Should I get to Lv50/160CP first?

Earelith

Hello all. I am back to the game after a very long time. I created a Wood Elf with the intention to make a "RP" character as a Thief/assassin. Not going to pvp or do endgame, I just wanna explore and immerse to the world, complete all quests with that playstyle (assassin/Thief).

I am planning to farm 3 pieces of Terror, 5 pieces of the Night Mother and craft 3 pieces of Night's Silence.

But my problem is: Should I first reach level 50 and 160CP before I farm the pieces? Is that the "max level" gear I can get them? I am starting on PC this time and so I have 0 CP currently. How easy is to get to 160CP once you reach 50? Can I do that by skipping all quests (except main character quest). I just want to build my character first and then "relax" and enjoy all the stories and lore of the game by completing quests.

From what I know from my past playtime in ESO years ago, this is how I plan to proceed:

1) Level my character as magicka based nightblade, cause its much easier to level and solo that way and just respec when I am at Lv 50 / 160CP.
2) Farm Skyshards and solo dungeons on each zone, but skip all quests. Join a public dungeon if enough people doing it or maybe a dolmen.
3) Reach the limit of fences every day for slowly leveling legerdemain line.

Thats the plan so far, but I am really looking forward to your advice if there is a better and faster method to achieve my goal: Wood Elf Nightblade, Stamina Build, Thief (Max stealth passives, pickpocket passives) Thief Guild level up, Dark Brotherhood level up.

Thanks in advance

Beardimus

There's a few things there but yes CP160 is currently end game for gear. So getting your perfect drop might feel frusttrating if its lower level.

In terms of leveling, i realise grinding etc as it wastes so much of the game. Enjoy the leveling.

Things i do for Alts

- main quest (skillpoints)
- alliance quest (skillpoints & story)
- clear a zone of dolmens (xp), skyshards (SP),World boss, group / public delve event and public dungeon. If really keen delves too (XP)
- start all guilds, get lore books if you magika, do fighters guild, start undaunted

It's fun, fresh and you don't repeat content.

qbit

Don’t farm gear until cp 160. Just use whatever until you get to that level. Preferably training traited gear.

Starlock

As someone who plays this game primarily to do RP/questing, I'll tell a few stories about my own experiences going through various characters. There really isn't a "right" way to do this - depends on your needs.

Most of my characters I have not leveled to max before starting their journeys (aka, questing and stuff). There are a few advantages to doing this:

• One, it creates some sense of progression of your character as they go through their story. For some stories, this is paramount and power leveling your character will destroy most sense of progression.
• Two, it allows you to experiment with some different gear sets and abilities as you level and play content to test if they'll really work as you think they'll work. There have been a couple times where a set or ability I thought would work really well for the character just... didn't. It's much better to learn this sooner rather than later, because there are times it might make you rethink the entire character concept from the ground up.
• Lastly, if you've never played through the story content in that area (or perhaps even visited it) you will avoid spoiling aspects of the story and the exploration prematurely. This is an especially important consideration for players new to ESO who want to experience the story as originally intended by the developers.

Just to see how it would work, I did use an alternative method on a few characters - leveling a character to max before starting their journeys. This is similar to what you're currently thinking and has its advantages too:

• One, you begin your character's story with them already being a skilled individual. For some stories, a sense or progression isn't important or even an obstacle to telling the story the way you want it to be told.
• Two, it allows you to test the final load out for your character more quickly to see if it will work in the manner you hope it will work. Sometimes the key abilities for your character don't unlock until late, and you can't really tell how they will handle until everything is unlocked for them. On the minus side, if you really haven't tested any of their abilities or their "feel" at all, you might be in for some unpleasant surprises.
• Lastly, you shouldn't run into problems having too few skill points to distribute into the abilities you need because you've been going after skyshards as part of your power leveling activities. This can make aspects of character development less painful.

I've had a couple experiences trying to retrofit a mag character to stam (or vice versa). I don't recommend it. It's very jarring to go from playing a character in one way and then doing a one-eighty to play it entirely differently. It means you will not have any feel for how they will play once you hit max, because you aren't using the abilities they'll actually use once they're done as a character. You also won't have any experience in the skill lines you need either, because you will have wasted it on skills you won't actually use and have to re-level skill lines all over again. It's just not worth it, especially since it's not difficult to max level a character in the skills you actually intend to use for them.

With respect to leveling ledgermain, I've never ground that because it's just a pain, but if I did, I would definitely not wait to do the Thieves' Guild quest line. You're going to want that extra gold from selling fenced items, and you're *really* going to want the help clearing your bounty timer. It's doable without, but dang... takes some dedication there.

Jaimeh

For farming also keep in mind that you can get CP160 dungeon set pieces before reaching that mark; for example, if you are in a group with >CP160 players, you can ask if they want to trade any items, and you can just keep them for when you reach gear cap. The ones you mentioned are overland/crafted, but I just wanted to mention this in case you have any dungeon sets in mind as well.

SirAndy

qbit wrote: »

Don’t farm gear until cp 160. Just use whatever until you get to that level. Preferably training traited gear.

Training gear will really help with leveling, the extra XP from kills is significant.

Like suggested above if you follow the main quest line and clear each zone (dolmens, dungeons, skyshards, world bosses etc.) you'll be well on your way to CP160 already by the time you beat Molag Bal. At that point (usually right around level 50 or early CP), you're just about done with 1/4 of the base game. If you have any of the DLCs there will be even more to do.

Anyways, my point is, CP160 is fairly easy to reach without any mindless grind. The gear cap is at CP160 and any set gear you find at that level will stay use-able indefinitely.

AcadianPaladin

No right or wrong answer but here is what I would do instead of a grind:

Just play your first alliance, fully immersing yourself in your growing skills and learning how to adapt them as they grow. Of course, try to start and work on horse, FG, MG, Undaunted along the way so those skill lines build over time. Go slowly and enjoy. By the time you finish your first alliance, your character can be 'fully built'. Then Silver and Gold are wonderful opportunities to experience the other two alliances as a fully built character.

GreenhaloX

Depending on how you play. If you can tolerate the grind that a lot of peeps do like with the endless train at the Alikr dolmen or Skyreach, you'll hit level 50 and beyond fast. If you're not the grinding type, you can still hit level 50 fast by doing dailies and just go out and unlock all areas with all map zones. You don't even have to do any quests to reach CP 160 and beyond. Either way, this is one of the better time to level up new toons and skills as the double XP are enabled for this current New Life Festival; which we have, what, 13 more days left. Double XP with XP pots and/or XP scrolls, you should get anywhere from 100-200 CP by the end of this event.

Now, for the gear, to me, it's preference. Others will say don't worry about dropped gear pieces and use crafted gears until you reach CP 160. Hey, nothing wrong with that, but again to me, it is much better to get and use the drop pieces. One, it's abundant from chests, kills and reward drops. I rather use those than relying on someone else to take their time out and get to a crafting station and constantly have to craft. Of course you'll need higher gears as you level up. I find all my gears from treasure chests, kills, drops, dolmens, delves, dungeons, whatever and on my own terms; not having to rely on and wait on somebody crafting it. Plus, to me, it is just a waste of mats crafting for toons that are leveling to CP 160.

Non-crafted gears aren't hard to find at all. That is if you are willing to put in the work and farm it. Hell, I just pick up drops from kills, rewards from dailies and all treasure chests that I find. It is easy. Plus, I'm leveling up skills, getting shards, lorebooks and skillpoints as well as leveling up my legerdemain and others like Fighter, Mage and Undaunted skillsets. Also, you're getting trash pieces needed to decon and mats to refine to level up crafting and research.