Combat/Class doubts from a new player

JaselUmena

Good day, fellow forumers. If you despise reading pointless stuff, I would advise skipping the next paragraph, as it's mere contextual information that may not be of your interest.

I am a relatively new player, but I have refrained from using the forums for a while, simply in order to be able to experiment the game fully without being too biased towards anything (got to cp300 so far). It's been about 60 days of casual play so far, and I have to say I am very impressed on how the game turned out to be very unlike the reviews I read. The lore is interesting, it's very playable (despite having a few flaws) and the degree of customization you can reach is unlike anything I have played to this date. Coming from another MMO where tanks were made irrelevant (cause it's all about the dps there) and where everything were cookie cutter builds, ESO feels extremely refreshing. Despite all the versatility and creativity this game allows, a dire thought crossed my mind a couple of days ago when I went to do a pledge in cradle of shadows veteran (velidreth's dungeon, in case I wrote the wrong name). We happened to get a healer with a less than desirable performance (no synergies, no purges, only occasional heals). We attempted the final boss several times without kicking the person, as we felt it would not be too polite to just kick them out if they were actually trying, but it was just not cutting it. In the end, they simply went offline, a different healer came and we cleared on the second attempt, after they figured out the mechanics. What caused me to worry was the comment of one of my teammates, who blamed not the player, but the class they were using (a Dragon Knight).

That said, here comes the barrage of questions. I apologize in advance for concentrating most of them in a single post and in case they have been asked previously.

1) So this is one of the doubts I come with and hope to solve: Is creativity in this game just an illusion (speaking mostly about hard content / more endgame stuff), or can most classes do most jobs properly given appropriate gear?

2) Is the endgame here also cookie cutter builds with very little room for experimentation? I expect that meta is a thing, like in all games, but can not so meta builds work in endgame or is it a must to, say, use a DK tank, a templar healer and then have every DD be magicka based?

3) Related to the previous question, I really do not expect every single class to be able to perform every single endgame role. Which classes can perform said roles interchangeably?

4) How trustworthy are online resources for this game? (For instance, websites I've seen where people upload builds) Are they supervised by actually good players, or can anyone just make a build and upload it regardless of their knowledge on the game?

5) Regarding buffs and debuffs, I noticed many skills provide the exact same buff, be it self or party wide. In a proper large group, who (role) are the ones supposed to buff allies and debuff enemies, and with which buffs / debuffs (in order to free slots of redundant skills)?

6) Is it possible to make a build so insanely obnoxious in battlegrounds (non cp) pvp that people simple let you be (for being too tanky, healing too fast, etc) in modes like capture the relic or control points? If so, which?

These are the doubts I could think of, from the top of my head. I had a lot more that I managed to solve myself while playing this wonderful game. So far I love most of the community I've come across ingame (PC, EU), so I hope to be able to say the same about the forums.

Anyway, name's Jasel. Casual pve player for now. Nice to meet you all, and hope you can give me a hand with my doubts!

Siohwenoeht

Welcome to the forums, and since you have prior mmo experience I trust you know to take what some may say here with a grain of salt...

That said, eso definitely has more variety of builds than most MMOs out there and most well theorycrafted builds will complete most content as long as the group works well together. If you're trying to compete for top of the leaderboards in veteran hard mode then you may save a character slot to min/max.

Eso also changes frequently as far as bis/meta etc so reading every set of patch notes to see what abilities/mechanics are tweaked is important as well.

As far as pvp, there are builds that will mitigate alot of damage and builds that will deal alot of damage and not much in between. Not saying you can't try to build for both, but don't expect to jump in with both feet and not die a lot. Eso pvp has a very steep learning curve and issues with lag which sometimes causes skills to bug out in a variety of ways. I'm sure that will be the most sugar coated explanation of it you'll find on the forum.

Again, welcome and I hope you enjoy your journey through Tamriel!

DoobZ69

1) So this is one of the doubts I come with and hope to solve: Is creativity in this game just an illusion (speaking mostly about hard content / more endgame stuff), or can most classes do most jobs properly given appropriate gear?

Yes every class can perform every role because you can use a lot of the universal skills and passives to fill the ranks. Some classes have an easier time with those roles. Those are preferred for end-game but the rest are not incapable of doing the job.

2) Is the endgame here also cookie cutter builds with very little room for experimentation? I expect that meta is a thing, like in all games, but can not so meta builds work in endgame or is it a must to, say, use a DK tank, a templar healer and then have every DD be magicka based?

Progression for content is initially hard and the best set-ups are preferred but once you are familiar with mechanics then you can experiment with other set-ups unless aiming for score runs. This is true in all content.

3) Related to the previous question, I really do not expect every single class to be able to perform every single endgame role. Which classes can perform said roles interchangeably?

Every class can perform every role. Some do it better than others.

4) How trustworthy are online resources for this game? (For instance, websites I've seen where people upload builds) Are they supervised by actually good players, or can anyone just make a build and upload it regardless of their knowledge on the game?

Generally the well known players builds are on their own websites. The other builds are peoples' own builds and are not put to scrutiny. Generally a lot of experimentation and learning is required to fully understand the class because of how paper differs vs reality in terms of skills/passives/procs, etc.

5) Regarding buffs and debuffs, I noticed many skills provide the exact same buff, be it self or party wide. In a proper large group, who (role) are the ones supposed to buff allies and debuff enemies, and with which buffs / debuffs (in order to free slots of redundant skills)?

If you are in an organized group then you can build a specific set-up (raids) but if in a group then it depends on what the class/role can bring to the group. For example a healer can apply Elemental Drain for the magicka users in their group to boost their sustain. You need to be more specific for a situation you are interested in.

6) Is it possible to make a build so insanely obnoxious in battlegrounds (non cp) pvp that people simple let you be (for being too tanky, healing too fast, etc) in modes like capture the relic or control points? If so, which?

There are many of them. It is again just a matter of finding the one that suits your situation.

If you truly want to squeeze the best out of a character you need to focus on the right racial choice first. Despite the fact that no race stops you from doing a role it is indisputable that some are just better at certain functions. Stamina, magicka, role min-maxing can be made or broken by the right race pick. Churr