▷ ESO Q&A with Paul Sage 🎮

Our partners at Tamriel Foundry hosted a Q&A session with Paul Sage last Saturday. The themes discussed were:

Group systems (features and tools)
multi-player challenges (dungeons, outdoor bosses, black anchors, etc.)
group playability (synergies, group roles, etc.)

ESO Q&A with Paul Sage

After having dissected all of Paul Sage's answers, here are the key elements that we can emerge from them, thematically.

Group experience and mechanics

We get experience bonus when in a group.
There is no automatic Rift grouping, instead, the participation of each player is taken into account without the need to be grouped.
There will be no penalty to group more than 4 but this is not possible in some places.
The "holy trinity" (tank / heal / dps) is not necessarily necessary. This is not the case for the Black Anchors for example, but some dungeons need it.
The quests are the best way to gain experience but you can still kill monsters on a loop for experience or skill points in certain areas. Things change slightly when you reach the veteran ranks.
All dungeons are not specifically for groups of 4, they can be solo sometimes.
a PvP group can be very large, but dungeon groups are a maximum of 4. The large groups are 12 players.

Material

The rewards are instantiated for each player participating in the death of the monster. If there are rewards, everyone will get them. Some objects are exchangeable, others are linked during use, others are unchangeable especially on bosses.
Some items will have a unique appearance and may have unique stats as well. A Veteran item found in a dungeon can be more powerful than a PvP item and vice versa, have different appearance and stats.
The inventory boxes are as follows: head, shoulders, breastplate, hands, belt, pants, boots, rings x2, neck, and weapons (two weapons or weapon and shield) ... 7 pieces of armor. (light, intermediate or heavy).
The system of finesse has been abandoned because it posed more problems than it brought interest. It has been replaced by the system of ultimate points which increase according to actions in combat (healing, dodging, blocking, interruptions, etc.).

Difficulties and types of PvE

PvE presents different levels of difficulty for the casual player as well as the hardcore player looking for challenges.
The outdoor areas are made to be removable or removable, there are nevertheless bosses outside.
Public dungeons function as outdoors and are not among the 16 dungeons announced. In fact there is 16 public dungeons in addition to the 16 instanced dungeons.
ESO is similar to Morrowind in terms of monster difficulty. Monsters have a fixed level that does not depend on the level of the character. However, some areas are clearly made for certain levels. In the territories of other alliances beyond level 50, the notion of level will no longer be really meaningful.

Black Anchors

Black anchors are difficult for 2 players and go up to 4 players.
Depending on their location, the black anchors can have different difficulty levels. There is 3 black anchors per zone (so 15 per alliance territory) and more scattered throughout Cyrodiil.
The number of players present at a black anchor determines the difficulty of the anchor up to a certain point. Combat and monsters will vary depending on location but not only the difficulty is adjusted by adding more monsters and / or making them stronger.
When a black anchor is destroyed, it will later respawn in the same location.
Black Anchors are open events similar to portals in the Oblivion game except you don't have to enter them. Nothing will prevent the fact that there are crowds of players but the game has enough diversity to limit this effect.
Black anchors provide experience and reputation with the Guild of Warriors. There is also the possibility of having good rewards, especially on end-of-event bosses.
Nothing will prevent PvP in Cyrodiil anchors.

dungeons

In order to solute an instantiated dungeon for 4 players, a character will have to minimum have 10 more levels than the recommended level, and again this may not be enough.
There are only two versions of a dungeon: its original version, and its veteran version (if it exists).
Dungeons can be redone indefinitely, but the quests they offer can only be completed once. However, the dungeon scripts will have to be redone each time the dungeon is performed. In “veteran” version, the dungeons offer the continuation of the historical plot of the normal version.
Remaking a dungeon is interesting because each dungeon can offer unique reward items but it also allows you to build your reputation / experience in the “Indomitable” tree.

Combat Mechanics

There is no penalty to change weapon and shortcut bars but you should know that if a maintained effect spell (such as summons or buffs) is not found on the second shortcut bar, the effects are interrupted during the change (which results, for example, in an immediate de-summoning of a familiar).
Constantly pressing a single skill in the middle of combat is possible but will waste a lot of resources (magicka / vigor). It is vital to spare your resources for the opportune moments especially during high level content.
It is possible to resuscitate an ally in the middle of combat with a Spirit Gem, but resurrection takes a long time, and you are vulnerable during this time.
There are skills to attract monsters and keep them away from other players but players also have skills to stop being a target. Some skills, like healing, generate more hate than others. A good tank can keep the attention of a few monsters, but is not meant to capture the attention of all monsters at once.
Combat and healing is very different from other MMOs given the reduced game interface and non-existent timer elements. It will be necessary to know how to be reactive in combat to heal effectively.
The range and direction of healing vary depending on the spell used. Some are at radius of effect, others in cones and others non-directional (ex: heal the worst ally nearby) It is better to stay within range of your target and have them in sight, between 15 and 20m. some spells are instantaneous and do not require line of sight, but they will be less effective.
The spells do not stack and therefore cannot be doubled on a character.

Synergies

Synergies require react at the right time in the right place but are not not skill sequences in chain. Skill chains would not really work for TESO given the huge number of existing skills and the fact that you can only use 5 at a time.
Synergies are skills launched by a player, which can be “activated” by another player (s) to produce an additional effect. We find for example:
- Supernova: This will increase the damage and radius of effect of the magic damage spell in area of effect (Nova).
- Siphoning Attacks: If activated, your attack drains health to the player.
- Shards of Spears: If activated, regenerates your stamina.
- Consuming Darkness: If activated, allies become invisible for a short time.
- Lightning Atronach: If activated, increases the duration of the spell and the damage of the Atronach.
Normally synergies cannot be activated only once but some are time-based.
The skills line of Indomitable, related to completing dungeons, is exclusively made up of skills with synergies.

Alliance Territories

You will be able to travel to the territories of other alliances beyond level 50 because a certain entity wants you to "see things from a different perspective."
For PvP campaigns, this does not affect your original alliance in any way.
You can still group with your friends, but if they don't have the required level, they won't be able to join you in new alliances.
When you go to other territories, dungeons can be performed in both normal and veteran versions.

Social

He is actually impossible to group with players from enemy alliances within the same guild, but that could change in the future.
Group paging allows you to choose the role you want to exercise in the group, you can change it at any time.
It is currently not possible to rate the performance of its group partners.
You can teleport to your party mates from anywhere but you will always find yourself at the oratory closest to their position (not directly on them).
It is not not possible to upload a guild logo inside the game.
It is possible to share a quest between members of a group.
The stages of a quest are mainly validated for the whole group, but some require decision-making or information and cannot be validated as a group.
There will not exist no level lowering system in order to play with lower level players and share the same gaming experience, but that's possible for the future.

Diverse

Most traps are based on detection and avoidance. Puzzles and traps require the attention of the player rather than the use of in-game skills. This is meant to put everyone on an equal footing in the face of obstacles.
Quests will impact the environment through phases and layers of play.
La main plots is spread over several levels so the duration depends on the speed of the player's level. If the player could complete the main quests in one go, it would take between 5 and 6 hours.
There are plenty of open spaces without monsters or quest givers that people can make their own for roleplay.
Hunting is possible for melee players, but prey and small creatures run away quickly.
Most monsters are either scattered around the world or concentrated in groups. In certain areas of interest for quests, a large number of the same type of monster will be able to live together (so that there is enough for everyone), and in more remote areas, they will be more scattered.
No information has been communicated concerning the adventure zones.
Zenimax's plans for the game's release and anticipated launches (if any) will be announced very soon.