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I was given two quests: put out six fires, and deliver healing to four injured monks. While questing in the High Rock area of Stormhaven I was directed to a monastery that was under attack by bandits. One of The Elder Scrolls Online's biggest weaknesses as an MMO is that it often becomes a worse game when large numbers of players are involved in the same activity. The idea is fine on paper, but crumples when exposed to actual players. It does, however, have an amusing and detrimental effect on the game's tone: vampires and werewolves can pass on their curse to other players once per week, and it's common to see players in cities offering large sums of money for the chance to get bitten.
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This is a nice idea, and demonstrates the versatility of the skill system. It's also possible to be infected with vampirism or lycanthropy and gain access to new skill trees with appropriate benefits and drawbacks. It's also possible to add new skill trees by joining organisations like the Fighters and Mages guilds, each of which have their own quest lines.
THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE VS SKYRIM FREE
Your choice of class at character creation grants you three sets of skills that nobody else will have, but beyond them you're free to mix and match armour types, weaponry, and crafting disciplines as you will. You select skills by spending points in a range of disciplines, the majority of which are available to every player. It's a good thing, then, that the game's skill system allows you to customise your approach to combat from the beginning of the game. It's not groundbreaking, but it's a success for the game. Seeing a heavy overhand blow coming in, reacting and catching it on my shield with a heavy 'thunk' is a good feeling.
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In addition to the familiar parts of the job-hammering the 'taunt' key to make sure I'm the one getting hit, keeping my defensive bonuses up-I also have to watch out for special attacks I can parry or spells that I can rebuff with a well-timed block. I've built my character into a sword-and-board frontline fighter, and in group dungeons that means taking the tanking role. The combat system gets better as the difficulty level rises. This applies to stealth, too: every character can sneak about, but it's faster, easier, and more rewarding to fight everybody you see. The vast majority of battles feel far more like the former than the latter: generally, encounters are forgiving enough that it doesn't matter if you screw up a block or fail to use your abilities at the right time.
THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE VS SKYRIM SERIES
The combat system hybridises the traditional fantasy MMO 'rotation' system-where a player cycles through a particular series of skills and magical powers-with skill-based attacking and blocking closer to the singleplayer Elder Scrolls games. Typically, however, you're going to be running around fighting for the vast majority of your time in the game. A few quests have more of a social or riddle-solving aspect and these tend to be the better ones, particularly when they allow you to use the game's basic persuade and intimidate skills to alter the course of events. The tasks you perform fall into familiar categories-kill lists, fetch quests, and simple object finding. It does not seem unjust or unrealistic to hold The Elder Scrolls Online to account along similar lines. Those 'stepping into the light' moments weren't just about showing off fancy new tech they were a promise. This isn't simply about whether The Elder Scrolls Online works as an Elder Scrolls game in its own right-it doesn't, let's put paid to that notion now-but whether it can justify being one of the most expensive games on PC. I'm waiting for the point when this MMO sits up and makes a claim to be anything but familiar. I'm waiting for anything like that moment. I have spent thirty hours playing The Elder Scrolls Online and I'm still waiting for that moment. In Skyrim you emerged onto a mountainside with the Throat of the World on one side, the valley of Falkreath on the other, and a dragon in the skies above. In Oblivion it occurred when you escaped out onto the edge of Lake Rumare and saw the hills rise ahead of you along the road to Bruma. In Morrowind it hit as you left Seyda Neen and realised that the road ahead went in two directions, and that you could follow either of them, and that each direction would take you on an entirely different journey through the world. Every modern Elder Scrolls game has had a moment near the beginning where you step out into a new landscape and think I've never been somewhere like this before.