Returning to ESO after 7 year break

Anilahation

Decided I'm going to jump back into the game. When it initially came out I played the heck out of ESO maining a magicka dragonknight I got to the max veteran rank and finished every single quest in the game. I came back before to entirely finish the orsinum zone. So I just have a couple questions.

1. How bad is the champion point grind? This is what made me leave initially leave eso, I hate endless grinds that's why I left wow when it had the AP system so when eso added it I just left that too.

2. Can I still play magicka dragonknight
3. What class do you suggest for newcomers, going to play the game with the girlfriend
4. How important are racial
5. What would you suggest a new player to do, my plan was to just start level 1 and replay the aldemeri dominon zones then finish the cold harbor story


Appreciate all the answers thank you.

Valion

Welcome back, mate!
I'll answer from a very personal viewpoint.

1. It's okay. After, say, gaining a thousand points, the initial need for them fades, up to a point where you really just witness passively what level you're at.
2. Yes. It is fun, and some new sets give nice combinations. I like the first class set, for example.
Mind you, these days, the notorious Arcanists are so OP that every other class is ruled out in top PVE dps.
3. Arcanists, I guess.
4. They aren't that important. Also, race change tokens exist. If not sure, go Dunmer.
They are the jack of all traits.
5. Nice idea, not just lore wise! Collect those skyshards and do the regional questlines, adding in the touched on-scene quests.

I think ESO has grown well, and there is plenty to do.
Oh, maybe even try the Tales of Tribute questline to figure out if you like the implemented card game. It'll provide one experience boosted win per day, just like random normal dungeons.

And a personal note:
Throw in the extra bucks for a month of ESO+ - it will serve you well.

BasP

1. It's only as grindy as you want it to be. If your goal is to reach the maximum number of CP, 3600, as soon as possible it'll be quite the grind. But I find that it levels quite fast, more so in the beginning, just by playing the game. ESO also has a lot of events during which XP gain is doubled and hands out scrolls that increases your XP gain quite often in the Daily Rewards too.
2. You can definitely still play as a MagDK. DKs have been in a good spot for a couple of years now, I believe.
3. ESO's latest class, the Arcanist, is the easiest class to play. It's very good in PvE as well. From the base game classes, I'd say that the Sorcerer is the easiest.
4. When it comes to DPS, I believe the difference between the meta race and least optimal race is like 5% or something. So it's not something I'd worry about.
5. That seems like a fine plan to me.

Edit: typo.

lardvader

Hey and welcome back!

Have an awsome for veteran rank

Zodiarkslayer

Welcome back! I hope you'll stay for bit. 😁

1. How bad is the champion point grind?
From CP10 to ~CP1000 it is really fast. The XP for the next CP will grow steadily by level. There is no additional grinding necessary after CP1000. Just do what you want and enjoy the game.

2. Yes ofc. It'll feel different to what you were used to. But yeah. You should ask yourself if you want to also play other classes as well as set them up as support characters, that craft and do dailies and such. Most players do that.

3. Sorcerer or Templar are the best starter classes. Nightblade, Necro, Warden and DK have combat mechanics that are important to learn, understand and keep track of, while in combat. That is difficult in the beginning. Arcanist is a "medium difficulty" class. It has a mechanic as well, but has the powerful beam, which kind of slows down combat. So it has a bit of both.

4. Apart from sustain, not at all. Maybe you want to take a eace fitting to your playstyle. Races with MaxMagicka bonuses should be playing Magicka setups, but then again there is Hybridization.

5. To get back into the game I'd first decide at what speed you'll play. If your layed back and not competitive, just play the zone stories as they interest you. There is no benefit or detriment to it. Just do what you want.
Personally, I set myself some "milestone projects" when I started. Achieving these is what truly connected me with the game.
Things like buying my first home and decorating it
Soloing my first World Bosses and Dungeons
Getting my main to Grand Master Crafter
Getting into Trading a little
Getting into my first Trials group (Which turned out to be "not compatible with my lifestyle", so I eventually had to drop it).
In the end youll always have to decide what ingame activity is worth my real world time?

Auricle

Hey, you have a similar story to mine. I played a magdk from launch way back in 2014 to Summerset, then came back this year to play with my bf. Those veteran ranks were WAY harder to grind out than CP and the Champion tree now has some diminishing returns, so the first few hundred points will have a big impact and then you kind of stop thinking about it.

Magdk is still kicking ass in vet dungeons, but others are right in that Arcanist is the easiest to play if you want to feel like you’re melting enemies with a very simple rotation.

It’s a great game to play with your partner. The forums have some negativity in them right now, but my experience coming back had been nothing but fun. Welcome back!

Vonnegut2506

Welcome back to Tamriel. You will be fine with your DK, and the good news is that everyone is so busy whining about Arcanists that no one really seems to have time to complain about any other class right now so most classes will probably be left alone for a while.

As for the CP grind, anything is a grind if that's what you are focused on. Just play the game, and they just keep happening. Racials matter very little. I would recommend for leveling that you take advantage of the New Life event quests as you get decent experience, a lot of zones to head to, and free stuff. Once the event ends, then you can start hitting zones in whichever order you would like.

SeaGtGruff

Auricle wrote: »

The forums have some negativity in them right now, but my experience coming back had been nothing but fun.

Eh, from what I've seen over the years, the forums have pretty much always had some negativity in them. My advice to anyone who enjoys the game is to just focus on having fun in the game and don't let the forums bring you down.

Juju_beans

Well my suggestion is not to care about champion points and you won't be enticed to grind.

I'm over 1000 on my main character.

When I create a new character to play I only fill in the green tree...mostly for looting and gathering.
And then I play with no other CP enabled. I may not be OP but I'm not in a rush.

And I have what I wanted now in the trees and seem to keep forgetting to assign points.

Ugrak

JoseDelgadoCub17_ESO wrote: »

How bad is the champion point grind? This is what made me leave initially leave eso, I hate endless grinds that's why I left wow when it had the AP system so when eso added it I just left that too.

It is pretty forgiving. There is a catch-up system and diminishing returns system making it so that early champion points are gained faster, and later champion points take longer to earn. Beyond 1600 or so the rest is mostly convenience, so I would call that the effective max level even though you can take it to 3600.

One good thing about ESO is that while many things could be endless grinds, most things don't actually need you to grind it.

JoseDelgadoCub17_ESO wrote: »

Can I still play magicka dragonknight

Yes. Note that the game has changed since you last played, and stats are now hybridized. Meaning in simple terms that the game will just use your highest relevant stat for calculations instead of locking it to magic vs physical like it originally did.

This allows things like on my heavy attack lightning staff build which will regain magicka with each heavy attack, I don't need to stack max magicka. So instead I lean into the orc passives and stack max stamina.

JoseDelgadoCub17_ESO wrote: »

What class do you suggest for newcomers, going to play the game with the girlfriend

Whatever she prefers aesthetically I'd say. All the classes are fairly easy to play at an acceptable level. Some get more complex than others at high performance levels. I've always felt sorcerer as a very accessible class. Though templar is also a good pick, and may have a better utility toolkit when you are playing as a duo.

JoseDelgadoCub17_ESO wrote: »

How important are racial

Relatively unimportant, so again just go with aesthetics. The concept of using the wrong race only really becomes a thing when you are min-maxing for hard content and have exhausted all the other avenues of accumulating the desired stats for your build, and perhaps also exhausted your ability to play it skillfully, which may be as much or even more impactful than the build itself.

JoseDelgadoCub17_ESO wrote: »

What would you suggest a new player to do, my plan was to just start level 1 and replay the aldemeri dominon zones then finish the cold harbor story

Consider touring all the public dungeons for their skyshard and quest-skillpoint and public dungeon event skillpoint. Later DLC public dungeons may be rough on low-level characters, but the base game and early DLC ones should be quite easy even as a solo player. You get a lot of XP and exploration.

As a duo, you can also just do all dungeon quests without hassling with the group finder and random players interfering with your dungeon quest progression. It's why I prefer soloing the dungeon first time around, but some require two players to do different things.

karthrag_inak

Welcome back! Khajiit is very glad you are back, is great to see!

1. They simplified the Champ grind for CP 2.0, so it is much faster now than it was when you were here last.
2. Magicka DK is quite powerful and great fun. Lots of fire for everyone! DKs have been great now for a while, and that is probably not going to change for a long time.
3. This is a hard question. Khajiit hasn't been a newcomer since beta, but this one does have a Tank, MagDPS, and StamDPS for every class except for Arcanist, where this one only has MagDPS and StamDPS. All classes are fun to play
4. Race is of paramount importance! Why be anything but Khajiit? Or at the very least Fishycat? The world has too many bald-bottoms already - help make things more beautiful with a sleek tail on your bottom.

Pragmatically, there is very little difference between races anymore, from a dps output perspective. Khajiit do get delightful sneaky bonus which, when combined with Sneaky Pajamas (3 piece Night Terror set, 4 piece Darloc Brae and 5 Piece Mother's Embrace) will result in a 0 detection radius (i.e. most mobs will not break you out of sneak even if you bang into them).

5. There is a lot to do in ESO - there are over 2500 quests in game, counting the expansions and similar things. So there's all manner of quests to do.

Khajiit would suggest eventually getting the guild skill lines - Fighters, Mages and Undaunted - going, as well as the various crafting profs so you can do their dailies if you wish to.

But first up? This one thinks perhaps the zone starter quests would be great fun. The Demon Weapon (Elsweyr zone starter quest), in particular is really delightful.

Kamchuk

Anilahation - First – Welcome back. This really is the best game I have seen. Second - Seven years is a long time and things have changed quite a bit so get ready for an adjustment to your expectations. I have been primarily doing PVP for 9 of the last 11 years. I took a year’s break, coming back last June, and I was WAY behind in my PVP survivability.

My wife just retired and I introduced her to ESO and she loves it. Now, her and our 3 grown children all play together on PS5, doing trials, dungeons, etc. She adores crafting. I had her start as a Templar because they are the easiest to learn. I showed her: Hack The Minotaur’s website for easy DPS and survivable gear, (Deadly Strikes and Orders Wrath with Oakensoul Ring). It is a simple, one bar build but it got her going. She hits with 27K with her Lightning staff. She has since moved to the overpowered Arcanist. She has occasionally ventured into Cyro and won an achievement for the 1v1 killing of a Grand Overlord. She was thrilled and now thinks she is a badass. LOL.

Racial selection matters depending on the Class of player selected. For example – High Elf is good for Templars because of the passives. But really, you can be any race. Certain Races and Classes paired together provide that little extra Umph in DPS.
I don’t think faction matters. And, you can wait until level 50 and claim your account wide Champion Points and then do the Main Quest. That way you can steamrole over all the bosses and Molag Bal.

Finally, Champion Point Grind is exactly that – a GRIND. However, you can do the Blackrose Prison in Murkmire and level CP REALLY fast. My son grinds that prison when he comes home from work and in 2 months has reached 900 CP on his main.
The most important thing you must remember – Have Fun. That’s what this game is all about.

Auricle

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Eh, from what I've seen over the years, the forums have pretty much always had some negativity in them. My advice to anyone who enjoys the game is to just focus on having fun in the game and don't let the forums bring you down.

So true. I never take any forum whinging to heart. There is always a sweat lord who thinks something is RuINinG thE gAMe. Negativity is just people caring a lot about ESO, which is a good thing in the long haul.

LPapirius

The first thing I would recommend doing is reading this thread:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/670691/studio-director-s-letter-2025-beyond#latest