Veteran Rank Leveling

As some of you know, I've been super nerdy and seeing how the leveling is really working out and throwing a good amount of feed back at Zenimax of what I am seeing.  Now to encourage you to help out with how this is going please read the latest I got back from a GM:

My name is Gamemaster Amaryllis with The Elder Scrolls Online Team. Well, you've certainly put your time in, haven't you? Haha! This is all fantastic information!

Please do keep submitting those feedback tickets. Our goal was to speed up the leveling process through Veteran levels, so your research is much appreciated! If the Development team receives enough reports about this to warrant an investigation, they will certainly do so, so get your friends who share your opinion to submit them as well!

 As you mentioned, with the Champion System coming out in the future, we want all of this stuff to be nailed down and solid. Your assistance is very much appreciated!

 Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns!

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So they actually want the leveling faster and I've explained with testing two maps - Rivenspire and Alik'r Desert - that I am falling behind in levels for the next zone.  Basically the average a complete map clear (everything done in a zone other than the 4 man dungeon) used to net 120% of a level so you were getting a head all the time.  With the original 1.4ish million we were gaining about half a level.  With the new 1 million we are averaging closer to 77 to 78% of a level for a full map clear.  So any new vet walking into the area who skips the two starter islands and just does Glenumbra up through the Alik'r Desert can expect to be 3.1 to 3.2 at the end of the VR4 map.  I'm thinking based on a tidbit I got from a guildie that you might be closer to 3.5 or 3.6 if you throw in the starter islands.

So pretty much a map clear, and killing most mobs in your way, gains you roughly 770,000 xp.

Here is what I suggested:

To make the new xp system level you the same way as the VR system by map clear the xp to gain a rank should be 650,000 to 660,000.  If they want us to at least be sure to be on level par for the next map it shouldn't be more than 750,000.

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So any and all vets working through the VR1 - VR10 zones, I want you to make an effort to see how it is going, including watching your xp numbers, and definitely give them feedback (use /feedback in game - you can cut and paste from any word type document into the feedback box too).  I've had like 6 emails and some in game feedback going on with them since 1.5 has come out - all of it good.  They really want us to give them some solid information and some positive ways to move forward to be sure their transition to the champion system works well.

I did a ticket on it, too, hence my emails, but they definitely look into all the stuff we put in /bug and /feedback.  Help the devs by giving constructive feedback on whatever you think they should know to help the game.  Give good details and some constructive ideas.  They love it when they get feedback like that.

Good work, my baby VR3 just finished "A'Liker" map, no where close to appropriate level.  I'll be sending in feed back

Thanks Verve.  I've been talking to a lot of people in the game, in my guilds and of course, with Zenimax.  Even had some complete strangers I grouped with in Bangkorai yesterday discuss this and do feedback.

Sure we can grind or go do Cyrodiil dailies, why should we if before we didn't have to?  There are just as many people if not more in this game who don't even want to go into Cyrodiil because they want PvE and don't like PvP at all.  Sure there is PvE in Cyrodiil, but these people don't want to get ganked PvEing.

There is a lot of awesome stuff in this game and they are working on things.  Some of them will take a lot more work than others, but they really appreciate player feedback that is constructive and helps them see what we see.  I've had the best experience with this game on the side of customer support than in any other game, too.  Sure sometimes they can't do anything other than note it, but they RESPOND to everything.

nice work bri :) I myself had not had this problem, mostly do to the fact that I spend a lot of time I Cyro, specially now that we get more exp in there, I've mostly gained my last 3 lvls in Cyro alone....  but I do see how if ppl were to gain that 1 lvl per zone it would make the grain a lot easier.... nothing is more discouraging when you get everything done in a zone but are still somewhat low for the next

I think you're pretty spot-on with your data Bris. My EP main has cleared all areas including quests, exploration, dungeons, public group dungeons, dolmens, bosses and anything else you can possibly do in an area (as well as all 4-mans up to vet Lvl). Just going into Auridon I'm just into V6. At that speed I'll be maybe V11 when the alliances are done! Where do I get my last 3 levels from? Yes, Craglorn, Cyrodill etc, but I can tell you during Aussie prime time, these areas are pretty deserted.

I think the doing the starter areas seem to give you a good head start but by the time you get to the last area or 2 in an alliance you're behind again!

Will be interesting to see how it develops! 

1.5.6 patch going live today Mon Nov 24.

Interesting.  I got to vet 12 without doing more than one or two of the vet dungeons, and not more than a few minutes of Craglorn play total (I still need to do the first quests in Craglorn).  I did supplement my xp through some Cyrodiil playing, but it wasn't the focus of my time or xp.

Since the patch to allow for vet 14 players, I mostly played in Cyrodiil and it didn't take long to hit vet 14.

I do work and have a family :) so I'm not playing all of the time.

I really should go back and do some Craglorn though.

I am glad I just saw this because I have given in game feedback, opened tickets and posted on their forums about this and haven't heard anything.  The leveling in Vet is really screwed up at this point.  I am glad they came to their senses and dropped the XP to 1 million, but it is still not fixed.  Of course they did say that we would have to adjust our leveling strategy but I didn't realize at the time that the adjustment would be to complete every single quest in each veteran zone, unlock every chest on the map and kill every single mob in the game.

I have leveled 2 characters to VR14, another to VR11 in AD and VR8 so I am pretty familiar with how leveling went prior to 1.5.  You could clear every dolmen, world bosses, all solo dungeons & the public dungeon, all skyshards and do the core Cadwell quests and be right at a full level sometimes needing to add in another handful of quests to but you over.  Like Bri said, if you did a full clear you were well over level.

The most frustrating thing to me is that they obviously screwed it up and have yet to fix it.  From the forums:

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

November 5
Hi everyone, we'd like to address the concerns with the change we recently made to experience points and gaining Veteran Levels. Update 5 introduced a new system where all Veteran Points were converted to use XP instead, as part of our phased rollout of the Champion System. The plan was for this to reduce the amount of time it would take to gain a Veteran Rank. However, we discovered an issue where you are not currently gaining as much XP as we intended. Fixing this issue is one of our top priorities. We are currently aiming to have this fixed in our next incremental patch, which will allow you to progress though Veteran Ranks at a faster rate than what you’re currently seeing in-game. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

"The experience that you receive at the conclusion of a particularly difficult quest can reach a limit, and thus gets capped off. While the cap is there intentionally, it was set to level 50 values rather than VR values. This is being adjusted."

• Fixed an issue where the game could crash when you first enter Cyrodiil.
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash in heavy combat situations specifically in Cyrodiil.