Three extra does seem hard to account for. There was a single crate log-in reward in the middle of this month (and will be three more on consecutive days at the end), but the end of June had a five-at-once grand prize. I'll have to see what I get this evening when I get home. I'd only expect the six.

Okay, I got three extra crates too, and I did get my (5) from the daily rewards already! So whatever it is about, they def gave three surprise crates with the six.

I got a Nocturnal banner (!) WOO HOO!

There were some dumb face tattoos and masks I didn't want but got stuck with anyway. Other than that I got a bunch of junk that I turned in for gems. While I was doing that I messed up bad:

I had gotten two boot motifs and one swords = Yeah! I needed the boot motif; but already had the sword motif and was pretty sure these would be bound to my account and unsellable since they came from the Crown store; so like an idiot (instead of reading the motif I needed first) I went to turn one of the boot motifs and the sword one in for gems while I was doing the junk stuff. Well, when I went to go read the boot motif, the only one motif left was the swords that I didn't need! Grrrrr. I know what I was clicking on, the swords should have been deleted; not the boots! Grrrrr. I tried to reverse the sale and couldn't figure out how to do that, so just turned in the swords for gems too.

So with all my hundred plus gems I had to buy the motif back for 25 gems that they only gave me 5 for, grrrrr. I was so mad that I didn't get the boots, got shoulders, gloves, dagger, and shields instead. I have 20 gems left; but didn't feel like looking at the other stuff for sale right now. I may hang onto them to buy more motifs with gems.

IIRC the Ouroboros crates don't have anything special in them, just consumables, so don't feel bad about it. (Unless you got either the one pet or the mount exclusive to those crates--these are the Twitch crates)

They handed those out for the screw up with the daily login early this month and it's good cause now i have more gems

After a soul-draining session of farming Abyssal Geysers since at least this weekend, I FINALLY got the Squad to master Jewelry Crafting. Those last ten levels are a pain.

I'd be focusing on Ruben instead, given that he's supposed to be the Squad's official Jeweler, but he's only at level 29-ish so he'd end up losing a lot of materials through deconstruction if I gave him Platinum jewelry. So I'll be leveling his skill the old-fashioned way, too. At the very least, only one character drawing from a single material won't be as terrible as 3 a day. (Ruben's crafting with Silver as of today)

So things are going well. I'm free from having to pay attention to zone lol

And that was also true of my Psijic Crates this time. I started to think I'd got all Ouroboros ones, but there were a few chapters of Pyandonean to prove me wrong. Suprisingly, in six crates, there weren't duplicates.

Still, that was a reasonable number of gems for later, if the Crown Store ever gets something worth having. (White bear without saddle, please, ZOS).

Yeah, I opened mine yesterday (six Psijic, three Ouroboros) and didn't get anything worth getting excited over.

Did get the pyandonean sword, so giving that to Maz to add to her motif collection

Argis is still working on his Stormhaven fishing achievement; that last blue (lake) is proving to be extremely elusive. And because we HATE killing animals indiscriminately, it's hard to keep the level of guts (lake bait) up.

Why oh why can't it be river? We have no problem gathering bugs.

We are not paying much attention to our jewelry crafting. Maz is deconning all the jewelry, but is not too focused on researching yet. Waiting for prices to drop so we can buy research pieces or the mats for 'em.

She also needs to go sky shard hunting for skill points

That's rapidly becoming a priority for mine too. Cat Man Dhou has hit level 50 in woodworking, but he's crafting at rank 4 because he doesn't have the skill points to move up. He's close to the same situation for Blacksmithing, and Clothier as well. Fixing that will more than double his skyshards!

Unna's the same with Clothier, but she's not really intending to be a crafter. She's sunk all her skyshard points into combat skills instead.

We'd probably spend more time doing that if we weren't chasing down housing things: plans, materials, etc.

I have some characters that need skyshards too; maybe we could have some guild fun-runs to skyshard hunt together as a group?

Here's where Buffy stands on jewelry researching.

The Arcane, Robust and Healthy were super easy to find of course.

Next was Harmony - got both ring and necklace from Pledge reward boxes.

Then Infused from Psijic Portals (I think that's where she got them) is being researched now.

And just recently completing the Summerset MQ and Psijic MQ, she has both pieces for Protective next in her research queue. That will bring her to six traits.

Once she stops farming the mid level jewelry mats, she'll put in the points to craft with platinum and start doing master writs until she (hopefully) gets Swift.

Whew. When all that is done, she'll look to buy Triune (Cyrodiil) and Bloodthirsty (Trials). By then, hopefully the prices will be pretty reasonable.

She figures there's no big rush because it will take time to have enough purples to improve a full set anyway. And she still hasn't made definite plans on what jewelry set she might want to craft.

Jewelry's actually a pretty low priority for my gang.

They've always been happy with whatever they can pick up. And a friend has been helpful in locating somewhat relevant sets for us. So really, Maz's only interest is to level up enough to a)improve what we have (mostly purple, be nice to get them up to gold), and to be able to craft some of the nicer Summerset knickknacks so we can add pretty clutter to our homes.

In the meantime, the gang's up on the three basic jewelry traits, and Maz has the protective traits (Julian gave her the Summerset and Psijic rewards), so we are looking for the others as well. But no hurry!

Julian made some progress on her Three Banners Conservatory (a botanical garden along the same organizational lines as our Three Banners Library). What with the TV stones and AP's we are picking up through the daily log in rewards, it looks promising that we'll be able to pick up larger versions of the Alliance banners from Cyrodiil.

And some day Maz will have to make a trek through Cyrodiil for those skyshards.

Mine need hundreds. How long a run can we do?

Maybe we can pick the Province the majority of us need the most skyshards in for each run; and only do one Province per run so we are just tied up for a few hours per run? I have an add-on that shows where the skyshards are.

When "One Tamriel" first opened up the other Provinces to all characters; Acadian and Buffy teamed up with my younger characters to do skyshard runs one Province at a time (per run). It worked really well, since we both needed them in the new Provinces opened up to us by One Tamriel. (and just doing one Province at at time works well because it only takes a few hours each run that way; so your whole day isn't taken over by it).

Cat Man Dhou has only found about 30 so far, because he's only done his starter zones before concentrating on crafting. And he only got crafting duty so he could move up a rank to avoid competing with all the other "youngsters" for Jute etc. Then the others maxed out and stopped needing the inspiration from deconstruction, so he got all those Intricate pieces. Now he's starting to approach (and reach) level 50 in the crafts.

That means he can go almost anywhere and get shards. We'll want to allocate all those CP first, so he doesn't get too killed, as all his skill points went into craft lines.

I have not yet decided if I want to level him up to Champion in the process. The delves, group dungeons etc. will get him experience, so it will inevitably go in that direction. My plans were to raise up Wizwen as a healer next, as Unna and Blssom do DPS, and Laurie does Tank. CMD is currently rather tanky (Heavy, mace and shield).

But since it has to happen at some point, why not now?

Yeah, skyshard hunting will def level a character up. But that is the exact same reason why my younger characters don't have any skill points or fighting skills, they are all crafting mules so all their skill points went there instead of into combat skills.

Yooooooooooo

I didn't really covet these but they're great to have, lol, considering Fjotreid is the Psijic of the group. (So is Jo'zira, sort of, but still)

I saw those in the "Gems" section = are they just for looks (like an outfit)? Are they a motif or an actual pair of gauntlets with armor factor? Are they enchanted with some cool abilities? I didn't want to spend my gems to find out, but was intrigued (wondering about it).

It's an Outfit piece, like the one you get in one of the main questlines in Summerset, only themed around Frost instead of The Green.

Hmm, I don't remember getting an outfit piece for doing the main quest in Summerset! I'll have to check out my collections?

You actually wanted the Nasal Rods???

I don't mind those, because now they're gems, which could be useful down the line. I've actually been lucky in getting mostly Pyandonean chapters and gems, with very little that I don't want, but can't trade in. Probably just jinxed myself for the next two crates ...

Tonight Britta got invited to Tank the Undaunted Pledges on Veteran Hard Mode = and went! We got through Wayrest Sewers and Blessed Crucible; but on the second to the last boss in Bloodroot forge we gave up. The group was nice enough to back out and come back in on Normal mode so Britta could get that achievement - on Normal mode she breezed through it! Not only that, but the first two dungeons she got the achievement for no deaths and speed run!!! WOO HOO!!!!

Wow, Britta's amazing!

Jerric’s crew will always have a happy volunteer for Skyshard runs. If anyone wants a morning Cyrodiil run, I’m up for that too. Sadly my laptop can’t handle Cyrodiil when it’s crowded.

For jewelry, Elke has Bloodthirsty researched. She’s happy to make research pieces.


Huge congratulations!! Britta is a force to be reckoned with!

Veteran Hard Mode showed me some of her weaknesses, that is for sure. She needs stamina management if she is going to keep trying to run with the big dogs; she spent the whole fight almost completely depleted of Stamina and couldn't even roll out of traps. It's not that she hasn't gone veteran hard mode before, she has = but not Veteran on Trials or really hard dungeons like Bloodroot Forge.

Cat Man Dhou is trying to follow in her footsteps, but at level 29, he's a long way behind.

We took him to catch up on the Main Questline, as that gets Skill Points from each quest, and did a few others that do the same in Grahtwood, as well as hunting down the skyshards there. Now he has 3/4 in each of the crafting research skills, so he can do three at once, if not as fast as he might. And since his Woodworking had hit 50, we upped the rank to ten, too. Now the crew will run out of Ruby Ash even faster!

He's at high 40's in the other two, but only making the rank he can use. He made some of his new amour (Epic Orichalc Song of Lamae) himself, but Laurie had to help with some. Since he's in Grahtwood, he'll be hoping to get some Green Pact pieces, too. Now I expect him to grow out of it in a hurry, but once we've got his equipment crafting completed, it will be a scramble to L50 to join Unna, Blossom, and Laurie.

Wooden items for decon are starting to build up in the bank, and I'll have to decide who's next on the crafting. Taminwe already moved up a level on a couple of things to avoid competition for materials, so she's the likely one. However, Wizwen is training as a healer, so she may be the next one to get leveled up in general.

Jerric had the time of his life in Cyrodiil this morning. A friend told him that the Dominion gates were open, so Jerric rode south with the intention of exploring behind the one he’d never passed through before (Skyshard). On the way he decided to follow through on some of the promises he had made during previous trips (ridiculously crowded quest log). On the way to doing that, he discovered and closed five Dark Anchors. As the last one broke into pieces with a huge noise announcing his presence to enemies within three counties, he was informed that he is now an Imperial Anchor Shatterer.

This was a neat surprise. Jerric is not used to finishing things. While he cleared the old quests from his log, he picked up several new ones including the beginning of the Imperial City Sewers business. It would be nice if he could do a full set of writs without running back and forth between the boards and the dropoff point.

Oh - while he was charging recklessly all over the place being helpful, he did manage to get through that Dominion gate.

Finally got an Exemplary Swift Ring to drop from daily Jewelry Crafting Writs. Now I just need the necklace. :U 'Course, Dravean still has at least 2 weeks left of research before he can get started on that lol. Once he researches that Swift ring, though (in like 3 weeks time), he'll officially be a Grand Master Crafter.

@mALX - Before I gave up on Dungeon runs entirely, I found that was one of Eolan's weak spots when tanking, too. Of course, his crappy DPS was also an issue in Veteran dungeons, but I found the low Stamina to be a problem sometimes, too. Never did solve that.

@Grits - During the summer that I got into ESO, I spent late nights waiting for those dang gates to open, and finally being let loose in there is extremely satisfying. (There's also several stories I could tell about destroying anchors in Cyrodiil, but another time, maybe.)

Ghastley - Yes, I think the MQ, FG and MG quest lines all give quite a few skill points that are reasonably easy to get.

Monkey - Grats on the Swift ring!

Grits - That description of 'Jerric does Cyrodiil' sounds so very much like our adorable furry Nord! Buffy went in there as an archer long enough to get Caltrops and Vigor. Yup, scared the pee outta her.

I note that Grits' team has collectively hit CP750 without any fanfare. They deserve some!

I got back into PTS after the patch, which cured the SLI problem preventing me from logging in. I was hoping to resume test builds at Sleek Creek, but they also did a reset, and I had to roll a new character first. That all left me just enough time on the live server for the daily mount training, and crafting writs.

Sleek Creek has a dead corner where I want to build a bathroom, so I've been trying out alternatives. The Orc Platform is not quite long enough to bridge the gap between the deck and the wall, but the gap is small, and could be bridged by something else. The largest planks leave a gap underneath that needs filling. I may end up with a combination of the two. On top of that I've tried a few different structures, but haven't yet been happy with any of them. It will all take some time playing around, so I'll probably put that off to the weekend.

Cat Man Dhou didn't get more skill points, but we re-filled his research slots along the way. That will pay off later. He did use up some Ruby Ash, but we got a survey during the round that refilled that. Jute shortages remain our usual problem, and last night left no time for forage runs. At least CMD is not making that any worse.

Some days one just wants to sit back and appreciate how pretty one's home is. (I'm almost done)

Verrrry nice!

Gorgeous!

If it wasn't for the standard absence of interior doors (and plumbing), I could live in that home IRL. The marble/parquet style is timeless, and they've been consistent with it. You can get all the additional furnishings in matching style, too.

Since I don't have Summerset, I have not checked, but did they make any of the must-have things crown-only? (Like the upholstered Redguard chairs. You can make the plain wood-only ones, but have to buy the "better" ones.)

AFAIK, every single Alinor furnishing can be crafted. The only one I'm not sure of is the inconsequential "Alinor Table Runner, Coiled" that I haven't seen in neither a plan form or a crafted form in guild traders, but can be obtained from the furnished version of the Townhouse. It's little more than a doily/pot coaster, though. EDIT: That said, google tells me there are a lot more runners that can't be crafted right now but exist in the data. I'm guessing these will be furnishing pack exclusives. :/

I can also craft almost every single Alinor furnishing that comes with the furnished version of the townhouse. :U Just need the cabinets (missed a cheap one by like an hour a while back) and the benches (pictured above), as far as the "main" furnishings go. The external structures are also things i haven't seen yet, but i'm not really in a hurry to get those. If I see the crafted version for sale I guess I'll buy one.

monkey, I’d love to hear your Cyrodiil stories. I think the thing that Jerric enjoys the most is the chaos brought about by other players. Your townhouse looks gorgeous! I would spend a lot of time with tea and a character just sitting there relaxing.

Acadian, Lildereth feels very much the same as Buffy. I would love for her (and Elke) to have those skills available, but they look very far away from Level 2 on the skill bar.

ghastley, thanks! Good luck with your bathroom construction at Sleek Creek. I have a Nord who thinks that water flowing through the natural pool area is “good enough” for most purposes. Perhaps this is why he often finds himself alone in the pool.

I’ve just had a crappy time in Cyrodiil with Elke and Lildereth. Elke dutifully loaded her packs with all of the crew’s repair gear plus her own faction’s assault stuff only to get disconnected inside a keep. Then she was stuck there unloadable along with the siege gear. Lildereth took a turn next since it didn’t feel too cheaty to play a character who is in the same faction. Unfortunately Elke still had the gear, so Lil’s participation was limited. She liked her scouting mission but declared the help-me quests she found along the way to be imp chips. I left her in the snow fields outside Buma, still waiting for the landscape to render so that she could ride across it. Sigh.

Lildereth might enjoy hunting for enemy forward camps. I’ll try that with her the next time I can get on. I suspect that the Midyear Mayhem event will pass without much participation from Jerric’s crew.

I usually just plop buckets near the beds and call it a day for 'bathrooms', ngl Actually, at the very least, making an outhouse for everyone's house except Jo'zira does sound like a great goal. Eolan even has a little nook in his back yard for it. :v

Also, one of the new Alinor furnishings (Alinor Fountain, Timeworn) can straight up be used as a sink. At least, I have one in the kitchen that I use as a sink. So that's a start.

Anyways, fishing for Pyandonean motifs is a wonderful mix of joy and wishing for death. I got 7 pieces so far, and just sold a duplicate. At the very least I'm more than halfway done, and the pieces I have found are from the "big" body slots, too, so at least that's the most expensive ones out of the way. (Shields is probably the only one left that's over 50k) I'm still not sure if the Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl food increases bottle drops, but I'm not getting very many to begin with.

Lildereth scared herself right off her horse in Cyrodiil yesterday. She has the habit of riding off the road and below ridge lines. She was in a hilly meadow and managed to cross a ridge at an angle that sent her racing shadow onto the grass quite suddenly right beside her. Scared by her own shadow!

Elke got a fright in Cyrodiil, too. She learned from Jerric’s numerous mistakes experiences not to stand in the middle of the road looking at her map, quest journal, and inventory, so she was doing so safely crouched down off the road but admittedly still out in the open. I guess your own faction can still see you. A guy slipped up behind her and then mounted his Dwemer spider car just about on her head. Poor Elke. But then he took her on an adventure, so she ended up laughing about the situation.

I had a funny friend that was traveling with me in Cyrodiil = they got killed and said they were done playing in Cyrodiil and were leaving. We were on TeamSpeak together; so he heard the other girl and I saying we were going to Weynon Priory next.

So our network must have been linked to somewhere really close. He got to Weynon Priory (before we did, we were riding on horseback) and he hid; then sneaked up behind us just as the other girl and I were crawling toward the skyshard at Weynon Priory - he set down a shard on top of me and I thought it was an enemy dropping his ultimate on me = I jumped a mile and screamed, the other girl did too! He laughed his head off!

It was really nice of the guy to ride with you afterward! I really like how quickly you can gain allies down there!

Finished the Pyandonean motif by buying the last few I needed because i was sick of fishing lol. I technically only needed to hook 4 more motifs, but nah. That's one more thing out of way, and it was actually necessary considering that Pyandonean Master Writs actually drop. (In fact, Jo'zira got one today. Had to give it to Dravean, and I imagine it'll be that way for a while unless they get drops in the next Anniversary Event)

Wonder how long I'll have to wait for the price on Fang Lair and Scalecaller drop a little more. I guess for the time being I should keep an eye out for the verdant alinor bench blueprint.

Congrats on the Pyandonean! I got most of mine from the gems in those crates, it got where I was hoping for junk just to get them! I think I only got one by fishing.

I just finished the Ebony armor from vouchers a few days ago; so that is two completed sets in one week! I still need Dreadhorn and Bloodforge; but also trying for Fang Lair and Scalecaller - I think I've bought one motif of each at the Auction I work on Sunday night.

I almost got them from the Gem store but I'd only be able to get 4 (I mean, that's all I needed...) and I want to save my Gems for other things. It's a good thing my Motif Fund is constantly being filled, what with all the new motifs from Summerset's dailies and my decision to start selling all the motifs I held onto from the event. Maybe I'll have every available motif again, at least for a short time.

Anyways, congrats on the Ebony. I imagine that using the vouchers for other things kept you from getting it.

Ah, right, Fjotreid's reached 40 in Jewelry crafting, which means that the currently active characters will almost master the skill. I'm thinking it's time I start giving intricates to Ruben instead of Lucius. He already has a few stacks of Platinum saved up in storage (along with a lot of surveys) so losing a few ounces probably won't make much of a difference. The only downside is that he's still at level 31, so he'll still find Copper nodes. Good thing everyone else maxed out the Skill. :U

It sure did, lol. I kind of liked being able to get almost that whole Pyandonean set for free by all those free crates of worthless junk we've been getting, lol. I am hoping to buy the Fang Lair and Scalecaller without spending Crowns on them if at all possible; but it is good to know the option for buying them with Crowns is there just in case they have another REAL sale on them (= 40% off).


*

This past week my son moved his ESO game onto my computer because he didn't want to play it anymore and his PC was not handling it as well anymore. So I got on his game and was pretty stunned to find out that his character and my old two characters on there from over three years ago (before I bought my own game) = are all under level 50; and none of them have CP points!

Worse = that game doesn't have ESO Plus! No Craft Bag! I'm juggling inventory like I haven't had to do for years!!! And No DLC's! No accelerated XP! No Double Housing Slots!!!!! And no Summerset; so I can't even access a Jewelry station to grind stuff up!


GAAAAAAH!



So I spent this week taking the highest level character and grinding her on Skyshard runs; Dolmen; and Discovering Wayshrines for the XP just to try and get her to level 50! She was at 37 a week ago; and after days and days of grinding she just reached level 40! Grrrrr. Boy do I miss the accelerated XP the Plus membership gives you! And when I see all those skyshards I CAN't get in all those DLC zone = Boy do I miss my Plus membership! And I'm sure when I start decorating any houses I get on that game = boy will I miss that Plus membership!

My son's character on that game is a male Sorc, which Acadian has agreed to help me build and learn to play! (my account has all 8 slots used up).

I note that you can't buy Fang Lair and Scalecaller motifs in the Crown Store on the PTS, so that could mean they're going away on live soon.

Unna bought the FL chests chapter from the Guild merchants, even though the price didn't drop the way we hoped. We had the gold, and the crew has all the houses they need for now.

And she did her first PUG in the Banished Cells, just to clear up that quest from her journal. She queued as DPS, and we knew things would be interesting when all three of the others wore robes and carried staves. Even the so-called tank. So she ended up trying to do that role, without a taunt, just by herding the bosses into a corner. Not very successful at that, but we did finish the dungeon, and get the trophy. It makes me want to see what Laurie or even Cat Man Dhou can do as genuine tanks.

That’s hilarious! Is this funny friend the dancing naked vampire from Hundings Hall? I love it when people are having fun, and not just running, running, running.


Lildereth spent some time in Cyrodiil today. She didn’t take Elke up on the offer of specialized gear, but she got her jobs done anyway. At one point she ported into a keep with the intent of traveling on to her assignment only to be greeted at the front door by explosions from outside. A peek through the window (it is so cool that you can see through them!) revealed that the Covenant had arrived and seemed intent on breaking things.

Two other Dominion souls were inside the keep with her, in addition to the guards. Lildereth joined them on the walls to take shots at the Covenant force and look for a way out. She didn’t see one. When the front door came down and the river of blue poured inside, the other two fell back to the inner keep for the purpose of “whatever fools do right before they die,” in Lil’s words. She dropped over the wall and away. This elf is not going to bleed for an ugly pile of Imperial rocks.

A picture: Lil and Shadow atop White Fall Mountain.

In non-battle news, Darnand ran the crew out of mudcrab chitin and so had the task of re-stocking. I don’t believe he had ever gone crab hunting, because this was the first time he had to choose a crabbing outfit.

Lil -

Darnand -

I've never seen Darnand out of his Mage's Robe before !!!! I love hearing about the Cyrodiil adventures! (and don't blame you for taking flight when it is three against a hoard, lol).

No, it wasn't the dancing vampire; it was another guy who is full of mischief, lol.

Shouldn't a crabbing outfit always include very heavy Sabatons? They can't reach any higher, so the rest is fine.

Ghastley = I hope you don't mind, but I popped into your Primary Residence because I was in a dungeon on my son's game and needed to fast travel out, your name was directly below his. I absolutely LOVE what you did with the Twin Arches! And your Dog House outside was sheer genius! Really great decorating job inside, I love how you changed it up from the setup the game gives on that one, your way looks so much better!

Cheapness is the true mother of invention.

Today I realized that Eolan didn't have a single skill point invested in the One-Handed and Shield skill's passives ever since he cured his lycanthropy. Which was probably a year ago, at least. He has tanked several bosses this way.

Only reason I noticed was because of how much trouble Graveld gave him with only one other player around (he survived to the end, but only barely). Being a Breton, he should have been able to take those magical attacks a lot better so I realized something was up. Probably should have checked when I noticed Ruella Many-Claws gave him trouble, too, but I just figured that boss is disgusting. :v