Please help me figure out the best class for me

sutasafaia

So, with the expansion coming up, I'm considering joining the swarm of players who will be coming back. I've played the game before, I genuinely enjoy it, but I always have the same problem. I can never find a class/build that I enjoy enough to keep me sticking around and playing. Maybe I never found the right setup? I don't know. I'm hoping you can help with this one. I'll give as much detail as I possibly can and hope it narrows things down.

Now, I've played a lot of MMO's. I'm not necessarily good at them mind you, but I've been playing since the days of Meridian so I've certainly played a lot of them. In all that time my favorite class that I've played is the current iteration of warlock in WoW. It's almost a serene experience. I'm not good at managing cooldowns, I end up feeling like I spend the entire game staring at my skill bar instead of admiring how the game looks, and especially in this game that's a bad idea since "dodge the red" is a thing. Warlock has a couple cooldowns that are virtually never used outside of top end play, and everything else is an instant or channel. You make sure to keep your dots up, you laugh as nothing gets through your damage shield, and you have massive healing right in your rotation. It's the most calming character I've ever found in an MMO. It lets me focus purely on the game since I never have to look at cooldowns, I just focus on doing what needs to get done. I love it. Is there anything like that in ESO?

My primary goal is to find the easiest solo class. Please note that I said easiest, not best. If they happen to be the same thing, bonus. I'm not talking about top of the top soloing either. I get that there are ways to solo vWGT and stuff like that, but that looks like it would be more frustrating rather than fun, at least to me. As I mentioned, I've played a lot of MMO's over the years, and the one big truth I've decided is that I am done playing these games "seriously." I spent years trying to be hardcore, and honestly all I ever got out of it was stress. I am not playing games to stress. I get home from work, I want to enjoy my time, why was I doing that to myself? So yea...forget that. If possible, I want to be able to solo world bosses, public dungeons (delves? it's been a while, I forget the terms), stuff like that. If I can't solo raids (are there raids? I forget that also) or whatever the equivalent is because I'm not playing the best class...oh well. But I certainly would like to be able to solo most things.

If possible, I would like my soloer to be useful in groups and to my guild as well. To my knowledge though this shouldn't be a problem since I think every class can spec into some form of tank, healer, or support?

Can't think of much else to add. Thank you in advance for any advice. Looking forward to seeing some people in-game if I decide to come back. I really do miss playing this game, but the sheer indecision on what to play always caused me to stall out.

Anyway, I hope that's enough info to avoid this being a generic "tell me what to play (aka tell me the OP fotm)" post. Thanks again.

dpencil1

Magicka Sorcerer

RavenSworn

Honestly, the closest you can get to playing a warlock character is either using a magicka based sorcerer or night blade. I'd even say that a magicka sorcerer would be akin to a demolock or destruction lock while the magicka Nightblade plays very much like an affliction warlock.

All three playstyles work well in their own right, and provide survivability with enough damage output for both solo or group play.

sutasafaia

Are there any good starter builds for lightning magicka sorc? I've been getting a few people telling me to try that out. Possibly nightblade also, but figure I'll start with the sorc.

Dread_Guy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLWqnQ2EfnFBiNPaX85bOh2fwD0MSfA18G&v=EaKWkVouJyA

sutasafaia

Dread_Knight_N7 wrote: »

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLWqnQ2EfnFBiNPaX85bOh2fwD0MSfA18G&v=EaKWkVouJyA

Thank you for the link, watching now. Doesn't seem to be a starter build at all unless he has a leveling section I'm not seeing.

Wasn't there also a lightning build floating around that was double pets, inner fire (or whatever it was called) and then only used two active skills on each bar? I forget what it was, not even sure it was any good...I seem to remember it was popular.

Izaki

Magicka Sorcerer for sure

Dread_Guy

@sutasafaia most people level up by going to skyreach catacombs in Craglorn with a high level friend. With EXP potions or scrolls, it takes maybe 4-5 hours to level a character from 1-50. You can also follow the PvE dolmen zerg in Alikr Desert. It's slower than Skyreach but you don't have to depend on a high level friend.

sutasafaia

Dread_Knight_N7 wrote: »

@sutasafaia most people level up by going to skyreach catacombs in Craglorn with a high level friend. With EXP potions or scrolls, it takes maybe 4-5 hours to level a character from 1-50. You can also follow the PvE dolmen zerg in Alikr Desert. It's slower than Skyreach but you don't have to depend on a high level friend.

Interesting, but I have zero plans to power level myself. I want to actually play the game :P

Been looking around at the various classes again since it's been a while. Basically looks like Lightning Magsorc (especially with pets, although they seem to have been nerfed pretty hard?)or Magplar, maybe a stamsorc or magblade, are my best bets for soloing. Not sure which way to go yet but likely leaning towards magsorc or magplar.

Not really sure. I'm getting more and more interested in returning as I dig around but I don't want to end up starting a class only to drop it over and over. I have serious re-roll problems and want to stick to one darn character >_< I hate losing interest in a game because I can't decide what to play and it always happens.

sutasafaia

So this is what I'm leaning towards for mag sorc so far: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/302925/infallible-infinite-wizard-magsorc-vma-build-video-homestead-ready/p1

Not sure what to try if I play magplar yet, there are so many builds.

I'm heavily leaning towards one of those two classes at this point, still unsure what I want to do though.

drakhan2002_ESO

Both classes will be fun. (Personal opinion): I love the magplar - it feels like a Paladin (from WoW). The Magsorc is your basic pet class - and the closest to the Warlock.

Race is important, the skills are too, but you should unlock them all and mess around with them. Your play style may be different than the builds you're looking at.

sutasafaia

I've tried both up to 10 so far, figured why not. Honestly not sure which I enjoy more right now, they obviously are missing a ton of skills so it's hard to judge. At least this early though, it's pretty obvious sorc has zero sustain issues (zero healing though unless you use resto or that raptor pet), templar has tons of sustain issues but so much healing. Delicious healing. Templar is certainly easier right now, but I'm also missing basically all the skills I want to use later on for sorc, whereas I have my core 3-4 skills on templar already, so kinda unfair to compare I guess?

Still incredibly unsure which to play to 50 first.

Catnight

You told us you dont want to play hardcore. So best advice: play what looks fun for you. All skills can be changed by ZOS any time.
I watched videos showing each skill of each class to figure out what suits me most. Sustain is a thing you can "learn" (just heavy attack to regain ressources, its simple (staves for magica and anything else for stamina)). And no, sorc will be struggeling like any other class if you just spam skills the whole day. And you will spam at least your shield all day long on strong enemies or you will die in light armor very fast. I have a magica regen of 1500 with magica drain skill active and still use heavy attacks and potions a lot on long fights.
Sorcs have 2 selfheal and one groupheal. selfheal is the raptor pet (but i would choose the imp (volatile familiar) for lots of damage)) and dark exchange. "groupheal" comes with a particular morph of the winged twillight.
Sorcerer can be a very demanding class lategame (mostly because the permanent need for shields in dungeons or against worldbosses) and if you want a relaxing class, templar will be more likely your favourite.

Ps. Be aware that your ressourcepools are scaling with your level and armor. Your armor and weapons become weaker with every level you are above the equiplevel and your ressource pools also are reduced. How good your current armor is you can see on the stars in the character screen in the upper-right corner. You want to have at least 4/5 stars. It becomes tough with 3 and with 2 you arent going anywhere.

sutasafaia

Thanks for all that advice.

I've taken both to 20, things are starting to slow down now so I definitely want to pick one to focus on. Just some more observations I've had...

Sorc: Simpler to play, for sure. Put down a bunch of AoE, let pets tank. Against large single targets (like the 2* bosses in public group dungeons, or whatever they're called) I've found the sorc can basically let the pet get agro and then there's virtually zero risk to me at all. Incredibly easy. Resource management has been absolute cake since I don't use any spammable attacks with the infallable build, I haven't even bothered putting points into the resource passives yet so I have lots of extra points for other things. Of course if I get jumped I tend to drop pretty fast, although the raptor isn't a terrible heal (until I morph twilight at least).

Templar: Almost as simple as the sorc to play, but definitely more skills to worry about at once. Has a massive amount of trouble trying to solo the 2* bosses that my sorc laughs at (I honestly stopped trying for now), but I can handle large swarms (which morrowind seems to love) very easily. As long as I have magicka I'm basically immortal but since I have no sets I tend to run out of magicka pretty fast, definitely more involved compared to the sorc as far as maintaining my pool. Kind of nice not to have to keep enemies sitting in my DoTs all the time (lightning and elemental wall) although I still use wall on my templar also...

Honestly, not sure who I have more fun with =/ but leveling is slowing enough that I really feel like I should try and pick one soon to focus on.

T1y4hoon

My main two toons are a magplar and a magika sorc

I found that both were very easy to level up, and I didn't have sets or cp while I was leveling them up.

In the end, I still have way more fun playing my templar than my sorcerer because I feel that the templar is a much more forgiving class with the crazy amount of heals you can get from abilities. There is also nothing more satisfying than jesus-beaming someone into dust.