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I've played the game for a mere few hours, but have read a lot about the game, and here are mine, for those interested in the views of a fan for only 5 years:

The Story:
It's far too similar to Oblivion's. A cult using the unlit Dragonfires as an opportunity to get their Daedric Prince to invade with Oblivion Gates, and you're finding the Amulet of Kings (in Sancre Tor, also a major plot location in OB) to relight the Dragonfires (I think this is the final quest in the IC DLC quest line). Far too similar.

The Alliances:
Not only do the Daggerfall and Ebonheart races allying with each other not make sense at all, but the Aldmeri Dominion is ripped straight from Skyrim, making the Alliance storyline too similar to the whole Civil War affair in Skyrim. I will admit though, at least this Dominion shows some form of compassion, unlike the Skyrim one.

The Lore:
Nopenopenopenopenopenopenope. Far too many inconsistencies. The rotation of the IC. Cyrodiil being a forest rather than a jungle. Like I said before, the alliances. The appearance of several locations (landscapes, buildings, etc) appearing COMPLETELY different to those in future games. Books that are written in the future appearing. I know several of these problems are retconned by both when the game is set and developers making very ridiculous changes, but still, these are just plain inexcusable.

Annoys the crap out of me, but it should in no way be considered a retcon. It's just a mapping/UI issue that for some reason they neglected to fix during testing. Despite what the in-game map and compass say, directions inside the city seem to still match their Oblivion-era rotation. For example, the door to the prison district is still in the right place, and during one quest NPCs use the correct compass directions in dialogue.

...Where exactly does the Covenant and the Pact work together, except during the Main Quest? (They better work together, my Vestige did not go through all that [&@%!] just to have Emeric or Jorunn wave the stupid stick and put a petty war over being dragged into Coldharbour!)

And no, someone of a Pact race being in the Covenant and the other way around does not count. The races mingled quite a bit pre-war; it doesn't make sense for a Breton who was born in Morrowind and has lived there all their life to pack up and move to High Rock, especially since they are a Pact citizen by default. The alliances work more by region than race. The very existence of the Explorer's Pack proves this.



Lolwut? The existence of a thing called the Aldmeri Dominion back in the Second Era is 100% lore supported. The Skyrim version is the third reboot. The Online version is the first. Though Valenwood and Elswyer being involved are the same, the reasons those regions joined the Dominion are very, very different.

How exactly is the Alliance storyline (which Alliance storyline? There are three of them!) similar to the Civil War?

If you're Pact, you encounter Covenant forces far more often than Dominion ones (at least in the early zones).

If you're Covenant, you encounter Dominion forces a lot, but that still has little to do with Skyrim.

If you're Dominion, you're dealing with Maormer, internal strife, and the occasional Covenant troops (in one spot in Grahtwood, no more).

Dominion and Covenant have more problems with Imperials than each other gameplay-wise. I have yet to reach late Pact zones, though.

I'm really not sure what you're talking about. Care to explain what you mean? Maybe I'm missing something.



I just assume it's set during a Dragon Break that started with the Soulburst. There's a lot of evidence for it (the books thing being one, everything else you mentioned is explained by the very setting). Do you really expect buildings to stay the same over hundreds of years?

The Alliances: While I have not completely finished ESO, reading some of the in game books on UESP and the IL, I thought the writers did a good job at showing the hostility between each of the races in the alliance. Unfortunately, that didn't translate well to the actually game, from what I have seen. Also, the AD has been around seen Redguard (the first Pocket Guide) and I'm pretty sure the Elves we see in the civil war quest line are Thalmor, which is why they are less compassionate.

The Lore: ESO explains that humans taking the WGT caused the change from a jungle to a forest. Also, many fans of TES lore believe that Talos' CHIM also affected the past. The appearance of landscapes/buildings can be contributed to changes over time (in universe) or artistic liberties (should we count the changes from Arena to the later 3 TES games?). As for the future books, it isn't the first time this has happened. The Dragon Break Re-Examined mentions the fall of the Septim Dynasty, despite being featured in Morrowind. Also, I believe there is a dungeon in ESO that is linked to Herma Mora and features all kind of books that shouldn't have existed yet (Although, I will agree that this isn't a sufficient excuse).


While I do agree that ESO has it share of inconsistences, it isn't as bad as most people make it out to be and is no different from the inconsistences that have plagued TES games since Arena.

Here, I mean Nords, Argonians, and Dunmer working together doesn't make sense because of their constant hostilities towards each in the past.

Also, I mean the Redguards and Bretons working with the Orsimer doesn't make sense because, too, of their constant hostilities towards each in the past.



Here, I was trying to say that the AD in ESO is exactly the same as the ones in Skyrim (anti-humans, etc), but after having a bit of a think, I can see why I have no actual argument as that's the whole point of the AD.


Here, I was trying to say the AD vs The Nords (who, I would, are probably the more prominent race in the Pact), was too similar to the reason behind Skyrim's Civil War, but if the Pact vs the Covenant forces more than the AD, then I am mistaken.



Here, I'm referring to SEVERAL locations in Cyrodiil. The main one being the IC rotation (which, from what I've heard, is actually a UI bug), the locations of several fortresses/ruins/major settlements (ESPECIALLY Fort Ash and Fort Nikel being in too different of places compared to Oblivion), and the architecture of several towers (eg: Homestead Ruins in ESO appears like a sort of hour-glass shaped building, while Fort Homestead appears as a straight vertical tower, with 3 "prongs").

I'd also like to point out that the Aldmeri Dominion is different enough from what we see in Skyrim too. In Skyrim, it's being controlled by a faction that's all about Altmer supremacy. In ESO, the main Aldmeri Dominion - and Thalmor at that point - aren't like that; they think that the AD should control the Empire, yes, but it's not based on being anti-human, exactly. The main Aldmeri Dominion questline even involves fighting against a splinter faction, the Veiled Heritance, who basically behave the same as Skyrim's Thalmor, and they hate Queen Ayrenn because she's friendly with other races.

Here, I'm referring to SEVERAL locations in Cyrodiil. The main one being the IC rotation (which, from what I've heard, is actually a UI bug), the locations of several fortresses/ruins/major settlements (ESPECIALLY Fort Ash and Fort Nikel being in too different of places compared to Oblivion), and the architecture of several towers (eg: Homestead Ruins in ESO appears like a sort of hour-glass shaped building, while Fort Homestead appears as a straight vertical tower, with 3 "prongs").[/quote]

Ok, I see what your saying now. But even then, there have been worse cases. Morrowind switch the locations of two entire towns featured in Arena: Old Run (Ald'Ruhn in Morrowind) is on the west coast of Vvardenfell in Arena while Markgran Forest (Sadrith Mora) was on the east in Arena.

You should check out this book, it might help explain the reason for the Pact's existence. Pact quests actually deal constantly with the fact that all three races hate each other (to name a few key flashpoints: Senie, Fullhelm Fort, Stormhold). As for the Covenant, the Redguards and Bretons still treat the Orcs like [&@%!]. The only reason they were allowed to join is to act as meatshields, and also because Emeric has personal relationships with some Orcs. Orcs barely even feature in the Covenant storyline, and in the upcoming Orsinium DLC we'll discover that their King only has de facto control over like half of his own lands.


Also, Skyrim moved Whiterun to the other side of the Throat of the World and switched Markarth and Snowhawk. The fact that a couple buildings aren't in exactly the right spot in Cyrodiil shouldn't be too immersion breaking.

done right: character developement, graphics/nature, questing isnt a drag but actually fun for a change, lore, conversations.. at first i clicked some of it away but its captivated me now (dw didnt miss too much, only the skippable part, cause i wanted to rush into coop play as my y brother already had this game 2 days before i bought it see) and i cant even force myself to skip any dialogue. Theres very little that i dislike about this game but here goes:

done wrong: instances, for godsake if i play with a friend/familymember and ive done a quest prior to him i cant even see any enemies nor questers in the area im in while grouped with him.. how in gods name is this even an MMO this way?
This HAS TO be fixed. (hopefully in a comin patch, cant imagine other people havent repeatedly adressed this already)

There aren't many spots where this still happens.

I think Bleakrock is still a pretty major one. Seems like the whole island is instanced or something. Luckily they've stopped the practice for all future content though - Wrothgar is free of instancing afaik.

I agree. I don't really like MMOs and I much prefer the single player TES games, but I really enjoy ESO a lot. Being able to explore the different provinces is great, and the lore is really quite good. I got the game a few weeks ago and am just having a blast exploring High Rock for the time being and not rushing things.

A crappy thought that keeps bothering me though...ESO might last a long time, but the day they shut its servers down it's gone, unlike Daggerfall or Morrowind where I can keep playing it, ESO might be gone forever one day and that stinks.

If that happens, I'll be sad, but by Dibella will I have gotten my money's worth before that point.

Today ive been enjoying the whole piratey heist super much, getting together the people i later found on the ship we were rocking toward orcy island. Really feels like im part of that group lol, and that after i completely missed that quest on my previous 2 characters.

I really like the music on that desert island too, the long drawn out english horn like instrument for instance.

As for dissapearing... well.. i used to play ultima for ages, the characters i had in that game ive made in ESO now, so theres always a way to let your characters survive as long as theres a proper creation tool in mmos. (and the right setting, medievalish)

I bought the Gold Edition and so far I'm having a good time doing the Dark Brotherhood and Planemeld quests, especially the former. The stealth is pretty fun, with the hiding spots and all. Also I don't see why people complain about the graphics, I think the environments are gorgeous. I must admit though, I'm pretty terrible at this game despite being OP at TES3/4/5 (and their respective DLC's.) I guess it's because I'm struggling to get used to the MMO format since I haven't played any MMORPGs before. But hopefully I'll get used it

I'm enjoying trekking around Morrowind again, but I saw a huge missed opportunity. They didn't have a certain Bosmeri wizard near Seyda Neen rocket into the sky. Would've been a great in-joke, that he'd been airborne for an entire era before we finally witness his demise. But alas, mankind has yet to recognize my genius.

I was hesitant to start an online game again but ESO has been better than I had expected. The game mostly has a feel like TES had diablo and some of the boring parts of MMOs smashed into it to be more unique than other MMOs. I've never cared for magic in TES but now I'm forced to do so since the gameplay demands the use of special abilities and not using any magicka skills would leave resources that aren't working for you. Blocking and bashing at least gives a little bit of skill oriented content which is always fun to finish of an enemy with a follow up attack. The most important parts of the game though is the expanded experience in to the lore of its universe, working together with various people across Tamriel, and cheese.

The following are my first impressions after playing the game for most of the Saturday. A word of warning: Some of this is tinged with my previous total inexperience with MMOs and the unavoidable comparisons with TES single-player games (though I'm aware that is somewhat like comparing apples to oranges). I only have the base game added with the Morrowind chapter and have played only in Vvardenfell this far.

Character creation: Adequate, but somewhat disappointing. The sliders don't affect the facial looks of the character nearly as much as in Skyrim, let alone Oblivion. For instance, there is only a single mouth shape, only the lip thickness can be changed. The Soft-Heroic-Angular triangle is a useful tool for overall shaping, though, and should be in the single-player titles also. Still, for the lack of slider options I couldn't get my character to have the exact looks I wanted, only an approximation. This, however, might be just my inexperience with the tool.

Graphics: Excellent overall. Vvardenfell looked like itself, and gave some nice nostalgic feelings. Colours are great, as are character and creature models in general. When taking a closer look at NPCs, however, they sometimes looked rather startlingly like wax dolls. This was a bit distracting, and might have to do with over-smooth textures. It isn't anything that can't be gotten over, though.

Writing and voice acting: Very nice. Zenimax team being in charge shows in the dialogue and writing in general flowing smoother than in for instance Skyrim (this has since Oblivion been a relatively weak spot in Bethesda TES main titles). The few quests I've done were written well and had exciting action, even the tutorial phase in Firemoth island. The voice acting is generally good, and it's nice to hear some of the actors from Skyrim voicing this title too. Sometimes the actors could use a bit more emotion, however.

Combat: This far it feels rather slow and awkward, both with me and the NPCs. The weapons feel underpowered. It might just be that I don't know yet how to utilize the tools at my disposal, especially the special skills. In any case, the hectic feel of Skyrim combat it's not there, rather it's more like the slugfests of unmodded Oblivion spiced with special moves. It's all adequate, still, and with learning all the ropes might grow on me with time.

Related to combat is the problem that it's a bit unrewarding. The loot is next to non-existent compared to the single-player titles where one waded in it after fights. In ESO I have been unable even to find real boots for my character yet, and so she's still running around in the starter sandals. Killed bandits should at the very least drop basic-level armor and weapons.

Music: Nothing to complain here. The new music is good, as also are the variations of original Morrowind soundtrack. Enjoyable and appropriate throughout this far.

Housing: It was a bit disappointing to see the free inn room came unfurnished and without storage space. The in-game buyable furnishings are very expensive and I don't like the game's blatant suggestion of buying the things from the Crown Store with real money (I might do it anyway at some point, however).

Immersion: The environment and well-crafted quests are quite immersive in themselves, as is the ambient soundtrack. I find seeing other players in dungeons a bit distracting, however. This is of course due to this game being my very first MMO and my solo player tendencies. In the cities it's mostly fine, even enjoyable to see other players, however, since they add to the feeling of bustling city life. However, the occasional murdered NPCs lying around (I ran across a few in Vivec) next to their living respawns are a bit jarring, if amusing.

Summary: This far the game has been enjoyable in the main. I definitely am not as fascinated and eager to play as with the single-player titles, but still like the game and will continue to play at least for some time to see, if it hooks me more strongly.

Combat will get easier/better as you level up, earn Skill Points, and spend them on some decent Active Skills (square ones).

Loot will get better as you encounter different enemies. Try going on a mudcrab-killing spree and you might be amazed at hiw much loot those little buggers have hidden in their shells! But if you want better gear, look for treasure chests, because they drop overland set gear, although it's random. Also, go fight in some delves or public dungeons.

Just wait until you leave Vvardenfell and start visiting some of the other zones. The first time I left Vvardenfell, I took a boat to Glenumbra (IIRC), and I was like "Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh, I'm in Daggerfall!" And then I somehow ended up taking a cart to Craglorn, which was far too difficult for me to handle at that level, and rather than take a wayshrine out (because I hadn't figured out yet that I could use them for traveling) I ran across Craglorn so I could leave by road. I must have trekked across three or four zones by road before I finally made it back to where I wanted to be.

Some additional comments:

You can buy basic gear from certain NPC merchants, usually found in or near the Fighters Guild.

You can also find trash gear (that is, "white" armor or weapons that have resell values of 0 gold) lying around in the wild, or in racks in buildings, etc.

As far as finding gear by looting corpses, they do drop gear, but not as often as in the other games.

And you can craft your own gear, or get another player to craft some for you.

There are a number of factors to consider with respect to gear:

(1) Weapons, armor, and jewelry can have special traits, like "Reinforced," "Infused," etc. A piece of gear that has a trait on it is better than the same kind of gear without any trait, although if you have 2 similar pieces of gear with different traits then you might have trouble deciding which one you'd rather use. Normally, you can't change the trait on a piece of gear. But if you acquire enough Transmute Crystals and have access to a Transmutation Station (found in Clockwork City, although most large player guilds have one in their guild hall), then you can transmute the gear's trait to a different trait-- if you've already learned how to apply that particular trait to that particular type of gear. Transmuting the trait on a piece of gear can become important later on when you've finally found some prized piece of gear from a dungeon boss but it doesn't have the trait you were hoping for. If you're crafting your own gear, you can add whatever trait you want to it, as long as you've learned how and have the necessary trait material. Each type of gear has 9 possible traits to choose from, but learning a trait on one type of gear doesn't automatically give you knowledge of that trait on other types of gear-- e.g., if you learn Sharpened on Axes, you can craft Sharpened Axes, but you can't craft Sharpened Swords until you've learned Sharpened on Swords as well. And one-handed weapons are separate from two-handed weapons, so knowing Sharpened Swords won't automatically give you knowledge of Sharpened Greatswords.

(2) Weapons, armor, and jewelry can also be enchanted. You can buy basic enchantments, craft your own, find them in loot, get them as rewards, etc. If you have an enchantment, you can use it to enchant a piece of gear, even if the gear already has an enchantment on it, so that's a good way to change a piece of gear to be more to your liking-- change its enchantment. It's also a way to improve a piece of trash gear-- add an enchantment to it. But there are 3 types of enchantments-- weapon enchantments, armor enchantments, and jewelry enchantments-- and you can't apply an enchantment to the wrong type of gear. Thus, you might find an enchantment that looks awesome to you, but when you go to apply it to a piece of gear you realize that it isn't for that type of gear.

(3) Weapons, armor, and jewelry also come in different levels. When you find gear as loot, it will match your current level and you'll be able to use it. But crafted gear can only be crafted at certain levels-- in general, the even levels, like 6, 8, 10, etc. You can't use any gear that's of a higher level than your character. Also, enchantments have levels, too, and you can't apply an enchantment to a piece of gear unless the enchantment's level is equal to or less than the gear's level. For instance, you can apply a Level 10 enchantment to Level 20 gear, but you can't apply a Level 20 enchantment to Level 10 gear.

(4) Weapons, armor, and jewelry can have different degrees of quality, indicated by their color-- white, green, blue, purple, or gold. If you have enough of the special tempering materials that are used to improve a piece of gear, you can use a crafting station to improve it from white, to green, to blue, to purple, to gold. Enchantments also come in 5 possible colors or degrees of quality, but they must be created at that level; you can't improve a green enchantment to make it blue, for example. The enchantment's quality can be better than the gear's quality; for example, you can apply a gold enchantment to white gear, then later on you can improve the white gear to a better quality if you have the materials to do so.

(5) The best gear is gear that belongs to a particular set, because 2 or more pieces of gear (up to 5) from the same set will give you special bonuses. Two-handed weapons-- which include bows and staffs-- will count as 2 pieces of gear in a set. So if you have a bow that belongs to a given set, you'll get the set's 2-item bonus. If you then find and equip a helm that belongs to the same set, you'll get the set's 3-item bonus as well as its 2-item bonus-- that is, the bonuses are cumulative. Since you can have 12 pieces of gear equipped, you can equip pieces from 3 or more sets to get the extra bonuses you're looking for. Some sets can be crafted, but you must have knowledge of a certain number of traits for each set, plus the set items must be crafted at special crafting stations. Other sets cannot be crafted, but must be found in treasure chests or looted in delves or dungeons. Hardcore players can spend hours or days grinding a particular dungeon in hopes of acquiring a specific piece of gear of a particular set. You can also buy set gear from guild traders, although some sets are "bind on pickup," so they can't be bought or sold at guild traders. Other sets are "bind on equip," so you can buy or sell pieces of that set as long as a given piece hasn't been equipped yet.

You're being very helpful, so thanks again! After your explanation and looking at the armor tables in the wiki I now understand the system better. Looks like my best bet is to become my own armorsmith, then. I even have foud two glyphs already, so it's as well to craft something to use those on.



Well, today I experimented with the abilities like Stonefist and Molten weapons and using them correctly does seem to make the combat loads better. It also helped that I finally obtained a one-handed weapon and a shield, so that I can strike faster (previously I was stuck with a maul and a greatsword).

As for loot, I did get new shoes finally. One of the crazy cultists in Shilk mine dropped them. Also, it happened that I was actually glad to see another player! I died to the Curator two times in a row, until another player came along and helped me to finish the fight.

You can craft better enchantments than are found in the wild, because most enchantments you find are going to be white and will usually be the more common effects for the three stats, Magicka, Health, and Stamina. Crafting your own enchantments will let you apply stronger and more uncommon effects.

But crafting requires investing SPs into the appropriate crafting abilities, so unless you want your character to be a dedicated crafter-- which can be a good idea-- then you might want to start by just purchasing gear, or using dropped gear, or asking a master crafter to craft you some gear.

I would recommend sticking with dropped gear at first, so you can save your gold for more critical things-- namely, buying pack upgrades for more inventory slots, and buying bank upgrades for more bank slots. The prices of pack upgrades and bank upgrades increases with each purchase, so it will take a lot of gold to purchase the maximum number of slots.

Consequently, one of your priorities should be earning gold every day. Once you get to Level 6-- which you may have already done, since leveling up goes pretty quickly at first-- you will be able to get certified in the 7 crafting lines, or 6 if you don't own Summerset yet, and start doing daily crafting writs. You can do writs while you're at the lowest crafting levels, but the amount of gold you earn from writs will increase as you increase your crafting skill levels. I do daily crafting writs on all of my NA characters, but most of them are at the lowest levels because I want to invest their SPs into fighting skills.

Stealing and fencing the stolen goods is another good way to earn gold each day, but there's a daily limit on how many items you can fence, and a similar limit on how many items you can launder, so unless you spend SPs on raising those limits it can be best to steal only the higher-priced items and leaving the small stuff alone.

Also, the fact that you will probably level up rather quickly, and that you need to save up your gold for maximizing your pack and bank space, is a good reason to stick with dropped gear at first, because it doesn't make sense to spend your precious gold on better gear only to outgrow it as you quickly level up. It might interest you to know that even though I'm a crafter, I typically wear dropped gear rather than crafting my own.

But some players who enjoy crafting might be willing to craft you some low-level set gear and enchant it for you, either for free or for a tip. My main NA character is a master crafter and I sometimes craft set gear for players, but my main EU character is still working on learning all the traits, and hasn't bothered to level up to the highest crafting levels yet in Woodworking, Clothing, Jewelry, and Provisioning. Still, I could probably craft some gear for you-- send an in-game mail to me, game account name is same as forum, and my main EU character is the first PC EU one listed in my sig lines.

Well, it's time to make some additional remarks now that I have some dozens of hours of playtime under my belt. In general, I've warmed up to the game a lot more as compared to my initial impressions. For instance, the combat is has become much more enjoyable now that I've learned to use special abilities more effectively, and after leveling up enough so that everything has more punch to it. Still, it can't be denied that the first ten character levels or so are a bit underwhelming before interesting skill morphs and effective weaponry become available.

The loot is also now at level 20 more plentiful, interesting and even worth something. I don't like the strict level scaling, however. I'm fully aware that it's bread and butter of MMO itemization that you can't use items above your level, but it does rankle somewhat. For instance, guild traders seem to stock almost only lvl 50 160 champion point gear and the NPC traders charge an arm and a leg for their wares, so my level 20 character is wholly dependent on loot, quest rewards or her own crafting. There should be a better system, like items "growing" in power with the character (like one Oblivion mod that re-leveled quest rewards as the PC leveled). This isn't a deal-breaker, however, since level-appropriate gear is plentiful enough from other sources than traders.

I like the writing and the quests more and more. Sometimes they have nice humor and the serious ones are excellent, too. The only complaints in that department are the occasional abruptness to both writing and voice acting and the fact that in the Pact story missions the battles are very underwhelming (and that is putting it mildly). Even Skyrim's vanilla civil war battles were more crowded - and a few of those actually did feel like real battles, unlike those in ESO. Of course, I understand that the paucity of NPCs to duke it out on the field is due to necessity, i.e. performance. The servers probably couldn't handle hundreds, let alone thousands of characters fighting at the same time on screen. So I can't really hold this against the game. And as said, in general the quests are very good and I like doing them. Since this and the worldbuilding are the two most important aspects of any game to me, things look very well indeed.

As for immersion, there are quite a few things - mostly MMO conventions, I presume - that tend to make the game less absorbing than the single player games. Things like the ultra small detection and aggression zone of NPCs and critters, or the chat window. Those are small complaints however when compared to the positive aspects. For instance, I absolutely love the cities. They actually feel like real cities in their scope and layout and so are a definite step up from the two latest single player games. The environmental design is also nearly perfect. I have so far been only to Vvardenfell, Bleakrock and Stonefalls. But even just those zones host a variety of landscapes that range from beautiful to rugged to hauntingly and genuinely eerie (Ash Mountain is the best example of the latter). Also, in general I like the armor and weapon designs a lot better than those of vanilla Skyrim and Oblivion. Thus, the lack of modded gear or retextures hasn't bothered me at all. Plus, the outfit and costume system of ESO takes care of the latter anyway.

And last but not least, there's the economy. I have found that the ability to sell via guild traders or directly to other players is the only viable way to make serious gold in reasonable time. Thus, there's a necessity of interacting with other players. I'll have to find a trade guild that is on the laxer side in its requirements since I can't count on the ability to play every day or even weekly. Or, to find out if the UESP guild on the EU PC server has its own store. This is a bit of a bother, but nothing deal-breaking.

All in all, I find the game well my money's worth. The content is so expansive I can foresee happily spending hundreds of hours just in the Pact-controlled zones. In fact, the quality of quest writing makes this a very engrossing game despite of the unavoidable slight annoyances that the MMO-format brings with it. It tells something that I have played ESO for most of the Easter holidays and still want more.

As far as the environmental design, I love how much variety there is from zone to zone. There are swamps, deserts, forests, mountains, frozen tundras-- you name it!

I also love the ambient sounds of the environment, especially in certain zones. For instance, try going into Cyrodiil at night and sneaking around northern Cyrodiil at night with headphones on; the hooting of the owls as you walk through the snow is awesome.

I don’t recommend the starter packs, as most crown items aren’t very good and are obtained easily in-game. If you want recommendations, I’d start with the account upgrades, like the warden class, imperial race, adventure pack. The merchant and banker followers are also quite useful.