After more than ten years of racing through MMOs, I’m finally playing my first MMO for the story and content. With everything I was told about The Elder Scrolls Online and it’s expansive content, I wanted to jump in and feel how well crafted it is compared to the other MMOs I've played.
So after watching a few streamers and looking on the forums, I arrived on the decision on what class I wanted to play. I ended up picking a Nord Dragonknight. Out of all the races and based on what guides said about races for Dragonknight I ended up choosing Nord, which is apparently the 2nd best choice. I can’t wait to look badass and love how their abilities look.
Since I’m not approaching the game simply to get to PvP, like most MMOs I’ve played, I also wanted to go for style points. I heard from many streamers that tanks are a rare breed, especially good ones, so I felt that was a challenge calling out to me. I’ve never tried to be a main tank in a MMO before, typically going towards support or damage-hybrid.
In just the first few hours of gameplay, you really get a sense of playing an MMO but having a deep story. I love the voice acting, it really helps you dive in, instead of the typical MMO wall of texts for questing. Following the quests is fairly easy and you never feel lost, but man did I feel lost in the inventory system. It’s very expansive but at the same time pretty daunting to take in.
Once I started equipping gear and exploring the combat system, which had a great tutorial, I felt like I was playing wildstar again. I love this action-hotbar hybrid combat and that they have such a great interrupt / block system at the base of melee combat. It didn’t take long for me to start interrupting attacks and capitalizing with movement. The breakout and dodge system is great as well, making it more than just spamming a hotbar. I’m feeling the slow pace of the combat focusing on tanking, so I may need to look up some guides on how to make the most out of lower levels as it seems I need to hit Level 15, to have an alternate weapon for damage.
I plan to play the role of Tank for group content down the road, after I make my way to it. I want to take my time going through the content and eventually work up to the PvP as it looks well balanced. I miss the days of well-balanced large scale PvP, but from the looks of it, there is a ton of PvE content to go through. I’m hoping to dive into some early dungeons soon, but I am always afraid to run into something I”m not quite prepared for since the difficulty isn’t easily known.
If you have any words of advice or guides you want to point me towards, please throw them in the comments!
