Hello ESO community,

I wanted to share some information on my site for those folks curious about the Champion System currently testing on the PTS. Here's the link to me site, video and some of the post. Thanks in advance for reading!

Written: http://deltiasgaming.com/2015/02/23/eso-champion-system/

Video:

http://youtu.be/nmo9GAMDpr4


Champion Basics

Elder Scrolls Online's plan to roll out the Champion System in update 1.6 introduce a new type of advancement system. This is part two of their phasing out the Veteran Ranks and moving to a new type of account advancement where your progression is tied to your overall account. Keep in mind, this guide is written during testing and will change as content moves forward. I will do my best to update it whenever possible.
Why Champion System?




The purpose of this system is to broaden your game play and progression into a near infinite experience. During current testing, it takes about two hours to earn one Champion Point (CP). If you were to completely max out the system, you'd be sitting at 3,600 CP. That's roughly one year of game time to earn these points (300 days in game!). It's an extremely massive system. The reason why, it keeps you playing and keeps you progressing where other systems don't. When you reach level cap in ESO, the fun has only just begun.


How do I earn CP?




In the game's current form, CP are earned through experience gained in the Veteran Ranks (VR 1-14). Any experience for killing mobs, questing, PvP, turn-ins, etc now count to your account based Champion Progression. For people who love playing alternate characters (alts), this system benefits you. Because each CP earned applies to your account. If my Dragonknight is spec'd full tank and earns a CP, my Templar gets the point, too. Even if you like only having one character, everything you do on your main adds up over time. In essence, you earn CP by gaining experience.

There's also an additional mechanic called Enlightenment. It's ESO's form of rested experience points (XP). In my own words, it's a way for people who don't play often to gain increased experience. If you haven't played for a week, you will accrue Enlightenment making it easier to get the next Champion Point. This allows people who aren't playing 10 hours a day to still "catch up."
What can I spend CP on?


The first time you login, you'll notice a new image on the top of your menu bar. This is how you access the Champion System and start spending those points. You can spend your points throughout three constellations, each with their own three separate trees. Red is the Warrior, green is the Thief and blue is the Mage. Every time you earn a CP, it will be added to one of the three constellations. So you'll need to spread your points throughout the three constellations. For instance, any player with a VR 14 upon launch of 1.6 will receive roughly 70 CP to spend. Instead of having a pool of 70 points to spend however you want, you'll get 24 in red, 23 in green, and 23 in blue for a total of 70. We'll get to strategies on how to spend these later, but I want to talk about two categories of CP

The overall interface allows you to move left or right to select your constellation. Select one by left clicking to be taken into the tree where you can spend points.
Click image to enlarge.

The overall interface allows you to move left or right to select your constellation. Select one by left clicking to be taken into the tree where you can spend points. You'll also see available points per constellation directly in the middle of the screen. After you select a specific tree, you'll be taken to the below screen shot.


Here's the Tower tree in the Thief Constellation. Confused yet? Don't worry, it takes time playing with this to figure it out. But, if it were easy no one would read my guides There's basically only four items you can spend your points on in this tree (Warlord, Magician, Sprinter, and Bashing Focus). This will enhance something and you can mouse over it to see what it's effect is. Every point you spend will accumulate in this tree. At certain thresholds (10, 30, 75, 120 CP) you'll unlock special passives. Let me try to make sense of this in one sentence

You gain CP by earning XP which you spend through three constellations each with three unique trees each containing a maximum of 400 points to spend



If you've never watched one of my videos, now would be the time because it's somewhat confusing to understand, and you actually move around in the system. However, let's move on and show you exactly what's in each three constellation and each of the night trees.
Constellations
The Mage

The Mage constellation has three powerful trees, The Apprentice, the Atronach and the Ritual. Think of "blue" as an offensive minded constellation which you want to focus your CP early to unlock the important 30 point passives.



Apprentice
The Apprentice is a nice magicka based tree that offers the spell critical passive after spending 30 points (Spell Precision). I highly recommend any offensive or defensive casters to at least spend 30 points here out of their Mage Constellation.


Apprentice Blessed
Increases the effectiveness of any healing you initiate by (0-25%).


Apprentice Spell Erosion
Increases the amount of Spell Resistance your spells ignore by (0-25%)


Apprentice Elfborn
Increases your Spell Critical damage and healing by (0-25%)


Apprentice Elemental Expert
Increases your Flame, Frost, and Shock damage by (0-25%)

Passives

Apprentice Rank 10 Vengeance
Rank 10 - Guarantees your next spell will be a critical hit after you block three spells.

Apprentice Rank 30 Spell Precision
Rank 30 - Increases your spell critical rating by 12%.

Apprentice Rank 75 Foresight
Rank 75 - Reduces the Magicka cost of your next spell by 80% after you drink a potion.

Apprentice Rank 120 Arcane Well
Rank 120 - Gives you a 20% chance when you kill an enemy of opening an Arcane Well, which restores 1626 Magicka to you and any allies within 2.5 meters of the enemy.


The Atronach

Atronach
The Atronach is the weaker of the three mage trees in my opinion. It doesn't offer that good passives though the added weapon damage is a must for damage dealers. I'll add points in here after I max my The Apprentice (casters) or The Ritual (for weapon classes).


Atronach Blade Expert
Increases the damage of your light and heavy attacks with daggers, swords, and two handed swords by (0-25%)

Atronach Staff Expert
Increases the damage of your light and heavy attacks with Destruction and Restoration Staves by (0-25%)

Atronach Heavy Weapon Expert
Increases the damage of your light and heavy attacks with maces and axes by (0-25%)

Atronach Bow Expert
Bow Expert - Increases the damage of your light and heavy attacks with bows by 25%.


Passives


Atronach Rank 10 Retaliation
Retaliation - Increases the damage of your next physical attack by 30% after blocking a heavy attack.

Atronach Rank 30 Riposte
Riposte - While blocking, grants a 15% chance to return X damage to the attack when you block a melee attack. This can only happen once every 5 seconds.

Atronach Rank 75 Butcher
Butcher - Light and heavy weapon attacks deal 5% extra damage to targets below 25% health.

Atronach Rank 120 Tactician
Tactician - Sets enemies off balance when you successfully roll dodge to avoid their attack.

The Ritual

Ritual
The Ritual is almost a mirror image of the Mage in terms of useful passives. As a weapon based damage dealer, consider the 30 point Perfect Strike a must in order to get high critical just from the Champion System. Additionally, I see the Last Stand passive coming in very handy as you might want to max this out first with 120 points.

Ritual Mighty
Mighty - Increases your physical damage by (0-25%)

Ritual Precise Strikes
Precise Strikes - Increases the critical damage of your physical attacks by (0-25%)

Ritual Piercing
Piercing - Increases the amount of armor your physical attacks ignore by (0-25%)

Ritual Thaumaturge
Thaumaturge - Increases your damage with poison, disease and magic by (0 to 25%)

Passives

Ritual Rank 10 Opportunist
Opportunist - Increases the damage of your next physical attack by 50% after you interrupt a target.


Ritual Rank 30 Perfect Strike
Perfect Strike - Increases your weapon critical by 12%.

Ritual Rank 75 Exploiter
Exploiter - Increase your damage against off balance enemies by 10%.

Ritual Rank 120 Last Stand
Last Stand - Grants Major Heroism when you fall below 20% health, increasing your ultimate gain by 3 every 1.5 seconds for 8 seconds. Can only occur once every 30 seconds.



The Thief Constellation contains The Tower, The Lover, and The Shadow. Think of this constellation as a sustained and utility one. If you want cost reduction for magicka abilities, it's gonna be in "green."

The Tower

Tower
Most players will eventually spend a lot of points here as The Tower has cost reduction for magicka and stamina. However, the passives are a little uninspiring at high levels leaving this one of the weaker Thief trees.

Tower Warlord
Warlord - Reduces the stamina cost of spells and abilities by (0 to 15.8%)

Tower Magician
Magician - Reduces the magicka cost of spells by (0 to 15.8%)

Tower Bashing Focus
Bashing Focus - Reduces the stamina cost of bash attacks by (0 to 25%)

Tower Sprinter
Sprinter - Reduces the cost of sprinting by (0 to 24%)

Passives

Tower Rank 10 Ensnare
Ensnare - Grants a 33% chance to reduce an enemy's movement speed by 20% for 3 second any time you hit them with a bash attack.

Tower Rank 30 Inspiration Boost
Inspiration Boost - Increases inspiration gain by 20%.

Tower Rank 75 Maras Gift
Mara's Gift - When killed heal all allies in a 8 meter radius for X.

Tower Rank 120 War Mount
War Mount - Improves your mastery with mounts, removing all stamina costs outside of combat.

The Lover

Lover
The Lover is what I consider the better of the "sustained" trees because of the passives. Both Synergizer and Windrunning will come in handy on any class/race making this my choice for sustained stamina and or magicka.


Lover Arcanist
Arcanist - Increases your magicka regeneration by (0 to 25%)

Lover Healthy
Healthy - Increases your health regeneration by (0 to 25%)

Lover Mooncalf
Mooncalf - Increases your stamina regeneration by (0 to 25%)

Lover Tenacity
Tenacity - Increases the amount of magicka and stamina your heavy attacks restore by (0 to 15.8%)

Passives

Lover Rank 10 Plentiful Harvest
Plentiful Harvest - Grants you a 10% chance to double the yield from normal resource nodes.

Lover Rank 30 Synergizer
Synergizer - Grants 2 ultimate any time you activate a synergy.

Lover Rank 75 Maser Gather
Master Gatherer - Reduces gathering times by 50%.

Lover Rank 120 Windrunning
Windrunning - Increases your movement speed by 2%. This applies to all types of movement. Also increases health and magicka regeneration by 10% while sprinting.

The Shadow

Shadow
The Shadow has some interesting passives made for the sneaky sneaky. As a PvPer, I can see making full use of this tree for reduction in break free. Consider Tumbling and Elusive must have passives for Cyrodiil.

Shadow Elusive
Elusive - Reduces the duration of all snare, fear, and disorient effects on you by (0 to 24%)

Shadow Tumbling
Tumbling - Reduces the stamina cost of roll dodge and break free by (0 to 18%)

Shadow Shade
Shade - Reduce the stamina cost of moving with in stealthy by (0 to 15.8%)

Shadow Nimble
Nimble - Reduces damage dealt to you by (0 to 25%) when you roll dodge.

Passives

Shadow Rank 10 Fortune Seeker
Fortune Seeker - Increases the amount of gold you find in treasure chest by 50%

Shadow Rank 30 Merchant Favored
Merchant Favored - Reduces the cost of armor repairs by 10%

Shadow Rank 75 Treasure Hunter
Treasure Hunter - Increases the quality of items you find in treasure chest

Shadow Rank 120 Shadowstrike
Shadowstrike - After killing a target with a heavy attack, enter stealth for 2.5 seconds.




Lastly we have the Warrior, containing The Steed, the Lady, and The Lord. This is the defensive minded constellation. Here's where you can pick up some unique passives to keep your character going throughout your battles.

The Steed

Steed
The Steed has a good mix of tanking and PvP passives making it a useful tree. The one I plan on spending points into early on is Resistant, basically replacing Impenetrable gear though having zero effect in PvE. You can really customize your tank with all the added benefits to blocking as well.

Steed Block Expertise
Block Expertise - Reduces the cost of blocking by (0 to 25%)

Steed Spell Shield
Spell Shield - Increases spell resistance by (0 to 25%)

Steed Resistant
Resistant - Reduces the amount of damage you take from critical hits by (0 to 25%)

Steed Medium Armor Focus
Medium Armor Focus - Increases your armor by (0 to 13%)

Passives

Steed Rank 10 Invigorating Bash
Invigorating Bash - Gives you a 20% chance to restore X health when you bash an enemy.

Steed Rank 30 Phase
Phase - After roll dodging, your armor and spell resistance is increased by X for 3 seconds

Steed Rank 75 Shield Expert
Shield Expert - Increases your armor and spell resistance of shields by 75%

Steed Rank 120 Reinforced
Reinforced - When activating block, gain a damage shield for X every 10 seconds.

The Lady

Lady
The Lady is my favorite of the Warrior Constellations for the amount of game changing passives you have. Yet another heavy PvP tree, this one gives you health back for getting critically hit and dishing out critical hits. I plan on putting 120 points into this tree specifically for Unchained, one of the best passives.

Lady Elemental Defender
Elemental Defender - Reduces flame, frost, and shock damage dealt to you by (0 to 25%)

Lady Think Skinned
Thick Skinned - Reduces the damage you take from damage over time effects by (0 to 24%)

Lady Hardy
Hardy - Reduces poison, disease, and magic damage dealt to you by (0 to 25%)

Lady Light Armor Focus
Light Armor Focus - Increase your armor by (0 to 13%) while wearing 5 or more pieces of light armor

Passives

Lady Rank 10 Spell Absorption
Spell Absorption - Restores X magicka when you take magic damage equivalent to 30% of your health. This can only occur once every 10 seconds.

Lady Rank 30 Resilient
Resilient - Restores X health when you are hit by a critical hit

Lady Rank 75 Critical Leech
Critical Leech - After critically striking a target, restore X health. This can only occur once every 5 seconds.

Lady Rank 120 Unchained
Unchained - Reduces the stamina cost of abilities by 80% for 3 seconds after breaking free of a stun, knockdown, fear, disorient or stagger.

The Lord

Lord
The Lord - Is another great tree for those that want to optimize healing received. Combine these passives with the Argonian 6% healing received and even some gear and you'll be a monster on the battlefield.

Lord Bastion
Bastion - Increases the effectiveness of damage absorbing effects by (0 to 24%)

Lord Nourishing
Increases the effectiveness of healing potions by (0 to 25%)

Lord Quick Recovery
Quick Recovery - Increases the effectiveness of healing received by (0 to 15.8%)

Lord Heavy Armor Focus
Heavy Armor Focus - Increase your armor by (0 to 13%) while wearing five or more pieces of heavy armor

Passives

Lord Rank 10 Field Physician
Field Physician - Reduces damage received while resurrecting another player by (0 to 15%)

Lord Rank 30 Infusion
Infusion - Increases another player's magicka regeneration by X for 8 seconds after you resurrect them

Lord Rank 75 Revival
Revival - Absorbs X damage for 5 seconds after you are resurrected

Lord Rank 120 Determination
Determination - Absorbs X damage for 15 seconds after drinking a potion

Tips

Here are some valuable tips I've learned so far.
Do Stuff

Yeah, that's a terrible heading, but the idea has some merit. If you want to earn max CP, start questing, killing mobs, anything that earns you XP. I plan on finishing up old Dolmens, Skyshards, and Public Dungeons I had no reason finishing. Not to mention the awesome story quest in upper Craglorn. Most people don't know these are dailies even Cyrodiil holds 50+ quest outside of the PvP ones. With a 20 hour respawn, you would be hard pressed to do every single quest within one day. So get out and start "doing stuff" to earn CP.
Constellations

When testing my builds I kept in mind I'd have 70 points to spend out of the gate. You start feeling pretty powerful around 90 points, because then you can hit 30 points in each of the tree constellations and start earning some valuable passives. The trick to making the Champion System work is not mixing up your CP. Spend them in one of each of the three constellations FIRST to get passives unlocked. Then move on to the next tree. Let me show you.
Building a Melee DPS

Blue - The most advantageous 30 point passive is Perfect Strike from The Ritual tree, upping my weapon critical by 12%. To get there, I plan on dumping 10 points into Piercing, Mighty, and Precise Strikes. This takes advantage of diminishing returns yet I still hit that key 30 point mark.
Green - With ultimate generation nerfed, I need something to tune up my ult gain and Synergize from The Lover tree is a quick 30 point passive that will help. I'll get there by spending 15 points on Mooncalf and 15 on Tenacity to increase stamina regeneration and resource return on heavy attacks.
Red - I plan on wearing medium armor and using this character for PvP, so The Steed tree makes perfect sense. I'll put 15 CP into Medium Armor Focus and another 15 CP into Resistant increasing my armor and resistance to critical. Plus I'll have a nice 30 point passive after dodge rolling thanks to Phase.

Now you can see where I'm going with this and how I'll be building characters in the future. I don't want to give you every combo, because this adds another layer of complexity on a massive character progression system. It may seem hard at first, but I plan on adding "Champion Points" section to each of my builds. Hopefully this will give you a starting point for your own builds as you customize some of my ideas. Which is the entire idea behind my site.
120

The 120 point passive is the most important one to go after. Ideally, you want to stay within the same tree within the same constellation UNTIL you reach 120. That way you unlock a major passive, than you can move on. Let's do an example of a player who didn't read my guide doing this with 360 CP to spend. Let's call him player X. Another player who loves my site (I know this is corny) will be player A with the same 360 CP to spend. Here's what they do.

Player X setup

Mage (blue)

Apprentice - 20
Atronach - 60
Ritual - 40

Thief (green)

Tower - 25
Lover - 25
Shadow - 70

Warrior (red)

Steed - 110
Lady - 5
Lord - 5

Player A setup

Mage (blue)

Apprentice - 0
Atronach - 0
Ritual - 120

Thief (green)

Tower - 0
Lover - 120
Shadow - 0

Warrior (red)

Steed -120
Lady -0
Lord -0

Player X spread their CP out throughout various trees within constellations. With 360 CP, they didn't even manage to get one major passives from any tree. Now Player A who's an avid reader gets a blocking bubble via the Steed, an ultimate gaining boost when low health and increase movement speed by 2%! There are many combos that will be effective, but the point I'm trying to make is hit those key numbers to unlock the passives before moving on. Spending 110 points in the Lover tree just to dump 5 here and 5 there misses out on a key passive.
That Easy?

I foresee a million (maybe even a billion) different unique combinations and builds coming out of this. ESO's progression and character build is second to none in my opinion. This MMO makes your character feel unique and special. Throw in the massive Champion System and my character builds just got a whole lot more complex. I hope you enjoyed this article and I plan on updating it as things change.