The Gold Road Chapter – which includes the Scribing system – and Update 42 is now available to test on the PTS! You can read the latest patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/656454/
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• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – April 16, 8:00AM EDT (12:00 UTC) - 6:00PM EDT (22:00 UTC)
The New Character "What Skill to Take" Guide
Hawke
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I have seen a lot of tips out there.. but I am going to go one further here.
When you first log into a MMO, no one really knows what is going to be good and what is gonna be garbage. The people in beta have an idea, but once launch happens and the patching begins, we just don't really know.
And when you throw in that we are limited to about 300 skill points (sounds like a lot right? Wrong) then we need to figure out what we want to do. Just class skills alone you will need something like 20 skill points per skill line. So 60 points for class skills.
Some players have elaborate plans, while others just wing it.
This short and simple guide will throw some tips out there on how to decide for yourself what you should do or go when starting out with that. Some may find it insightful or useless, but if it helps just one person! Then my work here is complete.
First question. I am XYZ Class, what armor should I use?
This will be a two part answer...
First is, get the class stuff out of your head. Classes only add the flavor of combat tactics to TESO. You dont hit harder because you are a Dragonknight or regen magicka faster because you are a sorcerer, no. The class skills mostly all do the basic of things... damage and crowd control, which dragonknight and Templar have tanking and healing skills respectively.
And remember, you can only have 5 active abilities and 1 Ultimate and 1 usable item. So 7 buttons other than your left/right mouse buttons to worry about in the game.
Chances are you might have 1 or 2 class skills in your hotbar at any given time. So classes are not of huge importance.
Second, your role will matter more than anything else with what armor you will wear.
If you are tanking, you wear heavy, if you need stamina and/or stealthing, you need medium, and if you are using class skills like a beast, light armor. I am not gonna get into the 5/2 split, as there are other guides out there.
So the answer to everything? Wear them all! If you have a piece of armor on, you get xp for it from exploration, combat and quests. So if you have 1 light, 1 medium and 1 heavy armor , you will get xp for all three armor lines.
Why is this important? Each skill requires a certain level and each skill has independant levels from xp you earn. If you have light, medium and heavy armor at level 40 each.. that gives you a LOT of flexibility, because if you were to respec, you still have those levels and you dont have to worry about leveling those skills up.
This all goes into our next question...
What weapon do I use?
Like the armor the more you use the weapon, the more xp you get, which means you have access to more "powerful" skills and passives for that weapon.
But what you might not know is, if you have a skill from a weapon on your hotbar, you gain XP for that weapon, even if you have another weapon equipped.
Yes.
I know your mind is blown, but let me continue.
What skill should I learn?
The VERY first thing you should do while in ColdHarbor and you get your first skill point is your class skills. You must do this and you must choose one class skill from each line.
Why? Because you earn XP for that skill line if you have the skill on your hotbar. This is important because it allows for you to choose the more powerful skills in the future. It does not matter if you don't use two of your skills, just keep on the hotbar. You will thank me later for it.
You can gain experience for a weapon or skill that you don't want to level with by equipping it or putting it on the hotbar right before you turn in a quest.
Hawke, What is the point of this?
New games get "nerfs" to skills, weapons, powers all the time. If you focus just on cloth armor, you later say "I want to wear plate mail" you are pretty much screwed until you level up heavy armor skill to get the right passives and/or ultimate for that skill line.
The same holds true for weapons and skills. You should be leveling them up for nothing else than the ability to respec into using them in the future.
It isn't true futureproofing, but it might save your sanity.
So if you enjoyed this or not, please be sure to give me a thumbs up, agree, insightful or just laugh your butt off.
Thank you for your time in reading all of this! Bump it or not.
See you in Tamriel!
***Edited added the ability to put the skill in the hotbar before quest turn in for xp
Edited by Hawke on April 1, 2014 3:52PM When you first log into a MMO, no one really knows what is going to be good and what is gonna be garbage. The people in beta have an idea, but once launch happens and the patching begins, we just don't really know.
And when you throw in that we are limited to about 300 skill points (sounds like a lot right? Wrong) then we need to figure out what we want to do. Just class skills alone you will need something like 20 skill points per skill line. So 60 points for class skills.
Some players have elaborate plans, while others just wing it.
This short and simple guide will throw some tips out there on how to decide for yourself what you should do or go when starting out with that. Some may find it insightful or useless, but if it helps just one person! Then my work here is complete.
First question. I am XYZ Class, what armor should I use?
This will be a two part answer...
First is, get the class stuff out of your head. Classes only add the flavor of combat tactics to TESO. You dont hit harder because you are a Dragonknight or regen magicka faster because you are a sorcerer, no. The class skills mostly all do the basic of things... damage and crowd control, which dragonknight and Templar have tanking and healing skills respectively.
And remember, you can only have 5 active abilities and 1 Ultimate and 1 usable item. So 7 buttons other than your left/right mouse buttons to worry about in the game.
Chances are you might have 1 or 2 class skills in your hotbar at any given time. So classes are not of huge importance.
Second, your role will matter more than anything else with what armor you will wear.
If you are tanking, you wear heavy, if you need stamina and/or stealthing, you need medium, and if you are using class skills like a beast, light armor. I am not gonna get into the 5/2 split, as there are other guides out there.
So the answer to everything? Wear them all! If you have a piece of armor on, you get xp for it from exploration, combat and quests. So if you have 1 light, 1 medium and 1 heavy armor , you will get xp for all three armor lines.
Why is this important? Each skill requires a certain level and each skill has independant levels from xp you earn. If you have light, medium and heavy armor at level 40 each.. that gives you a LOT of flexibility, because if you were to respec, you still have those levels and you dont have to worry about leveling those skills up.
This all goes into our next question...
What weapon do I use?
Like the armor the more you use the weapon, the more xp you get, which means you have access to more "powerful" skills and passives for that weapon.
But what you might not know is, if you have a skill from a weapon on your hotbar, you gain XP for that weapon, even if you have another weapon equipped.
Yes.
I know your mind is blown, but let me continue.
What skill should I learn?
The VERY first thing you should do while in ColdHarbor and you get your first skill point is your class skills. You must do this and you must choose one class skill from each line.
Why? Because you earn XP for that skill line if you have the skill on your hotbar. This is important because it allows for you to choose the more powerful skills in the future. It does not matter if you don't use two of your skills, just keep on the hotbar. You will thank me later for it.
You can gain experience for a weapon or skill that you don't want to level with by equipping it or putting it on the hotbar right before you turn in a quest.
Hawke, What is the point of this?
New games get "nerfs" to skills, weapons, powers all the time. If you focus just on cloth armor, you later say "I want to wear plate mail" you are pretty much screwed until you level up heavy armor skill to get the right passives and/or ultimate for that skill line.
The same holds true for weapons and skills. You should be leveling them up for nothing else than the ability to respec into using them in the future.
It isn't true futureproofing, but it might save your sanity.
So if you enjoyed this or not, please be sure to give me a thumbs up, agree, insightful or just laugh your butt off.
Thank you for your time in reading all of this! Bump it or not.
See you in Tamriel!
***Edited added the ability to put the skill in the hotbar before quest turn in for xp
108
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lupusrex✭✭✭This is good advice. It would suck to reach a high level and realize you need a skill from a tree you haven't even opened yet.
If you feel like adding to it, you might put in that you can gain experience for a weapon or skill that you don't want to level with by equipping it or putting it on the hotbar right before you turn in a quest.Martial Keen-Eye ~ Templar Healer/Archer ~ Daggerfall Covenant
"I ain't done nothin'."3 -
Hawke✭✭✭✭Awwww 300+ views and only a couple of "ratings" you can at least LOL this if you dont like it :P2
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You figuratively just blew my mind
One issue... the practice of wearing all three armor types benefits leveling but diminishes the magnitude of perks received from focusing on one armor type, i.e. bonus to regeneration, spell defense, etc.. What would be the best way to counteract this?Edited by faluciousub17_ESO on April 1, 2014 8:32PMOur sugar is yours, friend.0 -
Hawke✭✭✭✭Well glad you asked!
When you first start out, you won't need to put any points into the armor, which are the abilities to which you are referring to. By the time to buckle down and decide to spend skill points on your armor, then, you can figure out which will be your primary armor...
Then you just wear 5 peices of your primary and 1 and 1 of the other armor, to keep up with the xp gains.2 -
Hawke✭✭✭✭Thank you for the praise. It isn't huge or anything ,but it should get those who do not know what they want to do in the game, enough wiggle room without spending too many skill points until they figure things out a bit.0
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Deluged✭✭Good tips, every little bit helps at this stage. Thank you.Truth? It's a person..
Truth? It will set you free.
Truth? only trumped by Love.1 -
TavishSoul ShrivenI can see that this game is so unlike "that other popular MMO".
I really like the ability to mix/match our gear and skills and still benefit from the hodgepodge. Though some skills bonuses might suffer slightly I think the benefits outweigh any self-nerfing one might see.
Keeping the sweet rolls safe since 22 Nov 2013.1 -
BolideTV✭Great post! I had no idea I could just put a bow skill on my hotbar while using two daggers and get xp for it.1
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Neudayr✭Awesome guide, was a little lost with what to focus on in the beginning your guide cleared up pretty much all of my questions and what-to-do's. Thank you1
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oMrREDoSoul ShrivenGood stuff Hawke. I found the hotbar thing accidentally and I wasn't sure if it was a glitch or not. Glad to hear it is an actual strategy for leveling. Makes perfect sense, really.
Keep the tips coming!!1
