ESOtivity: Orcs, Orsinium, Orsimer, and fakers

Okay, this post is one where different parts of different dates are cobbled to together. Despite the date, 100% of the stuff were done before I upped it. So yeah, it's a case of Frankensteiner doing stuff more than Frankenstein doing... well, stuff.

A better approach?

We all live in a fast-food mentality culture. And I'm not just referring to my own country. For quite some time, I've been toying with the serialisation approach. So what is the serialisation approach, you may ask. Basically, it's all about emulating Miura "ドラゴンころし太郎" Kentaro.

So long story short, I'm going to adopt the serialisation approach. Thankfully, playing video games does play a massive role in adjusting my focus so that people don't have to suffer just because I've suffered much for nearly 20 years. However, this merely means that not everyone has my level of mental fortitude. In fact, it's a miracle that I've developed the mental strength of Guts despite having the physical strength of Isidro.

Progress so far... (Warning: Outdated info! Please skip if you value your sanity)

Due to reasons related to gear, I decided to hold off finishing the Orsinium main storyline until this weekend where hopefully I can buy a medium Domihaus head armour from the Golden Vendor. If not, then any other Monsters set medium helm would do. After all, the Bretons do thrive on Magicka and Health more than Stamina. This is proof that I'm less sane both a human being and Singaporean. Right now, I've got one main and two alts. Because I have the tendency to function like Pep Guardiola and Roberto Martinez minus the Catalan ethnicity and genius, it means experimenting like Frankensteiner gunning for his PhD instead of the guy who created a monster.

I don't know whether using a Nord Nightblade is a good idea. Dude doesn't seem to move fast enough. A High Elf Templar is clearly a better character than a Breton using two knives instead of the same kind of stick she's using. I've already done a crazy thing no sane Singaporean would ever do. I'm not talking about breaking the law, but doing a Breton Sorcerer running with two knives, medium armour, and zero Daedra (i.e. Storm Atronach is not counted because my definition of Daedra pet is classified under permanent ones).

At the same time, I realised it's always good to maximised 3 gear sets bonus-wise until I get the correct weapon set together with Arms of Relequen, Domihaus (or Sellistrix), and Agility sets for the jewellery (Willpower instead of Agility if the Monster set happens to be Sellistrix). 4 sets if I can't get my ideal Monster set (i.e. 1 piece bonus each for shoulders and head). Right now, I've got heavy Domihaus pauldrons for the shoulders slot. The result was remarkably amazing. Survival value shot up like a rocket made in Israel. People like Sacha "The-Baron-Who-Trolls-Like-This" Baron Cohen would understand this is me playing the racial stereotype joke, but the actual spike in survivability is real. Currently, the jewellery slots are occupied by the Witch-Knight set. The bonus in weapon damage is clearly good, but very likely I'd be doing some replacements once my Breton Stormknife (yes, that's how I classify his build) is able to craft the Innate Axiom jewellery set. I believe I need the full set bonus more than a 3-piece Witch Knight bonus. Again, it's because I'm running an anti-establishment Breton instead of the typical Redguard. Won't be surprised if the other guy would be more efficient, though.

Either way, once I can get a full Mechanical Acuity running with a full Innate Axiom plus either two different Monsters set gear or a full 2-piece bonus, my anti-establishment Breton would be raring to continue his Orsinium journey now that he managed to save a chief called Bazrag gro-Fharun. I should be able to craft Innate Axiom rings and necklace by this weekend due to the XP scroll.

[Update 7/12/20: Thanks to the new gear sticker book system in the Markarth DLC, I was able to craft a Helm of the Trainee for 56 transmutation crystals and upped it to epic. And no, that cat sold shoulder slot gear last weekend instead. At the same time, I managed to craft a full 3-set Innate Axiom jewellery set all at blue rank. With that being said, an alternative to the Arms of Relequen approach would be full Mechanical Acuity with full Yandir's Might. That'd mean I have to forgo weapon set considering the correct full Monster set is definitely more important.]

[Update 13/12/20: Finished the entire Orsinium map apart from Old Orsinium and Maelstrom Arena. Kurog was right even without the help of his mother. King Bazrag made sure of that even beyond his death. Also, the cat sold a medium Sellistrix helmet to my Breton son-of-an-artillery for a reason. And that was two Undaunted Keys for two Gilirion coffers resulting in one of the drops being heavy Sellistrix pauldrons. I'm still keeping the Domihaus pauldrons though since a full Domihaus set may result in higher raw damage output even with a 15% weapon damage bonus upon stun coming from the Ruffian passive where the Sellistrix set bonus is concerned.]

[Update 3/1/21: Credit goes to a guildmate for waking me up. There's clearly no way a Breton can go stamina DPS, let alone wielding two knives. As a result, I have to go back doing the orthodox approach.]

Welcome home... wait, that came out wrong

There's something beautiful about Orsinium. To put it specifically, the beauty of Wrothgar has always been defined by the presence of Orsinium. This is not to say other cities and regions are less beautiful aesthetics wise. In fact, places like Auridon and Alinor are clearly the most beautiful cities, unsurprisingly all Altmer settlements.

Orsinium is clearly majestic. The devs did a thorough job in displaying the pride of Orsimer via how the vision of King Kurog panned out. The Orcs are a proud race in Tamriel, no matter how you look at them. While the influence of Tolkien does play a part, the Orsimer are not a race of mindless butchers out to slaughter everyone else who is not a part of the so-called us. This is a race much maligned as barbaric where in fact they're clearly not. Remember people calling you a barbarian not because you're a Christian but because you're an Ainu? It's actually the same thing. And it doesn't help to know that the Orsimer are as pro-ursine as the Ainu. This was also the reason why Emeric is an unpopular figure in certain parts of the High Rock. Not because he looks weirdly like a Breton Jew instead of a Korean Jew but because he's Emeric the Maverick. So how does a maverick do things?

1. By setting people off.

2. By setting the same bunch of people off by forging an alliance with the Orcs.

In fact, the Betnikh storyline actually culminated to a standoff between Khaleen and Lambur. It's not some kind of racial catfight but rather a poignant reminder of the history between the Orcs and pretty much the rest of Tamriel. Of course, you don't need to be an idealist to side with Lambur. You can be pragmatic by convincing yourself something powerful enough to protect Covenant lands from Daggerfall to Sentinel is clearly dangerous enough to destroy either half of the continent or at least one-third of it (Spoiler: The Ayleids did research magic nukes). At the same time, you'd realise the Orcs are not a race of, to quote the Major Montana Max from Hellsing, irredeemable monsters. Yes, they worship Malacath. But the Ayleids were worse and that's why Laloriaran Dynar rage-quitted his own people. Sadly, the Alessian Order chose to corrupt themselves in the name of the greater good. Seriously, werewolves and a possible Reachman called Faolchu? To quote a forum user: Oh my Stendarr.

[Note 1: Faolchu clearly doesn't sound Nord. Coupled with the fact that Faolchu is the Irish term for wolfhound and the likelihood of the Reachfolk strongly inspired by the Proto-Celtic culture compared to the Celto-Roman influences seen in the Bretons, it's actually possible this was the case.]

There's such a thing called honour. For the Orsimer, honour got nothing to do with morality. To use a terribly bad analogy, comparing the Breton code of honour with that of the Orsimer is like comparing Arthurian chivalry with Japanese bushido. The Orcs are a surprisingly honest race to be fair. Honour is honour, no falsehood or fake news. One of the greatest problems plaguing humanity is moralism. Now morality is good. To deify morality, however, results in hypocrisy and hubris. To put it in Varen Aquilarios' own words, Oblivion did not make him into a monster, it just confirmed his own worst fears about himself. And this guy was clearly one of the noblest characters in the game, a statement not easily given considering not even the living gods which were the Tribunal actually qualified as... well, morally upstanding. Vivec is humane enough, but Almalexia is clearly a dictator cursed with emotional security issues while Sotha-Sil is Mechanical Dystopia Incarnate.

[Note 2: I must point out morality is relevant. Without morality, people would just commit rape, arson, and murder plus looting without any fear of the law since there'd be no such thing.]

[Note 3: As further proof that morality remains relevant in an era of moral non-relevance, I'm going to show and tell what makes a dark fantasy character truly noble.

"Great Akatosh, Dragon God of Time, forgive me for my hubris. Grant your divine power to the Vestige and restore your protection to Tamriel, that my sacrifice might not be in vain."

-Most famous last words in the game aka Varen Aquilarios

As for the Orcs, there's only honesty in their honour. As for morality, that's for other races like the Bretons and Altmer. Not that every race is that pretentious considering we have kleptos like the Khajiit and Bosmer while the Redguards are surprisingly correct about honour since true honour needs no name. As for the Imperials, they're just Graeco-Romans.

Then we have Razum-dar and Divayth Fyr. One is a Tony Stark, the other is... well, insufferable.

[Spoiler: I clicked yes in the final Sotha-Sil dialogue because I was able to perceive the nature of things after the events dealing with Gascone's betrayal and The Astronomer's Apprentice sidequest. Doing the Everwound Spring sidequest merely affirmed what I saw since I finished the storyline quest first. The Tribunal are effectively a case of Shakespearean tragedy where the perpetrators being victims of their actions and duplicity is mirrored by plays like Macbeth and Hamlet.]

[Note 4: Seriously though, who was the one who thought a Yamato name like Gaiden Shinji was a good idea for a Redguard since the name isn't even Akaviri?]

Or was that supposed to be Hayabusa Ryu tribute?

#NinjaGaidenTamriel

The Tower of Ravenwatch

I'm going to be brutally honest with you: If you're a man and you need Verandis Ravenwatch to be a role model, it means something is clearly wrong somewhere instead of just somehow or somewhat. Unlike Cuties, ESO is rated M and hence not for kids, tweens, and immature teens. There's nothing to be learnt by playing this game apart from exercising the right of creativity in the correct manner (something which educators and more importantly parents/guardians need to do since human beings can be terribly sadistic under the wrong conditions). Granted female NPCs tend to dress like conservatives than liberals (albeit not all of them due to the Dunmer), but that's not a license for your kid to play a game involving damned-either-way moral choices, thievery, and psychopathy. But if you're mature enough to understand the term Seigi no Mikata beyond the translation, kanji, and hiragana, it means you're mature enough to play this game (i.e. being morally mature instead of merely educationally mature). The same goes if you're mature enough to differentiate between voyeurism and playing Metal Gear. Or your Kopi-O and the GTA hot coffee.

I've yet to go through the entirety of all three Alliance storylines, but I did complete the Daggerfall Covenant side of the story. Playing Cadwell's Almanac can be very time-consuming. Better not to play it unless either you have nothing better to do in solo content or you happened to run only a single toon. Meridia clearly enjoys trolling people like an alternative Sheogorath. Don't believe me, just ask Darien. One thing which blew me away was how well-crafted the plot is. If there's one thing I've learnt in playing MMOs, it'd be storytelling being possibly a greater challenge than in the single-player genre. It's all about content and effective storytelling involving the restraint of real-life chronological order. In single-player games like the Witcher 3, Final Fantasy VII, and The Last Story (the last one NOT being Sakaguchi "ownself fire ownself to boss ownself" Hironobu's last story), the real-time limitation is 100% doable. For MMOs, it's a case of being inspired by Daggerfall.

As a result, there's no point beating yourself over the head due to issues beyond control. Life is already hard enough because of the sins and mistakes of our own doing, just that not everyone knows this half well as one should. My advice would be adopting a piecemeal mindset where appreciation is more about enjoying the dialogue and story as the individual quest unfolds. If you want to play it by sequence, it's 100% okay. Just don't dig a hole for yourself if you end up finishing the Planemeld storyline before completing either the Glenumbra or Rivenspire storyline. Pretty sure the only pity was Skordo the Knife gone MIA.

Speaking of Rivenspire, I have to say the best storytelling of the Daggerfall Covenant storyline would be this. Just a statement of warning here: The Rivenspire storyline can be depressing half of the time with Crestshade questline being the archetypical Rivenspire story. At the same time, it's recommended that you start doing the sidequest Under Siege only after you meet Verandis Ravenwatch at Ravenwatch Castle. The reason why being the difference between necessary cruelty and merciful wisdom lies in a prior understanding of the situation. I'm not saying accountability isn't important because I've seen this problem in both myself and those who enjoyed persecuting me during my schooling years (talk about Nietzsche's most controversial quote even by today's standard). I'm just saying it's better to know more before making your call since not every irreversible decision would give you some sort of moral luxury. Summerset, anyone?

One striking aspect of the Rivenspire story was how much influence Dungeons And Dragons had on it. By that, I mean the Ravenloft campaign. I still remember playing the Ravenloft mod in Neverwinter and that's possibly the best mod I've played in the game. Not that it's saying that much considering there were other well-done modules like Underdark and The Cloaked Ascendancy. However, I still do feel the lore journal entry did massive injustice to the character of Strahd von Zarovich. In the entry, Strahd was portrayed as a petty villain with the false grandeur of a tragic hero. Yes, Strahd was the villain. But he's also a tragic villain whose status as an evil character was caused by a greater evil. Namely, the Dark Powers governing the entire realm of Barovia and beyond. His actions did play a major role, but would things have turned out differently in other realms like say Faerûn? If characters like Elaith Craulnober and Artemis Entreri could be given a decent shot at redemption just because they happened to be born in the right world, that tells us plenty about how much damage a terribly wrong world can do. And to think a proven despot is already bad enough.

It felt weird then to see a fellow player in the MMO industry doing what Cryptic should have done in the first place (just don't ask me why this mistake was made in the first place because I don't know). Of course, ESO does have its own problems yet to be fixed. Most notably a weirdly buggy dungeon queue system when it comes to the auto-matchmake. Getting into an instance can take anywhere from less than 5 minutes to... more than half an hour? Considering the fact this game got a whopping 16 million active player population (and that's not to mention having a localised Japanese version unlike many other non-Japanese MMOs), you can't be blamed wondering what's going on. Less than 5 minutes is perfectly natural. But more than half an hour? Well, at least they fixed the infamous Garron crash in Wayrest Sewers II.

There are two characters possibly influenced by Ravenloft: Verandis Ravenwatch and Wylon Montclair. If Verandis is to be the vampire version of Sergei, then Wylon would be Strahd in ways more than one. One interesting question surrounding Wylon's ambition to outdo Ranser is this: Ambition and revenge, which one comes first?

If it's the former, why did it take a series of tragic events to make Wylon plot his moves? But if it's the latter, why did Wylon mention the history between his clan and Ranser in one of the journal entries found in Rivenspire? Of course, it could be counterargued the journal entry was written after something made by the Ayleids messed things up beyond cure (Moral of the story: Don't ever let the Ayleids run your nation. They'll ruin it). Theoretically, it's possible. But that didn't explain the relationship between one thing and the other. That's the major pity I found in an otherwise masterfully-crafted storyline.

Verandis, on the other hand, was clearly no saint. Why I said that is because people tend to associate heroes with selflessness and altruism. Was Verandis a hero? Yes because he's the one who resolved the civil war in Rivenspire. No one could have done what Verandis did. Not because of any lack in courage but because only Verandis was in the condition to pull it off. It's an irony to see a servant of Molag Bal doing something his boss would disapprove of. That's actually a mild way of saying someone did a reverse-Mannimarco. But it must be pointed out that Verandis' actions in Rivenspire were the result of seeking redemption more than anything else. Effectively, I'd call this the selfish heroism trope. In fact, his positive role in the world of Tamriel seems to stem from the failure to prevent tragedies. First, Wylon. Then Rada al-Saran. Seriously, I don't know who's next. Actually, I've yet to start the Reach storyline. Please, I've yet to start Western Skyrim for Thu'umming out loud.

The Relevance of Rage and Guile

Clearly, this would be the perfect title for a work of socio-political commentary sans the intellectual dishonesty. Thankfully, I can't talk like an activist, politician, or lawyer (let alone an intellectual). Hence, I might as well talk about Hunding's Rage and Assassin's Guile.

So which one should you vote for? Hunding's Rage or Mechanical Acuity? The consensus is that Hunding's Rage is generally BiS along with Law of Julianos as its Magicka DPS counterpart even though only 6 traits researched are needed instead of 8 or 9. I've tested both and it's true that Hunding's Rage commands more raw DPS. This comes to mind how relevant is Mechanical Acuity. After all, it's clear that this set doesn't have good damage beyond 5 seconds of auto-crit. I'd say stand-and-nuke for Magicka DPS is an option with the only issue being... well, what to do with the stamina (i.e. I guess it's a L2P issue involving Bound Aegis). In particular, Mages Guild abilities seem to command better raw damage than Sorcerer abilities. Seriously, Degeneration and Might of the Guild with Crystal Fragments as the final cast? Not even Kim Jong-Un could imagine a nuke like that. Wait, that clearly came out wrong.

If you're running for a hybrid DPS (i.e. you enjoy showing off by proving it's possible to use spells and weapons at the same time), it'd be interesting to note that Hunding's Rage doesn't give you extra Magicka (that'd be the territory of sets like Daedric Trickery and Shacklebreaker). However, DPS is both a game of racking up the damage and making sure you don't run out of gas. At the same time, MA is more about damage sustainability since you can't expect 5 seconds' worth of auto-crit to do the job in lieu of actual skill. This makes it a decent to good foil for Innate Axiom (a surprisingly good set for hybrid DPS builds since it only requires 2 researched traits to craft). This is something for you to think about unless you prefer going orthodox. In this case, it's actually understandable since ESO is a game where the community is surprisingly mature (i.e. zone chat tends to be boring because no one is interested in doing a flat earth debate unlike the situation in Neverwinter Online). Being blunt and being juvenile are as different as being a straight-talking Nebraskan and a vulgarity-spewing social influencer.

Assassin's Guile is clearly for builds using weapons, magic, and potions. If you're a hybrid Nightblade (believe it or not, you can make a tank out of an assassin of Persian descent in this game and I ran with one during my first Ruins of Mazzatun normal run), this would be an interesting option. Even more so if one of your characters is a certified level 50 alchemist in ways more than one due to having more options than whatever you can buy from vendors. Even if you're not a fan of poisoning people, it merely means this set is solid enough on a 4 piece bonus due to high enough DPS value. If you want a budget hybrid DPS build, a full Innate Axiom with a 4-set Assassin's Guile can be an option. Since equipment slots total up to 12 (two-handed weapon/staff takes up 2 slots), it means you still have 3 more slots. Ashlander dailies are easy to do and each mission gives a random rare/epic jewellery (Warrior Poet for tanking/heavy armour healer builds, War Maiden for Magicka DPS builds, and Defiler for Stamina DPS builds). At the same time, dolmen runs do yield uncommon jewellery. In particular, Alik'r has an insane number of players doing dolmen runs. I suspect it has got something to do with the flat terrain since galloping from wayshrine to dolmen is something any player can do with both eyes closed, unlike other zone maps. Say for example Greenshade. There are times where I hate that.

Next up: How I did my Ahnuld plus an addon triple threat involving LUI Extended, Bandits, and Azurah. Also, credit to c_lout for waking me up. Intelligent or not, a donkey is never a horse.