What is the most broad "be whatever you want, all options are viable" Race and/or Class in ESO?

Terin · September 20

I've always bounced off of ESO every time I tried in the past, but thinking about giving it another shot. I'm not overly familiar with Elder Scrolls lore, and none of the Classes really "grab" me, at least at first glance. I really just want kind of an "everyman" sort of character, where I don't need to invest some kind of backstory to be able to enjoy the game. I also don't know what kind of build I'm going to want to be at higher level, and would prefer to keep my options as open-ended as possible.

I'm not looking for a "Tier-list" approach of "X class is objectively stronger/easier", but *thematically* which class (or race) is going to be the most compatible with... whatever I wind up doing int the game. I don't want to choose anything that has me naturally gravitating towards anything evil (probably wouldn't play Necromancer), I mostly just want to be able to immerse myself in the world and story, just absorbing things as an adventurer.

Also, is there a particular faction you'd recommend? I know I already have Imperials unlocked, who can choose any faction. I'm not sure if their racials encourage one playstyle over another, though; like I said, I really want to keep things open-ended so I can figure out what I want to do as I go. I have zero intention of playing more than one character (I'm a bit of a completionist, so whatever I decide, I'm going to want to do every quest in the game), so I really want to keep the experience sort of "generic" so there isn't weirdness of "a character of this class really wouldn't have any interest in doing most of these quests", etc.

EF321 · September 20

Khajiit Warden

GuuMoonRyoung · September 20

Factions doesn't matter anymore, play whichever faction you like, you can always go do other faction storyline any time you want.

As for race and class, play a Redguard necromancer, it will be hilarious when you do Redguard zone story.

LukosCreyden · September 20

For race, really just go with any. If you are looking for a more casual and traditional TES experience, you will be fine. Pick whichever looks collest to you. For class, I would recommend Sorcerer. Good for soloing, can be well built as a warrior, a spellcaster, as summoner.... it can be a mage, an archer or a spellblade, whatever you envision it as. as for faction, it only really matters in pvp.

As for 'evil' things, just avoid the Dark Brotherhood stuff. Even Thieves Guild can be considered moderately grey / honourable in some ways.

Reginald_leBlem · September 20

Argonian arcanist is probably the widest range of viability right now. Can tank, can heal, can dd, good for pvp. Decent sustain, poison resistance nice for pvp.

Ugrak · September 20

GuuMoonRyoung wrote: »

Factions doesn't matter anymore, play whichever faction you like, you can always go do other faction storyline any time you want.

As for race and class, play a Redguard necromancer, it will be hilarious when you do Redguard zone story.

Honestly I feel it is very in line with the original base game, if you imagine being a mere mortal when sacrificed to Molag Bal; then precisely because of the cultural Redguard aversion toward necromancy, being cursed by being made into one as the Vestige version of yourself.

Then again, the ESO necromancer class doesn't seem to be the same kind of necromancy as the truly evil black soul gem and thralls stuff. It'll be interesting to see how the new necromancer companion story works with it.

LunaFlora · September 20

all classes and all races can do everything in the game.
There's some unique quest dialogue occasionally but all races and classes can do any quest and activity.

Warden, Necromancer, and Arcanist have skill lines dedicated for Damage, Healing, and Tanking but all classes are good at all those things.

Not a tierlist, just seems useful:
i think Warden, Sorcerer, and Arcanist are the easiest classes, because
- Warden and Sorcerer have pets, which attack for you,
Sorcerer's Clannfear and Twilight Matriach can heal you
- Warden has a passive which makes your animal companion skills heal you, Lotus Blossom from Green Balance heals you when you light and heavy attack.
- Arcanist has the Fatecarver channel attack, which is super.

and if you're a completionist you will miss out on a few things with just 1 character.
there's a few alliance specific achievements and furnishings that you can only get with characters of the other alliances.
Not super important, but you can't complete everything with one character.

Necrotech_Master · September 20

LunaFlora wrote: »

all classes and all races can do everything in the game.
There's some unique quest dialogue occasionally but all races and classes can do any quest and activity.

Warden, Necromancer, and Arcanist have skill lines dedicated for Damage, Healing, and Tanking but all classes are good at all those things.

Not a tierlist, just seems useful:
i think Warden, Sorcerer, and Arcanist are the easiest classes, because
- Warden and Sorcerer have pets, which attack for you,
Sorcerer's Clannfear and Twilight Matriach can heal you
- Warden has a passive which makes your animal companion skills heal you, Lotus Blossom from Green Balance heals you when you light and heavy attack.
- Arcanist has the Fatecarver channel attack, which is super.

and if you're a completionist you will miss out on a few things with just 1 character.
there's a few alliance specific achievements and furnishings that you can only get with characters of the other alliances.
Not super important, but you can't complete everything with one character.

technically you can get other faction stuff on 1 character if your willing to pay for alliance change tokens, as far as im aware there are only 3 alliance-specific achievements all pvp related

Bradyfjord · September 20

Sorceror is probably the most versatile class.

Khajit and Dark Elf are probably the most versatile races. Their passives work with most builds.

wolfie1.0. · September 20

I would say it depends on what your end goals are as to how easy it will be.

Urzigurumash · September 20

Reginald_leBlem wrote: »

Argonian arcanist is probably the widest range of viability right now. Can tank, can heal, can dd, good for pvp. Decent sustain, poison resistance nice for pvp.

They're not flexible within PvP tho, they've got a pretty narrow spectrum of viable builds.

That's why I vote Warden, I think it's the most flexible class across PvP, you really can play almost any sort of PvP Spec/Role with it and do decently well.

But I hear they're not good PvE DDs so idk.

Stafford197 · September 20

I understand what you mean!

Race-wise: They’re all slightly tailored to more of a Magicka, Stamina, or Health type of character. However, Dark Elf and Khajiit are tailored to be far more “hybrid” like, so I’d recommend those two.

Class-wise, your best bet will be Dragonknight or Sorcerer. The reason for this is that you can fulfill any role, play focused in Mag or Stam, in both PvE and PvP, and their abilities are very simple. These classes also have a variety of unique functionalities while still not being “forced” into using any particular skills. They have powerful passives which will feel more generic rather than specific to certain abilities, compared to other classes.

You’ll be able to change up your build in all sorts of ways while still making use of your class, so I highly recommend those two. No other classes will let you do this to the same degree. And between those two, I’d moreso recommend Sorcerer since you will gain access to Critical Surge, which solves all sorts of healing and damage issues with a single long duration buff.

Theist_VII · September 20

Definitely Sorcerer.

Sorcerer can tank, heal and damage very well, and has the most versatile kit for PvE, with one of the strongest setups for PvP aswell.

Pevey · September 20

Dunmer Arcanist

Soarora · September 21

If you're just wanting to do quests then any class, any race. If you end up wanting to do endgame things, then race still mostly doesn't matter but class does. That said, if you do endgame things your achievements are account wide and you may consider adding characters later and just having your main do all the quests.

(PvE)
Templar - Alright at every role, but not great at them
Dragonknight - Not a great healer
Nightblade - Not a great tank or DPS but is good for thieves guild and dark brotherhood quests
Warden - Not a great DPS
Arcanist - Good at all, but it is a Daedric Worship class
Sorcerer - Good at all, but again, Daedra
Necromancer - Good tank, alright healer, eh DPS

All-in-all, I would suggest nightblade just for the ease in thieves guild and dark brotherhood due to invisibility, but if you want to sneak around without going invisible then arcanist. If you don't want to be Daedric or evil aligned at all, then warden, dragonknight, or templar.

My main is a sorcerer and I like the ability to use the "streak" skill to teleport around, but I ended up making a nightblade for those sneaky quests and I have repeatedly failed to make her viable for endgame things.

Edit: Oh, actually, I also forgot about the achievement thing. If you just want to complete all the QUESTS then you can use one character. But to complete every achievement you will need to level most if not every class to 50.

angst · September 21

Dark elf chars are the best dds and the 2nd best healers, bad tanks tho since you're missing the ulti gen from nord and the resistances. Dark elf arcanist would probably be the best for every role since it gets a lot of resistances from passives and skills but it is currently the worst pvp class and will be even worse in u44 thanks to more unnecessary nerfs (ty zos for putting thought into it as always). For pvp, as long as you are a nord, breton or dark elf (or high elf if you're playing a mag spec but pls don't make your chars high elf, dark elf is the same but you can play stam too) it's kinda equal since all 3 have useful passives and every class is pretty good in pvp besides arcanist and maybe necro, although it has gotten some nice buffs recently so you could make it work

Varana · September 21

Dark Elves aren't "bad tanks", though. Their passive don't really help with tanking, yes. But all the race bonuses are so minuscule anyway that race choice doesn't really matter except if you're really minmaxing at the high end.

zaria · September 21

LukosCreyden wrote: »

For race, really just go with any. If you are looking for a more casual and traditional TES experience, you will be fine. Pick whichever looks collest to you. For class, I would recommend Sorcerer. Good for soloing, can be well built as a warrior, a spellcaster, as summoner.... it can be a mage, an archer or a spellblade, whatever you envision it as. as for faction, it only really matters in pvp.

As for 'evil' things, just avoid the Dark Brotherhood stuff. Even Thieves Guild can be considered moderately grey / honourable in some ways.

Yes, race don't matter unless you are into end tire trial stuff. its an 4% difference between biz and no bonuses like an Redguard or Bosmer magic build back then the re balanced the races, probably much less now.
So go for the one you like most.
Lore vise, altmer are magic, orc, bosmer and redguard are stamina rest are hybrid.

Agree with others, templar is easy to play especially the magic templar, might want to go for that.
You can respec later but not change class. Most of us veteran has characters of all classes.