ESO Has A Difficulty Problem

Hey gang, back again with another video essay. This week we're talking about ESO's difficulty curve and how detrimental it can be to the growth of the game.

Arttea's video:

Nefas's video:

Josh Strife Hayes's video:

Worst MMO Ever playlist:

ESO Dungeon Banter:

#ESO #ESOfam #ElderScrollsOnline

[OldSaltySean]

Hey gang, I got content stricken again by WWE for including another wrestling scene, so if you're confused about the random static that's why. As much as I would love to keep including wrestling jokes because it's such a big part of my life it seems I won't be able to. Sorry but just felt the need to include a comment now that I've had to trim that bit from the video.

[shadowofnoc]

Yep, its a huge shame. There are so many good quests and they are all fully voice acted and the quest dialogue hypes up what is essentially a face roll every single fight.

[zyrius]

Long time ESO (and generally MMORPG) veteran here. Had this pop up in my recommended and was really curious about the take. I am coming from a background where my days of scheduled progress raiding or competitive DPS meters are in the past, when I was in school and later university. Now, I am just your average, casual ES lore enjoyer who likes to make thematical builds with no concern for what is meta or not. I still occasionally run DLC Vets or rarely DLC Vet HMs but only when there is good reason to. Even coming from that background, I find myself agreeing with the sentiment that we need a "middle ground". Well put together argument.

[borkiee]

Man I remember back in 2015 overland was more challenging. Then One Tamriel happened.

[andrelginduskwalker]

In my recent experience, after 10hours of trying it, i wasn't engaged and even fell asleep many times of boredom. A true pity because i love the skill customitsation system

[tylergreen]

Agreed. Also, questing should have difficulty levels, and players should be able to quest together at all times. If I got to play ESO questing like I get to play Halo or Destiny questing (synchronized story dialogue for all grouped players, selectable level of difficulty, & constant togetherness—not separation in special quest instances), it would mean the world to me and my friends. I’m sure of it!

When it comes to quest dialogue options, the group leader could be in charge while other group members would simply be observers.

[LegendarySSSparda]

My girlfriend sucks at games. Is stressed when she dies practically anytime in any game. Can't shoot or dodge things... And got bored and quited ESO. The difficulty problem is amazing. I stayed for half a year only because I loved TESO lore and games, but I came fast to dropping too... I'm a souls player.

And the only problem is not "overland is too easy and you have dungeons later". WHO CAREs about dungeons. It's an small % and repetitive part of the game. The game OFFERS YOU HUNDREDS, THOUSAND of hours or amazing, beautiful QUESTS and WORLDs to explore. Make that challenging too! Too many people seem to say "okay, overland is easy, because challenge is in dungeons". To hell the dungeons! They why they keep throwing thousands of quests and world to explore every year, we should enjoy that too Specially when it's SO EASY to add difficulty levels that players could choose to quest and explore!!

[eldenmox]

dude, you said exactly what i been sayin for so long. norm is super easy and vet is super hard with no middle ground. we need some form of progression with a clear path on where to go next with real increase to difficulty along the way.

[Stongez]

Spot on when you talked about the 2 level caps. It was so hard to get my friends to 50, dragging them into daily dungeons over and over just for them to get off after. And then when they do hit 50, they have to get to CP 160 just to get max gear. Now that they are CP 160, they realize just how fun the content is when it is challenging and they can make their builds. Now they are the ones telling me to get on

[UlquiorraCuts]

i got 5 minutes into the game and decided it was too easy and i was already bored and quit

[Bumbum_Inspector]

I think one of the biggest sins is for dps roles. The game doesn't even attempt to explain how your dps rotation is nearly 100% reliant on light attack weaving and animation cancelling. Zenimax doesn't even try to tweak this either so that there's options for dps where your actual abilities are more important and there's zero build diversity for dps. Every single dps build no matter what is just light attacking and animation cancelling with a few nearly meaningless stamina or magicka abilities weaved in there.

[carlosdanger]

Huge Elder Scrolls lore junkie here. I wanted to play ESO strictly for the story content and learning the lore. I really have little interest in playing dungeons multiple times, just enough to get the story. This game's dead easy gameplay killed it all for me. Trying to get into the story and take it seriously just to have the "threats" pose little to no real challenge was heartbreaking for me. Especially since there is so much content to experience. All these writers creating all of these wonderful stories for it all to be booooring.

I quit the game. And I'm personally never coming back until they add a difficulty slider or something to actually make the overworld content challenging or difficult.

[bovrarnd]

Your critique is on point, f'lah.

[Sorakasexual_]

I agree was almost everything you said. I gifted my friend ESO in december, so he had no choice but to try it. I helped him A LOT with gear, food, pots and xp, so he could get to 300cp as quick as possible. But sadly he quit short after that for Lost Ark... I do remember how awkward it was to explain that its gonna be very easy and boring after you get used to simple combat.

And I agree that the entry difficulty is crucial to the future of eso. Dont know if its gonna be changed :/

ESO has this identity crisis where its trying to be an mmo based on single player games while pleasing very different generations of players.

[sergeantsapient]

I honestly thought I'd find myself disagreeing and to a degree I still do but you make some fair points. I don't know how I feel about changing the overland content. I think I would prefer if there was a challenge mode where you can make encounters more difficult and get better XP or drops, like a veteran instance of overland content.

[babayaga]

I was very close to starting ESO online and getting ESO plus. I did some research, and it looked like something I could have fun sinking a lot of time into. Then I decided to look into it just a little more, and that's when I found out that the game is pretty much devoid of any real challenge, so I decided it wasn't for me. I don't need Dark Souls level of difficulty in every game, but if I'm not being challenged at all, I knew I would get bored, and not get very far. Shame, because other than this one issue it really looked good to me. I just don't understand why they can't have a higher difficulty level for those that want it. This would completely solve the issue.

[CreativeExcusesGaming]

This is a great take on the difficulty curve in the game. Soloing things is the only real way to experience important mechanics to learn as it is now. A big step forward would be to make that “veteran” option in the group menu make delves, public dungeons, and quest instances veteran options while outside in the overworld, the difficulty remains as it is. Id kill for some veteran public dungeons

[gnoclaude]

I'm the game is great from the get go. The joy is in exploration, diverse environments, outfits, mounts, and furnishings. I still haven't even started dungeons yet. I do agree it's too easy at points, they could use a few story dungeons to teach you a role, and more mounts earnable in the game. That would be perfect.

[heramaaroricon]

I agree. I remember when I started playing ESO with 2.0 Tamriel Unlimited and basically played the pre-champion leveling phase like it is some sort of Skyrim Hybrid. Once I hit 160 CP and Veteran Dungeons the game suddenly became "unplayable" for me.

Imo ESO has a huge problem with explaining players which never played a MMO before in their life (like me back then) what a combat rotation is, how build crafting works, how mechanics work in Dungeons and especially how Stats are weighted in your build crafting.

I had to get help from my ESO expert friend to understand the game first and he did the total build crafting for me back then. Now, today I am doing it myself. Back then, I would have quit the game if I wouldn't have gotten the help from my buddy.

And that is another potential "quit moment" as our boy Josh Strife Hayes said in the very same video.

[nelson_rebel]

You've earned another sub. This was extraordinarily well done and you hit the subject perfectly. Been playing since console launch day. And I can attest that the difficulty from when the game launched was more engaging, even if it wasn't implemented well.