The Elder Scrolls Online Beta

[Blackbird]

I don't even think I got accept into the closed beta, probably will play in the open beta.

[Trunks]

Next beta invitations were sent out, it's from Friday, February 28th at 12:00PM EST until Sunday, March 2nd at 11:59PM EST. We'll actually be allowed to talk and post SS of the game if we please to this time around. Also, they gave me 3 beta keys to give out. So is there anyone that didn't get an invite that still wants to try the game?

[Mizel]

Oh snap... I saw the email and directly into my trash it went. But I didn't realize there were extra keys on it. If anyone wants some, I've got some I'll never use as well

[ROFLBRYCE]

Can't wait to see you guys in the Beta! I'm stoked to actually be in this one, haha.

[ROFLBRYCE]

BETA IS LIVE!

Been on for about 45 minutes now, loving every second of it. Feel free to add me @ROFLBRYCE to your contacts! Hope to see you all in game

[ROFLBRYCE]

So there's officially no more betas...launch will be April 4, with 5 days early access starting March 30 at some point that morning. The last one was a ton of fun and there was a bunch of fixes, as well as a cap of level 25 areas (up from 15)

I've never been so excited about a game before. I actually went and took April 1/2 off so I could have some full days to play and get into it lol. Everything about this game just feels so engaging, and it feels like a great hybrid of the Elder Scrolls series with an mmo. After 3-4 hours of the last beta I wasn't convinced, but this one suckered me into buying it.

[Trunks]

I can't wait, I've wanted to get into a MMO for awhile now, finally a good one is coming out. I just hope they do a reset for the launch, Is there any news about that happening? I haven't found anything.


Edit: Never mind, after more searching around, I found the answer. Everything will be wiped from the beta, which I'm pretty glad about. Also, for those who don't know, if you took part in the beta, you get a Monkey pet to follow you around .

[ROFLBRYCE]

Yup, everything is starting fresh! They say it's about 5-10 days of /played to hit max level, and I'm hoping that it'll take me longer than that. Too much exploring to do! Even with plenty of time logged over the last 2 sessions I still only made it to level 12 haha.

[Mizel]

What are you guys thinking of ESO so far? I just saw the review from the Youtube guy that does the "Angry Reviews." Some good, mostly bad. I haven't gotten it yet (was waiting to see how things went after launch before I even considered buying it), so I was just wondering if this review was spot on/justified or not?

Elder Scrolls Online Angry Review: Elder Scrolls Online Angry Review - YouTube

Summary for those that don't want to watch:

1. They done f_cked up this game.
2. The $20 extra for the 10th race is a money grab.
3. Huge world, but sandbox is a lie. 120+ hours of content but it doesn't matter because its all average.
4. Quests are boring.
5. Required to enter a CC before being allowed to play the $60 30day period.
6. Lots of bugs. Some bugs are gamebreaking.
7. Encounters are awfully tuned. Example: bosses drop 2 gold. Named enemies drop 1 gold. Economy is boned due to dupe glitches.
8. Horses cost 17k gold, or 42.7k gold. People who don't own collectors edition call the game a running simulator since nobody can afford horses. $20 bucks to upgrade.
9. Grouping mechanics are terrible. It breaks quests mechanics in PvE and the MMO overall is less multiplayer and more singleplayer even when you are grouped. Everyone in the 10. group has to do the same thing individually (like 4 people to touch a button for every door in the instance) to complete the quest as a group. The game teaches you to resent players.
11. Voice acting is decent, but there are examples where the voice doesn't match the speaker (tree talks to you like hes a 20 year old yuppie who just got fired from his job).
12. Encounters are not tuned well, quests have no immersion and progression is non-existent. Daedric army translates to 4 enemies.
13. Little sense of discovery or wonder in the game. Everything feels soulless and half-assed.
14. Highly suggested to get addons due to UI failures.
15. Graphics are passable but not the impressive graphics some fanboys rave about.
16. Game does not compete well vs single player rpgs, and nor does it compare well to current subscription or free 2 play MMOs. It does however distinguish itself with action combat MMO.
17. Class freedom (no armor restrictions or weapon restrictions) is a good thing this game.
18. PVP is one of the only places the game shines. It's similar to GW2 and DAoC. Only thing that's holding subscriptions in the game at this point.

[Trunks]

You also get a horse for the 20 dollars and like 30 treasure maps. Plus a companion pet and Rings of Mara which allow you to level faster with a partner. and you can get 17k for a horse around level 15-20, lower if you know what to sell. Level 15 or 20 sounds like a reasonable level for a mount.

This is the only MMO that I've played that the quest aren't just "kill 20 bears and get 10 furs" They all have individual stories, best questing I've ever played for an MMO. Some quest have a few puzzles you have to solve. Haven't found a quest with a repeated story or one that just tells you to kill 10 things for no reason.

Bugs are basically gone now, the dupe glitch has been fixed, I haven't found a bugged quest in a week. I hear people get UI bugs in chat though, I use add ons so I don't have the issue. Also every subscription game makes you subscribe to a monthly fee before you play. WoW did the same thing when it came out, it's a subscription game so I'm not sure why people are so mad that they have to make a subscription. Honestly he nit picked pretty hard, but I suppose that's what he does for a living.

This is a pretty unique MMO, Combat/skills system is awesome, allowing any class to do any role in the party. The roles have changed as well. Tanks no longer can hold all the aggro, there are no abilities to just gather everyone up and thunderclap. From what I've noticed there are only 2 taunt abilities in the game. Instead tanks are more useful using CC's to stop them. This also means that healer and DPS have to take some damage and kite. Makes the combat a lot more fun, because normally the DPS just stands there pushing 4 or 5 buttons for there combo. Same with the tank really.

I've found the crafting to be fun, being able to deconstruct items, upgrade them and make items of different styles once you learn them. There are also crafting areas in the open world that you have to find and you gain bonuses to the items if you craft them there. You also have to use your skill points toward crafting if you want to progress in it. Makes you choose between making your character stronger, or being able to craft stronger weapons. If you have the materials you can upgrade a white item up to a legendary item, would take you a lot of money and there is some gambling involved, but it's doable.

PvP is awesome, you go to an Open World area, so big it would take you 30 minutes to an hour to ride your horse from one end to the other. It's a 1 vs 1 vs 1 and your goal is to take over castles for your own alliance. You use siege equipment to tear down the castle walls so your team can storm inside. Each alliance starts with 2 elder scrolls and if you hold extra scrolls you gain bonuses in combat in and out of the PvP area. I haven't spent a huge amount of time there, I've been just leveling.

All that being said, the game does feel like it's missing something, not sure what it is, but it's definitely missing something. I'm still glad I got it, never had the chance to play an MMO from beta into full release. From what I read all MMO's have rough starts, some worse than others, I think it all adds to the experience.