Few questions from a returning player

Alp2760

Hi all, first of all, I'll set out that I am pretty clueless with this game. I got it at release with a few friends because I love the mmo idea and love elder scrolls. Unfortunately, they just couldn't get to grips with it. After they ducked out early, I tried a few character and had a rogue at level 22.

None of the dlc was available when I stopped playing, I don't think at least but I kept having cravings to play. I'd left a sub going and some time ago, I jumped back in, bought the thieves guild dlc and dabbled in that a bit.

I've now downloaded again, subbed and bought a house. No idea what this will do but I had around 6.5k in crown coins so thought I might as well!

So basically, I've very limited knowledge on what I'm doing but I'm going to crack on. I have a few questions though.

How's the Xbox population doing? Is it generally active? I've seen a few people running around but won't do any group content until I'm confident that I'm not an absolute liability. I understand the purpose of various roles etc but don't know how they apply in this yet. I assume I'm dps? I have the assassin type build and currently spend a decent amount of time turning invisible and running away from things I'm not strong enough to tackle.

Be nice to know that there's an active player base though, for when I do venture into group content. How are dungeon queues?

My next question is solo stuff - I'm level 25 now, is getting to the level cap and doing other things feasible solo? I really want to get into group content but will be trying to understand everything before then.

Also, roles, any in particular that will help me be useful. I know tanks are usually in short supply and for the most part, lots of peole want to dps. I've been happy ok dps, tank or healer duty, so don't mind leaning towards whatever will make me useful.

Lastly, how's the future looking for the game? Is it looking like it will be solid for the coming year(s) or have I missed the boat on its 'busy' period?

If you've read this far, thanks and congratulations on surviving my ramblings!

Any advice/help would be really appreciated.

Cheers

Dracindo

Being a PC user, I can't talk much about Xbox things and how the world spins there.

As a Nightblade, you'd think you're supposed to be a Damage Dealer, but from what I've heard, they can also go as Tanks.
Are a Magblade or a Stamblade? Or something in between?

For group dungeons, invisibility isn't a good thing. If you feel like you die too fast in dungeons, try to get that tank in your team.

If you do solo content, invisibility could be used as an opener.


The best advice I can give you, is to try and find a nice PvE guild.

Shanjijri

Dracindo wrote: »

As a Nightblade, you'd think you're supposed to be a Damage Dealer, but from what I've heard, they can also go as Tanks.

You can be a healer too. I am one, and it works really fine. I don't do veteran trials (except vDSA), but for the rest, it's completely fine!

CaptainBeerDude

Xbox has players. I'm in EP (slavers, drunks and lizards) and Mournhold always has people about.
Don't worry about being a liability in the GF. No one else does and you've already taken the first steps to getting out of Scrubsville.
If you go DD, having one resource pool is your friend but maybe sling a couple of points into health as well.
If you use your 'off' pool, keep it for utility. The damage and healing will be meh. Unless you have a sorc, in which case level up dark deal and get the morph that spends mag for stam and HP.
If you can stand to grind, you can level up pretty quickly. But just doing the story line quests will do it eventually (my first toon was V16 before the end of Cadwell's Gold).

Edit:
Try and work out basic tanking or healing. It's not too hard in the normal dungeons and your GF will go much faster.
Tank: slot taunt and try to tag everything with it and not die.
Healer: don't be a stam healer and use heals.

Alp2760

Thanks all for the replies.

I'll be honest, I'm very aware of my scrubbyness at the moment. I've jumped back in, mid leveling, so I'm trying to figure out what my thought process was.

I tend to use invisibility, because I can follow up with surprise attack, to stun, then spam hard attacks and mix that with my bow. I have agony, lotus fan and aspect of terror but to be honest, I struggle to see what they actually do haha.

I'd really like to tank, as an NB, is there anything I should look out for load out wise? None of it comes across as particularly 'tanky' or is more the weapon you use?

It seems to have done me OK in solo stuff up to level 25 but I'm positive I'm being clueless. Healing has seemed a bit scarce, so I've ploughed some hours into alchemy, in the hope I can at least craft things to keep me going.

Also, is tanking/healing a liability, in solo content? My longest mmo stretch was dcuo and I had various alts of all roles. In that, being a tank or healer was an absolute chore in solo content. Does it take significantly longer to complete quests in this? I think that's why I went for what appears to be dps. To save the pain of spending tons of time in solo dungeons.

Thanks again for the replies, I'll try and look for a guild now, as well as revisit all of the moves I can buy and see about changing to a tank spec.

If it's easier, I can grab a respect token and change race/class? I am khajit at the moment, can't remember why I chose them. I think it had something to do with stealth but I'm not sure.

CaptainBeerDude

Sword and shield for tanking. Get used to getting stuff with pierce armour (will reduce their armour as well)
NB's have limited heals early, but evolve into a health absorbing beast later on.
Just focus on levelling up all the weapons for now, as you probably aren't sure what you want to go for. Going a stamblade is probably easier for tanking to start with, but a magblade will be more versatile later on.
Tanking can be a bit low damage, but there is ways to offset this. Remember to apply anything that damages enemies over time to help with your lower damage output.
I only run two skills that aren't damage or survival buffs* and can still get through solo content pretty easily. Although I'm going for a hybrid damage tank.


Edit:
*they are taunt and a single target arrack.

Alp2760

@CaptainBeerDude thanks a lot for that! I'm going to make the transition over to tank. I was using dual wield and bow, have now switched to 1h and shield. I had no idea the taunt was in 1h.

Just to check - I can't find my any other taunts, other than the first skill in 1h, is that right? I probably sound thick but it looks to me like the only taunt I have available. Are there others/ranged taunts at all?

CaptainBeerDude

@Alp2760 there is 3 available taunts.
S+B first skill
Undaunted Inner Fire
Frost staff heavy attack

S+B is a solid tanking tree. You've got the taunt (morph for pierce armour) and some mitigation and gap closer.

The other 2 are ranged, but can be more difficult to use. And the staff is slow.

I'm running a sorc, but I'll give you my load out in case it helps you to build yours.

Khajiit (crit bonus, HP regen bonus, stam regen bonus)
Stam sorc (I'm just used to the skills)
Heavy Armour (health bonus, resource return when damaged)
All points into stam
5 pc hundings rage, 4 pc ashen grip

Bar 1 - DW
Flurry (healing morph for facetanking)
Streak (mobility and stun. Uses mag)
Veil of Blades? (3rd DW skill for mitigation and DOTs)
Bound armour (haven't got it levelled for morph yet, but stam boost then and mitigation always)
Crit surge (healing on crits, damage buff)
Werewolf ulti (stam regen, general tooling around)

Bar 2 - S+B
Pierce armour (taunt, defence debuff)
Dark deal (need to level for morph, then it restores health and stam. Currently does HP and mag)
Exploding prison? (3rd Dark Magic skill, roots AOE cone in front. Small damage. Uses mag)
Bound armour (as above, is a toggle so is required on both bars for 100% uptime when bar swapping)
Hurricane (defence buff, DOTs)
WW ulti (as above. No, I don't have warhorn. Stupid PVP skill line)

basically I try to keep my buffs up and get taunts on as much as possible. Then hold position and block. If I'm feeling frisky, and there isn't too much incoming damage I will go to facetank mode and light weave flurry (use a light attack on the end of your skill to reduce animation time. I pretty much spam right trigger and x) to add more DPS to my group.
My build is not meta though.

if your on NA, feel free to hit me up. GT is the same as my forum handle.

Tasear

healer might be easier to do and less expensive then tank. Indeed have you ever noticed that healer gear is cheap nearly worthless yet tank gear can be up to 120k or more... ouchy.

CaptainBeerDude

He's not 50 yet.
And @Alp2760 don't buy gear. If you are under 150 CP I've probably got enough mats to make you something serviceable.
Edit: that's if you're over 50 and I'm a space cadet. I have enough mats to make you <50 gear as well.
Only blue though, I just made me new set as I popped 50 last night and all my stats tanked as my gear was terrible.
Edit 2: healing is fun, but I prefer holding hands with everything. My dude was a magsorc until lvl 46 and I was still in heavy armour standing next to the tank...
I'm sure I made a few people facedesk, but didn't die as much as other scrubs.

Alp2760

@CaptainBeerDude you're a legend, thanks a lot. I'm probably gonna to sound really stupid here but by NA, do you mean North America?

Thats set my evening up later, will need to respec, I think I've picked awful morphs haha.

Thanks again dude, will add your gt and hopefully see around

Alp2760

Haha I don't think I've changed my gear in a long time. I've just been running around with what I had before I stopped playing.

I'll give tank a go, it's always been my favourite role but will look at putting a healer at together, to give that a bash.

Desmes

I wish I knew that 160 is the max item level. So if you hit 160 CP you can start to craft/collect your end game gear. Houses are basically goldsinks. They don't provide you any benefits, so if you ignore it, you are not losing anything. DLC basically give you extra ways to earn money, like daily quests that can drop a motifs.

Alp2760

Ye I'm sort of regret my house to be honest haha. I bought the sleek Creek house with the crown coins. I suppose it's an easy warp point and there's a decent route for water and alchemist mats, so I can run that and stock up a bit.

In hindsight I'd probably have bought a cheaper one lol