Dolmens. Why even quest?

jaws343

Alikr Grind and Quest grind are both a waste of time. Quest Grind takes too long and the Alikr Grind does nothing for you but get you to CP level.

The best leveling method is doing every single dolmen and public dungeon outside of Cyrodil and collecting every skyshard along the way. By the time you hit that last dolmen you should be at level 50+ with 150+ skill points and a level 8 or 9 fighters guild and a level 4 or 5 mages guild. Plus you will now have a large majority of wayshrines unlocked in all of the zones.

It takes, at most, 10 hours to do this. Even quicker if you do the daily random dungeon in between dolmens as well.

Vercingetorix

I find that the Alik'r dolmen run serves one defined purpose and nothing more: power-leveling abilities you wouldn't collectively bring into active combat

Since dolmens grant exp just for "being there" and occasionally attacking a mob, you can level a bunch of weaker abilities passively. This works because the pinion exp is what actually matters - mob exp is negligible due to the zerg splitting it up. This method for leveling a bunch of utility abilities quickly and about not having a bar filled with un-castable/useless abilities in the middle of a dungeon or quest.

Questing is largely helpful for skill points - both quest rewards and skyshard hunting. You can often passively grab all lorebooks while doing a particular region, too. I feel questing isn't about the exp but rather everything else that's important to your character: skill points, faction skill lines, and exploration/quest achievements

wenchmore420b14_ESO

sevomd69 wrote: »

I'd rather level my toon by just killing mud crabs, over doing the dolmen grind...at least i'll get tons of chitin...with the same amount of mind numbing repetition...

Well, it only takes 119,050 Mudcrabs to hit lv 50...

Nestor

Vercingetorix wrote: »

Since dolmens grant exp just for "being there" and occasionally attacking a mob, you can level a bunch of weaker abilities passively. This works because the pinion exp is what actually matters - mob exp is negligible due to the zerg splitting it up.

Yes, you can get Exp for just being there and tagging a mob, or being part of the group. But, Mob exp can be 2 to 3 times what the pinion gives you if your wearing Training traited gear. In large zerg, it might be close to par with the pinion, but the mob exp is a significant chunk of the exp earned.

cyclonus11

*spam Acid Spray for a minute or so*

Yay, fun.

Rawkan

Seems like a strange mentality to have. You're playing a MMORPG. To me, doing all the quests in the game was an experience. This is one of the games I wish never ran out of quests.

josiahva

Vhozek wrote: »

A dolmen in Alik'r Desert is done in a bit over a minute while providing 2.5k exp and a chest.
There are an incredible amount of quests in the game that take around 5-7 minutes to finish and provide below 1k exp plus 1 item.
Why would you waste your time?

Why do you think its a waste of time? Because it provides less exp? What exactly do you play this game for? To endlessly PvP? To run endless trials? Quests are content to enjoy(or not) at your leisure...if you dont like them, dont bother with them. Play the content you like and ignore the rest of it.

Lunerdog

Vercingetorix wrote: »

I find that the Alik'r dolmen run serves one defined purpose and nothing more: power-leveling abilities you wouldn't collectively bring into active combat

Bingo

That's exactly what I use em for, take a new skill, change a morph etc, hell, even fill the bar with unlevelled skills and jump on the Dolmen choo choo. I hate having unlevelled skills so it serves a purpose for me.

Some say it's "mind numbing repetitive grinding" but...

This one prescribes alcohol and something hot n spicy to munch on, or some one hot n spicy nibbling on your erm, cough, well, you get the picture

Heka Cain

Do Dolmens quest?

ArcVelarian

Iluvrien wrote: »

Because quests aren’t just about the xp and loot.

Yeah, some even give you skill points.

MLGProPlayer

Nestor wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

You'll have 49 skill points when you reach level 50. That's plenty to create a build with.

That can't do much more than a Dolmen Zerg. It takes 60 points just to fully invest in Class Skills, then there are the Armor and Weapon Skills and more importantly, Passives. Not to mention some of the Crafting Skills that extend the life of Potions or Foods, or allow you to upgrade gear with out spending tons of Tempers, the support skills like from the Guild Lines or the Assault/Support Lines, or the Undaunted Passives. Then there are the Racial Skills. Oh, yea, the World Skills. 64 Points is not near enough.

Yea, all a 64 Skill Point Character is going to get you is something that can run some zergs. Don't even think about bringing that weak sauce to a Group Dungeon or Trial. And I can bet you would be nothing more than Siege Fodder in PvP. A 64 SP character is weak and useless.

Except maybe to run a 2 skill rotation for doing story content, you know, to earn some skill points to make the character viable.

You only need 63 SP for a fully upgraded skill bar, all class passives, all armour passives (for 1 weight), and all racial passives. That's more than enough for a competitive character.

Doing each dungeon once (on any difficulty) will give you an additional 32 SP. If you're not going to craft on a character, you really don't need more than around 80 SP for a complete build.

CaptainBeerDude

Sting864 wrote: »

PlagueSD wrote: »

I can always spot the player in my PUG that did nothing but level on dolmen or buy skyreach runs.

They're the ones sitting in the back of the group, standing in fire, spamming light attack on the boss.

But all the cool kids stand in the red....

I believe it goes faster.

zaria

Vercingetorix wrote: »

I find that the Alik'r dolmen run serves one defined purpose and nothing more: power-leveling abilities you wouldn't collectively bring into active combat

Since dolmens grant exp just for "being there" and occasionally attacking a mob, you can level a bunch of weaker abilities passively. This works because the pinion exp is what actually matters - mob exp is negligible due to the zerg splitting it up. This method for leveling a bunch of utility abilities quickly and about not having a bar filled with un-castable/useless abilities in the middle of a dungeon or quest.

Questing is largely helpful for skill points - both quest rewards and skyshard hunting. You can often passively grab all lorebooks while doing a particular region, too. I feel questing isn't about the exp but rather everything else that's important to your character: skill points, faction skill lines, and exploration/quest achievements

This, very nice then switching between stamina and magic or making an tank build, healers a bit less since you can back bar resto staff and switch for cashing in quests.

Klixen

madchuska83 wrote: »

I've completed every quest in the game, most multiple times. If I roll a new toon I start by joining the fighters guild and mages guild, then I head to Alik'r for the Dolmen circle. A few days later I have a fully leveled 720CP toon who is severely lacking in skill points.

Next step is main quest, 1 skill point for each quest. Then the guild quests. Each main guild quest also provides a skill point, this includes Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, although they take much more time.

Then I clear zones(skyshards/delves/lorebooks) picking up the main alliance quests as I go, no side quests. Completing the main quests in each zone will give 5 skill points, plus another 5 for picking up the 15 skyshards.

It's all about Skill Points! Oh, and meteor...

This is exactly what I'm doing! And this is what I intend to do with every new character I make.

I'm disabled and in the beginning, I really struggled to play the game. After learning what a HUGE difference gear 'sets' make, I decided to stop 'playing' for awhile and just concentrate on leveling a crafter.

I did this through dolmens, without any combat abilities (all my skill points were spent in crafting skills, so I just used 'Soul Trap' at the dolmens).

It's the smartest thing I could have done! My crafter is max level now and her crafting skills are maxed as well (I'm still researching traits though). I was going to stop playing her and just keep her as a crafter, but I decided to keep grinding CP with her (through dolmens). Then I decided to craft her some gear and get a few more skill points (from Skyshards) and start investing in her combat abilities.

I've just started to do quests with her and it's an absolute blast! The difference between a level 50/160 CP character (that is fully geared) and a level 1 newbie without anything is mind blowing! I will NEVER again try to level a character from 1 to 50 through normal game play ever again.

To be honest, I think they should scrap the whole idea of leveling your character altogether. I think EVERY character should start at level 50 with 160 champion points. You'll still get a sense of progression as you work on earning more champion points and leveling your crafting skills. But you'll eliminate the pointless, tedious grind of getting to level 50/160 before you can start to play properly.

But I for one am extremely grateful for dolmens. Yes, they're tedious and boring, but without them, I'd have given up and stopped playing long ago. Because I just 'couldn't' play until I got to max level and was able to craft some decent gear for myself.

DoctorESO

Vhozek wrote: »

A dolmen in Alik'r Desert is done in a bit over a minute while providing 2.5k exp and a chest.
There are an incredible amount of quests in the game that take around 5-7 minutes to finish and provide below 1k exp plus 1 item.
Why would you waste your time?

It has been said that once a dolmen is closed one trillion times, something special will happen. I've seen it happen.

A trillionith-and-one dolmen gets opened.