Some (more) newbie questions

Piffo · July 2014

Following my last thread before I got the game, I have some more questions about the game and how it works now that I am working through it. I am currently a level 12 Nord Templar.

1. Does heavy armour affect your healing? I am currently wanting to become a healer, but am wearing heavy armour with a sword and shield. If heavy armour does not negatively affect your magicka/stamina - why would there even exist light and medium armour? Can someone explain the pros/cons of them?

2. Am I the only one finding the game very difficult? Deaths are common, and I generally have to be very careful what I pull and when. Not complaining, it is a nice change from so many hand-holding games these days. Just making sure I am not doing something wrong.

3. Even though I have only healed others twice, I really found it challenging. My skill heals are area of effect and my restoration staff has to be pointing at people (I think?) but everyone seems to love running around all over the place and trying to heal anything is a nightmare. Any tips?

4. I lag a lot, especially in larger areas such as cities. For example, when walking into a bank it takes 10-30 seconds for everyone to appear and load in, and a further 10-15 for all the environment such as desks, other details to load in. Many times, people load in with really, really bad low-res graphics for skins and clothing. After a little bit it updates to a high-res version. How can I improve this? Should I buy some more RAM (my PC has 2gb) - would that improve the situation?

Thanks

Vuron · July 2014

1) Take a long, hard look at the passives from each of the armor trees and think about what each does for the character that you are trying to build. Currently, light armor is considered to be the king because of superiority of Magicka builds. Light armor supplies magicka regen, cost reduction, crit chance, and helps with spell resist in PvP. Heavy armor is currently considered the weakest of the 3, but things may change in an upcoming patch. Also, with passives and other skills, the mitigation of light and medium armor can be buffed to the caps, which means that heavy has no real mitigation benefit. Right now, all armor is used because of the passives and no other reason.

2) There is a point early in the game where some people struggle. This is mostly due to the fact that you have a very limited number of skills to use. Even so, deaths really shouldn't be common unless you're play style is off. You can't just run into a group of mobs and think you're invincible. You might want to detail how you're dying and we can help out.

3) Welcome to world of healing with random groups. People run all over the place, don't stay in AoE range, and complain when you don't heal them. It's probably not your fault. Make sure to let people know before the fight that they need to stay within a certain range.

4) This sounds like a very serious issue. You definitely need more RAM if you only have 2GB, but this may not solve all your problems.

Rosveen · July 2014

Piffo wrote: »

1. Does heavy armour affect your healing? I am currently wanting to become a healer, but am wearing heavy armour with a sword and shield. If heavy armour does not negatively affect your magicka/stamina - why would there even exist light and medium armour? Can someone explain the pros/cons of them?

Oh dear. Currently the question is "why does heavy armor even exist?" because it's useless to anyone but tanks and even they can run light or medium.

If you want to be a healer, use light. Preferably all 7 pieces, but 5+2 of something else will work too. It's the only one which actually supports your healing with magicka cost reduction, spell crit etc.

Piffo · July 2014

Alright, thanks

I had just assumed Heavy Armour would supply the biggest amount of armour but apparently not! ESO truly has changed the MMO world, ha.

@Vuron As for dying, mainly it is against bosses, but also sometimes if I pull more than one on-level thing I run out of magika before I can kill them. The situation seems to be getting better, though. I think it's just a lack of spells.

Rosveen · July 2014

Heavy does give you the highest armor rating by itself, but you need to consider a few other things.
There are skills boosting your armor; I can go up a thousand just with Spike Armor. As a tank I might want to use it to reach the hardcap in certain situations, but most of the time I don't need it. Going to softcap with all the benefits of light or medium could be a much better idea, depending on my role.
Armor isn't the be all and end all; a bulk of damage comes from spells, so spell resistance is just as (if not more) useful. Besides, ranged characters want to avoid direct hits anyway.
Damage; magicka, stealth, crits, heavy doesn't improve any of that.

As for groups of mobs, it's normal at first, you'll learn to deal with them in time. You say you're running out of magicka. What about stamina? Any stamina skills on your bar? Do you actively block and avoid area attacks?

Piffo · July 2014

I have one stamina skill as I finally discovered I could buy sword & shield skills too >.<

To be honest, I've been playing more to a roleplaying ideal than a be-good-at-a-class one which is really nice, because you can't really do that anywhere else. The 'Knight of the Light' kind of ideal has been a lot of fun.

Currently I use Dawn's Wrath, Restoring Light and one of the Sword & Shield skills. Thinking of expanding into Aedric Spear but don't really have the Skill Points to spare. Is it worth expanding into that?

Nestor · July 2014

Piffo wrote: »

Currently I use Dawn's Wrath, Restoring Light and one of the Sword & Shield skills. Thinking of expanding into Aedric Spear but don't really have the Skill Points to spare. Is it worth expanding into that?

I have not rolled a Templar yet, but I see them using Aedric Spear to great effect when they are around.

Have you done the starter islands for your zone? If not, I recommend that as you come back to the main areas at level 6 to 8 with 2 extra skill points from Skyshards. Speaking of which, either get the UI Add On for Skyshards that show you where they are, or find and print out maps for your zone that show you where they are. You can get 5 skill points per zone this way (other than the starters where you get 2 skill points from shards). There are also quests that give Skill Points, some are quite easy and short, some are complex and take some time to complete.

Skill points are rare in the beginning, and you can always respec them later. But by the time you get into the 20's and 30's you will find yourself having extra skill points. Do not ignore the passives as you level, they become quite powerful as you go on in the game and gain ranks in the passives. Of course some passives are not worth taking, but you can usually figure that out.

Srugzal · July 2014

Piffo wrote: »

2. Am I the only one finding the game very difficult? Deaths are common, and I generally have to be very careful what I pull and when. Not complaining, it is a nice change from so many hand-holding games these days. Just making sure I am not doing something wrong.

Block attacks, especially heavy ones (indicated by the white lines radiating from the mob). Blocking is probably the single most important thing you can do. You can even block projectile spells.

Interrupt spells while they're being cast (indicated by the red lines radiating from the mob). This uses stamina, so keep some stamina pots handy or eat some food before the fight.

Get out of red-- circles or rectangles. Get out of fire or ice or lightning, step out of the way of approaching waves of fire/frost/lightning. Get out of the way of green poison from spiders/undead/husks. Use dodge/roll when you have to to break CC, but remember that it uses stamina, too.

Use health potions to keep yourself going, usually the moment the screen edges first start to turn red.

Slot an ultimate and save it for boss fights when you need to cut them down to size quickly. This is where working together with other players can make things much easier.

Avoid taking on World Bosses (3 stars) by yourself unless you're very over-leveled. Avoid multiple mobs 3+ levels above you until you've mastered all of the combat mechanics and understand the capabilities you're facing. Even large numbers of mobs well below your level can be tricky. You usually have time to survey the combat area; you should do this to note where the mobs are that you don't want to pull, where you can safely kite without bumping into other groups, and so on.

Target casters and healers first; they tend to do the most damage. Especially scamps...

4. Even though I have only healed others twice, I really found it challenging. My skill heals are area of effect and my restoration staff has to be pointing at people (I think?) but everyone seems to love running around all over the place and trying to heal anything is a nightmare. Any tips?

You don't heal with the resto staff, though its heavy attack restores magicka. Use the targeting reticule to place AoE heals (the green circle). Other heals are auto-target, so they go to the closest who is the most needy. For instance, to use Rushed Ceremony/Breath of Life, pretty much the cheapest heal, just fire it off, and it goes to whomever needs it most.

As has been pointed out, for AoE heals to work effectively, the group you're with has to cooperate with it. The average PUG isn't going to do that, pretty much, alas.

Have fun!

Piffo · July 2014

Thanks for all those tips. I will get the skyshard add-on

As for all those combat tips - it just shows why I love this game. My old MMO of 6 and a half years slowly became so, so hand-holdy and easy that I eventually rolled a healer and got halfway to cap with my tutorial armour on that gives no benefits without encountering any negative effects. I just kept spamming my many, many OP nukes and nothing got here.

Now I come here and I'm having to actually think. And fear

Nestor · July 2014

Srugzal wrote: »

Avoid multiple mobs 3+ levels above you until you've mastered all of the combat mechanics and understand the capabilities you're facing. Even large numbers of mobs well below your level can be tricky. You usually have time to survey the combat area; you should do this to note where the mobs are that you don't want to pull,

I wanted to add that a large number of 3 Mobs, one of them will patrol or walk away from the other two. Once they do, you can usually engage, from a distance, the single mob and take them out. Then you are left with just two to deal with.

If you don't see them walking away or patrolling, always take out the healer first if you can. You won't see many until level 15 or so, but healers are your primary target.

I have also gone to "Funtionalizing" my skill bar. For example,

1 is always my preferred opening attack (either one that stuns or one that gives damage over time or both)
2 is my spam or over and over attack (low attribute use/decent damage)
3 is my death blow or final attack (the ones that do extra damage when the mob is less than 20% health)
4 is always my knock back attack (get out of my face attack)
5 is my alternative attack like I put a stamina skill here when otherwise using mana so when my mana runs out I can use this

I also split my skill bars where one side uses Stamina and one side uses Mana. This way I can use mana skills until it runs down, then use stamina while mana recovers or vice versa.

So, you build your bar thinking about the skills you want to use before the fight, then in the fight, you just think about the function and use that hot key. If the skills are not fitting the function, then adjust, find another mob, then try again.

Piffo · July 2014

Wow, nice. So should I be splitting my character points between magika and stamina? Or focus on magika like I am now?

Nestor · July 2014

While leveling I put everything into Health. Without Health, you won't survive. Then I use Enchantments to add either Mana or Stamina. This way I can quickly swap between builds or add some where i need to without respeccing or leveling (you can re-enchant anything you enchant)

I have not boosted Stamina yet as:

1. Stamina skills are not as strong or effective as Mana
2. By the time I use up my Stamina, my mana is regened enough to go back to it.
3. There is food that can boost Attributes, so work on Provisioning (it levels fast) and you don't need a ton of skill points in there unless you want to make lots of food/drink per operation. My fav boosts both Mana and Stamina.

Note, Provisioning Mats will make you cry for Bank Space like no other Craft, so once you get some levels, try to only pick up ingredients for what you want to make.

At about level 35 or so, I start putting attributes into Mana if I think I need to.

Preyfar · July 2014

Piffo wrote: »

Wow, nice. So should I be splitting my character points between magika and stamina? Or focus on magika like I am now?

Go for a mix. Some recommend putting most points into magicka, but I do about 50/50 magicka/stamina.

Caroloces · July 2014

Oh dear. Currently the question is "why does heavy armor even exist?" because it's useless to anyone but tanks and even they can run light or medium.

I thought that each armor class had its own specialty with regard to attributes. Light has passives for magic; medium has passives for stamina; and heavy has passives for health. So then, isn't there some value in heavy armor for those players who want to concentrate on survivability? It seems to me that ideally a player seeking balance with his character would have a combination of armor pieces spread out amongst the light, medium, and heavy.

Another aspect to confuse the matter somewhat is that enchantments for different abilities can be cast on any armor class, so you may put skill points into passives for light armor (promoting magic), and yet, still put enchantments on that light armor for stamina or health!

When I first started playing the game I was completely unaware of all of this and I equipped my templar with heavy armor. When I went into my one of my early 4-person dungeons and tried to do healing, I had one of my teammates suggest that I should equip light armor. I took this to heart, and now I'm equipping more light armor and putting some skill points into that category. But I found it ironic that one of the recent builds highlighted on the ESO website (http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2014/07/22/battlemasters-corner--the-dreadnought) the player states, "A mixture of a heavy armor core complimented by some light armor keeps magicka high while providing ample physical and arcane protection. "

Piffo · July 2014

Cool, thanks.

On a more recent note, did any of you have to re-install ESO today? I booted up the launcher and it gave me the install option as if I've never played, despite Steam having it as installed in my library. Having to install it now.

Nestor · July 2014

Caroloces wrote: »

I thought that each armor class had its own specialty with regard to attributes. Light has passives for magic; medium has passives for stamina; and heavy has passives for health. So then, isn't there some value in heavy armor for those players who want to concentrate on survivability? It seems to me that ideally a player seeking balance with his character would have a combination of armor pieces spread out amongst the light, medium, and heavy.

I don't understand the hate with MA and HA. I have one character in MA, one in HA, and one in LA. They all do fine. I do notice that I repair my armor a lot less on the HA character when tanking than I do with the LA character is tanking. The MA guy does not seem to lose health at any alarming rate and survives most battles (other than one boss battle in the MQ last night with the Harvester, she killed him once)

I think the differences are more important in PvP where optimal builds are key. In PvE, it's really whatever works for you.

So to prepare for this, mix the armors up as you level. This will give you a good skill base to focus on later if you want to go all LA or whatever. Then you can put on a set of armor with the Training Trait on most of the pieces and watch your armor level by the minute (ok, exageration but its fast at 49% exp boost for a full set of green Training Armor)

I personally don't mix armor types like other's do (5 LA/2 MA for example) I go 7/7 in whatever type the character uses. I leverage the passives too much to give up the boosts and buffs.

Makkir · August 2014

My advice is not always sound, but I am going to put my comments in bold. Enjoy.

Piffo wrote: »

Following my last thread before I got the game, I have some more questions about the game and how it works now that I am working through it. I am currently a level 12 Nord Templar.

1. Does heavy armour affect your healing? I am currently wanting to become a healer, but am wearing heavy armour with a sword and shield. If heavy armour does not negatively affect your magicka/stamina - why would there even exist light and medium armour? Can someone explain the pros/cons of them?
I think it will only hinder your healing in the sense you don't get the majicka bonuses from heavy armor that you get from light armor, more majicka = more heals

2. Am I the only one finding the game very difficult? Deaths are common, and I generally have to be very careful what I pull and when. Not complaining, it is a nice change from so many hand-holding games these days. Just making sure I am not doing something wrong.
When I started playing I certainly drove up the stock price on soul gems. In solo content (like questing) put a root/snare on your bar. I leveled using a resto staff, root, AOE dmg, and heals. When you are at full health, your resto staff allows you 10% dmg increase. Use potions too. I made mine, but you can buy them as well. And make sure your armor is repaired. If you die a lot, then your armor value is going down upon death...When your armor hits 0, then it's not effective and you're going to die again and again until you get your gear repaired.

3. Even though I have only healed others twice, I really found it challenging. My skill heals are area of effect and my restoration staff has to be pointing at people (I think?) but everyone seems to love running around all over the place and trying to heal anything is a nightmare. Any tips?
You mentioned you are level 12. Make sure you run around and collect all the skyshards and run through all the public dungeons. I found healers to be in high demand. Not surprising though since in the real world the medical field seems to be the #1 booming business taking money out of our pockets. Thank you Obamacare. Back on topic, plug away at the Resto Staff skill line and dish out the 300-700 gold for a blue quality resto staff. People might be running all over but you have an AOE heal and single target heals that don't require you to target anyone specifically. I don't recall the skill names at this moment.

4. I lag a lot, especially in larger areas such as cities. For example, when walking into a bank it takes 10-30 seconds for everyone to appear and load in, and a further 10-15 for all the environment such as desks, other details to load in. Many times, people load in with really, really bad low-res graphics for skins and clothing. After a little bit it updates to a high-res version. How can I improve this? Should I buy some more RAM (my PC has 2gb) - would that improve the situation?
I might be wrong, but I make the assumption you are between 17-24 years old? My advice is to drop out of college and use the money for a better computer. Look online at how many people got degrees in college but still don't have a job. What a scam college is Get rid of the girlfriend as well. All she will do is complain about how much time you are spending in a computer game.

Thanks

KariTR · August 2014

On the contrary, at lower levels I suggest you save money by not repairing items, just replace them with drops or craft yourself replacements. This doesn't include weapons, which don't decay, but will need to have their enchantments recharged/replaced. As a general rule, if you don't notice a weapon enchantment is depleted - often the case with lower item level weapons - don't waste a soul gem recharging.

When healing in a group at lower levels, ensure you have magicka slotted in your quick-slot. If it is any consolation, even light armour users drain magicka healing at that level. As someone else suggested, wear at least one piece of each type of armour so they are all being levelled up as you gain experience. Medium also has a passive to boost weapon crit and the mages guild skill tree has a crit boost for spells. Once you have some crit, your ultimate is far more readily available. I also used the blood altar skill from Undaunted at bosses, which has a long lasting AoE heal, plus the pool that your members can come and use themselves. Just let your group know where in the room you will be placing it before the fight (not that you can miss it lol).

Main story and guild quest bosses are generally the most challenging in this game, not least because you are facing enemy tactics for the first time and need to learn how to avoid and/or counter them. My main is a range class and I generally found that if I was dying a lot then a more in your face fight style was optimum. Other times, staying at range and kiting is best.

Piffo · August 2014

Thanks for the tips. I am confused at what a restoration staff does exactly? I point it at someone and it heals, right?

Nestor · August 2014

I have wondered about the mechanic myself. If you point it at an enemy, it does damage. It also gives you Skills to use to Heal. I have never actually pointed it a friendly to see what happens, but I think it heals when you do that.

Piffo · August 2014

Cool, thanks

Anyway, I have taken all of the friendly tips on here into account and am having a much easier time of things. I am now taking 3 on-level mobs with ease and the skyshards add-on has been an absolute godsend. The only thing I'd change now is not being forced to quest in Dark Elf areas but it appears I have no choice until level 35 but oh well :P Can't have it all!

shadowz081 · August 2014

Piffo wrote: »

Cool, thanks

Anyway, I have taken all of the friendly tips on here into account and am having a much easier time of things. I am now taking 3 on-level mobs with ease and the skyshards add-on has been an absolute godsend. The only thing I'd change now is not being forced to quest in Dark Elf areas but it appears I have no choice until level 35 but oh well :P Can't have it all!

You can just skip the area if you want, you are high enough to head on to deeshaan and kill stuff, though I recommend at least finshing the zone main quest for the skill point if nothing else. But yeah, skip to the 35 area if you want, but remember that you only get xp from stuff +-5 levels from your current level...Though lv 35 quest should still give xp if you complete em.