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The controversial way of leveling the new Psijic skill line.
Iselin
Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
Summerset hit the ESO public test server this past Monday and quite a few of us have been in there trying out new things. There is a partial NDA but it's limited exclusively to the contents of the main quest in Summerset. It's a "no quest spoilers" kind of NDA just for that quest line.
One of the things I've been focusing on with a brand new character created just for this is the Psijic Guild quest and skills. This post is not about the Psijic skills themselves which are getting favorable reviews so far (well, all except the "Undo" ultimate that we can't get at yet due to a bug.) What I'm going to highlight here is how the skill line advances because it's very different from almost every other skill line in the game and it's getting pretty well universal negative reviews so far.
You get access to Arteum and the beginning of the Psijic line very quickly if you follow the main Summerset quest. And that's where the grind begins... and I do mean grind.
There are no activities that you might do as a part of your normal game play (e.g. Mage's guild books, Fighter's guild undead and daedra killing) that advances the line. Instead what you have is a map in your inventory and a talking skull (nice nod to Bob from the Dresden files
) that send you literally all over the continent of Tamriel to find and close some time rifts - 9 of them per map. You advance the skill line by one level only after closing all 9 rifts and turning in that quest back in Arteum.
A typical map will have you close rifts in 3 adjacent zones and there is A LOT of travel involved just to get to the area where the rift might be (not marked on your standard map) and once you get near (alerted by the skull) you then need to find it in a huge area. The actual location only becomes a compass indicator when you're very near it making the hunt very lengthy unless you get lucky.
Complicating that is the fact that a new or low level player will not have many (any?) wayshrines unlocked near where you need to go. Max level players who have been everywhere and have done everything will have a distinct advantage but the grind of 9 spots per map will still be there.
I'm sure there will eventually be add-ons that will mark their exact location and that "cheat" will make things a bit easier; and if you're in a large guild you'll be able to port to someone in that zone (hopefully) near where you intend to go, but the fact that it's an activity totally separate from normal leveling pursuits will still be a factor that will put many off... especially when you're doing it for your 5th or 15th character.
I'll put this one down into the "nice try but no cigar" category.
One of the things I've been focusing on with a brand new character created just for this is the Psijic Guild quest and skills. This post is not about the Psijic skills themselves which are getting favorable reviews so far (well, all except the "Undo" ultimate that we can't get at yet due to a bug.) What I'm going to highlight here is how the skill line advances because it's very different from almost every other skill line in the game and it's getting pretty well universal negative reviews so far.
You get access to Arteum and the beginning of the Psijic line very quickly if you follow the main Summerset quest. And that's where the grind begins... and I do mean grind.
There are no activities that you might do as a part of your normal game play (e.g. Mage's guild books, Fighter's guild undead and daedra killing) that advances the line. Instead what you have is a map in your inventory and a talking skull (nice nod to Bob from the Dresden files
) that send you literally all over the continent of Tamriel to find and close some time rifts - 9 of them per map. You advance the skill line by one level only after closing all 9 rifts and turning in that quest back in Arteum.A typical map will have you close rifts in 3 adjacent zones and there is A LOT of travel involved just to get to the area where the rift might be (not marked on your standard map) and once you get near (alerted by the skull) you then need to find it in a huge area. The actual location only becomes a compass indicator when you're very near it making the hunt very lengthy unless you get lucky.
Complicating that is the fact that a new or low level player will not have many (any?) wayshrines unlocked near where you need to go. Max level players who have been everywhere and have done everything will have a distinct advantage but the grind of 9 spots per map will still be there.
I'm sure there will eventually be add-ons that will mark their exact location and that "cheat" will make things a bit easier; and if you're in a large guild you'll be able to port to someone in that zone (hopefully) near where you intend to go, but the fact that it's an activity totally separate from normal leveling pursuits will still be a factor that will put many off... especially when you're doing it for your 5th or 15th character.
I'll put this one down into the "nice try but no cigar" category.
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Comments
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Either way, that's a whole lot of hide n' seek searching for no other reward than advancement of one singular skill line in a game with as many skill lines as ESO!
But their marketing department is also getting a lot of negative feedback on the PTS due to a couple of changes:
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
One of the problems I have with ESO is that you basically get all your abilities early in the game. One can argue the champion point thing, but that is not FUN progression in my book.
At least with the Psijic line you can bear down and grind it at your pace. You can probably get it all done in a week easily if you do nothing but that for 2 or 3 hours a day. It's not a time-gated grind.
It's controversial only in that it's getting almost universal hate from those going through it. It's really hard to find anyone on the PTS saying anything positive about the quests. You don't see the usual mix of positive and negative comments about it as you do with most things even if they're controversial.
(As an aside... comments about the skills themselves are almost exactly the opposite: everyone seems to like them and can see ways to use them in PVE, PVP, DPS, tanking and healing, There is a lot of variety that adds good flavor to any build.)
It does involve a lot of travel to out of the way places you wouldn't normally go to (including a couple of trips to Craglorn) and it's a totally separate thing with no tie in to any other in-game activities. Think the Christmas holiday event but multiplied by about 50.
Bob the skull (Bob is what I call him... a Dresden thing) does give you verbal hints here and there and his voice acting is funny and top notch... so there is that.
If you only play one character you could just grit your teeth once and get it done. I think a lot of the hate is projecting doing it multiple times on multiple characters.
There is one positive though, IMO. The Mage's, Fighter's and Undaunted skill lines are too trivial to get accepted into the guild and unlock the skill line: you just talk to someone for 3 seconds. In this one you have to close the first 9 time rifts just to unlock it so there's more of a sense of proving yourself worthy and that's not a bad thing.
/shrug
You guys will just have to see for yourselves when it goes live.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I self identify as a monkey.
Grindy is grindy.
Personally I found that the Oblivion portal grind became completely boring.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
I thought it was kinda fun... that talking auger/skull/thing... that was a blast!
Sz
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED