Returning player needs your advice

maciopa

Hey hey,

I decided to return to ESO after nearly 3 years of absence. The last expansion I bought was Summerset but I ceased to play shortly after its launch.
So I have a few questions that bugs me...
- Should I buy Elsweyr and Greymoor nowadays or I am good to go for a while? I plan to follow the main quest line from the scratch (I do not even know where I was...)
- What race/class deals the most dps nowadays? Which one is recommended for solo play through the content?
- Do we expect any additional character slots' sale maybe? Expansions sale?

I am going to go through forums now to read what happened since my departure but ... you have contributed A LOT of material to read here

Thank you for your help.
M

TheImperfect

Others are probably better able to answer this than me but it sounds like if you are still in the main questline you might be a while and not need to buy anything. The good thing about Elsweyr is that there is a free large house that you will get and in Greymoor the antiquities system is unlocked that gives you antiquity furnishings and mythic combat items. If you want to do everything in exact order though you might not want to jump into those yet. I think there is this collection that has everything in it,
Blackwood™ (New for 2021)
Greymoor™
Elsweyr™
Summerset™
Morrowind™
https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/store/product/eso_blackwood_edition

I know you have Summerset already but I could only find the upgrade for Greymoor and not Elsweyr. I think this collection would work for you if you wanted to upgrade now.

As to most DPS, I'll let someone else field that because there are a lot of changes coming on Monday 8th March with the new Champion Point system. Alcast is good to look up as he tends to work with character builds.
I have no idea about the sales.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

If you just care about the stories, you certainly don't need to get everything at once. If you care about some of the recent systems that have been implemented (antiquities comes to mind), or if you want a new class that you dont have yet, you may want to look at some of the recent chapters at least.

Most DPS is sort of difficult to answer, and we still don't know who is going to be on top once the dust settles from MAJOR changes to CP coming next week.

Right now, if looking at PVE trials, the Meta DPS is a magic Necromancer for most trials You typically have 1 DK, 1 Sorc, and 1 Templar (often a healer) for class buffs to the group, but after that, you stack Necros. Stamcros work as well depending on the group comp and trial.

The easiest class to break 100k on a trial dummy for magic is sorc and for stamina it is templar.

My personal favorite solo class for most overland/questing stuff is magic nightblade, but Mag sorc is perhaps better for soloing veteran content designed for a group. The Ring of the Pale Order comes with antiquities, and has really changed the game for solo (it basically turns your outgoing damage into a passive self heal). Therefore, a lot of the old rules about who is the best for soloing are kind of out the window.

TheImperfect

That's got all the options on it: https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/store

fred4

maciopa wrote: »

- Should I buy Elsweyr and Greymoor nowadays or I am good to go for a while? I plan to follow the main quest line from the scratch (I do not even know where I was...)

Or buy Greymoor and ESO+ for a while. That way you have everything. Elsweyr is now DLC under ESO+.

- What race/class deals the most dps nowadays?

You're confusing me. You talk about questing, where DPS is completely irrelevant, then you ask this. It's only relevant for veteran trials / to push high scores at the highest levels of endgame. Anyway, I'm not an expert. Last time I checked, I think it was magblade, but that does not mean magblade is best in any other way. Specifically for solo content - again I'm talking at the highest levels - you want some combination of sustain, tankiness and DPS. That depends on build, playstyle and combat experience. Race and class don't really factor into it. For example, while the best PvE players will do vMA with something like an insane Thrassian Strangler DPS (stamblade) build, this is far removed from what a normal player needs until they have internalised vMA to the point where they have nothing left but exploring the craziest, squishiest builds in the most difficult content.

Which one is recommended for solo play through the content?

See now, like I said, this is quite different from asking about the most DPS. I can comfortably solo vVateshran under 45 minutes (the time needed for the Spirit Slayer title) on my Nord stam DK with a Pale Order / Master's 2H build. It's not about DPS. It's about making an efficient solo build, one that combines the right amounts of damage, tankiness and sustain to suit your playstyle. You can make that on any class. I can certainly recommend a 2H Master's Brawler build to solo stuff in comfort on any stamina class. Magplars are also easy for soloing content, due to Sweeps combining single-target damage, AOE damage and a heal. Magblades also heal from damage. Pet sorcs let their pets take some of the aggro. Necros have a lot of healing. And so on.

You list some very different requirements. Questing demands little to no skill. Top DPS is only relevant for bragging rights or to satisfy the objectives of your dungeon / trial guild, e.g. to get achievements or top scores. If you just want to absolve content, it's not required. Anything even slightly below top DPS does not require a specific class or race. Soloing stuff does not require it, unless your mission is to do insane boss burns, bypassing mechanics in vMA or vVateshran.

So you're either a player who is looking to do a large variety of stuff, both questing and endgame, or you don't know what you need or want. If you enjoy questing, world bosses, public dungeons, non-DLC dungeons (both vet and normal) as well as normal DLC dungeons / arenas / trials, ZOS completely delivers on "play as you want". You're basically free to role-play and there is no need to care about class or race. If you want to just make it through the higher end content, veteran DLC dungeons / arenas / trials, then you still don't need to care. Maybe for vBRP and some vTrials, but I don't know. Only then and in PvP do you start to care about optimal race / class combinations, but there is a large variety of builds and playstyles in PvP, so it also depends on that.

If you do care about solo endgame or PvP, then mythic items are IMO highly recommended. Specifically Pale Order for the veteran solo arenas and Malacath for some PvP builds. While Pale Order is not essential, it makes things a lot easier. Then there is Wild Hunt for general quality of life, ranging from node harvesting in PvE to PvP, where speed is a major advantage and Wild Hunt ranks alongside Malacath as the best mythic.

fred4

etchedpixels

maciopa wrote: »

Hey hey,

I decided to return to ESO after nearly 3 years of absence. The last expansion I bought was Summerset but I ceased to play shortly after its launch.
So I have a few questions that bugs me...
- Should I buy Elsweyr and Greymoor nowadays or I am good to go for a while? I plan to follow the main quest line from the scratch (I do not even know where I was...)
- What race/class deals the most dps nowadays? Which one is recommended for solo play through the content?
- Do we expect any additional character slots' sale maybe? Expansions sale?

I am going to go through forums now to read what happened since my departure but ... you have contributed A LOT of material to read here

Thank you for your help.
M

If you plan to run through the main content then the only reason to get Elsweyr/Greymoor would I think be the scrying/mythic item stuff as you go on. If you are following the story in order it's going to be quite a while before you finish the rest and get to them at which point they'll be cheaper still if the usual pattern follows.

Race/class varies by style and time (and will change again next week) and for anything but top percentage veteran trial content is very much 'meh'. If you want to see the current bests look at the top of the vet scoreboards perhaps ? You can do all the questing stuff on a totally non-optimal character. You need at most about 10k/second dps on a real target to do the story and delve type content, and that's a number easily achieved with totally non-optimal characters and enough game time. It does not require weaving or keyboard acrobatics.

The chapters generally have regular sale price options if you are patient and as new stuff comes out the price of the older bundle falls. The DLCs bought with crowns tend to go on a slightly reduced sale cost aligned with events related to them.

By the time you hit end game you'll be the proud owner of attribute and skill respec scrolls earned freely whilst levelling so you can then respec a lot of things anyway (not race or class however). CP is also account wide so once you hit 50 CP 160, it becomes pretty fast to level up an alt if you decide you want something for trials or a new role.

Fennwitty

maciopa wrote: »

- Should I buy Elsweyr and Greymoor nowadays or I am good to go for a while? I plan to follow the main quest line from the scratch (I do not even know where I was...)
- What race/class deals the most dps nowadays? Which one is recommended for solo play through the content?
- Do we expect any additional character slots' sale maybe? Expansions sale?
M

Big changes happening next week, mainly to "after level 50" play. I'd say you can definitely start questing now with a newish character and not be very fazed though.

If you make a new character, may want to check out the racial adjustments coming beforehand I put them spoilered at the bottom here, because otherwise the original post has quite a lot of other info you may not be interested in.

Buying newest expansions: I recommend playing with what you have, and upgrading later if you feel like it. (Unless there's a good sale available to you now, in which case I'd go for it but I like this game).

If there's not a sale or money's tight, you don't lose anything except opportunity of going to new places and doing new things. And there's TONS of existing content to keep you busy for months/years even without the newest stuff.

Race/Class Choice: I started playing just over a year ago, but in the current state of the game there's no need to worry about 'best' damage. Certainly not for solo questing. The game zones scale to your character level.

When soloing you'll want a balance of damage and survivability, which every class and race can achieve. Keeping your equipment up to date (using gear set bonuses) and using skills well is far more important than race or class. You can always ask in zone chat or a guild if you need a hand doing a particular boss.

Make a few characters and try them out. Just remember to start training each character's riding skills early by going to stablemasters, they take time to build up. There are race change tokens you can buy with Crowns if you really want to change later (not currently any class change token). Changing your ability scores and skills is super easy in this game using reasonable amounts of in-game gold.

Character Slot Sales/Expansion Sales: Periodically character slots go on sale, as do expansions. They aren't announced in advance, but usually a couple times a year. You should have I think 8 or 10 character slots by default for free though, will keep you busy a while.



Race Changes for Blackwood Flames of Ambition Patch:

Argonian
Argonian Resistance: This passive no longer grants immunity to the Diseased status effect, and once again grants an equal amount of Poison Resistance.
Resourceful:
This passive now also grants 1000 Max Stamina.
Reduced the resources restored to 3125, down from 4000.

Breton
Spell Attunement: Increased the Magicka Recovery granted from this passive to 130, up from 100.

Dark Elf
Dynamic: Increased the Max Magicka and Stamina granted from this passive to 1910, up from 1875.
Resist Flame:
This passive no longer grants immunity to the Burning status effect.
Increased the Flame Resistance to 4620, up from 2310.

High Elf
Elemental Talent: This passive now also grants Weapon and Spell Damage, rather than only Spell Damage.
Spell Recharge:
Reduced the restore on this passive to 625, down from 640.
This passive now works from any ability used, rather than only off class abilities.

Imperial
Red Diamond:
This passive no longer restores Health, Magicka, and Stamina whenever you deal Direct Damage.
Increased the cost reduction for all abilities to 6%, up from 3%.

Khajiit
Feline Ambush: Increased the Critical Damage and Healing Done from this passive to 12%, up from 10%.
Lunar Blessings: Increased the Max Health, Magicka, and Stamina granted from this passive to 915, up from 825.

Nord
Resist Frost:
This passive no longer grants immunity to the Chilled status effect.
Increased the Frost Resistance to 4620, up from 2310.
Rugged: Reduced the Armor granted from this passive to 2600, down from 3960.

Orc
Brawny: Reduced the Max Stamina granted from this passive to 1000, down from 2000.
Swift Warrior: This passive now grants Weapon and Spell Damage, rather than Weapon Damage.
Unflinching Rage:
This passive now heals for 2125 Health when you deal damage once every 4 seconds, rather than healing for 600 Health when you deal damage with a Weapon Attack once every 4 seconds.
Fixed an issue where this passive was not considered a proc.
The heal from this passive can no longer Critically Strike.

Redguard
Adrenaline Rush:
Increased the Stamina restored from this passive to 1005, up from 950.
This passive now procs on any damage done, rather than Direct Damage.

Wood Elf
Hunter’s Eye:
The Movement Speed and Armor Penetration granted from this passive no longer require you to Roll Dodge to gain, and instead are permanent effects.
Decreased the Movement Speed bonus to 5%, down from 10%.
Decreased the Armor Penetration granted to 950, down from 1500.
Resist Affliction: This passive no longer grants immunity to the Poisoned status effect, and once again grants an equal amount of Disease Resistance.

maciopa

Awesome! Thank you!

I would like to thank you ALL for your time to reply to my inquiries and bring me back on the track (sometimes with a bucked of a cold water haha).
I appreciate all information and your personal insight into my issues!