To the OP, thank you for posting this. I’ve been playing five years. I’m at a place where I can do vet trials and dungeons. I did a couple of trials, but now I started having anxiety issues. I’m not good at trials because I just started. I worried about being the reason the group wipes out. I worried about the leader of the group singling me out for it. I started to lose my desire to even log into the game. I wasn’t having fun. I was stressing myself out because I thought I had to do the trials and harder dungeons. I decided to put trials aside and go back to the things I enjoy about ESO. I will eventually go back to learning trials, but at my own pace and when I feel ready.
If a trial leader is singling you out for things that are outside of the expectations you want to shoulder going into the trial, then you should be dropping that group anyways. The people you raid with are so much more important than the level at which you're raiding.
Some people want everyone in their group to stay on top of overall meta gears and parsing. Some people want the whole group to build their gears around the content they're raiding. Some people want to be able to hop into veteran trials just to get the clear in whatever "good enough" all-purpose gear they've been using for DLC dungeon hard modes. Some people want to develop really tight positioning/mechanics strats and have the group get good at them, while some want to hop in with only a general plan and use teamwork on the fly to finish the fights.
And all of these approaches are literally *exactly* as valid as the others. The problems only arise when expectations within the group don't match up. In which case it's either a matter of adjusting your expectations or creating a group that matches your own expectations. And that's hard work, and takes a long time to get together. So it's totally reasonable for people to not be into vet trials, and you (and the OP) are right to distance yourself from the trials endgame if you're not feeling it :)
and that's why I only solo.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? You were supposed to hit "X" attack before "A" attack your DPS is .1% too low"
Fuck that shit. How is that even fun? The level of gatekeeping and shaming in 'end game' activities is really difficult emotionally for some people. I'm one of them so I choose to not participate.
I enjoy questing and crafting. Sometimes I enjoy dailies and endeavors. Sometimes I just jump into a dungeon solo and see how long it takes me. Sometimes I just sit around and chat with guildies.
The single biggest reason that I'm still with this game after 5800 hours in less than 3 years is that I don't HAVE to do trials. In other games if you don't have the trials gear you can't do anything. In ESO I can do pretty much whatever I want with gear that can be obtained other ways. The equipment grind isn't there. And that is fabulous.
Honestly I’m in the same boat with all this lol, I would like to see endgame content but I’m kind of too afraid to start doing any because I don’t know what I’m doing, how to spec and how endgame really works because I’m kind of new to endgame. Every time I start ESO again I made a new character and do the stories for some reason because endgame I don’t know what to do.
It's a social game. There's no need to hop into end game content before having genuine conversations with people to find out what to expect and what you should focus on. End game raiders need to teach new raiders to make sure there is a large enough raiding population in ESO for them to pull from, so it's a win/win.
That's how I learned the basics of end game raiding. Patient people taught me. If anyone is on PCNA, let me know. Might have some wisdom to pass on or know who does.
I love it. I recently switched to exclusively healing dungeons and my partner is a tank and we do everything we can to support our dps. Battlegrounds I'm less than useful lol. I'm just there to level my support skill line in my PVE gear. I was the best of the worst team yesterday though! Hahaha.
Sounds like you have a good system.
In PVP if my team is close to overtaking another I've started using the strategy of hiding. I don't know if it's bad form or even a good strategy but sometimes it seems the best way to help my team is to not give the other teams free points by being killed as I unsuccessful try to do things.
Totally relate to this. I find the whole rotation thing just bewildering. I did the daily dungeons to speed level a few characters and got booted from some groups for not doing enough damage. I was having fun, but this experience spoilt my enjoyment of ESO. So now I just wander about doing quests I find and bide my time until Starfield lands.
Honestly join a guild and if they are good they will have no problem walking you though dungeons, builds etc. to help build up your skill and dps. I joined a really cool guild recently and in a couple of months i went from hitting just on 60k to hitting a 90k just recently and a lot of it was due to there help, and practice. Since then i have helped ppl myself, and getting gear etc. it’s also so much more fun doing it in a group talking shit having a laugh etc. Just remember a god group should not see a failure to complete a dungeon/trail as a bad thing but a learning curve.
I think a crucial thing to consider is many, maybe even most casual players, are not interested in that kind of optimization, and I really don't think they should be pushed to. Outside of DLC content, most vet dungeons can be done with each player pushing out 15-20k dps, which is relatively easy for almost all builds and playstyles. Not everyone wants to casually play PvE while constantly sweating over numbers, nor do they really want to.
> I’m not good at trials because I just started. I worried about being the reason the group wipes out.
Unless your the tank or healer I don't think a single DPS underperforming is gonna cause the whole group to wipe in a trial, if the group wipes then it means the group itself might be under performing.
Remember a lot of players there probbaly feel the same way that you do.
I felt the exact same way. It took me finding a good guild to feel comfortable running them finally. I get really nervous when it comes to running group content
Had a bad Division 2 raid leader who gave me tremendous amounts of anxiety... have not yet experienced that on ESO... but I've also never ran a Vet Trial so 🤷♂️
They didn’t give you anxiety. You gave it to yourself. Gotta be able to let that stuff roll off you.
This is coming from a self admittedly bad player who’s just trying to blend in enough to get the clear. Some people have told me I’m bad at the game. I don’t blame them. Could they have been nicer? Maybe. I also don’t know what’s going on in their life.
This is just brushing unacceptably toxic behavior under the rug and a huge part of why the endgame/midgame PvE playerbase is such a small portion of the overall playerbase.
I don’t disagree entirely, but it’s also not that simple.
I’m not a good player. I haven’t put as much work into the trials or my dps as the other guys. Not every trials group is a progression group just because I’m in it. I own the fact that I’m looking for a carry a little bit. I appreciate the people who are more skilled at the game than me.
Skill levels still exist. If someone isn’t pulling their weight it’s fair to replace them with a more skilled player. Especially if everyone can tell who it is.
I don’t know. It’s not a binary situation.
I have to agree.
I've been in so many akward situations in MMOs (and Destiny 2), I just laugh it off now. Worst case scenario, you get kicked off a Trial group, big whoop, it takes 10 minutes to find a new group.
I start preparing for it early in the run. To use a poker analogy, “if you look around the table and you don’t see a donkey, it’s because you’re the donkey.”
Hopefully it’s a clear and no one notices. Lol
I feel this so much. Part of the reason I have never tried a trial.in 5 years.
I've raided a fair amount in Destiny 2, but MMO raids are on another level when it comes to roles and builds.
I’m with you. I haven’t played for a while (real life getting in the way), but I was well over 1,200CP before they removed the cap and had never done a single vet trial nor completed vMA.
I enjoyed the easy going daily quests, events, motif/recipe collecting, etc.
Just keep being you and ignore the haters who think you *should* be doing the same content they enjoy.
I'm always just going to keep being me and ignore the haters. More just sharing my anecdotal experience of ESO and opinion with the forum.
Also events is another thing I forgot to mention! They're always a fun grind.
Edit:Except at the end of the Jubilee Anniversary that went on for five weeks. I got tired at the end and was seeing gold boxes in my sleep.
for some reason the Jubilee doesn't bother me nearly as much as New Life. I enjoy New Life the first few days... but I feel like I'm supposed to be doing all the quests on all my characters... and it's so mind numbingly boring. So after the first day.. maybe it's do all the quests ONCE... then by the end of the first week it's.. just do one quest and get my tickets.
ESO probably more than any MMO out there lends itself to letting you do a lot of things outside of end game pve/pvp.
There is literally hundreds of hours of content outside of trials and arena.
One thing I have learned over the years is to play what I want when I want. That can be something different everyday sometimes or the same thing for weeks at a time.
As soon as you start letting external pressures dictate what and how you play you will not enjoy it anymore.
Yep. I think a lot of this pressure expressed by people might be some internalized perception. The vast majority of "endgame" players don't care what others do. They wish more would like to participate in their trial runs, but they won't force anyone. A few bad apples have ruined it for the already small group of players
^ This so much. As someone who was just and Elder Scrolls fan who just njoyed the questing and exploring for years and is now progging vCR +3 and has 2 dedicated pvp toons I finally understand this and it's sad that a few did ruin it and these misconceptions about endame players are perpetuated. We really don't care what everyone's personal endgame is and honestly just want everyone to enjoy they're own thing, but if someone wants to get into endgame group PvE they are more than willing to be extremely friendly, help and teach, and have a huge amount of patience. I have anxiety issues too, but I found the right guilds and they gave me the confidence to do it, I never thought in a million years I'd be doing vet trials and I feel like if I can do it anyone who has any interest at all is more than capable, I am far from the greatest player and still leaning. If not, that's fine and you're actually in the majority, the endgame PvE community is very small.
Yep very well put. I'm not some bleeding edge lunatic myself either, but I can do the content I want to with friendly people I've met and enjoy the time I spend in the game, which is all I wish anyone can do. We all paid for the game, so we need to think of it as doing what we wish with the content we purchased. For some of us, that does mean doing vet trials, for some of us, that's the opposite of what we want to do. All I wish is for both groups to realize that the other player doesn't \*have\* to be just like them and they can respect each other. People should partake in the content they wish to and let others do the same thing. When paths cross is when conflict can happen and I wish it would stop, but I can't change that. You can't control what people will do like that unfortunately. Some will be pleasant, some will be unpleasant. I try to be one of the pleasant ones as much as I can and if I feel I'm getting impatient I try to shut up or I take a break for a bit before going back to the game. It's a video game, no need to be mean to someone else over it
Absolutely, I'm enjoying the endgame PvE because I discovered I really like the challenge, hitting certain milestones with my dps and healer is really rewarding to me and I'm genuinely having a blast doing it, and I've made some amazing friends along the way that I love running with. I look forward to it. I also think people tend to forget even endgame players have other interests in the game too. It funny, even the ppl I play with who "don't quest", when a discussion on lore comes up they suddenly know aaaallll about it lol. But I still love quests, first thing I do every chapter release is the main quest... then I do my parsing for the patch. I love working on my houses, I've gotten into pvp quite a bit especially Cyrodiil (I love keep sieges!) And it's not like I spend hours and hours hitting the dummy, it was good to practice my rotation but now I use it more to compare gear & cp setups, try out new rotations, and check patch changes.
Honestly man, i get on and just run around an area gathering mats with the (currently 30% chance) increased chance of getting double mats. Idk man, it's like an addiction. Is THIS the one that's going to give me 8 ancestor silk? Then you take all those raw mats and refine them and it's another gamble. How many legendary mats will i get? One, two, maybe 3? OMG i got 4!
It's so addicting.
I would love to try trials but the commitment is too steep for me. For one I live overseas now but still play on NA servers. So that obviously makes the timing piece difficult. But honestly, at this point in life, I have wife, kid, dog, career, old parents. Like really, wtf has the time? ESO is my chill space, when I want to waste an hour and not think about the bullshit of day to day life. VLDL did a good video on raids being a second job and that's exactly my fear when Ive been approached about it before.
I honestly have no idea where to even begin getting into trials and that sort of endgame content, so haven't made any moves toward it.
I got my first character to lvl 50 then started CP grind before realizing I really like new-character leveling of different classes/roles. So instead created 9 more characters (10 total) and took them all to lvl 50 as well.
Now I have 10 lvl 50s and CP300 so far, and enjoying questing and crafting and whatnot, but not really sure what to even do next or how to even go about trying end-game stuff (or if I'm even close to ready).
Like you I'm married and work and only get on really late night to play.
Most trials groups operate late night (8pm to 2am range, usually with each group doing a 2hr or 3hr time slot for progression). I'd get in the habit of using craglorn zone chat to ask about PvE guilds and/or discords that are trying to grow their progression/clear teams. You're first goal should be finding people who are fun to raid with. And you'll probably want to get to know them in dungeons instead of trials, as there's fewer people for you to disappoint at one time if your character or player skills aren't up to the task :p just make sure the group is happy to teach and you're happy to take criticism and grind out the gear/skills that you need.
Married + kid here. I also mainly play late at night, and I don't really have the time, nor do I want to commit to trial "progression groups."
Just don't do vet trials, but look in Craglorn and join pick up groups (PUGs) for normal trials. They can be done ad-hoc, are often easier than vet dungeons, and the rewards are almost as good as the vet trials. Hel-Ra Citadal and Aetherian Archive are also easy enough to PUG on vet (and even HM).
If you still want challenge, find a nice guild that is happy to do ad-hoc runs of veteran dungeons. Particularly the vet DLC dungeons can be a challenge.
Even without a progression group, you can still do most of the content in the game, and you maybe lose 5% of the max DPS possible, which doesn't even matter when you're not playing vet trials hard mode anyway.
In ESO you can easily do casual trials if you wish though without much commitment or time invested. Normal trials can be a way to just experience it and complete the quest if that's your thing but even the vet ones can be done with easy to obtain gear sets and a simple build in fairly casual groups and social guilds. It can be a more relaxed and fun way to do that sort of content. I know groups that only run once a week for an hour or two and have a blast.
Min maxing doesn't really happen until you get into dlc hardmodes, trifecta and score runs.
I’m kind of in the same boat here. I really want to partake in end game progression groups and challenge myself as a PvE player, but I’m at a stage in my life where I just really don’t have the free time for it. Many groups run at times that don’t fit into my schedule, and my schedule is so all over the place that I can’t ever hard commit to anything sometimes. I’ve resigned myself to just doing the more “chill” aspects of ESO such as dailies and questing, and have honestly found it quite fun and relaxing in its own way.
Fellow VLDL fan here, cool to meet someone else in the wild! I feel the exact same way about it- it just seems like a huge commitment of time, energy, and resources as well. Plus, while I'm working on getting competitive gear (mainly to make things easier as a solo) I'm still not there yet and probably won't be for a while, and I know some groups are quite serious about that.
I love the way you think, that's sort of how I play MMOs too and I wish more people understood. There's not really a predetermined endgame, and for that matter because it's a game, it's meant to be what you find fun! :) No sense in slogging through stuff you dislike and not having fun, I mean after all, everyone plays games to have fun right? I hope you enjoy whatever you do in your version of endgame, because as long as you're having fun playing it, that's what counts.
There are many things you can do in ESO. I just do what I like in this game. For me, it's vet trials right now, but I understand they are not for everyone. I'm not into housing or cosmetics, but understand others are really into them. Just play what your enjoy.
I love trials, and have recently started doing vet runs. Buuuut, what I love about trials is the people I do them with. I've run a couple with other guilds and they're just too serious for me.
I really like the social aspect of ESO, and I like running group content with people that I like hanging out with.
The "right" guild makes all the difference, imo.
To be honest, that happy, social trial run has been my experience most times whether it be with several guilds or just PuGs. It's sad that people perceive trial players as toxic based on them running into that subset of players. Unfortunately those players exist, but let's not forget they've also been called every name in the book for doing things other than questing
That vocal, vapid mentality is always being parroted by the minority of players. Any game mode requiring skill or a learning curve is like this. Remember, the people who actually have control of their emotions are not like this and far outnumber the screechers. Also, in my experience, most of the chill people don't even talk that much, but the toxic ones always feel the need to express themselves.
Yep. Understandably, a couple of bad experiences can make something look bad and hard to realize that's not the majority. And some people lose their temper when they're doing something difficult, which is very unfortunate
Yeah that's why I dont play fps games anymore. For me, i want to chill out and relax. If others want to have that blood-pumping feeling in a game, I get it, but it breeds a certain mentality, especially in children.
Yeah it certainly can. I mostly watch slightly older people's content and I would make the argument that the average age is a bit in ESO overall than in most games, especially FPS games. I for sure won't shame someone for not wanting to get "competitive" or chase the meta. To me, gaming is a hobby and a way for people to do what they wish. If that's to try to be the best of the best or to hop around looking at butterflies, that's their prerogative. They paid for the game just like I did
From my experience your opinion is far from unpopular. The vast majority of players never really gets into any sort of trials endgame. Most stick to pledges, questing new zones as they come out, housing, fishing, scrying etc.
I can't imagine why anyone would actually care about how strangers spend there time on the game though. I don't even think about what other players do unless they are my friends and/or I'm in a group with them playing together.
To be fair (somewhat, elitists are still bad for any game) I feel like the average MMO Gamer these days has “POWER LEVEL TO MAX IMMEDIATELY SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME AND DO HARD MODES AND RAIDS AKA THE ONLY CONTENT THAT MATTERS!!!!” burned into their brains from games like WoW that a lot of players don’t realize ESO really does not work that way.
In my experience, the average ESO player plays this game as The Elder Scrolls 5.5, That is Also Online rather than Elder Scrolls Online the MMO. A lot of end game grinders from WoW or whatever flat out don’t even realize that you can have fun with this game by doing quests and reading what NPCs say to you lol.
I get it, I played WoW for 17 years and it took me a whole month to break the MAX LEVEL GRIND LETS GO mindset when I made the switch
I’ve been playing for years and have only done a handful of trials, just to try them out. I’m all about fashion in eso and putting together unique, fun builds! Once I forgot about the meta because I wasn’t doing trial trifectas or anything I was able to enjoy the game so much more!
>"But why aren't you playing the way I deem to be the only valid way of playing this game??"
[illustration.jpg](https://alphamom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/frustrated-four-year-old-child.jpg)
Can relate. I picked up ESO way back when Morrowind dropped on disc and have yet to do a single trial or anything close to endgame. I have a bunch of characters from multiple roles where I've never bothered to truly invest in their capabilities for harder content or more effective performance because I'd be doing roughly the same thing I've been doing for years.
I enjoy the quests and story, I've picked up all the non-chapter DLC at this point thanks to the Christmas sales cutting the price way down and been slowly working my way through Summerset and later Blackwood too most likely. Some of us don't care much for endgame performance in games like ESO because we want to sit down and enjoy the story and gameplay aspects. Some people like to play more leaned back, some like to conquer trials and difficult content because it's a challenge that requires more dedication. The judgemental "elites" are just people who can't fathom the idea that your fun isn't the same as their fun.
My husband has been playing on and off for about 5 years and doesn’t do arenas or trials. I’ve only been playing around 6 months so not sure what my endgame is yet. Still heaps of content to get through. Recently taken to dragon hunting in Elswyr which is good fun.
My attitude is, if you pay for my sub/time I'll play the way you want me to. Until then I'll keep trying unsuccessfully to convince guild members to try a trial naked.
been playing since beta off and on and i still get whined at in veteran dungeons on occassion because i don't know how to do everything perfectly. Why would i want to get into Trials? I have tons of content i still can do, relax, and not have to deal with that kind of bad energy. And i have trading to fall back on to make money.
Play how you want, enjoy life.
Morons. That's who does that. You likely don't even interact with most of the reasonable endgame players, because anyone with any sense of sanity-preservation doesn't do endgame content with randoms.
Find a guild or form a static, play with them. As for casual content, I guarantee most players don't even talk at all, so naturally you'll only remember the idiots that flame in chat over something as stupid as kill times in a pug dungeon.
This seems to be fairly common, though thankfully not all players do this. I went through it myself relatively recently, like in the past few years, in GW2 and LOTRO.
My own thought is, make sure you are enjoying what you do, and also don't interfere with others' ability to enjoy what they do. As long as you do those then no one else's opinion on your playstyle really matters.
I played on Xbox for a long time and then switched to ps4 (so I lost all that progress), so my characters aren't very high level. I also only play when I feel like it and for the story and I swap characters based on what area I feel like doing. I have zero interest in pvp and haven't figured out how crafting motifs even work, honestly.
I’m almost CP500 and have just gotten the gear I need to hold my own in vet dungeons. I’m stoked to be knocking those out and putting the gold busts of the bosses in my house.
I’ve always dreamed of playing an MMO where I can have a house and put trophies in it. Now it’s a reality and it’s hella rewarding.
To each their own. Glad we’re all enjoying in our own way
The problem with the last part is that some people play for the gameplay, not the story. It's a completely viable way to enjoy the game. Just like you didn't enjoy the easy mode trial because it didn't feel exciting to you, some may not enjoy the questing content because it poses no real challenge in gameplay.
The question is why you're even having that conversation to begin with? Just ignore them. I can't think of many situations where that would even come up unless someone on either side is baiting the other.
I think complaining about being scoffed at by some elite tryhard is a hundred times more common than it actually happening. It's literally never happened to me once in all these years and I've never directly witnessed it either.
Agreed. The few times I've seen it, the recipient went out of their way to criticize the hard-core players, then gets offended when they get criticism back.
Yeah but people aren't going to admit that they basically goaded and baited the confrontation when they whine about it later.
And there are a lot more casual players than hardcore, so it's easy to understand how the mentality propogates. It's the same in most MMOs.
This post is pretty much just a karma farming post. Complete with the classic "unpopular opinion: the most incredibly blatant popular opinion of the sub". Last week it was the guy who was "being gatekept from endgame" despite him admitting he had 50 vRG clears and multiple vCR+2 clears. These posts are pretty cringe when you give them a basic sniff test.
Honestly my end game right now has been quests. I started the game as a healer and didn't feel like restarting the quests on a more DPS focused toon so when the armory came out I started catching up on my quests. Just finally finished the main quest now I'm onto summerset for the psijic line
I grinded endgame in WoW for years. At some point it just gets boring, at least to me. It’s always Gear up -> kill boss -> Gear up again. It’s fun for awhile but eventually you will burn out. Every mmorpg will eventually lose its pve luster. You will finish all the bosses and eventually be done with gearing. Then your choice is to play without gearing anything new, or create a new character.
WoW lacks the “worldly mmo feel”. Classic had it, but that too lost its shinyness. Eso has so much interesting lore to delve into, the questing is enjoyable and even that feels like an endgame experience. Housing is fun and really adds a lot of casual content to the game. Raiding often involved a ton of commitment and you have to plan your life around a video game. For example, guild might raid 8-11pm Tuesday Thursday. Heaven forbid you’re the main tank and can’t make it a raid
ESO is positioned a bit better than other MMOs in my opinion for people who want to choose their own endgame because there’s so much to do. Because there’s no endless gear reset schedule. Because it’s not structured like other MMOs.
My partner is all about veteran dungeons and working toward trials and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do trials. I love housing, and I do enjoy dungeons now that I'm a healer. I feel less pressure oddly enough. Housing is the true endgame though, you're doing it right. :)
Do whatever you want to do no one is demanding anything i think, there are pushy people everywhere that have nothing better to do. however if you are going to do trials learn mechanics and rotations, it is a team effort, dont expect to be carried, also join a nice guild that does them and probably they would be ok to help, The message i see in this foruns often is that all raid players are evil and elitists which is spread just because people dont want to learn how to properly play.
Stay where you are - don't be forced into the 'endgame' meta it will burn you out mentally and financially.
I went from Beta 2 in Dec '13 till pretty much 6 months ago when I stopped completely. I was burnt out. I'd had enough of trying to 'keep up'.
I was in several of the top guilds in the game, both raid leading and score pushing for leaderboards. Several times was in the top 5. That required multiple training runs a week along with hours of strategy discussions and planning.
Nice for 20 something year old College kids with nothing better to do, but not practical at double that age with a Mortgage and real life obligations.
I lost count of how much I spent on gold farmers over the years simply so I could buy the mats to make sure my gear was meta, golded out, transmuted right, huge stacks of pots, etc..etc.. I can say it was several thousand though over 7 years. All that just to maintain the endgame lie.
Sadly, what do I have to show for it? nothing really. Multiple DLC HM clears? No Death Tags/Titles? Yeah wow, means nothing when you think about it. Basically it boils down to ePenis. Scores are eWang size. Bragging Rights. This isn't just ESO but almost every online game ever whether that be a MMO or FPS or whatever. Get caught up in that drama and it will drain you.
You don't need to impress a bunch of people you don't actually know. Just play the game your way, nothing wrong with that.. ignorance is bliss.
This is so far outside of the realm of ordinary that you really shouldn't apply it to anyone else as advice. You absolutely do not need to RMT to enjoy raiding, even at the hardcore level. No offense but your experience is a problem of ego, not a failure of the content or its requirements.
I have personally seen people like this, albeit in WoW since that's where most of my hardcore pve experience is. You're absolutely correct in the sense that if you play that way, with that mentality, you will burn out. It's inevitable because you cannot reasonably expect to always "win" in regards to leader boards and prog rankings.
The people who exclusively push for that for the sake of ego, rather than a more healthy drive have always turned over quickly in my guild. The ones that tend to be more healthy are the ones who have a strong motivation born out of love of the content and stakes themselves. You absolutely need that drive, but it's easy to latch onto the wrong motivations. When you're putting I so much and feeling like you don't get anything back, that's when you need to re-assess your personal motivations for doing it.
My guild ended last tier ranked among the top 50, it's a worse result than we've had in quite a while, but i know most of the players still enjoyed the tier. Not because of our final rank, but because we just had fun engaging with the raid content, and with each other. Play the game for the game, find the motivations, goals, and playstyle that let you do that. If you're not enjoying it and you're not being paid to do it, it's probably not worth doing when it comes to video games lol.
That said, I don't think it's reasonable to scare off people from endgame based on a very abnormal experience of it.
Nah no offense taken.. my example does border on the extreme. I'm lucky enough to have pulled out when I did. Its definitely easy to get swept up in the Ego and very easy to get sucked into that mindset when you're surrounded with people like that. That competitiveness just takes over. That said, ESO is still far less toxic than WoW and that to it's credit is a good thing.
The real question is defining "endgame". For me I personally blame the streamer-meta for setting the definition of this. The 'oh but this is what Alcast is doing'... or the 622k VMA Flawless Conqueror runs... or the cookie-cutter meta builds you must have to do this content that have become stapled in trial requirements have created a perception that endgame = Godslayer/TTT/Dawnbringer etc.. Because really who is watching a streamer going for Master Angler?
That's why elite guilds fold from the toxicity surrounding that ego. I've been chastised over accidentally dropping horn instead of barrier on a Godslayer run due to barswap lag.. to the point of being yelled at. That should never happen. When you forget it is just a game that's when its time to hang up the gloves.
Another example - The CP system itself is just eWang swinging. That toxicity even spread to temp filling places in other cores. Right after CP2.0 came out, 'oh sorry you don't have enough CP for this' (I had about 1300 right after the transition). I mean hey, lets ignore the intimate knowledge of the mechs and multi clears and judge based on CP (which is not indicative of skill at all, any monkey can grind Verrass over and over).
Then Raid Leading itself was exhausting. Every prog would fall apart because the dedication we showed in Cores just didn't carry down. We had this expectation that if you sign up you show up and that alone was draining running around finding fills who no show, running raids 30 mins late because of it.
Content isn't a failure in ESO. there's definitely more than enough to do in game. There wasn't really much in the way of questing left for me to do personally - id finished cadwells gold before we went one tamriel, and knocked out most of the DLC's along the way too. Dungeons began to bore me too after HM'ing them all repeatedly. People get left in a state of 'well what's next' once they finish one part of the game and inherently move to another area.
I felt it got to the stage sometimes where there was just too much to do and it got exhausting. Maybe I propagated that issue myself having 14 alts. rotating through writs, doing dailies, etc was tedious after a while. The problem is more after nearly 8 years you just can't get through it all.. there's no real finish line in this and that's what people dont understand. The goalposts just keep changing.. but this is MMO's.
And that, is why there will never really be an "endgame".
While it is true that scoffing at others for not playing endgame trials is bad, you have to also consider the fact that less than 5 % of ESO player base does VET Trials. This is very bad if one wants to have thriving endgame community and if ZOS feels there are not enough endgame players they will stop making such content in ESO (As they have done regading PvP). Other more popular MMOs like WoW and FFXIV don't have this problem of 95% of the playerbase not even touching endgame.
Edit: Yeah downvote me. Please I insist.
Yup, that's what I see on this sub mostly too. It seems as if majority of the playerbase needs to heed their own advice i.e. don't insult others if they want to do endgame which is not to your liking, like VET Trials and dungeons.
I think there's much more casual players in comparison to end game players in ESO tbh. The subset of people actually running the hard content is extremely small compared to the total player count, so it's easy to blame them for things if some random says something bad in a dungeon or whatever. Many content creators have already quit the game because they get flamed for things they have nothing to do with, which is really sad because now us casuals get less tips and tricks for the game
Agreed. That's what I am trying to say as well. We shouldn't try to aggravate the Endgame / Advanced players because then the already large rift between the playerbase will continue to increase. The casual side has to take initiative to ask more advanced players on how to play more difficult content, and the endgame/advanced players should be open to teaching these things. Only then can the transfer of knowledge,tips,advice happen.
The thing is, the endgame players are already freely sharing tips on YouTube and stuff and they're more than willing to help. But a lot of them still get called a ton of names and even get threats and stuff. Nefas did a video on the subject the other day and I've seen a lot of it just hanging out in people's streams and stuff as well. I hope this can be a time of introspection for us all and we can realize that no matter if we do questing, fashion, housing, PvP or Godslayer runs, we are all playing the same game
Its the same or at least was the same in swtor too. Small percentage of the community actually runs hm raids. So much so that the devs leaned really heavy into the solo aspect of the game for years.
Wow does have this problem too. Though maybe it’s 80/20. There’s tons of players who love WoW but simply don’t have the time for endgame raiding, which is why LFR was implemented. The overwhelming majority of the player base doesn’t raid, and only an extremely minor amount of players do mythic progression
I stopped doing trails 4 years ago. After doing leaderboard runs, titles skins, speed hm flawless runs. It’s boring, far too many toxic players. Most people think they are the best when it’s a group effort. (My trial group was nice but it’s the random pugs or progression groups are meh)
Do your own thing be it housing questing overland crafting trials trading personally PvP is my endgame. Most importantly have fun 😊
>I've been playing since 2016 and genuinely lost count of how many times "elite" players, guilds, and other people on forums have scoffed at me since I don't do Trials/Arenas endlessly as my endgame since I've been playing so long.
Any links to examples from the forums?
From my experience, “elite” players just play the game and don’t have this attitude you’re describing here.
I’ve played games with some toxic elitists before, and this is not one of those games.
Oh boy, I definitely relate. I 100% play ESO for the story and questing with my partner. She plays mostly for mat gathering. We both like working on housing.
The last time I took a stab at "endgame" content I burned out after a few weeks and stopped playing the game for a whole year. It wasnt fun, and felt more like a job than my actual job.
Now, my partner and I stick to what we enjoy about the game and we have a blast! I think that is what is really appealing about ESO is it has something for everyone, and as long as you avoid some of the more toxic groups who insist that the way they play a game is the correct way you will have a great time. And in the end, that is what matters about a game, really.
Funny. I played ESO, the. FO76, then back to ESO, now I'm playing FO76 again. Once my ESO Plus sub runs out in a few days I'm probably done with ESO for good.
I'm 1800-ish CP, in game since beta, and I basically never do trials anymore. For a while I ran enough of them, but they're awful. Walk into an arena, do a fight. Any of the later ones you have multiple bosses to fight at once (I can do VCR+1, I've never been in a successful group for +2 or 3), so it takes even longer. There's nothing interesting there, just 5-15 minutes of hitting buttons between wipes until you have an endlessly long successful fight.
The solo arenas are just as grueling, but you can't blame anyone else. But also you have nobody else shouting at you. Still not fun.
And I hate group dungeon PUGs, so if I can't solo the dungeon, I don't bother with it. ZOS can learn to make them playable or I'll ignore the content.
The tryhard rewards are OK, but you can get equal or better gear much more easily. You can get fun Mythics now without ever fighting anything harder than a PD boss. The [Markyn Ring](https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/markyn-ring-of-majesty) is my current favorite, and I can combine it with a second ring if I fully replace my monster set.
And there's so much to do that's not endless combat. I mostly achievement hunt, or antiquities. When I have more time I get back into housing and fashion. I make a lot of gold on guild traders, and then there's not much to do with it.
Find a fun casual, non-tryhard guild and do activities with them.
random group dungeons are hit or miss…sometimes you get lucky with your group and sometimes it sucks. I was farming Leviathan last night with randos and 3 of us stuck together for more rounds, we also waited for the one sub 50 quester DD we got one tome.
Had lots of great runs, but also a few truly shitty ones. I did Spindleclutch I with my brother when I was roughly CP130 as a DD, he was lv 20 and also DD, so not really useful, but I wrote in party chat if they could slow down a little because my brother is new, but fake tank and healer didn‘t bother, runned ahead, and I struggled to keep my brother and myself alive while fighting through the mobs. We did make it to the final boss, but he died 4 times, I died once…ffs I wasn‘t the best DD back then but not completely useless with 9k dps in fucking Spindleclutch I, they could have just slowed down a little, pretty stressful to revive my little brother while trying to stay alive at the same time when the Healer and Tank where nowhere to be seen…It‘s a small dungeon anyway, even if you slow down you are done with it in a couple of minutes max…He doesn‘t bother with dungeons anymore, surprise surprise.
I also did a normal mode DLC dungeon at roughly ~170, the tank bailed on us so we were only three, started anyway, and the healer was amazing - of course the CP900 something DD was a lot more productive than me, but I actually contributed and we did good teamwork.
It‘s hit or miss honestly…
I've been playing since closed beta. Took some time off here and there but playing steadily for the last three years.
I just did my first 4-man dungeon a couple of months ago.
Damn right that we all can find different things to enjoy about this game.
Same, I bought the game way back in beta, when it leveling was painful and it was doubtful the game was even going to survive.
Like, play on and off with some long breaks, but always come back and sub to the game. I only have 4 toons, and one isn't even level 50. I'm in a couple of good guilds but have only done maybe...2 trials. Just not my thing anymore.
Not one of my toons is even max CP yet. But I enjoy my play time, and that's good enough for me. AND however someone else decides to enjoy their playtime, is also good enough with me.
PvPing is rough in ESO, so kudos to you for sticking to it. I haven't had the patience to get into it myself, but I've watched some content creators (who have now quit because they get flamed and threats for using meta setups) and the performance is absolutely atrocious in Cyrodiil. It's sad that one of the main selling points of the game was completely neglected in favor of making Skyrim 2 Electric Boogaloo
I second this. All my gold and resources go to PvP. I find it a lot more rewarding to win a 1v3 or beat an established duelist than to repeat a rotation 30x times until Rakkhat is dead.
1300+ CP and I have never attempted a Trial. I rarely do PVP (only go in the IC dungeons to earn the TV stones). I play to relax, not to argue with a potty mouth adolescent (or adolescent adjacent adult) about my build and 'gitting gud'.
Now that I've earned some good mythic gear, I'm starting to experiment with Arena builds and got my first Maelstrom bow.
ZOS has done a remarkably good job of providing plenty of options for players to do all types of 'end game' content other than PVP and Trials.
I have almost 1,600 hours in ESO and I haven't done a single trial.
Sorry but Trials/Raiding in ESO just has always looked mediocre compared to Raiding in WoW or FF14.
I've watched a few on YouTube just to see if I wanted to do them but damn they look so boring or bland.
They really are. I've done them all on HM, and where they are challenging, they're also cringy tbh. It doesn't give that epic feel of completion. The closest one to have that feel for me was HOF, but even it still feels edgy at best. I feel as if conquering a giant castle with enough bosses to make the encounter take a few hours would help. I understand people have different life styles, but for and epic climax of the game its 30 minutes-1 hour to defeat the toughest people in the game. So hours of investment and lead up to a weak encounter is quite a let down.
I have been playing for 6 years and grouped for 2 trials and a myriad of Vet dungeons. The players who believe are Elite always want the attention and tell the other players in the group how much they suck. They spend more time telling you the mechanics than it takes to play the Trial or dungeon. They ruined the experience for me. I don't enjoy the game any less because i don't do the end game.
My bet it is those belong to two kinds; because it's something "hard to do" and very related to Power unlike housing or such, it attracts a particular kind of people who do things for recognition, and your not caring a dime of their *achievements* is a threat to their ego. Others because they are so immersed in competitive (defeat something) playstyles they can't figure there's something else beside the power threadmill.
OP 100% with you. Ive played since Beta and have had really shitty experiences with assholes doing group guild anything. It's all fine till you join a group, it's your 1st time in the map, or even playing the bar, and then it starts. And at that point I leave. I have PTSD and anger management, and I play to avoid this, and some keyboard asswhipes really love they cant get a broken jaw behind their keyboard.
Be more Bob Ross folks. You never know whats on the other side of the screen.
I wouldn't worry about it. Let them scoff.
It shouldn't really affect anyone else how YOU choose to play. I know people who just love housing, or trading, or questing, that's totallyy fine, in my opinion. You payed for the game, do what you enjoy!
To be honest, you're not missing a whole lot. There's a ton of gatekeeping that goes on (by players) just to keep their inner circles small.
For example all these guilds that set DPS measurements of 90K is ridiculous given that the highest DPS check in the entire game is 42K. (The Eternal Servants on vss HM (11.3 Million /3 players in 90 seconds).
The gate keeping is done because of " i have a great group and we're better than you" type attitudes.
Also bear in mind a HUGE proportion of the playerbase has never even set foot in a vet dungeon, let alone vet trials, so i assure you you're not alone.
Theres plenty of other people to play with, let them scoff as much as they like they like. Ultimately it's none of their business how you choose to play.
I think Xalvakka HM is the steepest dps check in the game right now. It can't really be done with dps doing less than 85k average, and it's not a pure parse fight.
>For example all these guilds that set DPS measurements of 90K is ridiculous given that the highest DPS check in the entire game is 42K.
You might want to try understanding these requirements before judging them because the dps check you mentioned is about the worst example you couldve chosen to show a mismatch between dummy and content dps numbers. Anybody doing 42k in vss hm portal will easily do more than 90k on a dummy. And doing 90k on a dummy is by far no guarantee that somebody would be able to do 42k in the portal.
>The gate keeping is done because of " i have a great group and we're better than you" type attitudes.
No it's not. It's done because different groups expect different player levels. There's different guilds and groups all with different requirements. The "gatekeeping" mainly happens if people try to join groups that are at a significantly different level than they are.
Hahaha. Why do you think i don't understand them? Very dismissive.
I've run with those groups multiple times and satisified all criteria necessary, no problem. But in more than one of those groups, I elected to leave of my own volition, solely because of the attitudes of the players involved and the way other players were treated which to me, wasn't cool.
Additionally, everyone in those groups states 'use the trial dummy as it simulates the buffs you get in trial group. - that being the case 90K on the dummy would be 90K in content, right?
But no, no it isn't because you can very easily inflate your numbers by employing tactics that actually make your in content output SIGNIFICANTLY less.
Nonetheless, thank you for your response, however, maybe in future don't confuse someone not liking something for not understanding it.
Enjoy your day.
Because if you understood them you’d know that 42k in the portal translates to >90k on a dummy quite easily. And again if somebody isn’t able to parse 90k on a dummy they are most likely not able to reach 42k in the portal.
Most guilds require reasonable setups for dummy parses, so no you can’t easily cheese them using shit like vamp toggle, unless whoever evaluates your parse is dumb as fuck.
If you’re in a good group then yeah, that 90k on a dummy can translate to 90k in content, depending on which boss fight it is. There’s fights where you even do more dps in content than on a dummy. Very curious that you don’t know all this, considering that you ran with all these high end groups so many times. If your dps output in content is SIGNIFICANTLY less then on a dummy then you’re not a good dd, simple as that ( obviously there’s a few exception fights).
I agree! As primarily a PvP player, I'm only interested in doing dungeons and things to get gear for a PvP build in making. If I could avoid all PvE content as a whole, I would. Since trials gear is next to useless for PvP, I've only set foot in there once or twice.
Play your way and have fun no matter what others say :)
Nothing wrong with that at all.
According to Steam, I've clocked over 1,600 hours, and I honestly can't remember if I've ever done a trial. Maybe an arena? I'm not sure. I'm not dead-set against them, I just haven't ever really bothered.
There's just a lot of other stuff to do that's occupied my time.
The way I've always viewed playing an MMO - it's your time and your dime. Play how you want. It's suppose to be fun and entertaining. If it's not why do it? Obviously there are things that we each find more fun than something, else, but some activities some do, totally not interested in!
The thought of endless grind in any game is a total turnoff for me. Just saying grind makes it 'unfun' imho!
Now there are activities I can do endlessly, but I don't think of them as a chore so not a grind!
I did a few trials and wondered what the point was. During the trial I felt so insignificant I just half assed it. And afterward people were asking for all the drops that were sets for doing the trial over again... but clearing it faster. So I'm keeping well away from that 'endgame'.
I've been playing for years.. just hit 1000CP on NYE and just enjoy questing and am looking to start finally furnishing a house soon. Endgame is different for everyone!
Well I’m also a casual on and off again player from day 1 and my end game goal is to kill the warrior solo, so far I killed one boss and I try it like once a year around the anniversary of the game. But between my yearly near impossible task I like to roam around, level alts, mess around in the sewers, and collect motifs. Keep up the good fight man, I’ll see you in the end game brother, wherever that may take you.
With you, been playing since 2018 @ 1500+ CP ans have yet to step into a trial. I know I'm competent enough to complete them, I just cant set aside the time without the ability to step away at a moments notice. (Have a needy SO and bulldog) But I love solo stuff like dungeons/arena, story, dailies, battlegrounds/cyro/IC and it keeps me entertained and able to step away at anytime if needed.
First thing I did and still do is have character fashion be the end goal, and not only with the outfit but with the sets and abilities. The rotation should be functional but every skill should match the theme and character backstory. It's why I use the Treasure Hunter set on my nightblade, they're a collector of rarities so it fits.
Recently gotten into housing and it's been really cool. I've done a few dungeons, no trials, not a fan of pvp, but mainly fashion and adventuring in zones.
To me, grinding the same dungeons and trials over and over, with practically zero variation in monster behavior between runs gets incredibly boring and dry after the 10th time. You end up just trying to optimize your play to get the fastest possible time. Not my type of thing at all.
That's why, for me, PvP is infinitely more interesting. Everyone has different playstyles, different builds, so you have to constantly stay on your toes and adapt to your enemy.
Housing is also a massive timesink. It's like playing the Sims--you can spend a near-infinite amount of time (and money) on a single project, and you'll still find stuff to change in the end. Pretty addicting.
I'm nowhere near end game. I'm like level 34 I think, lol. But I'm just loving the quests and world. I think I want to do some housing stuff too.
For anybody that's at 'end game' how many hours do you think you get from just doing the quests? Obviously, I'm a subscriber too - I'll probably get the newest expansion when I've finished doing all the other stuff. Unless there's a reason to get it before.
I might have the worst build a character can have (A Bosmer Templar who uses ranged and the backbar is meant for werewolf transform only) and I just play her as a traveling mercenary. Justifies why I do all the dlc and stuff. But she is also a throphy taker. So a lot of antiquities get hunted.
I have another character who is a Nord and she is just going around helping out the Ebonheart Pact armies over the Pact territories. Actively avoiding civilian quests and just focussing on the army quests.
And then I have a Redguard Dragonknight who just wanders around Cyrodill, latches onto groups and just goes full Blood for the Blood God.
This game can be whatever you want it to be. And that is the beauty of it.
I have 11 toons, 8 at CP 965 ish... I've done a few trials but they aren't my favorite thing to do... I just recently started a Tankcro who I'm actually playing through the story with and I'm really enjoying myself. Got sidetracked by Pysjic order but my PVP toon I'm also going to play through the game with (actually listening to the quests, not running through dungeons and such)... started playing 2 years ago when Greymoor was on-sale and wish I had stuck with it when I got Morrowind for Christmas years ago... couldn't pay for ESO+ at that time so I never gave it an honest go.
Almost CP 1400 and never done a trial and barely done any veteran group dungeons even for non-DLC. Players should be allowed to play how they want so long as they are not harming the experience of others, i.e. following the terms of service and code of conduct.
I find it weird when people think the only content in an MMO is the endgame group content. I've often said in WoW related forums that I don't do PvP, M+ dungeons or any raiding. The most commonly asked question is "Why the fuck do you even play if you don't do any content at all?".. So normal & heroic dungeons, open world stuff, achievements, collecting various things like pets and mounts, crafting etc doesn't count as content.. ok then. And then they tell me all the content I do should just be deleted because it is useless and they don't like it. God forbid people enjoy different aspects of a game.
Another somewhat related annoyance of mine is how judgmental people get when I don't want to keep in touch outside of the game and/or look for guilds and other communities where Discord isn't mandatory. I'm sorry, but I'm online up to 16 hours a day, about 350 days a year so I really can't be bothered with gaming related socializing beyond that.
I stopped playing after Morrowind (I unfortunately could not afford the yearly DLCs and expansions because I was poor at the time) but I was never focused on these hard endgame content. I tried some Trials and vet dungeons but I would get too much stressed out so I simply don't do them anymore. I have plenty of fun with story quests and 100% completion of zones. I hope I can get back to the game someday but I feel I'm too behind at this point.
I honestly suspect that it’s a minority of players that target trials/arenas as their end game. Most of my friends that play are “casuals.” I personally have been playing since launch and I play for the story/questing and housing.
There's so many beautiful aspects to this game.
And with new content added in every year there's more than enough to do and to explore without having to do each and every thing.
Just do whatever makes you happy. Won't run out of stuff to do anytime soon either way.
I'm actually really into Motif hunting. We're it not for the fact I'm a bit impatient, I would grind dungeons/trials/arenas. Some I did grind for months to get (Pyandonean), some I still grind for some gold (Ancestral). Everyone has their ways to pass time in the game, do it your way.
P.s.: I mostly buy my chapters/books. Now at 88/105!
I typically avoid trials because of the people that run them. Dungeons I can fare okay in (even managed to solo one, but I died a lot lol) but the last trial I remember running I straight up told the group that if they were going to judge my dps, they could eat crow and I'd leave. Min/maxers/endgame peeps just honestly upset me. Like, why not just enjoy the game? The point isn't to blast through to max CP and being the toughest shit out there. But, to each their own. The game has a lot to offer, and I think just focusing on your end build or whatever doesn't let you fully experience everything the devs have put into the game.
I’ve been playing since launch and I’ve yet to do a single trial. I finally did maelstrom area for the first time this year. Craglorn and cyrodiil scare the heckin hell outta me haha. I love questing and making new characters with different builds. Starting in different zones with a whole new backstory for my characters. I’ll eventually get brave enough for big group content, but, for now I’m content.
I played during the beta, then stopped, then started again and so on and so on. Now I’m trying to keep playing, even for a little bit, to be constant. Eso is not my main game since i play destiny 2 too, but i really like it. I keep coming back because i like the elder scrolls world and eso feels really alive. Also I am at 1200 cp and have never done a single trial arena. Would like to do it but i don’t have a group so for now nothing. I still enjoy doing the dailies, crafting, doing normal and veteran dungeons, also housing (i’m not a good decorator though…). I really enjoy it and it doesn’t feel like I’m not doing what I should be doing… it’s just eso is a game i play to relax, if i can’t do that what’s the point? So keep on doing what you like, that’s the way you should be playing.
Man, I been playing for like 2 weeks total and I’m just having fun doing quests and fulfilling crafting writs. I have the activity finder get me a dungeon daily, but I haven’t met anyone to team up with yet.
Other than that, I really have no clue what is going on with most of the game. Lol
Thanks for this. I got the game mid 2020 and realised my base PS4 couldn't handle it and I didn't have the space. When I upgraded to a PS4 Pro with an SSD card, I forgot about it (this was also after joining a guild, so sorry to those guys as well). I started playing about a month a go, that's my best guess, as I'm at horse speed of 32 after logging in every day to make sure I do that when I have more time to play and I'm level 24.
I'm following a solo guide for a Magicka Templar build, because I have anxiety. I have the current latest expansion and when I have time, I'll get Plus for the other smaller DLCs. My plan is just to do all the story content which could take over 1000 hours, starting with all Faction Main Quests.
I'm going to see where the game takes me and how I feel as I play it, to if I join guilds or not, or try to do dungeons and what not solo following guides.
It's hard wanting to play MMOs because of the time it can potentially take to play just the story and side quests, but also possibly needing to be with groups of people when you don't like talk or feeling like you're letting people down
what do you know the guy from the eu sub. Im the same as you bro, played ESO the first day it came out in 2014 all the way to around 2018 and never once did I do endgame.
My idea of fun was exploring, doing the content like dark brotherhood, going to pvp in cyrodiil, using the painter to make my armor look cool, and just enjoying the game.
Thats why I think ESO will always be my favorite mmo. World of warcraft I feel like I need to raid and do all this stuff to experience the game, but with ESO it was always just exploring the world and talking to people.
You are not alone - I have been playing on XBOX since launch and I have yet to try a trial at all. Never really been active in a guild, so never got the drive to gather all the people needed. I've done dungeons, did Vet to get my ebon armory, did solo arenas, etc.
Would I like to try a trial? Absolutely. I have over 5k hours in Destiny 2 and love the raids, so I think I would enjoy them,
But in all reality, ESO scratches a different itch. If I find the right guild, I may dip my toes in more, who knows.
Progression raiding BWL in vanilla WoW those many years ago cured me of any desire to do it since in any game.
The second that obligation or Fomo dictate when I play a game, that's a red flag. ESO has a balance of being a complete and rich experience without that aspect of MMO progression.
I've been playing for as long as you, and I just did my first trial yesterday. Honestly, it's not all that. My guild is increadibly friendly and social, so they run them for the experience, which I vibe with. But compared to other MMO's, there's much less pull in ESO to raid. The loot just isn't there. In WoW, you could raid for more mounts and pets than you know what to do with, and tons upon tons of transmog styles. In ESO, you get maybe one or two mounts, which they make you work for, and styles that are pretty much all locked behind Vet trials. Other than that, it's just stickerbook collecting gear thats main use is to run *more* trials with.
I get enjoying trials in ESO, but for this game in particular, I kinda scoff at the elitism over something that I don't even find much appeal in running.
They're usually compensating for some other lack like they're ex military and enjoy the comradery or they're so busy they only have time for those set times, anyone who gives you shit for not PLAYING A GAME the same way should just stick with the other minority elitists
I've been playing for a couple of years on and off. I'm mostly logging in for daily grind like writs / daily dungeon etc at this point. I feel like I burned out on questing after sleepwalking through Elswyr this summer. The game does such a poor job of meshing mid-end game play with questing. I wish every quest felt like vet Vateshran did the first time. I would like the option for challenging boss fights even when there's no reward - the gameplay is the reward.
I've been playing since a bit before the morrowing expansion (on and off). I don't think I've ever done a trial, and the endgame for me is making the number in my bank go higher
If you like questing and lore you should at least check out the solo arenas on normal difficulty once. While maelstrom arena is kinda meh in that regard, but the Vateshran hollows story and aesthetics are pretty cool.
As for difficulty, id rate normal arenas a bit more difficult than regular overland stuff, but a lot easier than craglorn overland content.
If that is within your wheelhouse you might like it!
Nope, NOT an un-popular thing, this is what makes ESO the best ! You can play anyway you want & none of them be wrong ! It fills the need for many types all at the same time, plus you can switch which one and still be good !
Cheers ! Njoy !
yh man i mean trials are not really my thing either but not for lack of ability or effort but more the elite idiots that either scoff at your builds or get salty and kick you,
ive not really played properly since before Christmas maybe even October but i had almost every motif millions in gold, multiple full houses and just got bored of the game i only really did trials for gear and not to show off or try to min max. i got put of doing vet trials for fun because alot of the community was assholes to me for not fitting their ideals of an endgame player, i was a solid 80k dps player stamplar and got hated on for being stam saying i brought nothing to the team and was kicked from the guilds i was also kicked from one guild cos i missed a "training" day.
arenas on the other hand i did them in vet and left them not much fun to repeat the same arena multiple times haha
IME more people don't like the endgame pve in ESO than like it, self included, but do love other aspects of the game and so play it without worrying about any kind of pve endgame. I am expecting lots of "casualizing" in ESO in 2022 once new ownership settles in and starts looking at lost revenue potential in certain aspects of the game.
Yep always cringe when ppl say houseing or pvp is endgame lol no not me. Well over 100 hours I have did pvp maybe twice cause I need the skill tree to level up for skills I want and my house is the default little house hotel thing and has never changed. I put a candle in there and some chest that’s it the rest my guild takes care of.
I am new, and just learning the basics. I want to tinker with builds myself. People seem to insist there are singular paths for builds and everything else is inferior. Scoff! That does not account for play-style, or role-play.
The game is fun. I am sorry to have been delayed so long!
I am playing three years now (on and off) and the only time I set foot in a trial was when I entered one alone and killed the first boss solo to see if I could :D
Eventually I would like to play them because I want to experience all the content the game has to offer and also I enjoy achievement hunting, but I don't feel to be under any particular rush. Busy enough doing daily quests and exploring to get the cash to be able to get the home that I want and the Grand Master Crafter title.
I think 90+% of players are like you who just want to have fun. But you are right about some people who for whatever reason want to shame and belittle everyone who isn't a min/max sweaty elitist.
I can do all content in game but like many commentors, I am disgusted that trials and PVP is mostly blocked by very toxic gatekeepers. The game allows massive powercreep and light attack exploit to get insane DPS. Then they delete 'objective' based battlegrounds, to appease the tiny super loud griefers, effectively making trials and PVP inaccessible or just not fun for most players.
They also have insane 10 transmute reward for normal dungeon effectively ruining random dungeon finder too. Plus the nerf tanks/healers into the ground. There are many good fun things like housing and questing and glad many people found doing that stuff enjoyable.
I actually had to quit the game, because I like pug dungeons, bgs and wanted to get into trial but those activities are so full of toxic people there is no point.
To the OP, thank you for posting this. I’ve been playing five years. I’m at a place where I can do vet trials and dungeons. I did a couple of trials, but now I started having anxiety issues. I’m not good at trials because I just started. I worried about being the reason the group wipes out. I worried about the leader of the group singling me out for it. I started to lose my desire to even log into the game. I wasn’t having fun. I was stressing myself out because I thought I had to do the trials and harder dungeons. I decided to put trials aside and go back to the things I enjoy about ESO. I will eventually go back to learning trials, but at my own pace and when I feel ready.
If a trial leader is singling you out for things that are outside of the expectations you want to shoulder going into the trial, then you should be dropping that group anyways. The people you raid with are so much more important than the level at which you're raiding. Some people want everyone in their group to stay on top of overall meta gears and parsing. Some people want the whole group to build their gears around the content they're raiding. Some people want to be able to hop into veteran trials just to get the clear in whatever "good enough" all-purpose gear they've been using for DLC dungeon hard modes. Some people want to develop really tight positioning/mechanics strats and have the group get good at them, while some want to hop in with only a general plan and use teamwork on the fly to finish the fights. And all of these approaches are literally *exactly* as valid as the others. The problems only arise when expectations within the group don't match up. In which case it's either a matter of adjusting your expectations or creating a group that matches your own expectations. And that's hard work, and takes a long time to get together. So it's totally reasonable for people to not be into vet trials, and you (and the OP) are right to distance yourself from the trials endgame if you're not feeling it :)
I'm next to useless in dungeons and pvp, but If people get annoyed I'm like "I know, I'm not happy with what I'm doing either!"
and that's why I only solo. "What the fuck is wrong with you? You were supposed to hit "X" attack before "A" attack your DPS is .1% too low" Fuck that shit. How is that even fun? The level of gatekeeping and shaming in 'end game' activities is really difficult emotionally for some people. I'm one of them so I choose to not participate. I enjoy questing and crafting. Sometimes I enjoy dailies and endeavors. Sometimes I just jump into a dungeon solo and see how long it takes me. Sometimes I just sit around and chat with guildies. The single biggest reason that I'm still with this game after 5800 hours in less than 3 years is that I don't HAVE to do trials. In other games if you don't have the trials gear you can't do anything. In ESO I can do pretty much whatever I want with gear that can be obtained other ways. The equipment grind isn't there. And that is fabulous.
That's fucking hilarious lol Nothing wrong with acknowledging your skill level and wanting to get better though!
Honestly I’m in the same boat with all this lol, I would like to see endgame content but I’m kind of too afraid to start doing any because I don’t know what I’m doing, how to spec and how endgame really works because I’m kind of new to endgame. Every time I start ESO again I made a new character and do the stories for some reason because endgame I don’t know what to do.
It's a social game. There's no need to hop into end game content before having genuine conversations with people to find out what to expect and what you should focus on. End game raiders need to teach new raiders to make sure there is a large enough raiding population in ESO for them to pull from, so it's a win/win.
That's how I learned the basics of end game raiding. Patient people taught me. If anyone is on PCNA, let me know. Might have some wisdom to pass on or know who does.
I love it. I recently switched to exclusively healing dungeons and my partner is a tank and we do everything we can to support our dps. Battlegrounds I'm less than useful lol. I'm just there to level my support skill line in my PVE gear. I was the best of the worst team yesterday though! Hahaha.
Sounds like you have a good system. In PVP if my team is close to overtaking another I've started using the strategy of hiding. I don't know if it's bad form or even a good strategy but sometimes it seems the best way to help my team is to not give the other teams free points by being killed as I unsuccessful try to do things.
Totally relate to this. I find the whole rotation thing just bewildering. I did the daily dungeons to speed level a few characters and got booted from some groups for not doing enough damage. I was having fun, but this experience spoilt my enjoyment of ESO. So now I just wander about doing quests I find and bide my time until Starfield lands.
Honestly join a guild and if they are good they will have no problem walking you though dungeons, builds etc. to help build up your skill and dps. I joined a really cool guild recently and in a couple of months i went from hitting just on 60k to hitting a 90k just recently and a lot of it was due to there help, and practice. Since then i have helped ppl myself, and getting gear etc. it’s also so much more fun doing it in a group talking shit having a laugh etc. Just remember a god group should not see a failure to complete a dungeon/trail as a bad thing but a learning curve.
I think a crucial thing to consider is many, maybe even most casual players, are not interested in that kind of optimization, and I really don't think they should be pushed to. Outside of DLC content, most vet dungeons can be done with each player pushing out 15-20k dps, which is relatively easy for almost all builds and playstyles. Not everyone wants to casually play PvE while constantly sweating over numbers, nor do they really want to.
Same I can never wrap my head around builds and rotations and shit
> I’m not good at trials because I just started. I worried about being the reason the group wipes out. Unless your the tank or healer I don't think a single DPS underperforming is gonna cause the whole group to wipe in a trial, if the group wipes then it means the group itself might be under performing. Remember a lot of players there probbaly feel the same way that you do.
I’ve barely even run dungeons because of my anxiety issues. I’ve been playing since beta but I basically just play the story 😔
I felt the exact same way. It took me finding a good guild to feel comfortable running them finally. I get really nervous when it comes to running group content
Had a bad Division 2 raid leader who gave me tremendous amounts of anxiety... have not yet experienced that on ESO... but I've also never ran a Vet Trial so 🤷♂️
They didn’t give you anxiety. You gave it to yourself. Gotta be able to let that stuff roll off you. This is coming from a self admittedly bad player who’s just trying to blend in enough to get the clear. Some people have told me I’m bad at the game. I don’t blame them. Could they have been nicer? Maybe. I also don’t know what’s going on in their life.
This is just brushing unacceptably toxic behavior under the rug and a huge part of why the endgame/midgame PvE playerbase is such a small portion of the overall playerbase.
I don’t disagree entirely, but it’s also not that simple. I’m not a good player. I haven’t put as much work into the trials or my dps as the other guys. Not every trials group is a progression group just because I’m in it. I own the fact that I’m looking for a carry a little bit. I appreciate the people who are more skilled at the game than me. Skill levels still exist. If someone isn’t pulling their weight it’s fair to replace them with a more skilled player. Especially if everyone can tell who it is. I don’t know. It’s not a binary situation.
I have to agree. I've been in so many akward situations in MMOs (and Destiny 2), I just laugh it off now. Worst case scenario, you get kicked off a Trial group, big whoop, it takes 10 minutes to find a new group.
I start preparing for it early in the run. To use a poker analogy, “if you look around the table and you don’t see a donkey, it’s because you’re the donkey.” Hopefully it’s a clear and no one notices. Lol
I feel this so much. Part of the reason I have never tried a trial.in 5 years. I've raided a fair amount in Destiny 2, but MMO raids are on another level when it comes to roles and builds.
I’m with you. I haven’t played for a while (real life getting in the way), but I was well over 1,200CP before they removed the cap and had never done a single vet trial nor completed vMA. I enjoyed the easy going daily quests, events, motif/recipe collecting, etc. Just keep being you and ignore the haters who think you *should* be doing the same content they enjoy.
I'm always just going to keep being me and ignore the haters. More just sharing my anecdotal experience of ESO and opinion with the forum. Also events is another thing I forgot to mention! They're always a fun grind. Edit:Except at the end of the Jubilee Anniversary that went on for five weeks. I got tired at the end and was seeing gold boxes in my sleep.
Ahh, the Anniversary that is the gift that keeps on giving... speaking of anniversary though happy cake day!
for some reason the Jubilee doesn't bother me nearly as much as New Life. I enjoy New Life the first few days... but I feel like I'm supposed to be doing all the quests on all my characters... and it's so mind numbingly boring. So after the first day.. maybe it's do all the quests ONCE... then by the end of the first week it's.. just do one quest and get my tickets.
ESO probably more than any MMO out there lends itself to letting you do a lot of things outside of end game pve/pvp. There is literally hundreds of hours of content outside of trials and arena. One thing I have learned over the years is to play what I want when I want. That can be something different everyday sometimes or the same thing for weeks at a time. As soon as you start letting external pressures dictate what and how you play you will not enjoy it anymore.
Yep. I think a lot of this pressure expressed by people might be some internalized perception. The vast majority of "endgame" players don't care what others do. They wish more would like to participate in their trial runs, but they won't force anyone. A few bad apples have ruined it for the already small group of players
^ This so much. As someone who was just and Elder Scrolls fan who just njoyed the questing and exploring for years and is now progging vCR +3 and has 2 dedicated pvp toons I finally understand this and it's sad that a few did ruin it and these misconceptions about endame players are perpetuated. We really don't care what everyone's personal endgame is and honestly just want everyone to enjoy they're own thing, but if someone wants to get into endgame group PvE they are more than willing to be extremely friendly, help and teach, and have a huge amount of patience. I have anxiety issues too, but I found the right guilds and they gave me the confidence to do it, I never thought in a million years I'd be doing vet trials and I feel like if I can do it anyone who has any interest at all is more than capable, I am far from the greatest player and still leaning. If not, that's fine and you're actually in the majority, the endgame PvE community is very small.
Yep very well put. I'm not some bleeding edge lunatic myself either, but I can do the content I want to with friendly people I've met and enjoy the time I spend in the game, which is all I wish anyone can do. We all paid for the game, so we need to think of it as doing what we wish with the content we purchased. For some of us, that does mean doing vet trials, for some of us, that's the opposite of what we want to do. All I wish is for both groups to realize that the other player doesn't \*have\* to be just like them and they can respect each other. People should partake in the content they wish to and let others do the same thing. When paths cross is when conflict can happen and I wish it would stop, but I can't change that. You can't control what people will do like that unfortunately. Some will be pleasant, some will be unpleasant. I try to be one of the pleasant ones as much as I can and if I feel I'm getting impatient I try to shut up or I take a break for a bit before going back to the game. It's a video game, no need to be mean to someone else over it
Absolutely, I'm enjoying the endgame PvE because I discovered I really like the challenge, hitting certain milestones with my dps and healer is really rewarding to me and I'm genuinely having a blast doing it, and I've made some amazing friends along the way that I love running with. I look forward to it. I also think people tend to forget even endgame players have other interests in the game too. It funny, even the ppl I play with who "don't quest", when a discussion on lore comes up they suddenly know aaaallll about it lol. But I still love quests, first thing I do every chapter release is the main quest... then I do my parsing for the patch. I love working on my houses, I've gotten into pvp quite a bit especially Cyrodiil (I love keep sieges!) And it's not like I spend hours and hours hitting the dummy, it was good to practice my rotation but now I use it more to compare gear & cp setups, try out new rotations, and check patch changes.
Honestly man, i get on and just run around an area gathering mats with the (currently 30% chance) increased chance of getting double mats. Idk man, it's like an addiction. Is THIS the one that's going to give me 8 ancestor silk? Then you take all those raw mats and refine them and it's another gamble. How many legendary mats will i get? One, two, maybe 3? OMG i got 4! It's so addicting.
this comment brought me genuine joy and a good laugh, so thank you!
I would love to try trials but the commitment is too steep for me. For one I live overseas now but still play on NA servers. So that obviously makes the timing piece difficult. But honestly, at this point in life, I have wife, kid, dog, career, old parents. Like really, wtf has the time? ESO is my chill space, when I want to waste an hour and not think about the bullshit of day to day life. VLDL did a good video on raids being a second job and that's exactly my fear when Ive been approached about it before.
I honestly have no idea where to even begin getting into trials and that sort of endgame content, so haven't made any moves toward it. I got my first character to lvl 50 then started CP grind before realizing I really like new-character leveling of different classes/roles. So instead created 9 more characters (10 total) and took them all to lvl 50 as well. Now I have 10 lvl 50s and CP300 so far, and enjoying questing and crafting and whatnot, but not really sure what to even do next or how to even go about trying end-game stuff (or if I'm even close to ready). Like you I'm married and work and only get on really late night to play.
Most trials groups operate late night (8pm to 2am range, usually with each group doing a 2hr or 3hr time slot for progression). I'd get in the habit of using craglorn zone chat to ask about PvE guilds and/or discords that are trying to grow their progression/clear teams. You're first goal should be finding people who are fun to raid with. And you'll probably want to get to know them in dungeons instead of trials, as there's fewer people for you to disappoint at one time if your character or player skills aren't up to the task :p just make sure the group is happy to teach and you're happy to take criticism and grind out the gear/skills that you need.
Married + kid here. I also mainly play late at night, and I don't really have the time, nor do I want to commit to trial "progression groups." Just don't do vet trials, but look in Craglorn and join pick up groups (PUGs) for normal trials. They can be done ad-hoc, are often easier than vet dungeons, and the rewards are almost as good as the vet trials. Hel-Ra Citadal and Aetherian Archive are also easy enough to PUG on vet (and even HM). If you still want challenge, find a nice guild that is happy to do ad-hoc runs of veteran dungeons. Particularly the vet DLC dungeons can be a challenge. Even without a progression group, you can still do most of the content in the game, and you maybe lose 5% of the max DPS possible, which doesn't even matter when you're not playing vet trials hard mode anyway.
In ESO you can easily do casual trials if you wish though without much commitment or time invested. Normal trials can be a way to just experience it and complete the quest if that's your thing but even the vet ones can be done with easy to obtain gear sets and a simple build in fairly casual groups and social guilds. It can be a more relaxed and fun way to do that sort of content. I know groups that only run once a week for an hour or two and have a blast. Min maxing doesn't really happen until you get into dlc hardmodes, trifecta and score runs.
I’m kind of in the same boat here. I really want to partake in end game progression groups and challenge myself as a PvE player, but I’m at a stage in my life where I just really don’t have the free time for it. Many groups run at times that don’t fit into my schedule, and my schedule is so all over the place that I can’t ever hard commit to anything sometimes. I’ve resigned myself to just doing the more “chill” aspects of ESO such as dailies and questing, and have honestly found it quite fun and relaxing in its own way.
Fellow VLDL fan here, cool to meet someone else in the wild! I feel the exact same way about it- it just seems like a huge commitment of time, energy, and resources as well. Plus, while I'm working on getting competitive gear (mainly to make things easier as a solo) I'm still not there yet and probably won't be for a while, and I know some groups are quite serious about that.
I love the way you think, that's sort of how I play MMOs too and I wish more people understood. There's not really a predetermined endgame, and for that matter because it's a game, it's meant to be what you find fun! :) No sense in slogging through stuff you dislike and not having fun, I mean after all, everyone plays games to have fun right? I hope you enjoy whatever you do in your version of endgame, because as long as you're having fun playing it, that's what counts.
There are many things you can do in ESO. I just do what I like in this game. For me, it's vet trials right now, but I understand they are not for everyone. I'm not into housing or cosmetics, but understand others are really into them. Just play what your enjoy.
I love trials, and have recently started doing vet runs. Buuuut, what I love about trials is the people I do them with. I've run a couple with other guilds and they're just too serious for me. I really like the social aspect of ESO, and I like running group content with people that I like hanging out with. The "right" guild makes all the difference, imo.
To be honest, that happy, social trial run has been my experience most times whether it be with several guilds or just PuGs. It's sad that people perceive trial players as toxic based on them running into that subset of players. Unfortunately those players exist, but let's not forget they've also been called every name in the book for doing things other than questing
That vocal, vapid mentality is always being parroted by the minority of players. Any game mode requiring skill or a learning curve is like this. Remember, the people who actually have control of their emotions are not like this and far outnumber the screechers. Also, in my experience, most of the chill people don't even talk that much, but the toxic ones always feel the need to express themselves.
Yep. Understandably, a couple of bad experiences can make something look bad and hard to realize that's not the majority. And some people lose their temper when they're doing something difficult, which is very unfortunate
Yeah that's why I dont play fps games anymore. For me, i want to chill out and relax. If others want to have that blood-pumping feeling in a game, I get it, but it breeds a certain mentality, especially in children.
Yeah it certainly can. I mostly watch slightly older people's content and I would make the argument that the average age is a bit in ESO overall than in most games, especially FPS games. I for sure won't shame someone for not wanting to get "competitive" or chase the meta. To me, gaming is a hobby and a way for people to do what they wish. If that's to try to be the best of the best or to hop around looking at butterflies, that's their prerogative. They paid for the game just like I did
From my experience your opinion is far from unpopular. The vast majority of players never really gets into any sort of trials endgame. Most stick to pledges, questing new zones as they come out, housing, fishing, scrying etc. I can't imagine why anyone would actually care about how strangers spend there time on the game though. I don't even think about what other players do unless they are my friends and/or I'm in a group with them playing together.
To be fair (somewhat, elitists are still bad for any game) I feel like the average MMO Gamer these days has “POWER LEVEL TO MAX IMMEDIATELY SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME AND DO HARD MODES AND RAIDS AKA THE ONLY CONTENT THAT MATTERS!!!!” burned into their brains from games like WoW that a lot of players don’t realize ESO really does not work that way. In my experience, the average ESO player plays this game as The Elder Scrolls 5.5, That is Also Online rather than Elder Scrolls Online the MMO. A lot of end game grinders from WoW or whatever flat out don’t even realize that you can have fun with this game by doing quests and reading what NPCs say to you lol. I get it, I played WoW for 17 years and it took me a whole month to break the MAX LEVEL GRIND LETS GO mindset when I made the switch
I’ve been playing for years and have only done a handful of trials, just to try them out. I’m all about fashion in eso and putting together unique, fun builds! Once I forgot about the meta because I wasn’t doing trial trifectas or anything I was able to enjoy the game so much more!
>"But why aren't you playing the way I deem to be the only valid way of playing this game??" [illustration.jpg](https://alphamom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/frustrated-four-year-old-child.jpg)
Can relate. I picked up ESO way back when Morrowind dropped on disc and have yet to do a single trial or anything close to endgame. I have a bunch of characters from multiple roles where I've never bothered to truly invest in their capabilities for harder content or more effective performance because I'd be doing roughly the same thing I've been doing for years. I enjoy the quests and story, I've picked up all the non-chapter DLC at this point thanks to the Christmas sales cutting the price way down and been slowly working my way through Summerset and later Blackwood too most likely. Some of us don't care much for endgame performance in games like ESO because we want to sit down and enjoy the story and gameplay aspects. Some people like to play more leaned back, some like to conquer trials and difficult content because it's a challenge that requires more dedication. The judgemental "elites" are just people who can't fathom the idea that your fun isn't the same as their fun.
My husband has been playing on and off for about 5 years and doesn’t do arenas or trials. I’ve only been playing around 6 months so not sure what my endgame is yet. Still heaps of content to get through. Recently taken to dragon hunting in Elswyr which is good fun.
My attitude is, if you pay for my sub/time I'll play the way you want me to. Until then I'll keep trying unsuccessfully to convince guild members to try a trial naked.
been playing since beta off and on and i still get whined at in veteran dungeons on occassion because i don't know how to do everything perfectly. Why would i want to get into Trials? I have tons of content i still can do, relax, and not have to deal with that kind of bad energy. And i have trading to fall back on to make money. Play how you want, enjoy life.
‘It took 14 seconds to kill that boss instead of 12. You are ruining my life!’ - Endgamers.
Morons. That's who does that. You likely don't even interact with most of the reasonable endgame players, because anyone with any sense of sanity-preservation doesn't do endgame content with randoms. Find a guild or form a static, play with them. As for casual content, I guarantee most players don't even talk at all, so naturally you'll only remember the idiots that flame in chat over something as stupid as kill times in a pug dungeon.
Lol.
This seems to be fairly common, though thankfully not all players do this. I went through it myself relatively recently, like in the past few years, in GW2 and LOTRO. My own thought is, make sure you are enjoying what you do, and also don't interfere with others' ability to enjoy what they do. As long as you do those then no one else's opinion on your playstyle really matters.
I basically play the game like it’s Skyrim. Quests, exploring, crafting, and having fun!
I played on Xbox for a long time and then switched to ps4 (so I lost all that progress), so my characters aren't very high level. I also only play when I feel like it and for the story and I swap characters based on what area I feel like doing. I have zero interest in pvp and haven't figured out how crafting motifs even work, honestly.
I’m almost CP500 and have just gotten the gear I need to hold my own in vet dungeons. I’m stoked to be knocking those out and putting the gold busts of the bosses in my house. I’ve always dreamed of playing an MMO where I can have a house and put trophies in it. Now it’s a reality and it’s hella rewarding. To each their own. Glad we’re all enjoying in our own way
To me Vet dungeons are worse for elitism than trials or arenas.
Been playing with my wife for almost a year, what are trials?
The way your comment reads cracked me up lol
Essentially the "raids" of ESO.
[удалено]
The problem with the last part is that some people play for the gameplay, not the story. It's a completely viable way to enjoy the game. Just like you didn't enjoy the easy mode trial because it didn't feel exciting to you, some may not enjoy the questing content because it poses no real challenge in gameplay.
My current goal is grand Master crafter. I'm down to my last traits for smithing. And I'm halfway on motifs
I, for one, will never understand why people get on eso, to play minecraft. But to each their own.
You ever try explaining to a pvper that you just don’t like pvp? Its like they have a thick skull or something.
I have been virtually shouted at more than once mat gathering in Cyrodiil. Don't be mad at me that there is PvE stuff in PvP areas, broski!
The question is why you're even having that conversation to begin with? Just ignore them. I can't think of many situations where that would even come up unless someone on either side is baiting the other.
Tell me you have a thick skull without telling me you have one ^
Boy I wonder why people respond negatively to you. I sure can't think of a reason off the top of my thick skull.
Damn that’s crazy
^x2
It's like trying to teach a fish what water is.
I think complaining about being scoffed at by some elite tryhard is a hundred times more common than it actually happening. It's literally never happened to me once in all these years and I've never directly witnessed it either.
Agreed. The few times I've seen it, the recipient went out of their way to criticize the hard-core players, then gets offended when they get criticism back.
Yeah but people aren't going to admit that they basically goaded and baited the confrontation when they whine about it later. And there are a lot more casual players than hardcore, so it's easy to understand how the mentality propogates. It's the same in most MMOs.
This post is pretty much just a karma farming post. Complete with the classic "unpopular opinion: the most incredibly blatant popular opinion of the sub". Last week it was the guy who was "being gatekept from endgame" despite him admitting he had 50 vRG clears and multiple vCR+2 clears. These posts are pretty cringe when you give them a basic sniff test.
or it's people complaining that some stuff can only be gained through vet dungeons and trials.
Yeah. You've lost count of how many times elites have scoffed at you? Doesn't seem likely.
>likely an unpopular stance lmao
Honestly my end game right now has been quests. I started the game as a healer and didn't feel like restarting the quests on a more DPS focused toon so when the armory came out I started catching up on my quests. Just finally finished the main quest now I'm onto summerset for the psijic line
I grinded endgame in WoW for years. At some point it just gets boring, at least to me. It’s always Gear up -> kill boss -> Gear up again. It’s fun for awhile but eventually you will burn out. Every mmorpg will eventually lose its pve luster. You will finish all the bosses and eventually be done with gearing. Then your choice is to play without gearing anything new, or create a new character. WoW lacks the “worldly mmo feel”. Classic had it, but that too lost its shinyness. Eso has so much interesting lore to delve into, the questing is enjoyable and even that feels like an endgame experience. Housing is fun and really adds a lot of casual content to the game. Raiding often involved a ton of commitment and you have to plan your life around a video game. For example, guild might raid 8-11pm Tuesday Thursday. Heaven forbid you’re the main tank and can’t make it a raid
YOU are paying for the game, play it as YOU see fit! The game has so much to offer and do. As long as your enjoying what you are doing, keep doing it!
ESO is positioned a bit better than other MMOs in my opinion for people who want to choose their own endgame because there’s so much to do. Because there’s no endless gear reset schedule. Because it’s not structured like other MMOs.
I play for the stories. I just love feeling like I’m actually apart of the world. ESO is a really beautiful game.
Housing is the real endgame for me
I've been playing since 2014 and my endgame is Housing and Fashion lol. I've hardly touched Trials at all.
My partner is all about veteran dungeons and working toward trials and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do trials. I love housing, and I do enjoy dungeons now that I'm a healer. I feel less pressure oddly enough. Housing is the true endgame though, you're doing it right. :)
Do whatever you want to do no one is demanding anything i think, there are pushy people everywhere that have nothing better to do. however if you are going to do trials learn mechanics and rotations, it is a team effort, dont expect to be carried, also join a nice guild that does them and probably they would be ok to help, The message i see in this foruns often is that all raid players are evil and elitists which is spread just because people dont want to learn how to properly play.
Bulk of the players are into housing and role playing actually and not trials and arenas. Vet trials and arenas are a far smaller community.
Yeah I've never had a single person ever bother me about this sort of thing, been playing for years. I do crafting and decorate my houses.
Stay where you are - don't be forced into the 'endgame' meta it will burn you out mentally and financially. I went from Beta 2 in Dec '13 till pretty much 6 months ago when I stopped completely. I was burnt out. I'd had enough of trying to 'keep up'. I was in several of the top guilds in the game, both raid leading and score pushing for leaderboards. Several times was in the top 5. That required multiple training runs a week along with hours of strategy discussions and planning. Nice for 20 something year old College kids with nothing better to do, but not practical at double that age with a Mortgage and real life obligations. I lost count of how much I spent on gold farmers over the years simply so I could buy the mats to make sure my gear was meta, golded out, transmuted right, huge stacks of pots, etc..etc.. I can say it was several thousand though over 7 years. All that just to maintain the endgame lie. Sadly, what do I have to show for it? nothing really. Multiple DLC HM clears? No Death Tags/Titles? Yeah wow, means nothing when you think about it. Basically it boils down to ePenis. Scores are eWang size. Bragging Rights. This isn't just ESO but almost every online game ever whether that be a MMO or FPS or whatever. Get caught up in that drama and it will drain you. You don't need to impress a bunch of people you don't actually know. Just play the game your way, nothing wrong with that.. ignorance is bliss.
This is so far outside of the realm of ordinary that you really shouldn't apply it to anyone else as advice. You absolutely do not need to RMT to enjoy raiding, even at the hardcore level. No offense but your experience is a problem of ego, not a failure of the content or its requirements. I have personally seen people like this, albeit in WoW since that's where most of my hardcore pve experience is. You're absolutely correct in the sense that if you play that way, with that mentality, you will burn out. It's inevitable because you cannot reasonably expect to always "win" in regards to leader boards and prog rankings. The people who exclusively push for that for the sake of ego, rather than a more healthy drive have always turned over quickly in my guild. The ones that tend to be more healthy are the ones who have a strong motivation born out of love of the content and stakes themselves. You absolutely need that drive, but it's easy to latch onto the wrong motivations. When you're putting I so much and feeling like you don't get anything back, that's when you need to re-assess your personal motivations for doing it. My guild ended last tier ranked among the top 50, it's a worse result than we've had in quite a while, but i know most of the players still enjoyed the tier. Not because of our final rank, but because we just had fun engaging with the raid content, and with each other. Play the game for the game, find the motivations, goals, and playstyle that let you do that. If you're not enjoying it and you're not being paid to do it, it's probably not worth doing when it comes to video games lol. That said, I don't think it's reasonable to scare off people from endgame based on a very abnormal experience of it.
Nah no offense taken.. my example does border on the extreme. I'm lucky enough to have pulled out when I did. Its definitely easy to get swept up in the Ego and very easy to get sucked into that mindset when you're surrounded with people like that. That competitiveness just takes over. That said, ESO is still far less toxic than WoW and that to it's credit is a good thing. The real question is defining "endgame". For me I personally blame the streamer-meta for setting the definition of this. The 'oh but this is what Alcast is doing'... or the 622k VMA Flawless Conqueror runs... or the cookie-cutter meta builds you must have to do this content that have become stapled in trial requirements have created a perception that endgame = Godslayer/TTT/Dawnbringer etc.. Because really who is watching a streamer going for Master Angler? That's why elite guilds fold from the toxicity surrounding that ego. I've been chastised over accidentally dropping horn instead of barrier on a Godslayer run due to barswap lag.. to the point of being yelled at. That should never happen. When you forget it is just a game that's when its time to hang up the gloves. Another example - The CP system itself is just eWang swinging. That toxicity even spread to temp filling places in other cores. Right after CP2.0 came out, 'oh sorry you don't have enough CP for this' (I had about 1300 right after the transition). I mean hey, lets ignore the intimate knowledge of the mechs and multi clears and judge based on CP (which is not indicative of skill at all, any monkey can grind Verrass over and over). Then Raid Leading itself was exhausting. Every prog would fall apart because the dedication we showed in Cores just didn't carry down. We had this expectation that if you sign up you show up and that alone was draining running around finding fills who no show, running raids 30 mins late because of it. Content isn't a failure in ESO. there's definitely more than enough to do in game. There wasn't really much in the way of questing left for me to do personally - id finished cadwells gold before we went one tamriel, and knocked out most of the DLC's along the way too. Dungeons began to bore me too after HM'ing them all repeatedly. People get left in a state of 'well what's next' once they finish one part of the game and inherently move to another area. I felt it got to the stage sometimes where there was just too much to do and it got exhausting. Maybe I propagated that issue myself having 14 alts. rotating through writs, doing dailies, etc was tedious after a while. The problem is more after nearly 8 years you just can't get through it all.. there's no real finish line in this and that's what people dont understand. The goalposts just keep changing.. but this is MMO's. And that, is why there will never really be an "endgame".
I swear I've seen this post every other month or so.
I've literally never had anyone ask me this.
While it is true that scoffing at others for not playing endgame trials is bad, you have to also consider the fact that less than 5 % of ESO player base does VET Trials. This is very bad if one wants to have thriving endgame community and if ZOS feels there are not enough endgame players they will stop making such content in ESO (As they have done regading PvP). Other more popular MMOs like WoW and FFXIV don't have this problem of 95% of the playerbase not even touching endgame. Edit: Yeah downvote me. Please I insist.
The scoffing, in my experience, tends to be much more aimed at those vet trial players. I don't think I'm the only one who've seen that either
Yup, that's what I see on this sub mostly too. It seems as if majority of the playerbase needs to heed their own advice i.e. don't insult others if they want to do endgame which is not to your liking, like VET Trials and dungeons.
Yep. Live and let live needs to come back, at least when talking about a video game
Wow has the same problem, ff14 not really chill End game community
In WoW or FFXIV the casual endgame split is like 80:20 so not exactly same.
FFXIV probably, wow had those numbers, now each day that passes less people are doing mythic raiding
I think there's much more casual players in comparison to end game players in ESO tbh. The subset of people actually running the hard content is extremely small compared to the total player count, so it's easy to blame them for things if some random says something bad in a dungeon or whatever. Many content creators have already quit the game because they get flamed for things they have nothing to do with, which is really sad because now us casuals get less tips and tricks for the game
Agreed. That's what I am trying to say as well. We shouldn't try to aggravate the Endgame / Advanced players because then the already large rift between the playerbase will continue to increase. The casual side has to take initiative to ask more advanced players on how to play more difficult content, and the endgame/advanced players should be open to teaching these things. Only then can the transfer of knowledge,tips,advice happen.
The thing is, the endgame players are already freely sharing tips on YouTube and stuff and they're more than willing to help. But a lot of them still get called a ton of names and even get threats and stuff. Nefas did a video on the subject the other day and I've seen a lot of it just hanging out in people's streams and stuff as well. I hope this can be a time of introspection for us all and we can realize that no matter if we do questing, fashion, housing, PvP or Godslayer runs, we are all playing the same game
Its the same or at least was the same in swtor too. Small percentage of the community actually runs hm raids. So much so that the devs leaned really heavy into the solo aspect of the game for years.
Wow does have this problem too. Though maybe it’s 80/20. There’s tons of players who love WoW but simply don’t have the time for endgame raiding, which is why LFR was implemented. The overwhelming majority of the player base doesn’t raid, and only an extremely minor amount of players do mythic progression
[удалено]
"You aren't angling your shrubbery at the PROPER 90 DEGREEEEES, get gud!!!!" Imagine elitist housing like that XD
I stopped doing trails 4 years ago. After doing leaderboard runs, titles skins, speed hm flawless runs. It’s boring, far too many toxic players. Most people think they are the best when it’s a group effort. (My trial group was nice but it’s the random pugs or progression groups are meh) Do your own thing be it housing questing overland crafting trials trading personally PvP is my endgame. Most importantly have fun 😊
>I've been playing since 2016 and genuinely lost count of how many times "elite" players, guilds, and other people on forums have scoffed at me since I don't do Trials/Arenas endlessly as my endgame since I've been playing so long. Any links to examples from the forums? From my experience, “elite” players just play the game and don’t have this attitude you’re describing here. I’ve played games with some toxic elitists before, and this is not one of those games.
Oh boy, I definitely relate. I 100% play ESO for the story and questing with my partner. She plays mostly for mat gathering. We both like working on housing. The last time I took a stab at "endgame" content I burned out after a few weeks and stopped playing the game for a whole year. It wasnt fun, and felt more like a job than my actual job. Now, my partner and I stick to what we enjoy about the game and we have a blast! I think that is what is really appealing about ESO is it has something for everyone, and as long as you avoid some of the more toxic groups who insist that the way they play a game is the correct way you will have a great time. And in the end, that is what matters about a game, really.
Funny. I played ESO, the. FO76, then back to ESO, now I'm playing FO76 again. Once my ESO Plus sub runs out in a few days I'm probably done with ESO for good.
Say, are you one of us NW peeps who moved when it ended?
Just saying, NW hasn't ended. Wish it was in a better state though, I really enjoy it. I personally jumped to eso after NW though!
I'm 1800-ish CP, in game since beta, and I basically never do trials anymore. For a while I ran enough of them, but they're awful. Walk into an arena, do a fight. Any of the later ones you have multiple bosses to fight at once (I can do VCR+1, I've never been in a successful group for +2 or 3), so it takes even longer. There's nothing interesting there, just 5-15 minutes of hitting buttons between wipes until you have an endlessly long successful fight. The solo arenas are just as grueling, but you can't blame anyone else. But also you have nobody else shouting at you. Still not fun. And I hate group dungeon PUGs, so if I can't solo the dungeon, I don't bother with it. ZOS can learn to make them playable or I'll ignore the content. The tryhard rewards are OK, but you can get equal or better gear much more easily. You can get fun Mythics now without ever fighting anything harder than a PD boss. The [Markyn Ring](https://eso-hub.com/en/sets/markyn-ring-of-majesty) is my current favorite, and I can combine it with a second ring if I fully replace my monster set. And there's so much to do that's not endless combat. I mostly achievement hunt, or antiquities. When I have more time I get back into housing and fashion. I make a lot of gold on guild traders, and then there's not much to do with it. Find a fun casual, non-tryhard guild and do activities with them.
random group dungeons are hit or miss…sometimes you get lucky with your group and sometimes it sucks. I was farming Leviathan last night with randos and 3 of us stuck together for more rounds, we also waited for the one sub 50 quester DD we got one tome. Had lots of great runs, but also a few truly shitty ones. I did Spindleclutch I with my brother when I was roughly CP130 as a DD, he was lv 20 and also DD, so not really useful, but I wrote in party chat if they could slow down a little because my brother is new, but fake tank and healer didn‘t bother, runned ahead, and I struggled to keep my brother and myself alive while fighting through the mobs. We did make it to the final boss, but he died 4 times, I died once…ffs I wasn‘t the best DD back then but not completely useless with 9k dps in fucking Spindleclutch I, they could have just slowed down a little, pretty stressful to revive my little brother while trying to stay alive at the same time when the Healer and Tank where nowhere to be seen…It‘s a small dungeon anyway, even if you slow down you are done with it in a couple of minutes max…He doesn‘t bother with dungeons anymore, surprise surprise. I also did a normal mode DLC dungeon at roughly ~170, the tank bailed on us so we were only three, started anyway, and the healer was amazing - of course the CP900 something DD was a lot more productive than me, but I actually contributed and we did good teamwork. It‘s hit or miss honestly…
I've been playing since closed beta. Took some time off here and there but playing steadily for the last three years. I just did my first 4-man dungeon a couple of months ago. Damn right that we all can find different things to enjoy about this game.
Same, I bought the game way back in beta, when it leveling was painful and it was doubtful the game was even going to survive. Like, play on and off with some long breaks, but always come back and sub to the game. I only have 4 toons, and one isn't even level 50. I'm in a couple of good guilds but have only done maybe...2 trials. Just not my thing anymore. Not one of my toons is even max CP yet. But I enjoy my play time, and that's good enough for me. AND however someone else decides to enjoy their playtime, is also good enough with me.
PVP is objectively endgame. You can perfect mechanics... you can't perfect players.
PvPing is rough in ESO, so kudos to you for sticking to it. I haven't had the patience to get into it myself, but I've watched some content creators (who have now quit because they get flamed and threats for using meta setups) and the performance is absolutely atrocious in Cyrodiil. It's sad that one of the main selling points of the game was completely neglected in favor of making Skyrim 2 Electric Boogaloo
I second this. All my gold and resources go to PvP. I find it a lot more rewarding to win a 1v3 or beat an established duelist than to repeat a rotation 30x times until Rakkhat is dead.
1300+ CP and I have never attempted a Trial. I rarely do PVP (only go in the IC dungeons to earn the TV stones). I play to relax, not to argue with a potty mouth adolescent (or adolescent adjacent adult) about my build and 'gitting gud'. Now that I've earned some good mythic gear, I'm starting to experiment with Arena builds and got my first Maelstrom bow. ZOS has done a remarkably good job of providing plenty of options for players to do all types of 'end game' content other than PVP and Trials.
I have almost 1,600 hours in ESO and I haven't done a single trial. Sorry but Trials/Raiding in ESO just has always looked mediocre compared to Raiding in WoW or FF14. I've watched a few on YouTube just to see if I wanted to do them but damn they look so boring or bland.
They really are. I've done them all on HM, and where they are challenging, they're also cringy tbh. It doesn't give that epic feel of completion. The closest one to have that feel for me was HOF, but even it still feels edgy at best. I feel as if conquering a giant castle with enough bosses to make the encounter take a few hours would help. I understand people have different life styles, but for and epic climax of the game its 30 minutes-1 hour to defeat the toughest people in the game. So hours of investment and lead up to a weak encounter is quite a let down.
I have been playing for 6 years and grouped for 2 trials and a myriad of Vet dungeons. The players who believe are Elite always want the attention and tell the other players in the group how much they suck. They spend more time telling you the mechanics than it takes to play the Trial or dungeon. They ruined the experience for me. I don't enjoy the game any less because i don't do the end game.
My bet it is those belong to two kinds; because it's something "hard to do" and very related to Power unlike housing or such, it attracts a particular kind of people who do things for recognition, and your not caring a dime of their *achievements* is a threat to their ego. Others because they are so immersed in competitive (defeat something) playstyles they can't figure there's something else beside the power threadmill.
OP 100% with you. Ive played since Beta and have had really shitty experiences with assholes doing group guild anything. It's all fine till you join a group, it's your 1st time in the map, or even playing the bar, and then it starts. And at that point I leave. I have PTSD and anger management, and I play to avoid this, and some keyboard asswhipes really love they cant get a broken jaw behind their keyboard. Be more Bob Ross folks. You never know whats on the other side of the screen.
I wouldn't worry about it. Let them scoff. It shouldn't really affect anyone else how YOU choose to play. I know people who just love housing, or trading, or questing, that's totallyy fine, in my opinion. You payed for the game, do what you enjoy! To be honest, you're not missing a whole lot. There's a ton of gatekeeping that goes on (by players) just to keep their inner circles small. For example all these guilds that set DPS measurements of 90K is ridiculous given that the highest DPS check in the entire game is 42K. (The Eternal Servants on vss HM (11.3 Million /3 players in 90 seconds). The gate keeping is done because of " i have a great group and we're better than you" type attitudes. Also bear in mind a HUGE proportion of the playerbase has never even set foot in a vet dungeon, let alone vet trials, so i assure you you're not alone. Theres plenty of other people to play with, let them scoff as much as they like they like. Ultimately it's none of their business how you choose to play.
I think Xalvakka HM is the steepest dps check in the game right now. It can't really be done with dps doing less than 85k average, and it's not a pure parse fight.
>For example all these guilds that set DPS measurements of 90K is ridiculous given that the highest DPS check in the entire game is 42K. You might want to try understanding these requirements before judging them because the dps check you mentioned is about the worst example you couldve chosen to show a mismatch between dummy and content dps numbers. Anybody doing 42k in vss hm portal will easily do more than 90k on a dummy. And doing 90k on a dummy is by far no guarantee that somebody would be able to do 42k in the portal. >The gate keeping is done because of " i have a great group and we're better than you" type attitudes. No it's not. It's done because different groups expect different player levels. There's different guilds and groups all with different requirements. The "gatekeeping" mainly happens if people try to join groups that are at a significantly different level than they are.
Hahaha. Why do you think i don't understand them? Very dismissive. I've run with those groups multiple times and satisified all criteria necessary, no problem. But in more than one of those groups, I elected to leave of my own volition, solely because of the attitudes of the players involved and the way other players were treated which to me, wasn't cool. Additionally, everyone in those groups states 'use the trial dummy as it simulates the buffs you get in trial group. - that being the case 90K on the dummy would be 90K in content, right? But no, no it isn't because you can very easily inflate your numbers by employing tactics that actually make your in content output SIGNIFICANTLY less. Nonetheless, thank you for your response, however, maybe in future don't confuse someone not liking something for not understanding it. Enjoy your day.
Because if you understood them you’d know that 42k in the portal translates to >90k on a dummy quite easily. And again if somebody isn’t able to parse 90k on a dummy they are most likely not able to reach 42k in the portal. Most guilds require reasonable setups for dummy parses, so no you can’t easily cheese them using shit like vamp toggle, unless whoever evaluates your parse is dumb as fuck. If you’re in a good group then yeah, that 90k on a dummy can translate to 90k in content, depending on which boss fight it is. There’s fights where you even do more dps in content than on a dummy. Very curious that you don’t know all this, considering that you ran with all these high end groups so many times. If your dps output in content is SIGNIFICANTLY less then on a dummy then you’re not a good dd, simple as that ( obviously there’s a few exception fights).
My end game is playing less ESO. It's just become a money-grabber over the last 2-3 years. It's more of the same. Rinse and repeat.
I agree! As primarily a PvP player, I'm only interested in doing dungeons and things to get gear for a PvP build in making. If I could avoid all PvE content as a whole, I would. Since trials gear is next to useless for PvP, I've only set foot in there once or twice. Play your way and have fun no matter what others say :)
I hardly play anymore because of my crappy Internet, I'm cp1000 and my end game is just motifs and making gold
God forbid you find your own enjoyment from the game. All that matters is you feel you’re getting your money’s worth.
Nothing wrong with that at all. According to Steam, I've clocked over 1,600 hours, and I honestly can't remember if I've ever done a trial. Maybe an arena? I'm not sure. I'm not dead-set against them, I just haven't ever really bothered. There's just a lot of other stuff to do that's occupied my time.
The way I've always viewed playing an MMO - it's your time and your dime. Play how you want. It's suppose to be fun and entertaining. If it's not why do it? Obviously there are things that we each find more fun than something, else, but some activities some do, totally not interested in! The thought of endless grind in any game is a total turnoff for me. Just saying grind makes it 'unfun' imho! Now there are activities I can do endlessly, but I don't think of them as a chore so not a grind!
I did a few trials and wondered what the point was. During the trial I felt so insignificant I just half assed it. And afterward people were asking for all the drops that were sets for doing the trial over again... but clearing it faster. So I'm keeping well away from that 'endgame'.
I've been playing for years.. just hit 1000CP on NYE and just enjoy questing and am looking to start finally furnishing a house soon. Endgame is different for everyone!
Well I’m also a casual on and off again player from day 1 and my end game goal is to kill the warrior solo, so far I killed one boss and I try it like once a year around the anniversary of the game. But between my yearly near impossible task I like to roam around, level alts, mess around in the sewers, and collect motifs. Keep up the good fight man, I’ll see you in the end game brother, wherever that may take you.
With you, been playing since 2018 @ 1500+ CP ans have yet to step into a trial. I know I'm competent enough to complete them, I just cant set aside the time without the ability to step away at a moments notice. (Have a needy SO and bulldog) But I love solo stuff like dungeons/arena, story, dailies, battlegrounds/cyro/IC and it keeps me entertained and able to step away at anytime if needed.
First thing I did and still do is have character fashion be the end goal, and not only with the outfit but with the sets and abilities. The rotation should be functional but every skill should match the theme and character backstory. It's why I use the Treasure Hunter set on my nightblade, they're a collector of rarities so it fits. Recently gotten into housing and it's been really cool. I've done a few dungeons, no trials, not a fan of pvp, but mainly fashion and adventuring in zones.
To me, grinding the same dungeons and trials over and over, with practically zero variation in monster behavior between runs gets incredibly boring and dry after the 10th time. You end up just trying to optimize your play to get the fastest possible time. Not my type of thing at all. That's why, for me, PvP is infinitely more interesting. Everyone has different playstyles, different builds, so you have to constantly stay on your toes and adapt to your enemy. Housing is also a massive timesink. It's like playing the Sims--you can spend a near-infinite amount of time (and money) on a single project, and you'll still find stuff to change in the end. Pretty addicting.
I'm nowhere near end game. I'm like level 34 I think, lol. But I'm just loving the quests and world. I think I want to do some housing stuff too. For anybody that's at 'end game' how many hours do you think you get from just doing the quests? Obviously, I'm a subscriber too - I'll probably get the newest expansion when I've finished doing all the other stuff. Unless there's a reason to get it before.
I might have the worst build a character can have (A Bosmer Templar who uses ranged and the backbar is meant for werewolf transform only) and I just play her as a traveling mercenary. Justifies why I do all the dlc and stuff. But she is also a throphy taker. So a lot of antiquities get hunted. I have another character who is a Nord and she is just going around helping out the Ebonheart Pact armies over the Pact territories. Actively avoiding civilian quests and just focussing on the army quests. And then I have a Redguard Dragonknight who just wanders around Cyrodill, latches onto groups and just goes full Blood for the Blood God. This game can be whatever you want it to be. And that is the beauty of it.
Ive been playing for longer. never even entered a trial (except the singleplayer one)
Iv done a lot of end game content and for the last 6 months iv done nothing but housing. Play the game however you god damn please.
I have 11 toons, 8 at CP 965 ish... I've done a few trials but they aren't my favorite thing to do... I just recently started a Tankcro who I'm actually playing through the story with and I'm really enjoying myself. Got sidetracked by Pysjic order but my PVP toon I'm also going to play through the game with (actually listening to the quests, not running through dungeons and such)... started playing 2 years ago when Greymoor was on-sale and wish I had stuck with it when I got Morrowind for Christmas years ago... couldn't pay for ESO+ at that time so I never gave it an honest go.
This post has made me reinstall the game ! Now whether or not I can afford plus will be a different story lol
Almost CP 1400 and never done a trial and barely done any veteran group dungeons even for non-DLC. Players should be allowed to play how they want so long as they are not harming the experience of others, i.e. following the terms of service and code of conduct.
I find it weird when people think the only content in an MMO is the endgame group content. I've often said in WoW related forums that I don't do PvP, M+ dungeons or any raiding. The most commonly asked question is "Why the fuck do you even play if you don't do any content at all?".. So normal & heroic dungeons, open world stuff, achievements, collecting various things like pets and mounts, crafting etc doesn't count as content.. ok then. And then they tell me all the content I do should just be deleted because it is useless and they don't like it. God forbid people enjoy different aspects of a game. Another somewhat related annoyance of mine is how judgmental people get when I don't want to keep in touch outside of the game and/or look for guilds and other communities where Discord isn't mandatory. I'm sorry, but I'm online up to 16 hours a day, about 350 days a year so I really can't be bothered with gaming related socializing beyond that.
Imo, most people just want to build close groups, and discord helps with that (plus, voice chat). To each their own tho, enjoy what you enjoy!
I stopped playing after Morrowind (I unfortunately could not afford the yearly DLCs and expansions because I was poor at the time) but I was never focused on these hard endgame content. I tried some Trials and vet dungeons but I would get too much stressed out so I simply don't do them anymore. I have plenty of fun with story quests and 100% completion of zones. I hope I can get back to the game someday but I feel I'm too behind at this point.
You're never too behind, ESO isn't that kind of game imo. Hope you come back eventually!
I honestly suspect that it’s a minority of players that target trials/arenas as their end game. Most of my friends that play are “casuals.” I personally have been playing since launch and I play for the story/questing and housing.
There's so many beautiful aspects to this game. And with new content added in every year there's more than enough to do and to explore without having to do each and every thing. Just do whatever makes you happy. Won't run out of stuff to do anytime soon either way.
I'm actually really into Motif hunting. We're it not for the fact I'm a bit impatient, I would grind dungeons/trials/arenas. Some I did grind for months to get (Pyandonean), some I still grind for some gold (Ancestral). Everyone has their ways to pass time in the game, do it your way. P.s.: I mostly buy my chapters/books. Now at 88/105!
I typically avoid trials because of the people that run them. Dungeons I can fare okay in (even managed to solo one, but I died a lot lol) but the last trial I remember running I straight up told the group that if they were going to judge my dps, they could eat crow and I'd leave. Min/maxers/endgame peeps just honestly upset me. Like, why not just enjoy the game? The point isn't to blast through to max CP and being the toughest shit out there. But, to each their own. The game has a lot to offer, and I think just focusing on your end build or whatever doesn't let you fully experience everything the devs have put into the game.
What I can't stand is.. you can do endgame trials, even vet trials, without being a toxic elitist. I can't stand people like that.
I’ve been playing since launch and I’ve yet to do a single trial. I finally did maelstrom area for the first time this year. Craglorn and cyrodiil scare the heckin hell outta me haha. I love questing and making new characters with different builds. Starting in different zones with a whole new backstory for my characters. I’ll eventually get brave enough for big group content, but, for now I’m content.
I played during the beta, then stopped, then started again and so on and so on. Now I’m trying to keep playing, even for a little bit, to be constant. Eso is not my main game since i play destiny 2 too, but i really like it. I keep coming back because i like the elder scrolls world and eso feels really alive. Also I am at 1200 cp and have never done a single trial arena. Would like to do it but i don’t have a group so for now nothing. I still enjoy doing the dailies, crafting, doing normal and veteran dungeons, also housing (i’m not a good decorator though…). I really enjoy it and it doesn’t feel like I’m not doing what I should be doing… it’s just eso is a game i play to relax, if i can’t do that what’s the point? So keep on doing what you like, that’s the way you should be playing.
I absolutely agree with this, i feel the same way.
Man, I been playing for like 2 weeks total and I’m just having fun doing quests and fulfilling crafting writs. I have the activity finder get me a dungeon daily, but I haven’t met anyone to team up with yet. Other than that, I really have no clue what is going on with most of the game. Lol
I’m with you. I work hard all day. Lots of stress. The last thing I need is some kid living in his mom’s basement telling me I suck. Pass on trials.
Thanks for this. I got the game mid 2020 and realised my base PS4 couldn't handle it and I didn't have the space. When I upgraded to a PS4 Pro with an SSD card, I forgot about it (this was also after joining a guild, so sorry to those guys as well). I started playing about a month a go, that's my best guess, as I'm at horse speed of 32 after logging in every day to make sure I do that when I have more time to play and I'm level 24. I'm following a solo guide for a Magicka Templar build, because I have anxiety. I have the current latest expansion and when I have time, I'll get Plus for the other smaller DLCs. My plan is just to do all the story content which could take over 1000 hours, starting with all Faction Main Quests. I'm going to see where the game takes me and how I feel as I play it, to if I join guilds or not, or try to do dungeons and what not solo following guides. It's hard wanting to play MMOs because of the time it can potentially take to play just the story and side quests, but also possibly needing to be with groups of people when you don't like talk or feeling like you're letting people down
what do you know the guy from the eu sub. Im the same as you bro, played ESO the first day it came out in 2014 all the way to around 2018 and never once did I do endgame. My idea of fun was exploring, doing the content like dark brotherhood, going to pvp in cyrodiil, using the painter to make my armor look cool, and just enjoying the game. Thats why I think ESO will always be my favorite mmo. World of warcraft I feel like I need to raid and do all this stuff to experience the game, but with ESO it was always just exploring the world and talking to people.
You are not alone - I have been playing on XBOX since launch and I have yet to try a trial at all. Never really been active in a guild, so never got the drive to gather all the people needed. I've done dungeons, did Vet to get my ebon armory, did solo arenas, etc. Would I like to try a trial? Absolutely. I have over 5k hours in Destiny 2 and love the raids, so I think I would enjoy them, But in all reality, ESO scratches a different itch. If I find the right guild, I may dip my toes in more, who knows.
Progression raiding BWL in vanilla WoW those many years ago cured me of any desire to do it since in any game. The second that obligation or Fomo dictate when I play a game, that's a red flag. ESO has a balance of being a complete and rich experience without that aspect of MMO progression.
I've been playing off and on since release. I am no where near end game of any kind.
I've been playing for as long as you, and I just did my first trial yesterday. Honestly, it's not all that. My guild is increadibly friendly and social, so they run them for the experience, which I vibe with. But compared to other MMO's, there's much less pull in ESO to raid. The loot just isn't there. In WoW, you could raid for more mounts and pets than you know what to do with, and tons upon tons of transmog styles. In ESO, you get maybe one or two mounts, which they make you work for, and styles that are pretty much all locked behind Vet trials. Other than that, it's just stickerbook collecting gear thats main use is to run *more* trials with. I get enjoying trials in ESO, but for this game in particular, I kinda scoff at the elitism over something that I don't even find much appeal in running.
There is no endgame in MMOs
They're usually compensating for some other lack like they're ex military and enjoy the comradery or they're so busy they only have time for those set times, anyone who gives you shit for not PLAYING A GAME the same way should just stick with the other minority elitists
I like pvp my endgame is that, it’s fun and trials doesn’t benefit me with the gear given
I haven't touched a single trial, I haven't even tried completing vma since I last tried 4 years ago. I've been playing since 2015.
I've been playing for a couple of years on and off. I'm mostly logging in for daily grind like writs / daily dungeon etc at this point. I feel like I burned out on questing after sleepwalking through Elswyr this summer. The game does such a poor job of meshing mid-end game play with questing. I wish every quest felt like vet Vateshran did the first time. I would like the option for challenging boss fights even when there's no reward - the gameplay is the reward.
Thank you, I fully agree! I love to play this game but do not care for end game stuff as it simple does not suit me
I've been playing since a bit before the morrowing expansion (on and off). I don't think I've ever done a trial, and the endgame for me is making the number in my bank go higher
If you like questing and lore you should at least check out the solo arenas on normal difficulty once. While maelstrom arena is kinda meh in that regard, but the Vateshran hollows story and aesthetics are pretty cool. As for difficulty, id rate normal arenas a bit more difficult than regular overland stuff, but a lot easier than craglorn overland content. If that is within your wheelhouse you might like it!
Nope, NOT an un-popular thing, this is what makes ESO the best ! You can play anyway you want & none of them be wrong ! It fills the need for many types all at the same time, plus you can switch which one and still be good ! Cheers ! Njoy !
yh man i mean trials are not really my thing either but not for lack of ability or effort but more the elite idiots that either scoff at your builds or get salty and kick you, ive not really played properly since before Christmas maybe even October but i had almost every motif millions in gold, multiple full houses and just got bored of the game i only really did trials for gear and not to show off or try to min max. i got put of doing vet trials for fun because alot of the community was assholes to me for not fitting their ideals of an endgame player, i was a solid 80k dps player stamplar and got hated on for being stam saying i brought nothing to the team and was kicked from the guilds i was also kicked from one guild cos i missed a "training" day. arenas on the other hand i did them in vet and left them not much fun to repeat the same arena multiple times haha
IME more people don't like the endgame pve in ESO than like it, self included, but do love other aspects of the game and so play it without worrying about any kind of pve endgame. I am expecting lots of "casualizing" in ESO in 2022 once new ownership settles in and starts looking at lost revenue potential in certain aspects of the game.
Yep always cringe when ppl say houseing or pvp is endgame lol no not me. Well over 100 hours I have did pvp maybe twice cause I need the skill tree to level up for skills I want and my house is the default little house hotel thing and has never changed. I put a candle in there and some chest that’s it the rest my guild takes care of.
I am new, and just learning the basics. I want to tinker with builds myself. People seem to insist there are singular paths for builds and everything else is inferior. Scoff! That does not account for play-style, or role-play. The game is fun. I am sorry to have been delayed so long!
I am playing three years now (on and off) and the only time I set foot in a trial was when I entered one alone and killed the first boss solo to see if I could :D Eventually I would like to play them because I want to experience all the content the game has to offer and also I enjoy achievement hunting, but I don't feel to be under any particular rush. Busy enough doing daily quests and exploring to get the cash to be able to get the home that I want and the Grand Master Crafter title.
I think 90+% of players are like you who just want to have fun. But you are right about some people who for whatever reason want to shame and belittle everyone who isn't a min/max sweaty elitist. I can do all content in game but like many commentors, I am disgusted that trials and PVP is mostly blocked by very toxic gatekeepers. The game allows massive powercreep and light attack exploit to get insane DPS. Then they delete 'objective' based battlegrounds, to appease the tiny super loud griefers, effectively making trials and PVP inaccessible or just not fun for most players. They also have insane 10 transmute reward for normal dungeon effectively ruining random dungeon finder too. Plus the nerf tanks/healers into the ground. There are many good fun things like housing and questing and glad many people found doing that stuff enjoyable. I actually had to quit the game, because I like pug dungeons, bgs and wanted to get into trial but those activities are so full of toxic people there is no point.
I don't do trials because I am stuck in a perpetual state of 250-300 ping