Can you really play more than one character?

Sewedir · January 7

On my main character, i spent a ton of time gathering sky shards from different zones.
Doing it on one character is kinda fun but doing in on more than one character is kinda something that is deal breaker for me.
I want to level a new character but i remember how much time i spent on my main character doing dungeon quests for skill points, doing zone story quests etc.
I really feel this is a simillar situation compared to final fantasy xiv where having more than one character is a punishment.
Can you play different characters without going on a spree of skilpoints hunting?
Thanks for the info,

Araneae6537 · January 7

Yes, there are lots of ways to accumulate skill points, and you don’t need that many on a character, unless you want to maximize crafting. You’ll earn skill points as you level and then doing whatever activity you choose — questlines, dungeons, PvP. Keep in mind too that you can reassign your skill points as you level, and the cost scales with how many skill points you have, so you can move them between skills and use a very minimal amount, if you really want to.

Sewedir · January 7

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Yes, there are lots of ways to accumulate skill points, and you don’t need that many on a character, unless you want to maximize crafting. You’ll earn skill points as you level and then doing whatever activity you choose — questlines, dungeons, PvP. Keep in mind too that you can reassign your skill points as you level, and the cost scales with how many skill points you have, so you can move them between skills and use a very minimal amount, if you really want to.

So if won't be doing crafting on my other characters i do not need so many skill points; is that what you are saying?
How about other skill lines like all skill lines grouped in the world/guild catagory?

SeaGtGruff · January 7

I have 128 unassigned skill points on my main character-- who is a master crafter with all crafting-related skills purchased-- so I'd say, no, you do not need all possible skill points. Mind you, I haven't purchased all skills and morphs in every skill line that's available to me, but they really aren't necessary. And don't forget that you can save different setups with the Armory, so if you've got a limited number of skill points you can still respec your character to redistribute your skill points and save them under additional setups.

phaneub17_ESO · January 7

With every new content, the limits keep going up to the point there's so much content you can pick and choose where to get your points, skip whatever you want. Besides, dressing up multiple characters is way more fun than just one.

Araneae6537 · January 7

Sewedir wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Yes, there are lots of ways to accumulate skill points, and you don’t need that many on a character, unless you want to maximize crafting. You’ll earn skill points as you level and then doing whatever activity you choose — questlines, dungeons, PvP. Keep in mind too that you can reassign your skill points as you level, and the cost scales with how many skill points you have, so you can move them between skills and use a very minimal amount, if you really want to.

So if won't be doing crafting on my other characters i do not need so many skill points; is that what you are saying?
How about other skill lines like all skill lines grouped in the world/guild catagory?

The more you want to do on a character, the more skill points you’ll need, but also the more you’ll likely earn. Crafting is an example that takes a LOT of skill points if you want to maximize what you get from it.

If you want to work with minimal skill points, you’ll want to evaluate what you really use (don’t take passives that don’t actually do anything for the abilities/armor/weapons/content you’re doing). I would recommend leveling as much as you can — definitely all three class skill lines — as you level a character, and then you can reassign to what you actually use. And as @SeaGtGruff pointed out, you can use the armory to help with this too — have a crafting setup if you want, or different builds, or a blank template so you can freely reassign your skill points and try different things.

ClowdyAllDay · January 7

if all you did was daily crafting you could easily get 5k a day x 18 toons or 90k a day from daily crafting thats more than 32.850M a year just for spending 5 minutes each on 18 toons or 90ish minutes a day. And that doesn't include any gold mats you might sell.

M0ntie · January 7

I have and play 12 characters. I do usually buy them a zone or two of skyshards early on so its not too much of a grind.
More characters is also a good way to get transmutes by getting them all to level 1 in Cyro for the end of campaign rewards - and you can do it just by repairing walls.

haelgaan · January 7

in my experience, second toon is a lot faster to level and play than the first. you already know how to play, you already are familiar with the world, you already have a CP base that you're adding to, etc.

I found it fun to play through the different alliances on different toons, but it gets faster and faster to get to lvl 50 CP160+...

my more recent toons don't bother to quest that much other than main questline (which has a high return of skill points to time spent, IMO) - main quest plus dungeon skill points (one point for doing the dungeon quest the first time), and then add skyshards and public dungeon group events as needed...

karthrag_inak · January 7

Khajiit has 20 characters, 19 khajiit and one fishy-cat with fluffy delusions. Every character gets played routinely - 6 tanks (all profs but arc), 7 mag dps and 7 stam dps (one of each prof). All are 7 prof master crafters, a few fully 9 trait, all are at least 8 trait, all are full Fighters, mages and thieves' guild, full DB, fully leveled in their weapons and class skills, all have over 300 skill points. All have smacked Molag Bal around (main quest), all get relatively equal turns at dungeons, trials and other shenanigans.

Is definitely possible, just a question of dedication and priorities

Sewedir · January 7

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

if all you did was daily crafting you could easily get 5k a day x 18 toons or 90k a day from daily crafting thats more than 32.850M a year just for spending 5 minutes each on 18 toons or 90ish minutes a day. And that doesn't include any gold mats you might sell.

Won't you run out of materials if you want do crafting writs on every characters rather quickly?

Sewedir · January 7

haelgaan wrote: »

in my experience, second toon is a lot faster to level and play than the first. you already know how to play, you already are familiar with the world, you already have a CP base that you're adding to, etc.

I found it fun to play through the different alliances on different toons, but it gets faster and faster to get to lvl 50 CP160+...

my more recent toons don't bother to quest that much other than main questline (which has a high return of skill points to time spent, IMO) - main quest plus dungeon skill points (one point for doing the dungeon quest the first time), and then add skyshards and public dungeon group events as needed...

I have small number of CP, only around 400.
I take it having more than one character on level 50 makes it much easier to level you champion level?

Danikat · January 7

I think it helps a lot that I like overland questing, which means when I make a new character I'm not in a rush to get them to level 50 and get a load of skill lines trained up right away, I can start playing them immediately and level up as I'm doing it.

But it also helps to have some idea of what the character will be doing and what build/s they'll need. There are a lot of good builds which don't require loads of skill lines so if you know what you actually need you can focus on those skills and drastically reduce the number of skill points you need compared to trying to be a jack of all trades.

fred4 · January 7

Get MapPins addon (PC only). Google "ESO Public Dungeon Group Event". Limit yourself to only those and the skyshard from the public dungeon, and maybe a few overland skyshards. The Skyshards addon can mark the latter in a different colour. You avoid area transitions, e.g. having to go into a delve. Doing the Undaunted dungeon quests is also not bad to get a skill point in a fun way.

Araneae6537 · January 7

Sewedir wrote: »

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

if all you did was daily crafting you could easily get 5k a day x 18 toons or 90k a day from daily crafting thats more than 32.850M a year just for spending 5 minutes each on 18 toons or 90ish minutes a day. And that doesn't include any gold mats you might sell.

Won't you run out of materials if you want do crafting writs on every characters rather quickly?

No, especially if you do some harvesting as you play. One partial exception is alchemy — you may not want all your characters do writs at max level unless you like hunting mudcrabs!

phaneub17_ESO · January 8

Sewedir wrote: »

Won't you run out of materials if you want do crafting writs on every characters rather quickly?

If you do everyone except your main at 1/10 "Iron, Jute, Rawhide, Maple" you use around 11-14 materials while the return boxes gives you 20 back. Main character uses the surveys at 10/10, once you have around 20,000 Ruby mats it's safe to change everyone to 10/10. Pewter and Platinum takes a bit more, but doable at 30,000 Platinum before making the switch.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · January 8

Last Undaunted event I ran my characters in need of skill points through as many unique dungeons as possible. If you don’t mind stretching it out a bit more, you could do something similar just running the alts through the Pledges each day. Just make sure to queue for the normal version and they accumulate reasonably fast.

ClowdyAllDay · January 8

Sewedir wrote: »

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

if all you did was daily crafting you could easily get 5k a day x 18 toons or 90k a day from daily crafting thats more than 32.850M a year just for spending 5 minutes each on 18 toons or 90ish minutes a day. And that doesn't include any gold mats you might sell.

Won't you run out of materials if you want do crafting writs on every characters rather quickly?

quite the opposite. you will amass mucho matsos

ClowdyAllDay · January 8

except mudcrab chitins. thats the one exception. and maybe violet coprinus..

ClowdyAllDay · January 8

and with 33 mil+ agold mats a year you can afford to buy some of those.

SeaGtGruff · January 8

Sewedir wrote: »

haelgaan wrote: »

in my experience, second toon is a lot faster to level and play than the first. you already know how to play, you already are familiar with the world, you already have a CP base that you're adding to, etc.

I found it fun to play through the different alliances on different toons, but it gets faster and faster to get to lvl 50 CP160+...

my more recent toons don't bother to quest that much other than main questline (which has a high return of skill points to time spent, IMO) - main quest plus dungeon skill points (one point for doing the dungeon quest the first time), and then add skyshards and public dungeon group events as needed...

I have small number of CP, only around 400.
I take it having more than one character on level 50 makes it much easier to level you champion level?

In my opinion, no, not really. All characters who reach Level 50 will contribute toward your account's CP level, but playing on multiple characters doesn't really help you earn CP faster. Play on whichever character you enjoy the most, or the one that can earn the most XP due to anything which contributes toward boosting that-- Training gear, XP scrolls, any skills or CP abilities that help you fight better (such that the fights are over more quickly and you can earn more XP per minute), etc. Your Level 50 characters will still benefit from any CP gains regardless of whether you played on them or had them parked idle in front of a bank counter or a crafting job board.

In my experience, what really helps is to complete quests every day and burn through all of your daily Enlightenment. One of ways I like to burn through my Enlightenment is to go to the Imperial City and do the six daily district quests, because I'm able to get them done pretty quickly most of the time-- generally about 45 minutes or less to complete all of them, or an average of about 7 minutes per district quest, although that includes queuing for Cyrodiil and then queuing for Imperial City again after each quest, so it's probably closer to 5 or 6 minutes per quest. However, if you don't enjoy Imperial City then pick some other set of dailies to do, as long as you can do them quickly and they give a decent amount of XP per quest.

If you want to do zone quests on each character, that will help them earn Skill Points, which is another consideration to keep in mind. But playing on multiple characters does not really help you gain CP faster.

ghastley · January 9

Playing on a character below level 50 pauses your CP gains, but you can only play one character at a time, so past that point it doesn’t matter how many you have. You need multiple characters to try all the class skills, as those can’t be switched.

There are enough overland skyshards these days to get a character to level 50 without doing delves. That’s just spending them on class and main weapon skills. If you want to raise additional weapon lines or crafting, guild etc. lines, then it takes a few more. Undaunted dailies send you to delves, so you get skyshards along with the guild rep as you level up in that. You’ll find similar ways of raising two things at once in the other lines.