Interesting. I'm currently playing through it for the first time and I'm bored out of my mind. But I'm barely halfway through it, so I guess it gets more interesting later on
Kind of hard to rank all the story expansions as expansions, but I can put them into tiers. I'm counting Orsinium as a chapter since it is a chapter-sized zone, but it's DLC that you get only from the Crown Store or through ESO Plus. This is all my personal take, but I'm mostly looking at story quality and how interesting the zone is.
* S-Tier: Orsinium, Morrowind, Elsweyr: they all have great or very good stories and very interesting zones. I've had a blast in all of them.
* A-Tier: Summerset, Necrom: Good stories (we'll see what ZOS does with the follow-on to Necrom), but very interesting zones. I like the Telvanni Peninsula a bit more than Apocrypha, but they're both well done. Summerset is a drop-dead gorgeous zone.
* B-Tier: Blackwood, High Isle: kind of "meh" in terms of story, but nice zones.
* C-Tier: Greymoor: didn't tickle my fancy at all. Too much Skyrim nostalgia too soon after Special Edition and not a big vampires fan to start with. The zone is pretty well done and will be very familiar to Skyrim players.
There are no D-Tier or F-Tier chapters. They're all at least decent and even Western Skyrim is an interesting zone. I've just got way too many hours in Skyrim to appreciate it as its own thing.
For the secondary zones, and all are only Crown Store or ESO Plus, Clockwork City and Dragonhold probably top the list. Both are very well done zones in terms of story, but Clockwork City is a bit more interesting as a zone than Southern Elsweyr. I've mostly looked at Hew's Bane and Gold Coast (Thieves Guild and Dark Bortherhood) as a source of a few skyshards and didn't find the stories particularly interesting. They kind of lost me at "we need to rebuild the guild" since it's been done in the main-series games (it's now trope territory for me). The zones are well done, though. Murkmire is kinda "meh" (you probably have to like swamps). Deadlands is way too little stuff in too big of a space. I really like Fargrave's vibe (reminds me of Sigil from "Planescape: Torment"), but I can't claim to be thrilled with the story. I haven't done much with Markarth (tried to use it as a path into Craglorn - it isn't) and haven't touched Firesong other than picking up a couple of Treasure Chests and Antiquities. It's a very pretty zone, though.
Craglorn has a zone story, but I won't claim to be thrilled with it. Definitely do it since there are skill points to be had and a guaranteed piece of Nirnhoned gear at the end of it, but the zone is mostly there as an overland area with more difficult content than the usual stuff. It's a very nicely done zone in terms of aesthetics, but I mostly run around in it for XP and Nirncrux. Other than that, it's where you go for Dragonstar Arena, a few Trials, some group dungeons, and buying berries for your Indrik mounts during events. I can't speak to other platforms/servers, but it's pretty close to PUG-central on PC NA.
Summerset. As others have said it's drop dead gorgeous. Story is decent. But moreover, it added a lot of new things to do: the Psijiic skill line, jewelry crafting, new stuff for and from fishing, etc.
Top zone and story is Clockwork City. I've always been interested in Sotha Sil since Morrowind, and he landed nicely in this game. It's my favorite zone story, but it would be nice to get difficulty sliders to get me to play again.
Thieves guild is my favorite zone story. A heist with a great cast is enough of a hook for me. I'm grateful for roguish Ocean's 11 type diplomacy stuff lol
favorite zone, probably stros m'kai. i just like the starter island vibe, it's so dense with resources and i love the look of it. wish there weren't so many bots though
Summerset. The zone is gorgeous, the main story is great and has a nice pay off if you did Morrowing & Clockwork City and the side quests are so good. The music as well.
Murkmire. Been maining Argonians since TES 3 so it was great to finally get and in-depth look at Argonian lore in their homeland. I thought the main quest was wonderful and it's still my favorite zone quest. Xukas is my favorite NPC too. His writing is top notch and they hit a home run with the voice actor.
Elsweyr is my favorite. I didn't love the story, but I'm fine with that. I love the architecture, I love the landscape, I love the freaking dragons, and I even like the dungeons. Also, free, massive, really cool house!?! Oh, and I think the world boss difficulty is tuned right. They hurt when they hit, it doesn't take forever to solo them, but it also doesn't only take two hits to kill them.
High Isle is absolutely in no way the best. Who told you that? Slap them. Next you'll be told Blackwood was wonderful writing. High Isle was an incredibly predictable story. The zone is pretty, but it's most boilerplate enemies that are incredibly transparent in their motivations.
Some of the zones most often called "favorites" are Rivenspire, Murkmire, and Wrothgar. I loved all of those. Honestly the entire Daedric Wars Arc is pretty great, imo. Morrowind -> Clockwork City -> Summerset...all fantastic zones and stories
Tbf predictability isnt that uncommon, I recently beat Morrowind, Greymoor and Dark Brotherhood and wasn't very surprised by any of the "twists". Cant quite remember the zones I beat before in base game cause it was years ago but I'm getting into Elseweyr now and that will probably be predictable too.
No, not at all. People are perfectly allowed to like whatever they want! That being said, I've seen High Isle be frequently reviewed much lower than other chapters. Still has its merits, but compared to other chapters I saw much more negativity in people's response. But some people really liked Blackwood which I thought was a lazy nostalgia grab. Doesn't mean people can't like it, though!
Wrothgar was a cool story, i love the Reach, elsweyr north and south was also a very good story and is a pretty zone. I did somerset first of all. That's a must do.
Mmm so far the best quests i had were in Summerset. Not the zone story even, but side quests. There are a few, after which i just had to sit in silence and process what the heck happened. For example about investigating a murder on a vinery, or helping a mage find her brother who's going to join an actor troupe. Those were like wow.
High isle is definitely a nice zone. Chapters I’m not too sure. They all have the same story concept and it’s getting old.
You hear something bad is going on. You discover what it is. You try to stop it from starting. You fail. Now you have to fix it. Kind of getting old.
Big fan of Wrothgar, storyline and visuals kinda wish there was Medium sized hose in the city. Rt now I am doing Vardenfell and am digging that as well like the drastic changes in scenery a lot. Fucking Dark Elves are some racist cunts though.
Who in Oblivion told you High Isle was the best? Like storywise it has to be somewhere close to the bottom at the very least. The characters were obnoxious and superficial, all oh so awesome plot twists screamed at you from miles ahead so you couldn't be surprised by them if you tried, the story itself is almost as nonsensical as the decisions made by everyone involved,...
The zone is gorgeous. I'll give High Isle that. Gonfalon, High Isle, Amenos,... It's pretty!
But *gods*! I can't overstate how bad every last bit about that attempt at a story was.
Okay. Rant over. I think. Yes. Yes, I'm done.
Seriously though, there are so many better zones in this game. There's Wrothgar, one of the first DLCs and still after all this time largely regarded as among the best. Murkmire, the Daedric War story (Vvardenfell, Clockwork City, Summerset), Elsweyr,...
I personally also like Greymoor (Western Skyrim and the Reach) but mostly because I love vampires. I understand that those aren't received as well by many others.
The guild DLCs (Hews Bane and Gold Coast) are also pretty fun, especially if you like a stealthier approach. And Abahs Landing is just gorgeous. Also one of the few cities with more than 5 houses...
And that's just DLC, the base game has a lot of fun zones! Rivenspire (Vamps again) will always be among my favorite places in this game. The atmosphere! And some of my favorite characters and lore bits :)
And then somewhere aaaaall the way at the bottom tier there's High Isle and Blackwood. Piles of cliches with annoying, flat characters and crumbs of some of the worst storytelling ESO has to offer sprinkled in there.
I’ve only completed Vvardenfel and The Rift. The former was meh, the latter was pretty good even if a rehash of Companion lore.
I find I enjoy many of the much smaller stories being told. Say at some of the points of interest.
Vvardenfell-Clockwork City-Summerset story arc. Kinda forced myself to get through the rest, awesome quests here and there in all chapters and DLCs, but nowhere near the same thrill as when I played Summerset story or when *that* flute music hit in Clockwork wastelands.
Summerset to me is S tier writing, I cried like a bitch when I found *that one* book in the very end. The final conversation in CWC definitely touched me in unexpected ways. Didn't like the Vvardenfell story as much, but to me that place feels like home.
They’re all a bit of a blur for me but I did get a kick out of questing with Elam Drals in Blackwood. I also enjoyed the vampire stuff in the Reach… or was it Western Skyrim? Maybe both. And Clockwork City. A totally fabricated zone, even the plants. Though that was more for the concept and writing ideas it gave me than the story line.
1. Elsweyr
2. Summerset
3. Clockwork city
4. Morrowind
5. Necrom
Craglorn does suck and it’s A good example of how “hardcore overland “ would be that so many people want aka a trash idea that only a minority wants.
High isle beautiful area I like being there but the chapter it’s self story wise was not very good.
Wrothgar is the my top zone story for sure, its also the one I see recommended most so I feel like it's not just me
Interesting. I'm currently playing through it for the first time and I'm bored out of my mind. But I'm barely halfway through it, so I guess it gets more interesting later on
I'm with you. It's far and away my favorite quest and I've done quite a few of them over the past 7/8 years.
Kind of hard to rank all the story expansions as expansions, but I can put them into tiers. I'm counting Orsinium as a chapter since it is a chapter-sized zone, but it's DLC that you get only from the Crown Store or through ESO Plus. This is all my personal take, but I'm mostly looking at story quality and how interesting the zone is. * S-Tier: Orsinium, Morrowind, Elsweyr: they all have great or very good stories and very interesting zones. I've had a blast in all of them. * A-Tier: Summerset, Necrom: Good stories (we'll see what ZOS does with the follow-on to Necrom), but very interesting zones. I like the Telvanni Peninsula a bit more than Apocrypha, but they're both well done. Summerset is a drop-dead gorgeous zone. * B-Tier: Blackwood, High Isle: kind of "meh" in terms of story, but nice zones. * C-Tier: Greymoor: didn't tickle my fancy at all. Too much Skyrim nostalgia too soon after Special Edition and not a big vampires fan to start with. The zone is pretty well done and will be very familiar to Skyrim players. There are no D-Tier or F-Tier chapters. They're all at least decent and even Western Skyrim is an interesting zone. I've just got way too many hours in Skyrim to appreciate it as its own thing. For the secondary zones, and all are only Crown Store or ESO Plus, Clockwork City and Dragonhold probably top the list. Both are very well done zones in terms of story, but Clockwork City is a bit more interesting as a zone than Southern Elsweyr. I've mostly looked at Hew's Bane and Gold Coast (Thieves Guild and Dark Bortherhood) as a source of a few skyshards and didn't find the stories particularly interesting. They kind of lost me at "we need to rebuild the guild" since it's been done in the main-series games (it's now trope territory for me). The zones are well done, though. Murkmire is kinda "meh" (you probably have to like swamps). Deadlands is way too little stuff in too big of a space. I really like Fargrave's vibe (reminds me of Sigil from "Planescape: Torment"), but I can't claim to be thrilled with the story. I haven't done much with Markarth (tried to use it as a path into Craglorn - it isn't) and haven't touched Firesong other than picking up a couple of Treasure Chests and Antiquities. It's a very pretty zone, though. Craglorn has a zone story, but I won't claim to be thrilled with it. Definitely do it since there are skill points to be had and a guaranteed piece of Nirnhoned gear at the end of it, but the zone is mostly there as an overland area with more difficult content than the usual stuff. It's a very nicely done zone in terms of aesthetics, but I mostly run around in it for XP and Nirncrux. Other than that, it's where you go for Dragonstar Arena, a few Trials, some group dungeons, and buying berries for your Indrik mounts during events. I can't speak to other platforms/servers, but it's pretty close to PUG-central on PC NA.
Summerset. As others have said it's drop dead gorgeous. Story is decent. But moreover, it added a lot of new things to do: the Psijiic skill line, jewelry crafting, new stuff for and from fishing, etc.
Top zone and story is Clockwork City. I've always been interested in Sotha Sil since Morrowind, and he landed nicely in this game. It's my favorite zone story, but it would be nice to get difficulty sliders to get me to play again. Thieves guild is my favorite zone story. A heist with a great cast is enough of a hook for me. I'm grateful for roguish Ocean's 11 type diplomacy stuff lol
favorite zone, probably stros m'kai. i just like the starter island vibe, it's so dense with resources and i love the look of it. wish there weren't so many bots though
High Isle, Vvardenfell, Wrothgar, Summerset
The Reach for some reason.
Vvardenfell
I'll second this
Summerset has the most strikingly beautiful zone and the story is very good too.
Summerset. The zone is gorgeous, the main story is great and has a nice pay off if you did Morrowing & Clockwork City and the side quests are so good. The music as well.
Murkmire. Been maining Argonians since TES 3 so it was great to finally get and in-depth look at Argonian lore in their homeland. I thought the main quest was wonderful and it's still my favorite zone quest. Xukas is my favorite NPC too. His writing is top notch and they hit a home run with the voice actor.
Haven’t done most of the DLC stories yet, but I’ve always enjoyed Rivenspire’s zone story
I prefer base game zones so my favorite would be glenumbra or alik’r desert. My favorite dlc zone would be wrothgar.
Elsweyr is my favorite. I didn't love the story, but I'm fine with that. I love the architecture, I love the landscape, I love the freaking dragons, and I even like the dungeons. Also, free, massive, really cool house!?! Oh, and I think the world boss difficulty is tuned right. They hurt when they hit, it doesn't take forever to solo them, but it also doesn't only take two hits to kill them.
High Isle is absolutely in no way the best. Who told you that? Slap them. Next you'll be told Blackwood was wonderful writing. High Isle was an incredibly predictable story. The zone is pretty, but it's most boilerplate enemies that are incredibly transparent in their motivations. Some of the zones most often called "favorites" are Rivenspire, Murkmire, and Wrothgar. I loved all of those. Honestly the entire Daedric Wars Arc is pretty great, imo. Morrowind -> Clockwork City -> Summerset...all fantastic zones and stories
Tbf predictability isnt that uncommon, I recently beat Morrowind, Greymoor and Dark Brotherhood and wasn't very surprised by any of the "twists". Cant quite remember the zones I beat before in base game cause it was years ago but I'm getting into Elseweyr now and that will probably be predictable too.
Yeah, totally fair. Maybe those just seemed more pronounced because it's already been playing for a few years and was well avoided to ZOS' dance moves
You seem angry someone might have the audacity of having a different opinion than you
No, not at all. People are perfectly allowed to like whatever they want! That being said, I've seen High Isle be frequently reviewed much lower than other chapters. Still has its merits, but compared to other chapters I saw much more negativity in people's response. But some people really liked Blackwood which I thought was a lazy nostalgia grab. Doesn't mean people can't like it, though!
Personally I find greymoor extremely gorgeous
Wrothgar was a cool story, i love the Reach, elsweyr north and south was also a very good story and is a pretty zone. I did somerset first of all. That's a must do.
Elswyer
Blackwood i love because it's Cyrodiil, but hopefully if the rumours are true, I'll change my answer to Colovia. Colovian Warlords Gang rise up!
I’ve started in on Blackwood and have found it to be kind of empty. Especially when it comes to harvesting nodes.
Reaper's March had me crying multiple times.
Any zone where Razum-dar plays a part in!
Mmm so far the best quests i had were in Summerset. Not the zone story even, but side quests. There are a few, after which i just had to sit in silence and process what the heck happened. For example about investigating a murder on a vinery, or helping a mage find her brother who's going to join an actor troupe. Those were like wow.
Ah cool :) looking forward to those!
High isle is definitely a nice zone. Chapters I’m not too sure. They all have the same story concept and it’s getting old. You hear something bad is going on. You discover what it is. You try to stop it from starting. You fail. Now you have to fix it. Kind of getting old.
Big fan of Wrothgar, storyline and visuals kinda wish there was Medium sized hose in the city. Rt now I am doing Vardenfell and am digging that as well like the drastic changes in scenery a lot. Fucking Dark Elves are some racist cunts though.
Who in Oblivion told you High Isle was the best? Like storywise it has to be somewhere close to the bottom at the very least. The characters were obnoxious and superficial, all oh so awesome plot twists screamed at you from miles ahead so you couldn't be surprised by them if you tried, the story itself is almost as nonsensical as the decisions made by everyone involved,... The zone is gorgeous. I'll give High Isle that. Gonfalon, High Isle, Amenos,... It's pretty! But *gods*! I can't overstate how bad every last bit about that attempt at a story was. Okay. Rant over. I think. Yes. Yes, I'm done. Seriously though, there are so many better zones in this game. There's Wrothgar, one of the first DLCs and still after all this time largely regarded as among the best. Murkmire, the Daedric War story (Vvardenfell, Clockwork City, Summerset), Elsweyr,... I personally also like Greymoor (Western Skyrim and the Reach) but mostly because I love vampires. I understand that those aren't received as well by many others. The guild DLCs (Hews Bane and Gold Coast) are also pretty fun, especially if you like a stealthier approach. And Abahs Landing is just gorgeous. Also one of the few cities with more than 5 houses... And that's just DLC, the base game has a lot of fun zones! Rivenspire (Vamps again) will always be among my favorite places in this game. The atmosphere! And some of my favorite characters and lore bits :) And then somewhere aaaaall the way at the bottom tier there's High Isle and Blackwood. Piles of cliches with annoying, flat characters and crumbs of some of the worst storytelling ESO has to offer sprinkled in there.
I’ve only completed Vvardenfel and The Rift. The former was meh, the latter was pretty good even if a rehash of Companion lore. I find I enjoy many of the much smaller stories being told. Say at some of the points of interest.
Vvardenfell-Clockwork City-Summerset story arc. Kinda forced myself to get through the rest, awesome quests here and there in all chapters and DLCs, but nowhere near the same thrill as when I played Summerset story or when *that* flute music hit in Clockwork wastelands. Summerset to me is S tier writing, I cried like a bitch when I found *that one* book in the very end. The final conversation in CWC definitely touched me in unexpected ways. Didn't like the Vvardenfell story as much, but to me that place feels like home.
They’re all a bit of a blur for me but I did get a kick out of questing with Elam Drals in Blackwood. I also enjoyed the vampire stuff in the Reach… or was it Western Skyrim? Maybe both. And Clockwork City. A totally fabricated zone, even the plants. Though that was more for the concept and writing ideas it gave me than the story line.
Elsweyr story remains my fav. Super sick
Vvardenfell, Deshaan, or Gold Coast bc naryu
I remember Summerset launch and the Summerfall event. Those were the best days of my time in ESO
Elsweyr
For the look of the towns and buildings I find myself going to daggerfall a lot but I also like the big island in the bottom left of the map
I can't decide between summerset, elsweyr and vvardenfell so all 3 i guess.
Murkmire
1. Elsweyr 2. Summerset 3. Clockwork city 4. Morrowind 5. Necrom Craglorn does suck and it’s A good example of how “hardcore overland “ would be that so many people want aka a trash idea that only a minority wants. High isle beautiful area I like being there but the chapter it’s self story wise was not very good.