Author Archives: Serge

ESO at GamesCom 2014

ESO booth gamescom 2014

Elder Scrolls Online had a booth at this year’s GamesCom gaming convention, held in Cologne, Germany. We took the opportunity to swing by and say hello to the community team and take a peak at the new 3v3v3 PvP mode that was first shown back at E3. People were lining up to get their hands on the new mode and experience small scale PvP action. We also had a chance to meet in person Jessica Folsom, which was a highlight of our day in its own right. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take video footage of the on-screen action, but from people’s reaction I think they had quite a good time.

ESO Skill Calculator updated with 1.3.3 data

update 3 skill calculator Elder Scrolls Online Update 3 (patch 1.3.3) brought on a lot of skill changes across the board. Some skills have had their bug fixed. Others had their values tweaked in an effort to balance them better. Some skills have been changed to have better tooltip descriptions. We put in an effort to reflect all those changes in our online ESO Skill Calculator. I am sure many of you are already familiar with our ESO talent calculator since more than 7000 builds have been saved since the game launched (which you can browse through here). We would recommend for those actively maintaining your builds to update them for the latest patch, since some rotations might have changed in the meantime. If you updated your build to reflect 1.3.3 patch changes feel free to let us know via our contact us page and we will feature your build on the front page of our website. I hope you will continue to use our skill calculator and that it is a tool that will help you plan your character development even while you are not in the game.

P.S. If you are from a French speaking country we recommend you visit our friends at Game-Guide.fr because they have the skill calculator in French.

ESO Patch Notes v1.3.3

Elder Scrolls Online patch v1.3.3 brings the third major content update, with new armor dye stations, guild improvements, updates to campaigns in Cyrodiil, and many fixes to quests, combat, art, and audio.

Armor Dyes

  • Armor dyes have now been added to the game! You can visit a dye station and interact with it to dye any piece of armor that you own.
    • Dye stations can be found in at least one town in every normal overworld zone. There are new map markers add for these dye station locations
  • Every piece of gear has up to three separate areas that can be dyed individually, and you have tools available to do so.
    • Color Sets: You can use the special dye tools to create and apply custom color sets.
    • Eye Dropper Tool: You can use the eye dropper tool to pick colors from previously dyed gear, and apply that color elsewhere.
    • Paint Bucket Tool: This tool applies the dye you’ve selected to the corresponding color area of every piece of gear you have equipped.
  • At a dye station, you can see every color available. Dyes you haven’t obtained yet are displayed with a lock icon. Hover over any locked color to see which achievement is associated with it. You can right-click on it to jump to the achievement panel and read the achievement’s completion criteria. When a dye is unlocked, it will be available for all characters on your account.

 
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European Megaserver finally arriving to Europe

When Elder Scrolls Online launched it allowed for people to use the North American or European megaserver. This is a standard for MMOs that launch worldwide, because of language differences and vast physical distance that can make playing a bit difficult if you are playing on a server located on another continent. What most Europeans realized soon after launch is that the European megaserver is actually located in United States. Zenimax told us that the reason for this was that megaserver infrastructure is very complicated and for the time being they had to have all the servers in the same place. Four months later Europeans will finally be able to play on Europe based servers. The move is happening at 1:00PM BST (8:00AM EDT) on July 30th. Move is rather complicated because it is supposed to transfer all of your characters and all their data. It will take about nine hours, but may be extended. After the transfer is complete people that have characters on the European megaservers should continue playing as if nothing really happened. The only thing they should notice is increased performance. This means less lag in PvP and during PvE combat (both of which were quite common). We, here at MMORPG Life, welcome this transfer because we are based in Europe and our game experience suffered due to the servers being in the US. We wish this happened within the first month after launch, as was initially promised, but better late than never.

You can read the official announcement here and here are some of the most common questions and answers concerning the transfer:

Will anything change for me when the migration is complete?

Nope! All your characters will be just the way you left them before the move. There won’t be a patch to download, either.

The migration seems to be during European primetime. Why is that?

Moving everything over to our new datacenter is a complex operation involving a large number of our engineers and support staff in Europe and North America. It’s important to us that everyone we need for the process is awake, ready, and available. This will help us make the transition as smooth as possible.

I’m European, but created characters on the North American megaserver. Can I move them to the new European megaserver?

No. The migration will only affect characters that already exist on the European megaserver, and no transfers are available right now.

Future of ESO panel recap

Elder Scrolls Online developers showed up in full force during the recent QuakeCon 2014. They held a very important 2 hour panel (this includes a Q&A session) discussing what we can expect in the future for Elder Scrolls Online. Great many features were announced and discussed. There are a bunch of new features planned and some old systems are being reworked. Here’s a list of the most important announcements together with an image gallery of some of the things to come.

  • Imperial City – new PvP zone found inside Cyrodiil that players will be able to unlock through keep ownership. You’ll be able to enter it through 3 sewer entrances that are guarded by imperials (and probably camped by PvPers). Zone contains Molag Bal’s minions and tons of quests related to them (boss mobs will be present) that reward high XP and gold rewards. You can unlock various parts of the city (Market, Arboretum, Temple District, etc.) and have special vendors, crafting stations or respawn points there.
  • New Veteran Dungeon – City of Ash coming in Update 5
  • Grouping system improvements that will also include Dungeon difficulty scaling (to group leader’s level) and repeatable dungeons as part of a daily quest setup for the Undaunted
  • Solo Instance dungeons will also scale to you – if something is difficult and you die repeatedly they will scale to be a bit easier after several attempts
  • Craglorn will get the next chapter of the story where you will fight the Serpant aspect in a new 12 man trial
  • Dragonstar Arena – it will contain 4 man mini trials with leaderboards, two difficulty modes and progressively more difficult timed PvE encounters
  • Veteran Gameplay is getting a complete overhaul – veteran points are being removed and Veteran Ranks are from now going to be gained through experience points. Champion system is getting introduced and this system will introduce a separate tree (called constellations) of passives. You unlock these passives by spending champion points that you earn through earning experience points in post lvl 50 game. Gear will not have Veteran Rank as requirement. New gear will come out in seasons.
  • Justice System – allows you to steal items and attack NPCs. Consequence is that there is a bounty incurred on your character. You can pay the bounty or flee. Players will be able to hunt other players with high bounty so active PvP will be a consequence of the Justice system.
  • Spellcrafting – new system that will allow you to create customized spells. You will have to find the base spell through exploration in the world. You can customize this spell with focus items (add AOE, make it an ultimate, reduce cost, etc.). You can
  • New Armor and Weapon style – Glass armor, Dark Brotherhood style, New PvP gear, Thieves Guild style, new Undaunted styles. It was also mentioned that when you kill a boss in solo instances you might get an item that is skinned as the boss so there will be a Dwemer spider, Spider Daedra, Harvester themed armor pieces.
  • New Adventure Zone Murkmire – similar to Craglorn. Four man content with 12 man trials. It will contain a new non player race called Naga.
  • New Solo Pve Zone Wrothgar – in the north between High Rock and Skyrim.

Click here to see a screenshot gallery of the panel and full video

ESO can now be purchased on Steam

steam pet dog

QuakeCon 2014 is in full swing and we got our first big news concerning Elder Scrolls Online. From today, ESO will be available for purchase on Steam. In addition to that, the game will be on sale for the duration of Quakecon 2014. so you can purchase the Standard edition on Steam for $30 and Imperial will set you back for $47.99. The game still requires you to have an ESO account and all that other stuff you are used to from a standalone client, but if you get it through Steam you get the friends overlay or you can even gift it to your steam friends. Another boon for those that choose to purchase the Imperial Version of the game through Steam right now is that they will get the Whiterun Wolfhound vanity pet. On the sale page it says that the vanity pet offer will last only until July 21st so you better hurry if you are planning to get it.

Existing subscribers are currently not able to import their game into Steam. If you add the game to steam it will not behave the same as if you purchase it there. We have to wait on Bethesda to give us import keys or something similar to be able to integrate our existing clients with Steam.

In other QuakeCon news related to Elder Scrolls Online we have “THE FUTURE OF ESO” panel happening on Friday where various developers should discuss what’s in store for different aspects of the game. Event is taking place on Friday, July 18th from 5:00PM to 7:00PM CDT on QuakeCon Ventrilo Main Stage. You can submit your questions to developers on the official ESO forums and Twitter ahead of time, and you may see them answered live at QuakeCon! (Please use the #ESO and #QuakeCon hashtags on Twitter.) If you are not at QuakeCon, you can watch the panel and Q&A live on Twitch at Twitch.tv/bethesda or later on the official ESO Youtube channel.

How to Increase Inventory Space in ESO

teso increase inventory space
 
Each character in the Elder Scrolls Online starts the game with 60 Inventory and Bank slots. The amount of useful objects is quite impressive, and pretty soon you will find out that you need more inventory space.

How to expand your inventory in TESO

Once you discover the first town, bring up your map, and mouse over the various icons and look for Marketplace (It is marked by a tilting scale on your map), where you will see the various types of merchants.
 
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Updated ESO Skill Calculator to 1.1.2 data

With the release of ESO patch 1.1.2, that brought the new adventure zone Craglorn, we’ve seen an update to existing skills. Some of the skills were changed enough for Zenimax to provide free skill point refunds to everyone that had them invested in certain skills. You can see the full changelist in our Patch 1.1.2 Notes article. Most significant changes are the introduction of a cap to some AOE skills (like Dragonknight Inhale), and having some skills finally work as intended. If you had points in Templar’s Master Ritualist, Destruction Staff’s Impulse, Dual Wield’s Flying Blade, One hand and shield’s Deadly Bash and Support’s Battle Resurrection, you will have those skill points refunded and you can respend them in the same ability or somewhere else.

Old builds are still valid so you can still browse our database of submitted builds to find a useful one even if it was made prior to this patch. Remember though that the most optimal builds might have changed and you might want to look for the latest submitted builds to see what people have started using now.

Skill calculator tool for all classes has now been updated with the latest data from live patch 1.1.2. A lot of tooltips have been changed and values of some skills have also been changed. As always, keep in mind that our skill calculator uses 500 magicka, 500 stamina and 30 weapon and spell damage for base calculations of all values in spell tooltips. Things for your character in-game will be different based on what your individual stats are. Also remember that choosing a skill in our skill calculator chooses Rank IV of that skill immediately. We presume that you will level the chose skill to its maximum level. I hope you enjoy our updated skill calculator tool and feel free to leave any feedback in the comment section bellow.

Click on the buttons bellow to see the skill calculator for that class

ESO Craglorn Skyshards Location Map

Craglorn is a Veteran Rank zone that became available to all ESO players with Content patch 1.1. This zone is filled with group oriented challenges that require you to travel with VR 10+ friends in order to accomplish anything meaningful in the zone. Same goes for twelve Skyshards scattered around Craglorn’s dungeons. Shards are usually guarded by Veteran rank 11 mobs or even worse, dungeon bosses. Mind you, these are not your regular solo dungeon or public dungeon bosses. For some of these you will need an experienced VR10+ group to take them down and collect the skyshard. Shadow nightblades are at a clear advantage if getting collectibles is your thing. We hope our screenshot guides for each Craglorn Skyshard bellow will help you obtain them easier (we included a few tips on how to avoid the nastiest encounters).


1.

Lava flows where Ayleids walked.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Inside the Molavar dungeon, southeastern Craglorn. South-southwest of Elinhir Wayshrine, west of Elinhir, there is Magical Anomaly north of the entrance.

Start at Elinhir Wayshrine and head southwest. When you reach the Magical Anomaly crystal, turn south and follow the path underneath three broken stone gateways leading to the dungeon entrance. The skyshard is on the platform to the right, just as you enter the dungeon, but you will have to circle all the way around to collect it.

Dungeon location on the world map.

Mob pack is guarding the way to the skyshard.

Shard location on the dungeon map.

2.

In a lair of metal spiders.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Inside the Rkundzelft dungeon, eastern Craglorn. Northeast of Ogondar’s Winery, east of Spellscar Wayshrine, south-southwest of Lake of Teeth, northeast of Belkarth.

Start in Belkarth and follow the road going east. After you pass Ogondar’s Windery, get off the road and head northeast until you reach the dungeon entrance. Inside, you have to deal with all kind of dwemer constructs. The skyshard is on the stairs, to the right, just as you exit from the northern hallway leading out of the easternmost room in the dungeon.

Dungeon entrance on the world map.

Fear of the dark… room, full of metal spiders.

3.

Among Yokuda’s dead.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
This shard can be found inside Ruins of Kardala dungeon in western Craglorn.

You can approach and enter Ruins of Kardala from south. You can spot the entrance to this dungeon from distance because of a lot of stone pillars standing in front of it. Shard is inside the room with boss Satagna. This room is a dead end on the side of the main hallway and you can easily pass it by as you try and reach the end of the dungeon, so stay alert.

Ruins of Kardala Entrance Shard Map Location.

4.

Where sunlight penetrates Dwarven delves.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
This shard can be found inside dungeon Rkhardarhrk in central Craglorn.

You can approach and enter the dungeon from south. There is a small pond outside Rkhardarhrk and a couple of stone pillars to make the approach more unique. Shard is in the northern part of the cave, just before the entrance with two huge stone pillars that have two gas panels.

Rkhardarhrk Entrance Map Location.

Shard spotted in northern part of the cave.

5.

Where fishmongers sell no fish.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Inside Haddock’s Market dungeon in southeastern Craglorn. Southeast of Ogondar’s Winery, east of Belkarth.

Start in Belkarth and follow the road going east. After you pass Ogondar’s Windery, get off the road and head south until you reach the dungeon’s entrance. Skyshard is near the northernmost tower, left of the stairs leading into the tower, in front of a statue, next to a tree. The last boss, Ariana At-Fara and her pets, are in front of the tower.

The entrance location on the world map.

You can either pass the bridge or pass underneath it to reach this location.

6.

Where chiseled tunnels lead meet crystal caverns.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Inside the Chiselshriek Mine dungeon, eastern Craglorn. Northwest of Inazzur’s Hold and its Wayshrine, northeast of Mountain Overlook Wayshrine.

Start at Inazzur’s Hold Wayshrine and follow the road northwest. Get off the road and when you reach the crossroads head north until you see the mine entrance. The skyshard is in the northeastern corner of the biggest cave room, partially covered by a rock. The last boss, The Gracious Beacon, is in the middle of the room.

Dungeon’s entrance location on Craglorn map.

Shard is in the northeastern corner. The boss is on the left.

7.

A sea of dunes beneath the earth.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Found in western Craglorn inside Buried Sands dungeon.

You can approach and enter Buried Sands from east. When you enter the dungeon it soon becomes clear from where this shard got its lorebook hinte. There are only a couple groups of mobs between the entrance and the shard. They are rather large though and this makes them hard to solo. Shard is at the northernmost part of the cave. You can find the final boss just south of it.

Buried Sands Entrance Map Location.

Shard is just above the final dungeon boss.

8.

Under Centurion guard.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Located inside Mtharnaz dungeon, western Craglorn.

You can approach Mtharnaz entrance from west. Due to its unique grey color, ancient fortress look, and the fact that it is coming out of the rocky mountains, you can spot it from afar easily. Collectible is found in the southeast corner of the first larger room of Mtharnaz. There are a couple of Dwemer constructs defending it. One of the easiest shards to obtain in Craglorn.

Shard is in the corner of the first larger room.

9.

At the head of the class.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Inside the Balamath dungeon, southeastern Craglorn. North-northeast of Elinhir Wayshrine, northwest of Trial: Aetherian Archive, south-southeast of Inazzur’s Hold Wayshrine.

Start at Elinhir Wayshrine and head north until you reach the Magical Anomaly crystal. There is a short, narrow, passage across the river leading to the dungeon entrance. Skyshard is in an open area, just as you get out of the hallway. There are benches on the left and a vault entrance to the right, with the skyshard located above it.

You can approach it either straight through the courtyard or through the vault filled with mobs.

The skyshard location on the dungeon map.

10.

In the grotto of snake-women.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Shard at this location can be found inside dungeon – Zalgaz’s Den, southern Craglron.

Dungeon entrance is easily spotted from a nearby road. Shard inside Zalgaz’s Den is found in northern part of the cave, close to dungeon’s bosses. Although the first part of the dungeon consists of mobs that are not hard to solo, group of mobs close to the shard poses a serious challenge if you plan on taking them on solo. You can perhaps kill the mob closest to the shard and when you get overwhelmed respawn and pick up the collectible.

Zalgaz’s Den Shard Map Location.

11.

Beyond the pillar of hunger.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Tombs of the Na-Totambu is the dungeon hiding this skyshard and it can be found in southwestern Craglorn.

You can approach the hidden entrance of this dungeon from north. There is a small bridge southeast of a nearby wayshrine, that you need to walk over in order to reach Tombs of the Na-Totambu entrance. As soon as you enter the dungeon, you can look to your left and spot the shard. In order to collect it you need to reach the very end of the dungeon. Soloing your way toward the shard is hard, and you are likely to get killed couple of times if you try to do so (that is if you do not play as a stealthy nightblade). Shard is at the end of a small tunnel, just behind the dungeon boss – The Hungry Pillar.

Bridge that leads to Tombs of the Na-Totambu entrance.

Tombs of the Na-Totambu Entrance Map Location.

Enter the tunnel behind The Hungry Pillar.

Tombs of the Na-Totambu Shard Map Location.

12.

Howling at the moon.

Guide:
Achievement: Lower Craglorn Skyshards.
Inside the Hircine’s Haunt dungeon, central Craglorn. Northwest of Spellscar Wayshrine, southwest of Spellscar, north-northwest of Belkarth.

Start at Belkarth Wayshrine and head north, following the left river bank. After some time you will reach a wooden door, slightly above the river, that will lead you inside the dungeon. You can see the skyshard on the top of the cliff across the entrance as soon as you enter, but you will have to fight your way around the dungeon to reach that location. You can also check our Hircine’s Haunt video, which can help you to successfully finish this dungeon.

View of the dungeon’s entrance from afar.

The entrance location on the world map.

Fighters Guild skills with Skilled Tracker passive can make your run much easier.

Skyshard location on the dungeon map.

13.

In the nesting grounds of scales and deceit.

Guide:
Achievement: Upper Craglorn Skyshards.
Like any other Craglorn skyshard, this one is found inside a Group Delve – Serpent’s Nest in this case. You can find it in northwestern Craglorn, west of Trial: Sanctum Ophidia

Soloable: No.
There is more than one group you have to skip/kill in order to reach the skyshard’s location. Shard is located at the central part of the cave. You can reach this point of delve when you turn left at the crossroad that takes you to the last cave room in southwestern Serpent’s Nest. Skyshard is defended by couple of veteran level 13 Snakes and one Troll.

14.

Overlooking a valley of serpents beneath glimmering falls.

Guide:
Achievement: Upper Craglorn Skyshards.
Found inside Loth’na Caverns Dungeon Delve. This Delve is found in northwestern Craglorn, just southeast of Trial: Sanctum Ophidia.

Soloable: Yes (only one/two groups on your way to the shard).
Once you enter the delve you should pass by the first group of veteran level 13 creatures. Keep to your left. Soon enough you come across a small wooden bridge. You don’t want to cross the small river here as there is a group of creatures defending the bridge. Follow the river upstream. Cross the river and collect the Shard.

15.

Among the treasures of the Iron Exarch.

Guide:
Achievement: Upper Craglorn Skyshards.
Exarch’s Stronghold delve is where you want to go to obtain this shard. It is found in northern Craglorn. Follow the river that flows through central Craglorn to its northern part to enter this part of the map.

Soloable: Yes (need to pass by one group of mobs)
The first and only group you have to dodge/kill is the one at the start of the delve. This group is near the door that takes you to the first long cave bridge. As you go through it and just after couple of steps, look to your right. At the bottom of the cave is the collectible.

16.

Beneath the tower on the ridge.

Guide:
Achievement: Upper Craglorn Skyshards.
To enter Ilthag’s Undertower delve (which contains the skyshard) you will have to
find a basement door in a ruined tower just east of Valley of Scars Wayshrine (Northeast of a nearby lake).

Soloable: No (there are a lot of groups between its location and delve’s entrance/exit. There is also a whole group standing near the shard).
Once you enter the delve, jump into a gap found on floor. This takes you to the lower part of the dungeon. There are large numbers of enemy groups found here. Run/fight/stealth your way to the northern part. There are stairs you can use to climb up out of this lower part of the cave. When you go through a small passage that connects the lower and higher part of the cave you can spot the shard easily. It is on a small wooden platform. It is also guarded by a large group of mobs.

17.

Amidst howling winds and restless tombs.

Guide:
Achievement: Upper Craglorn Skyshards.
Found in dungeon delve – The Howling Sepulchers, northeastern Craglorn.

Soloable: Yes (there are not enemy groups near shard, but you have to reach it).
Shard inside Howling Sepulchers dungeon delve is on a rock just above the first wooden bridge. Its location is really close to an entrance/exit. This fact doesn’t help us at all as we need to go around the dungeon, crossing three bridges in order to reach its location. As it happens there are many groups on this road, expect lots of troubles.

The Howling Sepuclhers Entrance…

First bridge is just ahead from the entrance.

Turn left when you cross it. From this location you can spot another wooden bridge in the distance that you should cross over.

We are now in the small cave with only one mob. Veteran Rank 13 Rosathild. Head east and exit the cave.

We are now on the third wooden bridge. From here we have a nice view toward the delve entrance and other bridges.

18.

Clutched within the jaws of the stone serpent.

Guide:
Achievement: Upper Craglorn Skyshards.
Found in dungeon delve Fearfangs Cavern, west of town Dragonstar, northwestern Craglorn.

Soloable: Yes (there is a veteran rank 13 boss Sepilisk near the shard. It is highly possible you need at least his veteran rank in order to collect the shard without alarming Sepilisk).
On your way to the shard you can find many groups of enemies with their snake friends. These groups are found in small rooms full of bookcases. Who knew snakes like to read. Largest of them all – boss Sepilisk – guards the shard in central cave room. You can, however, go around Sepilisk and collect the shard without too much trouble. Be careful though, because when I did it I was VR14, so it might be more difficult for lower levels to bypass the boss without alarming him.

ESO Patch Notes v1.1.2

The first major content update: the Adventure Zone Craglorn is live on ESO servers and brings a handful of changes as well as many other fixes and refinements. You’ll need allies to take on the new challenges—Craglorn’s quests and exploration are designed for groups of four Veteran Rank 10+ characters. (You can enter Craglorn and play the content earlier than Veteran Rank 10.)

The first Trials have been added in Craglorn, 12-player adventures meant to test even the strongest heroes. In Trials, your team will have a limited number of resurrections to use as you attempt to reach the final boss. If you finish the Trial quickly, you might earn a place on the leaderboards and receive extra rewards!

Another new feature is the Death Recap. This screen will help you understand what contributed to your death and hints that can help improve your performance next time.
 
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