's usually about 5 more quests than the zone achievement, moreso now that they nerfed it(for eample, I got Bangkorai achievement like...5 quests ago. And since main questline was bugged for a week, I'm only just now starting it. So that's probably like 5 or more quests left there).

Far as dungeons go...what are you talking about? There's 3 dungeons per ~8-10 levels, and 3 per FIVE vet levels or so. They give good exp on first run, I think it's considerably lowered after that - tho some ppl find exploits and farm there anyway. I for one ran every dungeon I could once. And still outleveled everything. I've NEVER done a quest that was above my lvl - not because I found these too difficult or whatever, simply because by the time I got there it was way below my level, which is actually really sad.

Craglorn being "adventure zone" is an entirely different story and you're miles away from facing the problem of finding a group there anyway.