I'm back!

I took a several month hiatus after reaching V2, and went on a long trip across the USA.  Still getting accustomed to the new changes and skill resets of my characters.  It seems a lot of other have taken a hiatus as well as most of my guildies haven't logged on in at least a month.

There is obviously a lot of new Veteran content which I haven't particularly started partaking yet.

But the world is pretty empty in the Veteran Zones.  Lots of people still in starter areas.

So a few other people are back in town chatting about how they re-subscribed as well.  The ones that did mentioned that they like PVE so much better now than before, but they can't quite put a handle on why.  My personal guess is that a lot of bugs have been fixed.

I'm enjoying my PVE time as well.  Not back into PVP just yet, probably when the next cycle starts.  But it was nice to know that I got a bunch of CASH for participating in the first 90 day cycle.  Over $30000, which I promptly used to pay for a nimble mount.

Now to organize all the crap I have in bank / guild bank... I really don't know how regular players manage.

Inst-spawning Jute and Other Resources

You know those bots that are gathering that jute that re-spawns at an incredible rate?  Apparently its not a ban-able offense if a real player is gathering the jute.  It's only ban worthy if its a bot doing it.  How do you prove its a bot in your report?  Let me know if you have a way that works.

One way to get rid of those level 3 bots is to drag one of those AoE archers over to shoot them.  But now the bots have a bunch of rez stones so they just simply rez again and continue along in groups.  You can feasibly leave a high level character there and let the AoE arrow shooting mobs just shoot across the way at you till they run out.  Too bad players not familiar with that strategy will often come by and kill em, not knowing what's going on.

Latest Update Drops % on Guild Stores

Before the most recent update, the House Cut was 15%, and Listing Fee was 10%.  All that gold went poof by the way.  (The Guild doesn't receive any of it.)

Now its a more reasonable.
1% Listing fee
7% Closing fee.  Does not take this if it doesn't sell.

It actually makes sense to use the Guild Store now.

Cashing In On Crafting

For a long time, investing in crafting hasn't paid off.  Its a pretty big money/skill sink because the best way to level up is deconstructing everything.

So where the money is in crafting?  Refining raw materials.

The latest trend is purchasing stacks of raw materials in order to refine and get rare, epic, and legendary upgrade materials.  Apparently with a high enough crafting level, and the full three points placed into extraction is all you need.  This will allow a crafter to refine a stack of any material and end up with at least one legendary and one epic upgrade material on average.  Luck will have something to do with it, so if you want favors stacked on your side, roll an Imperial toon along with max in extraction.

Prices for these upgrade materials are typically over 1000 gold a piece to 5000 or 6000.

This is why raw materials prices have been going up lately, but cost of upgrade materials will be falling.

One side benefit of this is that you can expect these higher end of grade materials to drop in price as this trend continues.  And actually being able to craft something that you want to wear and be affordable enough that you will do it every few levels is a good thing.

(This obviously doesn't apply to any craft where you don't refine anything.)

5 Days Compensated Game Time

Good news!

As of May 1st, everyone already in the game will get 5 free days of game time to compensate for launch issues, 'beta' testing, bots, farmers, and the game downtime due to these issues.  Local time, you have less than 30 minutes to activate your account to qualify.

Some information about upcoming updates posted here on the official site.  Check it out.

How To Rank Up Your Skills

Most players don't know the real answer, but its right there in front of you in the Skills Menu.   I have not seen a single person answer this correctly in Zone so I thought this would be the perfect next post.

Answer to how come my Soul Magic skill line has not moved in 20 levels even-though I use it

People often get the semantics mixed up and honestly pass along a lot of mis-information in-game about leveling up skills.  Skills are different from abilities, and abilities are leveled up most of the time by using them.

But to truly see how you rank up your skills, you really have to read what the skills says next to your rank.  Its the same all the way from Rank 1 to Rank 50.  So in my example above on Soul Magic, you can only improve the Soul Magic skill line by doing the Main Quest.

Active Abilities are ranked from I-IV (1-4), and after they are morphed can also rank up from I-IV.  At this time in the game, Active Abilities are only able to be morphed once.

As far as crafting is concerned, you basically use a crafting station to get XP.  Everything you do at a crafting station earns you XP to rank up your skills.  Read this post here.

listen to ‘How To Level Up your Skills in Elder Scrolls Online’ on Audioboo

Horses, are the $42,700 horse worth it?

If I had to do it all over again, I'd say if you have Imperial Edition - its a no brainer.  Just get the 1 gold horse, don't even bother with the common horse because its just a different color.  Functionally the same.

Where it gets tricky is the other horses.  If you are going to maximize your investment, you'll want the one that you want to focus on and feed it that particular trait every 20 hours or so.  You can upgrade the stamina, speed, or carrying capacity with a 250 gold piece payment to the stable - its 1 percent per or 1 slot per 250 gold.  Don't forget to feed your horse every 20 hours so you can upgrade your horsey level.  (And no... your horse will not die if you forget to feed them.  But its a bit cruel.)

Like most crafters, carrying capacity is very important.  I'd say you'd be wasting money if you get a draft horse (starts with +10 carrying capacity) and feed it anything but oats for a while.

As for me?  I'm saving up my cash for the light horse - I want the speed in getting place to place in Cyrodiil.  And yes, you can have multiple horses, but only can 'mount' one at a time.  Stable space is cheap till you want the third stable spot at 1000 gold.

Before I finish this quick article, one of the FAQ questions newbies ask is - how do I access the extra bag space on my horse?  Well if you have those slots, they just get added to your inventory automatically.  Its as if you are adding slots on your bag.

If you are a pack rat, and feed your horse oats you'll end up with bags hanging off the side of your horse.

New Guild Bow Master

I got news from guild member and vampire @L337ZKE that he's got all the bow traits researched!  Way to go!

Guild members, please check member notes to see what we all need researched, traded from each other and let's help everyone rank up their crafting!

How Treasure Maps Work in ESO

First, you need to actually have one. The ones I've seen are blue, and they typically are named by their region, along with a roman number. Second, you have to have it in the inventory in order for you to be able to actually dig up and loot the treasure. Once you dig up the treasure, the map in your inventory gets used up.

Yes, that's right. Treasure maps are one time use per map.

The map itself shows you where it is with an X on the map.  However, simply googling the treasure map will give you a much better idea where you need to be to find the treasure.  I'm sure it will be an add-on someday so that you know exactly where to go in-game but for now, there's youtube and various websites that will guide you right to it.

You will see a mound of dirt if you get to the right spot.  Again, if you don't have the map in inventory, you will not see the mound, nor will you be able to dig anything up.

For example:

Bleakrock II Treasure location

Happy Treasure hunting!

Best place to get hide scraps, Ebonheart Pact

This is over at Devon's Watch, go downstairs past the pub.  Look for cursed chest, and port in.  There is also a skyshard in the zone.  I did Crow's Wood @ Level 6.

Look for the pack of wolves (shouldn't be too hard to find).  Use AoEs on them - there may be a lot but they're pretty weak.  You should get about 1 T1 leather hide scrap per killed wolf.

Some common solutions to everyday ESO issues

Granted, some of these are temporary fixes until the game gets patched, updated, etc.  Some are FAQs that I see people asking all the time in Zone.

1. Gold Spammers!
Go to esoui.com and download one of the spam filters.  Install the add-on.

2. Ignore list is too full!
Again, there is an add-on for that to reset ignore list to ignore the new spammers.  Its called ResetIgnore.

3. Help, I can't see my group member!  I see his arrow though.
You are in a different instance on the mega-server.  Open up your party panel by pressing P.  Right click on your group member and choose to travel to player/member.

4. How do I reset my skills?
You need to travel to the capital city and make an offering at one of the shrines.  Bring a lot of gold!  For Ebonheart Pact, that place is at Mournhold in the Deshaan map.  Easy way to get there, check on your guild list and find a player at Mournhold, right click on them and choose travel to player.

5. My FPS was fine, all of a sudden it dropped to a crawl!  I have super quad SLI, overclocked, blah blah blah.
Press Escape.  Go to settings.  Video.  Choose Graphics Quality and set it to Minimum.  Looks like crap right?  Go back in and set it to what you had before (Ultra High).  Done.

6. I'm stuck in the floor.  Ground.  Falling from the sky, endlessly.
Go in chat, type /stuck.  Yes this will kill you.  If that doesn't work (a few times), log out, and back in.  Worst case is press F1, talk to customer support.

7. How do I upgrade my bag space?
Go find the bag vendor.  In most starter cities they will be by the merchant area.  Talk to all the vendors, look at the signs.  Its 400 gold for first upgrade of 10 additional slots.

8. How do I access the auction house?
There isn't one.  ESO team wants you to buy and sell within guild through their 'Guild Store.'  Too bad the interface is horrid.  You need to be member of a guild that has 50 or more members, and has opened up guild store for its members.  There are a lot of guilds, and you can fit up to 5 memberships at once.

9. How do I buy a horse?
Go look for the horse stable by press M.  Its the horse symbol.  Bring a lot of gold (17k) or 1 gold if you bought Imperial edition.  They also sell a horse for $14.99 on ESO store website.

10. How do I change my view?
Use your mouse wheel, or press V to cycle between first person and third person.

Pricing Guidelines for ESO items

There are bargains to be made, and losses to be had when trading with players on ESO.

I started a page tracking the prices of goods on the US servers for the Ebonheart Pact.  You can check it out here.

While its still early in the game, a lot of prices seem to have stabilized - particularly T1 materials.  Still the range of prices is pretty wild because people simply don't know what things go for.  And... I do not use Guild Store pricing as a reference because some people give stuff away for cheap, and others charge exorbitant prices.

If you feel some of the prices are off, let me know.  This is what I've personally observed.

Lost Stuff in Bank?

The bank got robbed, and its because you guys won't stay on the customer side of the counter! (Ebonheart Pact knows what I'm talking about).

I saw this two days ago after getting lagged out from the log-in screen or transitional loading screen.  I went to my bank, and found that my bank slots went down from 80 to 60.  That meant about 20 items were missing.

I freaked out a bit.  Which probably a lot of you did / will do if this happens to you before the fix.

So what happened?

I found a lot of items instead moved to my inventory.  I'm not sure if I am missing anything, but it customer service claims they know about the issue and will fix it soon.  Assured me nothing is lost and will be returned.

So... before you freak out, just check your inventory on your toons.  Everything should still be there - your bag would have probably been upgraded.

Oh, a side effect is that you get a mail - intro mail with intro stuff.  If you got imperial edition, this means ring of mara, treasure maps, etc. etc. again.

But press F1, submit a support ticket in game.

Update 4/12/2014
New maintenance patch once again wiped bank account down to 60 slots.  The items went to the character I logged in with after patch, but this time items were lost.  I submitted another ticket and they advised that I hold off on purchasing a bank upgrade till after they fix the issue.

Update 4/16/2014
Bank got wiped again.  This is second time now, but this time took 52 items away.  I submitted another ticket, but customer service says they are aware of the issue.  One issue at a time - so...  Still - lo and behold, 52 items came back 15 minutes later.

Still no update on the rest of the stuff missing though.

And you are still advised not to purchase new bank slots until this is fixed.

Update 4/38/2014
Submit a new ticket requesting information about missing items and bank.  They said they're still working on a patch but will refund my money on bank upgrades.  And they told me in-game mail that they would kick me off server to refund.  Too bad I didn't get the notice and was just kicked (because in-game mail is still buggy sometimes).

How Crafting Hirelings Work and Do They Suck?

Being a crafting guild this is one of those FAQs.

How do hirelings work?

You spend the skill point after you hit rank 3 in Clothing, Woodworking, Blacksmithing, Enchanting.  For provisioning you have to be rank 28 (its really easy to rank in provisioning).

Then, every day (roughly 24 hours from skill point spending), your hireling sends you a mail with a little store and a chest.  The chest will be called (crafting profession) chest.  The timeline of course could change with server maintenance, etc.  And if you haven't received it in 24 hours or so, just /reloadui or log off and back on - that's a mail issue.

Are they worth it?

I haven't had really great luck personally, but some have reported getting some really great stuff from their hirelings.  The most I've spent in hireling is 2 skill points in wood working.  Check out the pictures below for what I've received so far.

I should note that for 3 days, my Enchanting Hireling gave me completely blank chests.  I submitted a bug report each time, and I do believe it has been fixed now.

Since I spent the 2 skill points pretty early on for woodworking, I feel overall it wasn't worth the expense.  Now hitting level 30, I have more skill points available (and all those extra skill points since starting PvP), and hitting 22 woodworking it might be worth it.  As you can see, over the course of 9 days (roughly) I did get a legendary upgrade item which I would not have been able to get otherwise while adventuring.

So if you feel you're lucky, go for it!  You can always re-spec later at a capital city shrine.

Update 2+ weeks later:

The empty chests I've been getting have been fixed.  GM sent me the stuff I would have otherwise got in a mail.  Also, I'm seeing better loot from the hirelings overall, sometimes with a lot of good stuff.  Sometimes, still just a few pieces of common junk.

Everyone says 3 points is worthwhile in hireling when you can spare the points and have enough skill to get up that high.  I can see why with legendary upgrade materials periodically.  I will keep a new log once I put 3 points in.

Fishing Guide in ESO

I don't know too much about fishing, but someone made a really good post found here about fishing.  Go get some guildies and try it out and let me know if you catch anything good.  The more fishing in same spot, the better the chance of getting better fish.

I caught a lot of Dhufish by myself at the ocean.

How to Jumpstart your Craft in Woodworking, Blacksmithing, Clothing

First of all, you need to get the materials any way you can.  Pay cash for it, join a crafting guild, or gather it yourself.  Some find it soothing to gather yourself, personally, I'm not all about that.  That's why we have a gatherer in guild!  They like gathering, and they like cash - good mix!

I'm going to use Blacksmithing as an example:

• Make another toon - doesn't matter what
• On main BS (blacksmith), turn iron into ingots - buy a bunch of the stones you need for your style.
• Bank both the mats and stones
• Log into your second toon, grab the mats and craft level 6 daggers (most efficient)
• Bank those daggers
• Jump on main BS and deconstruct those daggers
• Rinse and repeat

You'll get your levels in no time without having to trade daggers with anyone.

This works best only for tier 1, for tier 2 you'll want to find a guild to do this with.  We do this all the time in our guild.  Message @Demolis in game.

How to Never Pay Wayshrine Traveling Fees

It often surprises me that more people haven't figured this piece out.

1. Open up Guild panel (press G) - or you can open up friends panel.
2. Find a friend in an area you've been in.
3. Right click on friend/guildie and choose travel to player.
4. You will be ported to the dungeon or wayshrine. Ex, if you choose Stonefalls (starting area for my pact), you'll be transported to wayshrine.
5. Port for free from said wayshrine.

Easy Peasy right?

Level 20 Loot Run in Deshaan: Corpse Garden

Just found a decent loot run in Deshaan at a dungeon called Corpse Garden.  Got a whole bunch of stuff for decon, and some greens, and one unique from there from the Boss Skeleton General Celdien all the way at the bottom.  It takes a few minutes to get down there, and I killed him about half a dozen times within the span of 10 minutes or so.  He goes down real easy with Silver Bolts.

Eidolon's Hollow Wayshrine is closest.  Around the vicinity you'll also find a variety of mats you can run around and gather while you're out there.  Just outside the entrance you'll find runes, metal ore, and alchemist.

Lots of soul gems, light armor, potions, heavy armor, some trash weapons for decon or research.  Sure beats paying for empty lesser soul gems to fill.

End Game Content Added: Craglorn Adventure Zone

Some people have hit level cap 50 just a few days after early access.  Besides doing massive scale PVPs, now they can enter the first Adventure Zone (after they hit level 50, rank 10).

ESO Down for maintenance 4/7 - Login Timeout EU Server

Patch notes here.

They went the way of patching the EU servers first (also in the USA) and bringing that up before the US servers went down.  Trouble is, the EU server is said to be back up but nobody can log in.  It all times out.

So... if you can't log in, and just get the login error - you're not alone.  You can feel free to gripe about it here.  Well over 10,000+ views within minutes of EU server coming back online.

Zenimax claims its affecting 'some' players.  I'd guess to venture, a LOT of players.

Update 11:00AM PST: 40 MB patch.  You can now login, may require new access code to be emailed to you.  And... of course the access code isn't being sent out.  So waiting ensues. (Though some people report successfully getting in.)

OK success in getting into EU server 11:44 AM PST.  No code needed.

US Servers back online as well.

Sheogorath's Tongue: Best loot run for T1 mats, and soul gems @ Stonefalls

Edit 4/7/2014.  Patch notes here note that the boss spawn rate has now been 'fixed.'  Whatever that means.

The best loot run so far in game I've been on regularly between levels 10-14 is the Sheogorath's Tongue Loot Run.

What you get is a named Madcaller's Touch Restoration staff, a lot of potions, soul gems, and stuff to decon from blacksmithing, woodworking, and clothing.  All types.

Boss spawns every time people enter dungeon, so the more popular it is, the more loot you get.  Spread the word!

listen to ‘Sheogorath's Tongue Loot Run’ on Audioboo

 How to do it:

1. Empty out your bag as much as you can (lots of loot per kill)
2. Port to Sathram Plantation Wayshrine; (Coordinates on Map: 19,53)
3. Go Up the hill, up the ladders (visible from wayshrine)
4. Find the dungeon entrance, go in and kill till you get to room with Skyshard
5. Kill Calls to Nature (mini-boss) and friend

Room with the boss. You will often find a lot of people standing around to kill the boss.

Link to bigger picture of the room here.

First Launch Day, and Extra Free Early Access Days!

For those of us with Early Access from Pre-order its been an up and down hill ride typical of most major MMO launches.  Yes, there are bugs and there are down-times.  In fact quite a bit of down time recently to fix some exploits, and bugs causing other people's inventory to disappear and re-appear in someone elses.

Fairly big uproar with this downtime about people 'paying' for privilege for early access and now losing out.

Well, ESO Online announced that they extended it till April 6th at 8 AM EDT.  Good move and kudos!

Now let's hope that their subscription model improves for those that sub for 3 months, 6 months or 12 months at a time.  Right now the discounts are not all too hot.

Official Launch Today in 3 Hours - 4PM Pacific Standard Time

Servers are currently down in preparation for the world-wide official launch of Elder Scrolls.  If you haven't already pre-purchased The Elder Scrolls Online, do it soon!

Why?  You get pre-order bonus stuff - more of this is covered in the official FAQs found here.  I recommend the Imperial Edition pictured below.  The Horse for $1 (in-game gold) is worth it in time savings alone.  If not, you have to save $17,500 gold to purchase your first mount from the stables.  (That's a lot of cash to save up starting out).  Plus, your first $400 in-game gold should be used to upgrade your bag from the bag vendor in town (gives you 10 extra slots).



I'll be starting a guild later in game - message me @demolis