ESO: Harrowstorms
I managed to find a very good deal on the Digital Upgrade version of Greymoor for The Elder Scrolls Online, so I bought it. The key included a pre-order bonus as well as a few other “trinkets and baubles” which clinched the deal. I wasn’t planning on returning to ESO this month plus I still have a bee in my bonnet about playing through the game in narrative order. However, after speaking to friends about the new expansion, I was curious about the new Harrowstorm events that occur in the new zone of Western Skyrim. So I logged into the game and after the obligatory “let’s spend 30 minutes fixing broken addons”, headed over to Solitude and waited for the next Harrowstorm to appear. As ever, Zone Chat is invaluable for determining what is happening and where, so it wasn’t long before I was riding headlong towards the Black Morass Ritual Site ready for my first Harrowstorm.
According to the official blurb, “Harrowstorms are giant supernatural confluxes which plague Western Skyrim. Much like Dark Anchors, Abyssal Geysers and Dragonscours, Harrowstorms function as group events, where a number of players must work together to shut the Harrowstorm ritual down. You must destroy the three Witch Pikes in the midst of the storm, which are drawing in Lost Souls”. And that is pretty much it. Harrowstorms are very much a case of “same meat, different gravy”. That’s not to say that they aren’t fun but they don’t offer a radically different experience from Abyssal Geysers and Dragonscours. If there are sufficient players present, they can be dealt with quite efficiently, although you need to maintain a lot of situation awareness as the summoned enemies use a lot of AoE and DOT attacks. As ever with PVE events of this kind, the players break down into three groups. The foolhardy, the experienced and the cautious. I fall into the latter category, preferring to skirt around the perimeter firing my bow.
Harrowstorm appear at the following locations. I’ve included details of which is the nearest wayshrine, although like in Northern Elsweyr, ZeniMax hasn’t exactly gone out of it’s way to make it easy to traverse the zone and reach these events.
Black Morass Ritual Site - West-northwest of Morthal (Nearest wayshrine Solitude Docks).
Chilblain Peak Ritual Site - Southwest of Dragon Bridge (Nearest wayshrine Dragon Bridge).
Giant's Coast Ritual Site - Northwest coast of Western Skyrim (Nearest wayshrine Mor Khazgur).
Hailstone Valley Ritual Site - East of Morthal in eastern part of Western Skyrim (Nearest wayshrine Morthal).
Northern Watch Ritual Site - Northeast coast of Western Skyrim (Nearest wayshrine Kilkreath Temple).
Old Karth Ritual Site - East of Karthwatch (Nearest wayshrine Southern Watch).
Dwarf's Bane Ritual Site - Dusktown (Nearest wayshrine Dusktown).
Gloomforest Ritual Site - Lightless Hollow (Nearest wayshrine Lightless Hollow).
Miner's Lament Ritual Site - SouthEast Greymoor Cavern (Nearest wayshrine Dusktown).
Nightstone Ritual Site - Dark Moon Grotto (Nearest wayshrine Dark Moon Grotto).
So far I have not determined if Harrowstorms in Western Skyrim follow a particular rotation or whether they appear where the most players are located. Often you’ll find that the event is over by the time you reach it, due to the location of the nearest wayshrine and the nature of the surrounding terrain. So far, I’ve found waiting in the vicinity of the Hjaalmarch Great Lift allows you to get to the four nearest Ritual Sites (Black Morass, Hailstone Valley, Old Karth and Chilblain Peak). I haven’t yet found a similar solution for Blackreach. However, despite the somewhat over familiar nature of these events, they are still a great way to farm “fat loot” (and hence make a ton of in-game gold), complete dailies and achievements as well as get a quick fix of action.
