The Elder Scrolls Online: Bethesda discusses dungeons strategies, monster behaviour
The Elder Scrolls Online developer Bethesda has posted a guide to the MMO's many dungeons, as well as strategies for overcoming the many beasts that dwell within.
The post stresses that players will need three other friends to stand a fighting chance inside dungeons, thanks to the severity and volume of enemies they will encounter.
While the MMO has a open-ended approach to skills, the blog adds that you can forge specific character types using a make-up of abilities. The developer has suggested that a cocktail of DPS characters, tanks and healers is one sure-fire way to lengthen your life expectancy in dungeons.
The blog paints a typical scenario, "For example, let’s say your group’s healer goes down during a boss battle. In many games, it would be impossible to recover at this point. However, you were prepared for just such a situation! You swap your two-handed sword out right in the middle of combat for a restoration staff, which activates your second hotbar (where you’ve cleverly slotted some healing abilities). Now, you can keep the party going."
For characters with DPS leanings, the blog warns that they will be attacked by monsters, but adds that these characters are great at interrupting attacks, dodging and blocking. They are also adept at area-of-effect spells and attacks, but warns that this may incur unwanted attention from nearby fiends.
Healing characters are essential, as the post warns that health potions alone will not guarantee survival due to their long cool-down. Instead, they should rely on tanks distracting enemies away from them while they dish out healing from the sidelines.
On monster behaviour in dungeons, the post reads, "When we set out to design the behavior system for enemies in dungeons, we overwhelmingly felt that we needed something different than a traditional threat system where, by design, only one player (the tank) should be receiving direct attacks from an enemy.
"We also realized that we couldn’t throw everything associated with a traditional threat system out—not only because that’s what many players know and understand, but also because it complements our role system well."
As a result, monsters roam in packs, but when attacked they will alert other nearby packs of your presence and can quickly amass in great numbers. Check out the link above for some more details on how beasts react to players.
What do you make of The Elder Scrolls Online's dungeons so far? Let us know below.