New player question

piousvenom

I'm new to ESO, with my character being level 17. I've played nearly every other MMO out there, but this one confuses me. Am I correct in assuming that there's no real "this is the direction to go" development? Like, other MMO's have a story, or semblance of a story, with guiding you through the game with quests. Do all the quests here in Zone A, get quest to Zone B, do those quests, so on and so forth. But with ESO, it just seems like, "hey, do the quests however you like". Or am I missing something?

FlyingSwan

There's a main story quest to guide you, but the rest can largely be done as you please.

VaranisArano

There used to be leveled quests so you did the stories in a certain order which was removed with One Tamriel.

If you want to follow that order: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/413807/what-order-should-i-do-esos-story-arcs-a-guide

Cillion3117

You basically can do them however you want. Every 5 levels the prophet will call you back to advance the main story.

ZonasArch

Cillion3117 wrote: »

You basically can do them however you want. Every 5 levels the prophet will call you back to advance the main story.

Not true. You can go to harborage in full sequence now. No more 5-5 stuff.

Also, OP, you can follow the main questline in the factions. Once you're done with them, and the main quest, that should be it, but you can also do what is called Cadwell Journal, I believe, that sends you to do main questline for other the factions, so you can progress through all the story more linearly.

Back I. The day when the game wasn't "do what you want, when you want, you'd be guided zone by zone, area by area, mostly by the level of your character, so if you get to follow the zones and areas within zones in the "old fashion", you can get that same sense of progressing you're asking about, including NPCs and dialogue lines that tie the lore together.