Are there any true beginner build guides that are up to date?

zion563

Hi-new player here of course and looking to get a bit of a starting foundation with different classes. I was hoping to get a guide within different classes for the first 10-15 levels or so to get a grasp on the many choices in skills etc. The ONLY Actual guides of this sort are on the AltcastHQ site and written by "Naranarra" and no idea how relevant they are, but are very helpful to get a feel for the different types of classes etc. All other guides/builds out there whether it's Altcast or Xynode or whoever are end game builds with dozens of skill points taken, BIS slotted items, and advice to ask "your guildies" for stuff. Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying learning these things and love the variety to explore and learn, but am the kind of person who likes a bit of a roadmap that is relevant to ESO 2020. For such a large community I'm surprised by the lack of leveling\beginner build type guides for at least the first 15 or so levels that are not out of date from 2017 etc. watching videos for most of the major contributors is frustrating as a starting player, they mean nothing at the beginning of a new career in ESO.
I don't mean the general guides on the game as a whole (of which there are many) I mean the class and type of class guides for the STARTING player.

VaranisArano

Have you looked at the Skills Advisor that's available in game? Its not exactly the most meta of builds, but it offers a decent variety for each class in terms of magicka, stamina, and different roles. I've found those builds to work pretty well for the early levels. Its got a few quirks, mostly that it sometimes doesn't tell you to level up a skill line before its like "Oh, hey, you should grab this Skill/passive." Overall, it was viable for beginner play.

This page will let you take a look at the builds offered by the Skill Advisor: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Level_Up_Advisor

FrancisCrawford

As you know from the general advice, people think you should keep changing the skills you equip so that you level as many up as possible. That said, there are some bread-and-butter skills in each spec that you're likely to rely on a lot leveling up. In particular, I'd say about magicka characters:

• The obvious choice is to use a destruction staff to Level 15 and then a destro/resto combination the rest of the way. Templars, Sorcerers and Wardens can get by more easily without the resto staff than the other classes can but I'd use the resto staff anyway to help with leveling it and its skills.
• It's good to have a ranged spammable skill. For some classes, that needs to be your preferred morph of Force Shock (and ideally you'll use both morphs at different times while leveling). Warden, Necro and Nightblade have class alternatives. There's also a Psijic Guild alternative, but you probably won't bother with that.
• Wall of Elements is still/again good to use for any class. Opinions differ as to which morph to use (I'm probably in the minority in still preferring Elemental Blockade).
• Templars unlock three great skills very early: Puncturing Sweeps, Reflective Light, and Honor the Dead.
• Solar Barrage is strong while leveling too.
• The whole Animal Companions skill line is good for Wardens. You should also find some Green Balance skills you like. Frost Cloak (especially the selfish morph) has merits too. All three Warden class ultimate skills are good. Winter's Revenge is good against bosses (if they don't move around much).
• Sorcerers are most comfortably played with a healing pet (first the Clannfear, later the Twilight Matriarch). Daedric Prey is great against tough enemies, especially if you use two pets. Iconic class skills that are still good for leveling include Crystal Fragments, the shield (either morph; I prefer Empowered Ward), and Critical Surge. Endless Fury is good when you're low-level. The atronach is a nice ultimate skill.
• Swallow Soul is underrated for Nightblades. So, when you finally get it, is Reaper's Mark. Siphoning Strikes is of course key. The Shade is nice when you get it. I don't love a lot of other magblade skills these days.

Raisin

The best advice you can get I think is what you got above. Keep in mind that functionality wise, all classes work the same. At a beginner level, I don't think there's much different advice that can be given to you fir the classes. Unlock skills as you get them and try them out. Do the same for additional skillines (armor, weapons, guilds). A popular choice for endgame builds is choosing to play either Stamina or Magicka. Whether you wish to do that or play a hybrid is up to you, but it helps to decide early on what you want to do -- same goes for choosing a role, maybe choosing to focus just on solo play
All of those completely work with all classes, so it's a matter of choice. If you want to stick to the common theme of Mag vs Stam, then Mag typically comes with using staves and light armor, and Stam with the other weapons and medium armor. That too isn't set in stone, but it's a good place to start.
So yeah. Outside of knowing what's "best", the only guideline is 'check out all the skills, read them, use them'. See what feels right to you. All the advice I can think of (use food ) is related to gameplay in general, not class-specific. Most builds are focused on the general setup of: buff yourself/debuff enemy, use a few skills that do damage over time, then pick one high damage instant cast skill to spam while all the other skills are running. Then rinse and repeat. You may try reading skills as you unlock them to see which category they fall under and using them like that. I believe it would make you reasonably efficient in any class.

aetherial_heavenn

Best ones I know are these. They are mostly on how combat and skills work but there is a levelling one too. And they do not presume you are end game in these guides...unlike the build guides.
All the Beginner Guides are clear, concise, to the point.

https://xynodegaming.com/guides/eso-beginner-guides/

The "all about mechanic"s dungeon and trial guides on the same site are excellent, too.

edited

zion563

Thanks for replies, but as I said , I'm looking for beginner "Build and Class" type guides as opposed to beginner mechanics etc etc. There are literally dozens of general "How to get good" type guides . All builds are basically reviews of End Game toons abilities and skills/BIS slot type things which means absolutely nothing to a newer player.

Royaji

You won't find many guides for a new player because there is no need for one. You'll be done with the first 15 levels in a couple of hours. Any gear you collect will become obsolete the next day. You don't have enough enough skillpoints to make any kind of "build", just slot whatever you have unlocked.

And most importantly. As a new player you can't lose no matter what you do. Your stats are so heavily inflated by battle leveling and the kind of content you will be doing (overland and basic normal dungeons) is designed in such a way that you can light attack spam your way through.

Raisin

Royaji wrote: »

You won't find many guides for a new player because there is no need for one. You'll be done with the first 15 levels in a couple of hours. Any gear you collect will become obsolete the next day. You don't have enough enough skillpoints to make any kind of "build", just slot whatever you have unlocked.

And most importantly. As a new player you can't lose no matter what you do. Your stats are so heavily inflated by battle leveling and the kind of content you will be doing (overland and basic normal dungeons) is designed in such a way that you can light attack spam your way through.

This. You will unlock skills as you level. You won't start out with any choices to make, other than what gear to put on. And that will still be limited by what you drop, unless you intend to aim for crafted gear. If you do, we can make some recommendations on what sets to get, but those again are based on mag/Stam choice, not class.
As far as skills go, I genuinely can't think of anything other than what's already been recommended... Or still trying to follow along the builds you've already found. They would be a subjectively ideal setup of skills, so you should use them if you have them.

VaranisArano

zion563 wrote: »

Thanks for replies, but as I said , I'm looking for beginner "Build and Class" type guides as opposed to beginner mechanics etc etc. There are literally dozens of general "How to get good" type guides . All builds are basically reviews of End Game toons abilities and skills/BIS slot type things which means absolutely nothing to a newer player.

The In Game Skills Advisor will walk players through the available builds for their chosen class skill by skill as they level up and skills become available, and even includes a build for a beginner with that class that features the basic strengths of that class.

If you stick with it, it takes you level by level up to 50 as you level up.

Nestor

Your buffed by the game, so dont worry about builds. Instead, level your preferred weapon and class skills.

1. Have a skill from each Class group on your bar at all times. One can be your ultimate.
2. Have one weapon skill and one support or weapon skill on the bar at all times. A 2 skill rotation will handle overland mobs.
3. Levels 1 to 15, invest in actives only.
4. 15 to 25 start investing in passives
5. Wear a mix of armor weights to level all 3 lines
6. Level skills to morph stage, but dont take morphs until after level 50. Unless you know exactly what your build is going to be.
7. You get respec scrolls just before l50, so you can recover skill points.

zion563

VaranisArano wrote: »

Have you looked at the Skills Advisor that's available in game? Its not exactly the most meta of builds, but it offers a decent variety for each class in terms of magicka, stamina, and different roles. I've found those builds to work pretty well for the early levels. Its got a few quirks, mostly that it sometimes doesn't tell you to level up a skill line before its like "Oh, hey, you should grab this Skill/passive." Overall, it was viable for beginner play.

This page will let you take a look at the builds offered by the Skill Advisor: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Level_Up_Advisor

Thanks this is pretty helpful I'm not sure I would have found it!

Alcast

There is a full beginner guides section with:

- General Guides
- Class Beginner Guides
- Class Beginner Builds 160CP

on https://alcasthq.com/eso-beginner-guides/



@Naranarra wrote most of the guides and keeps them up to date

zion563

Alcast wrote: »

There is a full beginner guides section with:

- General Guides
- Class Beginner Guides
- Class Beginner Builds 160CP

on https://alcasthq.com/eso-beginner-guides/



@Naranarra wrote most of the guides and keeps them up to date

Yes I mentioned these is literally the ONLY ones available. I'm a WoW refugee and considering how many players there are for this game I thought there would be more starter/leveling info for classes that wasn't 1-2 years+ old

Thanks!

zion563

Alcast wrote: »

There is a full beginner guides section with:

- General Guides
- Class Beginner Guides
- Class Beginner Builds 160CP

on https://alcasthq.com/eso-beginner-guides/



@Naranarra wrote most of the guides and keeps them up to date

Regarding the "Up to date" part. I have a specific question regarding the Stamina Sorcerer Beginner Guide-https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-sorcerer-beginner-guide/

I have found a couple of things I don't understand, perhaps you could clarify?

In the section where it shows the skills you should take on the way to level 50, it shows the the "Minimum Skill Setup" (98 points) with Dark Deal on the 1 bar, but in the section above it does NOT say to take the skill on the way it says
Dark Magic

Rank 8 – Unholy Knowledge (Passive)
Rank 22 – Persistence (Passive)

That's all that is suggested for that tree, Dark Deal is off the Dark Exchange morph, a level 30 skill.

Another example is in the Dual Wield Tree it says to take the Morph of Whirlwind Steel Tornado, but in the Minimum Setup (98 points) it shows the Whirling Blade morph for the Bar, not Steel Tornado.

My question is for accuracy on this build guide, perhaps some parts were suggested and copy pasted from other Sorcerer or something. I would have liked to ask Naranarra about this, perhaps you can help to clarify?

Not sure if there are others yet.

Sahidom

Beginners Advice

Skill Training

You will almost certainly want to train all your class skill trees. At least slot one skill from each tree. For build priority trees, use the Ultimate as the swing slot to improve that skill tree faster than the others starting at Skill Tree Rank 12. Most builds use a front and back bar slot, so in addition to your three class tree skills on the action bar, you will want to slot your main weapon skill (any) and the initial back bar weapon skill (any). This will allocate a portion of earned experience to raise both weapon skill trees. Lastly, at low levels, always equip at least one armor type. Just like slotting different weapon skills, this will allocate a portion of earned experience to raise all the armor skill trees to unlock passives.

Gear Choices

If you have a friendly crafter, Shackle Breaker is a decent set. All skills, except weapon skills, begin as Magic until you can morph them. This set has decent mixed bonuses to accommodate either direction on the build, at low levels. Always have the armor trait - Training - on the items. You do not need Divines, Infused, or whatever. DO NOT feel tempted to upgrade the armor level often. You can literally wear Level 14 armor until Level 50, thanks to Tamriel One scaling system. DO upgrade your weapons when you feel your damage becomes lackluster. A good estimate is from Levels 14 --> 24 --> 34 --> 44. You could upgrade your armor at Level 34 but that's optional since armor scales up to (roughly) CP150; although the star rating does decrease its bonuses but that's fine, at low levels, since your weapon level has more influence on damage output than your armor rating.

Skill Advisor

This is an alright suggestion system for new players. Most of the time you'll need to train the suggested skills unless you're following a specific build online. Some people don't spend time sky shard hunting or doing any of the quest chains for the extra free skill points, so the skill advisor may not help them min-max the least amount of skill point usage. Overall, its not a bad system.

Random Dungeons

Do this daily for the reward. You will slowly collect Transmute Crystals that will help you later change Armor or Weapon traits. This is pretty useful later on when you're pulling hair out trying to grind or find the right trait on a weapon or armor piece. This can be annoying but thanks to the transmute crystals, we have a ESO Relief System from grinding frustration.

Pledges

Do this daily for the undaunted keys. Save them until you know exactly which monster helm sets your characters need for their build. You will often need to open several coffers to find the right armor weight with the right trait. So, it will server your interest to hold onto them until their needed.

Cyrodiil Daily Quests (Leveling)

Do these daily. Some people prefer the Battleground for quick experience and Alliance Points. Unfortunately, IF you're very new, the Battlegrounds have some toxic elements. I'd suggest joining a 30-day campaign versus the <50 campaign because you'll get an easy 4-6 levels doing 2-3 quest locals e.g. towns (Burma, Cropsford…) but there are two other areas that offers quests. You will earn some Alliance Points, as you complete those Cyrodiil quest chains (not to be mistaken by the Alliance War quests offered at the base camp). After the Campaign ends, you have a chance to earn 50 Transmute Crystals.

Don't be shy going into the CP or non-CP locked or open campaigns at level 10. The objective goal is to do the quests. For instance, your faction doesn't need to control Burma to complete those quests. There are some respectful players that will ignore you, if you're not being aggressive; but also, you'll run into the shank ass too. So don't let the later discourage you. Res up and try again to finish the quests. Believe it or not, there are veteran player that probably wont bother you unless you give them reason. IF, you're into PVP - join an established PVP guild. There are some good ones out there.

mague

zion563 wrote: »

Hi-new player here of course and looking to get a bit of a starting foundation with different classes. I was hoping to get a guide within different classes for the first 10-15 levels or so to get a grasp on the many choices in skills etc. The ONLY Actual guides of this sort are on the AltcastHQ site and written by "Naranarra" and no idea how relevant they are, but are very helpful to get a feel for the different types of classes etc. All other guides/builds out there whether it's Altcast or Xynode or whoever are end game builds with dozens of skill points taken, BIS slotted items, and advice to ask "your guildies" for stuff. Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying learning these things and love the variety to explore and learn, but am the kind of person who likes a bit of a roadmap that is relevant to ESO 2020. For such a large community I'm surprised by the lack of leveling\beginner build type guides for at least the first 15 or so levels that are not out of date from 2017 etc. watching videos for most of the major contributors is frustrating as a starting player, they mean nothing at the beginning of a new career in ESO.
I don't mean the general guides on the game as a whole (of which there are many) I mean the class and type of class guides for the STARTING player.

Every capital city has a temple to redo your points. You cant do anything wrong. You dont have much sets between 1-15, so build doesnt matter. Just go out an play, have fun and learn.

The only rule is to use good food.

Sahidom

mague wrote: »

Every capital city has a temple to redo your points. You cant do anything wrong. You dont have much sets between 1-15, so build doesnt matter. Just go out an play, have fun and learn.

The only rule is to use good food.

Wrothgar offers some good Health + Magicka or Stamina Recovery recipes, as quest rewards. These recipes scale to your level and you couldn't go wrong with them while leveling. You can find the quest giver north of Orsinium.

Dottzgaming

zion563 wrote: »

Hi-new player here of course and looking to get a bit of a starting foundation with different classes. I was hoping to get a guide within different classes for the first 10-15 levels or so to get a grasp on the many choices in skills etc. The ONLY Actual guides of this sort are on the AltcastHQ site and written by "Naranarra" and no idea how relevant they are, but are very helpful to get a feel for the different types of classes etc. All other guides/builds out there whether it's Altcast or Xynode or whoever are end game builds with dozens of skill points taken, BIS slotted items, and advice to ask "your guildies" for stuff. Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying learning these things and love the variety to explore and learn, but am the kind of person who likes a bit of a roadmap that is relevant to ESO 2020. For such a large community I'm surprised by the lack of leveling\beginner build type guides for at least the first 15 or so levels that are not out of date from 2017 etc. watching videos for most of the major contributors is frustrating as a starting player, they mean nothing at the beginning of a new career in ESO.
I don't mean the general guides on the game as a whole (of which there are many) I mean the class and type of class guides for the STARTING player.

Hey Zion! Welcome to ESO

My website and youtube channel are full of all types of guides for players of all skill levels, pvp, pve ,leveling, etc. I do my best to keep everything up to date, so you know all the info here is still perfectly valid and relevant! I'll leave some links below for you to check out! if you have any questions or need any help feel free to hit me up on discord as well which ill also leave linked below. I'd recommend checking out the leveling builds on my site, as i think those may be what youre looking for!

Website: https://dottzgaming.com/
Discord: https://Discord.gg/dottzgaming
YouTube: https://bit.ly/39xUNrG

And if you truly want to dive deep into everything the game has, i also have a COMPLETE guide to the game that'll teach you basically everything a new player could want to know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYcfm1Na5so