Leveling Advice

LawyerLarry · June 2015

Hello. ESO is only the 2nd mmorpg I have ever played besides FFXI. In FFXI, you had to level up by fighting monsters for hundreds of hours. You did not get any exp for completing quests and missions. ESO seems to be different in that you get exp for completing quests. I have tried a little exp grinding by killing mobs, but it doesn't seem to be a very good exp payoff. I can't really tell how much exp I'm getting when I kill a mob because exp is measured in a little green bar rather than numbers.

So my question is this - is it worth it to kill hundreds of mobs for exp or should I just do quests exclusively?

PartTimePinsent · June 2015

Quests/Killing mobs on the way. But mostly quests for sure.

Cuyler · June 2015

The fastest way is grinding mobs with light questing in between. As long as your fighting mobs within 5 levels of you you will get full xp for it.

Being in a duo group with another player will give a 10% xp buff. If any more than 2 players in your vicinity (wether in your group or not) your xp/kill will be lower.

With that said, in order to stay within 5 levels of the mobs, you'll eventually need to complete the main story to get to the v1-5 zones, and then complete Cadwell's silver quests to get to the v6-10 zones which is what I mean by "light questing".

Finally, major objectives give good xp as well (not to mention combat experience, strats, mechs, etc.) so it's beneficial to complete major quest hubs too. Obv the time spent running around here is what makes this method slightly slower, but again what you learn about machanics here is invaluable (i.e. dodging, blocking, skill choices, etc.)

Back to grinding.....in order to be faster than questing you need to do large pulls (15-20 npcs at a time) and have a fast respawn rate. Having a friend there helps out but if solo you need to focus on keeping yourself alive and AoE damage.

Nestor · June 2015

LawyerLarry wrote: »

So my question is this - is it worth it to kill hundreds of mobs for exp or should I just do quests exclusively?

Quests are far and away the best way to gain levels and grow your skills, remember, skills only go up if they are on the bar when you make a kill or turn in a quest.

If you do enough quests to get the Adventurer Achievement for each zone (40 to 50 quests for most zones), get the Cave and Explorer Achievements, Collect all the Skyshards and do the 3 Dolmens, you will be out leveling your zones by a decent margin. Throw in a Public Dungeon run or two and you will be looking to slow down the leveling even more.

The only reason I grind on mobs is if I am farming them, like I want loot for decon or I am looking for a certain dropped item. Otherwise, I just kill the mobs that I am presented with as I am doing the quests.

Yes, there are a few places in the game where you can go out and just grind on mobs and gain levels, but really, for me, that is just a place to farm or, maybe, get the last 10% I need for a level.