Recently I traveled to and in Tamriel, meaning I played Elder Scrolls Online. In the following paragraphs I intend to talk a bit about my first impressions. I am not yet max level, but obviously have been in the RvR already.

Basic stuff

The MMO, that is the most similar to TESO is certainly Guild Wars 2. Not only do the share the action combat, but they also share the very low amount of abilities, that are avaible at the same time.

In my case this looks similar to the picture below:

 

There is a huge difference in the total amount of abilities tho. While Guild Wars is pretty much limited on a single line per Weapon, TESO adds lines for class(3 per class), race and curses like vampirism or lycanthropy.

Additionally there are of course lines for armor as well. Sadly, those mainly feature passive skills and just a single active one. In my case that one increases armor and resistances for a short while, making heavy armor even harder to kill.

As visible above, I decided to turn my high elf into a vampire. That makes me even more flameable than usual, but allows me to regenerate Magicka(Mana) and Stamina faster. Fire is one of the most common sources of damage in the game, so that right now I certainly can’t be counted among the true tanks.

My long term goal is building something similar to a swordmaster from WAR. Right now I think I have way too much cc and not enough damage, but at least the look is getting more and more similar.

Plugins/Addons

Similar to WAR, CURSE provides a huge amount of Addons. Additional Addons can be found in the larger pool at ESOUI.

Next FoundryTacticalCombat , which is pretty much a must have for anyone with hots, dots or cc, I obviously also had a look at other addons.  😉 The mentioned one displays the timers for example.

Even if some persons think, that the game provides enough information, I really doubt anyone can keep the effcts on his screen to low, that all important stuff can be seen. I certainly don’t see if I’m bleeding while I’m glowing from casting heals.

The following addons are being tested by me at the moment:

Inventory and Banks

Name	Description
AdvancedFilters	Better filters for the inventory
DurabilityDolly	Shows the repair-status of worn equipment on a doll
GuildStoreSearchEx	search function in the guild’s bank
InventoryItemBorders	shows the item’s quality a bit more obvious
SoulGemsCounter	counts soul gems by type and status and give a nice overview in a bar
EquipmentLevel	showa an item’s quality with a numerical value, i.e. showing an equipment level
Stacked	automatically reunites split stacks, that get created by trading for example
Roomba	Speeds up reuniting stacks in the guild’s vault
XAutoRepair	automatically repairs worn gear when entering a shopping menue
YssEquipmentIndicator	Shows repair status and quality more obviously in the character window
Zolan_JunkHandler	gets rid of junk automatically(selling it) and can even learn from user input

Battle

Name	Description
AMF	Better display for block and parry
FoundryTacticalCombat	a more usual display of life, stamina and health as well as a display of (de)buff timers
TargetLookup	quick information on the target on a top-hp-bar
RangeReticle	additional information on the recticle, like for example distance
PL_CombatIndicator	an easier to see fighting-status(i.e. in combat, out of combat)

Map

Name	Description
LoreBooks	shows the books on the map, that give mage guild experience
MundusMap	marks mundus stones(where you get buffs)
SkyShards	marks Skyshards
TreasureMaps	marks treasures
ZrMM-Modified	a Mini Map

Crafting

Name	Beschreibung
MultiCraft	allows crafting of multiple items of the same type
ResearchBuddy	a useful view for research

Sozial

Name	Beschreibung
BuddyWindow	the usual messages for guildmembers and friends, like levelups, logins and logouts
XTimestamp	shows the timestamp of chat messages
DerpURL	makes it possible to easily copy URLs from chat
SocialIndicators	marks guildmates and friends

Others

Name	Description
AwesomeInfo	adds additional information like a clock, a mount feeding timer, a note concerning research slots and inventory space
Clock	shows the time in Tamriel, i.e. the game world, which is important for some vampire abilities and hunting vampires and werewolfs
Esohead	a data collection addon, that is a requirement for others
jovAST	copy ui-settings between characters
mhFramework
MultiQuestTracker	display multiple quests at the same time as with usual MMOs
SlightlyImprovedExperienceBar	mostly just makes the XP-bar nicer looking
SoftcapInfo	tells how much of your stats you loose due to the soft cap
VampireStatus	the current hunger state and time to the next one
SpendSkillPoints	the spend skillpoints by path, giving an easier overview over
Photographer	hiding the UI for screenshots
UX_Dialogue	improvements to the basic dialog system
OptionsRestacker	among other things it orders addon settings by addon name

The PvP

The PvP part of TESO is a zergfest at the moment. Large groups of players try their best at zerging down keeps, that are defended by NPCs and players. The defencive bonus of the castles helps the factions in full-ish instances, because of giving the third faction some room to breath. Sadly, there are a lot of nearly empty or completely one sided instances as well – those are good for leveling but don’t really provide fights.

Due to server-controlled healing targets and server controlled defensive effects, organised groups have a harder time countering zergs. How would you beat something, where every defensive logic is provided by the server and can’t be countered with better organisation?

Single target heals of the templar target a random, wounded target in range. That generally means, that a target is healed, that you didn’t intend to heal, often killing the intended target outright.

Area of effect heals are an alternative, because they make it way more likely, that the intended target is also healed. Sadly, the mana costs are pretty high and the very low mana regeneration just can’t keep up.

Obviously there are ways to help counter the lack of regeneration. Vampires and High elves both have boni in that field for example. While that helps reducing the impact, it sadly doesn’t fix the basic problem – lack of control of who to heal.

Balancing

At the moment I don’t really have the time to go into detail about the balancing, I just didn’t spend enough time in PvP yet. Therefore the following are just first impressions:

• Melees suffer a lot from CC and the high damage in the game
• Stealth for everyone mostly leads to ganking groups ganking loners
• the targeting troubles create AoE-spam, whereever it’s an option
• Stealthers are less bursty than in WAR, but are even harder to pin down due to fleeing
• Both werewolves and vampires seem to level their abilities especially slow. While those abilities aren’t that much stronger(due to ability/bar-limit), they suffer the full drawbacks right from the start, making them way weaker than other players. 50% more fire damage really doesn’t add up with a mediocre drain and a small stun on a rank 1 vampire
• The RvR-Servers are very different in population. Some are nearly empty, like Skull breaker, while others are to full to actually join. There would certainly be PvP, but the qeune is too long during usual play hours
• RvR-Servers are considered full pretty early. I haven’t seen fights with more than 50 players and that seemed like half of the server’s population.
• Those that collect skyshards end up with a lot of left over skill points, since there is just not enough useful stuff to buy with them.

Did those of you, that tried TESO have different experiences? What do you think about the balancing in PvP and especially that of healing? Do you have a better ability combination to make my character “swordmaster”-like or is mine fine so far?

Yours,

Idrinth