Yeah, continued my high elf to about 6, I think? Maybe 7. The starting area is fairly nice, enough side quests and stuff that it feels like there's something to do. Quests are fun too. Magical combat isn't perfect, it does tend to get a bit repetitive, but there's enough choice and variety to keep things interesting. The only issue is that there hasn't been much range in the loot I've gotten so far, but maybe that's just because I haven't really delved into the crafting system yet.

 

There are twitch streams up for those who want to watch them.

 

Been playing for a couple hours now. I think I'm at level 4. The Dragonknight (battlemage analog) is pretty fun, but I can see myself running out of skill slots really, really quickly. I'm only level 4 and I've already got most of my slots filled with skills that I use regularly. On the flip side, the skills are pretty powerful, and I usually don't need more than 3 (plus a couple whacks with a sword) to kill most mobs. My biggest frustration is getting stuck in dialog windows. I've had it happen in quest conversations, merchant windows, and crafting screens. Using the /stuck command kills you, so the only real option that I've found is to relog, which is annoying.

But aside from that, it's fun and doesn't feel grindy. I still probably won't buy it because subscription fees (I don't play enough to justify them, especially on top of a $60 game), but if it ends up FTP in a couple months, it's definitely something I could go back to.

 

Use /reloadui reloads you in the same place without killing you.

I think the point of the low amount of skill slots is to encourage skill morphing, which is awesome.

 

I just really wish skills were morphable beyond just the one time.

 

Yeah, I found that about 5 minutes after I posted.

 

So I've been stuck at the one place for a while now, died like 10 times.

Spoiler

It's the fight against Gutsripper.

Theoretically easy enough, and I've almost won it a couple of times, but the controls are so frustratingly laggy at key moments that I've taken a bunch of hits I shouldn't have because the dodging or blocking don't work properly. Just shut the game down due to sheer frustration.

 

New frustration: quickslots. I can't figure out exactly how they work, and it's killing me. Literally.

 

Yeah, those aren't well explained at all.

Go into your inventory, and hold Q. From there, you should be able to drag any item into one of your quickslots. You can have multiple items quickslotted - only the one in the bottom will be used when you press Q, if you hold Q you can choose which item to put into that priority slot.

 

So looks like they didn't fix any of the old bugs. Game plays smoother for me, but all the bugged quests? Still bugged.

Fuck the stress test, let us play the updated game!

 

Gutsripper is a bit tricky, my level 8 templar barely beat him. You need to prepare carefully, buy some health potions, and get out of the red zones. He is stunned for short term after the long rush, so that is the best time to beat him.

Quickslots> in your inventory, select the button on top right, there you can drag to quickslots. Press and hold Q out of inventory, and use the mouse to highlight the slot you want to use. If you just press Q, you will use the item there.

Also, this is a personal request, if you do any alchemy/enchanting, could you try and remember/write down the effects/recipes discovered?

 

Yeah, I know this. I'm planning on going back well stocked with health potions. The problem is that even though I know to stay out of the red zones, control lag means I've more than once taken hits I really shouldn't have because my guy just didn't respond in time.

 

Is it just me, or is Norion a complete bitch to beat? I think the best I've done is get him down to ~1/3, and that's dodging and interrupting like a motherfucker. The queen is basically useless, so I'm left facing Norion and at least 2 minions alone before I go down. Healing item cooldowns are too long to use more than one in the fight, and the damage you receive far outstrips what you can heal anyways. I'm a level 8 dragonknight (recommended level for the quest) with the best armor I can find for my level and some pretty decent weapons (tried with the Coinblade quest reward, as well as a pretty nice mace/shield combo that grants health restoration on strikes). This should not be as difficult as it's turning out to be, unless I'm missing something?

Edit: never mind, figured it out. I just ran in circles shooting him with arrows until he went down. Annoying that the difficulty level between melee and ranged is so huge, though. Even using skills and technique, he was completely unbeatable with melee weapons, while I was able to destroy him with a bow and no skills at all. I was barely even scratched.

 

Haha, yeah, that took me a few tries as well. The trick I found was to keep backpedalling. When he runs at you, stun him. When he summons, kill it first - it should be easy enough. I'm a sorcerer so maybe that works out better for me, you probably need to get up close. Do you have any stuns or knockdowns you can use on a semi-regular basis?

 

I'm unable to log in. Annoying, but eh. I had enough time last beta.

 

Try now, Anya. There were problems with the login server earlier but I just played for a bit with no issues.

Anyone still having problems with Gutsripper, get Silver Bolts (the first skill in the Fighters Guild line). Minor physical damage and a chance for massive magical damage, but the true beauty of it is that it knocks down Daedra and Undead for 3.5 seconds. It actually didn't really work on Undead for me for some reason, but against Daedra, especially if there's only one opponent, it's awesome. It drains from Stamina, btw.

Between that and Destructive Clench, a Destruction staff stun, the poor thing barely spent any time on its feet. Just hit it with a stun, fire off one heavy attack, hit with the other stun, fire a heavy attack, hit with the first stun, continue until dead. Didn't go below 75% health (after I spent a ton on health potions, too) or 1/3 magicka or stamina the entire fight.

That said, there are a TON of bugged quests. Three separate quests are stuck because the enemies do not spawn - it's supposedly related to bugged instances being kept alive by players who remain in the area. If everyone exits and waits for a while then it should get fixed, but good luck trying to get that to happen anyway. It's quite annoying, tbh. Plus that stupid frog quest doesn't let me put my frog in the starting basket so that's stuck too.

 

I found that relogging solves a lot of instance issues. I am mostly playing a Dunmer, so I can only help with quests there, or common quests.

 

The issue is that the instances are shared amongst a lot of players, so simply logging in or out doesn't really help - two of the bugged quests have been like that over two separate sessions separated by 3-4 hours.

 

I'm playing a Khajiit Nightblade. The Aldmeri Dominian is looking pretty interesting so far. Not everyone is a complete wanker, for one. I could do for a button to switch between my Sword+Board and Bow though.

 

Or do what I did and use a bow. Took me a couple tries to figure out that he has a radius - if you pull him past that, he goes back to his starting point with full health. The first time it happened, he needed one more arrow to go down. Pulled him too far a couple more times and died once when I tried to keep him above the stairs, but it was pretty easy once I figured out how far he could go.

The dragonknight has one knockdown, but it uses mp and my mana pool is pretty small despite putting 3/4 of my points into it so far. Can't use it too often.

And yeah, the bugged quests are annoying.