Since ZOS placed a more lenient NDA on Summerset--restricting it entirely to the main quest past the first one--I figure it's okay to talk about what goes on in the land of the Altmer.

I couldn't save many screenshots because my antivirus program blocked the PTS from making screenshots, but I managed to save these two:

Jo'zira's favorite spot so far.
Many colors!

I took these in the southeastern corner of the island. Though I deeply detest how cowardly the Altmer's architecture designed, it's almost made up by how vibrant the rest of the island is, even the creatures!

Though the flora is mostly the same across the entire island, there's no shortage of different environments to explore. And holy hell, the island is actually pretty big! I was worried there wouldn't be enough of a tropical feel like Auridon (though its beaches did invoke that somewhat) but man, it was unfounded.

I haven't actually done many quests, mostly I just stuck to exploring and activating the Psijiic skill line. I also looked at jewelry crafting. It sure is...well, crafting I guess? People on the official forums have been saying that the nodes are really rare but I haven't had much trouble finding them, even on Summerset. I think the hardest part will be getting the new traits, especially at first.

Anyways, that's most of what I have to say right now. I'd say I'm pleasantly surprised, but tbh? This is pretty much my experience with ESO. The architecture is bad, but everything else is great. (No spoilers of that kind until May 1!)

Wow, the pics look beautiful! I'm so tired of giant mushrooms and gray rock with lava. . . .

Nice pics Monk! Jo looks quite at home there!

Summerset swaps them out for colorful trees and flowers and massive coral skeletons. Some even look like mushrooms themselves. :U
Even the water is a bright blue.


He is! Even if he is fully aware of how...unwelcoming the majority of the Altmer there are. (I don't think this counts as a spoiler, because I think it's to be expected. Time to swap out "Outlander" for "Nebarra")

Oh nice! They're adding Jewelry stuff into the PTS templates now. (Surveys, master writs, etc). Gonna try those out in a bit, and check out the daily log-in rewards.

Well that was annoying. They re-copied the PTS when they did the latest patch, and wiped out Minx. I had to start her again. She got started in Summerset, and I couldn't find anyone to certify her for crafting until she went back to the mainland. That could be a bug, of course.

Do we know yet whether we can craft jewelry that is part of existing crafted sets (like Julianos, Seducers, etc)?

Because of the jewelry limitations, I feel obliged to run a crafted set and a dropped set to get two full sets. In some cases I would actually like to run two full crafted sets - but gotta be able to make the jewelry for the set to do that.

I've only come across "standard" crafting stations, not attuned ones, so that's no hint. The existing dropped jewelry can't be deconstructed or improved at the stations, so the half-way situation seems to be ruled out (get a green drop and bump it up yourself). I'm guessing there will be more jewelry-only sets of less than five pieces, like the one- and two-piece sets from the level-ups, but I'm not far enough along to find out. There are new traits to learn for jewels only, and of course new materials to go with them.

There's too much new stuff for me, as I'm getting Morrowind exposure for the first time, too.

You totally can craft jewelry from existing sets, and new stations have been added in every set crafting station (I visited the Alik'r Song of Lamae site myself to fulfil one of the Master Jewelry Writs I mentioned earlier). I can also confirm that attuneable stations exist. You get them from the new lady next to the mastercraft merchant. Same rules apply as with armor and weapons as far as trait research goes.

I can also confirm that you can improve existing jewelry, but I confess that I haven't attempted it with set jewelry yet. It does work with jewelry dropped from quests, like the necklace from the end of the main quest and the first half of Craglorn, but those predate the implementation of overland sets.

=

Anyways, neat thing about the Jewelry Surveys:


That aside, has anyone on live managed to start the Summerset preview quest from the Auridon mages guild instead of using the Crown Store? Jo'zira did it on live, but in the PTS it seems that no one can unless they're in the Aldmeri Dominion. (I tried it with Lucius, and Vanus showed up, but he didn't show when I tried with Hates or Dravean, both being in the Ebonheart Pact)

It's something I'll have to try myself later, but it is curious.

My failure to improve may have been lack of materials, but of course that's partly down to not being able to deconstruct much.

I did not go back to check the existing areas to see if the attuned stations had been added. Guildhall is just too convenient! I was just trying to find one on Summerset itself, without knowing where to look.



You'll be starting that research from scratch, of course. So the time to nine traits will be just as bad.

Oh that's good news that you can craft jewelry for existing sets! Thanks for the info/update!

Some more details of jewel crafting are starting to make sense.

Any jewelry you have now can't be deconstructed, but drops after it goes live will all be deconstructible. I.e a new item will replace the old one in the spawn list, but not in your inventory/bank. That will be independent of whether you personally have the Summerset chapter, so you can get a (new) ring, pass it to a guild-mate who has "the power" and they'll be able to extract it. And they can make you a set piece ring, even if you can't.

I believe the stations will be there all over the map for everyone, but players without the chapter just won't be able to activate them. That's hard to test, of course. Places with all three equipment stations should be getting the extra one (attuned or not), I gather, but there may be exceptions, intentional or otherwise.

It appears that jewel crafting cannot be a character's first skill, but I forgot to test if you need to have all the other skill lines or just one of them. I couldn't find Mellinith or Danel Telleno on Summerset, but others claim they're there. They may appear at some character level, or be gated by reading a note, or something. It's totally unclear, and I couldn't find it in the patch notes.

I couldn't put a Jewel station into the inn room using the housing editor (all the rest are available), so they could be voucher-only. The patch notes imply that, but don't say it that way There's a new NPC (Faustina Curio) who provides them - 125 vouchers normal, 250 attunable.

I haven't looked to see if Felarion - the NPC who certifies you for jewel writs - is in the same cities as Mellinith and Danel. The reverse did not seem to be true for me, so he'll likely be in Alinor only.

You have to reach level 6 before you can start the base game Crafting Writs, so Millenith and Danel won't show up until then. Not sure if the same is true for Jewelry Writs, but you DO have to go to Alinor to activate them through whatshisface Felarion. Otherwise it's the same as any other skill: activating the crafting table will enable the skill line.

Also I completely forgot the guildhall is in the PTS, too lol

Anyways, I confirmed that you only ever get Vanus to appear and offer you the Summerset preview quest if you're in the Aldmeri Dominion, both on live and the PTS. I'm guessing it's because the Summerset questline is heavily AD-based? Odd, considering Wrothgar made it a point to have the questline be neutral while Vvardenfell didn't seem to say one way or another.

This time around we got a character with a clear allegiance to his alliance play a large role in the questline. At least as far as I played. Could be that he backs off as the Daedric Plot unfolds and the Psijiic Order is more prominent?

Morrowind spoilers


I've heard that this questline is "the best yet" more than once, so either way I can't wait to play all of it when it goes live. I do admit that the writing I've seen so far worries me, as it touches on what I talked about in the General Discussion topic. (That they seem to be writing these so that you can play them in any order, and barely account for you having done previous content.)

Mini update: more than a few of the vanilla voice actors returned and that makes me happy. :v

This was likely the issue. I'd created Minx before the latest patch and had to create her again, and probably forgot that it dropped her back down in levels, and I probably skipped things I'd done with the first incarnation, so she was lower level at the same point. I'd imagine that the trip back to the mainland added discovery experience sufficient to bump her past 6.

Making a note for myself.

I need to make a new greatsword for Unna, to see if the two-slot change works the way I expect. One of her current ones is a set piece, so I can quickly confirm if that remains one-slot as I expect. If I get Laurie to make her a jewelry+greatsword set I can find out how that runs.

What would be a good mix with her Hunding's armour?

ghastley, I have used Night Mother’s Gaze with a full set of Hunding’s for the 3 and 4 piece bonuses, but there might be a better choice for the 5 piece bonus. I haven’t gotten far enough in the process to look into two full crafted sets.

monkey, Darnand (DC) just started Through a Veil Darkly by talking to Vanus Galerion in the Daggerfall MG on the live server. Many thanks for mentioning that these quests can be started without using the Crown Store.

I created Anina on the PTS and got her to level 6, then picked up the quests to start crafting writs including jewelry in Alinor. Jewelry crafting looks like it’s going to be the mother of all grinds. Elke will start researching traits right away, but I suspect it will be a long time before she can do anything useful with it.

So far I love the landscape and critters. I’m saving the rest for when it goes live.

Ah! Of course! I didn't think to look in their own Alliance's MG hall. Good to know!

Also for those wondering, there doesn't seem to be a lead-up quest after Through a Veil Darkly that directs you to Summerset, at least currently. It seems that you're just supposed to get on a boat on your own without any handholding. :v

I've also had that quest in Daggerfall with Laurie (DC). Could it be that it's only in your starting Alliance?

Night Mother's Gaze may be just the set Unna will try. We won't be able to have great jewelry, but the sword may make up for that. She has a full set of Sword Singer to compare against.

Edit: The problem is that we need to research six traits of jewelry before we can make those pieces. On two items, ring and amulet, and Laurie can only do one at her level. With the materials being a real grind, and no obvious supply of jewelry to deconstruct, it may take a while. She did make a greatsword for Unna, but the other three slots have to wait. The good news is that pre-Summerset set two-handers fill two slots. Unna had one, and got the benefit straight away.

So one last thing about the story before May 1st, because I got as far as I'm going to want to get. I'm probably pushing my luck already so it's as vague as I can make it: I'm really, REALLY glad that the questline touches on a lot of the ideas I incorporated into the original "ending" of my group's story.

That ending was conceived before the Imperial City DLC was even announced, so things have changed a lot since then, but seeing them in-game is so...validating. (Disclaimer: I probably didn't even get halfway through the Chapter's main quest.)

It looks like the only way to test jewel crafting fully is with a template character (to get the levels and mats) plus using a large number of cheap research scrolls to bypass the long research times. It's still a grind doing it all the fast way, so I've abandoned trying to check out a 2H+jewels set for Unna. The grind does at least mean that jewel sets will phase in on live slowly, as nobody will be able to short-circuit that process. The materials may be in high demand by those who want to do that, and farmers will be selling.

With only a few other characters around, the Abyssal Geysers are too much, especially to solo, and I haven't been able to check out how they reward you.

Huh, did the character not start with all traits researched already? They're supposed to, at least those made after the recent PTS patch. EDIT: The patch before today's, at least.

But anyways, Jewelry Crafting is pretty much like any of the other equipment crafts and I wouldn't worry about how long it will take to level, but I think where the grind comes in is with the Plates used for upgrading.

At only a tenth of the rate of what the other three drop tannins, I don't see too many people being enthusiastic about actually crafting new jewelry, or at the very least it'll be far more precious and rare than equipment crafts. Not to mention that Master Jewelry Writs are practically worthless for the amount of vouchers they drop. Unless they multiply the vouchers rewarded by 10 to accommodate the grind needed for those Platings, I see myself tossing them into the shredder even if I'm going all in with the craft. :v

Anyways, I agree about the geysers. Jo'zira attempted to solo one and he ended up chipping away at the boss' health for a long time until a small group came and helped finish it off. He's a magicka sorcerer. It was not fun. (The rewards are more or less like Dolmens, iirc, but then I only did one)

Decided to test how "sustainable" Jewelry Writs are without having to farm for ounces. Right off the bat I was one Pewter Ounce short of fulfilling the writ. Luckily I found a necklace to deconstruct quickly. Gonna give it a week and see how that goes, though I suspect it won't be too much different than the other crafts.

Not to mention that once it goes live, I'll have at least 7 characters leveling the skill, with the Crafting Monkey and Ruben prioritized as far as intricates and traits go. Chances are I'll have more Pewter than I'll know what to do with, and since all but one of those 7 are already cp160, I'll also have a lot of Platinum before I can even use it.

New Login Music :0

(I still miss the original)



So unlike the other equipment crafts, Jewelry Writs only reward 5 Ounces in the shipments which might be a problem, particularly with the "Craft 3 Rings" writ, since it uses up 6 Pewter Ounces in total. Guess I'll have to seek out seams after all. :T (I'm trying to save Surveys for the higher leveled ones)

That's about the same ratio as the low-level clothing writs which use up 30 Jute and give back 25, so it's not to surprising. I don't recall what was said about the Master Writs, but the platings are a grind collecting 10 powder to make one unit, and then needing multiples each time to upgrade. Plus the trait research. At least there are no styles for jewelry.

Master Writs don't take into account how much of a grind it is to get platings, which is why I said that they aren't worth anything unless they either increase the voucher yield or increase plating drops. (A purple piece of jewelry is currently only 5 vouchers, for example)

But anyways, I guess deconstruction will have to fill in for the extra ounces needed.

The imponderable question is how much the 10 powder = 1 stone mechanism for both traits and improvement offsets the lack of motif/style and the (one-off) grind to obtain those. Since the former need to be repeated for each unit, I suspect it will be much worse, and ZOS will rethink it, like they did for the page fragments overkill. Glass had the double composite situation, and they changed their minds for that case.

10 raw = 7-10 refined would have fit better with existing cases - wood, ore, fibres, hides and style mats all work with those proportions.

I don't recall if deconstructing jewelry returns whole units, but I don't think I've ever deconstructed anything that had a refined style material as a comparison case. I would hope they work the same way.

I guess there IS the style to consider, isn't there? We'll have to see how the market settles on this, or maybe rely on the voucher exchange rate to determine whether Jewelry writs are "worth" it. (Currently at around 500 gold per voucher). At least, that's how I decide whether I want to make or sell Master Writs. If the crafting cost goes above the voucher cost, it's garbage.

Deconstructing jewelry returns whole Ounces--normally one Ounce unless it's Intricate. Traits and platings come back as those 1/10 dust thingamajigs. :T (At least, I recall them saying trait stones come back as the dust) So I think that sort of offsets the omission of crafting styles needed for the other equipment writs. Ugh. No matter how I look at it, Master Jewelry Writs are not appealing. Maybe it's best to hang onto them for the first few months.

So anyways, tomorrow's the big day. :U

I'm incorrigible, so of course I'm going to be trying everything out ASAP instead of waiting it out in case horrible, horrible bugs happen. Like the storage bug. Then again, Morrowind's launch was relatively smooth. Maybe I should just be careful.

But either way, I'm so flipping ready for this. Always ready for more story content, although I'm still not sure if this will be my original Squad's last. A lot of points left hanging since the end of the main quest are finally being...well, probably not tied up but they're at least being acknowledged so. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but during the lore podcast when asked whether Summerset will be the end of the Triad Arc, the writer initially answered "yes", then added that it won't really "end" things so much as it will start something new. So yeah. lol

From what little I've seen and even before, I sort of knew this would be a Jo'zira and Eolan "episode", though mostly Jo'zira. Especially after the whole "I'm going to assert myself as an individual and go against my master's wishes to bring back the person my existence overwrote" thing, it will be an opportunity for growth. That and both of them were put in the background for the Clockwork City where it was Hates and Fjotreid's "episode". (There was even a sibling rivalry quest to mirror theirs.)

idk, i'm excite

I'm actually more excited by the prospect of getting the Morrowind zone and content. I can do without a Warden, but the DLC part will be all new to me, and Unna could use the extra skyshards, too.

I'll probably add Minx, a new Dunmer character, tomorrow. That name is taken, so she'll be "of Morrowind" or similar. Maybe a Templar, as I only have one so far, and I'll let the level-up advisor guide her build, just to see how that turns out. The original in Oblivion was an NPC, who developed a bit in Clark's story and became the Thieves' Guildmaster, so she ought to be a thief in ESO. Does that work with Templar, or does she have to be an NB to be able to sneak?

A Nightblade has a spell to briefly go invisible. Bosmer and Khajiit have a racial passive to reduce stealth detection radius by 3M.

Though I have not done the TG, Buffy (both sorc and templar) sneak just fine and are quite adept at stealing beets, tomatoes and such - often under the noses of merchants.

As I said, I've not done the TG but I certainly would not hesitate to try it with a Bosmer templar.

I'd say Nightblades are "easy mode" Thieves Guild, yeah, since they have the invisibility spell, but any class can fill the sneak thief role otherwise.

My Crafting Monkey Dravean is Dark Brotherhood, and its quests are basically Thieves Guild but with murder at some point. He does okay as a Dragonknight sneak assassin, and where Hates would spam the Cloak and Double Take at any opportunity to get by quickly, he finds that it's rare to absolutely need an invisibility potion.

Of course this is about the daily Heists/Sacraments, where remaining undetected at all times is key. Anyone in Medium Armor can easily get by in regular overland areas. (That said, some of the newer DLCs/Chapters added Thieves Guild-style sneaking where being detected while trespassing will add to your bounty.)

Wow, 'twas a big upload/update. Took some time to sort through much of the new stuff. As magplar healer and magsorc dps, Buffy notes the changes to her performance are not significant. Same for Acadian the DK tank. It is when Buffy grabs her bows (bow/bow stamsorc) that the changes are notable. Between the changes to light/heavy attacks and sorc bound armor, her light attacks hit like an angry orc on skooma - a significant dps boost.

Will approach the possibilities provided by bows/staves counting as two slots and jewelry crafting slowly and with much thought. Just as well since it will take some time to build up the craft and garner the new mats.

Ooh, thank you so much for these tips!!!

I'm level 3 in jewelry crafting so far just by reading books.

Jerric got his entire crew certified in jewelry crafting, though only a few of them plan to actually use the skill. Using the Alinor inn room and their mail box furnishing storage, they were able to build up a small stock of pewter from the certification quest without the craft bag interfering. The certification quest takes you from 0 to 2 in the skill line, which is high enough to pick up the first Keen Eye passive. The jewelers are going to try raising their skill level without increasing their passive levels to avoid the huge pain of juggling different tier materials that they don’t need for anything but writs.

Darnand got a kind of wrinkly wizard hat out of their free Crown Crate. He loves that he can store a spare quill in the band.

So i'm a flipping goblin and basically did everything as soon as I was able.

When I got on I immediately attuned the stations like I said I would and set them up. Then I got everyone certified in Jewelry Crafting, including the throwaway crafting character I made for the Anniversary Event. I got the Crafting Monkey and Ruben researching jewelry, but I don't know if I'm going to make a special effort to level the skill. Apparently some people already power-leveled it. :v

After that, I got Jo'zira started in the main quest, mostly so he could unlock the Psijiic Skill line. I completely forgot how time consuming sealing the rifts was, and I plan to do this for Fjotreid and the Crafting Monkey.

From there, I guess it's just Dailies for the Sapiarch motif. Though I was anticipating the main quest, I don't think I'm going to get through it very quickly this time around. I made the small house in Alinor into the Squad's dormitory. There isn't much space for anything other than beds, and the townhouse probably won't be available until much later. But I guess it serves its purpose.

Hey Grits, that new hat Jerric has looks like an excellent fishing hat.

Edit: *Slaps, forehead* I mean the hat Darnand is wearing would make for a great Jerric fishing hat.

I was surprised to find pewter and platinum nodes today, even without having the chapter. I can't do anything with the material, of course. I was expecting it would behave like the other metal ores, and only be available when you could use it, but I suppose it's the 50% at playing level.

Darnand looks like he stepped out of Harry Potter in that hat and with that fancy staff!



If you can pick up the node, maybe you can sell them? I think people who farm those nodes are going to get very wealthy.

Yes, but it will be because the other material it displaced goes up in price. What it's meaning to us is that we're not getting as much ore. At least we're currently only running low on hides (and jute) which aren't affected by this.

I like that hat, too, but if I had it, I'd want to build a Rincewind character, and a Conina, just like in Skyrim. What's the META build for a hairdresser?

I'm doing exactly the same thing. One thing that I like is that with a self-replenishing supply of Pewter, you'll also build up Dust to refine later with all the extraction passives so you have a chance at the best temper grains. Only downside is that you'll only get the dust for traits through the writs and possibly deconstruction. (Also I love Darnand's witch outfit)



Yeah, they said those would be available to anyone, new traited rings and necklaces included iirc. Even if one can't use them, people without the Chapter can still profit from Jewelry Crafting in some way.

==

Anyways, one thing I really like about Summerset is that they kept the Delve design philosophy from Morrowind. The delves are a lot more complex and non-linear, and also borrow from Craglorn in that they seem to incorporate quests outside of the local one and the daily associated with it. I also love how some of them are basically part of the overland, like one that overlooks the southern canyon and another that is connected to what would otherwise be a useless but pretty pass. Lots of open air. I loved that about Craglorn's delves, too.

Some Morrowind spoilers, particularly the Balmora questline.

Hey, so, didja know there's 2 new Provisioning recipes? And that they're found through fishing in Artaeum? Yeah. I got the Purple one on my first fishing hole there. It increases the number of fish you can hook, but it needs several units of one of the new Alchemy Reagents. Yeesh.

Anyways, did some questing and I gotta say, I love the ones in the central plain. Haven't gotten past the part of the Main Quest I played through in the Beta, but then I'm waiting to get all the Sapiarch body pieces for Jo first.

(Potential spoilers for the very first quest in Summerset.)

Raz.

Raz, there is very little keeping Hates from kicking you in the crotch and I wouldn't blame her considering you used the word after she said some Argonians take issue with it.

Raz....

Raz, the mage you adventured with for two whole years is STANDING RIGHT THERE.

He's not making himself very popular to the Squad. (I do like how your character's race plays into some conversations, though.)

Lol, that Raz! Such a fun guy!

Raz is not known for his diplomacy. In fact, I recall some comment of his where he referred to short, round-eared and tailed folk . . .

And of course, that racy comment he made about the woman Dagger when you are on the quest to bring all the rulers together at the Isle of Stirk - even Queen Ayrenn has to tell him "Raz . . . inappropriate."

That makes me laugh every time I think of it . . .

Is it me or has this guy never shown up before?

I can't remember who he is. The UESP tells me he's added by Summerset. So...what the hell?????? This quest was hilarious.

IDK who it is, maybe it's like that Wrothgar Orc lady that says "Do you know how long I've been looking for you?!"

...but I've found some real creative and hilarious writing in some of these Summerset quests too! The Auger especially!

^He has followup dialogue where you can ask him what brought him there. He hints that he's from Wrothgar but tbh I can't for the life of me remember if he had a quest there or not.

==

Anyways, speaking of quests, one of them has a Sapiarch that studies foreign cultures asking for some items of some very specific races.

Gee, I wonder who fits that description...

If only it were that easy.

No spoilers, but I'm glad I made this Eolan and Jo'zira's Chapter.

Also I was right about the Golden Knight! I can't believe a crack theory I came up with years ago is true!

Listen, I absolutely fricking loved this questline and all the sidequests. Haven't found any hints to what's happening next, but there's still a lot to explore. Anyways, one last thing before I shut up about it for a while:


Golden Knight, to Eolan: Thanks, you're always straight with me!

Eolan, who crushed on him from the start: *sweats*