Three questions from a new player.

KnightfallZX2

1. As I read the forums here, I see characters being called "toons". I'm genuinely curious where this term comes from.
2. How high do you tend to level up before you build another character to try out? Is there an average here, or just randomly as people get bored? I ask because unlike Destiny (2), I'd play a Titan right up until max light level before starting a Warlock or Hunter. In ESO, I'm seeing people with level 600+...
3. Please explain CP level, which I believe stands for Champion Level? Am I correct that I have technically started at CP160? How does Champion Level work?

Thanks in advance!

zaria

1) don't use toon, its not used commonly in ESO, My guess its because in older 2d games the characters looked more like cartons. Think toon is more common used in WOW.

3) cp is champion level, its an slow leveling who happens after you reach level 50.
low level characters are scaled up to level cp 160, as you level up more and more of the low level buff you have is removed, its therefor important to get new gear at least every 10't level.

cp160 is also level cap, gear you get once you reach cp160 will last, yes you might want to replace it with better or other gear later but you will never outlevel it.

2 is more complex as caracters share cp you should get one to cp160 as other will then be above level cap once they reach level 50. Its exceptions like if you don't like the class.
It can also be smart to make extra caracters for future use and just use them for storage and to feed horses on

JKorr

Personal take on the first question; it can be from more than one reason. If you look at older rpg type games like Baldur's Gate or the single player Neverwinter Nights, when you go to equip gear or play inventory Tetris you'll see a cartoon type rendering of your character. Another take; you are playing a video game, however advanced the graphics might be. You are a cartoon, basically. And another possibility; people will use the shortest possible name for things. "Avatar" and "Character" take longer to type than "toon".

For the second question; for me when I make a new character is when I want to see how a different class/attribute set-up/different skill morphs/different whatevers work. My very first character was a dk. Second was a nightblade. Third was a Templar. Took a while before I tried sorcerer; then I ended up making 3 of them. [I could also possibly be an altaholic.....] All but two of the 14 I have are currently over level 50 and have completed the "planemeld" and "get your soul back" parts of the game.

Third; if you've just started playing your character isn't cp160 yet. The game world is now scaled to cp160 everywhere, and your character is scaled to match it. Below level 50 for your first character the champion points don't apply. Once you hit level 50, you'll start to get champion points. Any additional characters/alts you make will also have the cp points you've earned. The current cap for champion points is 160, but you can/will continue to earn them. My characters are now almost to cp700. I've seen people with a lot more.
EDIT:SPELLING

JasonSilverSpring

I would add that the gear cap is cp 160 but you can spend up to 690 champion points currently. That likely will raise to 720 with the next update.

tinythinker

Welcome to Tamriel, , @KnightfallZX2. Good answers so far to your questions.

How long to level to know if you like something is hard because there are many skills lines, three for your class plus many others you can unlock. So, maybe a build really works if you unlock a skill from this line but is tough or boring until then. But, if you aren't having *any* fun at all or don't see any potential by 50, ask on the forums if there is any key piece of the puzzle that might help. Like getting Caltrops for a stamina DD build, or vampirism for a magicka DK, etc.

SydneyGrey

You can use the word "toon" if you want to. Some people use it, but some people find it annoying, too. It's just because the characters look a bit like cartoons. It was used with other games before ESO.

You can make a new character at any time. The only way it makes a difference is when it comes to unlocking dyes and other achievements. If you use only one character at first for at least several months, you'll unlock a whole lot of costume/armor dyes that you otherwise wouldn't unlock if you were playing a lot of characters at once. For example, there are some dyes that you can only unlock if you do 500 or 1,000 quests on a single character. If you keep switching characters, it would be years before you unlocked those dyes. You might not care about unlocking dyes, but I always liked to do it. I actually did the 1,000 quests on one of my characters just specifically to unlock that last dye, and boy, it took forever. There are other achievements where you can unlock dyes for killing a certain (large) number of monsters, and again, it's a whole lot faster to unlock them if you stick with one character at first.

Pheefs

its worth mentioning that all of your characters get all the champion points...
your first character gets to level 50 then starts earning the CP, & when you start your next character all the CP are there waiting.
& then in their turn once they are over lvl 50 they earn CP for everyone too.

davey1107

1. Toons has been used to describe mmo characters since like the early 2000s. Some attribute it’s origination to the MMO Fiesta Online...sometimes it’s attributed to WoW.

2. Because the ESO world is so expansive, you can really run as many characters as you want at any given time. If you’re just starting you might run a couple to try out the different classes. This couldmgive you a better idea which you want to invest the most time in, unless you are already set on a class.

3. You got some broad answers about the Champion Point system, but no real definition.

It’s the leveling system for characters after you get to vet. At this point you start earning “champion points.” Think of these like micro-levels. Each point can be spent in a tree on passives that give you teeny tiny buffs. Like you might be able to spend a point to increase your stamina recovery by 0.1%. The buffs are small, but when you add up hundreds and hundreds they offer huge benefits.

CPs are account bound, meaning that all of your vet characters earn them toward a common “bank” and every character on your account may spend the total number of CPs on your account. Champion points are earned by accumulating xp. Anything that earns xp by a vet character goes into the CP “bank” on your account.

Example - you have two vet toons and two level 20s. You have earned 100 champion points. As vet 1 and 2 play and earn xp, they are working toward CP 101. If vet 1 gets halfway there and you log into vet 2, he’s also halfway to cp 101. Everyone shares progress. The vets can each spend 100 CPs in their champion trees. Your two low level toons are NOT earning CPs as they earn xp because they aren’t vet. But they can spend 100 CPs in their trees too. Big note: players with a lot of CPs have MUCH stronger low level toons than you will. You might encounter some of these and wonder why they are so much stronger than you...that’s why.

CPs are earned on an incremental scale. Your first CP is earned with ~30,000 xp. Cp 350 is about 400,000 xp, and cp 690 is 850,000 xp. There is also a catch up system called “enlightenment” that you don’t need to understand yet. The point is that when you get to vet you will earn early CPs quite fast, then it slows down into a long grind.

CPs can be spent in three trees with three lines in each and four passives in each line. Don’t worry about this now...by the time you get there you’ll understand the game better and there will be guides to assist you when you first decide how to allocate them.

Accounts can continue to earn CPs indefinitely. However, ZOS puts a cap on how many can be spent. Right now the cap is 690. Generally, with each major update they increase the cap a bit. So, my account has 1100 CPs and my characters are working toward 1101...but I can only spend 690 in each character’s tree.

Scaling to CP 160

To briefly explain this, last year they unveiled One Tamriel where your character can go anywhere at any point in their progression. In the old days, zones were leveled. Monsters in Auridon were level 3-10, Grahtwood was 11-20, etc. in this days, you could not walk off the boat as a level 3 and go to a high level zone...you’d get slaughtered. You’d be doing 15 damage per hit and a level 35 skeever would have like 300,000 hit points, lol.

To work, One Tamriel set every monster in the game to CP160. They don’t have champion points, this is just how powerful they're set to. So that a low level toon can fight these monsters, you have invisible handicaps that effectively make you as powerful as a CP160 toon. In other words, a naked level 3 and a naked level 40 who punch a skeever will do the same damage. However, you will get more powerful as you level because you will unlock skills and passives and earn gear that makes you more powerful.

You don’t really need to worry about this system. Just know it means you may explore any zone in the game and be competitive.