The Game Is Too Hard For New Players!

DocDova

Klixen wrote: »

I'm a new player, but I don't know how much longer I'll keep playing. This game is just too hard and punishing for new players.

As an example, I've never before played a game that killed me in the starting tutorial (which is what happened to me when I faced the first quest boss).

This game is brutal!

But don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about normal mobs like wolves and bandits, they're fine. No, I'm talking about quest bosses. They're impossible!

Well, to make a long story short, it slowly began to dawn on me that I needed the best gear I could get (even at level 5). Nothing else mattered, not my class, not my skills, nothing! All that matters is my gear. It's the single most important thing in the game. Without good gear, the game is unplayable!

But how was I supposed to get good gear? I couldn't craft or buy it (there's no low level gear for sale in the Guild Traders).

Well, I thought I'd found the answer. I discovered that locked chests in the starter zones dropped pieces of the 'Armor of the Trainee' set. So for the next few hours I did nothing but farm chests. And I did it! I managed to find 5 'Heavy' pieces of the set.

OMG! The difference it made was game changing. I felt like a God! I could solo anything!

I figured I had this thing beat. Every few levels, I'd just go back to the starter zones, farm some more chests and keep my armor up to date. I planned to do this all the way up to level 50.

But the game had other ideas. At level 20, the set simply stopped dropping. No matter how many chests I opened. Not a single piece!

It was time to start crafting (whether I wanted to or not).

So that's where I'm at now. My leveling has slammed to a stop. For over a week now I've done nothing but craft. I haven't killed a single mob or completed any quests. The whole game is on hold until I can craft a new set of armor. And to be honest, I'm bored out of my mind.

The thought of endlessly grinding out my crafting levels (just so I can continue to play) is horrifying. I just want to play the game!

But after only a couple of weeks, I'm completely burned out and exhausted. There has got to be a better way than this!

Game is not that hard, though there might be areas very hard. But main game itself is not hard. Though You need to grind constantly.

IMO don't bother too much about gears before you reach level 50+ 160 CP, because those gear would lose quality as you level up (scaling system), Just wear whatever best you have. Everything is too expensive at beginning but as you grind You will learn skills. Just make sure to research instead of destroying previous items, If you plan to play long run then research times would be only thing out of your control.

If you find some quest or boss to challenging, wait for other players to drop buy. It helped me many times. Make friends, Ask for help. Most people are friendly enough to help new players.

Just grind and make friends, It will help you in long run.

Kendaric

Klixen wrote: »

TequilaFire wrote: »

I recently started a completely new account from scratch, no cp, no gold, no materials.
I must say I was surprised at the difficulty and how hard some delve and quest mobs are hitting now.
While my experience with the game makes it a bit easier I was quite shocked to actually die now and then.

This makes me feel a lot better. Yes, my disability is causing some of my problems, but it's not the sole reason for my struggles. If other 'able-bodied' players are finding the content too hard as well, then it's not just me at fault .

@Klixen: What kind of disability do you suffer from, if you don't mind me asking?

I am disabled as well (paralyzed right arm/hand due to a stroke three years ago), so I can understand your problem to some degree. I've learned to adapt my playstyle to my disability and while it was a nightmare in the beginning, you will manage eventually.
Bar swapping and animation cancelling are out of the question for me, but blocking/dodging/interrupting works (as long as I'm not swarmed by enemies). Also you probably have to avoid group content for the time being, but once you manage to adapt your playstyle and have a number of CP, you should at least be able to get a normal dungeon done (preferably not with a PUG).

GreenhaloX

Klixen wrote: »

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

This feels like a troll post.

If it isn't this is just more evidence that the game is marketing itself to people who simply are not suited for it.

@Klixen what class did you choose?

No, I'm not a troll. But I have a horrible suspicion that you might be right. The game and I might just not be a good 'fit'.

I'll keep playing for now (because I finally have enough traits researched to make myself a set of 'Death's Wind' armor). So I'll see how I go from here.

The class I'm playing is a Magicka Templar.

First, I'm all about helping out, giving guidances and directions to new players. So, ok, I'm not bashing on you, but, I do sense something is off (in a humorous way) about you and your thread here. Call it conspiracy theory or me just being an inquisitive nature by amateur trait, but, you seem to know quite a bit about the contexts of ESO (aside from claiming how hard the contents are for you and new players.) As someone who claim to be a new player, yet, you do know about sets and 5-pieces, farming and crafting. Good for you if you are the type that does research prior; however, the majority, if not all brand spanking new players are surely not to be aware of crafting or farming and such. Crafting is much different from how it is done on Skyrim, if you have played that game.

I have been gaming since the Atari 2600, and ESO is and still my first and only MMO game. I know about other ones like WoW and other seemingly as popular, but I never really got into PC games. Even with that said, I'm quite the avid gamer and played the hell of Skyrim over and over again. It's one of my top of all times most played game which I have spent countless hours and hours on. So, when I finally got into ESO a couple years (I didn't do any prior research, as I never did with any other single-player games I have played prior and fair quite well) and got to V16 within a few weeks, I had thought I was doing quite well. I was soloing it the entire time; which I mean, I wasn't part of any guild or group. Well, you would run into others doing the same quests and nice to have 2 or more going at it on a quest boss, but for the most part, I was playing it like I did on Skyrim. I didn't really know how to craft the sets during this time, as it was not like in Skyrim; thus, I didn't really crafted anything.

It wasn't until after V16 that I decided on joining a guild so I can do those trials and dungeon runs. Heck, up until then, I didn't even know what the heck a trial was. Well, being part of that guild, I learned from them how to craft, and it wasn't until then that I learnt about set pieces, monster pieces, the effective rotations and farming and many other aspects of ESO. Man, how I was playing ESO all so wrong during my tenure of leveling up to V16. Heck, previously, I was just throwing on whatever armor and weapon pieces on that I would find in chests or drops. I didn't know or was even aware of getting on 5-pieces set and combining it with other sets; I surely wasn't aware of theory-crafting then. Well, hell, after 2 years later, I still don't really understand the true concept of theory-crafting.

Anyways, (aside from this thread being of some kind of humorous nature, or perhaps, seemingly as someone who is that bored and just looking for attention) you could very well be better off or somehow better informed than I was when brand spanking new. Otherwise, if you are really and truly legit in being brand spanking new and having issues, then, join a guild. All them good boy scouts-type members will surely have you going in the right direction as those good members back in the day done for me.

Arciris

Hi there and welcome to ESO1
If you're on PC/NA give me a shout out for some help, @name same as forum's.

If you're not, some advice i didn't saw yet.

1. Go to your controls, and bind as much stuff as you can on your mouse (even better if you have a gaming mouse with some extra buttons). Few suggestions:
- Bar swap: LMB+RMB
- Doge-roll: scroll-down
- Light and heavy attacks are already on LMB, I kept them there
- Bash: scroll-up
- Block: keep on RMB

2. Fill your bars with class abilities, to level all the 3 skill lines as fast as possible but choose one that will be your "spamable" and bind that one to an easy to reach button, as well as your ultimate. Later on, just have your main bar filled with that grant you perks + your spamable and on your second bar, just use long duration buffs and damage over time abilities, so you don't need to swap often.

3. Get some proc sets. Those are sets that do damage and/or healing passively for you, when you meet some conditions. Some of them are really fun to watch/use. Here's a site with a full list of the existing sets and where to find them elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Sets Farming these sets is a lot more fun than to watch a timer on your crafting research Just go for chests in that area and/or dolmens.
A suggestion: just go to Hew's Bane and farm for elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Bahraha%27s+Curse+Set and for http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Syvarra's+Scales+Set. You can use those 2 combined (both come in all weights of armor) until you reach level 50.

4. Use a recovery mundus stone and drinks (some have max health and recoveries, go to Wrothgar for easy to get blue recipes that scale with your level) - the way the game scales, you have no need for bigger pools but you will always starve on regen.

Good luck

Seraphayel

What's wrong with this community? Let us help this guy and if you're just here for trolling or l2p please leave. We don't need this toxic attitude especially not when a newcomer faces problems in ESO. We all want this game to thrive and without new players we veterans will suffer as well.

Anotherone773

I just skimmed some of the replies. I was actually horrified at some of the response. Some of these players have been playing a really long time and forgot how to be a new player. They are trying to give you advanced player advice such as " rotations".
Lets keep it simple. I was a new player not to long ago and i also struggled at first and ive played both the elder scroll series and im quite experienced in MMOs. So some tips that will actually be helpful to a new player( some may already of been posted)

* Non instanced mobs in ESO are a set level. Most that you will encounter early on are designed for level 50. NOTE: level progression in this game is very marginal so it would be like level 20 in a normal game.
* You are the strongest for your level wearing all gear your level. As you level past your gear it levels down. If you get 5 levels above your gear you can lose as much at 10-15% of its original value at your level. At 10-15 levels below your level, your gear loses 20-30% of its original value. So make sure you keep your gear up to date.
* You can find gear in locked chests. You will get mostly green gear until level 10-15 and then sometimes get blue in harder chests. The gear in the chests will always be of the level of the person that unlocked it. chest also often contain soul gems which are useful for players your level. So keep an eye out. Chests and resources spawn on nodes. So if you find a chest a chest will always spawn there at some point so be sure to check later( the harvest map addon for pc players can help you keep track of nodes you found). the lockpicking mingame requires you to press and hold each tumbler to a certain point and then let go. When you hear a clanking noise and it just starts to wiggle is when you let go. If you timed it right the tumbler will stay in place.
* Try to fight only one mob at a time and pull them to you by aggroing from a distance.
* Learn to use block and bash and when to use them. Heavy attacks have like gold streaks coming from the mob on charge up. You want to block. This will daze them for a few seconds. If you use a heavy attack ( hold attack down until you swing/fire) right after you will knock them down and do significant damage. This doesnt work on bosses and such normally. But you can still block the attacks. Bash can be used to interrupt abilities. Abilities have red instead of gold streaks.
* Make sure you start out on a starting island. They are a tiny island off the coast for your alliance. I dont recommend morrowwind for starting out. ( its terrible that ZOS puts new players here that have the chapter by default). these islands are easier than the mainland. If you started in morrowwind you can take a boat to get to your starting island( or there might be a quest/option to do it i cant remember). It wasnt hard to figure out how to get there i remember that.
* Coldharbor bosses can be a bit challenging when you run it the first time. You just have to learn how to get past each one. The rest of the game isnt really like this.
* Food buffs are important. You will want max health food( you can find bread laying around) starting out. But later you want to try to get some blue food( max health and stam or max health and magicka.) You should always run a food buff.
* Weapons/spell damage affects your basic attacks and increases your abilities damage significantly.
* Stamina or magicka affect your resource pool AND increase your abilities damage slightly. Ideally you want just enough health to survive, attribute wise, and the rest in either stamina or magicka whichever you are using. You need to pick one. Every class has options for both, you need to focus on either magicka or stamina.
* You dont need a rotation. No sense in adding a level of complication to the game right now. You need to pick good abilities to use and good morphs and learn how to manage your resources right now. The suggestion of rotations right now. is putting the cart before the horse.
* All the classes have access to heals either through weapon abilities, class abilities, or npc guild skill lines. Some of these come as morphs. You should try to acquire one asap.
* Except in solo content( such as the main quest) if you are stuggling against a mob or boss, you can just wait for other players and join in. You can also help when you see other players killing something. They dont lose anything with your help and neither do you. They still get the same XP and same loot they would if they soloed it and so do you. You dont have to officially group with them. Just start attacking. It will help you complete content early on.
* You can level ( almost) anywhere in ESO so if you find content to hard for you skip it for now and go back to it later. The XP and rewards will always scale to your current level.
* If you are struggling still ask for help here on the forums or join a new player friendly active guild on your server that can help you with advice and such.
* As you get closer to level 50 the content will become easier. When you get into champion points and near max gear level it will get significantly easier.
* Dolmens, dungeons, and battlegrounds offer both decent gear( i got most of my low level purple gear from battlegrounds) and decent xp.

starkerealm

Klixen wrote: »

But although you've given me some brilliant advice, I'm not sure if it will work for me. Sadly, there's a big difference between somebody who has full use of their hands and my situation.

Are there any other disabled players here? What did you do? How did you build your character?

Without knowing the details, I wonder if a controller would be a better fit than Mouse and Keyboard for you. There are XB1 controllers designed to accommodate users with impaired motor functions which might provide less difficulty in playing.

DieAlteHexe

@Klixen

My solution is a trackball which probably isn't going to be much help due to the peculiarities of my disabilities. My thumb is far more flexible than the rest of my hand. My left hand isn't as affected so the combination of keyboard (left hand) and trackball (right hand) works for me. It's usually not "good enough" for others to tolerate me in groups/trials etc. but happily there is enough I can do to keep me busy.

A controller might be something to look into, I know some folks do well with them. I don't. LOL

In any case, experimentation will likely be key, took me awhile to find the right combination. Good luck!

Blackleopardex

Asgari

Lvl 1-50 questing gear has zero relevance besides having gear equipped and making sure it’s enchanted and not broken.

This isn’t by far one of the easiest games you can ever play. The only challenge in the beginning is learning skills and leveling crafting if you are trying to play alone.

Other than that you can complete basically any content besides DLC vet dungeons and trials alone and through group finder

starkerealm

Blackleopardex wrote: »

And both threads are relevant within their related contexts.

Right now, ESO is a game where player skill results in enormous discrepancies between new players and experienced vets.

Doctordarkspawn

Blackleopardex wrote: »

It's a split within the community.

And we're predominantly seeing it's one sided. People have spent the entirety of this thread telling the OP who has a disability, which was mentioned later but is still relevent to half the people telling the OP to learn to play. Reguardless, the response is the same, as is to any thread that is critical of difficulty. "You need to learn to play, shut up the grown ups are talking."

Meanwhile you've got a thread badgering ZOS to buff the overland for a tiny minority of players.

This game is ruled by a selfish endgame elitist crowd who wants to warp the game to their desires, cost be damned. Any disagreement with this means your bad, your angry because of it, and you need to learn to play with absolutely no help or diection aside from the few scraps they give you. It needs to stop. The biggest threat to this game's future, is this elitist upper eschelon.

BlackSparrow

Klixen wrote: »

BUT:

The game is still punishing until you figure out how to properly drive your character.
The basics:
- Block the yellow sparkles!
- Bash the red sparkles!
- Dodge the red ground!
- Heavy attack when the opponent is dazed!
- Full power heavy attack when you need to get stamina/magica back, but not in melee when the opponent has a shield.

I think you might have hit on the problem. I don't do any of that.

That is likely most of the problem. The game really expects you to do this, and punishes you if you don't. I know I got thrown around like a rag doll before I figured out how to consistently block and bash. Re-map these functions to a single button, if you can, or to something that is easier to access, because it is really important that you be able to do them. Otherwise, the game will be really, really hard all the way through.

Klixen wrote: »

I'm playing an Orc, Magicka Templar (I know it's not optimal, but I love Orcs). But although I'm a Magicka user, I've built my character like a tank. This is because I find it very hard to avoid the hits, so my focus has been on Defense and Health.

I use 'The Lady' mundus stone (for Physical and Spell resistance).

I'm wearing 7 pieces of Heavy armor all enchanted with Max Health, my jewelry is all 'Arcane' with Magicka Recovery. I use an Infused Lightning staff (enchanted with Absorb Health) and I have a Restoration staff as my second weapon, but I never use it (as mentioned, I have trouble swapping weapons).

I actually play like a melee class. I run up to an enemy, slam down 'Elemental Blockade', then attack them with 'Puncturing Sweep' and Heavy Attacks. I have 'Breath of Life' slotted as my heal.

Yes, I kill very slowly, but so far, I've been able to roll with the punches (but that's because of the extra health that the armor set gives me. If I lose that, I know I'm dead!).

There's nothing wrong with a tanky magicka templar... one of mine is built like that. But there are a couple considerations on how to build them:

• The more attribute points you put into health, the slower you will take out enemies. Most of your attribute points should be going into magicka, to boost the power of your skills (especially heals, with that build!). I recommend never going over 10 points into HP, and pouring all the rest into magicka. Any more than that, and your attack and heal power is severely limited.
• You weapon attacks scale off the applicable attribute. So make sure you're equipping staves, not a melee weapon, even for a melee build. This lets you take advantage of your higher magicka... and heavy attacks recharge the applicable bar, so you'll find yourself running out of magicka without it!
• Heavy armor in general (not just the training stuff) is just generally newbie-friendly. It means you kill stuff slower, but you're able to take hits a LOT better, so yeah, gear your guy/girl out in heavy! No problem with that.
• The most impactful piece of armor is the chestpiece. So, if you have a piece of heavy armor, make it the chest piece. After that, it's less painful to add a smattering of light armor (hats, gloves, and shoes, especially) to help boost your magicka just a little bit.

I would caution against spending all your time crafting. You outlevel your gear really fast at those levels, which means a lot of timea nd materials spent for little payoff. If you quest in the zones, you'll usually pick up and be given set gear that will keep you fairly well equipped until endgame.

If you're having difficulty getting the hang of the game, you might try rolling up a pet sorcerer as an alt and playing them a while. Pet Sorcs (and bear Wardens, if you have the Morrowind expansion) have a handy built-in tank that can do a lot of the heavy lifting, which makes them a super newbie friendly build. You get a lot more leeway to learn the mechanics of the game that way. Might be something to try until you've gotten a feel for the game!

starkerealm

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

This game is ruled by a selfish endgame elitist crowd who wants to warp the game to their desires, cost be damned. Any disagreement with this means your bad, your angry because of it, and you need to learn to play with absolutely no help or diection aside from the few scraps they give you. It needs to stop. The biggest threat to this game's future, is this elitist upper eschelon.

Actually, not so much, "ruled by." Since we're certainly not getting our way in general. That said, I do worry that the Vvardenfell content was balanced for experienced players, which is especially ironic when you have new players getting dumped there out of a unique tutorial.

Grimm13

Not certain what platform you are on, but if you are on PC then an addon might help. Emacs will add the ability to do multi-key keybinds. I find this useful to assist with my own disabilities. I have never damage in my left arm/hand and right shoulder impingement.

Really comes down to finding what works for you.

TequilaFire

Malamar1229 wrote: »

Troll post.
I mean you can clear the tutorial just left clicking. I remember at launch when Mannimarco was like the hardest thing ever.

Do it on a virgin account.
The tutorial isn't bad but try Manni on a level 20 with no CP or armor set or not even decent food at that level.
Yes it is doable but takes a lot more effort.

DieAlteHexe

Malamar1229 wrote: »

Troll post.
I mean you can clear the tutorial just left clicking. I remember at launch when Mannimarco was like the hardest thing ever.

Despite the inner-witch in me, I truly hope that as you age, you are not plagued by any disabilities. They can make life difficult. This is not a troll post which becomes clear if you read on.

phileunderx2

I have a level 40 ish mageblade on the EU server. No cp just wearing trainee set and I have to be careful and not pull too many mobs because my character is weaker than I am used too. I don't die that often but I do have to put out quite a bit of effort to kill bosses or more than 3 in a mob.

pieratsos

OP says he is a new player with disabilities and every dumb-ass in the forum felt the need to troll him just to demonstrate how stupid they are. Humanity at its finest.

ZOS_Ragnar

We have moved this thread to the Players Helping Players section and removed some of the more inappropriate and unhelpful comments. Lets all remember that each player was once new to the game; when some one reaches out for advice we should offer them helpful suggestions and not insult and shame them. Please keep this thread civil going forward.

Hippie4927

Klixen wrote: »

).
Are there any other disabled players here? What did you do? How did you build your character?

Again, big thanks to everybody who's replied and offered help. Yes, even to the 'nasties', at least you made me smile .

@Klixen
The first thing I did was switch to a controller. I have Carpal's and arthritis and the mouse and keyboard just wasn't working for me. I can rest the controller in my lap and it is far less movement than the M & K. I'm not limited at all in what I can do in the game when using the controller. You might want to try switching. I use the xbox 360 for windows.

Anotherone773

My first response to this thread was more of a general response so ill tailor this one to your big issues

Klixen wrote: »

Well, I thought I'd found the answer. I discovered that locked chests in the starter zones dropped pieces of the 'Armor of the Trainee' set. So for the next few hours I did nothing but farm chests. And I did it! I managed to find 5 'Heavy' pieces of the set.

OMG! The difference it made was game changing. I felt like a God! I could solo anything!

I figured I had this thing beat. Every few levels, I'd just go back to the starter zones, farm some more chests and keep my armor up to date. I planned to do this all the way up to level 50.

But the game had other ideas. At level 20, the set simply stopped dropping. No matter how many chests I opened. Not a single piece!

the set gear( training in this case) drops from chests in a certain zone. It is an random number generator drop( RNG) based on the difficulty of the chest you open. Simple chests will have it rarely while advanced and master will have it fairly often. I still get training gear if i farm newbie isle, i just get level 50 cp 160 version.

Honestly i find dungeon gear sets to be better. For example my low level magicka sorcerer almost exclusively farms fungal grotto( i queue only for this dungeon) for the gear set that drop there. When im happy with my gear i go do other stuff until i out level it and then back to dungeon farming. Ill do this to CP 160 in which i will buy a purple crafted set for her which she will use until she gets best in slot gear( crafted is pretty good when you improve it.).

You dont need to craft gear. You just need to focus on killing things that drop gear such as bosses , dolmens always contain gear in the chest you go to loot after the dolmen is done.

For crafting, for everything but provisioning and alchemy, i deconstruct everything except ornate which i sell, I make sure i have my research done first and then go from there. Ive never crafted me any gear below CP 160. Its a waste of time in my opinion. Deconstructing gear is a good way to level your crafting.

Klixen wrote: »

Unfortunately, I'm disabled and I have trouble using the keyboard. So I can only manage a few skills at a time. As for things like blocking and weapon swapping, it's extremely difficult for me. So I just stand there and slog it out with enemies.

.

Im not going to address your build because i dont have enough experience with what you are playing to give any really useful advice. So im going to stick to what i know.

You can build a character to do most content using a simple rotation. I am a fan of simplicity when complication isnt needed and i dont need to the best in game. You just have to learn how to properly play your character. By that i mean what skills, gear, and playstyle work best for you.

Unfortunately, Eso is very excessive in their need of button pushing. I think they somehow equate excessive button pushing to being more hands on and in depth. Its just a pain in the ass really. It doesnt make the game any better, just more exhausting.

You can address this some with hardware options on PC. An obvious example is to use an xbox controller( I actually switched between keyboard/mouse and controller for a while to alleviate some of the stress on my hands). I then upgraded to a red dragon gaming mouse. It has 12 buttons on the thumb side that can easily be mapped to keyboard keys. I use the 2 and 5 buttons on the mouse to go forward and back, then 1 and 4 to go left and the 3 and 6 to go right. This allows me to roll my thumb to move. Sprint is the 3rd mouse button( push scroll wheel down). It also has two left buttons. The small left button i mapped to weapon swap.

All i need keyboard for is abilities and things like actions and popups such as inventory/skill allocation/etc. My only issue with the mouse is that the thumb buttons have hard edges which can make your thumb sore with extended use. So i still use WSAD keys sometimes and go back and forth.

You can also get game pads which have a more friendly layout than keyboards, imo.

You can keep your skills simple. I do. You wont be able to do vet trials probably but you should be able to get through most content at some point.

On a bowblade, i get about 9k dps in purple crafted gear sustained on a dummy. In real world applications i get anywhere from 6k to 20k depending on the situation. He still has a lot of room for improvement without improving my "rotation". I actually dont really use a rotation. I use 5 skills and an ultimate on one bar and two of those i use the most with the other 3 being situational. He is a crafter/ thief/assassin, so most of his points are sunk in those skill lines. So his DPS isnt a big deal for me anyway. But you can achieve decent dps with a few simple skills.

My favorite to play though is my magsorcerer. This is a class i would recommend to you. Its very easy to play and even with a simple "rotation" of just a few skills can do pretty high dps. Also, i found out that she is very good at healing, recently as i had a resto staff on back bar and a DPS that queued as healer in a dungeon PUG. Two abilities and light and heavy attacks made healing my way through a dungeon pretty easy. It was even easier the third time i ran as heals because the other players were using self heals as part of their rotations so i was only doing 70-80% of the healing. I found heals to be really easy to play honestly. Again it seems like something people over complicate to me with complex 40 button rotations and split second timing, but hey to each his own.

It does make a difference on the race you pick. I know you want to pick this race because you like it. I did that in the single player elder scrolls. and this class because you like it. But it makes a very noticeable difference in ease of play. My bow blade for example was built around the concept of crafting and thieving. So i picked wood elf to compliment my thieving. He excels at thieving able to steal while nearly face to face with a npc. But he suffers when it comes to combat. My high elf sorcerer also steals but is built around combat. She, at level 25 has hit 75k dps with AOE and 8-12k on bosses with a 7k sustain on dummies. Which is really good for her level and skill, imo. But she sucks at thieving because she doesnt have those wood elf skills. Its a pain not to get detected and some containers are completely off limit to her.

So that race choice does make a difference.

Cazzy

Hello @Klixen I have Erbs Palsy so can't use a keyboard. I use controller on both PC and PS4. It's much easier!

There are some good guilds around, too. They are an amazing asset to have help you level up and craft gear. Check the forum out and keep your eyes open for good guildies!

When you start any game it's always a learning experience. This was my first MMO and I was convinced I would be useless. I used to have a character I loved with a build I enjoyed but when I look back at it I laugh. It took a while for me to find what I was looking for. I use an online build now that does a lot of damage but doesn't sacrifice my happiness or comfortability in gameplay.

Keep going. In a few months you'll realise how much it's changed.

As for levelling I'd suggest just do a few side quests for now, don't go near the skull and crossbones on the map (world bosses are for groups and can't be solo'ed) and try the delves (torch symbols). They have bosses you should be able to solo and can practice on. Plenty of mobs to help you get used to your character and the controller too!

FrancisCrawford

My old guide https://tamrielfoundry.com/articles/general-tips-for-new-or-returning-players/ might still be helpful in parts.

Elsonso

I have been pondering how to respond to this all morning.

I play this game quite often on new characters, and on accounts without ESO Plus or Champion Points. It is more challenging to play in this manner, which is one reason that I do it. I actually enjoy it.

The one thing that I cannot do is remove my four years of skill playing the game. At this point, I have been playing so long that I don't even remember what it was like to not have ESO skills. I can say what I have learned in that time, though.

@Klixen : I never pay attention to gear at low levels. I have gone the route of making gear for new characters, and not making gear for them. It does not matter. In the end, the only reason to do it is to research them for crafting traits. I am usually way behind my level on gear, and it is a mish-mash of gear that has dropped.

What I do pay attention to is my attributes and skills. I always increase Magicka first, no matter what class or build I am using. ALL of the ESO classes are Magicka classes when they start. If you try to do a Stamina build and load up Stamina right away, you can starve your class skills. Don't be afraid to use both Stamina and Magicka. Put attribute points in the attribute you run out of most often. We can change these later, so what matters most right away is building to get enough to cover what you are running out of. That includes HEALTH, if you find yourself dying a lot with Stamina and Magicka reserves still available.

I start with a focus on single weapon skill. I will use whatever until I find my preferred weapon. I do not want to meet the tutorial boss until I have that weapon and have had a chance to use it. Weapon skill lines are unlocked by using the weapon to kill something.

Other than two-handed, weapons are harder to find in the Wailing Prison tutorial. Keep trying. In Firemoth (Morrowind tutorial), all of the weapons are in a hut that is easily looted for whatever you want.

Do not start with a Restoration Staff. If you want to go that route, do it later.

If you are going to use a destruction staff, do not use an ICE STAFF. I prefer lightning, but flame is good.

The tutorial is where you collect your basic gear. Don't be picky, except you can ignore unarmored clothing. Gear is gear for the tutorial. Just get some. Trade up as needed.

My goal for the tutorial is to be ALMOST LEVEL 4 when I reach the end. If I am not leveling up to Level 4 when I exit the tutorial, I went through the tutorial too fast. If I am already at Level 4 before I exit the tutorial, I went too slow. Other than time, there is really no advantage to blowing through the tutorial.

First skill is always a damage skill. Whatever is offered that does damage. Instant cast is best. Sorcerers can get pets second.

Looking down the road, I always look for a class or weapon skill that does a stun or knockback. I prioritize whatever it takes to get there. Stun won't work on bosses, but it certainly helps on everything else.

I also keep my eye on the area of effect skills. Until I get a good area of effect, I actively work to limit the number of enemies I am fighting at one time.

When I pick skills, I go for "no cast times". Only instant cast. I can do long cast times after I am done with the tutorial and have a few levels under my belt.

Use Third Person for combat, no matter any personal preference for First Person. I know the game starts in First Person, and the game can be played that way. Do the tutorial in Third Person. Switch later if you hate that. This is mainly to learn about the red. New players should practice staying out of the red, and it helps to see it.

ESO combat is very dynamic. While spell casters and archers can target you at range, melee opponents need to be facing you. Use that to your advantage by moving behind them. Close on archers, since they can shoot you when you are moving. They don't want to be close to you and like to run away. Often, they don't attack while they do that.

Later, when you have decent AoE, you can keep an AoE DoTs (damage over time) on you if you are fighting melee attackers. They want to come to you, so much the better. Since they often put crowd control on you, that can help. You can also drop AoE DoTs on archers and ranged casters. They are too stupid to move out of an AoE. Use this for people shooting DoT (damage over time) at you. This is a good time to use ranged STUN or KNOCKBACK on archers and ranged casters, if you have it.

To kill any boss in the tutorial, only two active skills need to be slotted. They both need to be damage and instant cast. After that, remember to move. Don't just stand there and spam the skills, also use your weapon. Heavy attacks build resources. The tutorial bosses are not quick about their attacks or movement. They are slow, movement is your friend, and you don't have to run a blitz on them to win. Pace yourself and don't be afraid to re-position or put something between you and them, if they have to pound on you to attack.

Yes, you can die to them. This is a perfect opportunity to learn.

FrancisCrawford

Hi!

I just saw your other post saying that you have a magicka templar. In that case, I'm going to make specific suggestions about skills and gear.

• Definitely wear light armor.
• Armor skills are among the most important passive skills.
• Put all your attribute points into magicka.
• Eat blue health/magicka food that is close to level-appropriate or, if you can't get that, instead follow the advice about food from special/not-gated-by-level recipes above.
• Another option is Bowl of Peeled Eyeballs. You can buy the recipe and ingredients cheaply. It is also easy to level up your Provisioning Skill to the point that you can make the item. But in that case, you probably should put a few attribute points into health, since that drink doesn't add any max health on its own.
• You can win most fights -- even boss fights -- with only two skills: Puncturing Sweeps and (either morph) Breath of Life/Honor the Dead. (BoL is better than HtD when you play with others; HtD is better when you're strictly solo.)
• Reflective Light is also a great skill.
• The three skills I just named are the #1 skills in the three class skill lines. I.e., you can unlock them almost immediately.
• After level 15, the most natural weapon choice is one destruction staff and one restoration staff.
• If you have disabilities, I'd say lightning staff is DEFINITELY the best choice. Both lightning and restoration staffs have "channel" styles of heavy attacks. Executing those is almost trivial -- you just face an enemy, hold down the button, and the only possible difficulty is judging when to let go.
• Don't forget to take the passive skill that makes lightning heavy attacks area-of-effect.
• Elemental Blockade -- a morph of the #2 skill in the destruction staff line -- is one of the great skills in the game. Use it.
• When you can unlock Rune Focus --> Channeled Focus in the Restoring Light skill line, it's a nice one.
• Ditto Blazing Spear or Luminous Shards in the Aedric Spear line.
• There are multiple "bubble"/"shield" skills you can use. Annulment-->Harness Magicka is one great choice. Healing Ward on the restoration staff is another.
• You really can heal groups using only Rapid Regeneration/Mutagen and Breath of Life. Add Healing Ward, Elemental Blockade (Lightning) and Elemental Drain, and you're definitely solid. That said, we have other threads for beginning templar healers.

Good luck, and enjoy yourself out there!

Klixen wrote: »

I'm a new player, but I don't know how much longer I'll keep playing. This game is just too hard and punishing for new players.

As an example, I've never before played a game that killed me in the starting tutorial (which is what happened to me when I faced the first quest boss).

This game is brutal!

But don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about normal mobs like wolves and bandits, they're fine. No, I'm talking about quest bosses. They're impossible!

Well, to make a long story short, it slowly began to dawn on me that I needed the best gear I could get (even at level 5). Nothing else mattered, not my class, not my skills, nothing! All that matters is my gear. It's the single most important thing in the game. Without good gear, the game is unplayable!

But how was I supposed to get good gear? I couldn't craft or buy it (there's no low level gear for sale in the Guild Traders).

Well, I thought I'd found the answer. I discovered that locked chests in the starter zones dropped pieces of the 'Armor of the Trainee' set. So for the next few hours I did nothing but farm chests. And I did it! I managed to find 5 'Heavy' pieces of the set.

OMG! The difference it made was game changing. I felt like a God! I could solo anything!

I figured I had this thing beat. Every few levels, I'd just go back to the starter zones, farm some more chests and keep my armor up to date. I planned to do this all the way up to level 50.

But the game had other ideas. At level 20, the set simply stopped dropping. No matter how many chests I opened. Not a single piece!

It was time to start crafting (whether I wanted to or not).

So that's where I'm at now. My leveling has slammed to a stop. For over a week now I've done nothing but craft. I haven't killed a single mob or completed any quests. The whole game is on hold until I can craft a new set of armor. And to be honest, I'm bored out of my mind.

The thought of endlessly grinding out my crafting levels (just so I can continue to play) is horrifying. I just want to play the game!

But after only a couple of weeks, I'm completely burned out and exhausted. There has got to be a better way than this!

dazee

This game is ruled by a selfish endgame elitist crowd who wants to warp the game to their desires, cost be damned. Any disagreement with this means your bad, your angry because of it, and you need to learn to play with absolutely no help or diection aside from the few scraps they give you. It needs to stop. The biggest threat to this game's future, is this elitist upper eschelon.

Cannot agree more with this. I've seen elitist Stop Having Fun Guy cartels ruin games before through their constant overly loud "feedback" and I don't care to see it happen again.

I think the silent majority of players needs to start using forums and discussion boards and speak up, so that we might save Zenimax from listening to these people, at the cost of their game.

Kamatsu

Klixen wrote: »

Are there any other disabled players here? What did you do? How did you build your character?

I have problems with my eye-to-hand coordination, as well as reflex's / reaction-s. Due to this I can struggle badly when it comes to dodging and such. I tend to have what I call 'fat fingers' when I try and press anything in a rapid reaction to anything (well, rapid to me.. slow to others) - I have bound my dodge key to v and unbound the C & B key's, so that I don't accidentally open my Character Sheet or Bags when I do actually try and dodge (as I was always doing! pfft!).

But yeah, I can be really slow to react to aoe/heavy-attack indicators... which makes trying to dodge out of them hard. And no, it's not due to lag/latency. It's an issue I have in any game whether online or not (and might strike people odd that I enjoy Dark Souls 1 considering this... but it's a slow & methodical game, I can handle that... fast paced frantic action.. gah!)

As for class, I'd have been suggesting the class you're playing. It's what I play the most when I'm not feeling up to playing the other classes (I do have chars of other classes, but Templar is the easiest for me.. stand still and spam jabs).

The thing is though, while going heavy armor might look the right way to go - since it buffs your health and damage resistances, doing this makes your self-healing worse. Your self-healing (both Jabs when morphed for it, and the heals from the heals skill line) scale based on your magical. Well, Jabs damage scales based on your magicka (unless you morph it to the stamina option) and the heal from it scales from the damage. So more magicka = more damage = more healing. If you instead go light armor you can buff your magicka up, which boosts your damage and self-healing.

Here is the skills I use (I realize you might not have access to all of these, but it's what I aimed to get asap & use):

1. Puncturing Sweeps (heals for 35% of damage caused, main attack I spam) (this is morphed from Puncturing Strikes)
2. Reflective Light (does damage & puts a DOT on up to 3 enemies) (morphed from Sun Fire)
3. Restoring Focus (ground aoe that boost's defense, healing received and reduces damage taken) (morphed from Rune Focus)
4. Honor the Dead (heal, and I believe it refunds magicka even if only you healed) (morphed from Rushed Ceremony)
5. Inner Light (boost's max magicka as a passive (ie don't cast it) (Mage's Guild skill) (morphed from Magelight)

I only use 1 bar, as I find trying to use a 2nd bar doesn't work very well for me. So I focus on trying to make sure I can survive with just 1 bar. I realize some of the skills I use you can only acquire after some time getting skill points in each line - but even with just puncturing Sweeps, Reflective Light (or just Sun Fire) and Rushed Ceremony you should be able to deal with most open world & quest mobs & quest bosses (don't try and tackle World Bosses solo tho!).

My 1st skill point went into Puncturing Strikes so I could morph it to Puncturing Sweeps asap. I then grabbed Rushed Ceremony for a big self-heal, then Sun Fire to work towards Reflective Light. I then grabbed Healing Ritual asap and put that on my bar - not to use, but because having 2 healing skills on my bar meant my healing skill line would level faster, so I'd get to Cleansing Ritual & Rune Focus quicker.

- You can swap Restoring Focus with Ritual of Retribution (morphed from Cleansing Ritual) if you want more self-healing instead of damage reduction. Ritual of Retribution drops a fairly large ground AoE that will heal you over time, as well as damage mobs. You can stay with just Cleansing Ritual (the base) as that does the healing over time bit - just that Ritual of Retribution heals for more and does damage).

- many people prefer Vampire's Bane over Reflective Light morph of Sun Fire. This is due to it's higher single-target damage. So vs single bosses this will be a much better option. However I find that since most PvE encounters seem to be 2-3 mobs at a time, I'd rather do slightly less damage but hit them all than have to cast the same spell multiple times (less aiming and button pressing is great for me)

So when I'm going to be entering combat, this is all I need to do:

- Aim cursor at mob, press 2 for dot
- press 3 (for either damage resist or added dot-healing)(if needed, vs easy-to-kill mobs I skip this)
- spam 1 for damage & heals
- press 3 if health ever gets really, really low.
- use my right-mouse button to block if targeted by a big attack

I freely admit I have my skills setup like this for ease-of-use and save moving my hand around... I just need to generally press 1-2 in most fights, and 1,2,3 in harder fights... and don't have to worry about taking my fingers off 1-2-3 to move. And I have my mouse for aiming, pressing right-button for blocking & left-button for heavy-attacks to regain mana if/when needed.

This is good for me and my poor muscle memory, bad eye-to-hand co-ordination and reactions... the less I need to try and move my fingers around in combat to hit different key's the better. The best fight is one where I can ignore the movement keys and just spam 1, with the occasional 2 and/or 3 as needed.

The biggest problem with this is it does use magicka quiet a bit, but shouldn't be a problem if you only fight 2-3 normal mobs max, or 1 boss... and give yourself some time between fights - esp if you wear magicka regen jewelry.

I hardly ever move in fights, hardly ever dodge or use the 'break free' feature to remove CC's. I just stand and go toe-to-toe, and generally don't have problems due to self-healing.

- I put all attribute points into Magicka. More magicka = more damage = more self-healing!

- I wear all light armor, and put skill points into it's passives as soon as I have any spare to do so Those passives are a godsend... and make it easier to spam Sweeps at enemies.
- Yes light armor means my damage resistances or lower, and I'll have less health due to different passives, but I can self-heal enough that it's not a concern for me in most instances.

- I use a lightning staff. Simple because it means to heavy attack I can hold down the left mouse button and it'll just keep attacking. Well, you can do that too with the fire staff... I just prefer the constant attack of the lightening staff over the build up of the fire staff.
- Don't use an Ice staff, as this (with the staff passives) is a tanking weapon.
- The other reason to use staff if it's heavy attacks will give you magicka, while if you use any other weapon (other than a healing staff... which again, don't use for now) you will get stamina back. Which is pointless for a magicka user unless your dodge rolling all the time.

Would this work in group dungeons and such? Probably not, but it gets me through the PvE / story / overland question and such without too much drama.

- Race is not really relevant, unless you are trying to min/max stats for best possible gameplay. Orc magicka user will work just fine in the main story, overland, normal dungeons, vet dungeons, etc. So don't worry if you read in other threads ppl rabbitting on about races... pfft @ them! lol

- Note that if you want to change attribute points, or skills you can do so for a gold fee in every alliances capital city. No need to buy anything from the crown store. Just travel to any capital city and find the shrines to do so.

- As others have offered, if your on NA PC, I can craft armor & weapons for you. Can craft up to the cap of CP160 gear, in all the base race's skins. As well as in most types (ie divines, training, etc). I can also do up to CP 80 runes of green-blue quality as well. Free of charge. PM if you want/need it, but don't feel compelled to. Either go for it yourself, or take up anyone's offer.

- As for traits on weapons and armor. I usually say going for Training at 1st is the best way to go. While it only boost's xp from mobs killed, you will be killing a lot of mobs. And early on that extra xp can help raise class and/or weapon skill lines fast, and that can help you get to skills you want quicker... which is a good thing imo!

- After that, I usually suggest Divine on armor and Sharpened on weapons. At least till your more comfy with the game, the skills, build, etc and can go it alone. Divines boost's whatever Mundus you have, and Sharpened gives you weapon/spell penetration (so you will do slightly more damage)

- this is obviously assuming you have researched the relevant traits and can craft them, or can get someone else to craft the items for you. Unless your wealthy (which you're prolly not) then buying from a Guild Shop is not an option.

- Oh, and have food! Even if it's just the terrible white food from drops or npc's, I highly recommend it for the boost in stats you can get. I use blue food for +health & + magicka totals. I don't use drinks, since that only boost's regen. If you can't make or buy blue food, stick with the white food that gives +magicka - same reason as always, more magicka = more damage = more healing.

Sorry, I've waffled on and gone meandering around the topic, what I do, etc. Bad habit of mine. lol I hope something of this has been helpful for you.

srfrogg23

Klixen wrote: »

I'm a new player, but I don't know how much longer I'll keep playing. This game is just too hard and punishing for new players.

As an example, I've never before played a game that killed me in the starting tutorial (which is what happened to me when I faced the first quest boss).

This game is brutal!

But don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about normal mobs like wolves and bandits, they're fine. No, I'm talking about quest bosses. They're impossible!

Well, to make a long story short, it slowly began to dawn on me that I needed the best gear I could get (even at level 5). Nothing else mattered, not my class, not my skills, nothing! All that matters is my gear. It's the single most important thing in the game. Without good gear, the game is unplayable!

But how was I supposed to get good gear? I couldn't craft or buy it (there's no low level gear for sale in the Guild Traders).

Well, I thought I'd found the answer. I discovered that locked chests in the starter zones dropped pieces of the 'Armor of the Trainee' set. So for the next few hours I did nothing but farm chests. And I did it! I managed to find 5 'Heavy' pieces of the set.

OMG! The difference it made was game changing. I felt like a God! I could solo anything!

I figured I had this thing beat. Every few levels, I'd just go back to the starter zones, farm some more chests and keep my armor up to date. I planned to do this all the way up to level 50.

But the game had other ideas. At level 20, the set simply stopped dropping. No matter how many chests I opened. Not a single piece!

It was time to start crafting (whether I wanted to or not).

So that's where I'm at now. My leveling has slammed to a stop. For over a week now I've done nothing but craft. I haven't killed a single mob or completed any quests. The whole game is on hold until I can craft a new set of armor. And to be honest, I'm bored out of my mind.

The thought of endlessly grinding out my crafting levels (just so I can continue to play) is horrifying. I just want to play the game!

But after only a couple of weeks, I'm completely burned out and exhausted. There has got to be a better way than this!

At this point, it’s about the fundamentals of combat: dodge, block, interrupt, abilities, light attacks, and heavy attacks.

Gold sparks on enemies mean “block”. Red sparks mean “interrupt”. Red telegraphs on the ground mean “dodge” (run or roll out of the way).

When you dodge or interrupt an enemy they are set “off balance” and stunned. Use a heavy attack to knock them down and deal a bunch of bonus damage. Heavy attacks also restore your stamina or magicka depending on the weapon you’re using.

Otherwise, time the use of your light attacks and abilities. Learning to alternate between light attacks and abilities will do a bit more damage even faster (this is called “weaving”).

Meanah

I have to say I agree with you, its not easy for a solo newbie.. Im level 20 now and have no experience with games like this! I did more searching on this forum, google builds and skills to understand what everything means than I played this game till now on.. Sometimes I’m still lost lol

This forum helped me alot, Also these tips: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/75939/tips-you-wish-youd-known-from-the-start

Good Luck