Interesting question.
First I have to say I often find myself discouraging friends from playing ESO for a specific reason: lack of cross-buy, cross-progression, cross-play.
This is a huge factor. When I explain how purchases are bound to servers and that we can't play together if on different servers (I'm on Xbox EU and apparently no-one even knows what an Xbox is in EU) people immediately say "ok, I won't play it. Let me know if this thing changes"

Aside from this MASSIVE issue, ESO is a fenomenal game!

About classes: I was a "nightblade playstyle" in TES games but I'm not a fan here. I think Lightning staff is the weapon with the best feeling of weight so I advertise playing with that. Sorcerers can be easy and fun, from a roleplay standpoint too.
I love my Warden Main and I think it is the best class for solo play.
For group play I would say Arcanist - I'm not expert with it, I've only used it the past 7 days but it already feels "OP" as a DPS; a group of Arcanists feels unstoppable.
Templar for the "Paladin feeling", but I always discourage DragonKnight because it's good in end-game but extremely boring until you reach level 50 IMO, bad first experience.

As for Questing zones, Daggerfall Covenant is the Alliance with the best quests, hands down.
Stormhaven and Rivenspire are still to this day some of the best zone stories in the whole game.

Edit: thinking specifically about BG3 I would also say that Eastmarch and Shadowfen have some interesting quests with choices...

I think it really depends. Has that person ever played any other TES game before? Any preference when it comes to fantasy races? Or to some weapon type in other fantasy games (yes, I know ESO plays differently, but still)? How important are lore and roleplay aspects for that person?

SkaiFaith wrote: »

.
First I have to say I often find myself discouraging friends from playing ESO for a specific reason: lack of cross-buy, cross-progression, cross-play.
This is a huge factor. When I explain how purchases are bound to servers and that we can't play together if on different servers (I'm on Xbox EU and apparently no-one even knows what an Xbox is in EU) people immediately say "ok, I won't play it. Let me know if this thing changes"

...

Yeah no cross play in 2025 is so surprising to me I'm ngl. Especially cause being able to play marvel Rivals and play with everyone despite the system feels great. It would just help the world feel more full if they focused on implementing this instead of the "year to fix cyrodil 7 years in" they've given on the recent update.

LPapirius wrote: »

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

So it might be better to wait till March 2025 before introducing them into the game. Interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

Syldras wrote: »

I think it really depends. Has that person ever played any other TES game before? Any preference when it comes to fantasy races? Or to some weapon type in other fantasy games (yes, I know ESO plays differently, but still)? How important are lore and roleplay aspects for that person?

They've never played TES game, only played Pokémon, baldurs gate 3 and a couple of Sim games like cult of the lamb, animal crossing and etc.

Given the state of flux the game is in, with the undefined upcoming changes and the consistent performance issues, I would gently steer them away from ESO. I couldn't, in good conscious, introduce a new player to a game in this state.

I would recommend not listening to people dissuading you from introducing a new player. The people like me who have been here forever are the ones who are upset currently. For a brand new player, this game has a ridiculous amount of content and enjoyment before you get to the pain points. There are lots of complaints about lag and performance, but it definitely doesn't impact everyone as I and many people in my guilds don't notice any of it, and I play a couple hours a day every day.

Have your friend make a couple characters, do some questing together, and just enjoy the story and the environments. This game still has one of the better communities, forums notwithstanding, of any of the MMO's out currently. I say that with confidence as I have been trying them all lately looking for some other game to pour some time and energy into.

Right now I wouldn't. I would say wait till new seasons are in place and judge then. Since I have absolutely no idea what's going on in ESO at the moment I would wait till I could give a good reason to join.

I would preface it by saying I myself am in a waiting period.

If I were to have a new person come to the game...

I'd probably just recommend they do their character's alliance zones and the main story quests. Which is most of what they have available anyway unless they explicitly purchase DLC or ESO+.

That will provide them with reasonable stories and overall introduce them to gameplay. While if they start getting into the Daily Guild quests, they're all easily soloable making them doable whatever the population might be at the time.

As for class... I'd probably say Sorc. They have a reasonably good balance of options for Mag/Stam and Tank while having a pinch of healing with Matriarch (Though they're not particularly great Healers they at least have Matriarch's heal to top people up outside of Resto Staff unlike say, DK)

But they probably might err towards a particular class based on their favourite archetype (Fighter/Barbarians might err towards DK, Rogues might go for NB, Paladins/Clerics likely take Templar and Wizard/Sorcerers probably play Sorc) which would be fine.

Of course, this is on the basis that they're new and just want to try the game out to see if they'll like it.

I'd let them take the lead and give advice based on their choices, rather than telling them what to choose.

The worst advice I ever got for playing RPGs was when I started Baldur's Gate 1: I was told to make my first character a human fighter and not to play anything else until I'd finished the game like that, because otherwise I'd find it too difficult. (I was about 13, but this was not my first RPG or my first DnD game).

Fortunately for me Baldurs Gate 1 is a game where you control your entire party, so I got to try several characters and quickly realised in every battle I was largely ignoring my boring fighter and focusing on the characters with interesting abilities, mainly the casters. If it hadn't been for that I might have never finished the game at all because only playing a fighter wasn't fun. I restarted with one of the "difficult" options and sure I rereolled a few times before I found a character that worked for me (elven cleric) but then I did finish the game and she was an early version of what's still my main reoccuring RPG character.

Back to ESO: for most things any class (and class/race combo) is viable, and it's not that difficult to make a second character if/when they get to the point where they need to worry about great builds. I think it's far more important to let a new player pick something they're excited to play, and let them play it in a way they find fun, that way they have more of a chance of actually sticking with the game.

That doesn't mean let them choose blindly: if you know what they find fun, or they're able to tell you then you could make recommendations based on that, but it needs to be tailored to the person.

Tell them to not waste their time and play another game.

Classes, races, and types of game environment (zones) can be matters of such personal preference that I'd recommend just leaving it to them to decide what, where, and how they want to play the game.

Encourage them to check out the PTS to see what options (active and passive skills) are available on the fully-leveled classes, races, and various other skill lines, so they can get an idea of which ones they'd like to work toward on the live server.

They can also visit all of the available zones on the PTS-- including ones they won't have access to on the live server yet-- to help them decide which zones they'd like to play through as they level their character, as well as which DLCs they might be interested in purchasing (unless they decide to go ahead and subscribe to ESO Plus).

If you try too much to shape their introduction, experience, and enjoyment of the game, you risk giving them the wrong impression if it turns out they would have actually enjoyed playing the game with different choices.

My first bit of advice is don't pay for the game until you are sure it's going to work!

Wait for the ESO free play weekends and then see if you can stay logged in. If so, then try things out.

I'd recommend doing the original MSQ and experiencing the world from the beginning. I'd also recommend a Magplar build based on jabs: it's simple enough and intuitive enough for most new players.

Personally I don’t see a problem with recommending a certain class, I remember reading the class descriptions in the character editor and finding that completely unhelpful. The templar uses light as a skill, that really tells me nothing. I came from Oblivion and Skyrim where I enjoyed the sneaky archer type, so I chose a stamina nightblade for my first character in ESO and struggled for years with the squishy nature of it until someone helped me with a build.

Players new to ESO are going to do well with a templar or sorcerer build because (in my opinion) they are easier to use and quicker to find something that will work, even if not preferable. Even if they don’t fall in love with that class they can still enjoy the game and create another character of a different class later. If they chose a necro instead as their first character, it might sour them on the entire game and quit and never try another character after that.