To seek skill points or levels?

Arreyanne

I was wondering which the community sees as the most advantageous when starting a new Character.

Go get all the skill points shards in all the zones?

OR

Level like crazy and then go get all the shards?

Mancombe_Nosehair

Personally I get the skill points first, and then use the experience to improve them. There's no need to go overboard with getting them though.

Loralai_907

I have a different method. I clear a zone from one end to the other, doing all the important quests, gathering skyshards, picking up lorebooks etc as I go. I am not a fan of going back and forth all day long, so I just do it all in one go.

Chronicburn

If you are going to craft all the lines then focus on those skill points

Nestor

You need a minimum of 120 Skill Points to have an effective combat character that uses one weapon, does no PvP, no Crafting, no Vampire or Werewolf, and minimal guild skills (Persuasion and Intimidation). This is the minimum.

It really does no good to be at L50 or CP160 and only have 64 skill points. Even if you can wear end game gear, your running a gimped character.

Thing is, the activities that you are going to do to get the skill points will gain you the levels. If you just gain the levels like with Dolmen Zerging, then you still have to do the activities to get the skill points. So you have wasted your time really if you don't have the skill points to do something with.

SirAndy

After leveling 4 mains to VR16, err, now CP160, my additional alts only did the main quests in each zone and collected the skyshards there on their way to 50.

Krayzie

I do the harborage and the some of the aldmeri story, by then I have like 70% of my needed skill points

Yarlenzey

Go after the shards.

I found that this gives a more even, overall development path.
I also got more enjoyment from the game doing this.

Beardimus

Both, forget fast leveling it has many downsides. Just playing the game levels you fast enough.

Clear a zone main quest, alliance quest, all delves, dolmens public dungeon & group event (not group dungeon), skyshards and lore books if a magika toon

Loads of XP. All the skillpoints you need. Happy days

rotaugen454

I have 10 maxed characters, one of each class in Stamina and Magicka version. For the last few, I used training armor every 10 levels and maxed jump to level 50. Then I ran around grabbing skyshards to have the skill points. Finally, I did a bit more grinding to have the skills on both bars maxed. Then I could run them in group dungeons and trials. This was way faster than going through the quest lines. Now I use them for questing and build up skills I'm not using, but they are already end game and I'm just giving them options.

FloppyTouch

For low lvl pvp it's skill points. I need to be able to unlock passives and key skills as fast as possible.

For a new character that I'm going to end game it's lvls I can get any skill points I need anytime from doing the main story or dungeons or skyshards not that big of an issue.

Sygil05

I've always just grabbed skyshards as I've found them while leveling up, which I do by running through the main quest+side quests. This ends up giving me a decent amount of skill points to spend as I go, and once I've maxed out my level and find I need other skills, I go back through and start collecting the rest of the skyshards that I missed.

zaria

Nestor wrote: »

You need a minimum of 120 Skill Points to have an effective combat character that uses one weapon, does no PvP, no Crafting, no Vampire or Werewolf, and minimal guild skills (Persuasion and Intimidation). This is the minimum.

It really does no good to be at L50 or CP160 and only have 64 skill points. Even if you can wear end game gear, your running a gimped character.

Thing is, the activities that you are going to do to get the skill points will gain you the levels. If you just gain the levels like with Dolmen Zerging, then you still have to do the activities to get the skill points. So you have wasted your time really if you don't have the skill points to do something with.

This, you can probably cut it a bit not putting points into skill you never use.

Recommend doing an combination as in stuff who give lots of xp and a skill point.
the main quest, delves , collect overland skyshards and mage guild books in area.
then you are able to do decent dps and survive: public dungeons don't do them if you struggle a lot.
At this time you can also do group dungeons, Random dungeon + dungeon quest give a lot of xp and an skill point.

s7732425ub17_ESO

A good goal is to always have 2x more skillpoints than your level. So if you are level 25, you should have around 50 skillpoints. If you are level 40, you should have around 80 skillpoints, etc.

Once you hit level 50, you only need to worry about skillpoints from then on

Nestor

This is how I level my alts. It is not boring, and does not take all that much more time than a strait grind to L50 and less time than gaining the levels first and then finding the skill points. Plus it does not spoil any of the zone stories so those can be save for later

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.

Now, granted this will get you to about 112 Skill points (64 plus 40 for the shards plus 8 for the Public Dungeon Group Events) So you will need to scrape up 8 more from more Group Events in other Public Dungeons or Group Dungeons on the first clear, or some Zone Story quests.

Iselin

Skill points without having enough things unlocked to put them into doesn't do you any good. So the real answer is both: level up your skill lines enough to unlock the skills you want to get at and get enough skill points from shards and quest rewards to unlock them. Rinse and repeat while you level.

kargen27

Feed your horse every day. The rest will take care of itself.

thamightyboro

Levels imo unless your loaded with gold.

Getting to cp160 means that nothing your looting is wasted and some items there is a massive difference in price even so far as some being nothing more.than decon if below.cp160

Once you get 160 then quest, do story, collect shards etc till your hearts content and you wil make.some good cash as well.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Skill points first so you can start leveling your skills as soon as possible.

Runefang

Level first, getting skyshards is easy no matter your level. In fact its easier the longer you wait as your horse gets faster.

Arguably doing the main quest lines is easier than collecting skyshards to get skill points at max level, mobs just fall over for you.

Everstorm

zaria wrote: »

Recommend doing an combination as in stuff who give lots of xp and a skill point.
the main quest, delves , collect overland skyshards and mage guild books in area.
then you are able to do decent dps and survive: public dungeons don't do them if you struggle a lot.
At this time you can also do group dungeons, Random dungeon + dungeon quest give a lot of xp and an skill point.

Your punctuation is a bit vague but public dungeon all have a skyshard and a skill point for the group event. They are often quite crowded so you can just tag along with the crowd if you can't do it solo just yet. The achievements will also count for your Undaunted skill.