I am currently playing. It is definitely improved since launch and my biggest gripes seem to all be gone now. Including that infinite loading bug it seems.
Something seems to be bringing me back to try this game out every now and then at least. And this current attempt is more fun than my previous tries.
I'll admit the dev team's ambitions do seem to have been scaled back a bit since the game went f2p there is still decent DLC and free added content being worked on (claiglorn being entirely reworked and the entirety of One tamriel being notable examples of free significant content). And the DLC that is there, is quite good. Thieves guild, and especially the dark brotherhood dlcs are more than just 'mission packs' and add more options and depth to the game. Next major free patch will apparently be including player housing, the houses were already placed on the map last patch, they just aren't accessible yet.
Crowns (premium currency) are a bit pricey for my taste. But sales happen often. Crowns themselves are something like half off at time of this writing. 5500 crowns is about $25US at the moment
*. Which is enough to buy anything on the store. Nothing from the crown store is really 'required' outside of arguably the dlcs and the incredibly convenient access anywhere craft bank you get from the ESO Plus sub.
Some people complain that you can buy a mount with crowns before you have the gold to buy one, but tbh 20k gold is not hard to get anymore like it was near launch. I made that in 15 levels on a new char. Admittedly I know what sells, but If I can get it in 15, a newbie can get it by 30 surely.
So at this point I'd say if you are an elder scrolls fan, it's worth a try. And if you like mmos with smaller skillbars to keep track of as well (like GW2) it's also worth a shot.
Also if you plan on getting DLC I would recommend thieves guild and dark brotherhood first, those add the most to the game. Including to vanilla areas outside their DLC zones. Followed by imperial city next, then the rest.
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http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/crownstore^ That is a link to the website version of the crown store for if you want to see how the cost of crowns compare to content. Everything in style parlor, mounts, pets, and costumes are entirely cosmetic.
Utility are your standard xp gain + style things
- Ignore respec scrolls. You can do that for ingame gold easily enough by the time yer high enough level to consiter a respec. At worst (max level) a respec will cost 10k gold. Significantly less at lower levels. That should be mostly chump change.
- The things under supplies are also similarly not worth it. None of that is hard to obtain with a decent provisioner or alchemist.
Crafting is mostly just things called 'motifs' which allow you to choose what your gear looks like. Pretty much all cosmetic, and a little passive searching will give you a good chunk of the pact covenant and dominion races fairly quickly in just normal dungeon delving. Mimic stones simply replace a (usually not hard to get) materiel cor crafting in certain cosmetic styles and are mostly pointless.
Upgrades are mostly DLC.
- Don't buy vampirism or werewolf. Players will give it to you free, (though it is nice to give a reasonable tip, as the player bite has a week long cooldown. I'm usually tipped between 500 and 1k for biting folks) and even without players vamps and werewolves in the higher end alliance zones will infect you when you fight them at night.
- You can buy bank space and bag space for gold. cheap. At least until the space is reasonable. Get expensive when it gets excessive.
- The assistants seem pointless, and overpriced. They just summon a banker or merchant near you anywhere. You are never far from either. I may consider it if they added portable crafting stations in there instead. Those are more often what you go back to town for.
- The adventurer pack lost much of it's charm with 1T. It's some cosmetic stuff with the ability to create characters that are not native to the alliance you choose. Since you can now go anywhere, much of the novelty is lost outside pvp.
- Imperial is like the adventurer pack, except it just gives you access to humans- er...an extra flavor of human.
- I have spent far too many crowns on riding lessons, one of the most useful things in the crown store in my opinion. Normally you will gain 1 point in a riding stat per day. each of those gives you 10 points in the particular stat.