I have absolutely no idea what skills to take...

Octopuss

New player here.
I am absolutely overwhelmed about the combination of 1) the amount of available skills and 2) only five slots in the action bar. I cannot wrap my head around this.
I have two characters: a templar and a sorcerer.
Could anyone recommend me some must have skills (and the morphs, which is the next level of "FFS I am lost") for mostly solo levelling purposes?
I read a ton on UESP.net and obviously stared at the ingame descriptions of skills for hours, but it was no use. I just have ZERO idea what to do. It's especially painful in the sorcerer's case, because I virtually just can't kill anything besides the regular stuff you meet in the wilderness. I just kind of mash buttons and hope a mob dies sooner than me, which doesn't work very well. I am probably missing something here, because it's impossible to cast spells when not facing a mob, but when I do, it just catches up with me and kills me with a few hits.
The templar, while being played exactly the same smash the keyboard way, at least has decent survivability in heavy armour.

Nestor

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.

The underlying benefit of following 1 and 2 is, you end up using all those skills and figuring out how to make them work with each other and for you and how you play.

Nestor

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.

As for Gear, well, while leveling, gear does not matter as long as you have something. It does not have to be best in slot, or even all that good. Also, we have lots of dropped set pieces so if you spend any time in a zone, you will more than likely pick up a set or two to wear. Each zone has a Magic, a Stamina and a Health or Tank set. Since everything scales, you can use this gear longer than you would think from the levels. It is only once you reach CP160 that you really want to worry about the gear, and by then you will have a good idea of what to use and where to farm for it.

Until then, the most important thing with gear is to wear a mix of it (light/medium/heavy) so they all level up somewhat equally. Also, have one skill from each of the 3 class skill lines on your bar at all times, and at least one weapon skill. For the 5th, it can be another weapon or attack skill or a support skill or some skill you want to level.

Nestor

Now, the best way to level the game is just quest and enjoy the story. But, if you want to get to the Gear Cap before you dive into the story, see the following:

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.

Octopuss

Thanks for the tips, but I was looking for something a bit more specific. I tried googling "eso sorcerer guide", but surprisingly, I found nothing for beginners. Everything I found was centered either around raids or pvp. I don't even know how to kill more than one mob at a time right now!

Also, I don't even know what CP160 means. Remember, I've owned the game for four days. Four days!

Astarana

http://deltiasgaming.com/eso-magic-sorcerer-dps-build/#Group

@Deltia and @Gilliamtherogue for creating and updating the guides.

I'm using it for my Sorc

Nestor

There are no beginners guides out there, that is why I created the above.

If you want specific skill rotations, you can use any of those sorcerer guides that are out there and fill up your bar with those skills. But, you would be better off learning all the skills that the class offers and figuring out your own rotations.

For example, you have a skill that controls crowds and locks them down so you can work on one at a time, you have single target and AoE skills, so use single target on single mobs and AoE on groups of mobs, you have sorcerer pets to help you if you want to go that route. Just read the tool tips, see if they are damage over time or all at once in the damage. Apply the DoT before you apply the all at once skills.

The danger of telling you how to play the game is that you get locked into some sheeple meta and never actually learn the class you are playing. The methods I outlined above help you develop a character that works for you.

Plus, you did not tell us if your Magic or Stamina, (you should be Magic focused for your first character)

Astarana

Nestor wrote: »

There are no beginners guides out there, that is why I created the above.

The danger of telling you how to play the game is that you get locked into some sheeple meta and never actually learn the class you are playing. The methods I outlined above help you develop a character that works for you.

While I agree that you should find your own way to play, it is helpful to see what other people have done. Especially when you have no idea on what you are doing. You can see what is done and then build your own based on your play style. Works for me. I modify those guides to fit me and how I want to play the game, but at least it gives me a better start.

Jitterbug

You have a daedric curse. Open with that.
Then weave (as Nestor explained) light attacks with pulse from destruction staff. If mob gets low use mages wrath (lightning skill).
Put crystal fragments (morph) on your bar and listen for the sound and watch for the purple hands. Then fire it off. When you get the hang of that combo mobs will explode in seconds.
The fifth slot can be used for a pet or whatever you like.

Ghanima_Atreides

What Jitterbug said. Also, if you want an extra hand, get the Clannfear (morph of Familiar from the Daedric Summoning tree) which will tank some mobs for you. He can be helpful to a new player. If you're using a Destruction staff, most of the abilities there are useful, for either single target or AoE damage.

Very important: pay attention to the morphs you're choosing. If you're playing a magicka-based character, stay away from the ones that convert the ability to use Stamina, for it will scale off that and weapon damage. The reverse is true for stamina, of course.

Rouven

To quote Nestor from above:

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.

This might help you the most right now in terms of not dying. Try to time your blocks and when you see a mob casting ("red" sparks flying) try to bash the mob.

At level 15 you will get a second weapon bar btw (so 10 skills in total). I didn't use that for the longest time with my first characters, however it is helpful to level some skills if you swap before you turn in a quest for example.

Pretty much anything should work for you (if you learn to block/avoid damage etc) for solo content. The online guides are mostly for the harder content/veteran dungeons (or PvP content) later on.

I tried all classes, maybe another one will simply click better for you and once you fall into the rhythm you'll be able to transfer that to the other classes more easily.

Good luck and have fun!

Octopuss

Jitterbug wrote: »

You have a daedric curse. Open with that.
Then weave (as Nestor explained) light attacks with pulse from destruction staff. If mob gets low use mages wrath (lightning skill).
Put crystal fragments (morph) on your bar and listen for the sound and watch for the purple hands. Then fire it off. When you get the hang of that combo mobs will explode in seconds.
The fifth slot can be used for a pet or whatever you like.

This might sound ridiculous and stupid, but what does "weave light attacks with pulse from destruction staff" mean?. Does that mean to just whack a mob with a staff? English is not my native language, and sometimes I don't get the meaning of some stuff.

Also, do I understand it correctly you are suggesting a combo where I should use Mage's Fury when a mob gets lower on health, and then Crystal Shard when... some purple hands (??) appear? Basically, these two skills are a finisher combo, yes?

Oh, and what is Daedric curse??

Rouven

Weaving - simply use these types of attacks in-between your skills (yes, whacking with the staff )

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Combat#Light_Attack

Probably means force pulse (morph from force shock).

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Destruction_Staff

Deadric curse:

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Daedric_Curse

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Daedric_Summoning


Edit: Crystal shards with purple hands picture

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Crystal_Shard

Magdalina

Octopuss wrote: »

Thanks for the tips, but I was looking for something a bit more specific. I tried googling "eso sorcerer guide", but surprisingly, I found nothing for beginners. Everything I found was centered either around raids or pvp. I don't even know how to kill more than one mob at a time right now!

Also, I don't even know what CP160 means. Remember, I've owned the game for four days. Four days!

The basics of combat are that you want to drop DoTs (damage over time) skills on your enemies, then use your spammable as the DoTs tick away. For mag sorc, a great DoT is Liquid Lightning in storm calling tree(forgot unmorphed name hut it's the lightning aoe) for example. Our spammable is either lightning staff heavy (it's even aoe) or Force Pulse (whichever morph,
I prefer Crushing Shock for utility and PvP) weaved with light attacks. Against multiple enemies you want AoE skills. If you're having issues surviving you want a heal; if you go magicka, screw that and just grab a shield (see Annulment in light armor skill tree or Ward in sorc Daedric summoning. Either of those will solve the need to run away from attacking mobs, they hot like wet noodles anyway and with a damage shield on top they never get to you whatsoever).

Magicka costing skills scale with max magicka, spelldamage, spellcrit etc(except shields which are only max magicka). Stamina costing skills with max stamina, weapon damage and all that stuff. Subsequently it means you don really want to be a hybrid but rather pool all your resources into just one stat (magicka or stamina), use appropriate armor(light for magicka, medium for stamina) and take advantage of corresponding skills.

Seriously though, at this point, just explore and enjoy Unlock all the things and try them out, it's not like you can seriously screw it up, you can change most all your choices later for gold(morphs, attribute points) or crowns (race, appearance, name). Grab a resto staff and heal off if you're having issues surviving(until you unlock a shield. Well, unless you wanna go stamina which is a bit more tricky). Sorc Surge is also a great skill - a heal and a buff on top, for both magicka and stamina builds. Another super easy strategy for magicka sorc is just use pets for meat shields(some of them, specifically one of Familiar morphs, also deal decent damage).

Octopuss

Hmm, so at lvl15, do you suggest I make one setup for single target and the other for AoE purposes? That's an awful lot of skills to choose from.

IcyDeadPeople

Octopuss wrote: »

Hmm, so at lvl15, do you suggest I make one setup for single target and the other for AoE purposes? That's an awful lot of skills to choose from.

Using AOE abilities is handy because they kill a lot of mobs quickly, but you actually want to level up all your skills, so just keep swapping out other abilities (including single target and various weapon skills) on your bar, while you kill stuff with the AOE. You can also do this when you turn in quests. You don't need to choose skills yet at level 15, because you need to level up almost everything anyways.

If you are just doing quests and overland zone content, the build really does not matter much. It's easy enough that you can get by just fine with any random gear you find and whatever skills you feel like trying.

Nestor's suggestion above is a good approach to level up efficiently. Ideally by the time you reach max level, you want to have all your class skills maxed out, as well as light, med, heavy armor skills, mages guild, fighter's guild, vampire or ww and either stam weapons (bow, dual wield, 2-hander, s&b) or magicka build weapons (destro, resto, s&b, dual wield).

Then when you can finally equip endgame gear and have all these abilities maxed out, you have flexibility to figure out your build for PVP or endgame PVE content (4-man dungeons, 12-man trials, solo maelstrom arena), which is much more challenging than the quests and zone content.

If you want to try PVP or 4-man dungeons while you are still leveling up, then you need to figure out a more specific low level build.

Sigtric

Octopuss wrote: »

Hmm, so at lvl15, do you suggest I make one setup for single target and the other for AoE purposes? That's an awful lot of skills to choose from.

Many people will put DoTs and buffs on one bar and direct damage on the other.

So you might have something Force Pulse, Curse, Cyrstal Frags, Mage's Wrath on bar one
Might have Elemental blockade, liquid lightning, lightning form, crit surge on the other

Right now, as a newbie with 1 bar, put crystal frag, liquid lightning, elemental blockade. curse and force pulse on your bar

Aim at enemy, drop blockade and liquid lightning on its head, hit it with curse, if your hands turn purple glow, cast crystal frags (if you don't have it yet, you might open combat with crystalshard first and then start blockade..)
Use light attacks and force pulse for dps while waiting for dots and curse to finish, then reapply as needed. This will kill any normal mobs on the landscape

Octopuss

Well, I got some better armour and staff, and decided to return to kill the werewofl in the beginning of the Daggerfall quest line. I almost died five times and had to retreat. I just have no idea how to stay alive. If I simply run backwards, I am too slow. If I turn around, I can't cast.
I put Force Shock, Daedric Curse, Crystal Blast, Encase and Boundless Storm into the quickbar and it was completely useless.
I basically can throw about 3 spells before the thing catches up with me and then all I can do is turn away and run. The root helps about only enough to run far enough to drink a healing potion. Crystal blast has too long (>instant) casting time, Daedric curse doesn't seem to have any use for single target, and Boundless storm I basically only use for the speed buff.

Apparently it's ONLY about slotting the correct skills, but I have no damn idea which ones they are.

Nestor

That Werewolf is a tough first opponent. I struggled with him the first time around. Good news, it is a side quest so you can always come back to it later. The other good news is he is about the toughest mob in that zone, even back when he was scaled to L7.

1. You can't stand Toe to Toe with him. You need to Block, or Dodge the attacks. As soon as you see him start to wind up his attack dodge roll away. You can try Block, but it might not be enough mitigation.
2. Crowd Control Skills don't always work on Bosses (I think he is considered to be a boss as I can crowd control other werewolves)
3. Try this, have Wall of Elements and Force Pulse and Crystal Blast and Boundless Storm on your bar. As soon as he appears, pop your Boundless Storm to buff your protection, hit him with a Crystal Blast. You should be able to do this before he gets close. Then drop a Wall of Elements and spam the Force Pulse skill while moving backwards in a circle. Have a Health Potion on your Quick Slot Bar to drink when you need it.
4. Finally, move around and fire skills from motion. Only the first two in the rotation should be fired off from standing.

Octopuss

Ok, that's partially good news.
The bad news is I still barely manage to survive two regular mobs. Especially when not in open area, but that at least makes some sense.
Looks like the idea of 2nd bar with CC and AoE skills is not as bad idea after all. But making it work is a big question. Looks like I don't have anything that looks like aoe yet, though. I think I'll have to go hunt some skyshards.

Ghanima_Atreides

I would advise getting a shield for yourself as soon as possible - as a Sorcerer, Conjured Ward, later morphed into Hardened Ward (from the Daedric Summoning tree) is your best option, but that takes a while to unlock. You have another option: Annulment, from your Light Armor skill tree, that's almost as good. They only last about 6 seconds, so you have to re-apply them often, but they help a lot with survivability.

Octopuss

Are you saying I can equip both a staff and a shield?

Ghanima_Atreides

By shield I mean one of a magical nature - a ward. I don't mean an actual wooden shield. They are both abilities you can cast like any others and can be found in the skill trees I mentioned.

Sigtric

Octopuss wrote: »

Are you saying I can equip both a staff and a shield?

They meant a magic shield, you wont have one for a little while. You need rank 22 in light armor to get annulment. http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Annulment

And 42 in daedric summoning for Ward
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Conjured+Ward

IMO right now focus on getting skill points for wall of elements from destruction staff, and use your sorc pet, even if you don't plan on playing as a pet sorc later, using it early will help with survivability. You can even open with a pet attack. Put your crosshairs over the target and hold the Y key, then left click while holding, this will send your pet in first. Give it a couple seconds attacking then start your attacks.

Octopuss

lol, 2nd bar is already half full it seems. Those are some useful things. It'll take a while to digest all the information though.

Octopuss

Nestor wrote: »

4. Finally, move around and fire skills from motion. Only the first two in the rotation should be fired off from standing.

Oh, this actually caught my eye.
Again, a stupid question most probably, but... how do you actually physically do that? Left hand is permanently busy with WSAD, and right hand on the mouse, changing the actual direction. How on Earth am I supposed to be constantly running WHILE casting spells? I need an extra hand!

Ghanima_Atreides

Well, while some of your fingers are on WASD, others can reach up to the 1,2,3,4,5 keys to fire off spells too. Even if you don't move constantly, it's good to try and circle around a boss or generally find a more advantageous position to cast your abilities from.

Also, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but if you see any sort of red circle on the ground or cone emitting from the boss, move away from it! Red telegraphs signal that serious damage will be dealt in that area and you shouldn't be caught in it.

Nestor

Octopuss wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

4. Finally, move around and fire skills from motion. Only the first two in the rotation should be fired off from standing.

Oh, this actually caught my eye.
Again, a stupid question most probably, but... how do you actually physically do that? Left hand is permanently busy with WSAD, and right hand on the mouse, changing the actual direction. How on Earth am I supposed to be constantly running WHILE casting spells? I need an extra hand!

Muscle Memory really. It just takes practice. Going back wards just requires you to use your Index or Ring finger on the S key, then the mouse can vector you into a circle. Once you get that motion down, then try to fire off light attacks or skills while you are moving. Since your using only one finger on the left hand to move backwards, and your right hand to vector your motion, that leaves the other 3 fingers on your left hand to fire off skills with.

Also, don't think of it as Move and fire at the same time. think more, move, then fire, them move again.

Since you mentioned the Keyboard, I assume you are PC? NA? If so, reach out to me in the game tonight, I will be on from 6PM mountain time to at least 8 PM tonight. I can even get you in a couple of guilds of some helpful people that will make learning the game easier. Same name in game as here.

Finally some people use an MMO mouse with extra buttons on it. I would be confused using one of those myself, but maybe it would work for you. But If I can learn to move and fire with K&M, you can too.

LadyHeloise

I have to say moving whilst using skills is a lot easier if you have a gaming mouse with multiple buttons and map skills (i.e. keys 1-5) on to that. Before I was quite static and had similar problems to you, but this way you are using separate hands for moving and skills. If this is not an option then don't forget you can remap some skills, such as your Ultimate (remember to use this !!) to a more helpful key for you, which helps with control. Of course this assumes you are on PC.

Sigtric

@Octopuss regarding moving and using hotkeys at the same time, it takes a bit of practice, generally you will only press one directional key while adjusting your course with your mouse, and firing off skills with any free finger on the keyboard hand.

If you get into it, you can get a gaming mouse that has several extra programmable buttons on it. Razer makes one with 6 buttons at the thumb area that works perfectly for ESO set up, and several manufacturers make mice that have a whole 12key pad at the thumb - which is what I use. It takes a bit of getting used to but it really frees up your keyboard hand for things like potions, synergies, movement, etc.

Octopuss

I do have a mouse with a few extra buttons, but I don't think I'd be able to use one that has like a ton of them
Currently I have (un)sheath weapon on lower thumb button, swap skills on the upper one, inventory on wheel click left and moun/dismount on click right.
I did see mouses that.... didn't look like mouses anymore (think they even had MMO in the names ) and I was just scratching my head. Must be awesome when one is able to use that efficiently though!

Part of my problem probably lies in playing Lotro for 5+ years where I could cast spells without facing a target (not very realistic I admit) and even though I haven't played it for 5 or so years, those habits are still there.

I'll need to practise once I settle down on some skill setup. Did someone mention there were training dummies in ESO?