Starters help - How do you get the most out of the game?

SgtPow3rs

Hi,

I just started ESO on pc for 1,5 week. (100 times better than my first experience on Xbox last year). But I'm worried that I might stop playing it after like a month, I had this problem last year. After a while I really didn't know what to do and eventually stopped. Most of the times I only did things like daily activities... lvling up the horse, daily dungeon for extra xp, pledges, and offline again.

How can I enjoy the game more? What to focus on? I completed the main quest and even the story of Greymoor. But what else is worth the time doing? I need some focus I guess. Please, give me some advise on activites I could do and be busy with the coming time. I love this world, it would be a shame if I stop again after 3-4 weeks.

Cheers!

Nestor

There are many things to do in the game. Almost too many. You can log in and putter around, which is fun, or you can focus, which is also fun, but with a purpose. Note, I mostly putter now.

My advice is to immerse yourself in the story, see this for a good guide to follow to get the most out of it

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/413807/what-order-should-i-do-esos-story-arcs-a-guide/p1

The game has a great story, so explore that.

El_Borracho

Accept that you have no idea what you are doing and just have fun. The game is overwhelming at first and gives you no real direction on how to build a character, skills, gear, etc. None of that will matter unless you get into endgame group content like veteran trials and dungeons or hardcore PVP play.

But great news, if you do get into that, everything you have done can be undone (with the exception of changing your class). Or you can simply build a new character that can use all the CP and gear your original character has accumulated once they get to level 50. There is no gear that will be forever lost if sold or deconstructed. There is no way to do a quest wrong a wreck another quest. Gold is by far the easiest resource to amass, so feel free to spend it.

I would avoid build sites like alcast and others until you have experienced the game for yourself. They are good sites, but nothing will make sense on them now.

Finally, gear does not matter until you get to CP 160. Even then, there is no set in this game that will make you invincible or a world beater. Only experience will make you better.

AcadianPaladin

There is a ton of stuff to do in ESO. So much that you really can be kind of choosy. Give everything a reasonable try and begin focusing on activities that you find fun and not worrying about those you do not.

Everyone is different but I have found the things I enjoy most are questing, exploring and soloing the World Bosses and normal alliance zone group dungeons that I am able to. So my character exists as no less than six variants and each one is gradually progressing through the full game (quests) in the order released. As @Nestor so kindly linked, @VaranisArano 's great guide is helpful there. Then I know the pledge schedule cold and load up on the ones I can solo and enjoy. Then I have quite a large number of alliance zone World Bosses that I enjoy 'visiting'.

I don't mind crafting but, to me, it is mostly a means to an end. I only do one set of writs per day primarily to help keep my supplies up. As I explore/quest I happily gather mats so always have plenty of supplies. I enjoy housing only to the extent that my elf has a comfy place to come home to.

Generally, I avoid vet content, DLC normal dungeons, all trials and PvP. I also do not particularly enjoy grouping. Like I said in the first paragraph though, even with my list of things I generally avoid, there remains tons of stuff I love doing.

TLDR: Try it all and find your own path, guided by what you enjoy.

FriedEggSandwich

Some things I like to do with my time in game:

Get a house (or several) and spend time making it look and function nice.
Spend time making my character look nice; skins, outfits, adornments, pets, mounts etc.
Do the same for my other characters.
Do some theory-crafting for your toons and then spend time farming what you need for their builds.
Chase achievements for cool titles, dyes, skins etc.
Go and find rare leads and excavate them for cool things like furniture for your house.
Try to earn gold.
Think about content I haven't done yet, why I haven't done it yet, and work towards doing it.
Explore, quest and listen to some stories.
Grind CP.
Start a new toon and learn another class (I just got my warden to lvl50 and it was great fun discovering the possibilities of the class. I've decided I want to give tanking a go as a result, so I'm now learning to tank and farming gear for that).
If you're finding something tedious do something else. This game scratches many itches.

WrathOfInnos

Have you done the guild quest lines and unlocked all those skills yet? Mage’s Guild, Fighter’s Guild and Undaunted are all important to start early, and can be fun to level. Undaunted will require a lot of group dungeons, and each dungeon quest rewards a skill point, collecting them all will really help. Public Dungeons also reward a skill point, so it’s worth clearing at least the “group event” in each one.

In general, I’d say just try to unlock new skills and options for your character. You never know when you’ll want to use something from the Psijic skill line, or one of the Alliance ones. Deconstruct gear you find along the way to level crafting, all the crafting skills are very useful when making builds later. And don’t let yourself get sucked into the boring, repeatable daily quests/timesinks.

If you run out of quests, dungeons, and guilds then the primary end game options are trials or PVP. Both can be fun early on as well, just don’t expect to be competitive immediately. There are many other options too, some people enjoy housing, trading or social events as the end game.

SgtPow3rs

Thanks all for he very extensive comments! The game is really overwhelming and gives you almost no direction so I probably feel lost sometimes... "so, what now?". Thanks for tips and advice. I have joined the Mage, Fighters and Undaunted Guilds almost right away. I also followed a guide from Alcast.com for a while.

Incredible, isnt? A game like Runescape kept me triggered for 5 to 6 years straight approx. 16 years ago, and now I struggle with what to do in a game like this.

El_Borracho

@SgtPow3rs I remember that feeling. For the first week I wondered if I made a mistake buying the game because I was dying everywhere I went, not really causing any damage, totally broke, and my horse was wicked slow. But then you level up a little, and things start to happen, and you get into a zone area or main line quest, and then you look up and you've been playing for 3 hours straight but want to keep going.

One last suggestion I forgot. I'm guessing the game started you in the newest zone. Buy cheap apartments in the oldest zones like Deshaan, Alikr Desert, and Glenumbra. They can be fast-travelled to for free and unlock those zones. They are typically much easier in overland content than the new stuff.

Have fun. There is no wrong way to play.

JKorr

SgtPow3rs wrote: »

Thanks all for he very extensive comments! The game is really overwhelming and gives you almost no direction so I probably feel lost sometimes... "so, what now?". Thanks for tips and advice. I have joined the Mage, Fighters and Undaunted Guilds almost right away. I also followed a guide from Alcast.com for a while.

Incredible, isnt? A game like Runescape kept me triggered for 5 to 6 years straight approx. 16 years ago, and now I struggle with what to do in a game like this.

There's a loading screen tip that says "Once in a while, just pick a direction, and run. You'll find quests in every direction." While it sounds daft, there are a lot of sides quests you can find that way. Or try the Zone Guide, you'll be able to see how many quests, anchors, world bosses, and dungeons.

Really, as long as you are enjoying the game, you're playing it right.

fred4

I joined in summer 2015 and by the time Orsinium rolled around in November of that year, I was well and truly done with questing. It became too easy. Ran around in Craglorn for a while, which was a hard zone at the time, but my career really took off with the introduction of duelling in One Tamriel, which I still feel is the best way of getting into PvP. You can guess what I'm doing now.

I too hate daily grinds. I just don't do them. If you don't feel like it, don't do it, although selling Dreugh Wax and Chromium is terribly lucrative right now, so I did the writs for a while. You'll want to have the craft bag and writ crafting addons. It takes some of the hassle out of it. My mainstay as been Imperial City over the years, both PvP and PvE, making gold from Tel Var. That makes me a fairly niche player, I guess, but the nice thing is you can make gold and sustain your "lifestyle" in a bunch of different ways. Trade for everything else.

One thing that caught my eye is that you love the world. If that means stories and quests, but you're getting bored of them, I don't know what to recommend. Wait for Blackwood? It sounds good in that regard. I can only give you other examples of content that I still enjoy these days. I've been about the combat, first and foremost. That means buildcraft, having multiple characters, making different builds, always experimenting (google UESP build editor). Then I stopped that for a while and focused on one character to simply get better at PvP. I also enjoy hard PvE content I can solo from time to time, e.g. the two (vet) solo arenas and I've been working on soloing some vet dungeons. Then there's housing. I don't really build much, but there's a guild that does house tours, which are very good, if you enjoy looking at other people's (impressive!) work.

It's really up to you, just don't get into a rut. You don't have to be a completionist. I would level the horse alright, but I don't always collect the daily rewards, because for half of them you go DESTRUCT and even that is too much hassle for me . Do what you feel like doing. I was in a PvP guild for a while and I've also done some group dungeons and trials. These days I like hanging out with only one friend. We PvP or we help each other farm stuff. Helping others is always good. You can answer calls for help with world bosses in Vvardenfell or wherever there are dailies. You can craft them something or duel with them. You can go to Craglorn and listen in zone chat to PUG a normal trial ... and so on.

GreenHere

One of the nice things about ESO is that the stories can largely be done in any order, pretty much whenever you feel like. It can be a bit of a double-edged sword if you care about doing things "in order" or feeling like your choices have huge impact I guess, but for the most part things are written in a general enough way that previous stories & choices amount to minor differences (if they end up mattering at all).

This means if you feel like getting some Skyrim vibes, you can just go hang out in any of the Skyrim zones and tool around at your pleasure. If you're feeling like you want more Dragons in your life, Northern & Southern Elsweyr got you covered. Wanna dig into some Dunmer lore and whatnot? You can explore a large majority of all Morrowind! And so on.

Feel free to dig into what appeals to you, is the point here. The adventures aren't too rigidly structured around here, so there's very little in the way of downsides to just tackling things however you like. If you start with things that grab you, you're more likely to stick around (or at least get your money's worth for however long you're here).


Also, if you search around a bit there's lot of threads floating around that feature people's favorite side quests and stuff. Spoiler warning, obviously, but those threads can be a gold mine for finding cool stuff to do without relying on randomly running across them in your own travels! Many people's favorite moments in ESO are off the beaten path.

Happy adventuring!

FrancisCrawford

If you like questing, a number of areas have a good mix of quests. My favorite single zone for that is Rivenspire, but more generally you can work your way through the DC. Or spin off to Orisinium after you've done Rivenspire.

The Aldmeri Dominion is also pretty decent from Khenarthi's Roost through Auridon, and then the first part of Grahtwood. It bogs down after Elden Root.

Summerset is another good one, with the bonus of beautiful art. It's better done after you've disposed of Molag Bal just because it answers the Darien question. You might want to do the early AD stuff as well too.

Vvardenfell leads into Clockwork City which leads into Summerset, but I didn't find those connections important. I did like Clockwork City, however.

The Thieves Guild has great quests, but only if you enjoy thieving.

FrancisCrawford

Dungeons are pretty accessible if you enjoy playing a dungeon healer build (which is half healing/buffing, half damage).

Athan1

Lots of stuff to do! In fact too much:

• Go around, explore, fill out the maps and take beautiful screenshots
• Collect materials, craft, and fish
• Collect skyshards and skill points, level up your skill lines
• Thousands of quests (read the dialogues and journals around quest npcs)
• Try group content like dungeons, trials, and pvp
• Collect, sale, excavate and trade rare items
• Read the lorebooks! Real fun and immersive
• Try socializing in guilds
• Achievement hunting
• And so much more, should keep you busy for thousands of hours

SgtPow3rs

Thanks for all the replies, tips and advice, I have read them all. One thing I noticed right away, the community is the best I have ever seen on any online game. Mature, helpful, really helpful, friendly. I joined a Guild almost immediatly when I started and several members helped me so much like crafting gear.

I completed the main story of the base game, and Greymoor expansion. Spend most of the time in Western Skyrim, nice region. I'm going to buy Blackwood for another fresh 'start' looks interesting.

Haenk

I'd suggest just running around, accept quests (maybe not the daily quests, but regular quests), while on the way doing these quests, often new quests are to be found. This is kind of intentional, leading you around the whole area.
As a starter, one thing is important to know: Getting killed has no negative consequences, other than maybe needing to port to a wayshrine and maybe replacing or repairing your equipment. (As a starter, just upgrade your equipment by randomly stuff, no need to spend money there).

Just doing all those quests will take quite a while, probably until 2022. And the main storyline quests often lead to awesome areas, wow-ing me still after several years.

SgtPow3rs

Well, now several weeks into ESO, still playing it almost every day. Spent most of the time building up my character, skills, gear etc. I'm a perfectionist and trying to get some awesome motifs, but damn they are expensive, doing some farming to make some real money, will take some time.

fred4

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