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ESO Leveling Efficiently Guide
DarthElmo
Soul Shriven
This began as a bunch of notes I wrote for myself while playing ESO. This post is a culmination of info I've gleaned by visiting various ESO websites as well as from my experiences playing ESO on a PS4 over the past few months. I've leveled all four classes to various ranks of VR.
The intention of this post:
To help anyone who wants to make efficient use of their time leveling a character in ESO and with the end-game in mind as well. Since this a game, perhaps it's kind of weird to use a word like "efficient" about it. But many of us have busy lives and only so much time in the day available. (I have a wife, two kids, a job, and many other responsibilities that I sometimes shirk while playing MMORPGs.) So if you're not interested in what I'd consider efficient game play, you should probably stop reading this post about now. While I've written this with the assumption that the character is leveling solo, a two-party group is even better due to even faster leveling with no group XP reduction per mob. If you're AD, there's additional information for you below like great leveling locations.
NOT the intention of this post:
To list skills that will not aid in maximizing AOE leveling and therefore not aid in what I consider the most efficient leveling. Yes, I know I'm ignoring some really cool skills that classes are capable of. And if you like using those skills to level or you find some great utility in them, more power to you. I will say, however, that you'll have room for both types of skills and it's just a matter of prioritizing how you use them. Also, it is not my intention to suggest that what's described below is the "only right way" to level your character. I'm going to show you the way I think is best. But who knows, you may have found an even more efficient method or are simply not interested for a number of other reasons; since this is a game and it's supposed to be fun, again more power to you.
I think most experienced ESO players would agree that the fastest way to level a character is by AOE grinding. I've leveled all four classes and have put the below information to the test to verify its accuracy. (All my characters are AD faction on NA Megaserver.) So assuming you're still reading this, what do you need to do? First off, get yourself two single-handed weapons and one two-handed melee weapon. (If you're in AD and have skipped the intro because this is not your first char, the ship where you start has lots of level 3 single handed swords and a level 3 two-handed sword at one end of the ship. There's also a level 3 heavy armor helmet, chest, boots, and shoulders there that you can immediately equip, too. Which is great because low level helmet and shoulder drops are pretty much unheard of. I'd imagine you could get the stuff crafted for level 3 but I've never bothered to look into it.)
Next, your rotation would look like what's listed below while progressing to the (mid-teens) level you'll need to get ESO's crowning AOE skill:
Templar
Opener: Reflective Light - morph of Sun Fire (Dawn's Wrath 1)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Puncturing Sweep - morph of Puncturing Strikes (Aedric Spear 1)
Closer: Puncturing Sweep or light/heavy attacks
Nightblade
Opener: Lotus Fan - morph of Teleport Strike (Assassination 4)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Impale (15m finisher) - morph of Assassin's Blade (Assassination 1)
Closer: Impale or light/heavy attacks
Sorcerer
Optional Buff and run in at +40%: Boundless Storm - morph of Lightning Form (Storm Calling 4)
Opener: Restraining Prison - morph of Encase (Dark Magic 4)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Crystal Shard (Dark Magic 1) - required in order to get Encase (Dark Magic 4). You may not have room temporarily on the bar for Crystal Shard once you get Encase. Actually, though, while Crystal Fragments (morph of Crystal Shard) is fantastic for PVP, it's of limited benefit in an AOE-DPS rotation.
Endless Fury - morph of Mage's Fury (Storm Calling 1)
Closer: Endless Fury or light/heavy attacks
Dragon Knight
Buff and run in: Volatile Armor - morph of Spiked Armor (Draconic Power 1)
Opener: Burning Talons - morph of Dark Talons (Draconic Power 4)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Obsidian Shard (15m) - morph of Stonefist (Earthen Heart 1)
Closer: Obsidian Shard or light/heavy attacks
For all Classes
Twin Slashes (Dual Wield 1) - Necessary for you to choose and keep on your bar in order to get to Dual Wield 14.
Once you've reached Dual Wield 14, select the DW skill called Whirlwind and replace Twin Slashes with it on your bar. Then at the point that you can morph Whirlwind, consider traveling to your skill respec shrine to free up some skill points. The respec cost is 50 gold per skill point. There's a different shrine name and location for each faction. (If you're AD and are still in Auridon, take the ship from the Skywatch dock to Grahtwood and ride/run to Elden Root. Before heading to Elden Root, though, get The Tower mundus stone buff to the west of the town named Haven. The Tower increases your max Stamina. Make sure to get the wayshrine there, too.) After the respec, you won't need Twin Slashes or Cleave/Brawler any more. Re-choose the skills you want again, including Whirlwind.
Regardless of whether you chose to respec, next take the morph of Whirlwind - Steel Tornado. And now we've finally reached THE AOE skill of ESO - Steel Tornado!
Steel Tornado defined - Launch yourself into a lethal spin, dealing [x] Physical Damage to enemies in a 12.5 meter radius plus up to 100% additional damage against wounded targets, based on their remaining Health.
Did you read that? 12.5 meters!!! (Rank I is 11m, Rank IV is 12.5m.) It doesn't matter where the mobs run to, you're going to hit them. And the lower the mob's health, the better. You can be far enough away from them that melee attacks - especially heavy melee attacks - can't touch you while at the same time you destroy them in short order. And the more non-casting, non-ranged mobs, the better. If you have a heal/absorb/shield, you should now have room on your primary bar for it. Alternatively, you can keep those sorts of skills on your secondary bar unless you're actively ranking the skill up.
So assuming no extra skill points from quests or Skyshards, the recommended skill choices would look something like this:
Level 1 - Cleave
Level 2 - First class-specific Magicka skill (from your class skills listed above)
Level 3 - Twin Slashes
Level 4 - Wait to spend the point on Brawler as soon as Cleave can be morphed into it
Level 5 - Second class-specific Magicka skill (from your class skills listed above)
Level 6 - Morph a Magicka skill or choose a class-specific Magicka skill (if DK or Sorc, from your class skills listed above)
Level 7 - Morph a Magicka skill or choose a class-specific Magicka skill (if DK or Sorc, from your class skills listed above)
Level 8 - Wind Walker Rank I passive
Level 9 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 10 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill. (Now is a good time to consider taking a skill from a class skill line that's not leveling up. What I'll normally do is choose a skill from a class line that doesn't have anything I currently want to keep on my bar. I'll still keep that skill on my bar until that class skill line reaches level 12. Then I'll add the Ultimate for that class skill line to my bar and remove the other class skill. That Ultimate may not be the best of your three Ultimate class choices but in my opinion, it's more important for that skill class line to continue leveling.)
Level 11 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 12 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 13 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 14 - Whirlwind
Level 15 - Wind Walker Rank II passive. If this passive is available before level 15, take it.
Level 16 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 17 - Steel Tornado (morph of Whirlwind)
If you'd rather level up to 17 using Dual Wield abilities rather than Brawler, you certainly can. I've just found when soloing that Brawler tends to do a better job killing enemies and keeping me alive at the lower levels than the Dual Wield abilities of Blood Craze and Rapid Strikes. However, if you know you'll be grouping with someone else up to level 17, then you can certainly stick with Dual Wield abilities instead. And actually, if you're leveling with DW abilities, you'll have access to Whirlwind and Steel Tornado much earlier than levels 14 and 17. But if you make Steel Tornado your primary attack at level 11 or 12, make sure you continue to group up to level 15 or 16; otherwise, you'll probably struggle to have enough stam per fight.
New solo rotation:
The rotation doesn't need to change drastically from what you've been doing before. You should be level 17 by now and you're going to change your primary weapon to two single-handers. And of course you'll need to swap out Brawler for Steel Tornado and get used to the differences between them. With Brawler, you got in mobs' faces and soaked up the damage with Blawler's damage shield. With Steel Tornado, you've lost the damage shield but can hit melee, range, and casters all at the same time and from a distance. You'll need to be smart about using ST at these lower levels, though. For example if you've got a low health straggler, use a Magicka-based skill closer rather than ST for that mob to conserve stam. If you've taken the passive ability Wind Walker Rank II at Medium Armor 18, it will be a big help to enable more ST each fight. By the time your char is level 20, you'll pretty easily be able to solo ST all mobs down and run to the next pack with very little downtime between assuming you've put your attribute points into Stam and have a +Stam Provision active. (More on provisions later.) By 20, you should also not only have Wind Walker Rank II but also Controlled Fury Rank I (in addition to class or race related passives that benefit Stam). By your high-20s, you're tearing through everything so quickly it feels like anyone else leveling around you is going in slow motion. Or at least, it's felt that way for me.
The biggest challenge to solo levelling quickly - especially at the lower levels - is keeping down time to a minimum in between killing mobs which of course is all about resource management. I think that ESO is an unusual MMORPG in that I've found the lower levels - up through about level 16 - to be somewhat tedious compared to all the levels that follow. If you have the option to group with another person at these lower levels, you'll have a much better experience in my opinion.
Something to keep in mind for the future:
If weapon damage is going to be important to you end-game, consider keeping a Two-Handed skill on your bar at least occasionally in order to level up that skill line until you can take Momentum (Two-Handed 38 skill). Momentum is a 20% buff to all weapon damage (not just two-handed) for 30+ seconds and includes a HOT (Heal Over Time) as well. Both the morphs are great, too. To use Momentum, you'll need to use a two-handed weapon on either your primary or secondary bar.
Attributes:
For leveling, I put zero points into health. You want to maximize AOE DPS and that means lots and lots of stamina for Steel Tornado. ST keeps you away from the mobs. Additionally, if your class has a magicka-based skill to charge/teleport in at range, make sure you have enough magicka to be able to charge/teleport as much as you'd like to pull multiple packs of mobs.
Armor:
At least 5 Medium pieces! Get them as soon as possible! At Medium Armor 18, the Wind Walker Rank II passive is available and that really helps increase the number of times you can use ST per fight. Additionally, if you think it's possible that you'll use Light or Heavy armor end-game, be sure to equip at least one piece of that armor type in order to keep leveling that skill line.
Enchantments and Armor set bonuses:
The more max Stam, reduced Stam skill cost, and Stam recovery items you can get, the better.
Important Medium Armor and Dual Wield passives:
The passives listed below either reduce the cost of stam abilities, increase stam recovery, or increase damage so that you don't have to use the ability as many times to kill the mobs:
Wind Walker - Increases Stamina Recovery by 2/4% per piece of Medium Armor equipped. Also reduces the Stamina cost of abilities by 2/3% per piece of Medium Armor equipped.
Controlled Fury - Reduces the cost of Dual Wield abilities by 10/20%.
Slaughter - Increases damage with Dual Wield abilities by 10/20% against enemies under 25% Health.
Agility - When a Medium Armor set of 5 or more pieces is equipped, Increases your Weapon Damage by 6/12%.
Dexterity - Increases your Critical Strike rating with physical attacks for each piece of Medium Armor equipped.
Comments: Controlled Fury (Rank I at Dual Wield 25 and Rank II at DW 34) and Wind Walker (Rank I at Medium Armor 6 and Rank II at MA 18) are probably the two most important passives that everyone is capable of getting in order to keep down time to a minimum while spamming Steel Tornado.
Class and Race specific passives:
Again, put points first into your passives that either reduce the cost of the stam ability, increase stam recovery, or increase damage so that you don't have to use the ability as many times to kill the mobs.
Provision buff:
Also, don't forget to keep a stam recovery or max stam provision active at ALL times. I've always used stam recovery (green) provisions or stam and magicka recovery (blue) provisions and can almost immediately tell when the provision is no longer active. (There's nothing to visibly indicate on a console when a provision is no longer active.) Max stam could be a good way to go for leveling, too, though. I need to compare the effectiveness of the two sometime.
Below are a few higher-level Active class skills to consider later that provide excellent AOE-DPS synergies:
Templar
Repentance - morph of Restoring Aura (Restoring Light 20). Wow!
Explosive Charge - morph of Focused Charge (Aedric Spear 20)
Comments: With Repentance and Explosive Charge you become a non-stop killing machine! The levels fly. Note that Explosive Charge would replace Reflective Light in the rotation but doesn't do lots of damage. It's more about grabbing the aggro of the whole pack as you Explosive Charge into the next pack (and then the next pack) as you round them all up to Steel Tornado them down. And then you immediately top off health and stam again with Repentance. (Sometimes I'll hit Repentance mid-fight if my health is getting low and there are dead mobs around to drain.) While the other Focused Charge morph - Toppling Charge - is great for PVP, I don't want to stun any of the mobs while pulling multiple packs.
NB
Crippling Grasp - morph of Cripple (Siphoning 20)
Sap Essence - morph of Drain Power (Siphoning 42). Wow for a Magicka NB!
Comments: Sap Essence is a game-changer AOE ability that allows a big switch (and attribute respec) from heavy Stamina Nightblade AOE-DPS to heavy Magicka Nightblade AOE-DPS instead. Crippling Grasp is great for the +40% speed buff.
Sorcerer
Power Surge - morph of Surge (Storm Calling 30). Wow!
Hardened Ward - morph of Conjured Ward (Daedric Summoning 42)
Comments: Sorcerers become non-stop killing machines, too!
DK
Green Dragon Blood - morph of Dragon Blood (Draconic Power 20). Wow!
Igneous Shield - morph of Obsidian Shield (Earthen Heart 20)
Burning Breath - morph of Fiery Breath (Ardent Flame 20)
Flames of Oblivion - morph of Inferno (Ardent Flame 42)
Comments: No class speed buff, no class leap/charge (except for the Dragon Leap ultimate). Your only movement speed buff is Rapid Maneuver, which is a drain on stam. You can quickly pull mob packs to you with Fiery Grip/Extended Chains, though.
A few words about your three class skill lines:
After you've attained Steel Tornado, I'd recommend you do your best to keep at least one skill from each class line on your primary bar. You want to keep your class lines leveling up so you can access some of your potent higher-level class skills. You may not even be care about using some of these skills while you're leveling but you may care about them end-game. Along those lines, try to leave room on your primary bar for one skill slot that you use solely to level a skill; it may be a skill that isn't that powerful pre-morphed but it's a whole new world once it's morphed. Or you may want to get that fabulous PVP skill (that isn't so great for PVE-AOE) up to its Rank IV morph so you're immediately ready to use it to its full potential when you're PVPing.
Recommendation at level 10:
If you're grinding away and not doing quests, then you're not getting additional skill points at the end of quest lines. Which means you probably have a lot more skills you'd like to take than points available. So when you hit Level 10, I'd suggest that you go to Cyrodiil. Why? There are quite a few Skyshards available in ESO. In a typical zone, you're looking at around six to nine shards in dungeons (one per dungeon) and about the same number outside of dungeons. The ones in the dungeons take too long to get to at level 10 but assuming you have a mount, I'd suggest riding all over the two "starter zones" and getting almost all the Skyshards. (Here's a great link to maps displaying all Skyshard locations: http://teso.mmorpg-life.com/database/skyshard-locations-map/. It's the most thorough site I've seen, providing details for both in-dungeon and out-of-dungeon locations. The only thing I don't like about it is that the map doesn't distinguish between in-dungeon and out-of-dungeon locations. There are other sites that do make that distinction, though.) If you're AD, there are six Skyshards available at Khenarthi's Roost and nine available at Auridon outside of dungeons. Don't bother with the Skyshard furthest north in Auridon at level 10, though. So you're looking at about five extra skill points by grabbing the shards in those two zones. But that takes some riding around and that's where Cyrodiil comes in. If you like to PVP, Cyrodiil is a lot of fun. Even if you don't, there's an Alliance War PVP skill line called Assault that has a fantastic skill called Rapid Maneuver that increases your movement and mounted speed by 40%! (There seems to be a bug currently with the 40% increase in mount speed until you get to Rapid Maneuver Rank II although there's no issue at all with +40% movement speed). Anyway, what you do is join a Campaign in Cyrodill, port to the Eastern Gate, and grab the quests. One of the quests is a Cyrodiil training quest. If you're not into PVP or you've already done the training quest on another char, you can skip the training by talking to a different NPC (I forget who but probably a different name depending on faction anyway). By either completing or skipping the training, you get another skill point and your Assault line increases to level 2, thereby making Rapid Maneuver available to choose. Once you get to Cyrodiil, the whole thing takes less than five minutes. And now you're ready to mount up and grab those Skyshards! Be sure to discover all of the wayshrines you ride relatively close to along the way as well; you never know when you may want to fast travel there.
Secondary bar recommendations at level 15:
If your class doesn't have a self-heal or escape that's working well enough to get you out of tough situations, you may want to consider using a two-hander, a bow, or a restoration staff on your secondary bar from level 15 until at least your mid-20s. Most of the time, I keep a two-hander on my secondary bar; I find that Brawler is still really good for the more difficult mobs you need to fight while advancing through the main quest line. Switch between ST for the trash mobs and Brawler for the tougher ones. If you plan to use different weapons for end-game, consider waiting until at least lower veteran ranks to level them and then buy/craft a weapon with the Training trait for that purpose; your weapon skills will level up very quickly that way.
Rotation by your low-20s:
Templar
Opener: Explosive Charge - morph of Focused Charge (Aedric Spear 20)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Biting Jabs or Puncturing Sweep - morph of Puncturing Strikes (Aedric Spear 1)
Closer: Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep or light/heavy attacks
Post-Fight: Repentance - morph of Restoring Aura (Restoring Light 20)
Nightblade
Opener: Lotus Fan - morph of Teleport Strike (Assassination 4)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Swallow Soul - morph of Strife (Siphoning 1). Can use if health is getting low.
Impale (15m finisher) - morph of Assassin's Blade (Assassination 1)
Closer: Impale or light/heavy attacks
Sorcerer
Buff to keep up: Power Surge - morph of Surge (Storm Calling 30. You probably won't get this until at least mid-20s.)
Buff and run in at +40%: Boundless Storm - morph of Lightning Form (Storm Calling 4)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Endless Fury - morph of Mage's Fury (Storm Calling 1)
Closer: Endless Fury or light/heavy attacks
Dragon Knight
Buffs to keep up: Green Dragon Blood - morph of Dragon Blood (Draconic Power 20) and Igneous Shield - morph of Obsidian Shield (Earthen Heart 20)
Opener: Burning Breath - morph of Fiery Breath (Ardent Flame 20)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Obsidian Shard (15m) - morph of Stonefist (Earthen Heart 1)
Closer: Obsidian Shard and/or light/heavy attacks.
Comments: Make sure you don't use Obsidian Shard so often that you don't have enough Magicka to keep up Green Dragon Blood and Igneous Shield. Using a blue stamina and magicka recovery provision can really help if this is a struggle for you.
A few words about PVP:
Steel Tornado is generally not your best option for PVP but that only costs you two skill points. (For that matter, I think the Two-Handed skill line is a superior melee-PVP choice to Dual Wield.) It's a lot worse, though, if you're planning to go heavy magicka end-game. In that scenario, going heavy stam while leveling kinda sucks if you want to PVP along the way. However, there are very viable PVP stam builds for all four classes that you could go with at least for the short-term. Additionally, there are some game-changer higher level class skills that will allow you completely respec and do excellent magicka-based AOE-DPS. The best example I know of is the Nightblade skill Sap Essence (morph of Drain Power). Having said all that, you may find that it's simply worth leveling slower (i.e. not optimally) in order to enjoy your desired type of PVP experience. And if that's you, more power to you my friend. This is a game and it's supposed to be fun. My real life cousin, for example, is hard-core PVP and is willing to spend ten times longer leveling mainly in Cyrodiil. Fortunately, the ESO PVP Battle Levelling mechanism in Cyrodiil completely makes that play-style viable. And with Battle Leveling now extending to VR14 in the Sep '15 patch, the low VR levels in Cyrodiil won't suck any more.
Pick a strategic "home base:"
The wayshrine system in ESO is awesome. It gives you so much flexibility in terms of speedy movement. Once you reach a city/town, though, various points of interest can be pretty spread out. Which of course slows you down. If you're AD, however, there is a town in Reaper's March called Rawl'Kha that is really small and has everything you need in it. It's probably the most efficiently-organized town in all of AD. So what I'll do is this: after I've picked up Rapid Maneuver at level 10, I'll head to Elden Root and pick up the wayshrine there. Then I ride north first into Malabar Tor and then into Reaper's to Rawl'Kha, picking up nearby wayshrines along the way. Rawl'Kha is a very popular AD town most likely for the reason I described above. The bank is something like 20 meters from the wayshrine; vendors, crafting tables, and stable all close by; even easy access to Outlaw's Refuge without encountering a guard if you've got a bounty on you.
Training at Stables:
Even if you're not playing ESO for the day, I'd suggest you log in quick and pay the 250 gold to get your daily training point at a stable. I'll even further recommend that if you're considering leveling an alt in the future, roll it now and park the character at a stable with some gold to get the point every day before you even begin leveling it; you'll be glad you did. The speed difference between 0 points in Mount Speed and Mount Stamina and 60 points is night and day. I only have one character that's 60 in both Mount Speed and Stamina. (I paid some crowns to speed up the process.) When I activate both my mount's sprint as well as Retreating Maneuver (morph of Rapid Maneuver), my horse is moving so fast it's difficult to maneuver obstacles at times; it's insanely fast. And I can't remember the last time I got knocked off my mount in Cyrodiil. But I don't mean to ignore the 60 training points in Mount Carrying Capacity. That's huge for efficient leveling because you don't have to port back to town as often (assuming that's a regular part of your leveling process). Which leads me to pack merchants….
Pack Merchants:
Visit one of these merchants and buy a 10 slot upgrade whenever you can afford it. (The first 10 only cost 400 gold if I remember correctly.) Again, that's huge for efficient leveling because you don't have to port back to town as often. I'm assuming you've got auto loot turned on. Some people recommend not looting everything and not repairing your gear in order to level faster. Personally, I like the occasional break from grinding to do other things and also when your gear breaks, it's not as effective; your weapons do less damage and your armor provides less protection.
Mage's and Fighter's Guilds:
Before you start out, you'd do well to join both the Mage's and Fighter's Guilds. If you follow my recommended AD leveling locations below, you'll reach Rank 10 of the Fighter's Guild without even trying.
+50% XP bonus:
If you can get a Psijic Ambrosia provision (50% XP bonus) or a Crown Experience Scroll (50% XP bonus), certainly do use it to speed up leveling.
Vampirism:
If you don't mind being a vampire, there are some excellent advantages to getting bitten (it's just not for me).
Some good AD solo leveling areas:
There may be better places than the ones listed below but I doubt it would be by much. (Yes, I know I'm deviating from conventional wisdom in regard to places like Firsthold and Hectahame.) References to these locations can be found at http://esomap.uesp.net/.
Up through level 10 - Auridon: South Beacon, lvl 5 mobs (Good). Unless you're in a group, only go after the single mobs until you get Brawler, which creates a damage shield with each strike.
Level 11 through 15/16 - Auridon: Ezduiin, lvl 11 mobs (Okay). When you first arrive, all your gear will probably only be level 5. So unless you're in a group, keep away from the three packs until you get some level 11 gear.
Level 16/17 through 25 - Grahtwood: Ossuary of Telecar, lvl 20 mobs (Good). When you first arrive, all your gear will probably only be level 11. You can still take down the three packs but play it smart. At level 17, you'll be able to start wearing the gear that's being dropped and then it's smooth sailing all the way to VR16.
Level 26 through 34/35 - Greenshade: Driladan Pass, lvl 30 mobs. Area next to bottom of the waterfall (Great). You should get at least three or four pieces of the Darkstride set while at Driladan Pass. The set stamina bonuses are fantastic for leveling!
Level 35/36 through 41 - Reaper's March: Fort Grimwatch, lvl 37 mobs (Very good) or Moonmont lvl 40 mobs (Good)
Level 42 through 49 - Coldharbour: Cliffs of Failure, lvl 47 mobs (Great). You won't get the quest to go to Coldharbour until lvl 45 but you can port to someone in Coldharbour if they're in your group.
Level VR1 through roughly VR8 - The Rift, lvl VR5 mobs: At the circle on the map just north of Lost Prospect (Great). You must have received or completed Caldwell's Silver quest to get here.
Roughly VR9 through roughly VR15 - Bangkorai: Hall of Heroes, lvl VR10 mobs (Great). You must have received or completed Caldwell's Gold quest to get here. Don't go in the dungeon itself.
I would highly recommend that you don't simply "run the circle" at the above locations. Look for the spots with the highest concentrations of mobs, keep an eye out for how quickly they respawn, and experiment with your cycles. You want to expand your cycle around those high concentration areas where the mobs also respawn quickly enough to where you don't need to wait by the time you get back to them. This applies particularly to Ossuary of Telecar, Drilidan Pass, and Grimwatch.
If you're not AD, here's an excellent post of suggested locations. I'm not in complete agreement with the poster's AD or VR recommendations but it's still a great source:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=288937648
Other ESO quality of life suggestions:
Gold:
Get yourself into some solid trading guilds as quickly as you can. You can sell items for so much more through a guild store than you can get by vendoring it. Try to find one or two guilds that pretty consistently win a guild merchant spot at a prime traffic location. In AD, two places that come to mind are Rawl'Kah and Elden Root. However, most of the better trading guilds seem to be rarely recruiting; they're already maxed at 500 people and no one wants to leave. You can occasionally get lucky, though. What I've done is take notice of guilds that have won a merchant auction location two Mondays in a row. Those are the guilds that will probably be more difficult to get into but they're also the ones you probably want to be a part of. I'll then do a search of everything the guild is selling and look for names of seller accounts that might be friendly. (An account name like WhoTheHellAreYou666 is not someone I'm going to try reaching out to.) Most of the time, I won't hear back; some of the time, I'll hear back that they're full. But every once in a while I'll get an invite. It never happens these days that I don't have at least one guild selling in a prime location. I've probably spent a total of 30 to 45 minutes doing what I suggested above in the three or so months that I've been playing.
Legerdemain:
Even if you're not into thieving (I'm not really), there are two passives in the Legerdemain line that I think most everyone could benefit from. One is 4 points into Improved Hiding, which gives you a 40% sneak cost reduction. If you like to PVP, this is great. The other is 4 points into Locksmith, which gives you a 70% reduction to forcing open locks; talk about an easy button! The base chance to break open a lock is typically about 10-15%. Add 70% and what do you get? You'll never have to pick a lock again; just one button push. Every once in a long time you'll have to try twice. While leveling Legerdemain, just put a point into Trafficker Rank I (available at Legerdemain Rank 3) and you'll more than double the amount of items you can sell and fence every day. I'm sure there a plenty of good places to level Legerdemain but my favorite is in Craglorn. It's an apple orchard just south of Belkarth and just north of the lake. There are tons of supplies to steal and there's an Outlaw's Refuge right next to it. It takes less than three minutes to clean out all the supplies and then you can enter the Outlaw's Refuge, which will reset the supplies. Immediately pop back out and clean out the supplies again. Do that between three and four times and assuming you've got at least one point in Trafficker, you've maxed out your stolen item selling and fencing for the day. If memory serves, it takes a little over two weeks at about 15 minutes per day to reach Legerdemain 20. Just watch out for the roving orchard worker and the roving guard, which is very easy. In the unlikely event that the guard ever catches you, you can easily run into the lake for a quick escape. I've taken two characters to 20 at the apple orchard (and am in the process with another two) and have never seen anyone else thieving and/or leveling Legerdemain there so perhaps there are better places but I'm happy with that spot.
A few words on Professions:
Before you start leveling, take some time to research professions and decide which one(s) you're interested in. Most are easy to max just by deconstructing the items you loot from mob drops while leveling (assuming you're picking up white-level items along with everything else). Alchemy is pretty easy just by gathering reagents you come across while running around and creating various potions. The site http://tamrieljournal.com/alchemy-simulator/ is an excellent source to help you know which potions you can create with the reagents you have on hand. And putting 1 point into the "Keen Eye" Alchemy passive makes it a lot easier to spot reagents when you're nearby.
Provisioning:
You should NEVER be leveling without an active provision. Learn provisioning or get someone to make provisions for you. Recipes drop regularly and there are many, many available from guild store merchants. There are fantastic passives in the Provisioning skill line so you'd do well to level it up; the writ rewards are a nice perk, too.
Enchanting:
Decide whether there is any possibility whatsoever that you may at some point want to level Enchanting. If there is even the slightest chance that you may want to, please read these next few sentences: Do not ever vendor the glyphs that you loot; find an enchanting table and deconstruct them. Why? Well, between my characters, I've easily maxed all the professions except Enchanting. Leveling enchanting just sucks. It takes deconstructing lots and lots and lots and lots of glyphs. There may be leveling tips out there, though. I haven't really looked much.
Okay, I've been typing long enough. I hope this post is helpful to you!
Regards,
DarthSlinky
PS4 NA Megaserver
Edited by DarthElmo on October 28, 2015 12:17PM The intention of this post:
To help anyone who wants to make efficient use of their time leveling a character in ESO and with the end-game in mind as well. Since this a game, perhaps it's kind of weird to use a word like "efficient" about it. But many of us have busy lives and only so much time in the day available. (I have a wife, two kids, a job, and many other responsibilities that I sometimes shirk while playing MMORPGs.) So if you're not interested in what I'd consider efficient game play, you should probably stop reading this post about now. While I've written this with the assumption that the character is leveling solo, a two-party group is even better due to even faster leveling with no group XP reduction per mob. If you're AD, there's additional information for you below like great leveling locations.
NOT the intention of this post:
To list skills that will not aid in maximizing AOE leveling and therefore not aid in what I consider the most efficient leveling. Yes, I know I'm ignoring some really cool skills that classes are capable of. And if you like using those skills to level or you find some great utility in them, more power to you. I will say, however, that you'll have room for both types of skills and it's just a matter of prioritizing how you use them. Also, it is not my intention to suggest that what's described below is the "only right way" to level your character. I'm going to show you the way I think is best. But who knows, you may have found an even more efficient method or are simply not interested for a number of other reasons; since this is a game and it's supposed to be fun, again more power to you.
I think most experienced ESO players would agree that the fastest way to level a character is by AOE grinding. I've leveled all four classes and have put the below information to the test to verify its accuracy. (All my characters are AD faction on NA Megaserver.) So assuming you're still reading this, what do you need to do? First off, get yourself two single-handed weapons and one two-handed melee weapon. (If you're in AD and have skipped the intro because this is not your first char, the ship where you start has lots of level 3 single handed swords and a level 3 two-handed sword at one end of the ship. There's also a level 3 heavy armor helmet, chest, boots, and shoulders there that you can immediately equip, too. Which is great because low level helmet and shoulder drops are pretty much unheard of. I'd imagine you could get the stuff crafted for level 3 but I've never bothered to look into it.)
Next, your rotation would look like what's listed below while progressing to the (mid-teens) level you'll need to get ESO's crowning AOE skill:
Templar
Opener: Reflective Light - morph of Sun Fire (Dawn's Wrath 1)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Puncturing Sweep - morph of Puncturing Strikes (Aedric Spear 1)
Closer: Puncturing Sweep or light/heavy attacks
Nightblade
Opener: Lotus Fan - morph of Teleport Strike (Assassination 4)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Impale (15m finisher) - morph of Assassin's Blade (Assassination 1)
Closer: Impale or light/heavy attacks
Sorcerer
Optional Buff and run in at +40%: Boundless Storm - morph of Lightning Form (Storm Calling 4)
Opener: Restraining Prison - morph of Encase (Dark Magic 4)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Crystal Shard (Dark Magic 1) - required in order to get Encase (Dark Magic 4). You may not have room temporarily on the bar for Crystal Shard once you get Encase. Actually, though, while Crystal Fragments (morph of Crystal Shard) is fantastic for PVP, it's of limited benefit in an AOE-DPS rotation.
Endless Fury - morph of Mage's Fury (Storm Calling 1)
Closer: Endless Fury or light/heavy attacks
Dragon Knight
Buff and run in: Volatile Armor - morph of Spiked Armor (Draconic Power 1)
Opener: Burning Talons - morph of Dark Talons (Draconic Power 4)
Primary Attack: Brawler - morph of Cleave (Two-Handed 1)
Obsidian Shard (15m) - morph of Stonefist (Earthen Heart 1)
Closer: Obsidian Shard or light/heavy attacks
For all Classes
Twin Slashes (Dual Wield 1) - Necessary for you to choose and keep on your bar in order to get to Dual Wield 14.
Once you've reached Dual Wield 14, select the DW skill called Whirlwind and replace Twin Slashes with it on your bar. Then at the point that you can morph Whirlwind, consider traveling to your skill respec shrine to free up some skill points. The respec cost is 50 gold per skill point. There's a different shrine name and location for each faction. (If you're AD and are still in Auridon, take the ship from the Skywatch dock to Grahtwood and ride/run to Elden Root. Before heading to Elden Root, though, get The Tower mundus stone buff to the west of the town named Haven. The Tower increases your max Stamina. Make sure to get the wayshrine there, too.) After the respec, you won't need Twin Slashes or Cleave/Brawler any more. Re-choose the skills you want again, including Whirlwind.
Regardless of whether you chose to respec, next take the morph of Whirlwind - Steel Tornado. And now we've finally reached THE AOE skill of ESO - Steel Tornado!
Steel Tornado defined - Launch yourself into a lethal spin, dealing [x] Physical Damage to enemies in a 12.5 meter radius plus up to 100% additional damage against wounded targets, based on their remaining Health.
Did you read that? 12.5 meters!!! (Rank I is 11m, Rank IV is 12.5m.) It doesn't matter where the mobs run to, you're going to hit them. And the lower the mob's health, the better. You can be far enough away from them that melee attacks - especially heavy melee attacks - can't touch you while at the same time you destroy them in short order. And the more non-casting, non-ranged mobs, the better. If you have a heal/absorb/shield, you should now have room on your primary bar for it. Alternatively, you can keep those sorts of skills on your secondary bar unless you're actively ranking the skill up.
So assuming no extra skill points from quests or Skyshards, the recommended skill choices would look something like this:
Level 1 - Cleave
Level 2 - First class-specific Magicka skill (from your class skills listed above)
Level 3 - Twin Slashes
Level 4 - Wait to spend the point on Brawler as soon as Cleave can be morphed into it
Level 5 - Second class-specific Magicka skill (from your class skills listed above)
Level 6 - Morph a Magicka skill or choose a class-specific Magicka skill (if DK or Sorc, from your class skills listed above)
Level 7 - Morph a Magicka skill or choose a class-specific Magicka skill (if DK or Sorc, from your class skills listed above)
Level 8 - Wind Walker Rank I passive
Level 9 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 10 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill. (Now is a good time to consider taking a skill from a class skill line that's not leveling up. What I'll normally do is choose a skill from a class line that doesn't have anything I currently want to keep on my bar. I'll still keep that skill on my bar until that class skill line reaches level 12. Then I'll add the Ultimate for that class skill line to my bar and remove the other class skill. That Ultimate may not be the best of your three Ultimate class choices but in my opinion, it's more important for that skill class line to continue leveling.)
Level 11 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 12 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 13 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 14 - Whirlwind
Level 15 - Wind Walker Rank II passive. If this passive is available before level 15, take it.
Level 16 - Pick a new skill, a passive, or morph an existing skill
Level 17 - Steel Tornado (morph of Whirlwind)
If you'd rather level up to 17 using Dual Wield abilities rather than Brawler, you certainly can. I've just found when soloing that Brawler tends to do a better job killing enemies and keeping me alive at the lower levels than the Dual Wield abilities of Blood Craze and Rapid Strikes. However, if you know you'll be grouping with someone else up to level 17, then you can certainly stick with Dual Wield abilities instead. And actually, if you're leveling with DW abilities, you'll have access to Whirlwind and Steel Tornado much earlier than levels 14 and 17. But if you make Steel Tornado your primary attack at level 11 or 12, make sure you continue to group up to level 15 or 16; otherwise, you'll probably struggle to have enough stam per fight.
New solo rotation:
The rotation doesn't need to change drastically from what you've been doing before. You should be level 17 by now and you're going to change your primary weapon to two single-handers. And of course you'll need to swap out Brawler for Steel Tornado and get used to the differences between them. With Brawler, you got in mobs' faces and soaked up the damage with Blawler's damage shield. With Steel Tornado, you've lost the damage shield but can hit melee, range, and casters all at the same time and from a distance. You'll need to be smart about using ST at these lower levels, though. For example if you've got a low health straggler, use a Magicka-based skill closer rather than ST for that mob to conserve stam. If you've taken the passive ability Wind Walker Rank II at Medium Armor 18, it will be a big help to enable more ST each fight. By the time your char is level 20, you'll pretty easily be able to solo ST all mobs down and run to the next pack with very little downtime between assuming you've put your attribute points into Stam and have a +Stam Provision active. (More on provisions later.) By 20, you should also not only have Wind Walker Rank II but also Controlled Fury Rank I (in addition to class or race related passives that benefit Stam). By your high-20s, you're tearing through everything so quickly it feels like anyone else leveling around you is going in slow motion. Or at least, it's felt that way for me.
The biggest challenge to solo levelling quickly - especially at the lower levels - is keeping down time to a minimum in between killing mobs which of course is all about resource management. I think that ESO is an unusual MMORPG in that I've found the lower levels - up through about level 16 - to be somewhat tedious compared to all the levels that follow. If you have the option to group with another person at these lower levels, you'll have a much better experience in my opinion.
Something to keep in mind for the future:
If weapon damage is going to be important to you end-game, consider keeping a Two-Handed skill on your bar at least occasionally in order to level up that skill line until you can take Momentum (Two-Handed 38 skill). Momentum is a 20% buff to all weapon damage (not just two-handed) for 30+ seconds and includes a HOT (Heal Over Time) as well. Both the morphs are great, too. To use Momentum, you'll need to use a two-handed weapon on either your primary or secondary bar.
Attributes:
For leveling, I put zero points into health. You want to maximize AOE DPS and that means lots and lots of stamina for Steel Tornado. ST keeps you away from the mobs. Additionally, if your class has a magicka-based skill to charge/teleport in at range, make sure you have enough magicka to be able to charge/teleport as much as you'd like to pull multiple packs of mobs.
Armor:
At least 5 Medium pieces! Get them as soon as possible! At Medium Armor 18, the Wind Walker Rank II passive is available and that really helps increase the number of times you can use ST per fight. Additionally, if you think it's possible that you'll use Light or Heavy armor end-game, be sure to equip at least one piece of that armor type in order to keep leveling that skill line.
Enchantments and Armor set bonuses:
The more max Stam, reduced Stam skill cost, and Stam recovery items you can get, the better.
Important Medium Armor and Dual Wield passives:
The passives listed below either reduce the cost of stam abilities, increase stam recovery, or increase damage so that you don't have to use the ability as many times to kill the mobs:
Wind Walker - Increases Stamina Recovery by 2/4% per piece of Medium Armor equipped. Also reduces the Stamina cost of abilities by 2/3% per piece of Medium Armor equipped.
Controlled Fury - Reduces the cost of Dual Wield abilities by 10/20%.
Slaughter - Increases damage with Dual Wield abilities by 10/20% against enemies under 25% Health.
Agility - When a Medium Armor set of 5 or more pieces is equipped, Increases your Weapon Damage by 6/12%.
Dexterity - Increases your Critical Strike rating with physical attacks for each piece of Medium Armor equipped.
Comments: Controlled Fury (Rank I at Dual Wield 25 and Rank II at DW 34) and Wind Walker (Rank I at Medium Armor 6 and Rank II at MA 18) are probably the two most important passives that everyone is capable of getting in order to keep down time to a minimum while spamming Steel Tornado.
Class and Race specific passives:
Again, put points first into your passives that either reduce the cost of the stam ability, increase stam recovery, or increase damage so that you don't have to use the ability as many times to kill the mobs.
Provision buff:
Also, don't forget to keep a stam recovery or max stam provision active at ALL times. I've always used stam recovery (green) provisions or stam and magicka recovery (blue) provisions and can almost immediately tell when the provision is no longer active. (There's nothing to visibly indicate on a console when a provision is no longer active.) Max stam could be a good way to go for leveling, too, though. I need to compare the effectiveness of the two sometime.
Below are a few higher-level Active class skills to consider later that provide excellent AOE-DPS synergies:
Templar
Repentance - morph of Restoring Aura (Restoring Light 20). Wow!
Explosive Charge - morph of Focused Charge (Aedric Spear 20)
Comments: With Repentance and Explosive Charge you become a non-stop killing machine! The levels fly. Note that Explosive Charge would replace Reflective Light in the rotation but doesn't do lots of damage. It's more about grabbing the aggro of the whole pack as you Explosive Charge into the next pack (and then the next pack) as you round them all up to Steel Tornado them down. And then you immediately top off health and stam again with Repentance. (Sometimes I'll hit Repentance mid-fight if my health is getting low and there are dead mobs around to drain.) While the other Focused Charge morph - Toppling Charge - is great for PVP, I don't want to stun any of the mobs while pulling multiple packs.
NB
Crippling Grasp - morph of Cripple (Siphoning 20)
Sap Essence - morph of Drain Power (Siphoning 42). Wow for a Magicka NB!
Comments: Sap Essence is a game-changer AOE ability that allows a big switch (and attribute respec) from heavy Stamina Nightblade AOE-DPS to heavy Magicka Nightblade AOE-DPS instead. Crippling Grasp is great for the +40% speed buff.
Sorcerer
Power Surge - morph of Surge (Storm Calling 30). Wow!
Hardened Ward - morph of Conjured Ward (Daedric Summoning 42)
Comments: Sorcerers become non-stop killing machines, too!
DK
Green Dragon Blood - morph of Dragon Blood (Draconic Power 20). Wow!
Igneous Shield - morph of Obsidian Shield (Earthen Heart 20)
Burning Breath - morph of Fiery Breath (Ardent Flame 20)
Flames of Oblivion - morph of Inferno (Ardent Flame 42)
Comments: No class speed buff, no class leap/charge (except for the Dragon Leap ultimate). Your only movement speed buff is Rapid Maneuver, which is a drain on stam. You can quickly pull mob packs to you with Fiery Grip/Extended Chains, though.
A few words about your three class skill lines:
After you've attained Steel Tornado, I'd recommend you do your best to keep at least one skill from each class line on your primary bar. You want to keep your class lines leveling up so you can access some of your potent higher-level class skills. You may not even be care about using some of these skills while you're leveling but you may care about them end-game. Along those lines, try to leave room on your primary bar for one skill slot that you use solely to level a skill; it may be a skill that isn't that powerful pre-morphed but it's a whole new world once it's morphed. Or you may want to get that fabulous PVP skill (that isn't so great for PVE-AOE) up to its Rank IV morph so you're immediately ready to use it to its full potential when you're PVPing.
Recommendation at level 10:
If you're grinding away and not doing quests, then you're not getting additional skill points at the end of quest lines. Which means you probably have a lot more skills you'd like to take than points available. So when you hit Level 10, I'd suggest that you go to Cyrodiil. Why? There are quite a few Skyshards available in ESO. In a typical zone, you're looking at around six to nine shards in dungeons (one per dungeon) and about the same number outside of dungeons. The ones in the dungeons take too long to get to at level 10 but assuming you have a mount, I'd suggest riding all over the two "starter zones" and getting almost all the Skyshards. (Here's a great link to maps displaying all Skyshard locations: http://teso.mmorpg-life.com/database/skyshard-locations-map/. It's the most thorough site I've seen, providing details for both in-dungeon and out-of-dungeon locations. The only thing I don't like about it is that the map doesn't distinguish between in-dungeon and out-of-dungeon locations. There are other sites that do make that distinction, though.) If you're AD, there are six Skyshards available at Khenarthi's Roost and nine available at Auridon outside of dungeons. Don't bother with the Skyshard furthest north in Auridon at level 10, though. So you're looking at about five extra skill points by grabbing the shards in those two zones. But that takes some riding around and that's where Cyrodiil comes in. If you like to PVP, Cyrodiil is a lot of fun. Even if you don't, there's an Alliance War PVP skill line called Assault that has a fantastic skill called Rapid Maneuver that increases your movement and mounted speed by 40%! (There seems to be a bug currently with the 40% increase in mount speed until you get to Rapid Maneuver Rank II although there's no issue at all with +40% movement speed). Anyway, what you do is join a Campaign in Cyrodill, port to the Eastern Gate, and grab the quests. One of the quests is a Cyrodiil training quest. If you're not into PVP or you've already done the training quest on another char, you can skip the training by talking to a different NPC (I forget who but probably a different name depending on faction anyway). By either completing or skipping the training, you get another skill point and your Assault line increases to level 2, thereby making Rapid Maneuver available to choose. Once you get to Cyrodiil, the whole thing takes less than five minutes. And now you're ready to mount up and grab those Skyshards! Be sure to discover all of the wayshrines you ride relatively close to along the way as well; you never know when you may want to fast travel there.
Secondary bar recommendations at level 15:
If your class doesn't have a self-heal or escape that's working well enough to get you out of tough situations, you may want to consider using a two-hander, a bow, or a restoration staff on your secondary bar from level 15 until at least your mid-20s. Most of the time, I keep a two-hander on my secondary bar; I find that Brawler is still really good for the more difficult mobs you need to fight while advancing through the main quest line. Switch between ST for the trash mobs and Brawler for the tougher ones. If you plan to use different weapons for end-game, consider waiting until at least lower veteran ranks to level them and then buy/craft a weapon with the Training trait for that purpose; your weapon skills will level up very quickly that way.
Rotation by your low-20s:
Templar
Opener: Explosive Charge - morph of Focused Charge (Aedric Spear 20)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Biting Jabs or Puncturing Sweep - morph of Puncturing Strikes (Aedric Spear 1)
Closer: Biting Jabs/Puncturing Sweep or light/heavy attacks
Post-Fight: Repentance - morph of Restoring Aura (Restoring Light 20)
Nightblade
Opener: Lotus Fan - morph of Teleport Strike (Assassination 4)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Swallow Soul - morph of Strife (Siphoning 1). Can use if health is getting low.
Impale (15m finisher) - morph of Assassin's Blade (Assassination 1)
Closer: Impale or light/heavy attacks
Sorcerer
Buff to keep up: Power Surge - morph of Surge (Storm Calling 30. You probably won't get this until at least mid-20s.)
Buff and run in at +40%: Boundless Storm - morph of Lightning Form (Storm Calling 4)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Endless Fury - morph of Mage's Fury (Storm Calling 1)
Closer: Endless Fury or light/heavy attacks
Dragon Knight
Buffs to keep up: Green Dragon Blood - morph of Dragon Blood (Draconic Power 20) and Igneous Shield - morph of Obsidian Shield (Earthen Heart 20)
Opener: Burning Breath - morph of Fiery Breath (Ardent Flame 20)
Primary Attack: Steel Tornado - morph of Whirlwind (Dual Wield 14)
Obsidian Shard (15m) - morph of Stonefist (Earthen Heart 1)
Closer: Obsidian Shard and/or light/heavy attacks.
Comments: Make sure you don't use Obsidian Shard so often that you don't have enough Magicka to keep up Green Dragon Blood and Igneous Shield. Using a blue stamina and magicka recovery provision can really help if this is a struggle for you.
A few words about PVP:
Steel Tornado is generally not your best option for PVP but that only costs you two skill points. (For that matter, I think the Two-Handed skill line is a superior melee-PVP choice to Dual Wield.) It's a lot worse, though, if you're planning to go heavy magicka end-game. In that scenario, going heavy stam while leveling kinda sucks if you want to PVP along the way. However, there are very viable PVP stam builds for all four classes that you could go with at least for the short-term. Additionally, there are some game-changer higher level class skills that will allow you completely respec and do excellent magicka-based AOE-DPS. The best example I know of is the Nightblade skill Sap Essence (morph of Drain Power). Having said all that, you may find that it's simply worth leveling slower (i.e. not optimally) in order to enjoy your desired type of PVP experience. And if that's you, more power to you my friend. This is a game and it's supposed to be fun. My real life cousin, for example, is hard-core PVP and is willing to spend ten times longer leveling mainly in Cyrodiil. Fortunately, the ESO PVP Battle Levelling mechanism in Cyrodiil completely makes that play-style viable. And with Battle Leveling now extending to VR14 in the Sep '15 patch, the low VR levels in Cyrodiil won't suck any more.
Pick a strategic "home base:"
The wayshrine system in ESO is awesome. It gives you so much flexibility in terms of speedy movement. Once you reach a city/town, though, various points of interest can be pretty spread out. Which of course slows you down. If you're AD, however, there is a town in Reaper's March called Rawl'Kha that is really small and has everything you need in it. It's probably the most efficiently-organized town in all of AD. So what I'll do is this: after I've picked up Rapid Maneuver at level 10, I'll head to Elden Root and pick up the wayshrine there. Then I ride north first into Malabar Tor and then into Reaper's to Rawl'Kha, picking up nearby wayshrines along the way. Rawl'Kha is a very popular AD town most likely for the reason I described above. The bank is something like 20 meters from the wayshrine; vendors, crafting tables, and stable all close by; even easy access to Outlaw's Refuge without encountering a guard if you've got a bounty on you.
Training at Stables:
Even if you're not playing ESO for the day, I'd suggest you log in quick and pay the 250 gold to get your daily training point at a stable. I'll even further recommend that if you're considering leveling an alt in the future, roll it now and park the character at a stable with some gold to get the point every day before you even begin leveling it; you'll be glad you did. The speed difference between 0 points in Mount Speed and Mount Stamina and 60 points is night and day. I only have one character that's 60 in both Mount Speed and Stamina. (I paid some crowns to speed up the process.) When I activate both my mount's sprint as well as Retreating Maneuver (morph of Rapid Maneuver), my horse is moving so fast it's difficult to maneuver obstacles at times; it's insanely fast. And I can't remember the last time I got knocked off my mount in Cyrodiil. But I don't mean to ignore the 60 training points in Mount Carrying Capacity. That's huge for efficient leveling because you don't have to port back to town as often (assuming that's a regular part of your leveling process). Which leads me to pack merchants….
Pack Merchants:
Visit one of these merchants and buy a 10 slot upgrade whenever you can afford it. (The first 10 only cost 400 gold if I remember correctly.) Again, that's huge for efficient leveling because you don't have to port back to town as often. I'm assuming you've got auto loot turned on. Some people recommend not looting everything and not repairing your gear in order to level faster. Personally, I like the occasional break from grinding to do other things and also when your gear breaks, it's not as effective; your weapons do less damage and your armor provides less protection.
Mage's and Fighter's Guilds:
Before you start out, you'd do well to join both the Mage's and Fighter's Guilds. If you follow my recommended AD leveling locations below, you'll reach Rank 10 of the Fighter's Guild without even trying.
+50% XP bonus:
If you can get a Psijic Ambrosia provision (50% XP bonus) or a Crown Experience Scroll (50% XP bonus), certainly do use it to speed up leveling.
Vampirism:
If you don't mind being a vampire, there are some excellent advantages to getting bitten (it's just not for me).
Some good AD solo leveling areas:
There may be better places than the ones listed below but I doubt it would be by much. (Yes, I know I'm deviating from conventional wisdom in regard to places like Firsthold and Hectahame.) References to these locations can be found at http://esomap.uesp.net/.
Up through level 10 - Auridon: South Beacon, lvl 5 mobs (Good). Unless you're in a group, only go after the single mobs until you get Brawler, which creates a damage shield with each strike.
Level 11 through 15/16 - Auridon: Ezduiin, lvl 11 mobs (Okay). When you first arrive, all your gear will probably only be level 5. So unless you're in a group, keep away from the three packs until you get some level 11 gear.
Level 16/17 through 25 - Grahtwood: Ossuary of Telecar, lvl 20 mobs (Good). When you first arrive, all your gear will probably only be level 11. You can still take down the three packs but play it smart. At level 17, you'll be able to start wearing the gear that's being dropped and then it's smooth sailing all the way to VR16.
Level 26 through 34/35 - Greenshade: Driladan Pass, lvl 30 mobs. Area next to bottom of the waterfall (Great). You should get at least three or four pieces of the Darkstride set while at Driladan Pass. The set stamina bonuses are fantastic for leveling!
Level 35/36 through 41 - Reaper's March: Fort Grimwatch, lvl 37 mobs (Very good) or Moonmont lvl 40 mobs (Good)
Level 42 through 49 - Coldharbour: Cliffs of Failure, lvl 47 mobs (Great). You won't get the quest to go to Coldharbour until lvl 45 but you can port to someone in Coldharbour if they're in your group.
Level VR1 through roughly VR8 - The Rift, lvl VR5 mobs: At the circle on the map just north of Lost Prospect (Great). You must have received or completed Caldwell's Silver quest to get here.
Roughly VR9 through roughly VR15 - Bangkorai: Hall of Heroes, lvl VR10 mobs (Great). You must have received or completed Caldwell's Gold quest to get here. Don't go in the dungeon itself.
I would highly recommend that you don't simply "run the circle" at the above locations. Look for the spots with the highest concentrations of mobs, keep an eye out for how quickly they respawn, and experiment with your cycles. You want to expand your cycle around those high concentration areas where the mobs also respawn quickly enough to where you don't need to wait by the time you get back to them. This applies particularly to Ossuary of Telecar, Drilidan Pass, and Grimwatch.
If you're not AD, here's an excellent post of suggested locations. I'm not in complete agreement with the poster's AD or VR recommendations but it's still a great source:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=288937648
Other ESO quality of life suggestions:
Gold:
Get yourself into some solid trading guilds as quickly as you can. You can sell items for so much more through a guild store than you can get by vendoring it. Try to find one or two guilds that pretty consistently win a guild merchant spot at a prime traffic location. In AD, two places that come to mind are Rawl'Kah and Elden Root. However, most of the better trading guilds seem to be rarely recruiting; they're already maxed at 500 people and no one wants to leave. You can occasionally get lucky, though. What I've done is take notice of guilds that have won a merchant auction location two Mondays in a row. Those are the guilds that will probably be more difficult to get into but they're also the ones you probably want to be a part of. I'll then do a search of everything the guild is selling and look for names of seller accounts that might be friendly. (An account name like WhoTheHellAreYou666 is not someone I'm going to try reaching out to.) Most of the time, I won't hear back; some of the time, I'll hear back that they're full. But every once in a while I'll get an invite. It never happens these days that I don't have at least one guild selling in a prime location. I've probably spent a total of 30 to 45 minutes doing what I suggested above in the three or so months that I've been playing.
Legerdemain:
Even if you're not into thieving (I'm not really), there are two passives in the Legerdemain line that I think most everyone could benefit from. One is 4 points into Improved Hiding, which gives you a 40% sneak cost reduction. If you like to PVP, this is great. The other is 4 points into Locksmith, which gives you a 70% reduction to forcing open locks; talk about an easy button! The base chance to break open a lock is typically about 10-15%. Add 70% and what do you get? You'll never have to pick a lock again; just one button push. Every once in a long time you'll have to try twice. While leveling Legerdemain, just put a point into Trafficker Rank I (available at Legerdemain Rank 3) and you'll more than double the amount of items you can sell and fence every day. I'm sure there a plenty of good places to level Legerdemain but my favorite is in Craglorn. It's an apple orchard just south of Belkarth and just north of the lake. There are tons of supplies to steal and there's an Outlaw's Refuge right next to it. It takes less than three minutes to clean out all the supplies and then you can enter the Outlaw's Refuge, which will reset the supplies. Immediately pop back out and clean out the supplies again. Do that between three and four times and assuming you've got at least one point in Trafficker, you've maxed out your stolen item selling and fencing for the day. If memory serves, it takes a little over two weeks at about 15 minutes per day to reach Legerdemain 20. Just watch out for the roving orchard worker and the roving guard, which is very easy. In the unlikely event that the guard ever catches you, you can easily run into the lake for a quick escape. I've taken two characters to 20 at the apple orchard (and am in the process with another two) and have never seen anyone else thieving and/or leveling Legerdemain there so perhaps there are better places but I'm happy with that spot.
A few words on Professions:
Before you start leveling, take some time to research professions and decide which one(s) you're interested in. Most are easy to max just by deconstructing the items you loot from mob drops while leveling (assuming you're picking up white-level items along with everything else). Alchemy is pretty easy just by gathering reagents you come across while running around and creating various potions. The site http://tamrieljournal.com/alchemy-simulator/ is an excellent source to help you know which potions you can create with the reagents you have on hand. And putting 1 point into the "Keen Eye" Alchemy passive makes it a lot easier to spot reagents when you're nearby.
Provisioning:
You should NEVER be leveling without an active provision. Learn provisioning or get someone to make provisions for you. Recipes drop regularly and there are many, many available from guild store merchants. There are fantastic passives in the Provisioning skill line so you'd do well to level it up; the writ rewards are a nice perk, too.
Enchanting:
Decide whether there is any possibility whatsoever that you may at some point want to level Enchanting. If there is even the slightest chance that you may want to, please read these next few sentences: Do not ever vendor the glyphs that you loot; find an enchanting table and deconstruct them. Why? Well, between my characters, I've easily maxed all the professions except Enchanting. Leveling enchanting just sucks. It takes deconstructing lots and lots and lots and lots of glyphs. There may be leveling tips out there, though. I haven't really looked much.
Okay, I've been typing long enough. I hope this post is helpful to you!
Regards,
DarthSlinky
PS4 NA Megaserver
10
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Lixiviant✭✭✭✭Thank you for the informative post! You did a few different things I never thought of but want it give them a try over the next couple of weeks. And the idea on Alt leveling was excellment.
PS4/PS5/NA - And sometimes EU
Daedroth might bite, just letting you know0 -
fatman29✭✭I'm currently using these guidelines on my dragonknight. Generally seems to be working very well, but I do think that it would be best not to bother using Obsidian Shard. The mana cost doesn't justify the little bit of healing you get. It's better just to use a base attack as your finisher and replace that move with Burning Talons past level 20. Keeps the enemies far enough away that they likely won't be hitting you as well as applying a DoT to wittle them down even faster. As a result, you die less often and use less stamina, reducing downtime between mob packs.0
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emily3989✭✭✭✭✭Didn't finish reading, I level way faster than I care to as it is, just messing around and trying out different builds/wpns along the way.Edited by emily3989 on June 10, 2016 7:54PMThasi - V16 Magblade Vampire PC/NA0
