Am I doing this right? Status after 3 months....

Indigo_Shade

So I've been playing ESO for about 3 months. Sometimes I can play a lot, and sometimes I can barely play for a week or 3. My goal in 6 months is to have a couple of decent PVE toons and crafting skills / inventory to make me fairly self-sufficient. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving ESO. But wow, the grind for mats and Skill Points!

From the first day I played, crafting has a been concern. I've read countless guides about crafting, and they all say start early, so I did. It's just now paying off as my hirelings are all 3/3, and my crafting skill lines are well on their way to be maxed out. I'm looking forward to the Champion passives. Craft Motifs are being learned as they are acquired.

Not doing Writs right now because my current level mat needs supercede Writs, but I will be going full steam ahead with Writs once I am further along. From what I have read lately in the forums, acquring Master Writs depends partially on maxing out crafting skill lines and learning Crafting Motifs, so why use up my mats doing writs until those craft lines are maxed completely.

I've got a bunch of storage mules, and another toon that I am doing horse training on, in prep to play her eventually. I've upgraded bank and some bags, but my gold supply is pretty underwhelming. I'll upgrade more bags once I'm not bleeding gold for crafting stuff.

I bought a fully furnished house, am an ESO+ subber, and I pick up everything dang thing I trip across. Inventory management is a bit of a time sink, but I know that eventually I'll use/sell everything in my inventory.

My 2 main toons are level 42, and I'm carefully working to keep up with respective crafting/class skill lines, and get 8 trait research finished (about halfway there) and get ready for level 50. I'm currently not questing because mats for crafting (need lots) have been slow to find for my current level, and I need mat inventory to keep up with my levels. Plus I'm waiting for a bunch of trait research to complete, which will enable me to make decent level 50 sets for my main toons (appropriate for my class) for level 50. Eeesh the grind to get those mats!

Overall so far, I find that leveling has just been WAY too fast to keep up with crafting and mat inventory, along with Skill Points, so I pause questing once every ten levels are so. From what I understand this is a curse of every newbie ESO crafter, and I was forwarned that this would be a hassle in the first 6 months or so of playing. Getting Skill points is hard when your not questing, but I send my toons off to other zones to get Skyshards, and that helps some. For sure, I'll have to resume questing as soon as I have more mats, because my crafting skill lines suck up Skill points like crazy and my main crafting toon ALWAYS needs more.

My Class and Weapon, etc. skill lines are also up there in the high 30 and 40 levels, so no big problems there. I'll be able to make level 50 potions, food and enchantments when I hit level 50. My class build (both toons) is Magic NB DPS (often recommended for advanced players, but it rocks for solo play) and so far it's working pretty well. I wanted to play a thief early on because stealing rocks. I nabbed a class build guide early on. I can deal with quest bosses with a minimum of deaths, though I'm still trying to get a handle on playing the class in different situations. Soloing Public dungeons is impossible. I really can't deal with more than 3 mobs at a time (man I hate Archer mobs), but I figure that will change eventually.

Not into PVP AT ALL, but I know I need to hit the PVP zones eventually. I'm just too busy with everything else to bother, but I know there are some great skill point quests in the PVP areas.

I just have one question, related to the transition from normal levels to Champion levels. I most certainly won't have any extra Skill points when I reach 50, and it sounds like Skill Point acquisiton is much slower after level 50. Any advice for dealing with Skill points after hitting level 50? I could easily reach level 50 on both my main toons in a week, once I start questing again, but this Skill Point concern is really bugging me, and I don't want to start questing again until I really know what I am going to be dealing with after level 50.

Sorry for the wall of text!

KingKush

Trust me, there's plenty of skill points to go around. Do caldwells silver and gold, which is basically the quest lines for the 2 other factions. There will be plenty of skill points acquired through those quest. Also, if you haven't already, run all dungeons possible as the first run of each dungeon provides a skill point.

Look into collecting all skyshards in every zone as well. That alone provides a decent amount of skill points.

Indigo_Shade

I already know about the skyshards. The big concern is what happens after level 50, because it seems that skill points don't come in as fast. I'm cool with doing all the questlines in the other 2 alliance zones, and I have access to all the DLC's.

nodulo

It takes time but as the poster above said continuing with gold/silver questlines, picking up most of the sky shards and doing delves you should easily approach 275+ skillpoints.

My main has a two bar DPS build, a farming build and is maxed in all crafting and passives and I am still sitting on 12 unused points.

As Bobby McPharen said, Don't worry be happy....

Asawasa

what you are doing wrong based on the info provided:

1) don't solo it all. crafting, questing, and most everything else in this game is better when you can do it with Friends. make a few if you don't have any for whatever you need. also keep an eye out for people that can regularly supply you with materials at good prices. anyone who helps you out on anything ask them to be your friend and use them as much as you can/they will allow.

2) don't stop questing/leveling to keep up your crafting levels. anyone can get through this game without having to learn any crafts. it helps but isn't necessary as you can find enough decent gear to get your character leveled. optimizing your character, which should wait really until you are ready for gearing up for endgame, is when you focus on finishing getting traits/skill lines maxed out. (motifs are just for flavor) you can do your research as you go.

3) you didn't mention it, but you might not have some quality of life addons that help you craft/farm for mats. if this is the case, consider getting some of them as they can help you min/max your time.

parkham

Indigo_Shade wrote: »

I just have one question, related to the transition from normal levels to Champion levels. I most certainly won't have any extra Skill points when I reach 50, and it sounds like Skill Point acquisiton is much slower after level 50. Any advice for dealing with Skill points after hitting level 50? I could easily reach level 50 on both my main toons in a week, once I start questing again, but this Skill Point concern is really bugging me, and I don't want to start questing again until I really know what I am going to be dealing with after level 50.

Sorry for the wall of text!

Thank you for paragraphs.

Do the main story quests for each zone. Lots of skill points there. Go to every delve and grab every skyshard.

Regarding crafting and housing. I was all gung *** about getting things high as can be - as quick as possible. My advice is: Just take it as it comes. Do writs every day, deconstruct stuff as you find it. Max your crafting passives and keep your research full at all times.

Nestor

Your right in that trying to level a crafter to keep up with a leveling character is not easy, or really possible in most cases. So, don't even try. Just keep leveling your crafting without investing points except for research passives because you really don't need to craft until CP160. BTW, once you have a 6 Trait Crafter, then they can make awesome gear for your leveling alts. Neat.

As for leveling, it ain't L50, it's CP160.

See this for a sane way to level, and have 95 to 105 skills points when you reach L50

Let me give you an example of what I did with my last two leveling characters.

1. I collected all the Skyshards in the zone. I avoided any and all quests other than those that show up in the delves that have skyshards. These quests do not give set items for rewards so no loss there.
2. I would farm the dolmens a few times to get set jewelry that helped my character
3. I would do the Public Dungeons including all the bosses
4. Then I would move to the next zone.

In doing this, I could fully gear up my character with level appropriate stuff, and it was helpful gear. May not have been the best, but you don't need the best while leveling. Any gear I farmed from Dolmens or PD's is repeatable, so I can get it at CP160 by just repeating. Then, I had all the content quests left for me once I reached CP160 as those can give you sweet Set Drops in good traits you want. And, Quest Experience is huge for gaining CPs once your past CP160. Kind of a waste before that.

In about 8 zones, I would be fully leveled in Mages, Fighters, Class, 3 Armors and Weapon Skills. Leaving only Undaunted to level, although I would get to almost 3 in that from Dungeon Achievements.

KingKush

Indigo_Shade wrote: »

I already know about the skyshards. The big concern is what happens after level 50, because it seems that skill points don't come in as fast. I'm cool with doing all the questlines in the other 2 alliance zones, and I have access to all the DLC's.

If you already know about skyshards and questlines in the other 2 alliances then that answers your questions.

You'll have plenty of skill points just after doing that. Skill points are plentiful in this game....

parkham

KingKush wrote: »

[..] Do caldwells silver and gold[..]

I'm ignorant - what's the point of Caldwells silver and gold now?

Indigo_Shade

Thanks to all of you for your response to my concerns, especially when I realize that my write-up was not clear as I thought it was.

My biggest concern was what happens after level 50 in regards to skill points: the answer I needed ended up being "You still get Skill points after hitting 50. But not from leveling. Points from leveling are Champion points and can only be used for the Champion Skills. However, regular Skill Points still still be gained through quests, dungeons, pvp, and Skyshards."

Based on the replies in this thread, getting regular skill points will not be a problem.

As for my crafting plans, I appreciate that some of you think I'm doing too much of this and at the wrong time. However, I almost always level a couple of "start" toons to learn a game, and acquire gold and inventory. And in this case, Crafting skills.

However, all my other characters (I've gone one started who is parked at a stable, will be doing what Nestor suggested. As an ESO+ sub, leveling to 50 is crazy is easy an fast, and I only realized I should have saved my quests until AFTER level CP160 when I was level 42 and had already partially 3.5 zones.

The write-up Nestor wrote is spot on. That's exactly what I will do with my current parked charecter, and any other charecters I create in the future. Meanwhile though, I'll have crafting skils ready and waiting for the needs of those play characters.

Nestor

Indigo_Shade wrote: »

However, regular Skill Points still still be gained through quests, dungeons, pvp, and Skyshards."

Based on the replies in this thread, getting regular skill points will not be a problem.

Yes, you can keep chasing Skyshards and Public Dungeons across the rest of the zones. Thing is, your first character you take to CP160 is kind of weird. Your outleveling armor so fast, if you thought leveling was fast, wait for the first 80 to 120 CPs. Anyway, please focus this on just one character, that way you never have to worry about the weird CP10 to CP159 range ever again.

Quite frankly, take the Character to Wrothgar, all the loot up there is repeatable. Do a World Boss Tour each day, and do the content up there, it's a lot of fun. But I used to get 3 to 4 Vet Ranks from the content up there, I bet you get your first 160 champ points if you clear that zone.

Indigo_Shade

Nestor wrote: »

Indigo_Shade wrote: »

However, regular Skill Points still still be gained through quests, dungeons, pvp, and Skyshards."

Based on the replies in this thread, getting regular skill points will not be a problem.

Yes, you can keep chasing Skyshards and Public Dungeons across the rest of the zones. Thing is, your first character you take to CP160 is kind of weird. Your outleveling armor so fast, if you thought leveling was fast, wait for the first 80 to 120 CPs. Anyway, please focus this on just one character, that way you never have to worry about the weird CP10 to CP159 range ever again.

Quite frankly, take the Character to Wrothgar, all the loot up there is repeatable. Do a World Boss Tour each day, and do the content up there, it's a lot of fun. But I used to get 3 to 4 Vet Ranks from the content up there, I bet you get your first 160 champ points if you clear that zone.

That Wrothgar tip is interesting. Did you mean all the QUESTS are repeatable? If not, what did you mean?

Also, that tip about CP10 to CP159 is appreciated. It sounds like this happens pretty 'fing quick. Sounds like there is no way I can keep up with crafting, unless I continue along this current trend of stopping every 10 levels to get mats etc. (which is way boring). I'll be thinking about that a lot of the next couple of days, as I'm going to be too busy to work to play much until later this week.

Needless to say, I can easily get to level 50 the next weekend I can devote to the game. Having a specific location goal after is a big help, since there is SO much content still to get through. I wasn't at all sure where I was going to go, and in what order.

Indigo_Shade

Asawasa wrote: »

what you are doing wrong based on the info provided:

3) you didn't mention it, but you might not have some quality of life addons that help you craft/farm for mats. if this is the case, consider getting some of them as they can help you min/max your time.

I do have a bunch of add-on istalled. Stuff for crafting, Guild Traders, and some general things. In fact, just update a bunch yesterday.

RavenSworn

Heya op, I had the same kind of levelling as yours and I had multiple toons proficient in different crafting professions. I can say that what you are doing is not that extreme but because of the change in the main game system (1Tamriel), it is definitely harder than usual to farm modes in view of your current level.

However do take note that the nodes 'level up' in terms of your crafting level, so you don't have to worry about 'outlevelling' the content. I had one toon proficient in the 3 main crafting professions so when the newer toons were levelling up, all they needed to do is to farm nodes at their level.

Unfortunately though, when you do have your first 160 toon, the rest of your characters that will has reached lv50, will automatically be cp 160. That means mats from 0-160cp will be kind of wasted and will likely never be farmed.

Your questions on skill points has been answered but I thought to also add abit more to what @Nestor has said. I have these 4D rule that I follow when I level up new toons or even grinding out items. It's Delves, Dolmens, Dungeon (public), Dungeon (Group). While it may seem wasted to finish up some of the quests in the group dungeons as the item rewards are set items, you can always not turn in the quest and continue it when you have reached cp160, especially if it is a set item that you deemed useful for your character.

Hope that all these tips and tricks help you op.