There's a plethora of skill combinations. With the current mechanics, it is suggested to focus with investing in either Magicka or Stamina. Now, you need to access assess what type of playstyle or archetype your character is interested in.

EDIT : Ha... access.

for my first playthru should i download the addons that list all skyshards / lorebooks in your opinion? does it ruin the game if i do

Explore! Also, after you finish the initial tutorial in Coldharbour and are dropped off in the first major zone for your chosen faction, find the person who will send you to that faction's starter zone and complete the quests there!!! The starter zones for each faction are listed below:

Aldmeri Dominion: Kenarthi's Roost
Daggerfall Covenant: Stros M'Kai / Betnikh
Ebonheart Pact: Bleakrock Isle / Bal Foyen

Also, here's a good discussion to check out: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/32sqw0/psa_megathread_welcome_back_weekend_eso_subreddit/

One could almost start the game up, bash their face into their keyboard with hand gently laid upon the mouse, and take a nap- their way to 50.

With the joke aside, welcome to ESO, and I hope you and friends will enjoy it! The game is easy enough till level 50. The VR1-14 PvE content increases in challenge up till Craglorn where a group is needed for all content.

Mix up your skills bar with both magic and stamina skills. Be sure to pick the same factions as your other friends if you wish to play together. You guys can play any faction as you please, but one can not group up or help out another faction player. I'm guessing that there's no recruit a friend due to the game having no sub and no demo as of yet.

Have you all made a choice about which faction to play?

Have Fun!

LartenCrepsley wrote: »

for my first playthru should i download the addons that list all skyshards / lorebooks in your opinion? does it ruin the game if i do

Excellent. Before downloading any, you need to download the free Minion software to manage your AOs You can browse right out of the program and instantly install and uninstall them with ease.

However... I would not recommend getting tell add ons.

The "buddy system" is called the Pledge of Mara. Both players must obtain the Ring of Mara (obtained in the in-game Crown Store) and conduct the Ritual of Mara at an altar in a major city. After that, any time those 2 players are wearing their rings, grouped together, and fighting within range of each other, they will get a bonus to all experience earned. I think it's 10%.

Edit: my wife and I have it, but I don't think it's necessary in any way, shape, or form. It's merely a nice little boost.

Most importantly take your time. have fun!

Find a cool guild of people who like to spend time with. Fun jokes and helpful because they can answer almost any question.

Mods can be helpful but don't use them right away so that you know what you want. But when you do.. and you will.. everyone uses some.. Use Minion.

http://minion.mmoui.com/

Has every mod I can think of and most that I haven't thought of. load it every day before you start playing so it updates every day.

Oh, and you might find the video guides in this thread useful:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/157735/the-beginners-guide-a-work-in-progress#latest
They're intended for a complete beginner. They don't cover everything (yet - @MissBizz is still working on putting out more of them), but they cover a lot of things that I would have found helpful to know in advance, rather than working it out as I went along... The one on Dungeons in particular is one that I wish had been around at launch when I started playing and had no freaking clue about any of that stuff.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/157726/eso-tamriel-unlimited-new-players-guides

Above all, have fun!

UrQuan wrote: »

Download the skyshard and lorebook add-ons, but keep them turned off! Only turn them on when you've given up on finding the last skyshards in the zone that you couldn't figure out from the hints (or just seeing them), and when you think you've probably got all the lorebooks in the zone. Then collect the ones you missed, and turn the add-ons back off before moving on to the next zone.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Before VR I had these addons and it wasn't exciting finding them. Now I do as Urquan suggested and its way better when you find you, more of a feeling of accomplishment and excitement

In 1-50 just play how you want! Try out new skills all the time, even soloing in VR zones you can do whatever you want. You don't have to start thinking and figuring out your build until you are preparing for and doing veteran group content. Seriously, just play how you want.

Try to play as much like a roleplayer as you can. The longer you delay doing things like end-game and pvp the happier you will be.

LartenCrepsley wrote: »

for my first playthru should i download the addons that list all skyshards / lorebooks in your opinion? does it ruin the game if i do

I would for sure. Otherwise you'll just download them later and have to go back and collect them.

Also recommend leveling EVERYTHING. All armor types, all weapon types, all class skills, etc. It's much easier to level them while you quest than grind them out in end game. You never know what you'll want to use or what you'll want to switch to later in game - so level them all while you can in an easier fashion.

There's a lot of different ways to do this;

Wear at least one peice from all three armor trees, 5 peices of whichever you plan to run mostly.

When you reach level 15 and unlock your second skill bar put a skill from each weapon line on it and switch to this bar when you turn in quests. As your main bar will eat all the exp from actually killing things.

Or really, play however you want. If it's your first run through enjoy it. These are just things I wish people had told me when I first started so I didn't have to grind things out in endgame.

PKMN12 wrote: »

hybriding does not work, you will either be Magicka focused or Stamina focused, trying to do both will lead to failure with a horrible character.

I agree about a full blow hybrid but it's note worthy that if you go magica, it's useful to have at least 1 stamina skill on one of your bars and vice-versa. It lets you take advantage of an otherwise untapped resource.