How do you stay focused?

Eats-the-Cheddar

I'm still very new to the game, so forgive me, but it seems like every time I turn around I'm spotting another quest giver. I feel a bit overwhelmed. I try to stay in one area for the sake of completionism, but I'm constantly being pushed in a million directions. I've barely spent a day in Davon's Watch and suddenly I'm running around on Bleakrock Isle. I have so many quests in so many places, it's hard to keep track of the story lines at all. Am I the only one? How do you stay focused?

Knovah

It is ADD overload for me in this game... so many things to explore find craft and quest. The first 20 levels I was just a hot mess running about skipping through the forest and questing. Once I hit in my 20's I started to get a bit more organized and utilize my map.

To be honest if you are ocd (or cdo yeah alphabetical order deal with it) till you find your groove and get into a system of exploring and questing it is overwhelming.

I just gave into the fact I have tons of quests at one time from this. Once I explore a portion of the map I will open my journal and go back and quest starting with the lowest level one I have for that area. I found it is easier to explore a portion get it out of my system find the quest in that area and go back and I am able to concentrate on it.

Hope it helps… it was the only thing that workedfor me. I hope you find your groove and not get overly frustrated

PBpsy

If you can wander about I suggest that you actually wander about. I don't leave zones until I finish everything but I do move around a lot in a zone. I start doing all the delves then start the quests then the world bosses then the dolmens.

Blackwolfe5

The short answer is: I don't.

The long answer is: There are so many things to discover, so many quests to do and so much fun to be had that I cannot really decide what I want to do. Having four chars that I play makes it even harder to focus. Then there are all the material nodes! Often I head out to gather one, then see another and another and another, and suddenly I'm far in the opposite direction of the quest I was going to do, but completely forgot about.

Having a multi-quest tracker such as Wykkyds quest tracker makes it even worse :P Because I see ALL the quests at the same time.

Loxy37

If you run around gathering mats like I do. Either take a screen shot of your map, where the quest giver is or use your phone to take a pick (if you don't want to initialise the story) or just take all the quests you find and then do the lowest levelled ones first and if its a chain, stick to the chain.

ESO is strange because you don't progress along the map, some will say its because its not linear but it becomes a real headache in some places like Shadowfen.

Eats-the-Cheddar

Good advice, thanks for your considerate replies!

It is exactly as you said, Knovah, I am running around like a hot mess! But I guess I'd rather have too many quests than not enough. I just need to concentrate on staying in my zone and finding a "groove," as you say. I like the idea of exploring, then tackling the quests by level.

Gedalya

First, you are not alone! And second, the solution is coffee...

Eats-the-Cheddar

Gedalya wrote: »

First, you are not alone! And second, the solution is coffee...

Yes! Always coffee!

lecarcajou_ESO

Well, what I do is—oh, look!!! A quest giver!

SeñorCinco

I turn off as much of the HUD as possible. I detest tells, arrows, red dots and diamonds above the heads of everything in the game. This allows me to actually let my character talk to some NPCs and get quests. If he/she misses a quest then fine. It ruins the experience for me with a single character doing everything, anyway.

I still find my questlog to carry 5 or more quests at any given time. If they get sidetracked it's from actual exploration and not because something popped up on the compass or above someone's head.

Danarchist

I am actually adhd and this game can drive me really batty at times. One thing I started doing is, as suggested above, find the lowest level quest and do that then work forward. I only deviate for the main quest line as it is a skill point at completion (and even mid 30's I am still hungry for those).
Another trick is to work from the main city out, left to right or right to left etc. I tend to save the Mage Guild and Fighters guild quests for 'breathers' when I need a break from map clearing. This game can be really overwhelming at times and my less scatter brained friends outleveled me in the first couple weeks.
The one best suggestion I can make is if you have alts convert them temporarily to 'bank bots' and quit thinking about them once you have picked a main class. I found that switching from character to character caused me to lose track where each one was in the zone, and I just ended up spending hours creating armor and weapon sets with bonuses for all my alts and not leveling my main at all.
I had originally made one character in each faction to see the story line....don't. My friends that are in the VR ranks now let me know you have to do all the faction quests to stand a chance of leveling to VR10, and if you have already done them on an alt it makes it that much more boring.

Melian

I don't, really. I just pick them all up and do whatever I feel like (although I usually wait if it's orange), then clean up the unfinished quests when I'm getting ready to move on to the next zone.

Sarenia

If you don't put yourself on a timer, or worry about efficiency, you can stop worrying about focus. Just meander around and do whatever floats your boat. Do some harvesting along the way, before you know it you'll have a veritable stockpile.

Eats-the-Cheddar

I do find the game to be extremely overwhelming. I want to do the quests while they still provide decent rewards, but I seem to out-level them so fast! Crafting also has me in knots. I need items from every line, so I'm trying to be this jack-of-all-trades. I guess I should just narrow it down to one or two skills, but how can I be a geared solo Sorcerer without woodworking for staves, clothing for light armor, blacksmithing for heavy armor (I mix), enchanting, alchemy and provisioning!?

mutharex

Some times I choose a spot on the map, mark it with F and go in that direction, fishing, gathering, killing stuff, exploring. I think the strong point of the game is that I don't feel I have to level quickly chasing xp... I just have too much fun this way.

Ah OP, in case no one mentioned it, don't go back till you finish all the content on Bleakrock, that's actually the tutorial island. TESO used to be more structured in the beginning, to help people new to this kind of game but a vocal minority screamed till the tutorial islands were actually moved as optional. You been lucky enough to stumble upon it:do it all

mutharex

Loxy37 wrote: »

If you run around gathering mats like I do. Either take a screen shot of your map, where the quest giver is or use your phone to take a pick (if you don't want to initialise the story) or just take all the quests you find and then do the lowest levelled ones first and if its a chain, stick to the chain.

ESO is strange because you don't progress along the map, some will say its because its not linear but it becomes a real headache in some places like Shadowfen.

I did that early on, then I realized that sooner or later I was gonna go back in that area and stopped doing it

ZiRM

Insomnia helps me keep focused.

Eats-the-Cheddar

mutharex wrote: »

Some times I choose a spot on the map, mark it with F and go in that direction, fishing, gathering, killing stuff, exploring. I think the strong point of the game is that I don't feel I have to level quickly chasing xp... I just have too much fun this way.

Ah OP, in case no one mentioned it, don't go back till you finish all the content on Bleakrock, that's actually the tutorial island. TESO used to be more structured in the beginning, to help people new to this kind of game but a vocal minority screamed till the tutorial islands were actually moved as optional. You been lucky enough to stumble upon it:do it all

Oh yeah? Thanks for the tip. I was tempted to abandon Bleakrock until I finish up the stuff in and around Davon's Watch, since it's nagging me that I left it behind a lot of unfinished business. Thanks!

mutharex

Eats-the-Cheddar wrote: »

mutharex wrote: »

Some times I choose a spot on the map, mark it with F and go in that direction, fishing, gathering, killing stuff, exploring. I think the strong point of the game is that I don't feel I have to level quickly chasing xp... I just have too much fun this way.

Ah OP, in case no one mentioned it, don't go back till you finish all the content on Bleakrock, that's actually the tutorial island. TESO used to be more structured in the beginning, to help people new to this kind of game but a vocal minority screamed till the tutorial islands were actually moved as optional. You been lucky enough to stumble upon it:do it all

Oh yeah? Thanks for the tip. I was tempted to abandon Bleakrock until I finish up the stuff in and around Davon's Watch, since it's nagging me that I left it behind a lot of unfinished business. Thanks!

No no, it's the other way round. The natural flow used to be Bleakrock and after that Morrowind. And to level optimally you don't have to do all the quests (though you get an achievement for it) but I'd do all the exploration and skyshards (revealing all the locales of a map gives you xp and an achievement, same for skyshards and there are 3 per Tutorial Island except for Aldmeri Dominion, where they are 6)

RylukShouja

My secret: I don't stay focused. I do whatever quest my log happens to select for me, unless I happen to open my map and find a closer one. I will often wander off into unexplored areas (sidetracked from the quest by some compass marker or another; often world bosses or dolmens) and pick up new quests.

My advice: pick a quest and do it. Most quests are unrelated, but if you are having trouble following the story, focus on the main quest for the area first, and the side quests will probably make more sense. If you find a quest chain, follow it to completion and it becomes a lot easier to understand.

jircris11

I take my time. i am on each map for a week or so lol, i enjoy exploring the map fully before moving on.