History YMMV / TheElderScrollsOnline

** On the other, there are those who firmly believe that your character build ''does'' matter, since it will affect your performance rather substantially in the late game whether you're playing PvE or PvP content regardless of min-maxing, as certain races lack some of the more vital bonuses that will make it very hard for them to do as well as the ones playing a role that's appropriate for their character (e.g. a Breton Vestige with their innate Magicka and spell bonuses will severely underperform as a Stamina-based class, whereas an Orc player typically won't make for a very good Magicka Sorcerer due to their stronger Stamina lean).

** Due to the immense popularity of ''Skyrim'', an immense part of the playerbase found their homes in the Ebonheart Pact, leading to a massive power skew in that faction's favor in both Cyrodiil and the Imperial City. As it stands, the Pact is always extremely powerful compared to the Covenant or Dominion in PvP, both in terms of player strength and number, thus making it incredibly unfavorable to be on either of those sides at any time, leading to the inevitability of even more people joining the Pact to take advantage of its might to rise in Alliance War activities.

** The Wood Elves are the Bretons' diametric opposite, being so highly specialized in stamina damage-dealing that they aren't good at anything else. In fact, most of their racial passives seem to be geared towards solo or PvP play, since stealth detection is pointless in most group content, and poison resistance is cool but niche at best given the rarity of such damage type. While they have good stamina sustain, their peak damage potential was hit hard with the {{Nerf}} bat in Update 29, which removed dodge-rolling as a trigger requirement but also slashing the buff strength by half, in response to Bosmer players being ''too strong'' in PvP. Without any other bonuses to magicka and health, Bosmer players would basically be stuck doing sub-par damage as Stamina DPS and nothing else, while Bretons at least can tank to a degree and are amazing at healing.

** Zenimax and Bethesda were also blamed for changing Alinor, in the ''Summerset'' expansion to a generic MedievalEuropeanFantasy-like city when the in-game lore described it as being made out of glass and insect wings. Turns out, this is not the first time Alinor/Summerset appears in ''The Elder Scrolls'' and its portrayal is actually rather accurate to [[http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Alinor_(Arena) how it appeared]] in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena''. Also, even the [[http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Pocket_Guide_to_the_Empire,_1st_Edition/Aldmeri_Dominion book]] that included the "insect wings" description pointed out that that summary came from humans who were not even allowed into the city, and the very next sentence dismisses it as "fantastical" and contains another, more realistic description that includes a mention of the sun shining on stone towers.

* MemeticBadass: The Ascendant Lord from the High Isle trailer gained this reputation from both Elder Scrolls community and RPG fans in general for being a badass {{BFS}} wielding knight who easily trounces not one, not two, but three trailer characters working together against him. He uses nothing but raw strength and real-life greatsword techniques to overpower the Nord, Altmer Swordknight, and Breton Ranger, and he only loses by perfect coordination between the three, and an entire stone column dropped against him. And he ''survives'' in the end of the trailer!

** In Endless Archive, anything that leaves a [=DoT=] starts becoming aggravating to deal with on later Arcs, as their damage starts ramping up to ridiculous levels. One is manageable, but two or more become a near guaranteed death sentence without a purge ability.

*** While it's relatively minor, there's no option to reroll Verse or Vision choices. Good for averting ComplacentPlayerSyndrome, bad when your choices end up all being out-and-out useless for your build.

** Quite a few bosses were translated well into Endless Archive. Others... not so much.

* WTHCastingAgency: Creator/KateBeckinsale's performance as Queen Ayrenn was heavily criticized mostly for having a deadpan monotone that barely changes from scene to scene. Most notably, in the scene where Ayrenn learns about an extremist faction plotting to kill and overthrow her, Beckinsale read Ayrenn's lines with a bored inflection.

*** The most infamous example is Zhaj'hassa the Forgotten, originally from Maw of Lorkhaj. His curse mechanic works as expected, but with only two players in the mix, he ends up guaranteeing both players have to run to the edge of the platform to purge it. The real kicker, however, is his Void Explosion mechanic. For whatever reason, the transistion to Endless Archive made this part of his fight a real crapshoot. Either the pillars don't show up and the players wipe, the pillars ''do'' show up, but don't protect the players for some reason, or a player ends up not behind a pillar, and somehow survives. It's telling that the best advice you might get for running into him is running a build that can nuke him before he starts Void Explosion.

** In an example specific to this game, Ice staves had it rough for the longest time. They lacked the sheer damage that Inferno and Lightning staves had, and things only seemed to get worse when they were turned into a tanking weapon, with the taunt being attached to heavy attacks, making it clunky to execute and causing unaware people to become TheLoad through accidental overtaunting. Things started to look up with Markarth, which gave Ice staves a unique debuff; Minor Brittle, which makes enemies take even more damage from critical hits. The Gates of Oblivion year gave them more goodies, with the Frostbite set in Blackwood, which increases frost damage on top of increasing damage against enemies who are Chilled or have Minor Brittle, and the rework to Elemental Touch, which gives a guaranteed Chill/Brittle on enemies hit, immensely buffed upfront damage for base and the Reach morph, and the Clench morph being made the taunt. One final good thing given, with Firesong, was the Warden's Piercing Cold passive giving a general damage bonus, turned up when one is wielding an Ice staff. While Ice staff DPS aren't making Trial leaderboards, Ice staves have become a mainstay in Dungeon and Trial groups, all because of Minor Brittle.

** Jewelry Crafting, a heavily anticipated feature, was finally added in ''Summerset'', can be tedious to master.
*** First and foremost, to even ''interact'' with Jewelry Crafting stations, you ''need'' to have purchased ''Summerset''. Without it, Jewelry seams still appear and can be mined, but the dust will sit in your inventory unless you can get someone who has ''Summerset'' to buy it from you.
*** Every item involved in Jewelry Crafting has to be refined from dust/grains/pulverized minerals. Adding on to ''that'', plating grains have the same drop rate as other tempers, and deconstructing jewelry only has a chance to drop a single grain.

** If a boss takes the form of a Wraith-of-Crows, chances are, it's packing Carrion Swarm. It starts out strong, but avoidable, albeit forcing one out of melee range. After a time, however, the swarm starts firing exploding crows that deal a frightening amount of damage and require one to be on the move constantly. While this attack is manageable with the Wraith-of-Crows trio in Clockwork City or the Crowborne Horror, it can be a constant killer in Harrowstorms, where there are plenty of enemies with the ability to stun or stagger.
** Several bosses have some variation of an attack where they pin a given player down and start rapidly draining their health. While the immediate reaction of the trapped person would probably be to break free, these attacks don't allow that, leaving them hoping that another player will interrupt the boss. This makes these bosses tedious, at best, to fight alone, having another player around isn't a guarantee of help, as they might not know the mechanic and continue fighting the boss as if nothing were wrong. And while companions can bash enemies, they conveniently seem to forget how to do so when fighting a boss with this kind of attack.