I haven't seen a trot yet! I did finally figure out how to make my horse rear up and whinny though, lol.

I've only been able to play 3 times this past week; beginning with last Sunday when I (or rather Misa) went on a trip (with 10 other members of the Guild I'm a member of) to Cyrodiil to loot and pillage. The group broke up that evening, but Misa stayed in Cyrodiil.

First off, I never wanted to (nor am I able to at this point) play "Player VS Player" - I just took the trip to loot and pillage; and actually made quite a bit of gold in just a few hours, not to mention some Awesome weapons and armor!

Well, in a group of ten, the veteran players surrounded the noobs and handled all the PvP except one, who in a weakened state from fighting with the veterans, I did manage to kill. It was our job as noobs to handle all the Daedra/monsters while the veterans handled all the PvP.

I actually did pretty good, for it being my first time there! But boy do you level up quickly in Cyrodiil! The NPC/Beast enemies are not so much tougher, as they come at you in groups - one reason it is better to visit Cyrodiil in at least a pair. But some of them really need a group to take down, like the huge Deadroth patrolling the streets of the Imperial City Arena district!

Our group went to the Imperial City sewers first, then the Arena, then the Elven Gardens and then the Memorial district. We did a lot of sneaking to get around, and chose our battles well; so there really wasn't that much dying. The trip started at 6 PM, ended at 10 PM.

But when the group split up, I stayed in Cyrodiil. NOT in the Imperial City, but in Cyrodiil itself; visiting all the familiar places from Oblivion - it is AWESOME to see them!!!! I have been staying in Cheydinhal, training for combat at Fort Farragut. But I skittered off my training to explore.

In those 3 playing sessions I've done all the quests available in Bruma, some in Cropsford and Chorrol; cleared Captstone Caverns, Vahtacen; and Cracked Woods Cave; Heynote Cave, Pothole Caverns, etc. Last night I saw Fort Black Boot!

Bruma and Chorrol were both in enemy territory; but even though the guards would attack me if they spotted me, the people of the town wanted/needed Misa's help and didn't care whose side I was on. The quests were a blast, and very lucrative!

The last two times I've played has been with a girl from Australia (what a gorgeous accent she has on TeamSpeak!) and we have been going into enemy territory and clearing dungeons to get the skyshards. I've only run across one Player that wanted to kill me; she was being attacked by goblins and I helped her clear them, then she started attacking me (and killed me) - but 3 playing days and only one attack by the Daggerfall or Aldmeri Alliances = not bad, not bad at all!

This (visiting Cyrodiil and seeing all the familiar places from Oblivion) has been one of the most exciting things in the world, I am loving this game! (and really glad that the Cyrodiil experience doesn't have to be all about Player vs Player - really glad of that!)

If you want to get into the Player VS Player; they have Keeps you can attack (in groups) using ballistas, trebuckets, etc; or you can come as an army and steal their Elder Scroll and wipe everyone out, winning that Keep for yourself, etc.

You can tell which Cities and Keeps belong to which Alliance by their color in your compass, so know which to avoid entering like a dummy (yes, I did); Now I just walk around all the Keeps, giving them a VERY wide berth (just in case), lol.

So far, lots of fun!





This post has been edited by mALX: Oct 4 2015, 05:46 PM

Had a really cool experience today with a boss creature. Haa-Rei headed over to one of those skull'n'crossbones icons on the map and found ~11 other players there.

Just as we arrived a big Echatere spawned, its health bar was huge, and all the players had to work together to bring it down. Lost at least half of the other players in the process, even with the efforts of some healers. It was crazy!

Now Haa-Rei is helping King Kurog fight some Reachmen and their Hagravens. The fun never ends.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Dec 19 2015, 01:28 AM

Some of those skull and crossbones ones are okay, but some of them - you HAVE to group to take down! I try to get them all in a region before leaving it (for the achievements, lol ).

The Orsinium ones are even tougher. They're called 'World bosses' and you need at least a dozen other players to help out. It's something that I dislike about MMOs - you can't do loads of stuff without having a group with you.

That sounds like fun, hazmick. While I’m not a fan of organizing my game to fit with other players, I do enjoy the random groups that spring up around bosses and dolmens.

The Undaunted quest dungeons seem to be the same way.

Just managed to complete the Old Orsinium public dungeon! Phew. That was tricky.

If you haven't done a public dungeon yet, it's basically a regular dungeon but with 2-3 times more enemies. Designed for high level parties.

Every encounter required the use of Haa-Rei's ultimate ability and a health potion or two. Most of the dungeon was traversed in ghost mode after we used soul gems to keep reviving again and again.

The dungeon, and the related quest, was only secondary to a relic we went to collect. It's part of the list of items the Orsinium museum wants you to find, and you get some cool outfits once you find them all. This one was the hardest, so it should be smooth sailing from here...

We also managed to stumble upon some other players taking down a big Dwemer Centurion world boss, just in time for them to kill it. Haa-Rei got the achievement without even firing an arrow.

First - what is Ghost mode?

And second - Is Orsinium PvP or PvE? I wondered if when you were in a group taking down a big boss if you had to worry about other players sniping you off?

Ghost mode is when you revive yourself with a soul gem and you get a few seconds to wander around as a ghost before fully reviving. During that time you can't interact with anything and are invisible to enemies.

Orsinium is PvE, thankfully.

Oh, OK! I have def used ghost mode before, usually to run and hide somewhere where I can squat down and sneak by, or wait for more players to come in to help me get further in (usually on the way to a skyshard, lol ).

Jerric is presently in Deshaan, fishing and following his treasure maps. He had a few of them in his pack because he wasn’t sure what to do with them or if the treasure was real. Guess what, it’s real.

He has a task that will take him into the next area (Shadowfen), but he’s not ready to move on yet. Eventually he’ll track down all of the Skyshards before he goes. It’s been easy to find crafting materials lately but hard to find fishing holes. Jerric has a whole lot of worms in his pack. He’d like to turn them into fish.

A recent trip into Coldharbour was a big success. Jerric would have made Darnand proud with the little bit of necromancy he did there. He can see how corpse-humpers get started. It’s not so bad making something out of flesh that’s already dead. The soul-shriven mortals are a big problem, however. He’s not sure if he should kill them or just let them suffer. Thankfully he had legendary hero Lyris Titanborn along with him on that trip. She kept him focused.

Orsinium is also calling. There are recruiters in the major cities inviting all to come rebuild the city. Darnand was not interested, but if Jerric quits staring at the echatere and talks to the orc he might head in that direction. After all, his bags are already packed.

Lildereth has gotten a quest that involves actual theft and trespassing. Yesss! After just about every assignment so far ending in a solo toe-to-toe boss fight, this job has cheered her up immensely. She’s also traveling all of Auridon on a peaceful mission for an old Altmer lady. Good times for Lil.

Two of her recent “findings” were pieces of actual clothing that she was able to launder with her fence. This was a nice surprise. The repair bill after she gets caught is getting out of hand. I’m guessing that if she’s wearing clothing-clothing instead of medium or light armor-clothing, it will not get damaged as a result of justice being served upon her.

I envy all of you.

I started a new game today. It's still Haa-Rei, but he's a Nightblade instead of a Sorcerer this time. He's level 6 and already the difference between the classes is quite clear - I should have a much easier time soloing the game now.

The only downside is that he doesn't have all of his crafting knowledge (like the motifs) and that was more luck than skill. Otherwise, it's very exciting. Hopefully the Orsinium DLC will provide a good place to level up if he gets into a level slump later on.

DE, Darnand just did a quest with a cursed family that made me think of you. I think you are going to love this game.

hazmick, a warm welcome to Nightblade Haa-Rei! I’d love to hear any Nightblade archer tips you have. I am finding Lil’s build the hardest to work with solo. Perhaps she should take up Restoration staves as a second weapon skill.

I made a tactical error when each of my crafters took a single equipment skill. Now they have to find three of each motif. Lil just got the Breton one, which is a relief because Jerric and Darnand have both been impatient for her to make Breton Light and Medium armor for them. So far no one has found Redguard, which is my favorite. Argh!

In Jerric’s crew news, Darnand has been battling necromancers, werewolves, and necromancer-werewolves all over the place. He just got his first set of linen robes from Lil. He prefers the look of his homespun ones, but they are all resigned to the numerous compromises brought on by the MMO world so he put them on without complaint.

Lildereth is a light-fingered delight. She just picked her first pocket. It was an Acolyte of Auri-El. I’ll post what she found in his pocket in mALX’s NPC gossip thread. Turns out that Lil’s irreverence is directed toward the mortal self-serving ‘servants,’ not the Divines themselves. And she was right about them! The ultimate prize that she is seeking is one of those nice dresses that the townsfolk wear. Preferably a green one. She loves her midriff-baring adventure wear and her desert outfit, but sometimes it’s nice to put on a gown.

Oh! I almost forgot. Lil recently fought at a Dolmen with only two other archers backing her up, and none of them had any healing. It was going quite badly and then out of nowhere a tall, blond Templar flew through the air wielding a lance of pure light and saved their butts. Her heart always leaps in this sort of situation because she hopes it might be Jerric. After the fight she and the survivors gathered for the traditional celebration and payoff. When Lil greeted her hero, she struggled mightily to keep a straight face. His name: Poopy Chicken.

Jerric is hanging out in Davon’s Watch, researching armor traits and training his riding skills. He has so much crap to study that his inventory is a mess, so he’s happy to work, cook, and relax (i.e. drink, dance, and fish) in a seaside town until he gets on top of it again. Sadly he has found no brothels in Davon’s Watch despite extensive searching. Also the nightly dance party outside the armorer’s workshop is almost always all naked dudes. Jerric is not generally bothered by any type of revelry and this is no exception, but he could stand to see more naked chicks. Even one would be nice. Darnand says Jerric has obviously not been to Daggerfall. Darnand wishes that everyone would just keep their clothes on.

This post has been edited by Grits: Jan 27 2016, 01:44 PM

I'm very interested in both flavors of Haa-Rei as well as Lil in terms of how they do.

From my study of ESO stuff, a stealthy no-melee mystic archer seems torn between sorcerer and night blade. It seems either could work but it also seems both are round holes, whereas a mystic archer is a square peg. 90% of all RPG can't really support such a character. TES did support this in IV and V but I am concerned about the limitations for 'balance' purposes that an MMO requires. Such limitations never seem to support an archer without a blade or a mage with a bow. . . .

Anyway, enough of my likely ill-informed concerns. I am very interested in following how such attempts by both Grits and hazmick work out.

I'd hate to have to play as a Poopy Chicken named Acadian just to survive.

Haa-Rei is still learning how the class fights, but so far the best advice would either be to focus on the Nightblades abilities or focus on your bow, and that means either focusing on stamina or magicka. Acadian is right when he says that it's hard to balance a pure archer.

Magicka not only determines how much you have, but also how much damage magical attacks do, and it's the same with stamina and stamina based attacks. Stamina also determines your weapon damage with physical weapons, such as the bow, while staff damage comes from magicka.

Haa-Rei mainly uses bow skills, with Nightblade skills purely as back-up. I won't put any attribute points into magicka, it'll all go into stamina (With maybe 5 points into health). Having low health is something I had to get used to with the Sorcerer class, but Nightblades have a healing spell (Strife, in the Siphoning skill tree) and Haa-Rei will be using two-handed weapons as his secondary weapon, because they have a stamina-based healing spell (and Haa-Rei likes swords). The only other Nightblade skill he uses is the invisibility one from the Shadow skill line, and he'll be getting the summon shade ability from there when he finally unlocks it.

I'm thinking of using some Fighter's Guild abilities later on, since they're stamina based. If you're anything like me, then you often forget that other skill lines even exist. Fighters Guild can be good for stamina builds, and Mages Guild can be good for magicka builds.

It all requires lots of trial and error, so I'll be playing around with loads of abilities until I find stuff that feels right for me, and for Haa-Rei.

ALSO: Champion points might be worth looking at, if your characters have them. This new Haa-Rei has the champ points of the old one, so it's helped to boost some of his stats a little.

Acadian, your study and concerns have both proven accurate for Lil in her game. I am constantly wondering if I should have made her as a Sorcerer. At her present low level (she is now 15) the Sorcerer class has summonings that could keep some enemies from melee range, but the Nightblade class has a stealth-enhancing spell that she relies on. At higher levels I think the Nightblade class will pay off for her, but for a long time she will be “leveling” which for her means using some spells that don’t suit her in order to get to the higher level spells in that line. For Lil going forward I am putting her attribute points into Stamina to keep her bow strong, which means she must conserve Magicka (and with low Health not get hit). If I gave her more Magicka her bow would be weaker.

Jerric is getting the worst of the game mechanics since he wants to hit hard enough to kill things by himself, use some offensive spells so he feels at least a little like a mage, and survive getting hit when he’s alone in a bad situation. By splitting his attributes to give him some of all three I made his spells limited, his sword weak, and his life fragile. He is collecting enchanted armor to make up some of the difference, but by the time he gets a good set he has leveled up enough that the set is worthless. He is an even squarer peg than Lil. Still, he’s interested in exploring. He just has to wait to help some NPCs until he is on the high end of a leveled area. Skyrim is really his game.

Darnand is a Sorcerer class with Restoration Staff main weapon skill (which is an offensive weapon with defensive spells enabled by it) and loving it. He keeps his little clannfear at his side even though she constantly gets them into trouble by running over and attacking enemies that notice them but wouldn’t otherwise approach. I don’t know if summonings do that when the character is sneaking. The Sorcerer spells that Darnand uses are the kind that blow things up with electricity, so they are loud and very bright. They are kind of the opposite of stealth. He is loving it because his attribute points all go into Magicka. Round peg.

I am looking more closely into the Bow skills. Since Lil has no summoned distraction she needs a good snare, and she sure as heck needs better healing. Sometimes I even wonder if I should have made her be a Templar.


ADDED: Just want to emphasize I’m talking about the troubles of going solo in ESO with Jerric’s and Lil’s hybrid builds, which is also the trouble they find in quests that dump you into a solo, non-stealth boss fight. With a group or at least with other characters around there aren’t as many issues in most situations.

This post has been edited by Grits: Jan 28 2016, 08:33 PM

Hazmick and Grits, thanks much for your insights and observations. I must admit that I strongly resist allowing game survival / game mechanics to dictate either equipment or style. I'm very spoiled being able to tweak up or down my level of challenge via command codes / tweaks and such to get it right where I want it. Clearly, not really possible in an MMO. Still not gonna rule out ESO for a possible consideration in the future.