What Am I Missing Out On?

Horace-Wimp

(TL;DR: Nothing to see here. Move along.)

I have been "playing" ESO on PC NA now for almost a full year. I am a basic free player with access to ONLY the base game plus the free DLC from the Calendars in 2024 and I have never had ESO+. I still have a few zones left to do and I primarily just login each day to collect the Calendar, see if there are any Endeavors worth completing and run a random normal dungeon on my two toons to get CP. I've done a few of the Events but to be honest I do NOT see any point to most of them which is why I have skipped a few. I abhor PvP.

The first guild I was in ran me through two? vet dungeons and I died constantly. I have not attempted another vet since. I've tried a few IAs and had the same experience. Have not tried another. I did pledges for about a month but just like the Events I don't see the point of them and stopped.

I know that if I get ESO+ that will free up the overwhelming majority of my inventory and bank space by moving all of my crafting materials to that Crafting Bag. Plus I'll be able to stop selling and deleting most of the trash I get. And I know if I buy the Gold Road Package it will grant access to more of the game than I currently have. But ESO is NOT a very user friendly MMO. There is SO MUCH that is NOT readily apparent and most of what I have learned of the game has been from other players telling me about it and explaining things to me. Most of what I haven't been able to figure out for myself I have just given up on and is why I haven't spent any money on the game past buying the basic game.

I am still left with questions like:

What exactly do I NOT get with ESO+ and NEED to spend additional money to add to my copy of the game?

There is a TON of gear that drops that is part of a set. I sell ALL of it. Is there anything worth collecting and upgrading, like a Best In Slot set for each class? My main is a sorcerer. My alt is a dragonknight, which I thoroughly despise.

Because I thoroughly despise my dragonknight, is there a way I can convert it into another class without losing any of it's progress? I have NO interest in starting another toon.

Is there a way to block other players so I NEVER get grouped with them again? Other MMOs have a simple system where if you put someone on your Ignore List you are NEVER put into a group with them again unless it is done manually by another player. Does ESO have a system that achieves this same goal? I HATE being a group (Daily Random Dungeon) where one player just rushes ahead skipping trash and bosses just to get to the final boss so they can solo it and leave. You're part of a group. Act like it. THIS is a MAJOR reason I am unmotivated to spend money on ESO.

Playing as I do (above) am I likely to accidentally "get good" at ESO anytime soon, say within 4-6 months?

What are the raids in ESO? And is loot from raids locked to a weekly instance ID or is it locked to a weekly boss ID? Some MMOs lock loot to a specific instance ID for an entire week, meaning that ANYONE with the same instance ID can clear the raid without you and prevent you from getting ANY of the loot you missed during that week's run. Boss locking means you get one shot at the loot that particular boss drops that week but you can always try again with the remaining bosses for a raid until the instance resets the following week. I may never do a raid in ESO but I would still like to know which system ESO uses.

Is there a way to move my toon with just the keyboard? I REALLY do not like NEEDING to use both my keyboard and mouse to get around.

Is there a way to target lock an enemy (tab target) so that even when they move around I can still hit them?

Is there a global chat channel where I can see and chat with everyone regardless of what zone I and they are in?

Is there a way to include the zone name in the chat log so when I change zones I know if a new message I see in chat is from the zone I just left or the one I just entered?

Is there a method to set up time stamps for chat so I know how old the chat is I am reading? I oftentimes miss chat as it is posted and when I finally notice it I have no idea how long it's been there nor what zone it came from. Is it still fresh and I can respond to it or has enough time passed that it would be pointless?

What zone do the majority of players play/AFK/stay in? Other MMOs have at least one "endgame" zone that all the vet players call home and that new players aim for. What zone is that in ESO?

For nearly six months now I have tried to quest in Craglorn but every time I do no one is willing to help me WHEN I have the time to try (I cannot solo any of the world bosses and struggle with most of the other trash.) Why is this? What is wrong with Craglorn that it is impossible to get help to do the quests there? I have seen many players solo everything they do in Craglorn. The ones that stand still long enough for me to mouseover have 2000+ CP. I get that they know their toon and are LEET. What hope is there for a scrub like me?

How do I inspect other players' toons to see what gear they have equipped so I can know what to aspire to in my play? I am currently all decked out in purple gear except for my weapon which is yellow. I have no issue with working toward better gear and earning it. But I have to know what I am aiming at.

And this question is specific to this Forum: How I resize the text to make it bigger and easier to see and read??? Other game Forums have an option to make text larger but try as I have I cannot find that option for this Forum. Is it a design choice to discourage players from bothering to engage in discourse?

I have many other questions related to ESO but I don't want to turn this post into a massive wall of text so I'll stop with just these few.

Thank you for giving this post a read.

colossalvoids

With ESO plus you do not get the last expansion, the biggest release of the year - it becomes available to ESO plus only the next year the next one drops, that's always the beginning of a summer time.

Best in slot gear does change from patch to patch, so the best you can do is research some websites with best builds to get a rough idea of what's generally looked at. With "sticker book" we have now anything you're getting and destroying/selling you'd be able to deconstruct later so it's not that big of a deal to ignore it for now.

Class change doesn't exist and after the years of asking for one we've been denied it all the time. That's too much of a job for the Devs apparently.

Ignore just makes sure they can't /whisper you and has no affect on dungeon or PvP experience. So you would get those people anyways in random dungeons, there's not enough players anyway to be grouped with if you would block every speed runner there who ran it a thousand and one time already.

"Get good" is extremely relative and depends on myriads of factors ingame and irl ones. I'd recommend not rushing ahead if you're still struggling with basics, better go slowly but surely than rush ahead, crash and hate the experience. But you can luckily out finding "your" people that way or sudden fast growth that way also by exposure, but that requires some effort and certain mental stability.

Raids in ESO are static, it drops the same stuff it was released with and you could do those as many times as you desire on any difficulty you're capable of, same for any other content. Loot is yours, no player hand distribution between group but you have an ability to trade in inside the group within 2h mark.

You probably need some form of mouse anyway, but there might be an option to have those axises to be bound to some other buttons, I'm not sure but it would make sense. Also controller is always an option.

Tab target is there and probably a tab by default but it's not guarantees you anything but a highlight for the model you've picked with it, it's more of an action combat skills your "cursor" should be on an enemy's "hitbox" for it to fire at them.

There's zone chat (zone you're in currently), guild chat, whisper (a particular player) and local (close proximity inside zone). So you're always default chatting in zone or close proximity and the moment you leave the zone you'd have a new zone chat, immediately. The only way to remain a connection to previous zone is to port back or whisper the particular player from that zone you wanted to.

Raiding afk zone is Craglorn mostly still, that's the "hardest" zone in game. Every other zone is exactly the same, just different visually. So each zone has it's capital where majority of people gather at crafting hubs you'll see on a map or near guild traders. Best crafting zones are some base game main zones (Mournhold city in Deshaan for example) Vvardenfell which is also a base game now, Summerset Isle and probably new one in Skingrad, West Weald zone as people still quest there and that's closest "packed" one.

In Craglorn people are mostly for the pick up raids, not for the zone itself which is kind of the first big addition to the game so most players are long done with it. At some point in your progression it would become doable, then trivial so you might try it but later yourself or socialise with guilds instead of random people in zone. Other benefits like trading or people helping out with anything you want might come also.

The only way of inspection is asking the player. Their looks tells nothing actually as people mostly use outfits and costumes to hide the gear they're wearing. Idk about others but I have no issues telling stuff I'm wearing when approached.

Good luck on your journey!

Danikat

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

What exactly do I NOT get with ESO+ and NEED to spend additional money to add to my copy of the game?

You do not get access to the latest chapter (currently Gold Road) but other than that you'll be able to access all parts of the game world as long as your subscription is active.

There's a lot of stuff it won't give you, at least not directly. For example you won't get everything in the crown store, but you do get 1650 crowns per month. You don't get access to any new levels or CP or anything that will make your characters stronger. You don't automatically get new equipment but since you can get into DLC zones you can farm new item sets there. And so on.

Have a look at the list on this page, if something isn't mentioned there it means it's not included in ESO+: https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/store/product/eso_plus

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

There is a TON of gear that drops that is part of a set. I sell ALL of it. Is there anything worth collecting and upgrading, like a Best In Slot set for each class? My main is a sorcerer. My alt is a dragonknight, which I thoroughly despise.

Probably, but I couldn't tell you what that is. But one option is to deconstruct it at a crafting station instead of selling it, because that will add the set item to your collections, so you can reconstruct it later on if you ever want it (and if not it'll just be a note in a menu, not taking up any space).

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Because I thoroughly despise my dragonknight, is there a way I can convert it into another class without losing any of it's progress? I have NO interest in starting another toon.

No, that's not possible.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Is there a way to block other players so I NEVER get grouped with them again? Other MMOs have a simple system where if you put someone on your Ignore List you are NEVER put into a group with them again unless it is done manually by another player. Does ESO have a system that achieves this same goal? I HATE being a group (Daily Random Dungeon) where one player just rushes ahead skipping trash and bosses just to get to the final boss so they can solo it and leave. You're part of a group. Act like it. THIS is a MAJOR reason I am unmotivated to spend money on ESO.

I don't think it's possible to stop the dungeon queue dumping you into groups with people you've blocked, but I also don't think it's possible or practical to block everyone who will do that because the majority of people who do random dungeons seem to hate actually doing the dungeon, they just want to get in and out again as fast as possible so they will always rush it.

If you want to avoid that the best option is to use the new Group Finder to start your own group and specify you don't want to rush or skip things, or find a guild with like-minded people to do dungeons with.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

What are the raids in ESO? And is loot from raids locked to a weekly instance ID or is it locked to a weekly boss ID? Some MMOs lock loot to a specific instance ID for an entire week, meaning that ANYONE with the same instance ID can clear the raid without you and prevent you from getting ANY of the loot you missed during that week's run. Boss locking means you get one shot at the loot that particular boss drops that week but you can always try again with the remaining bosses for a raid until the instance resets the following week. I may never do a raid in ESO but I would still like to know which system ESO uses.

They're called trials.

As far as I know there's no way to be locked out of getting loot from a boss, but I've never done them so I don't know the specifics.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Is there a way to move my toon with just the keyboard? I REALLY do not like NEEDING to use both my keyboard and mouse to get around.

Is there a way to target lock an enemy (tab target) so that even when they move around I can still hit them?

I don't think there's a way to do it with just the keyboard, because I can't see any way to turn the camera using the keyboard, or a way to set it to stay behind the character so it turns when they do. (I've never looked for that though, so it's possible I've missed it.)

The opposite is possible though: if you turn on auto-run your character will run forwards and when you turn the camera they turn with it, so you can toggle it on and then just use the mouse to control both. (I have auto-run set to an extra button on my mouse so I can turn it on and off without using the keyboard.)

There's no tab targeting, you have to be aiming at an enemy to hit them.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Is there a global chat channel where I can see and chat with everyone regardless of what zone I and they are in?

No. I don't think it would work in this game because of the mega-servers, it would be everyone in your region, not just 1 server, and so likely too full of fast-moving spam for any actual conversations.

IMO the best solution is to find an active social guild to join. Guild chat is game-wide so you can carry on a conversation even if you move zones, but guilds are also small enough (and usually have rules against chat spam) so it's possible to have a conversation.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Is there a way to include the zone name in the chat log so when I change zones I know if a new message I see in chat is from the zone I just left or the one I just entered?

Is there a method to set up time stamps for chat so I know how old the chat is I am reading? I oftentimes miss chat as it is posted and when I finally notice it I have no idea how long it's been there nor what zone it came from. Is it still fresh and I can respond to it or has enough time passed that it would be pointless?

Check out pChat, I don't know if you can add zone names but you can definitely add time stamps and a bunch of other customisation.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

What zone do the majority of players play/AFK/stay in? Other MMOs have at least one "endgame" zone that all the vet players call home and that new players aim for. What zone is that in ESO?

I don't think there's one zone everyone stays in. People wanting to form trial groups tend to go to Craglorn but otherwise it's very spread out. The Alliance capitals (Mournhold, Eldenroot and Wayrest) and the starter cities (Ebonheart, Vulkhel Guard and Daggerfall) are often very busy, as are the main cities in DLC maps (Vivec City in Vvardenfell for example), but you'll find people everywhere.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

For nearly six months now I have tried to quest in Craglorn but every time I do no one is willing to help me WHEN I have the time to try (I cannot solo any of the world bosses and struggle with most of the other trash.) Why is this? What is wrong with Craglorn that it is impossible to get help to do the quests there? I have seen many players solo everything they do in Craglorn. The ones that stand still long enough for me to mouseover have 2000+ CP. I get that they know their toon and are LEET. What hope is there for a scrub like me?

Craglorn is designed to be too difficult to complete alone. Some people can do most/all of it, but it's not surprising you're struggling with it because that's the intention. Unfortunately most of it also isn't rewarding enough that players are keen to do it over and over again, so there's no guarentee other people will be doing it when you are.

If you've tried asking in zone chat and haven't had any luck the best options, as with getting help with anything, are to use the Group Finder or join a guild and ask them for help. People are often more willing to help their guild members with things than random strangers, because they know they can expect the same from the guild when they need it.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

How do I inspect other players' toons to see what gear they have equipped so I can know what to aspire to in my play? I am currently all decked out in purple gear except for my weapon which is yellow. I have no issue with working toward better gear and earning it. But I have to know what I am aiming at.

There is no inspect function. If you want to know what someone is using the best way is to ask them. If you want to know what you should be using the best option is to look up build guides online or find a helpful guild and ask them for advice.

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

And this question is specific to this Forum: How I resize the text to make it bigger and easier to see and read??? Other game Forums have an option to make text larger but try as I have I cannot find that option for this Forum. Is it a design choice to discourage players from bothering to engage in discourse?

Yes, obviously they went to the trouble of setting up a forum and hiring staff to maintain it then cunningly set the text size slightly too small for your personal preference so that no one would use it.

At the top of the page there's a button marked 'Accessibility' and if you click on it one of the options is 'enlarged text'. I'm not sure if that will be acceptable for you (I've never used it so I have no idea what difference it makes). Whatever internet browser you're using will have settings too, and usually a way to save them for a specific website.

Horace-Wimp

Danikat wrote: »

...Yes, obviously they went to the trouble of setting up a forum and hiring staff to maintain it then cunningly set the text size slightly too small for your personal preference so that no one would use it. ...

ACCESSIBILITY ---> ENLARGED TEXT = text is still very small. No option to choose what size to make text. Very cunning indeed. /shucks

What is "sticker book?" I have seen that mentioned a few times in the game over the past year but have no idea what it might be.

Also, what are Transmutation whatevers for? I've been max'd out at 500 for months. I destroy the Geode things I get every day since they don't stack, taking up valuable inventory space and I have not a clue what they are for.

As for the gear sets, when I get an item that read green I haven't collected, I equip that item to collect it then sell it. Is that the same as learning it from deconstruction? I would hate to have to deconstruct every item. The game is already very tedious without having to add that layer of tedium. Or rather there are aspects of the game that are very tedious without adding another tedious aspect.

The last MMO I played was Rift. Played from launch full time when it was subscription only then sporadically once it went free-to-play. So, my thinking is still in the Rift state of mind. And I know that I got spoiled something good playing Rift with all the QoL features it gives players not the least of which is that the ENTIRE game is 100% free-to-play. No content is locked behind a paywall. That's probably why it took me so long to leave it after it died in 2018. Now, its owned by the worst company to ever own a video game and they are just milking the IP for every dollar they can while fixing nothing and pocketing every dollar.

For those that know Rift maybe you can explain ESO in a way that compares it to that dead MMO?

Thank you, Danikat for all your responses. I know it couldn't have been easy and was probably tedious to do. I appreciate your time.

IsharaMeradin

rChat is a fork of pChat. It offers the option to have an announcement (visible only to the user) when changing zones. It includes all the features of pChat that were present when the fork was first created. Might be worth trying them both out and deciding which one suits you best.

If you have ESO+ there is not really anything else that you would need to purchase in order to successfully play the game. There may be cosmetics and in-game houses that you may want to purchase which are not available with in-game currencies. Otherwise, the only thing that would add any sort of game play value that you might wish to purchase would be the new chapters. However, chapters do eventually become DLC and can then be purchased with crowns or accessed via ESO+.

TaSheen

Depending on your browser, you can access settings and choose a text size for this site that works for you. I had to do that until I got new glasses just for computer and reading.

Benzux

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

...Yes, obviously they went to the trouble of setting up a forum and hiring staff to maintain it then cunningly set the text size slightly too small for your personal preference so that no one would use it. ...

ACCESSIBILITY ---> ENLARGED TEXT = text is still very small. No option to choose what size to make text. Very cunning indeed. /shucks

What is "sticker book?" I have seen that mentioned a few times in the game over the past year but have no idea what it might be.

Also, what are Transmutation whatevers for? I've been max'd out at 500 for months. I destroy the Geode things I get every day since they don't stack, taking up valuable inventory space and I have not a clue what they are for.

As for the gear sets, when I get an item that read green I haven't collected, I equip that item to collect it then sell it. Is that the same as learning it from deconstruction? I would hate to have to deconstruct every item. The game is already very tedious without having to add that layer of tedium. Or rather there are aspects of the game that are very tedious without adding another tedious aspect.

The last MMO I played was Rift. Played from launch full time when it was subscription only then sporadically once it went free-to-play. So, my thinking is still in the Rift state of mind. And I know that I got spoiled something good playing Rift with all the QoL features it gives players not the least of which is that the ENTIRE game is 100% free-to-play. No content is locked behind a paywall. That's probably why it took me so long to leave it after it died in 2018. Now, its owned by the worst company to ever own a video game and they are just milking the IP for every dollar they can while fixing nothing and pocketing every dollar.

For those that know Rift maybe you can explain ESO in a way that compares it to that dead MMO?

Thank you, Danikat for all your responses. I know it couldn't have been easy and was probably tedious to do. I appreciate your time.

"Sticker Book" refers to the tab under the Collections menu that keeps track of all the different item sets you've collected throughout the time you've played. It is referred to as such due to the way it looks and functions. Each zone or dungeon has its own page with sections for each of the item sets you can obtain in that zone/dungeon. When you obtain and Bind a piece of gear that belongs to a set, that specific's piece's "sticker" is added to the proper page in the menu. Binding a piece of gear can be done either by equipping, deconstructing or selling it, though the latter often doesn't kick in until 2h afterwards when it comes to items that are normally Bind on Pickup obtained from Group instances, such as item sets from Dungeons.

Transmutation stones are used to Transmute gear, AKA change its trait (from Training to Sharpened, for example), as well as to Reconstruct gear that you've collected using the "Sticker Book" explained above. For changing an item's trait, you need to have that trait researched for the particular kind of weapon, and it costs a flat 50 per item. Reconstructing gear varies in cost, depending on how many individual pieces of a particular item set you've collected - the more you've collected, the less it will cost.

As for BiS gear, as has been stated, that changes each patch and you'd have to look online or ask people directly about what they're using, but there definitely are some "evergreen" item sets that will basically always be usable, even if they aren't the best available. Law of Julianos is a crafted set that should still be alright on a Magicka Sorcerer nowadays to start off with.

sarahthes

I wanted to add - for the playstyle you seem to want, joining a large, active social or even trading guild would be really beneficial. They do things like group for daily dungeons, zone clears (including Craglorn - the very first social thing I did in ESO 6ish years ago was a full zone clear of craglorn), and more. They can also help by crafting sets for you as they will likely have master crafters.

As for raids, or trials, they are fully open with no lockouts. Once per week you can complete the quest. It rewards 5 transmute stones and a piece of gear that you don't currently have and a crafting mat or two and sometimes a fashion style page. The gear that drops from bosses is more desirable and not limited, you can spam the trial to finish collecting the sets if you want.

ESO_player123

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

...Yes, obviously they went to the trouble of setting up a forum and hiring staff to maintain it then cunningly set the text size slightly too small for your personal preference so that no one would use it. ...

ACCESSIBILITY ---> ENLARGED TEXT = text is still very small. No option to choose what size to make text. Very cunning indeed. /shucks

What is "sticker book?" I have seen that mentioned a few times in the game over the past year but have no idea what it might be.

Also, what are Transmutation whatevers for? I've been max'd out at 500 for months. I destroy the Geode things I get every day since they don't stack, taking up valuable inventory space and I have not a clue what they are for.

As for the gear sets, when I get an item that read green I haven't collected, I equip that item to collect it then sell it. Is that the same as learning it from deconstruction? I would hate to have to deconstruct every item. The game is already very tedious without having to add that layer of tedium. Or rather there are aspects of the game that are very tedious without adding another tedious aspect.

The last MMO I played was Rift. Played from launch full time when it was subscription only then sporadically once it went free-to-play. So, my thinking is still in the Rift state of mind. And I know that I got spoiled something good playing Rift with all the QoL features it gives players not the least of which is that the ENTIRE game is 100% free-to-play. No content is locked behind a paywall. That's probably why it took me so long to leave it after it died in 2018. Now, its owned by the worst company to ever own a video game and they are just milking the IP for every dollar they can while fixing nothing and pocketing every dollar.

For those that know Rift maybe you can explain ESO in a way that compares it to that dead MMO?

Thank you, Danikat for all your responses. I know it couldn't have been easy and was probably tedious to do. I appreciate your time.

I agree that ESO can be overwhelming for a new player, and some important parts are not properly explained in game. That said, I think your experience with ESO is very different from your experience with RIFT because (as you said) you joined RIFT at launch. So you were there for all the changes and new additions that were made in that game. When you switched to ESO a year ago, you joined an already old game that was chock full of content already. So, no wonder you are not familiar with many aspects even after a year of playing and being on your own.

In general, when joining an MMO mid life (that is still supported an is actively evolving like this one) I expect to either ask people around a lot or do a lot of googling. Since I'm not in any guild by choice, I do a lot of googling, reading the forums and patch notes. I always learn something new this way even after 4 years of playing.

If googling is not to your liking, joining a social guild, as some posters above suggested, could be of a big help for navigating through the game.

Tandor

colossalvoids wrote: »

There's zone chat (zone you're in currently), guild chat, whisper (a particular player) and local (close proximity inside zone). So you're always default chatting in zone or close proximity and the moment you leave the zone you'd have a new zone chat, immediately. The only way to remain a connection to previous zone is to port back or whisper the particular player from that zone you wanted to.

That's not strictly true in its entirety. I don't have zone chat enabled, but the close proximity chat (/say) follows me around unfortunately. So if I pick up someone else's conversation at a wayshrine and then travel through the wayshrine that bit of the conversation still pops up in my chat window in the destination zone, and I don't necessarily know where I picked it up.

cyberjanet

@Horace-Wimp Thank you so much for this post! Recently I decided to revive our guild web page, and have been wondering what to write about ESO. You have just told me!

Two things you may like to know:
1) It is absolutely possible to see not only what gear people are using, but what skills they use and what damage or healing they are doing, and how much damage they are taking. It is built into the game, and you trigger it by typing /encounterlog into the text window when you enter a group situation, ie dungeon, trial, world boss, public dungeon, even delves, provided other people are present. This will create an encounter.log file in the logs subfolder of your >documents >Elder Scrolls Online >Live. You will have to go to ESOLogs.com to create an account, and download their uploading tool. Upload the file to you account, and then take a look around. Most of the players will be anonymous, as this is the default. Everyone has to turn anonymous off in their settings in order to have a name attached to their stats. (You may want to turn your own anonymous setting off, so that you can find yourself more easily among the crowd.)

You can also look around ESOLogs for the top players in any class, dungeon, trial, or whatever, and see what they are wearing, what skills they are using etc. These people usually have their character names.

2) Twice a year or so, there is a free trial of ESO+. You just have to go into the crown store and activate it for your account. This will allow you to experience first-hand what it does and does not offer, and is probably worth more to you that way.

You just have to keep an eye on the news column of the ESO website. It may be easier to join a guild with a good discord that will give you the daily pledges and the news announcements. If you want, you can just join my guild's discord as an ally to get that information, but the GameRoom in NA has a good discord too with lots of chat and advice. Just go to https://www.thegameroom.tv/ for information, you may have to go to youtube to watch a build video to get the links. He does have some nice builds too.

In any case, I do have one lonely little guy in NA (warning, he's a DK!). My playtime is EU, but if you send me a friend request I can let you know when these things are happening.

As far as your DK goes, while you can't change class, you can change role or just spend their skillpoints on crafting and it becomes your main crafter. And carrier of overfull bags! One of my guildies decided to build a character that used no class skills at all, just weapon and guild skills. It may the character you decide to try weird and interesting things on.

colossalvoids

Tandor wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

There's zone chat (zone you're in currently), guild chat, whisper (a particular player) and local (close proximity inside zone). So you're always default chatting in zone or close proximity and the moment you leave the zone you'd have a new zone chat, immediately. The only way to remain a connection to previous zone is to port back or whisper the particular player from that zone you wanted to.

That's not strictly true in its entirety. I don't have zone chat enabled, but the close proximity chat (/say) follows me around unfortunately. So if I pick up someone else's conversation at a wayshrine and then travel through the wayshrine that bit of the conversation still pops up in my chat window in the destination zone, and I don't necessarily know where I picked it up.

Never ever happened to me even once in 15k hours, but I do not use any chat add-ons so here's that.

LootAllTheStuff

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

...Yes, obviously they went to the trouble of setting up a forum and hiring staff to maintain it then cunningly set the text size slightly too small for your personal preference so that no one would use it. ...

ACCESSIBILITY ---> ENLARGED TEXT = text is still very small. No option to choose what size to make text. Very cunning indeed. /shucks

Same here. You can use your browser's Zoom function to compensate though. In Firefox, it's View > Zoom, and you can either zoom the whole page (default) or just the text on the page. Firefox remembers this setting for each site. Safari works the same way. I suspect Chrome does too, although I actively avoid it. And nobody uses Edge!

Apart from that: as a fellow non-subscriber and relatively recent player, I hear you. I've levelled up and tweaked my main character enough that I'm happy soloing more stuff than before, although certain things still give me issues. I've taken advantage of various offers to pick up some of the additional DLC free or very cheaply, so I have more story to play with. This makes starting a new character slightly less irritating since they can start directly in the new content. You can still do the original story and alliance quest lines, but you don't have to. There are frequent sales and special offers on the DLC chapters, so it's worth checking regularly.

Horace-Wimp

Danikat wrote: »

...Craglorn is designed to be too difficult to complete alone...

I was afraid that this might be the case. Thank you for pointing this out.

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

...And nobody uses Edge!..

I only use Edge.

cyberjanet wrote: »

...If you want, you can just join my guild's discord as an ally...

I appreciate the offer but I do not use Discord nor any other voice chat system for hat matter. A few years ago while playing Rift and DCUO I started getting crippling headaches and stopped using voice chats completely. With those older MMOs voice chat wasn't really necessary anyway as their raids were easy to figure out quickly so it was never an issue to unplug. I suspect ESO's group content is the same. It's just a matter of finding the right group to play with when the time comes.

I also no longer use any third party software in my games. No addons or mods. I've had too many negative experiences with them in every game where I have used them.

I appreciate ALL the feedback. It has cleared up some of ESO's mysteries. Much obliged.

Oh yeah. Whenever I get around to buying ESO+, what do you think would be the best use with the stipend that is given? Buy a DLC or something else? I've been thinking a DLC might be best but I genuinely do not know.

LootAllTheStuff

If you get ESO+, you will get all but the current DLC, so that might be a bit of a waste at first (especially since you'll have a lot of story content to catch up on). You might want to look into the extra storage chests you can get for your housing as a starter project, though!

AlnilamE

For the text size, can't you just use the browser zoom with Ctrl + to enlarge text? That's what I use in all browsers and I just tested it in Edge, just to make sure it works there too.

As other have recommended, joining a social guild will probably help you with some of the content. Many guilds have events where they clear a specific zone of world bosses and skyshards, for example. My main guild has two PvE events where the group decides at the beginning what we need and we then go do it. We often go "troll tipping" in Craglorn (our nickname for doing the Nirncrux Mines in the north).

As for gear, there's plenty of good gear in the game. If you use pets on your sorc, you could use Mother's Sorrow (Deshaan) and Necropotence (Rivenspire). If not using pets, you can replace Necropotence with Law of Julianos. That should give you a solid base and you won't have to worry about meta changes.

As others have mentioned, there are a couple of times a year where you get a "free ESO+ week(end)", so you can stow all your crafting mats in the craft bag and explore zones you don't normally have access too.

Personally, I have used my ESO+ crowns to buy some of the DLCs over the years, so if I stop subscribing, I'll still have access to my favourites.

Desiato

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

For nearly six months now I have tried to quest in Craglorn but every time I do no one is willing to help me WHEN I have the time to try (I cannot solo any of the world bosses and struggle with most of the other trash.) Why is this? What is wrong with Craglorn that it is impossible to get help to do the quests there? I have seen many players solo everything they do in Craglorn. The ones that stand still long enough for me to mouseover have 2000+ CP. I get that they know their toon and are LEET. What hope is there for a scrub like me?

So a major problem in ESO is a combination of two factors:

- a deep combat system with seemingly countless options and combinations
- the vast majority of content is super easy, rendering that depth almost irrelevant

So while the combat system has depth, the game doesn't teach it to players nor does it require the player to pass "skill tests" to progress.

So what happens is players reach level 50 playing ESO how they want without learning how anything works. This player may have thousands of cp. They seem to do alright until they try something more difficult and find themselves in the situation of the OP. They've probably learned some bad habits along the way.

Here's some general advice:

Choose the Magicka path or the Stamina path for each character so that you prioritize one stat over the other. The reason for this is because part of the damage calculation in ESO that determines a player's "power" is the higher of weapon damage or spell damage, plus the higher of max stamina or max magicka divided by 10.5.

So if you have 3000 weapon damage, 2950 spell damage, 30000 stamina and 15000 magicka, your base damage will start with: 3000+(30000/10.5)=2857. For most abilities, this will determine the strength of damaging and healing, although tank abilities will scale off max health.

In general, spell and weapon damage/crit chance should be about equal.

What if you want to play a tank? That's fine for group play, but not solo because there is a huge benefit in ESO to killing things quickly. In general, an optimal overland build that can solo world bosses will have less than 24k health, 30k+ max magicka or stamina and 5000+ weapon or spell damage fully buffed. Focus on damage and get recovery from food/drink and CP.

Always have major brutality/sorcery and major savagery/prophecy active. Major resolve can also be extremely helpful for defence, but usually I don't have bar space for it solo.

When you play solo, always have the ability to either absorb damage with a damage shield or have the ability to heal yourself.

Some good resources for learning:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Online
https://www.skinnycheeks.gg/
https://eso-hub.com/