Oblivion and damnation! (That's not me. That's Mazul. Normally she's pretty even-tempered. Grouchy, but even tempered).

We just can't beat the Omen of Fear in the Sir Hughes' Fate quest. It's the very last one of the Firebrand Keep quests. We've tried enchanted greatsword (Mazul's preference), destruction staff, and a leveled maul that is slightly better. But she barely makes a dent in him. We've tried sucking down potions. Nope. Poison? Nah.

We've tried waiting for another player to come along and going in at the same time as the other player, but we always end up alone. Don't know if that is a game glitch or on purpose (like the Main Quest ones are solo). Julian had the Funnel Health and that was invaluable in keeping her health up, but Mazul has nothing like that in her repertoire. It is driving us nuts.

OTOH, it is showing up a weakness in Mazul's build. She has no way to restore her own health, not in a knock down drag out fight.

Oblivion and damnation, indeed.

Tell me her level; Class; and her weapon of choice, I'll see what I can make for her.

Well, Mazul and I went back into the fray. We DOOD IT!!

It took nearly all the Crown potions I had been saving for such an occasion, a Fishy Stick, and a Health Recovery drink, the Supernal Reverie staff, and a whole lot of running and dodging.

What made a difference this time is that Mazul ran backwards up the stairs to the second floor. If you are familiar with the layouts of the castles in Daggerfall, you'll know that the stairs are to the side from the main hall, and have a landing halfway up where the stair turns around.

It was that bend in the stairs that did the trick - it got the Omen down to the point where she could finish it off while keeping her distance.

Man, are we shaking from the adrenaline crash! I don't think I invested as much into a game combat since the first time Julian and I closed the Kvatch Gate so many years ago . . .

mALX, Mazul is currently Level 18, close to moving up to 19. She is a Dragonknight, with the greatsword as her preferred weapon. She wears heavy armor, but I am thinking medium would be better for her stamina.

I've been there before with Haa-Rei, metaphorically speaking. It's good to come up against a challenge every now and then which you have to sit back and think about. You can't forge a sword without a bit of heat, after all.

I watched this battle on YouTube to see what this boss used - see what best enchantment to make for that battle. That is one tough fight! He cheats, those tentacles go through the wall and hit the player! I couldn't find anywhere that it told if he used Frost or what, but those minion liches that come out all were throwing Frost. The only thing I could think of other than the "Absorb Health" would be to put it on a bow or staff so you could fight from a distance. That is just one of those battles that you have to stay out of the fray to survive.

My Aldmeri Imperial girl Calia can make a staff at that level, but she is the only one. After the base level I had to take a staff or bow that I picked up or got as a quest reward - enchant it with my own enchantments and improve it so it was better than what I started out with.

I hung onto a lot of those early weapons that I did that with, and was just about to deconstruct them just before this "One Tamriel" update - glad I didn't! They turned all those early quest items into sets!

Anyway, I can make your armor all except the helmet; which will leave you with no complete sets or not enough of either; so I'm checking Calia to see if she can make a 5 trait helmet. If she can, you should have a new armor for Mazul the next time you get online.

This game has Fishy Sticks in it?

ESO does; and the Player can learn how to make them!

And they are actually useful!

Yeah, that boss used shock bolts as the primary element. And yes, its liches throw Frost. Not only the stuff that slows you down, but also the stuff that locks you into place. Mazul's forte is fire - her spells are fire-based (from the Dragonknight line), and the staff she got as a quest reward is also fire based. She did enchant her greatsword with fire, so that's good, too.

Mazul only survived by keeping her distance. This was the first fight she could not win with a melee weapon - she had to stand back and spam that SOB with the Supernal Dreamer's Staff she had picked up. Ironically, in this quest line, the Supernal Dreamers are actually allied with the same Daedra as the Omen of Fear - Namira.

Mazul would like a way to Absorb Health. And she would be more comfortable with a staff than a bow, I think.

Okay, I will make and send a staff if Calia has enough traits learned to make one with that "Gladiator" set so you don't lose that extra bonus for the third piece. Meanwhile, those curved greatswords are enchanted with the absorb health; but you really should have some way to fight ranged at times.

Yes, if Calia can do it, Mazul would love it!

She looked closer at the greatswords and saw that indeed they did have Absorb Health on them. She is very, very pleased with the set. I will be posting shots of it in just a few moments . . .

Bubba had to make the staff, he was the only one other than Misa that had 5 traits on a Flame staff (and he had some free skill points to raise his level in Woodworking up so he could make it; Misa doesn't have any skill points left right now.)

He/I made it level 20 (since I noticed Mazul had raised her level since making the armor)

Well, he put it into the bank so Misa could enchant it, but I didn't want to make the glyph till I knew if you wanted it enchanted with absorb health or fire/shock/frost - or poison/disease? I can make it whatever you want, I just use the Absorb Health because no one is immune to it.

Hey, that sounds really great! Mazul is becoming a huge fan of the Absorb Health enchantment - we ran out of charge on the first one last night in the middle of fighting a Dwarven Sphere Fortunately she had the second one stowed away, so out that one came!

Now to restock on soul gems. Oddly, she finds herself unable to use either the glyph or the soul gems she had from before the update. If she can use those she's picked up since, I will report this as a bug to Zmax. But I'm going to wait because my computer is downloading a patch right now.

Yesterday in Tamriel, Mazul was very busy! She knocked down the next quests for the Main Quest (the one where you rescue Abnur Tharn) and Fighters Guild (Mzeneldt), and that's why she leveled up to 20 so quickly. All before she spoke to King Emeric in Wayrest! She also cleared Dreughside of its resident slumlord, and is catching up to Julian, who is at Level 24 in Rivenspire. She also discovered that she knows enough traits now (three) to craft a few pieces of a set - when we looked at Hammerdeath Workshop a couple of stuff came up in the set pieces and weapons. She's going to continue researching, though. She now has two research slots in blacksmithing, woodworking and clothing.

haute, I love your new avatar!

About the soul gems, the patch notes said that they are going to only Grand soul gems for all levels, and the old soul gems can be sold to vendors. I do not have the One Tamriel update yet so I can't say for sure, but that sounds like why your old gems don't work.

That would also explain why the Grand Gems don't show any levels at all.

Hmmm, I'll have to give that a try, then. Thanks for the info!

Signing off for now. Off to work in a few!

BTW, thanks for your comment regarding the avatar! I am loving Mazul the more I play her.

Today is the day, boys and girls. The Witches Festival has begun

Haa-Rei is going to go back through Tamriel this weekend to do any delves, dolmens, or bosses he missed the first time. Only a few days until One Tamriel arrives on consoles and makes it all more difficult. Hopefully we can get some spooky prizes as we go!

Woo! Happy hunting!

I hope I get some time to play tonight. Looking forward to the festivities!

The Dolmens are actually easier after "One Tamriel," there are crowds of people lined up at each waiting to do them now and even ones you have done numerous times are now dropping chests.

The Dueling is hysterical to watch, but breathtaking too. It makes me realize how inept I would be at PvP, that is for sure! I have my settings set to decline every challenge; but the game alerts you to every attempt (and there have been many!)

But other than that, suddenly Davon's Watch was overwhelmed with players for a few days; but that seems to be settling down some already. Craglorn is crazy full of players now, I was able to do all the Anomalies easily without even being in a group, there were just so many people waiting to play or just plain grinding at each, lol.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of people out and about again, especially in Dominion areas (which are usually really quiet since they're veteran zones for the Pact).

There were a ton of players all doing the Witches Fest quest today, it was so cool to see so many people doing something other than hanging around cities in various states of undress.

Turns out the Witches Festival quest is account-wide, so you don't have to re-do it with all your characters. Logged on with Ciri today and got the polymorph straight away - now to make good use of the +100% exp bonus it gives you

I've got all the Motif pieces and recipes; plus one face mask.

Congrats! I'm just missing two motifs.

There are so many people standing around in delves to farm the bosses that nobody's coming to do world boss dailies.

Update: Well that was certainly bracing - Haa-Rei took down Limenauruus all by his lonesome. Been a while since we had such a hairy fight!

HOLY COW! I'd love to have seen a vid of that fight!

mALX, congrats! I have not found a complete set yet, but I am having a great time looking.

hazmick, oh my gosh!! Congratulations! Wow, that must have been such a battle. What an accomplishment for Hai-Rei!

Lildereth is not a fan of looking and acting like an undead creature, but she put up with it long enough to get her over the edge into the Champion levels. She is presently wearing some things borrowed from Jerric while she decides what she wants for her new gear. He has been saving bows for her, so she has a bunch to choose from. She actually looks pretty savage in his gear.

Jerric decided that the only thing more fun than being a skeleton is being a party skeleton, so he has a beverage in hand everywhere he goes (Drunk Personality). The last time he went into Garlas Agea he had the whole place sloshing their mugs around by the time Ironfang showed up.

Even Darnand has gotten in on the festival fun. If there's one thing that will get him out of the library it's moar power. He likes to level up several times in a session or it's not worth getting dirty. I finally have a use for those experience scrolls that came with something I bought in the Crown store.

I saw someone wearing a scary pumpkin mask with the Manimarco armor dyed black. It looked pretty neat.

Doesn't Jerric dribble through onto the floor while he's drinking in skelle form?

That is the mask I got, the Pumpkin one. Oh, and I have already made two sets of swords in the new style, they are wicked Awesome !!!!!

Acadian, ha! Could be, but he will never stop trying!

mALX, neat! If I've seen anything made with the Hollowjack style in-game, I haven't realized it. There were two, uh, skeletons in Garlas Agea who had really neat staves with axe-looking things on top, and I wondered if those were the new motif.

I haven't made any of those, but made the swords - they look like they are made with Obsidian and are curved. The guy I made them for said that they glow in combat, though I was too busy fighting to notice that.

I had the day off today.

So other than making dinner for myself and my mom, I spent the day with Julian. All in all, we spent much of our time in Rivenspire. She leveled up from 28 to 31 in just six hours.

We had fun earlier in the week with the Witchmother Brew. Knocked down a bunch of bosses with other players that were all similarly anorexic. Julian was skeptical at first. but got into the spirit of things. What she especially liked was the Plunder Skulls and the goodies she could share with Mazul. She passed all the motifs she found to Mazul via the Bank, as well as the mats needed to make the goodies. She is hoping to get a really cool curved sword out of this when she outgrows the latest gift from Misa. Sad to say, that day is pretty darn close. Mazul has to do some serious leveling before Julian can go further. But that's okay.

Yesterday (and Friday) Mazul spent time with the Witchmother Brew as well. She did not enjoy it as much as Julian did (her tusks, her pride and glory, disappeared with the polymorph - we were both disappointed). But she does appreciate the new motifs and materials that the Witches Festival is providing, and we are making the most of it.

Mazul is nearly done with the Covenant quest line in Stormhaven. She will be moving into Rivenspire likely in the next week or so. It'll be interesting to see her reaction to the environment. Julian loves Rivenspire the best - the fall weather, the storylines, the politics that are rife in this area really keeps her engaged. She will hate to leave the area.

Oh, and we found the Crypt of Hearts. First Julian and I noticed the spires, and wondered what they were. When we found the path leading down to it, and discovered the place, we beat the Oblivion out of there because it is not something for solo adventurers. Julian has not yet conquered Spindleclutch nor Bonesnap, she is not about to take on Crypt of Hearts. But we did take a few pics of its exterior because we both know how interested SubRosa is in the place. Will post those soon!

Julian is now at Level 31, and Mazul is at 24 going on 25. We are having fun taking on bosses, dolmens, and delves.

Rider, how nice that you had a day devoted to play! Wow, Julian and Mazul are both coming along well.

Buffy is only watching the Witches Festival and giggling at the black bags of bones running around. She is now level 48 and doing well as a no melee stamina bow sorc. I just gave her a tune up on the keyboard to make hitting the right keys more intuitive without looking. After the initial confusion of dropping volleys of arrows on a sack instead of opening it and such, she is doing well. She is incredibly mobile and needs to be quick with her skills. The new set up let's her dance much better. She's got the stamina to literally dodge-roll in circles around her foes popping shots every time her feet touch the ground. The circling around Spike the Clannfear really seems to help most baddies focus on him instead of her.

Buffy's exploring northern Valenwood now and I'm pleasantly surprised that parts of it quite resemble the Strid River Valley and plains of Buffy's current location in her Book. I guess I'm not the only one who saw that area as an opportunity to blend the topography of Valenwood, the Gold Coast and the northwestern Anequina Desert. We already know that the Ghratwood zone suffices quite nice as a 'land of the Tall Trees.

Something I found out quite by accident the other day = the "bags of bones" running around for the witches festival have their own unique dances completely different from the standard dances - and they are hilarious!!!! I hope someone making the add-ons nabs those animations, I would LOVE to see my characters doing those silly dances when she is NOT a skellie!!! It will probably be like those twerking Khajiit ghosts in Stros M'Kai though = unavailable to the Player,

haute, what a fun day! I love Rivenspire. Fortunately so does Jerric. He has only walked through on his way from one place to another, but he is looking forward to returning for adventures. It sounds like Julian and Mazul are doing very well!

Acadian, I am so glad you're enjoying ESO's Valenwood in all of its variety. I think they did a beautiful job creating a world that is both magical and real. When Jerric walked through Reaper's March, he said, "It's just the way Buffy described it." I keep expecting to get a quest from Vandrelis!

mALX, now I have to know, where are the twerking Khajiiti ghosts of Stros M'Kai?!


Today Jerric and Darnand both went to work on the Gold Coast. Each found a motif chapter that they gave to the other. This reminds me of Skyrim before I made their companion NPCs. If only we could have our other characters as followers!

Neat discovery about the festival recipes, they scale to your level and only require perks in Recipe Quality to make the blue and up recipes. Very convenient for non-Provisioners, as long as they don't mind eating peeled eyeballs and the like.

I am having the best time with Jerric and Darnand in the One Tamriel update. The bosses seem harder to me, but so far my crew is managing. Food is more important now. Jerric is cooking up a storm for everyone with great enthusiasm and possibly more strutting and grinning than is absolutely necessary. Tons of loot everywhere, including treasure from every Dark Anchor! I love the crafting nodes and survey reports. Since Craglorn got updated everyone lost their Wayshrine in Belkarth, so they (the ones with top-tier skills) have to haul their tails back there on foot again to turn in their Writs the first time, which is awesome. Jerric got fed up with looking for a path and jumped down a mountain. He assured Ulfe that it was perfectly safe.

I have to remember to take a picture of Jerric in his black wedding suit and pumpkin mask. He likes that even better than looking like a skeleton.

Grits, thanks for your kind words about Book 2 vs ESO V-wood.

Hee! Jerric is too darned handsome to cover up! The only outfit you should give him is the pirate breeches & sash - no boots or shirt. Good for fishing and easy on Buffy's elven eyes.

Speaking of Buffy, she's level CP20 now and still doing well. Spike + powerful bow/bow skills + hypermobility and an obsession with stamina seem to be working very well still. She visited Kvatch today for the first time. When she first saw one of the giant vertical white city banners with its distinctive black wolf head. . . she cried.

Aww… It was bittersweet for Jerric. His heart said home, but it was complicated. As much as he is still a Gold Coast Nord and visits the city often, I doubt that he will ever return to live in Kvatch. Funnily enough the mood in ESO's city is much the way I imagine post-crisis Kvatch in Jerric's story. Grim and somewhat dour, a little frantic, with a tendency toward religious fanaticism.

Sounds like Buffy is thriving! Jerric is grinning over the image of nimble Buffy dive-rolling in circles around her enemies. They have to be able to find her to hit her!

I'm glad I'm not the only one getting used to the update and finding things to like.

Mazul is especially glad that she no longer has to wait until she has leveled high enough overall to move into the next zone before leveling up her mats. She is just about done with Stormhaven quests and ready to move into Rivenspire. First, find Sai Sahan.

Yes, the bosses are harder, but she is getting a lot of help with the Witches Festival celebrants. And she loves the plunder skulls. She needs only five more chapters of the Hollowjack motif, and she is looking forward to seeing how that works out.

Julian is cooling her heels for now in Shornhelm. She's Level 31, and Mazul is now 28. This is the closest they've been in levels, and I want to bring Mazul up to Julian's level so they can continue more or less together. This way Mazul can craft armor and weapons high enough for Julian, now that both have nearly outgrown mALX's gifts. We are saving them, though, for the next characters . . .

And having a one-size-fits-all soul gem is turning out to be really useful - both in keeping our weapons charged, but also in terms of inventory management.

I'm glad to hear Jerric and Co. are doing well. Julian is getting psyched for the Alik'r Desert, which I think is next (though I'm not quite sure, haven't looked that far ahead yet). And Mazul is proud of herself for having beaten all the Omens in Stormhaven by herself. The staff that Bubba Khan made for her really made a world of difference with the magic-casters. And Buffy is so far ahead already?? We'll never catch up. I'll have to retire, first!

I'll find it and get the name of the place; you have to have done the quest to see the happy Khajiit ghosts dancing outside the place in the moonlight afterward when you return; and they are twerking - hilarious !!!


A warning on the recipes: The gold recipe "Double Mara" something is glitched - a friend of mine (who plays a werewolf) drank it and his character became a stage 4 Vampire; and can't get it to stop even long after the potion should have run out. He has reported the glitch and they are trying to get it fixed. Meanwhile he has tried to get it cured and the game says he doesn't have vampirism to cure it, but says he has it in his stats and facial changes. So - just be careful what you drink, lol. If it says it is for vampires, there is a reason for it, lol.

WOO HOO, glad to hear that !!!!

Yikes!! Thank you for the warning. None of mine have found that recipe yet. If they do, I'll keep it in the bank until I have a vamp to cook for, lol. What a disaster for your friend! I hope they get it fixed.

So does he hope they can fix it, lol. He has had to retire the character till they get it fixed, really upset him.

Just finished downloading the update - took 22 and half hours and now it's bed time Craglorn will have to wait until tomorrow, but Haa-Rei is looking forward to it!

Cirinwe is in The Rift, getting close to level 50 (at which point she'll jump up to Haa-Rei's level with the Champ Points).

Glad to hear that everyone else is doing well in New Tamriel.

Man, Craglorn is such a gorgeous area! Haa-Rei has spent more time looking at trees and rocks than he has doing quests

Cirinwe just got to level 50 and then jumped up to join Haa-Rei at CP310. Now she's all kitted out in Morihaus gear - and she looks awesome! It also means that she can ditch the spooky skeleton polymorph. Woo! She's still not done in The Rift, so we'll finish that soon before deciding where to go next.

Neat, hazmick! I'm still very intrigued by a magicka templar using staves. Any tips along those lines?

Hmmm, it would of course depend on the type of staff, and the character's role. Grits or mALX might know more about staff stuff - I only have a shallow pool of knowledge in that area but I'll share my thoughts all the same.

A destruction staff in the hands of a Magplar works the same as with other classes, since the destruction staff skill line gives you everything you need.

A restoration staff works well with a Magplar because of their healing skill line, which works well with the resto staff skills (which aren't good at self-healing). They can take damage and spit out lots of healing magic which lets other players focus more on killing enemies than protecting the medic. It might be hard to balance skills between damage and healing until you get enough skill points to do as you please.

Cirinwe is a non-healer. She has the resto staff on her second skill bar (her buff bar), and only uses it to restore magicka when she gets low. Most of the resto staff skills she'd be interested in are only useful after morphing - for example the Steadfast Ward spell: "Call on your staff's strength to protect whichever ally has the lowest Health with a ward to absorb [x] damage." only affects other players, but its morph also shields the caster.

Now that she has access to all those handy champ points I can fine tune her build a little bit, and once I finish leveling her Templar skills I want to move on to resto staff stuff. I'll make sure to keep you updated on that as I learn more.

Thank you. I just started today an additional variant of Buffy. Whereas Buffy the Small is a no melee StamSorc with bow backed up by clannfear, Buffy the Spiritcatcher is a no melee MagPlar with destruction staff backed up by the templar skills. Only level 4 so too early to tell.

Aah I see. Well she shouldn't have too much trouble. Ciri doesn't use her weapons much at all, the templar skills are great fun to use. I use the Dawn's Wrath skill line for my main attacks - lots of these skills heal you as well as dishing out damage, whereas the Aedric Spear skills are primarily damage based.

One thing I'd suggest is to either go for light or heavy armour. Heavy offers protection, but light gives handy bonuses to spellcasting. Going from a stamina to a magicka character might take some getting used to (Ciri often found herself out of breath at low levels since I was used to Haa-Rei being able to leap around for hours on end)

Thanks again. Level 5 and so far so good. She's a Bosmer (of course) but in the Ebonheart Pact. Cool to see ESO Skyrim! I can see plenty of potential. The more I study the Templar + Destruction Staff skills the more I see how this would work well. The up close aedric spear abilities feel like light sabers so it doesn't really feel like melee - very cool. On armor, she's running 6 light with a heavy (unseen) helm.

Craglorn used to have such an awesome atmosphere. It may have been hard to get through alone, but it was very immersive. This One Tamriel change has killed the atmosphere and immersion of Craglorn imho. (Although I still love Belkarth).

These are some great insights! Thank you for your in depth answer here, because I have been kept alive numerous times by Templars in Veteran dungeons that THEY managed to go through without a hitch. They were amazing!

I had one Templar that did just so-so in normal dungeons; I don't know what I did wrong with her build (but that is when I turned to Nightblades and found it a bit easier to go through tough fights with them than with the Templar). I think my problem is that I don't know how to build a good Templar. (had the same problem but worse with my one attempt at making a Sorc character).

@ Acadian - I am very interested in how the new Buffy the Spiritcatcher does; in your impressions and any new skills you discover in the Templar, how they work and compare to Sorc Buffy the Small !!!

Acadian, it sounds as if Buffy the Spiritcatcher has a great deal in common with Aninah. Aninah is all Magicka and uses Destruction staves but keeps a Restoration skill on her bar for leveling. Her back bar is largely neglected because she doesn't often need it. Aninah blocks with her staff and does some dodge-rolling, but she doesn't need more than her base Stamina. She will eventually use 5 light armor and 2 heavy most of the time, but now she is wearing a mix for leveling. I have not had any problems with her build in PvE. She keeps trying different skill combinations as she gets access to them. So far they have all been great.

The goal with Aninah is to be able to take the healer role in groups, but it is not easy to learn those skills by yourself!


Darnand has joined our Champion ranks. He is delighted with all of the useful gear he finds. Everyone is working to increase their bag and bank space so that they can hoard their goodies until a time they can use it.

Grits - Congrats to Darnand! Your plans for Aninah sound great and my understanding is that a magplar can make a great healer.



An update on Buffy the Spiritcatcher. We considered making her a tiny Altmer for the racials but you cannot make an Altmer tiny! The shortest you can make them is taller than the tallest Bosmer! So she is a Bosmer and looks just as she has in ESO. Via the Adventuress Pack, we started her in Ebonheart Pact instead of the Aldmeri Dominion so we could see some new things. I'm very glad she has always kept the frost resist enchanted toe ring that dear Jerric gave her years ago!

Anyway, she's still in the first zone but nearing the end of things there, and is level 7. She has adapted to the new skills and style and quite likes it. Ironically, Buffy the magplar feels much more 'magey' than Buffy the stamsorc. And we're loving the looks of the light armor.

So. . . although still early, the initial take on Buffy's forray into being a magplar is quite fun and encouraging.

Oh, here's a screenshot.