Some Tips for ESO Newcomers - And a Welcome

Rainwhisper

So, you love the Elder Scrolls games, and have fond memories of Morrowind. When you saw you could now adventure in Morrowind with your friends, you purchased the game and dove right in. Then you realized that some things didn't quite make sense, and came here to the forums for guidance.

First of all...WELCOME! The Elder Scrolls Online has the most friendly, co-operative, helpful, articulate, and adult playerbase I have found in over twenty years of playing MMO's. The only other game where I met as many adult, married couples who played together was Lord of the Rings Online. To me that's an indicator of the health and maturity of the community.

Be forewarned, that healthy, robust community is not always reflected in the forums. If people are having fun playing the game, and have no complaints, concerns, or questions, they play the game, not the forums. That is, unless they're at work, and killing a little time over lunch to think about their hobby. (Ahem!). So, there is a disproportionate amount of complaining, whining, griping, criticism, etcetera here, and some partisan bickering. I've contributed to it myself. Rest assured that, /zone chat aside, the social world of the game is far more varied and positive.

Now, on to some of the things that may have brought you here:


Do I level my skills by using them, just like in an Elder Scrolls game?

Yes and no. While ESO replicates the lore and the aesthetic of an Elder Scrolls game, and many of the priorities (like encouraging wandering off the beaten path), it also has many of the conventions of an MMO. You do have a class, so not every skill in the game is available to every character. BUT, in true Elder Scrolls fashion, you can use any weapon and any armor type on any character.

The game tracks which skills you have on your bar, and which items you have equipped, when you earn XP to determine which skill lines and skills increase. Unless you are grinding (something I've never had to do in three years of playing), you will get a lot more XP from quests than from fighting, so - once you hit level 15 and have a second experience bar - you may want to keep skills that you hope to level on your second bar, and swap to that bar before you turn in a quest. Regardless, try to keep one weapon skill, and one skill from each of your class lines, on your bar at all times. It's also generally a good idea to wear at least one piece from each armor type.


Can I use all of my character's skills at any time?

No. Your skill bar can only have five skills, and one "Ultimate" up at a time. After level 15, you can have toggle between two skill bars (and two different weapon types, if you like). Many folks keep buffs and damage-over-time abilities on one bar, and their primary attacks on the other. Swapping back and forth between bars during a fight is something you should anticipate doing a lot!


What is this about "Stamina builds" versus "Magicka builds?"

Every class has skills that draw on your stamina pool, and others that draw on your magicka pool. Sometimes you need to level up a skill enough to "morph" (change it to one of two variants) it to be able to choose a stamina or magicka variant.

Most people choose to build their character around either stamina or magicka, with the understanding that some races are better suited to one or the other. Light armor passives generally benefit magicka builds. Medium armor passives generally benefit stamina builds. Heavy armor passives generally support your health.

Heavy attacks with melee weapons and bows will restore stamina. Heavy attacks with staves will restore magicka.


Can I build my character any way I want, and play any way I want?

Yes, no, and sort-of. Yes, you can. Whether or not you should depends on what you want to get out of Elder Scrolls Online. If you simply want to replicate the Elder Scrolls experience, but with friends, then yes. The game will allow you to try a wide variety of combinations of armor, weapons, and skills, and succeed. My "maybe" caveat" is that there needs to be some logical coherence to your build. For instance, while leveling, I didn't use AoE. I used crowd control and focused damage on one target at a time. This wasn't a common approach, and it may have been slower, but it was viable because it had a coherent logic.

On the other hand, if you want to participate in the most challenging group content and trials ("veteran" content in ESO terminology), or if you want to engage in player-versus-player combat, you will find that only certain builds and rotations are viable. This content is optimized to make it as challenging as possible. Personally, I've had a blast - for years - playing ESO without participating in either. If you like well-written quests and exploration, there's plenty to do. But if you want "end-game" challenges, you'll need to optimize your build.

If you want to change your skills point allocation or morphs, simply visit a shrine in any capital city (Elden Root, Deshaan, or Wayrest - see here) to reset them.


I never seem to have enough skill points!

Don't worry, you will. Every "delve" (a soloable dungeon, marked by a torch on your map) has a skyshard in it, as well as a boss whom you should kill while you are visiting. Three skyshards will give you a skillpoint. In addition, the appropriately named "Skyshards" add-on (see below) can point you to the countless skyshards scattered around Tamriel. You'll also get skill points for completing the main quest line in each zone, and for defeating the group boss in the otherwise-soloable public dungeons (not to be confused with delves).


Crafting seems complicated

Yes, that takes some getting used to. Basically, you need both skill and skill points to create an item of a particular level. Skill level comes primarily from deconstructing items, which is more efficient than gaining it through creating them. Intricate items will give you significant boosts in "inspiration" (essentially crafting xp). Skill points come from leveling, questing, skyshards, and other means. No matter how high your skill level, you will still need to spend skill points in the appropriate skill (usually the first one listed in the tree for that profession) to be able to craft higher-levell items.

You need to have researched any trait you want to put on that item. Researching traits takes time. Each additional trait on an item type takes twice as long as the previous one. The ninth trait will take, at a minimum, 27 days. The number of traits you know for an item also determines which sets you can craft in that item.

If you plan on crafting, plan on subscribing to get the ESO Plus craft bag, which is shared across all your characters, and gives you unlimited storage of crafting components.

In the starter zone for each faction (see below) you can find a person in the Mage's Guild to introduce you to three of the crafts (related to consumables), and a person in the Fighter's Guild to introduce you to the other three (for weapons and armor). You may want to pop over and do these intro quests immediately, since they open up useful crafting dailies. The recipes for the provisioning dailies can be found at your nearest Chef and Brewer, in your local tavern.

If you start today, researching all 9 traits on all items will take you, at a minimum, in the neighborhood of nine months, so you might want to start on that now too.


Where do I go?

Start with Vvardenfel. Once you've completed the island, try exploring one of the "starter" zones for one of the three factions. You can go anywhere and do anything, but - dating from a time when zones had level requirements and you had to complete one faction at a time - there's a logical order for completing the zones (if you care about narrative continuity).

Here's a list for you:

Aldmeri Dominion

1. Khenarthi's Roost
2. Auridon
3. Grahtwood
4. Greenshade
5. Malabal Tor
6. Reaper's March

Ebonheart Pact

1. Bleakrock Isle
2. Bal Foyen
3. Stonefalls
4. Deshaan
5. Shadowfen
6. Eastmarch
7. The Rift

Daggerfall Covenant

1. Stros M'Kai
2. Betnikh
3. Glenumbra
4. Stormhaven
5. Rivenspire
6. Alik'r Desert
7. Bangkorai

If you don't have a wayshrine for a zone, you can travel to any friend or guildmember who is currently in that zone. If you don't know anyone who is there presently, try asking for a ride in /zone chat. You can also hop a ride to a new zone on any number of boats found, unsurprisingly, in harbors towns.


Is there an auction house?

No. You will need to be in a guild with a guild trader to sell your goods, and you will need to visit a number of guild traders to be able to find items you want to buy. It can be a bit of a time sink. This site can help.


I have a mount. Why do I go so slowly?

Just having a mount does not give you much of a speed increase. You'll need to train your riding skills (speed, stamina - which keeps you from being knocked off, or bag space) every day. You can spend 250g at a stablemaster in any city or town to increment one of the skills every 20 hours. That means it will take 180 days and 45,000 gold to get your riding skills to maximum.


I keep running out of inventory space!

You can buy more bag space for your character at a bag merchant in most town. Purchases are in increments of ten, and the first 20 are very inexpensive.

You can also buy "saddlebags" for your mount, in increments of one, at a rate of one every 20 hours, for 250g each.

You can buy additional bank slots from the banker.

Bank slots, bag space, and saddlebags can all also be purchased with crowns. (Micro-transactions keep the lights on at ZOS.)

In addition, the biggest space saver is to subscribe to ESO Plus and get double bank space as well as the much-loved crafting bag. The crafting bag has infinite storage for crafting materials, and is shared across all of your characters.


Why do people keep stealing my kills?

They aren't. As long as you do even a small amount of damage, you and everyone else (grouped with you or not) will get xp, credit (if the kill is part of a quest), and loot. Feel free to help out others, and let them do the same for you.


Are there must-have addons?

If you're on a PC, check out:

- Awesome Guild Store
- Master Merchant
- Skyshards
- Lorebooks
- Destinations
- CraftStore
- AI Research Grid

Rainwhisper

Reserving this space for additional useful information.

Mods, feel free to move this elsewhere if it's more helpful there.

Fhirn

give this man a cookie! and a sticky IMO!

tinythinker

neverwalk

start researching armor and weapon TRAITS, very time consumming part of game. Also start training your mount even thou you might not have one yet, every 20 hours, you can pay 250 gold to any stablemaster in game to train your mount.

CardboardedBox

Remember to use provisions. When I first started playing I ignored them. Don't ignore them!

Rainwhisper

neverwalk wrote: »

start researching armor and weapon TRAITS, very time consumming part of game. Also start training your mount even thou you might not have one yet, every 20 hours, you can pay 250 gold to any stablemaster in game to train your mount.

Definitely need to add info on mounts. Thanks!

Rainwhisper

Mounts added, and traits clarified. Anything else?

Megabear

I think extremely limited inventory space without subscribing should be disclosed right up front to be honest.

ArchMikem

Megabear wrote: »

I think extremely limited inventory space without subscribing should be disclosed right up front to be honest.

Inventory can be increased via the bag merchant and through mount training though, that helps quite a bit.

Megabear

ArchMikem wrote: »

Megabear wrote: »

I think extremely limited inventory space without subscribing should be disclosed right up front to be honest.

Inventory can be increased via the bag merchant and through mount training though, that helps quite a bit.

It's way too expensive and time consuming in the beginning so it would be cost/time prohibitive for new players, for a long while.

Rainwhisper

Information about increasing inventory space added. Great suggestion.

max_only

What good eggs you are

F7sus4

They are not even aware you "the good guys" exist.

TerraDewBerry

Really nice job OP! And, on the behalf of the Elder Scrolls Online community, I want to say hello, and welcome to all the new players!

Dread_Guy

Tip to newbie templars - Do not listen to the death recap tips. Spear shards cannot help you against multiple enemies

Nestor

I will add my starter guides to this thread (open the Spoilers)

First Leveling Character and Leveling Strategies

First leveling character? Forget about Builds right now. No need, your handicapped anyway by the game so you are way more powerful than you need to be. Instead take advantage of this buff to properly level your character so you can be deadly when it matters later on when you are not buffed by the level scaling. In other words, you can create a rotation that makes you think your all that and a biscuit because of the scaling buffs, then get a rude awakening come Champ Ranks when you are on your own.

In other words, right now if your wearing any gear, the mobs will die.

1. Have one class skill on your bar at all times, swapping them out once the skill reaches Morph stage. Worry about your Morphs later.
2. Have one weapon skill on your bar at all times, again until Morph stage
3. Wear a mix of all 3 armor types so they all level about equally
4. From L1 to L20, invest in attack skills and actives
5. From L20 to L35 start investing in Passives and Support Skills
6. From L35 to L50 start investing in Morphs (but only if all your class skills are at the Morph Stage), Passives and Crafting Skills
7 From CP10 to CP160 try out dropped sets to see which ones fit your playstyle, don't worry about traits right now, fill in passives and actives you may have missed
8. Grind on Dolmens to level your Fighters Guild, or find the Lore Books to level Mages Guild
9. Do some stealing to level Legerdemain, best source for money in the game
10. Decon every piece of gear you get that you are not going to use immediately to level equipment crafting, no need to invest skills points until Champ Ranks.

Easy Grind Free Leveling Guide to CP160

One thing to remember, a lot of guides are written with idea to maximize production to the Nth Degree, which can make sense when your leveling your 8th character. But it can really suck the fun out of the game on your first character worrying about it.

Here is a better approach:

The beauty of the game now is each zone drops a Magic Set, a Stamina Set and a Health (Tanky) Set. You can do the content in the zone and get the gear you need with some nice bonuses to help your characters. It drops in at least Green and Blue is common once you get around the 30;s. A lot of times it drops in the Training trait, but you really don't need to have every single item in Training. Just prefer it as a trait, but wear what you get. When you are done in that zone move on to the next and start replacing the gear with the stuff from that zone. You can usually go about 10 levels over the gear before it starts to get noticeable as needing to be replaced. If you get something that is higher level than your wearing, just swap it out as you go along. Again, don't worry about the traits while leveling. The game is buffing you anyway.

As for leveling crafting, you should do that, but don't be in a hurry to invest all the skill points you need for it. You need those points for combat and defense. Just decon all the loot you have left over after selling to cover any repairs you do. Research Traits on items you think you are going to use. Then do the other traits later on.

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.

Combat Basics

Combat in this game comes down to Skill Rotations, with Light or Heavy Attacks interspersed. So, it's more like 1,2,3,4,1,2,3 dead. Pick your skill rotations so that one skill will set up or buff another skill. For example, use a skill that Snares, then a skill that gives Damage over Time to an area so the snared mobs spend longer in pain, then use a spam damage skill. This is just one example.

Once you learn a good rotation, then you can weave in light or heavy attacks between the skills to extend the resource pool you play from. So it's more like 1, LMB, 2, LMB,3, LMB, 4, LMB, 1 Dead. Then once you learn how to weave attacks, then you can start animation canceling to up your DPS.

So, attacks are not just a spam of the Left Mouse Button, but an application of your skills and weapon attacks.

You add in Blocking (reduce damage), Bashing (interrupting a caster or heavy attack wind up), Dodge Rolling (double click on a WASD key to avoid damage and get out of red quickly). Throw in some terrain advantage, and your basically a Mobile, Agile and Hostile wrecking machine.

Leveling Crafting

Here is the thing about Crafting, you don't need it until End Game (post CP160) but you can level it in preparation with few to no skill points invested. Crafting can eat up 122 Skill Points to fully invest, so this will gimp your combat while leveling. Best to invest as few points as possible while levleing your character and crafting.

Equipment Crafting

Decon all mob loot other than what you are using to research traits. Research traits, learn two on all items you would use, then learn 3, etc. Focus on Divines, Infused and Training for your first three for Armor, Sharpened, Precise and Training for your Weapons. Then go for the other ones. Nirn is expensive, and a lot of people suggest putting a priority on that, I can't see why. The Trait is all but useless for Armor or Weapons. Best place to find Mob Loot is Public Dungeons, then over land grind spots. Grind on mobs until your bags are full, then go on a decon fest. Remembering to save the ones you need or want to research. Use the Lock Function and or an Inventory Mule to hang on to those. Only invest Skill points while leveling it into the Research and Extraction Passive, the last really only needing one point.

Enchanting

Ignore all the "advice" on the web about using an enchanting partner. First, use Mob Loot decon to raise this up to a point. Later on as you approach end game have some some gold, then start making Green, Blue or Purple Glyphs on one character and decon them on an Alt. You will level Enchanting faster than trading the glyphs with another player, which is tedious by the way. (like pull out your hair and make a doily tedious). Use Green up to about L15 in the Enchanting Skill, Blue up to about L30/35 and Purple up to about L46/47. Then learn the runes you don't know, you should be at or near 50, if not, make/decon some more Purples.

Provisioning and Alchemy

Don't worry about these, you can level these professions in about an 20 minutes, for both. Just collect the Various Solvents and Reagents and Provisioning Ingredients/Recipes as you go along. Once end game, then you can level it. Use Mushrooms to level Alchemy, or Flowers that make potions you won't use. Make sure you grab solvents (waters) as your leveling as they can be rare to find in the guild stores. For Provisioning, make the highest level Green Recipes you can make. Blue or Purples do not give any more inspiration than Greens, so save those for character use.



Yes, use Drop Sets for now, and Yes, level your crafting skills and do the Trait Research. Traits are why you craft as they allow you to make Special Crafted Sets. There are two sets in the game that your going to want to make, Julianos for your Magic Characters, and Hundings Rage for your Stamina Characters. There are no better sets in the game to have 5 pieces of. Period. Well, Twice Born Star is great to, but your a year out from making that. But you need to start learning your traits now.

Leveling Equipment Crafting is easy, just decon the mob loot you are not either selling to cover repairs or using to research traits. No skill points needed while leveling it, other than maybe a point or two into the Extraction Passives.

Back to the Crafted Sets, it takes 6 traits known to be able to make Hundings or Julianos, 9 Traits for Twice Born Star. You don't need to know these traits on everything, but you do need to know them on the items you will use. So, start learning those traits. Focus on the gear you will use first, then fill in the rest later. This means:

Casters
Heavy Chest/Legs
Light Feet/Hands/Waist
Shoulders and Heads are good to, but there are 2 Piece Monster sets that can take up those slots. So learn the traits on these pieces, but prioritize the ones above.
Staves (all 4 of them)

Stamina
All Medium Armors
Daggers, Swords, Bow and Shield

Learn Training, Divines and Infused on the Armors first, Sharpened, Precise and Training on the Weapons. Powered is good for the Healing Staff, Defending is good for Sword or other one handed Melee. Then fill in the rest until you have 6 or eventually 9 traits. Some people recommend Nirn as an early trait to learn. Unless they change it, don't listen to them. You might use it on a Shield or a Weapon but that is about it. You need it someday, but it's expensive and you need your gold for other things.

Invest the skill points into the Research Passives. I can't stress enough how much of a time sink Trait Research is. Be able to learn more than one at a time, and reduce the time needed. Get an addon for Trait Research Tracking, I recommend Craft Store. If your on the Consoles, find one of the spreadsheets out there or make one to track this. Have I mentioned you need to learn your traits?

Doing this you will be ready to invest skill points into Crafting when it matters and not have to spend months getting ready. Did I mention Trait Research and how much a time sink it is? The last two traits will take you a month each to learn, on each item you learn them on. Get started now, yesterday would have been better.

Mounts

1. You can sprint past your Stamina as long as you keep sprinting or don't hit a rock or a pebble or something that slows you down. As such, you have to re-apply the Sprint as you go along. On the PC, this is the Left Shift, not sure on the consoles.
2. Speed of the Horse until you get that part upgraded to around 25 to 30 is kind of slow to the point it almost not worth it to ride if your in a hurry. Sure you get there faster than running, it just feels like your going slower than you can run.
3. Once past the first two character bag space upgrades, horse bag space is the cheapest in game, but it takes the longest to max out as it's one bag a day.
4. Stamina is useful to upgrade, but most people wait until Speed and Bags are upgraded before investing in Stamina.
5. You can upgrade one element of your riding each day at the stables. Some people roll alts early and park them at the stables upgrading things before they play them
6. You can buy packs of Riding Lessons in the Crown Store.
7. The upgrades you apply to one character do not carry over to another character.
8. Different Mounts are different skins the Riding Upgrades apply to all Mounts on that character.

Rainwhisper

Nestor wrote: »

I will add my starter guides to this thread (open the Spoilers)

Great work, Mr. Ambassador @Nestor . Mind if I steal some of it?

Lavennin

I think the activity finder needs mentioning, about basic dungeon roles and which dungeons to avoid.

Uncle_Sweetshare

#1 Tip: If you came to ESO expecting to find competitive PvP, or purchased Morrowind with the expectation of being able to play Battlegrounds in a competitive arena environment, find another game. Battlegrounds is dead, and they're not going to fix it.

Nestor

Sure

Megabear

Yeah, overall good newbie friendly guide.

max_only

One of many "I wish I would have known" thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/341635/i-wish-would-of-know-forum-game/p1

Rainwhisper

@ZOS_GinaBruno - Should I have stuck this in Player Guides? I wasn't sure where new players were most likely to find it.

Rainwhisper

Added information on sharing kills. What's the damage percentage threshold for credit?

Linaleah

this needs to be stickied. seriously.

Rainwhisper

Linaleah wrote: »

this needs to be stickied. seriously.

Thanks! I'm glad folks find it useful. Please let me know what else might be helpful to add.

Astarana

You can also mention that you can take boats to travel from zone to zone. In case new player have no guild or does not want to ask in zone.

EDIT: I might have missed it, but make sure there is a note about skyshards and that you need to get them all first time around so you don't have to run around from zone to zone at lvl 50 trying to find them so you can level up your crafts .

Rainwhisper

@Astarana - Great suggestions. Added! Thanks!

Draxius82

Thank you for this @Rainwhisper and @Nestor

max_only

Deconstructing levels your crafting faster than creating.