Your first dungeon run

Glamdring

I had NO idea what dps or dd ment. My NB was a mix between mag and stam and i played the same way i did in open world. I remember i hade cloak on my bar and used it alot The healer must have been very frustrated when i cloaked away. Well the whole group must have been. Luckily i ran with guildies. This was Banished Cells by the way and for some reason i miss theese newbie days. How was your first run?

Sigtric

I'm pretty sure my first was Fungal Grotto as it is the first in EP, but I don't remember. lol

AzraelKrieg

Too long ago. I think I was supposed to be healing it since I was a templar

KochDerDamonen

After Tamriel Unlimited but before any dlcs dropped I started playing with a friend. He was an experienced WoW raider, and the only mmo I had played to any length prior was runescape. I was a bit shy and he was... abbrasive, so we duo'd Fungal Grotto at lvl15 as a mag Temp(me) and stam NB. It was so much fun we did this with every dungeon ASAP til vet months later, barring a few exceptions (Blackheart >n>).

SirAndy

Fungal Grotto during early beta. Back in the day we only had EP and only up to Stonefalls. There were no other zones.

Mic1007

Spindleclutch at Level 12; I just walked in, not realizing it to be a Group Dungeon. Needless to say, I walked back out of the front door shortly after.

IrishGirlGamer

Wow, that's a long way back. I, too, was new to MMOs and so I didn't know all the terminology. Spindleclutch. I think my character was something silly like a stamina Breton DW NB ... something. Calling it DPS is too generous.

There were four of us and we couldn't find a healer. Someone in the group wanted me to respec to be a healer. We started twice and got wiped on the first mob both times. Finally, we found a healer and got rolling.

The boss at the end wiped us like three times. Looking back, it makes me smile to think of how "new" we were. Somehow I kept pulling the agro from the tank and he ended up focusing on damage. Our healer kept throwing out jokes that would make me laugh and sometimes die. When we were finally done, we stood outside talking about ESO (that was before ESOTU) and other games for like an hour.

I think two of that group are still on my friends list. Good times.

Oakmontowls_ESO

I was a stamina nb and my only aoe skill was lotus fan..... The crab boss in nFg destroyed us.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

My first was Fungal Grotto. I was a level 16 DK damage dealer. I had no idea what I was doing but had fun learning. Our group made it through without a single wipe. We had a level 12 healer who did an amazing job.

VaxtinTheWolf

Having played in the open/public beta I know I cleared at least up to Auridon, but didn't want to spoil anything more so stopped there.

As for launch, I dont know which was first anymore, but it was probably my Khajiit Nightblade trying to be a tank in The Banished Cells.

I couldn't grasp how to build a tank in this game for a long time as a Nightblade and soon started my second character as an Argonian Nightblade "DPS". I made them around the same time anyway to reserve their names.

Shadesofkin

I played a heavy armor sword and shield Stam DK Tank. I knew what it was and I lead our group through Veteran Banished Cells back in the first month of the game. We hammered away at it and we had a blast figuring out what we had to do to complete it.

smacx250

Haven't run many dungeons, but my first was banished cells on May 3rd '14 - I think about lvl 14 or so. No finder back then. Hung out outside the dungeon and asked in chat if anyone was going in. Had never grouped before. One higher level player led a few of us lower levels through. I remember it as "wham, bam, thank you ma'am". She killed stuff so fast and was waiting for the next I didn't even feel like I had time to loot, never mind figure out why I was there. I finished that and was wondering "what the hell just happened?".

dem0n1k

Fungal Grotto for me too. I only had one ESO playing friend so we did it 2 man.... got smashed so many times :P~ good times.

crimeanerevar928b14_ESO

My first dungeon, I think, was Wayrest Sewers; that was interesting to do, though I was level 45 and my friend who ran with me was VR16.

My first vet dungeon was Spindleclutch, and I got a Bloodspawn helmet and I was like "What is this????" and wore it around without really knowing much.

Silver_Strider

Level 14 NB healer in Fungal Grotto. Surprised the group pretty well too. It was difficult at the time as I wasn't entirely used to the role and unaware how to reach my full potential, just spamming healing springs with rapid regen. Didn't use funnel health much but we ultimately cleared it with only a handful of death, mostly to the midcrab boss due to his adds swarming us and lack of much AoE.

acw37162

Spindleckutch.

Found it doing open world questing. Walked in go crushed ina second and half by the first add who saw me and I waked back out.

My first vet dungeon was City of Ash oh the days of groups falling apart at the second and third boss.

What am I taking about I pigged City I ash with group finder last week and the second and third boss are still very large problems for a lot of players. Namely the twelve or thirteen that came and went.

Strider_Roshin

It was Banished Cells during the first PC beta, and I died to the final boss lol

Elara_Northwind

I truly do not remember my very first dungeon. I remember going to one (Fungal Grotto I believe) with a friend and 2 random people from zone very early on. I was on my templar who was only a baby back then, and this guy told me that I played templar all wrong because I heavy attacked between heals. What a *** that guy was.... It was my first negative experience in the game actually. The tank ended up stepping in and telling us all to be nice to each other when I pretty much told the arse to get lost because he wouldn't stop being mean, so not the best of memories

disintegr8

Spindleglutch at about level 14 on my first character, someone picked me up as I was outside the entrance - completely overwhelming. I died a few times in the run but thought I did well to actually complete it without realizing it was probably the rest of the group that carried me through as I had no idea what I was doing and had a rubbish build.

This character was still a rubbish build using unmatched dropped gear when he was at level 49 as I still did not know what I was doing!!. Being someone who played on my own and had no idea about guilds and grouping, I didn't go into a group dungeon again on that character until he was vet level.

I also remember the first time I went into a leveled dungeon - my character (1st alt) was about level 32 (still with no CP) and I grouped up with someone outside the dungeon (Fungal Grotto). When we went in and were confronted by a mob of vet16 enemies, which I had no idea how to combat, I instantly died and could not get out of there fast enough. We thought the dungeon was broken in some way when this happened again and again and then gave up.

ListerJMC

I don't remember what my first normal dungeon was, but it was pretty easy and uneventful (but considering I thought mages wrath was the main damage ability for a mag sorc, had no aoes, and was using white non-set gear, I know I was carried through it! ). I just used random dungeon finder and I think I was a little under level 40 at the time.

I do remember my first veteran dungeon quite clearly though, it was Darkshade Caverns and it was the first time I ran into trouble with my interpretive set-up. We couldn't get past Grobull (not surprisingly), and the healer and tank both rage-quit saying the dps wasn't enough.The other dd and I didn't want to give up though, and we ended up finding a really experienced magicka templar who came in to help us out and pretty much solo'd the rest of the dungeon. He then invited me into a guild which is now my main guild, so I'm glad I stuck with that dungeon run because I've met so many awesome people from that invite!

JKith

My first was Veteran Spindleclutch... i had no idea there was a difference between Vet and Normal.. i actually didnt' even know there was a Vet or a normal... thought a dungeon was just a dungeon...

I was the healer and didn't even know food was basically mantatory for dungeon runs... i died sooo many times and got revived and died again right after being rezzed......

It was a PUG and thinking back on it now,... i must have been super lucky to have understanding peeps that basically carried me through the dungeon. lol!!

Now i'm a super OP healer in Vet Dungeons

ForsakenSin

LOL damm that was a while ago

it was Fungal Grotto and i remember i had a Imperial DK stam magica health build LOL food what food? i was rocking with Whitestrake's Retribution Set i was lv 40 never died once i was OP!!! A GOD!!! ... and my friend as NB we got in random with temp who didn't have any heals instead was using blood alter and those crabs were real pain in the .. behind ... after that ive done many many dungeons with my DK felling OP it was sooo easy every normal dungeon and few vet as well until the update ... lol when everything changed and then i decided to go with my favo class in all games magic sorc and it was amazing ... until DB dlc when things changed again ... lol but ... all is good stam sorc is in the build and i can't wait to finish it.

You know sometimes i miss those days going to unknown dungeons getting a random non set purple item and going OH MY GOD !! or when my friend gets it im like YOU !#$!@ !##$ competing with friends who will find better gear or get up lv higher it was fun.

Going to deshan on my flame horse and seeing players gathering around me ... people asking me how i got it and how i got my Armour and what is it ( it was HA imperial so looked awesome ) and looking at other people and been amazed aaaaa

Don't get me wrong the game is still fun but now its more about calculations, making gold, writs, selling ,finding a specific gear set, theory crafting , yelling and swearing at VMSA ...... sometimes it fells more serious then what it was in the beginning.

Necrelios

I remember doing Fungal Grotto in beta. There was some really immature player who said some very disturbing and inappropriate things involving young children. I often wonder about that person to this day whenever I'm tempted to do another dungeon.

TheUrbanWizard

Mic1007 wrote: »

Spindleclutch at Level 12; I just walked in, not realizing it to be a Group Dungeon. Needless to say, I walked back out of the front door shortly after.

Spindleclutch yeah. Me and my bro just walked in, wiped about 2 mins later lol! B

Back when people queued at the door, we couldn't get into a group!

Knootewoot

M my first dungeon run which was Spindleclutch. I was not in a guild yet. I did know what dps, dd and all the acronyms ment though since it was not my first mmo. I was a bowblade back then wearing random loot drop armor. Man, the noobdays are the most fun of any mmo.

RebornV3x

My first was fungal grotto and it was a horrible experience just coming from being able to crush Castle Never in Neverwinter with ease I thought this game was super hard it doesn't help that the overland quests are so easy and then bam all of a sudden the game was challenging yeah it sucked.

Asardes

This is my 1st multiplayer game, but I generally follow the same strategy I use in other games - when leveling my main I cleared everything in each zone, before moving to the next. I grew to 6 levels above the highest level enemies in the area in the process, at which point there is a cutover in kill XP gain. The group dungeon was the last thing I cleared, because finding groups was pretty hard before group finder came about, at some point in November last year. So my first 3-4 dungeons were run with PuGs from zone chat or simply asking random people queued at the door. I was level 21 when I first entered Fungal Grotto. I was in my level 15 self crafted green heavy set, a combo of ashen grip and death's wind as I had already researched the first 2 traits on sufficient items. The run was actually pretty smooth. Just taunted everything - didn't know what a tank should do but just used that ability because it was the first unlocked - and the others killed the mobs. I think there was a higher level one, since back then there was no battle leveling in dungeons and they only scaled to leader. Got the skill point from the quest at the end and was pretty happy I fond the group.

Darkshade in the next zone was pretty easy too, though I had to ask for hours in chat for someone to group. By the time I reached the next zone, the group finder was implemented and I tried grouping for Arx Corinium but got very bad DDs who spent like 20 minutes trying to kill the snake boss. Each time I hit a snag in a dungeon I toggled the game window, opened a browser and searched for tips, as I do for any other stuff, then shared with the group. We dragged on to the singing lamia but there people were just not paying attention to the snake, we wiped again and again - I was the only one running under the shield, told the others to do the same but they would not listen. The group disbanded and I ran the dungeon next day with no troubles with more experienced people that played by the mechanics. Direfrost Keep was similar, with people not blocking Droda's attack, just filling her health back up. 5 minutes into the fight I was basically spamming the chat with "block" "block" "block" each time they were caught, but to no avail. 30-40 minutes later I finally gave up. Finished the dungeon next day without issues, just like I did the previous one. In The Rift I reached level 45, received the Undaunted invitation, then took up the silver pledges. Didn't bother to complete the dungeons in order, just followed the daily progression - I've been doing the pledges daily for the last year, with just about one week off in total. A few days later I had reached level 50/VR1 and also started doing the gold pledges. My 1st one was veteran Spindleclutch on 23rd November 2015. I finished all veteran dungeons during the 1st rotation (not VICP and VWGT though as I did not have the DLC), the only failed one being Veteran City of Ash, which was probably DPS/mechanics fail since I was the last man standing, with everything aggroed. Finished that next week, at VR4, though it was strange, since the reward item for the quest was VR14. This dungeon was definitely harder than the others, and failed the pledge 2 more times until I reached VR16 mid January, each time due to insufficient DPS. By that time I had CP 240 and had stashed all obtained chest keys. I opened about 60 of them that day and had to make a bank char to stash all the loot. Since then it has mostly been routine.

Between TG launch that added the random dungeon reward, and DB which added the cooldown, I ran 6-10 random veteran dungeons a day in order to gain CP fast, farm the monster heads and materials for CP160 armor at the same time from deconstruction - I had no DLC and no source besides deconstruction. By March 18th I had completed all veteran dungeon challenges. By April 25 I had enough materials to finally craft my gold VR16 (CP160) gear. On 21st May I reached the CP cap, 6 months after reaching the veteran ranks. That day I bought IC and started running those dungeons too as gold pledges. The first few runs were hard, but they smoothed out over the first couple of weeks. On July 31st I finally completed the Imperial City Challenger. The next day SotH was released, and I completed the dungeons for gold pledge with some friends, getting most achievements in the process over the next 3 days. We got the hard mode boss fight on both in the 1st run, but I haven't been to get both gold keys out of the pledges since, as most groups don't have the required discipline to beat the hard mode. I still have difficulties tanking Velidreth, but in time I will learn to better time my ultimates, roll dodges and interrupts, just like the other bosses.

altemriel

I do not remember which one it was, but I remember that my build was pretty messy - also mix of stam and mag, attribute points to stam and mag and health, I had no idea about build nor sets, was fun (for me at least )

Alucardo

I believe my first run was Wayrest sewers. I went in there with my stam sorc spamming steel tornado and wrecking blow with 11k health.
We completed it, but I was never invited back.

Mirelurk

What a great topic, thanks OP.

So many similar experiences being told ...

My first was Spindleclutch at level 10 or so on my sorc in May 2014 (he's still my main/favourite toon) ... I had no bar swap and next to no idea what I was doing.

You grouped just by standing at the door and looking pretty. Somehow I scored an invite.

One guy in the group had clearly played MMOs before so he sort of knew what to look out for in general and gave some useful advice. We struggled through it for a couple of hours, but got it done.

Looking back we were almost all total noobs, but the sense of achievement made it one of the best days of my life.

Dallasali

Spindleclutch...had only been playing for a couple of weeks and had no idea it was a group thing. Honestly tried to do it solo about 5 times, dying as soon as I hit the first mob. Thought to myself I'd come back to it later when I had leveled up. Was not long after that I realised it was for groups. Major duh moment!!

Thankfully I have an awesome guild who got together a group to take me through a dungeon and teach me the ropes. They're the best.