ESO Patch 1.5 Review

After spending nearly all day playing the new patch 1.5 in Elder Scrolls Online, causing massive wife aggro, and almost peeing my pants with excitement, I think it’s time to share my thoughts on the overall patch.  SPOILER It’s the best update to date….

 

• Vet City of Ash – The major beef of this patch comes in form of the City of Ash Veteran mode dungeon.  This one is awesome with an epic end boss full of fire and flames.  I tried it for a few hours on the Public Test Server in which we reached the last boss.  Yesterday a group need me to join in for the last boss.  We didn’t beat it because it takes awhile to get the coordination down.  Without giving out spoilers, it’s similar to the final Dragonstar Arena level.  Love it!
• Facial animations – If you’ve listened to me on Tales of Tamriel, you know I wasn’t excited thrilled with this feature.  After seeing it at some length in game now, it does add a new sense of immersion to ESO.  For those that spend a lot of time questing and watching dialog, this will be perfect for you.
• Vet Ranks – Supposedly leveling was going to be easier with the removal of Veteran Points (VP) but I don’t know if that’s the case.  For instance, each level is around 1.4 million experience (XP) when it use to be around 4 million VP.  At Veteran Rank (VR) eight, I’d usually get 37,000 VP per boss kill.  With the new system, I’m only getting around 8,000 XP.  While it’s simpler, the grind still seems there.
• Dungeon Scaling – This was an unexpected change with a huge impact on dungeons.  That usual Darkshade Cavern run that would take 15 minutes is now a challenge at VR 12.  Now that the mobs scale, the gear does too adding more incentive to complete dungeons at higher level.  More and more reasons to do older content thus extending the games longevity.
• Undaunted – Another major improvement is ESO’s dungeon daily system by expanding on the Undaunted Guild.  Not only did they give us awesome dailies, rewards, but added passive for this skill line.  Yep more reasons to play and get skill points (there goes my life).  The loot from these keys are truly epic which I received a sick looking helm from a drop in Darkshade Cavern (article featured image).  This gives me more things to do since they can be repeated every 20 hours on each character.  Another major positive.
• Crafting Writs – A surprise that I didn’t seem coming is crafting writs and/or dailies essentially.  I was so thrilled by this I made a guide yesterday because I knew people might have trouble getting started with this.  The part that was interesting to me is crafting gear then depositing it into a box.  While I know this doesn’t truly go anywhere, it somehow made me feel apart of the ongoing war between factions.  No, I’m not converting to an RPer but it’s a nice touch for those that enjoy Role Play.
• Chat Bubbles – Every once in awhile something sneaks up on you.  Some feature you didn’t think would be good or bad, but when it hits, you’ll notice.  For some reason chat bubbles were that feature for me.  After I turned these on, I was excited to see the bubbling conversations in the surrounding areas.  I can’t wait to try this in Cyrodiil to see orders from the actual leader.  Really impressed by this change.
• Weapon Skill Changes – While I haven’t reviewed all the new weapon skills, I did get to test out the new bow changes.  The damage coming from bows is now very impressive and why I don’t think it’ll surpass Destruction Staff, the gap is closing.  Great work on making stamina more viable.
• Vampire and Werewolf Changes – Lastly a needed change was the Vampire Devouring Bat nerf.  While I haven’t tested this directly, I’m glad the change was made.  And for Vampire’s little brother Werewolf’s they finally got something worthwhile: 15% stamina regeneration out of form.  I’m loving the new Werewolf changes and plan to bite a third character.

I compare MMOs to bananas at a grocery store.  Everyone starts out green with aspirations of maturing into a juicy ripe tasting fruit.  Some get spotted and moldy only to fade out quickly.  But some make the right moves based on what their community wants not some third party.  The last two patches have been amazing and I can say ESO’s turning into the juicy ripe MMO we all wanted it to be.  Thanks for reading!