Elder Scrolls: Online

[Epona]

I run a trading guild on the NA server, and I just don't know what to do with myself at the moment. Normally trader switchover happens at midday GMT, and NA server goes down at 1pm, so if I lost my bid I have an hour before the server goes offline to try to find an unhired kiosk.

Server went down at 11am today. DLC release, so kiosk bids are likely to be higher than usual. I do not yet know whether I have won the bid for my guild today, and it is doing my head in a bit, not knowing when the server will be back up (EU escapes it this time around their trader switchover is on Tuesday, I think about 2am).

If I haven't won my bid, the fact I don't have the fastest download speed in the universe puts me (and the 475 guildmembers that I do this for) at a disadvantage when the servers come back up.

 

[moon]

The EU PS4 server is still down...
Will you be getting the theives guild dlc? Does it come with a camel mount? If yes then show us yours
I love the mounts in this game, it makes me want to go horse riding again...

 

[Epona]

The PSU server should be back up now

I have a sub so get the DLC included in that, so I won't get a camel right away (I love the idea of a camel, but I want to see how many crowns the bank assistant costs before splurging on something unnecessary iykwim.)

I am going to get the thieves guild DLC even on my second account where I don't have a sub - I don't want to spoil it (and I have not even played all of it), but the main quests involve a lot of sneaking and hiding and then more sneaking - it seems quite well designed.

I am still waiting forever for this fucking update to fucking download, fuck my ISP and fuck Zeni and fuck whatever subatomic particles may be impeding my download speed. *cries* (only because I still don't know whether my guild got the kiosk yet).

 

[moon]

They are taking the eu ps4 server offline at 17.30 last time it was 6 hrs before it came back again.. I need to feed my horse..

 

[Epona]

Still downloading, I'd better have bloody got my bid, because there will be people already on the server and any uhired kiosks will have already been taken.

Consoles aren't getting the DLC today, so hopefully your downtime will be a bit shorter

 

[Epona]

Download finished now dealing with 5 minute login screen, which is normal after a big update. OH came home with a can of Ursus beer which was unexpected, but not unwelcome (I kind of nicked it off him, reminds me of when I lived in Romania for a while).

OMFG please just can this game load? Taking forever.

 

[Epona]

Trader bid won

 

[Epona]

Now just trying to work out which of my addons are bolloxed

 

[moon]

I just uploaded some random exploring footage

 

[moon]

Epona are you rocking a templar class? Apparently it has been changed with the last update..
I'm still learning the build but I've read that it will now be more powerful in pve/pvp, also one of the developers hinted at it's building defence capabilities which has lead some people to speculate that templars will receive some form of player housing.. but I think its more a nod to keep defence in Cyrodiil

 

[moon]

The Daggerfall Covenant... yeah!!!

 

[Epona]

Templars, yeah - I actually have quite a few templars

The really good change that they made is they removed that annoying brief knockback (which didn't do a lot other than give the enemy a period of cc immunity!) from jabs/sweep and replaced it with a 70% movement reduction which is much more useful. I do hope they will revisit Templar skills in the next update though and improve some of them, the class has a couple of fairly useless skills, and the defensive shield could do with some improvement to bring it up to par with what other classes have available.

 

[Epona]

I am using the 64bit client and it has some amusing sound and graphics glitches (it wasn't ready to be released obviously, and to use it you have to bypass the launcher - but it's giving me a better framerate, so...) - sometimes the wrong sounds play, so earlier today I was switching between guild banks and every time I hit the drop down menu, it would bark like a dog

Thanks to changes in drop-rates of VR15/16 mats in Wrothgar I now have enough rubedo leather to make my VR16 some gear - but cannot decide which style to go for. It takes so many mats that I have to be certain about what I want before I make it! Why oh why is there no gear preview in the crafting screen?

 

[Vintage Paw]

That's one thing that would be such a good quality of life improvement. How on earth it's not already in the game is beyond me. It's like they've never played a game before.

 

[Epona]

Mind you, she's been wearing one of the Orsinium quest reward costumes for months now, so any style gear would probably do

 

[Epona]

I am really enjoying the Thieves Guild DLC btw - the zone of Hew's Bane is quite small, but the city, Abah's Landing, is incredibly well designed. Best of all, the questline is good, and there are repeatable thieving objectives from the 'hints board' and heists (which I haven't tried yet). And the thieves' troves all over tamriel which provide good rewards, new potions for escaping from guards, and pardon edicts which can be used to remove a portion of bounty. And revamped dropped sets up to VR16, suitable for stealthy operation. There are also new crafting motifs.

 

[moon]

I just laundered a whole lot of stolen goods at the outlaws refuge in Daggerfall, I'm not sure what happened to them but I got a trophy.
I spent a bit of time showing a level 9 around a dungeon and have called it a day, as last night I was partying in the square with a bunch of DC brethren until the early hrs

 

[Epona]

I have sorted out some gear (at minimal cost, naturally), for thieving purposes. I have:

Hunding's Rage:
Med Chest
Med Legs
Med Head
Med Waist
Greatsword (on 1st bar)

Shadow Dancer:
Light Feet
Light Hands
Sword (for DW on second bar)
Ring x2

Nightshade:
Med Shoulders
Dagger (for DW on second bar)
Necklace

This means that I get 5 piece weapon damage bonus for Hunding's Rage set when I am on my 2H bar; when I switch to Dual Wield I get 3 piece 2m detection radius reduction and 23% reduced sneak cost from Nightshade, and 5 piece no movement speed sneak penalty from Shadow Dancer.

This is not a setup I would use for vet dungeons or PvP as I lose some weapon crit and stam regen, but for questing whilst thieving it should work ok, even though Shadow Dancer set is not ideal for a stam build.

I will report back.

 

[Epona]

Well it certainly works well for thieving! Seems OK in combat too.
My other option might be to go for 5 piece Night's Silence (for the ignore sneak movement penalty bonus), 5 piece Night Mother's Embrace (which has both necklaces and rings, for the detection radius/sneaking stamina reduction), and one of the monster shoulders (whichever gives best 1 piece bonus in terms of stamina/weapon build).

I'll try that out also before making any costly (in terms of upgrade mats!) decisions

 

[Epona]

So trying to find Night Mother's Embrace stuff with decent traits is really pissing me off right now, all the stuff I have looted have sturdy or exploration (the latter is fine when you're level 10, but wtf is a VR16 supposed to do with that?)

Someone also pointed out to me that using 7 pieces medium is better with the med armour passive for detection radius reduction than giving up 2 armour slots to use Night Mother's Embrace (which only drops in heavy).

So I will try out:

Hunding's Rage: 4 pieces med armour + Greatsword on bar 1
Night's Silence: 3 pieces med armour + 2x mace or sword on bar 2

That way I have 7 pieces of medium for better detection radius passive, can switch weapon sets to go between weapon damage and fast sneak, better 2/3/4 piece set bonuses for my build, whichever traits I like, and still have my jewellery slots free.

Now lets see if in 24 hours time I have managed to commit to this or whether I have changed my mind again

 

[moon]

Sounds good Epona.
I recently deconstructed 2 bits of Argonian medium armour thinking I would increase my survivability by using heavy armour...
but no..no..no I felt drained of stamina the whole time and could not fight effectively at all.
So now I'm going to have to find or craft the Caiman armour set again... god knows how.. but I will learn.

I just had a read of the Skyrim thread (my first experience of gaming in 2014) and it's interesting how different ESO is, looking back Skyrim was more story led, immersive and lore heavy but the graphics were so bad that I can't replay it.
ESO is more combat based, social and with much better graphics but has less story, I'm going to pay more attention to quests though as I'm probably rushing them to level up.

 

[Epona]

OK so I did it - a full set of VR16 gear upgraded to gold. Didn't have enough Repora to enchant every piece mind you, should be able to finish that off over the next couple of days now that white truly superb glyphs drop in Wrothgar and Hew's Bane (which can be deconned for VR16 potency runes).

So I have:
Bar 1 - 5 pc Hundings Rage and 3 pc Night's Silence which gives me:
+688 weapon crit
+967 max stamina
+688 weapon crit
+300 weapon damage
+967 max stamina
+129 stam recovery

Bar 2 - 5 pc Night's Silence and 4 pc Hundings Rage which gives me:
+688 weapon crit
+967 max stamina
+688 weapon crit
+967 max stamina
+129 stam recovery
+688 weapon crit
Ignore movement speed penalty whilst stealthing

I also crafted a bow which I can put on bar 2 where ranged is necessary.

 

[moon]

I spent a good amount of time in game this weekend (I think it is more of an experience ) skyshard hunting in Glenumbra, pvping with my guild, doing some undaunted quests.
The game is beginning to give me the feels as I get to know the characters more, and make friends with more DC members, we all text each other using the playstation phone app, it's great for coordinating in Cyrodiil.
I've been starting my day by sitting in the cathedral and reflecting on the Divines and the king, the reasons we are doing this. It helps with the immersion. I'm amazed at how many other people seem to go to the cathedral too even though the priest sounds like some sort of Bronx mafia boss.
I want to practice setting up 3 siege weapons for keep attacks and zerg control ready for next Sunday's PVP, plus hopefully get to level 30.

 

[moon]

I've started crafting and am wondering if it's worth levelling provisioning? As Cyrodiilic food seems to be pretty good and can be bought with alliance points.

 

[Epona]

I've started crafting and am wondering if it's worth levelling provisioning? As Cyrodiilic food seems to be pretty good and can be bought with alliance points.

Level provisioning! Crafted food is always better than purchased food (either in game purchases or crown store), and it is useful at all levels to have crafted food, at high levels more so.

Even if you never plan to make your own food/drink, you can take passives in the skill line that increase the duration of food and drink buffs, which is something like a 30% duration increase for blue quality food/drink, more for green.

It only takes about an hour to get provisioning up to 50, as long as you have ingredients and have been picking up recipes and learning them. If you haven't, you can buy recipes at guild stores (and after you get the big update next week you will be able to buy some green recipes from chefs and brewers, if you need some to get started.)

When leveling, start with making level 15 recipes - they give you the most inspiration (crafting XP) out of the low level recipes that don't require any skillpoints in provisioning.

EDIT (start with making Level 15 recipes, not VR15 recipes!)

 

[moon]

Even if you never plan to make your own food/drink, you can take passives in the skill line that increase the duration of food and drink buffs, which is something like a 30% duration increase for blue quality food/drink, more for green.

Aha!
Ok I will try, although I already have a load of pies, pan fried trout, crusty bread etc etc and never seem to run out.
I never drink drinks either, the boosts don't stack so I'd rather have more health/stam than quicker regen.
The Cyrodiilic field bar gives you 2 boosts and lasts a hr, plus there are wells which give you more health.
To be honest it will probably be the last crafting skill I level, but I will eat humble pie if I ever kick myself for neglecting it.
Btw is there something I should know about the undaunted hangouts with all the caged animals etc, I get the impression that they are a bit dodgy..

I'm currently doing quests in my second area which is around level 16 and Im 31 so not gaining much Xp there, and even managed to complete some quests in Cyrodiil by going in when not many people were camping outside the quest areas..so annoying.

I treated myself to a cute little fennec fox pet and am adding stamina to my mounts now that I've reached 20% extra speed, I'm looking forward to getting armour for my bear.

I've been grouped with the emperor for my last few campaigns and have been learning a lot, mostly that speed is of the essence, once you have a critical mass with some experienced players, standing around is not an option, keeping an eye on the health bars of your group can tell you where you need to be etc

I tried to capture a farm on my own, with a lightening ballista and it ended in tears and a burnt down siege weapon

 

[Epona]

Besides running my own trading guild on NA, I also belong to one of the big trading guilds - and just came 2nd in one of their trivia nights - won myself part of the Outlaw motif and some mats. Only came 2nd because some of the questions were about '80s UK music - even not being a music buff, I knew more about The Smiths and Adam and the Ants than most participants, just by virtue of being alive in the '80s in the UK LOL.

 

[Epona]

Huh, I just wandered in halfway through another trivia night, and took 3rd place. I really need to start turning up at the beginning of these events!

 

[Epona]

Am now halfway through the Upper Craglorn quests with the 2 other women that I regularly group with on Friday night. It's a bit more difficult than the Lower Crag stuff, but tonight we got through the quest alright after wiping a few times. We don't have a full-time tank in our group, which can make some battles (especially when designed for a full group of 4) a bit "oh shit oh shit oh shit".

Our last attempt on this particular boss, everyone else died when the boss was at about 15% health and I just got extremely lucky with getting crits on my execute. I actually died at the same time the boss did (has this horrible stacking stun/poison aoe with a wide radius), but it counted as a win for us so it's all good

 

[moon]

I had a fantastic time at a PvP event on Sunday, I somehow managed to turn my horse into a bomb (probably a glitch) by jumping off the high ledge at the DC gates into a huge group of EPs who had pinned us in for ages, the first time I did it I died almost immediately, the second time I managed to survive only to find I had wiped out a number of players in a wide circle around me, and the rest were looking on a bit stunned lol.. I'm not sure what happened and I didn't try it again as the EPs ran off..
I managed to morph my bow into an arrow spray which immobilises and then restricts movement speed, and shortly after I was able to morph Rapid Manoeuvre so that it disabled immobilising effects on allies, which was great as I was worried EP would start using my new skill on us in return.
I finally feel as if I can contribute more than keep defence etc in Cyrodiil.. I've also decided I want to be a werewolf for one of the roar abilities which grants extra weapon power to allies, mostly for Cyrodiil guild events.

I accidentally deconstructed my favourite outfit and can't seem to find the style material needed to recreate it.. if anyone knows what it is from the picture below please help.

I did however manage to make these hide jacks in the Bosmer and Argonian styles.. they have about 50 in armour rating so I'm saving them for parties etc