Showing all posts tagged MMO
ESO Morrowind Celebration
Jump to the Celebration guide.
Finally, my long awaited Morrowind Celebration event has started in ESO! But, first things first. What even is Morrowind?
In Tamriel, the Elder Scrolls Online playable continent, Morrowind is Dark Elves’ land. It consists mostly of 2 parts: big volcano island, Vvardenfell, and its surrounding part of Tamriel’s mainland. If you want to learn more about Morrowind’s geography, history and culture you can check this link. Unfortunately, only small bits or Morrowind were open to play in base game ESO, bu twith the first big The Elder Scrolls Online expansion (“chapter”) named after the whole land, Morrowind, Vvardenfell was added to the game. This is the expansion that you can buy with a discount during the Celebration event.
The Chapter
I can admit without any shame that Vvardenfell is, as for now, my most favourite zone in the Elder Scrolls Online. It’s not your standard MMO zone (which are usually a happy green forest, a dark scary forest, a winter zone, a desert zone and a steppe/grassland zone). As I mentioned before, it’s a volcano island, so it comes with all such land’s blessings and curses. On one hand it’s rocky so you don’t have lush green areas, no forests and such, instead you have volcanic ashes and lava streams, but on the other hand, when there is soil it’s quite fertile. In such an environment only specific organisms could thrive and so while you do have standard grass and trees in Vvardenfell the whole zone is filled with a plethora of various kinds of small to GIANT mushrooms and fungi.
One of the things I love ESO for is how it thoroughly it shows you all the Tamriel’s playable races’ cultures. Before ESO my only Elder Scrolls game was Skyrim, which, shamefully, I’ve never finished. Of course, Skyrim that takes place Nord’s lands shows mostly Nordic culture, but since I’ve always loved elves in general, I’ve always chosen them rather than Skyrim human or beast races. Then, several years later, I tried ESO and of course I was torn between High and Wood Elves but since I also usually go for a mage class I picked High Elves race for my character and… I didn’t like it. And there was the same result every time I started from a scratch. After these fails I tried a Dark Elf and loved the race so much I play with the character I created back then until now and I can’t even imagine playing any other race, actually. But I still didn’t now much about Dunmer’s culture until I started ESO’s Morrowind chapter.
And after I only started questing in Vvardenfell I instantly fell in love with the zone and with Dunmer race even more. I absolutely loved learning so much about my character’s people’s culture, how complicated their society is and how interesting are their beliefs. Also she met and helped an actual god!
Of course there is also the major zone storyline with everyone’s beloved Dunmer assassin, Naryu Virian, who also gives her face to any ad associated with the Morrowind expansion (including, of course the great Morrowind cinematic trailer, which you can watch below). As for me – personally I didn’t hate this storyline but I have to admit I was more interested with everything else going on on the island.
And there is a lot going on besides Naryu Virian and Morag Tong in Vvardenfell. As you could see in the trailer the Dwemer (dwarves) and their machines are involved in some of those things, there is a lot of quests big and small, long and short and a lot of exploring to do, too. There is also a new class that was released (and bound) with Morrowind, that utilizes nature magic and combat pets. I’d love to try out this class, called Warden, as it looks extremely fun, but unfortunately, currently with my full time job I only have time to play one character and I love my Dunmer Sorcerer (although with the coming Necromancer class I do plan to create another character I’d actually play with, but a lot can change in my life until the class is released in June along with Elsweyr).
Also, since I’m talking about Morrowind AND about questing there I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t use this opportunity to mention the questline that was one of my favourites in the entire game so far (but I still haven’t finished Summerset… YET). When I first started this questline, during its begining part it was awesome and kind of scary but super interesting still, then it started to get more and more crazy with every step, and after a while it actually made me cry of laughter really hard, especially after one of the NPCs (who wasn’t involved directly in the whole thing) pointed out that there might be something wrong with my sanity after he learned what I was doing. I don’t want to spoil too much for you but enjoy your Melodic Mistake quest and say hello to this Cinnamon Bun from me, when you meet him đ â
The event
Now that you roughly know what is Morrowind, let’s talk about the event. The Morrowind Celebration event lasts for 11 days (the current one has started February 7th and ends February 18th). During this time Morrowind DLC, as well as the Morrowind Collectorâs Pack Bundle, are discounted in-game and outside of it. Additionaly, while the event lasts, there are also various items available in the in-game Crown Store that are connected to Dunmer culture (outfits, motifs, furnitures, even houses!). I actually love most of the Dunmer housing items and motifs so it’s a hard time for my wallet đ
Rewards
Store sales are great, but if you already have (or just got now!) Morrowind, there is way more for you to get from the event. First of all, there are several daily zone quests in Morrowind and while normally you receive a box with rewards for completing each of them, now you will get 2 boxes for each. Secondly, for each killed boss in the zone, you’ll get double rewards. This includes Delve bosses, Public Dungeon bosses, regular (queueble) dungeon bosses and even Trial (raid) bosses. The first completed World Boss and Delve daily quest in Morrowind each day will reward you with one Event Ticket that you can turn in at Event Impresario NPC (located in Glenumbra, Stonefalls and Auridon) for Indrik Feathers (you’ll need 4 of them, one of each kind, to be able to summon a beatiful Indrik mount), and Indrik Evolution Berries (again, you’ll need 4 different Berries to evolve your already beatiful Indrik into one of the 4 versions). But hey, that’s not all! If you are into crafting and collect materials, from every crafting node in the zone you will also get double amounts of them druing the event!
Daily quests
There are 4 daily quests in Vvardenfell that will give you the Event Tickets I mentioned above, but also other awesome rewards. Unfortunately the dailies are not available straight after you come to Vvardenfell for the first time but it’s fairly easy to unlock them.
- Morag Tong (Vivec City – Hall of Justice): to unlock these dailies you’ll have to first complete the first story quest for the zone, named Divine Conundrum. After that in Vivec City you’ll find a Wanted poster that, after reading, will send you to Hall of Justice where after talking to an NPC 2 dailies will unlock for you: one will be for a World Boss that you will most probably need other players to help you kill it and the other quest will be for a soloable Delve.
- Ashlanders (Ald’ruhn, near Ald’ruhn Wayshrine): these dailies you unlock by completing the quest called Ancestral Ties. To start it go to Ald’ruhn Camp and talk to the NPC named Drelyth Hleran. After you complete the quest go to Urshilaku Camp (near Urshilaku Camp Wayshrine, surprisingly) and talk to Udami. He’ll send you back to Ald’ruhn where, after handing in Udami’s quest, you’ll be able to get Ashlanders’ dailies: one of the quests will send you to gather relics that drop from humanoid mobs nearby one of the shrines that are scattered all around Vvardenfell, and the other one will want you to kill a mini World Boss (this one is soloable).
Each box you receive from these quests has a chance to contain a motif page of the specific faction (Morag Tong or Ashlander), depending on which quest the box was a reward for. For learning all the motif pages in each style you unlock achievements.
Free ESO Plus week!
If you didn’t think it was enough celebration yet, with each DLC celebration comes also a free ESO Plus week. What is ESO Plus? It’s a subscription plan for The Elder Scrolls Online. Each month it brings you some Crowns (paid currency) that you can spend in ESO in-game Crown Store, for example on special ESO Plus deals. Additionally as a subscriber sometimes you can get FREE ITEMS from the Crown Store, like deadric princes or The Tribunal statues for your in-game house or it’s even some amazing premium outfits!
In addition to all the Store fun, ESO Plus also unlocks you ALL. ESO’S. DLCs. It means that as long as your ESO Plus is active, you can play any DLC without buying it. Note that Expansions like Morrowind, Summerset and, in the future, Elsweyr, when they are released, they are counted as Chapters rather than DLCs and these you do have to buy in order to be able to play them. Usually though, with a release of a new Chapter, the previous one automatically goes in ESO Plus offer along with other DLCs, so at the moment, with Summerset released, Morrowind is unlocked for all ESO Plus subscribers.
Not enough still? How about a separate botomless bag for all your crafting mats? Or an ability to dye your costumes? Or EVEN MORE? And now the event going on you can still try out the whole ESO Plus glory for free for several days. I personally couldn’t go back to not having the craft bag after one of the past ESO Plus trials đ
As you can see there is a lot to celebrate when it comes to Morrowind. I’m really happy that my favourite zone is celebrated and appreciated. The story writers, the artists, the devs, the voice actors, they all do deserve it for their awesome work. If anyone responsible for my joy, delight, laugh, tears and so many hours spent in Vvardenfell and any other place in Tamriel ever reads it: A big THANK YOU, from me to you.
ESO Morrowind Celebration Event
ESO Elsweyr and more coming in 2019!
Yes, you read it correct! Elsweyr, the homeland of The Elder Scrolls’ universe’s cat folk, is coming to ESO June 4th. And with Elsweyr – DRAGONS (or, technically, wyverns as the creatures we were shown have 2 legs and a pair of wings, but it’s still something). As Bethesda and Zenimax announced – the new story arc will be presented in pieces throughout the whole year and therefore the year 2019 is called The Season of The Dragon.
I’ve already mentioned that I absolutely love The Elder Scrolls Online cinematic trailers and it’s the same case with the newest Cinematic Announce Trailer we got for Elsweyr.
I still remember watching it during the chapter announcement Livestream and the moment Abnur Tharn appeared – I, and many others, was convinced for a moment this time it’s an actor in the trailer, not CG. I could also talk a lot about how I love the details in the video or about the amazing job the animators did on the Khajiit’s face that shows so many emotions and expressions and yet still remains feline. But it still wouldn’t express how much I love the quality of the animation in the trailer.
I think it’s quite interesting and worth mentioning, that we only got this short trailer but the playerbase already fell in love with the female Khajiit from the it. It seems she’s quickly becoming one of the community’s beloved ESO NPCs, but only time will tell if she stays in the pantheon of most loved characters in the game or not.
What about the “To be continued” part of the trailer though? As I’ve already said, it’s not only a single chapter announcement actually, but the whole arc’s. There will be four major ESO updates in 2019, one for every quarter of the year and for each we’ll get a new trailer! How awesome is that?! Unfortunately though, Elsweyr will go live not in the first, but in the second Quarter. And below you can see a (very) general time frame for the Season of the Dragon updates:
- Wrathstone DLC dungeon pack: Quarter 1
- Elsweyr Chapter: Quarter 2
- Unannounced Q3 DLC dungeon pack
- Unannounced Q4 DLC story zone
A big and already very awaited feature that will come with Elsweyr zone and its story chapter is a new playable class. And a very interesting one at that because using it is forbidden in the most parts of Tamriel. Could you already guess what class is it? No? I’ll give you a hint then: it starts with “N” and ends with “ecromancer” đ That’s right, we’ll be able to play the infamous Necromancer class starting this June. I’m very curious about it, especially considering the fact that in ESO every class has the potential to deal damage, tank or heal. Or mix and match all the roles. I personally can’t wait to create my Necromancer healer.
Some of the other announced features I’m waiting for is Zone Guide that in the shown previews looks similar to the Guild Wars 2 zone completion statistics but will also tell you where to go next to meet the quest-giving NPC if you have some quest missing in the zone. I think it’s one of these not essential, but very useful and player-friendly features that every modern MMO should have. Another feature I’m very interested in is Guild Finder – an update to guilds system UI that will let you look for a guild according to your preferences in game. Now this is a feature that I was very surprised it didn’t even exist when I started playing ESO. I think if you want to join a guild inside a game, browsing the available guilds outside of this game shouldn’t be the only option. Sure you can ask on chat but it’s definitely not effective. I really like it that Elder Scrolls Online is step by step getting all the “fancy” features that will make life in the game easier.
The first part of ESO’s The Season of the Dragon, Wrathstone DLC, is currently available to testing on PTS. It brings a lot of new things to the game, such as (but not limited to):
- 2 new dungeons
- new item sets
- new collectibles and motif
- new houses and furnishings
- new Battleground
- new achievements for dungeons, holidays, prologues, etc.
- Zone Guide
- Champion Points increase
- Elsweyr Prologue Quest
- racial skills changes
Additionally, the newest update on the Test Server introduced the new upcoming ESO Anniversary Event that will be a bit different from the previous ones this year due to the milestone of the game reaching 5 years of running. You can read details of the changed Anniversary Event on ESO PTS forum.
Phew, that’s a lot of new stuff to wait for throughout the whole year! It’s been a while since the announcement but my PTS is finally finishing updating so I’ll be able to test some of the new features!
As for the live server…
This month (February) you can get this cute little piggy pet if you gift your friends! The rule is: you have to gift at least 2 different accounts on the same server and the sum of the gifts has to be 1000 Crowns. To gift someone go to Crown Store in game and when purchasing an item be sure to check “buy as a gift” option. Then you’ll be able to choose who you’d like to send the gift to.
Also, the Storm Atronach crates with some very cool rewards are back in the Crown Store *wink, wink* đ
ESO New Life Festival
Oh wow, it’s past the middle of December already! Do you know what it means? That everyone is probably contemplating what they have and haven’t achieved during the passing year but also that… ‘Tis the season of Christmas events in MMOs! đ
For The Elder Scrolls Online it’s New Life Festival that lasts for almost 3 weeks (it’s started a while ago and ends January 2nd). Unfortunately I couldn’t play ESO last year during the event, but now I had some time to get to know the Festival and… by now it’s the most entertaining ESO event for me. It doesn’t only have a LOT of fun activities but there are also great rewards every day (you can get up to 200 loot boxes) and 14 achievements to unlock! These things are really important to me –Â that’s why I loved Rift’s Fae Yule and that’s why now I love ESO’s New Life Festival. It still has room to improve but hey, It’s great already!
Event Tickets are back!
Starting somewhere in the middle of the passing year, each of 4 major ESO events (Jester’s Festival, Midyear Mayhem, Witches Festival, and the current New Life Festival) lets you get one Event Ticket a day. When you collect 10 Tickets you may exchange them for one Indrik Feather and you will need 4 of these Feathers (one of each kind) to get your beautiful Nascent Indrik mount.
During New Life Festival you’ll have 9 different dailies (one for each Tamriel playable race) to complete – the first one you complete every day gives you one Event Ticket. This event lasts for 20 days so if you couldn’t participate at all in one of the past events you still have a chance to get your Indrik before New Life Festival ends.
If you already have your Indrik you may want to keep collecting the Tickets because they’ll be required during one of the next ESO events to get special berries item that will evolve your Indrik into one of 4 STUNNING adult Indriks.
How to participate?
To be able to participate in the New Life Festival you first have to obtain a quest starting item from in-game store (the item is called New Life Festival Scroll and is free so everyone can get it). After using it from within inventory the player is told to go to Eastmarch, where, a bit to the north of the zone’s centre you can find Breda – the event’s main NPC.
When you talk to her she’ll give you the first Festival daily quest. There’s 9 of them altogether and you can complete all 9 every day for a bigger chance for nice rewards. Also, remember that for completing all 9 quests for the first time there is an achievement, but you only need to complete one of those quests a day to get your Event Ticket and a golden Mysterious Reward Box.
But what are the quests?
As I mentioned before there is 9 daily quests for this event – one for each playable race in ESO (lore-wise each quest is showing you the traditional celebration of the New Life Festival among all the races). After you’re done with each quest you have to return to Breda to collect your reward.
Nords
Quest: Snowbear Plunge
Location: Eastmarch
What is the quest about? The quest will send you to 3 locations in Eastmarch to jump into ice cold water. The quest is quite fun. After you jump to the water you get Freezing debuff that slows down your movement for 2 minutes. To get rid of the debuff quickly stay at a nearby bonfire for several seconds to warm up. Each jumping location is relatively close to a wayshrine so it’s quite convenient to move from one to another but they are also close to each other so you can just run on foot or on your mount.
Achievement: To make the quest even more fun – try jumping into the water without any armor equipped. You get an achievement for it.
Argonians
Quest: Fish Boon Feast
Location: Shadowfen
What is the quest about? In this quest you’ll be fishing for event fish in event fishing holes that are located at the southeast of Shadowfen. The quest will also tell you to get a lure from a certain NPC but you can skip this step if you have any other lure with you. This quest is also fun, mostly because there are only several fishing spots and a lot of people is participating, so be ready to run to the next spot at any moment because the fishing spots tend to dry out quickly when there are so many fishers around. You’ll have to catch one of each 3 kinds of fish to complete the quest but you can keep fishing for as long as you want, so the next time you get the quest you’ll have the fishes ready to hand them in. When you’re done with fishing you have to go to a village near Hissmir Wayshrine to give the fish to the quest NPC.
Achievement: You unlock an achievement for this quest when you catch all 3 kinds of fish 5 times.
Bretons
Quest: Castle Charm Challange
Location: Stormhaven
What is the quest about? The quest is located near Alcaire Castle Wayshrine (northwest of Stormhaven). You’ll have to perform one of the circus-like activities for NPC celebrants in 3 places in the area (an inn, a city square and inside of the castle). The activities you’ll be performing are flame-breathing, knives juggling and sword eating. When you complete some event dailies you’ll most likely obtain consumables that will let you play those emotes too. Additionally, you may get lucky and loot rare mementos that will do the same as the consumables but the mementos are permanent.
 Achievement: You earn it pretty much by just doing the quest – the requirement is to perform for the crowd in all 3 places the quests tells you to.
Bosmers (Wood Elves)
Quest: Mud Ball Merriment
Location:Â Auridon
What is the quest about? For this quest you’ll be throwing mud at other players and NPCs and believe me or not – it’s super fun. In Rift I loved throwing snowballs at other players as one of the Fae Yule dailies, and throwing mud in ESO is aaaalmost as fun. Or maybe it’s even better because the animation also adds actual mud stains on the hit character who is not happy about it at all! đ You can throw mud at others for as long as you want if you have the quest active – if you are not on this quest you can still throw mud if you have special consumables in your inventory or you’ve collected a memento granting the same emote. To complete the quest first go to middle east of Auridon (Skywatch Wayshrine) and throw mud at 10 players (there’s always a lot of people next to the portal but if there’s no one there just throw the mud at nearby NPCs and it will count too). When you’re done go to the Skywatch Manor and throw mud at one of the ambassadors.
Achievement: Unlocked by throwing mud at queen Ayrenn (located, depending on if you’ve finished the faction quest or not, either in the Vulkhel Guard Manor or in Skywatch Manor), Jorunn the Skald-King (next to Trolhetta Summit Wayshrine in The Rift or in Eastmarch in a small house to the east of the castle in Windhelm) and High King Emeric (in Wayrest Castle in Stormhaven or in Hall of Heroes in Bangkorai).
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Orks
Quest: Stonetooth Bash
Location:Â Betnikh
What is the quest about? Betnikh is a small island near Glenumbra. If you don’t have any portal on Betnikh unlocked, take a boat to the island at Daggerfall harbor first. The quest will want you to kill a wasp and several wolves to get ingredients for the orkish festival feast. After getting the mats bring them to the quest NPC, then you’ll have to eat and drink what they cooked. The hunting part may be tricky though, because a lot of players is trying to do the same quest at the same time, so you may have troubles with finding living wasps and wolves in the quest area.
Achievement: You get an achievement for drinking craftable event drink Betnikh Twice-Spiked Ale during the feast. Don’t confuse it with the keg drink you try during the quest and which is called Betnikh Spiked Ale. The one that gives you the achievement has “Twice” in its name and it’s got to be crafted by you or another player.
Khajiit
Quest:Â The Trial of Five-Clawed Guile
Location:Â Reaper’s March
What is the quest about? This quest is taking place near the zone’s centre: at Rawl’kha Wayshrine. To complete it you’ll have to unlock 3 chests on 3 difficulty levels, so be sure to bring enough lockpicks with you. The quest is timed – the counter starts running when you start unlocking the first chest (there’s no particular order to open the chests in). If you fail to open all 3 chests and get the coins that are inside on time – you can talk to the quest NPC and start the quest over.
Achievement:Â The achievement here is not the easiest one. You earn it by opening all 3 chests and getting the coins in 35 seconds or less (try bashing the locks instead of opening them, worked for me!).
Altmers (High Elves)
Quest: An Orphan’s Sojourn
Location:Â Grahtwood
What is the quest about? Now, this is the easiest and the quickest quest of them all. Or – can be the quickest one if you want it to. It will lead you to midwest of Grahtwood – there you’ll have to help war orphans at a temple by either donating a small amount of money or your time on killing mobs. You can do both tasks if you feel generous.
Achievement:Â As I mentioned – to complete the quest you only have to do one task but if you choose to do both – you get an achievement.
Redguards
Quest: Signal Fire Sprint
Location:Â Alikr’s Desert
What is the quest about? This is another timed quest. Head to the zone’s south, to Bergama Wayshrine. You’ll have to run fast to light 4 signal fires and the quest NPC will actually give you a piece of good advice – first check the locations of the fires so you can plan your route. If you can’t finish the quest on your own – it can be completed also in a party, or, you can use foods, drinks or potions to boost yourself for faster running. The signal posts can be lit in whatever order, but for me the most convenient order is SouthEast, SouthWest, NorthEast, NorthWest.
Achievement: Just like in the other timed quest the achievement here is also for completing the race in 35 seconds or less.
Dunmers (Dark Elves)
Quest: Lava Foot Stomp
Location:Â Stonefalls
What is the quest about? It’s a dance-off! ….Not really. But you will have to dance in several inns in Stonefalls. 2 of those inns are located in Devon’s Watch (northeast of Stonefalls) and 2 in Ebonheart (the centre of the zone). They go in a particular order though and you do have to start in Devon’s Watch.
Achievement: Similarly to the Breton’s quest’s achievement you earn this one for dancing in all the locations required to complete the quest.
Rewards time!
When you turn each quest in as a reward you get some gold and a green New Life Festival Box. Additionally, as I mentioned before, for the first event quest you complete a day, you’ll receive a golden Mysterious Reward Box and an Event Ticket. The boxes may contain:
fun event consumables,- event recipes (when you learn them all – you unlock an achievement)
- motif pages (when you learn all the pages of Skinchanger motif – there is an achievement for this too)
- non-combat pets,
- runeboxes (containing mementos or one of 2 kinds of New Life hoods),
- crafting mats (connected to the event’s theme),
- rogue potions (useful for Bosmer and Redguard quests),
- lighting items for housing (candles, torches, lamps),
- undaunted keys,
- New Life Charity Writs – for completing 12 of these there is a really nice achievement which gives you a COOL reward đ . The recipes to craft for those writs are easy and you can buy them from the crafting merchants. Your reward for completing a single writ is 1 Writ Voucher – if you collect enough of those you can exchange them for rare items or recipes at Writ Voucher Vendor in Grahtwood, Stormhaven or Deshaan.
On top of all the earlier mentioned achievements, there is yet one more: you unlock it by… well, earning all the rest of achievements.
The fun of this event is totally worth the time in my opinion and I actually wish all ESO events were so entertaining, so come on, join the celebrations and get hundreds of rewards by having a lot of fun!
