I suspected that was the case - it's very frustrating for us both because we worh different schedules so we can't play together all the time but we'd like to be able to help each other out when one of us gets stuck in a quest.

Every time we are OK to meet each other in the location but we can't actually do the quest together. Really takes the shine off the game.

We managed to group in a group of 4 one time for the Alik'r group dungeon... eventually, it involved all 4 of us having to drop the quest, go in and out of the door several times in varying orders to reget the quest, dropping it again simultaneously and finally 3 of us getting it together and having to leave the poor 4th person behind. We didn't have to perform any satanic sacrificial rituals but we were getting close. I take my hat off to people who actually mange to get groups of 12 together.

Sometimes I feel like ZOS really want their own game to crash & burn.

To be honest the rings issue is secondary the real issue is that whenever we try to group for a quest we end up in different phases - simple as that.

We can group for world bosses but not for any other PvE content.

We're both well into VR areas and have never been able to quest together.

That's about as clear as I can be.

I have been playing with my wife in sync from the start, works fine that way. Except of course for the fighters, mages and main quest. However that char is now just dedicated to play together. Then I have alts that I can play when our time schedules do not match for play together.

The issue @SuraklinPrime seemed to have with the group dungeon seems like instance issue which is usually easy to fix with the travel to player function or relogging while in group.

There are plenty of topics about the grouping issue with quests and also in the roads ahead they have stated they are looking into better system, however how long that will take we can only guess.

@Ashtaris true that with rings of mara you quite easily overlevel and I can see your issue on accidentally trying to skip in questline as your level is enough. Luckily at least the level tends to low down a bit when you are 5 levels above the mobs as you do not get exp from them anymore. Anyway my solution is to try to check from journal which quests to do based on always doing the lowest lvl quest next on the list.

MMO´s always work like that, the reason is phasing.

Phasing is responsible for changes to the environment like NPC´s, cities or basic layouts.

Because of this MMO´s tend to be unfriendly to players that want to play together but cant progress at the same speed.

There is no fix to that from a Developers perspective, as you face these issue´s in any MMO with phasing and I played most of them.

What you can do is starting a char that you only play when you are both online. I do this with a friend and we have zero issue´s.

I know its not the optional way, but its how it is in MMO´s

Same here. I have one character that only plays when my husband is also online. The rest of them either play solo or group up with whoever happens to be in the same area at the same time. It's really the only way to group successfully on an ongoing basis, otherwise we can't share quests that one of us has already completed.

SuraklinPrime wrote: »

Do we actually have to have done exactly the same quests in the same order and not in any way deviated from the exact same path to qualify?

Things are awkward but not quite that bad. In an area with phases, you have to be on the same phase. Not all quests change phase. The ones that do seem to offer red choices or change the area as a sign of quest progression (ex. the changes to the area after you have repelled/defeated a set of invaders).

You'll also resync once you leave the phased area.

So rule of thumb is, if the area changes as the result of a quest in a way that would require phasing, then you have to be on the same quest path and same quest stage.

Spoiler Alert

As an example, I grouped with someone where I had completed the Arenthia quest line (an invasion quest line) and they had not done the Arenthia quests. The change in Arenthia require the area to progress from pre invasion where invading NPC's control the area, to NPC's battling for control of the area, to post-invasion where friendly NPC's control the area. So they were invisible as long as we were in the phased area in and around Arenthia. When we went to the Vampire shrine in the same zone, where neither of us had quested (it's also possible that lacks phasing) we were both visible to each other.

Another example is Shattered Grove where the residents go from petrified to not petrified. I'm not sure if the change in animal aggro characteristics and appearance in the area around shattered grove results in a phase. My guess is it doesn't since post quest I get no aggro from the animals, and I can see players and group with players that still get aggro from the animals.

I myself only group for dolmens, public dungeons(and public dungs I still try to solo:/) world bosses, and group/veteran dungeons. even then, I immediately leave the group after those activities are done(even something as short as a dolmen or world boss). grouping in the game is very frustrating, I once had to wait 2 hours just to get a group of 4 to do a dungeon. and one dungeon me and this group had to re-enter several times to get the dang thing to work. idk about having to have both done the exact same things throughout the entire zone, but I do know, you cant do a quest with a friend if you already did it, which is a huge problem. Best to wait till ZOS fixes it, or move on to another game:(

First you are going to need 1 live chicken per player ...