StarOfElyon: When devs show that they can’t even put together a decent build and play their game competently on a livestream, it all makes sense.

LemtheBeast: Still no cloaks

faruzanhq: "But there's difference between supporting the game and having your blood sucked". THANK YOU!

jamesstinedurf9841: subclassing announcement was when i left. not even caring how it could hurt the game, i was just offended by killing class identity.

aries4378: The constant "rebalancing" of armor sets was what did me in. Grinding out your BiS gear, only to have the gear stats changed to the point where the armor you worked hard for is no longer the armor you need was frustrating. And then, when you finally get the new armor set that's BiS for your build, Zenimax would "rebalance" the sets again.

dryziger: the reason why i stopped playing was mostly the combat feeling and the stupid mechanic to sell items to players.

DogSoldier0351: And FK that store

dragonriderabens9761: Monetization killed the game for me

It was too expensive to keep playing and having fun

jayr_xx: Here's what I love about your video: it really feels like your criticism came from a place of love. Seems like you are still rooting for this came to succeed.

I really love eso and just jumped back into it after a year or so break, but I have played since launch with a couple thousand hours into it, and I can't find myself disagreeing with any of your points. I was pretty hard core before i took my break last year and I got burned out on the endgame focus on meta and the exact same combat loop for every encounter.

Hopefully things get shaken up a bit soon. They're re-evaluating classes, so maybe this is a start.

But as for story and voice acting, I really don't think anything else compares.

Also... "the fucking crown store" almost killed me

Balram2024-MO: I’m pretty new to the game, but I already wish the enemies didn’t level with me. For instance, it’s dumb that a wolf still takes the same amount of hits to kill as when I first started.

chunkycat5296: Bro making it seem like ESO had a worst end than New World

DogSoldier0351: Played since beta left 3 years ago they really fkd up

ortacreef8557: Update 35 killed it for me. They made a complete pig's ear of the combat, particularly Templars which I previously enjoyed the most.

kayef5724: Nobody wants to say it but it’s the DEI. They peaked with elyswer which was when I came back and stood until update 35/36. If I remember correctly

Mothware: The biggest problem for me was the QoL limitations if you don't pay the monthly sub. I tried playing it on/off for several years. I have beaten the core campaign, but only touched on one or two expansions. Without a sub, I can't really craft because material storage is locked behind it, I get less bank space, there's also limitations to dying outfits. All this, despite paying full price for the core game when it came out and buying a couple expansions.

Meanwhile, Guild Wars has proper account-wide material and bank storage, with dyes permanent unlocked and free to use at any time, even for free-to-play accounts. I really wanted to put more time into ESO, but it doesn't even treat me like someone who already paid for the game, just because I don't want to pay an additional sub fee. The QoL limitations are effectively why I don't invest into many other MMO's: SWtOR, STO, FFXIV, etc.

hx9801: I have about 300hours in ESO, can never get back to it knowing that my inventory is fucked because I dont have the monthly sub, hence not having access to material storage

really the main thing that killed the game for me

m_p9786: 4k Hours in ESO.

2025 Content Pass was it for me.

Reason for this is 2025 Content Pass includes new and older content. I already paid crowns to own the older DLC content. Purchasing the 2025 Content Pass just to access the new content would also mean me double paying for the already owned older existing content. It was basically forcing me pay for the 2025 Content Pass, which I never did.

I then quit.

Another reason is the Sub-Classing. Every player pretty much ran the same skill lines, every player is essentially the same. Very boring, no variety.

Play your way? No, everyone plays the same way and your gate kept unless otherwise.

They need to make the other 99% of gear sets compete against the meta sets. This may mean making buffs (Major/Minor) stackable, buffing procs, stats, nerfs, or nerfing vet bosses to remove 1 hit kill mechs or something else. This is something that'll take years to balance with all the sets TBH.

Finish the Champion Point tree. Expand it, update, improve it. It just feels half-assed and does not complement most gear sets.

Make CP tree usable in combination with gear sets, rather than it feeling general independent passive/stat improvements. Add specific nodes like, increased fire damage, rather than just having generic, increased spell damage.

Make overworld harder and more rewarding. Better drop sets we want to use.

End game is cosmetic, fashion and housing.

The skins earned from the hard-modes look like trash.

The checkbox you get doing hard-mode trials from the Pithka's Achievement Tracker, a pointless flex, you waste weeks and months at a time for. With Sub-Classing now more irrelevant.

Again, the best skins are from the crown store.

If they need more funding, they need to add more cosmetics, seasonal pass cosmetic, and have a much much larger cosmetic selection in the crown store.

Lastly, graphical update. Most likely not possible without engine update.

Bonus, fire Gina Bruno.

Devs recently said they are reverting or changing Sub-Classing due to recent negative feedback over the next updates. TBH, I think this will trail onto second half of 2026 or beyond, which will be too late. There was a massive layoff, the dev team is smaller, updates will be slower and smaller. There are new better looking MMOs releasing second half 2026.

ESO needs to update before second half 2026 or it will be another western MMO on the chopping block.

Chielz0r: As a newer player, I enjoyed the older content I played, but I was especially disappointed to see how incredibly homosexual the last expansion is.

Just woke slop all over.

anthonyvharris: I played eso for 10 years. Came from Skyrim for the exact reasons you stated. I really enjoyed eso even though it was very different from Skyrim in most aspects other than lore.

I was a Nightblade DPS and identified with my character. Then subclasses came (really multi classes) and the one build meta. I deinstalled and have no interest in that type of game. I was not alone.

They are talking about bringing back classic identity and fixing what they broke but it all sounds like hopium.

I recently picked up GW2 and am enjoying it so far. It has a lot of what made eso great. And pointed out one of eso’s biggest problems game wise. The in game economy.

As in there isn’t one. Gold is almost pointless for a veteran player. I have over 100M in my bank and literally nothing I need to spend it on.

Fast travel is free. Gear drops like candy from a piñata. Motifs (style pages) are only required to purchase from players if you need it to craft wirts to make more gold. And the last thing to buy is houses. After you have two or three the rest become places to store to metric crap ton of furnishings they dump on you.

Compare to GW2. Travel cost coins except in cities. You need to buy things or grind to progress for mounts or bags or stuff I don’t know about yet. But I do know you need to have coins and they aren’t easy to get (eso crafting writs reward huge sums of gold)

So eso has very little to motivate players to trade. A small few just want to collect it all. Others actually decorate their house. Almost everyone is a master crafter and can make all the consumables but they also dump perfectly fine consumables on you every day you log in. You will be destroying them.

You can’t buy meta gear. But you can craft gear that is almost as good. And some is meta so why grind for it. Doing the content is fun but the lfg and dungeon queue is horrible. DPS is the vast majority. So they queue as a healer or tank to shorten the time because most content is trivial.

In GW2 at level 80 I have died many times to level 12 mobs. In eso you only die to fall damage or afk. Even then your companions can always protect you while farming resources. Overland is just an inconvenience.

I agree the crown store is insane. $100 real life dollars for a virtual house? That very few other than yourself will ever see. Very few types of mounts. Cats, dogs, bears, guar, camels and basic horse. Maybe others but all are the same model with different skins.

And so much more needs to be addressed.

moonhaewon6689: The devs dont know what they are doing, its been clear for a while, and no its not just the executives

zarris2635: I loved playing the story of ESO. Exploring the world, enjoying the gameplay/combat (ignoring the animation cancelling that make the game feel janky), and just running around. I started playing after the One Tamriel update, so I don't know what the game was like before then. Honestly, I would love to play the game more, but I bounced off it for a few reasons:

1.) The monetization. Gods awful for a buy to play mmo. I get they need to make money, but they literally try to nickel and dime you over nearly everything. Crafting storage, mount utilities (More on that later), and just overall anti-player BS. "Create a problem and sell the solution" is the immediate thought that comes to mind.

2.) Alt Friendliness or Lack thereof. To circle back to the mount issue, each mount upgrade is not only gated by 1% per the three categories (from when I played, not sure if that's changed) per day (unless you pay money to skip it, see point 1), but they are specific to that character! So if you make an alt, you have

BentleyStPeter: I loved ESO when it came out. I loved the open world and the exploration. I still log in on occasion to check out friends and such, but haven't actually played for a couple of years now. The problem I have with ESO is that is all became about fashion and housing. This happens to absorb folks to do this when there is a lack of content to entice playing the game itself. Most of the people I know that still play are hard into the housing decoration and perfecting the look they envision on their characters. The crates were a pure money grab by Zenimax and nothing of actual value other than cosmetic. I hope the game lives on, but I don't find it worth actually playing any longer.

justnobodyk: The opening Cold Harbor narrative (and aesthetic) was enthralling!! The blue glowing details and skeletons were just so so good. The voice actors were incredible!! Then I think around level 20 or so, boom, no more Cold Harbor story, the characters were gone, the aesthetic gone. I just felt lost. I quit. Also, the community = meaner than WoW. Whether on discord or reddit people yelled at me and told me to stop playing their game. Just the complete opposite of GW2

juliusjune3021: im really glad that overland difficulty should be coming in 2026. Ive played LOTRO for this feature this year. As a solo (questing) player this feature is huge!

Cyrius203: The new director and staff seem a little promising at least

johanax9867: Microtransactions needs to be just that. MICROtransactions.

Why is a new mtx mount like 20-25 dollars in some games? Why do they cost more than the base game, or the subscriptions? It's just a piece of computer generated pixels. It's not a physical product that the company needs materials for and production time to make.

We all know the reason. Money. But the reason they can even do this in the FIRST place, is because there will ALWAYS be people who buy it. Wheter its 2000 people or 20000 people, it's free money for the company.

There needs to be strict laws on how much a microtransaction can really be, whether it's a free or paid game.

Dec 06 2025

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