ESO: A Noob's Tale Part 3, Bretons and Treasure and Snares, Oh My! - MMOGames.com

This week I continued my quest as a noob in the guise of a Breton- the magicka-adept human/elves of High Rock. Naturally I am drawn to more bestial races but I decided to shake things up this time. Currently I have played a character from each of the three warring factions in Tamriel- The Aldmeri Dominion, The Ebonheart Pact and finally my Breton in The Daggerfall Covenant. I also chose that, after playing a Nightblade and then a Warrior, I would play a Sorcerer.

Breton’s are naturally magic-resistant and also have racial benefits to destructive magic, so I decided to take the world of PvE by storm with electrical magic at my fingertips. I am pleased (as well as relieved) to say that this decision was not one that I will regret.

Whereas as a Warrior class Argonian I had felt weak, both in defensive and offensive capabilities, as soon as I entered the world of magicka I felt powerful. The mage class comes naturally to me, and I found standing away from the fight and wielding huge amounts of damage both to single targets and in an area very exhilarating.  As well as this the talent tree of Sorcerers caters towards the summoning of demons and spirits, producing damage and crowd control in the form of “Dark Magic” and finally dealing massive DPS with lightning from above. Needless to say I opted to be a Storm-Caller of epic proportions.

However the main difference I found when playing this week was not actually in the class I chose. As I said, I have always gravitated towards that class and it comes naturally to me- spamming spells to rip enemies to shreds is just so darned enjoyable. No, the thing I discovered this week was a treasure trail quest in Stros M’Kai.

I started the quest by simply picking up and reading a piece of paper somewhere in the area. It was a set of clues leading to “Izad’s Treasure” and quite apart from handing you the answers, the game challenged me in several ways and it was far from easy to actually find the Treasure. I even had to ask in chat for directions to “Saintsport’s Star”. I had an idea of what it was, but I won’t spoil it for any budding treasure hunters out there that want to do this on their own, Nicholas Cage style.

Even after starting in the right place it took me some time to follow each clue in the winding trail until I found the treasure, which did in fact turn out to be worth the effort. The main thing that struck me about this was that I had actually felt challenged by the quest! In all the past quests in ESO it had felt rather menial- “go here”, “talk to this person”, “read all this text”, “follow this dog”, “collect these herbs”- and I suppose this is the curse of many early level quests. However this was quite different and there were no extra hints from the game to make the search easier, I literally had to read the clues, follow the landscape and figure it out.

Now although I said in my previous articles that ESO throws you in the deep end with quests, this is more because of the sheer freedom in how you approach them and the number of quests there can be active in one zone. This was quite different and offered me a challenge I really wanted to see through. Again, it gave me huge freedom- there is never any need to complete a particular quest in order to progress. However with this treasure hunt I really did feel huge satisfaction when I finally uncovered the prize, and my empty living room was privy to many an impassioned squawk of triumph along the way.

As well as this I discovered a whole section of questing that I had never before encountered in online RPGs. As a player of an iteration of the Dungeons and Dragons boardgame, however, I know all about the world of traps and snares. During my questing this week I ran into many of these- all through a Goblin Mine. Although they don’t seem to be fatal, it was quite exciting fleet-footing my way through these obstacles and it added another dimension of PvE interaction.

This week has offered me a lot to process, and the ultimate question of whether ESO is a “noob-friendly” game or not weighs over it all. I have to say that although this week most of what I did was from my own initiative, and it took quite a bit of perseverance to actually see the hunt through, I still consider ESO to be quite easy going as far as new experience for players. Although the environment is vast and confusing, and juggling many quests at once can be difficult, I think the fact that the game offers so many different possible experiences makes it a winner for new players. In the beginning the number of quests will frighten most noobs- especially perfectionists like me who would find it hard to sleep without completing every single one on offer. However it really isn’t necessary to try and tackle all of them. ESO is structured so that you can progress and gain experience, gold and items from doing a minimum of quests. So if you don’t care about doing the early rites of passage to becoming a tailor, but you (like me) have a strange addiction with killing rats and butterflies to harvest bait and obsessively fishing for no apparent reason, that’s absolutely fine.

The game has so many possible avenues to explore- crafting, dungeons, questing… these are just a few of the things you can get involved with, and although it can seem like everything is shoved in your face at once, it isn’t necessary to take it all on in the beginning. My advice from noob to fellow noob is to take it slow, pick up a few quests and see them through to the end. Try to do a better job at keeping up with the story than I did- it is interesting and does really help with general fluidity and understanding of the game.

This week was a real eye-opening experience for me and opened up the world of free roam and exploration to me. There are so many documents and treasures hidden in Tamriel, and if you’re someone who only finds set questlines restrictive, then these could be your opportunity to explore and experience Tamriel without that holding you back.

Make sure to catch the final installation of my “A Noob’s Tale” series next week, where I experience the last remaining class in ESO- the Templar and sum up my entire experience.