Ton of Questions

dposdb14_ESO · May 2015

Hello everyone! I'm a returning player who left about 2 months after initial release. Since then the game has changed quite a bit and I have a few questions that I'm hoping the community will be able to help answer. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Some background information. I have played MMO's since Everquest1 and have played every Elder Scrolls game. I always play PVE, PVP doesn't interest me at all. I have always had a healer as a Main with DPS as an alt, have always wanted to play tank but have never been good at it. Which brings me to my 1st question.

1) Can you really play any way you want? I suspect this is true while soloing but what about in groups/raids? My initial thought process is that there are builds that are more suitable to group play than others.

2) Can anyone link any builds that are popular for Healing (similar to Cleric in EQ1, Paladin in WoW)?

3) Can anyone link any builds that are popular for Melee DPS (I'm thinking something with the DragonKnight)?

4) Can anyone link any builds that are popular for Caster DPS (Caster/Pet DPS is fine too)?

5) Is it better to make a dedicated alt for crafting instead of leveling it on a progression character?

6) Which faction is more active/sociable?

7) Which skills should I train my mount on 1st/2nd/3rd?

That is all I have for right now. Once again I appreciate any answers/feedback/advice given.

PKMN12 · May 2015

1. no, not really, while there are several ways yo ucan play, MOST "way" are completely worthless.

For example, healing as anyone but a templar is going to give you bad time, and you HAVE To have magicka as the main stat if you want to heal. You also HAVE to have either Stamina OR magicka, as hybird builds are worthless and will get you killed easily.

Also, if you are tanking, you are using heavy armor, melee DPS is medium armor, and casters is light armor (sometimes, if you are REALLY good, you can use heavy here, but....). you can use 5 pieces of main armor and 1 or 2 pieces of another for some of the bonuses from perks, which a lot of people do, but you will never see for example, a caster using mostly medium armor.

also, you also cannot melee DPS with a sword and shield, is simply not going to happen, though you CAN use it as a secondary caster weapon set since blocking is powerful in this game.

Duel weilding is also not in a very good place

RAces are all over the place and has balance out the window. At the moment, Bretons, Altmer, imperials, and to some extent, Dunmer seem to be the best, with the beast races having little to no helpful racials in anyway.

2, 3, 4. look on the combat forums, and on youtube. Also, NEVER simply copy a build, they might work for that person, but that does not mean the will work for you, this goes for ANY game. if you HAVE To look at a build, only use it as a base, and tweak it.

5. depends, unless i am mistaken, you can essentially craft anythign without putting many or any points into the crafting trees, a lot of them are things that are helpful, but i could be wrong here.
6. all of them really.

C0pp3rhead · May 2015

1). You can play almost any way you want. Some classes are much better at certain roles than others, but that doesn't mean they can't fill them. I know Sorcerers that can wreck you with their stamina builds and NB's who can tank with the best of them. In groups/raids, the roles will be a little more narrowly defined, but if you can prove your worth in groups you shouldn't have any problems. Templars make the best healers, the 2nd best tanks, and can get good dps with a stamina build. Dragonknights are the best tanks and can hold their own when it comes to magicka or stamina based dps. Sorcs have excellent magicka dps and can also mount significant stamina dps. They also make for decent healers. Nightblades are the kings/queens of dps - a stamina and magicka NB is hard to beat when it comes to sheer numbers. If you get creative, they can fill the roles of healer or tank too.

2). If you want to heal, roll a breton, altmer, or dunmer Templar.

3). The best melee pve dps is probably Nightblades.

4). The best magicka pve dps is probably Dragonknights or Sorcs.

5). Crafting will come down to skillpoints. My main has 270-some-odd skill points and has the 3 armor/weapon crafting skills maxxed and filled out with skill points. However, it's not difficult to get the 18 or so skill points on an alt to fill out a crafting line or two. My suggestion: use all of your toons to simultaneously research weapon/armor traits so that you don't have to go scrounging for them later.

6). I dunno.

7). Your main & alts should train speed on their horses first, but this is coming from a PvP perspective. Probably for a pure PvE player, I would simultaneously train speed and capacity. Stamina is somewhat useful for PvE, but most useful in PvP. On your mules, you only need capacity.

Welcome. Have a Fishy Stick

Tadhg_Longhouse · May 2015

1) You can only really play how you want solo. If you can find a group that are looking to have fun rather than min-max then you can probably complete group content with more freedom in character role and build, but you probably aren't going to be topping the leaderboards. In saying that there are a range of builds that work for taking on most content.

2 - 4) To answer most of your questions, check out the Theorycrafting forums on Tamriel Foundry for what's being consider for different builds:

http://tamrielfoundry.com/forums/

Templars are considered the best healers

Dragon Knights generally the best tanks and DPS equally as well as Nightblades

Sorcerers are considered on par the best with Dragonknights for PvP

But this all really comes down to player ability as well of course. A skilled sorcerer tank will perform much better than a mediocre Dragonknight tank.

5) Depending on how many skills you want one character to have you may want to consider a crafting alt. But then it depends on if you want to craft everything or just one or two different trees. You'll probably want around 15 points in any crafting tree you are dedicated to and get 250+ skill points depending on how much content you get through.

6) All factions are much the same I think. It feels like AD and EP have more dedicated players but I don't think DC are much worse really.

7) Depends on what you are after really. If you want to move around quickly then speed is more important. If you want to be able to explore longer without having to return to a town then bags are probably more important. Stamina is only really useful in PvP so you can leave that until last. Maybe consider alternating between bags and speed if you need both. I still haven't upped bags just because I just purchased the character bag upgrades and found that to be enough for my needs.

PKMN12 · May 2015

something i forgot to mention, for some strange reason, 2-handed weapons increase spell damage/healing more then staffs of ether type do

, though staffs have A LOT of magicka regen with their attacks, so it more then makes up for teh lesser damage, but no one seems to know why exactly a caster gets more power from a two-hander (not that me or my Bunmer CLeric are complaining), i guess it is because they wanted casters to have something more then staffs.

Ley · May 2015

Welcome back!

1) Can you really play any way you want? I suspect this is true while soloing but what about in groups/raids? My initial thought process is that there are builds that are more suitable to group play than others.

This really depends on what you want out of the game. If you want to have the best most efficient character, then the answer is no, you must conform to certain builds. If you want to have fun and don't mind not being the most efficient powerful build, then yes, you can beat the game with pretty much any build you want; especially the solo content.

As for groups and raids, it really depends on what kind of people you group with. Some groups will expect you to have certain skills or a particular build to fulfill certain requirements. Plenty of groups out there will be happy if you can just dps, not die and not get everyone else killed.

2) Can anyone link any builds that are popular for Healing (similar to Cleric in EQ1, Paladin in WoW)?

If you want to be a dedicated healer, you'll probably want to play a Templar, the Breath of Life skill is what really sets them appart from other classes, when it comes to healing. However any class can heal fairly decently with a restro staff equipped, just spam Healing Springs and rapid regen/mutagen, it'll keep parties alive for most content but not the most difficult content.

3) Can anyone link any builds that are popular for Melee DPS (I'm thinking something with the DragonKnight)?

A DK will probably be able to help you better than me.

4) Can anyone link any builds that are popular for Caster DPS (Caster/Pet DPS is fine too)?

Sorcs are the magica/caster power houses at the moment. PvE sorcs tend to focus around pets. PvP sorcs often have Crystal Fragments, Hardened Ward, Daedric Mines, Mages Fury and Bolt Escape on their bars, among other skills.

5) Is it better to make a dedicated alt for crafting instead of leveling it on a progression character?

You can easily get away with having 2-3 crafting skills per character, without having to sacrifice skill points you'd want for your builds. It's advisable to have one character with Blacksmithing, Wood and Cloth, so that you can save a bit of money on motifs.

6) Which faction is more active/sociable?

I'm in DC and they're a good bunch of people for the most part but I don't doubt that the other factions have plenty of decent people in them as well. I think you should just pick whatever faction has your preferred races and/or banner.

7) Which skills should I train my mount on 1st/2nd/3rd?

This really depends on you and your personal preference, I personally alternate days between bag space and speed, till they're maxed, then I finish up with stamina.