ESO: Morrowind update... what I think

Iselin

I've already said multiple times that I am one of the many ESO players who is not happy with the way ZOS changed both their DLC delivery model that was formerly included with ESO+ subs and the new yearly batching of DLCs into something they're calling a "Chapter" for various reasons - not the least of which is that the tendency will be to just push small and relatively trivial stuff into the other non-chapter DLCs that are still included in the sub and batch all the good stuff into the paid yearly chapter.

I have also been critical of their over-hype of this Morrowind DLC making it seem more significant than it actually is and the gaming sites have essentially just gone along with this over-hype. This serves no useful purpose of informing current and prospective players about what they should expect with ESO: Morrowind.

So you might think that I am also unhappy with their $39 ($32 at Greenman) price. Well, I'm not. Considering the pricing of precious DLC, this DLC bundle, A.K.A. "chapter" is worth it. The Warden and the battlegrounds could have easily been sold as one DLC and Vvardenfell as another one. So this is the pricing for a 2 DLC bundle... maybe even 3 if you carve out the BGs from the Warden although IMO, that'd be stretching it.

So I clearly do have a problem with what I wrote in first two paragraphs but I was perfectly fine, after spending several weeks in the closed beta seeing the value. and did plunk down my $32.

So what do you get for that?

Vvardenfell

This new zone that will be familiar to anyone who played the original ES Morrowind is slightly bigger than Orsinium. It is very well done with some new art assets, a few new critters (and even Daedra enemies we haven't seen before,) some delves and public dungeons that are much better done than the delves and PDs that exist in the vanilla zones.

There's roughly about 30 hours of content there which will take you to about level 20-25 (NOTE: with this update they've also changed XP gains making it easier to level at the low levels and harder as you approach level 50 - they've said 1-50 is roughly the same overall.) So you can right away get rid of the notion from the hype that you can level 1-50 just in Vvardenfell. Well, technically you could do it by grinding after you've done all the quest content and gone through all the delves and PDs once. But this is no different than what you can do in any other zone in the game since you're always scaled to the mob's CP160 level. Hell, there have even been some threads posted in the general forums of a group a people that leveled 1-50 just in the Coldharbour tutorial But no, Vvardenfell has no more content than any other zone. If you're going to level to 50 there it'll be by grinding.

A common complaint in the beta forum as a matter of fact was that it doesn't have enough content for the size. Peronally I thought it was fine but then, I wasn't expecting the hyped megazone, just a new zone, so I was not dissapointed.

One thing I should tell you right of the bat though is that some of the quests are very different from what you might be used to if you haven't played the Dark Brotherhood and Thieve's Guild DLC. There are many, many quests that are just part of the Vvardenfell story line where you'll have to do the hide in containers thing while you wait out patrols in both exterior and interior "trespass" environments. If you have played the DB and Thieve's DLC this will be familar to you. If you haven't you better stock up on pardon edicts because you'll acumulate heat with all the guards in the game (since they all have this ESP thing going on that lets them know you're wanted at the other end of the continent even ) This is the first time they have added these stealth quests into a regular zone. (Pro tip: buy a cheap house near an outlaws refuge such as the one at Elden Root in Grahtwood. If you need to get rid of the heat quickly port to your home for free from anywhere and then go to the refuge to become upstanding.)

There were some complaints from some testers about some of the new art assets. In particular the base of Telvanni towers were thought not to look fungal enough and more like a jumble of flesh atronach parts. I thought they looked fine myself /shrug.

And before I go on to talk about the Warden, I should also mention that if you own this DLC and create a new character (of any class) you'll be doing the new quick tutorial that takes place in Vvardenfell. Not much to say abou it other than the fact that they've made it much easier for you to equip your weapon of choice and armor of choice that is just waiting for you to pick up from the floor of a couple of huts, weapon racks, tables, etc. It's not as random as the original tutorial. If you want to use a destro staff or a resto one or dual wield or whatever else, you'll easily be able to do that here. That's a nice change.

Overall? Great zone. Very well done. I enjoyed my time there.

(continued on next post)

Iselin

The Warden

If I were to sum up the Warden in one word that word would be "meh."

Sorry to disappoint but it needs to mature with the many changes that will come to it over time I'm sure. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad class. It just isn't a great one yet. 

I had to laugh about all the rants from the week that this first went onto the PTS and the conspiracy theorists that were citing the nerfs to some abiliities of the other 4 classes as evidence that this was being done just to make the Warden that much better than all others thus making it P2W. It really is hilarious because

1. Warden DPS is very underwhelming currently (although we know that is getting buffed a bit today - by how much it's anyone's guess),
2. Warden healing is awkward to say the least with a lot more directional cone healing than either Templar or resto staff heals and
3. Warden tanks can't hold a candle to DK tanks at the moment.

P2W class? LOL... not by a long shot. As a matter of fact it is one of the least buffed new classes introduced into an MMO that I have ever seen. There is no typical WOW formula of over-buff the new guys and then nerf them in a few months... no way, nohow. As things stand now the Warden is not even close to being the best DPS nor the best healer (Templars still are) nor the best tank.

So how does it play? It does have some interesting abilities on the DPS side of things. I think everyone's favorite has to be Scorch and its morphs. Scorch is a narrow frontal cone AOE with a twist. It goes off 3 seconds after you activate it in the direction you're facing at the time it goes off. It's great for bursting single targets by having it + something else go off together, as well as packs and it combines extremely well with other AOE such as the destro staff Wall of Elements for some double AOE goodness. This is a good thing, especially for low level players who tend to struggle with packs of mobs since most every class and weapon skill line has AOE abilities that unlock later. This makes the Warden very noob friendly. Well at least for those noobs who get how important AOE is in ESO. And if that wasn't good enough, there is another AOE ability you can get early, Impaling Shards from the Winter line that allows you to drop down a 3rd one if you so choose - good for soloing dolmens or public dungeons. They're good fun, abilities that just need a bit of extra oomph to be great ones.

Another fun DPS ability that does something unique is one of the morphs of Swarm. This ability is a single target DOT with the twist that after it runs its course on the first target it can spread to up to 6 other nearby targets. Like all Warden DPS though, this one also needs a buff.

The Ultimate grizzly however is a bit underwhelming to be honest. So what's wrong with it? It doesn't do enough damage, it telegraphs its occasional higher damage rear-up ability to such an extent that even dumb NPC mobs easily move to avoid it more often than not. But worst of all, it's damage dealing abilites do not generate aggro. The lowly sorcerer Clanfear is actually a much better pet in this regard since one of its abilities does aggro. It's a big freaking bear that every mob ignores... that's just wrong. It does have an extra ability that you can activate (at the cost of all your ultimate resource) that does decent damage and double that when used as an execute on mobs under 25% health but that attack is prone to also miss and the damage is not that much for an ultimate... put this one into the "needs work and buffs category."

While I'm talking about the bear I should also mention that there has been a bug for the last few builds on the PTS that prevents the warden bear and the sorcerer pets from regenerating health whether in or out of combat. If you don't have "show friendly NPC health bar when injured" turned on (and it's off by default) you wouldn't even know this. All you would know is that the pet occasionally dies mysteriously for no good reason that you can see. It's dying becuase it's not regenerating health between fights and their injuries will whitle down their health to a sliver and a simple light attack from a trash mob could be enough to kill it at that point. Sure hope they get this one fixed soon.

Battlegrounds

I didn't do any... at all. It's just not the sort of PVP that interests me, I'm a Cyrodiil PVPer not a BG kind of guy.

At any rate, this DLC is very much worth getting IMO. Just don't go in expecting an expansion-like experience. It's a new class, BGs and a new zone. Go into it with ESO DLC expectations and you'll enjoy it that much more.

If you're playing it, let's hear your comments.

Megilindir

I am not playing it but here is my 2 cents;
If a dedicated player and a long time poster speaks of his/her thing with a sub-par tone, even if you say it is worth it, the subtitles speak otherwise if you know what I mean.

Your clean objectivity in this review indicates that the product is average at most, like others, which is not surprising.
Good read.I will stay away from it.

Ikeda

Pffffttttt... I'm back and currently lost in the maze that seems to be Thieves Guild quests.  I finally am into it.  It took completely just porting to a random city and going to get into it but ever since then.  Sad to hear about Warden.  But ultimately Vvardenfell is what I was waiting for.  Super excited.

d_20

I'm looking forward to it because I love Morrowind and basically enjoy ESO. I don't have super-high expectations. I'm just going to enjoy all the Elder Scrolls goodness I can, and this time, it's in my favorite setting. 

I haven't participated in the beta at all, even though I got an invite, because I want it to be a fresh experience. I'm just in it for the fun and I'm not going to put it under a microscope. But I do appreciate @Iselin 's review and would like to see more posts like this!

Hariken

I have complained about all the hype for this too. I won't be playing this and it will be nothing like Morrowind which is what everyone is pushing. I played Morrowind and all its expansions back when it came out. Played no other game for two years. Was even in a group that would discuss the game and things we would discover that no one else might have. ESO's so called Morrowind is just in name only because the timeline is not the same. Its a heck of alot greener than Morrowind was too. To me the baron waste land was what made Morrowind feel so alien.

Iselin

Ikeda said:

Pffffttttt... I'm back and currently lost in the maze that seems to be Thieves Guild quests.  I finally am into it.  It took completely just porting to a random city and going to get into it but ever since then.  Sad to hear about Warden.  But ultimately Vvardenfell is what I was waiting for.  Super excited.

If you enjoy the stealth trespasser quests, you'll have a blast with all the ones in Vvardenfell.

pantaro

DMKano said:

Im playing it.

The warden is indeed meh, I gave him a good ol college try but the class is just not for me. Just couldnt get into the flow of it, it felt underwhelming from the start.

The new zone is all PvE which I avoid so cant really comment much outside how it looks. I think that just like the rest of ESO - the world artists did an amazing job. Kudos there. Again as far as quests and stuff go - no clue as I dont quest.

Battlegrounds just lack the excitement of Cyrodiil for me, so I will give them more tries but so far its not grabbing me.

Overall it feels like a chapter - so I agree with their naming for this. For me personally this is not worth the money but I am the wrong audience for this.

For those that like new PvE content and like the warden it will be money well spent.

pretty much agree with all of this except it's maybe worth half the price way too much money for what your getting. not really surprised tho consider they have done things like DLC dungeons in the past. But i'm sure a super elder scrolls fan would love it

YashaX

15% of the update downloaded...

I'm thinking of building an ice-tank warden that can perma aoe root followed up with some stuns, probably use an imperial, S&B and maybe ice-staff?

I like how the class has easy access to most of the important buffs, but its hard to see whether to go stamina or magicka: or rather I'd like to go stamina to make the most of S&B/weapons, but the warden class skills overall look more tuned towards magicka. It also seems to have a good synergy with ice-staff, which again makes magicka important.

Iselin

YashaX said:

15% of the update downloaded...

I'm thinking of building an ice-tank warden that can perma aoe root followed up with some stuns, probably use an imperial, S&B and maybe ice-staff?

I like how the class has easy access to most of the important buffs, but its hard to see whether to go stamina or magicka: or rather I'd like to go stamina to make the most of S&B/weapons, but the warden class skills overall look more tuned towards magicka. It also seems to have a good synergy with ice-staff, which again makes magicka important.

At the present time, yeah it definitely favors magicka. However it does have a stamina morph of the first heal ability that you unlock which is unusual. It's very easy to have a good self heal on low level stamina character long before you unlock the PVP one... that's something.

Iselin

Nyctelios said:

The "stealth" quests of Morrowind. Are you forced to stealth your way or can you kill your path open?

It's like all current Thieve's and DB quests that are like that. You can kill your way through them but you're going to really pile up large amounts of bounty really fast if you do.

Signex

30 hours seems quiet short for a MMO DLC/Expansion.

Octagon7711

Thanks for the review!  Well done!

Lheiah

I'm really excited about Morrowind, it's kind of weird though. I haven't been on the PTS because I wanted to save the experience for when the content went persistent. Personally, I hate questing; after 20 odd years of questing it has gotten really stale. That being said, I do want to see the new story content one time, but no more. Because of that, I will be doing Morrowind on my NB, instead of trying out the Warden. If skill points and achievements were account wide, I might reconsider, but as is, my NB is to fleshed out to endure the encumbrance of a new toon for content I don't see myself doing again in the years to come. I still haven't had the urge to repeat vanilla content yet and that's been two years.

I actually like to pvp, well in the right circumstance, so I'm kinda meh on the whole BG's idea. I don't care for the long run back mechanic in Cyrodil, so I've never really done much with that content. The new pvp content is a little intriguing, but to me it's not what I consider BG'S. To me, it more of arena style pvp than what I consider BG's. Naming conventions, but oh well. I see it turning into more of an elitism thing by only having 4 players on a team, and I can understand it to a degree, but one weak link on the team and the team is pretty much screwed. Ah well, I'm sure many will enjoy it, but don't think it will be my cup of tea. Maybe ZOS will add some larger team member maps in the future.

I don't know, yeh, I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time it's more of the better choice of the evils available. I've played many mmo's over the years, and after awhile I've gotten to the point with every new game, I feel like I'm playing the same game I just left but with different graphics. Now, I'm of the mind set to pick the graphics one likes and just stick with that game, which is why I have played ESO exclusively for the last 2 years.

The one thing I have truly enjoyed in ESO is the Justice system and look forward to more of that and by previous posts seems there will be quite a bit, so happy about that. I've enjoyed my kitty NB. For an rpg, she has a life in the game and activities that I can't keep up with for my available gaming time. ESO does a good job of scratching that gaming itch in just the way I like it, definitely good enough I don't see the need to take my entertainment or cash elsewhere.

Jemcrystal

Morrowind patch today and live for those with early access.



also fan made music:

TheDarkrayne

So disappointed that this is just another DLC pack. They marketed it like a proper expansion. It's definitely not. Drip feeding small amounts of content for the price of a full expansion. I hate it.

Distopia

You might have convinced me, that never happens here; Kudos haha. 

Octagon7711

So far zero dark anchors and no shards.  And very few lore books for levelling mages guild.

Iselin

Octagon7711 said:

So far zero dark anchors and no shards.  And very few lore books for levelling mages guild.

Yeah. I probably should have mentioned a bit about that for anyone thinking of using Vvardenfell as their starting zone. There are shards but no dark anchors. No Mundus stones anywhere either so you'll be missing that buff.

Also, even though you can join the mage and fighter's guilds in Vivec city, they don't give you any quests other than just the initial "join" one. There are lots of daedra around so you can progress the fighter's guild skill line fairly well despite having no dark anchors but the mage's is very slow going there.

You really are much better off going to other zones first and doing Vvardenfell a bit later but I thought that advice would fall on deaf ears with the new shiny zone and tutorial beckoning everyone.

Iselin

Torval said:

That was pretty insightful. I didn't realize that guild progress would be so light.

The dark anchors there don't really make much sense in context, but there could have been an activity contributes in a similar manner. Maybe that would have trivialized guild progress though.

I do want to see the new tutorial and the Vvardenfell narrative but I also love leveling through the AD timeline (Auridon, Grahtwood, etc).

I found that going through Khenarthi's Roost, then going to Grahtwood to grab the +magicka mundus stone and then going back to start the post-tutorial Vvardenfell worked pretty well. You'll be there at level 10-12... worked for me.

Darksworm

Marketing is marketing.  It always aims to make something seem substantially better than it actually is.  You should always take what they show you, and think of something that would enthuse you about half as much...

That's generally what you should expect as an end-product ;-)

I pretty much gave up on ESO, personally.  I got all the expansions up to Dark Brotherhood, but I quit after getting my first character to 50.  The game just felt like a disorganized mess to me, so I lost interest.

YashaX

After playing the bgs for a bit, I think they are underwhelming: they just aren't as fun as the bgs in other mmos, and there are various issues for me including the scoring, rewards, balance, people frequently leaving, lack of tutorials/explanation etc.

UNH0LYEV1L

Frankly i am incredibly disappointed that I bought it. The "expansion" pack is incredibly small, and quests are nothing special. Battlegrounds are usually an incredibly one sided slaughter. The Warden play style is very bland and excels at few things. 

The battlegrounds are a mess, long queues, disconnects, penalty for being a deserter when you aren't one...its like a fucking beta test honestly...

Iselin

I have to say that the warden, at least the magicka DPS variety, is growing on me. I think this is because I'm getting to do something with it that I didn't get the chance to do very much during beta: 4-man instanced dungeons. The population on the beta server was small and the group finder was often bugged.

The warden really shines in groups because of some extra group utility it brings to the table in addition to its DPS:

• Slot your first cone group heal and you're a pocket healer that can help out if needed also giving them +10% stamina and magicka recovery.
• Pop Ice Fortress for damage mitigation and anyone near you gets it too.
• Use the Winter ultimate, Northern Storm instead of the bear and you do AOE damage centered on you and give everyone +30% damage mitigation. Plus just having it slotted gives you +8% magicka.

As you would expect there are many wardens running random dungeons and I've been in several groups with 3 or 4 wardens Normal dungeons are a cakewalk with those parties.

Iselin

Torval said:

I haven't got to play much so my warden is really low level, but I slotted the ice attack and then the cone heal. I can see this being a great small group player. The ease of aoe heals and buffs is pretty sweet.

I was level 4 and tried the troll. I didn't die because I know how not to die unless I'm stupid, but I couldn't take him with the ice attack and heal. My gear is just a little too crappy and I can't take the hits to stay close enough for the interrupt (which isn't my strong skill).

The bash attack interrupt is much easier to do if you block first and then bash: right click and hold to block and then left click does a bash.

When I first started I was trying to push left + right click at the same time which is a lot harder to pull off.

Sovrath

On one hand I love the atmosphere and I'm not really bothered with some of the differences; a cave missing, the reshaping of Balmora, etc.

I am a bit saddened that it's actually smaller than the original island. I opened up the map planing to make the trip to Vivec only to see it was a hop, skip and a jump from Seyda Neen.

While I like some of the quests, I'm now on an annoying one in Balmora where I have to chase after some girl's friend and not be seen. I thought I was being clever and going around the building to catch the runner going through a particular doorway but the runner always "find a hiding spot". It's a bit frustrating.