10 Tips I wish I knew when I started!

Xerger

Tip 1: Don't craft - crafting is time consuming, provides mediocre equimpemnt, wastes your skillpoints, and your guildies could craft for you. Start crafting later on max level.

Tip 2: Do not open crates, bags or tables while leveling - You only gonna find food and It's too much inventory management and if you really need food you can find a food storage and just loot, relog, repeat.

Tip 3: All loot in the world is personal - What you see on weapon racks and inside crates is only visible to you (except for special chests and crafting nodes) Relogging resets all loot.

Tip 4: You can deconstruct stolen items - Eventhough you can fence 50 items per day, deconstructing and selling mats is unlimited and you get crafting xp faster than crafting. Remember relogging resets all racks.

Tip 5: Damage scales with maximum Magicka/Stamina - Because of that you must specialize early and ONLY invest points in that resource, only use class abilities and weapon skills that share same resource. Hybrids sadly don't work in this game.

Tip 6: Start researching early - Keep buying infused and divine armor pieces, and sharpened and precise weapons from guild traders and keep researching them first, DO NOT research random useless traits. More traits you have, more SETS you can craft later in the game when you do start crafting. You don't need any crafting skills to research.

Tip 7: Do not refine ores, plants, wood and scraps - if you do collect those materials, sell them at guild trader as non-refined versions, they will sell for more than refined versions.

Tip 8: Download Guild Store pricing addon - And list all items you have in guild stores, it's almost free storage (1% fee) and if you need that item you can easily buy it back. This habit will eliminate your money problems in the end-game.

Tip 9: Gradually level many different skills - Do not run around with 5 Two handed abilities on your skill bar from start to finish, always have at least 2 abilities from class and weapon skill trees to gradually level them also. If your Two handed skill is 50 and you are not max level running around with a greatsword, you are wasting skill xp.

Tip 10: Learn Weaving early - Try to get into a habit of doing 1 light attack in between abilities, you will soon see that it takes 0 seconds and it's free damage, also you can start casting a spell before finishing heavy attacks and still get resource regen, so start practicing.


Please feel free to expand on this list, comment or mention if it was helpful at all.

KhajitFurTrader

1. Craft early, craft often, research everything. Only then you're able to craft the highest level set items at end game and don't have to wait months to gather enough traits for a set piece. Crafted gear is always better than things that are found or rewarded, you get too choose set boni by mixing and matching your sets, you can choose the traits that benefit you the most. With a high enough skill level and enough skill points invested, you can even choose to improve gear you get from all sources on your own. Skill points aren't the problem, really. There are more than enough to be found in game to max out everything, and even early on they are worth to be invested into crafting, for they will pay off later. ESO is a game where, unlike other MMOs, crafting isn't useless, neither during leveling, nor at end game.

Valen_Byte

v14...playing daily sense beta....I disagree with your entire list.

Xerger

Valen_Byte wrote: »

v14...playing daily sense beta....I disagree with your entire list.

I respect your opinion, the game has changed and even if it didnt you probably dont even remember what leveling is like anymore xD

KhajitFurTrader

[7] Gathering and refining raw materials, together with deconstructing each and every item of green and better quality that isn't used, has a chance at getting mats for item improvements, which in turn can be used to improve any level of gear. Starting early enough with this will yield a nice cache of those by the time one reaches end game. One can even increase the chance by investing skill points.

Xerger

KhajitFurTrader wrote: »

[7] Gathering and refining raw materials, together with deconstructing each and every item of green and better quality that isn't used, has a chance at getting mats for item improvements, which in turn can be used to improve any level of gear. Starting early enough with this will yield a nice cache of those by the time one reaches end game. One can even increase the chance by investing skill points.

I believe selling green and better quality items on Guild Store, especially if they are traited will produce more profit, and you can buy more crafting components compared to deconstucting yourself even with all points invested. I know all about tempers and resins and how much money they worth, but its always a gamble and in gambling bank always wins.

Valen_Byte

Xerger wrote: »

Valen_Byte wrote: »

v14...playing daily sense beta....I disagree with your entire list.

I respect your opinion, the game has changed and even if it didnt you probably dont even remember what leveling is like anymore xD

I have 8 characters....lvl range from lvl 6 to v14...I lvl characters all the time.

Xerger

Valen_Byte wrote: »

Xerger wrote: »

Valen_Byte wrote: »

v14...playing daily sense beta....I disagree with your entire list.

I respect your opinion, the game has changed and even if it didnt you probably dont even remember what leveling is like anymore xD

I have 8 characters....lvl range from lvl 6 to v14...I lvl characters all the time.

Sorry I meant to say, you probably dont even remember what leveling YOUR FIRST CHARACTER is like anymore xD

Elsonso

Xerger wrote: »

Tip 1: Don't craft - crafting is time consuming, provides mediocre equimpemnt, wastes your skillpoints, and your guildies could craft for you. Start crafting later on max level.

I will agree with this, to a point. Skill points are a premium at the start and placing them into crafting can use up skill points that could be used elsewhere. However, in concert with Tip 6 and Tip 4, crafting should not be ignored. Deconstruction of equipment is important to gaining XP in a craft and can be done without actually creating a single item. Sell the results of the deconstruction, to merchants if nothing else. This works well at lower levels.

Long before you get to max level, points will have to be put into skills to get more research slots and to keep up. While you don't need to actually craft anything, throwing a couple points into crafting starting in the middle levels will help. You will want additional research slots because it can take a long time to research traits at the end and you want to be ready for that when you get to that point.

I will craft items, although not many, since often times crafted items are better than what I am currently picking up. This is usually to pick bonuses from sets while leveling. If this is necessary, then I have to put additional points into crafting. Usually, I am not hurting for skill points by this time. If you can buy them or get them from a guild mate, all the better, but sometimes this is not possible when it is needed.

(Note: I do not do enchanting, alchemy or provisioning. I deconstruct glyphs until they yield nothing useful and I learn recipes that I come across, but ignore these skills beyond that. Woodworking, blacksmithing, and clothing are my preferred crafts. That may change with additional alts.)

Xerger wrote: »

Tip 6: Start researching early - Keep buying infused and divine armor pieces, and sharpened and precise weapons from guild traders and keep researching them first, DO NOT research random useless traits. More traits you have, more SETS you can craft later in the game when you do start crafting. You don't need any crafting skills to research.

The term "early" is not good enough. Start researching on Day 1.

I do not purchase items for research until I need the trait. I research any trait that I come across in my chosen crafting skill and for the weapons and armor that I am interested in. To monitor this, I use Research Assistant and a research grid add-on that I cannot remember. I do not research every weapon. I will research every armor in the category (light, medium, heavy).

At the start, the time to research is not a problem, but eventually it will be. To keep research items from stacking up, I put points into search slots as my skill in a craft increases. This avoids excessive blocks due to the long research times.

Xerger wrote: »

Tip 7: Do not refine ores, plants, wood and scraps - if you do collect those materials, sell them at guild trader as non-refined versions, they will sell for more than refined versions.

Selling raw resources is quick cash. Refining raw resources can result in more cash. This is why raw resources sell so well, people are hunting for gold crafting tempers and they need a lot of raw material to get it. When they do get it, they can use it or sell it for a lot of gold.

Xerger wrote: »

Tip 8: Download Guild Store pricing addon - And list all items you have in guild stores, it's almost free storage (1% fee) and if you need that item you can easily buy it back. This habit will eliminate your money problems in the end-game.

While I have done this, I would not consider this to be a top-10 tip.

Xerger wrote: »

Tip 9: Gradually level many different skills - Do not run around with 5 Two handed abilities on your skill bar from start to finish, always have at least 2 abilities from class and weapon skill trees to gradually level them also. If your Two handed skill is 50 and you are not max level running around with a greatsword, you are wasting skill xp.

In addition to this, plan for your second weapon and carry it with you. Change weapons and redo skills from time to time so you can at least level both of them while under level 15. You can have a preferred one for skill points, but starting out with a new weapon at level 15 can be an issue.

EDIT: Oops, must have cut out this paragraph by accident.

I would add one tip to avoid a lot of pain. Do not collect crafting materials that are not being used. This comes more easily when not actively crafting, particularly provisioning and enchanting, but only keep what you need short term and sell or destroy everything else. Deconstruct or sell equipment right away; sell or destroy everything. This eliminates the need for mules and advanced inventory management.

As an aside, some of these suggestions are things that would not apply to "when I started" since I started more than a year ago.

phreatophile

1 is terrible advice. Drops before endgame are crap. I save crafted gear I've outleveled in an alt's inventory for the next time I level a similar character. For example, Hundings Rage set will prove useful again. I have a set of epic VR1 gear that 4 characters have used from VR1 - VR5.

2 is terrible advice. Food matters. Lockpicks matter. Racial motifs matter. Low level blue and purple recipes are useful and valuable. Loot and pay attention, use master merchant addon to give you the market value of items, join a few trading guilds so the information base the addon has to work with is large. . Some items you may be inclined to leave are worth a bit by the stack.

3 is good advice

4 meh. Weapons looted from racks give garbage crafting XP. Leave them.

5 and 6 are very good advice.

7 is terrible advice. Improvement items, especially purple and gold ones are worth a lot. Spend points on Extraction passives when you have some points available. Refine raw mats and deconstruct everything green, blue and purple you find. Sell white gear for gold. Once you level the craft a bit sell the greens too.

8, 9, and 10 are good advice.

Sylveria_Relden

Tip #11 Take everything you read on the forums "with a grain of salt". It's usually subjective and opinionated anyway.