Hey Folks!

Throughout the last several months, ESO has gained momentum, and a large influx of new players has taken root in our community. Personally, I think it's fantastic that there is so much new blood, and despite the attitude that some may carry here on the forums, there are a lot of people who are willing to help, and many even enjoy doing so. There is a plethora of truly beneficial information here, but sometimes it can be hard to pinpoint.

In the spirit of being constructive and trying to help as many people as possible, I've decided to start a series of threads, or "tips and tricks" that I believe with help any new (or returning) player. I reserve all judgment on these concepts. Many of them may come off to some players as obvious points, or plain common sense. But it's easy for long-term players to assume common sense when they've been doing it for a year or two already.

Many of these suggestions are points I've seen on other threads, questions that new players have personally asked me, and general points that I feel can be beneficial to the community. Of course, anyone is welcome to add to this post, make additional suggestions, or even critique my suggestions if there is a better alternative. I welcome all forms of constructive criticism, but please don't turn this thread into something negative. It's meant to be useful and informative. So let's get started!


What Gear Should I Wear?
Throughout the leveling process, you're going to pick up a plethora of items, and the vast majority of them are not going to be of use. The first question you must ask yourself is, "do I want to wear light, medium, or heavy armor." The general rule of thumb is that light armor is for casters (magicka), medium armor is for melee/bow users (stamina), and heavy armor is for tanks (health, and some combination of magicka and stamina). I emphasize that this is a general rule, as a great deal of players will mix armor weights to optimize their characters. This is okay! Don't be afraid to wear a heavy piece if you feel you're too squishy as a caster, and don't be afraid to put on a light armor piece if you're a tank and need to boost your spells.

There is a big difference between crafted gear (with set bonuses) and dropped gear. Everything you see in this game is going to have a trait, e.g. divines, well-fitted, infused, etc. The lower your level, the more beneficial traits like Training and Exploration are for you. As you get closer to level 50+ you'll typically want to start focusing more on optimizing your stats, and less on those supplementary traits. Please note, however, that using exploration or training is not useless in veteran ranks. Just keep in mind that using those pieces means foregoing other options, like increasing the effect of your mundus stone, for example.

Every piece of gear can be enchanted, and there are three types of glyphs: Armor, Weapon, and Jewelry. Despite what type of gear you are using, having your gear enchanted makes a big difference. You can just wear anything you pick up, or you can wear something that is crafted, but remember to enchant it! It offers a significant increase in your character's potential, regardless of their role. Generally speaking, you want to use glyphs to correspond to your build, e.g. stamina glyphs for stamina builds, etc.

Crafted gear can provide major advantages in combat for your character. For players that are very new, it's unlikely you will be able to craft your own gear, but you should start working towards it! It takes a considerable amount of time to research some traits, so I highly recommend that you begin researching the items you find (to do this, simply go to a crafting station, and select the "research" tab, and it will display a list of researchable items). Crafting is an entirely separate topic, which we can hopefully explore in-depth in a more appropriate thread. However, I would like to note (especially for new players) that sometimes it's best to do your crafting on another character. Trust me, there are a lot of us who sank all of our skill points into crafting, and were left with severe limitations as to what we can do with our characters later on!

For now, if you are unable to make crafted gear, then you're in luck! There are a lot of players in this game who have the ability to make you anything you need. It's not that difficult to find someone who is willing to make you low-end gear for free, because there are a lot of people who like to help. If you can't find someone who will help you get crafted gear, it's okay to wear the stuff you pick up along the way.

If you're going to wear crafted gear, try to find sets that will compliment each other. For example, as a stamina build, I might want to use Hundings Rage and Night Mother's Gaze. There are, of course, other valid combinations, and this is just one example. These two sets work well together for a stamina build, because they offer many weapon-based stat bonuses, such as critical hit chance, maximum stamina, and weapon damage. Every piece of armor and each weapon counts towards the set bonus, so wearing a Hundings Rage helm and a Hundings Rage belt will qualify you for the 2-set bonus. The same is true if you have a sword and shield of the same set, or two daggers, etc. A list of all of the current crafted sets in ESO can be found here.

Upon reaching level 15, you will unlock the ability to use a secondary weapon, or the "off-bar" as it's commonly referred to. This opens up a great opportunity for all classes and builds. It enables you to branch out beyond just a single skill set. For example, if you are someone who likes to do group content, and prefers to tank or heal, having an off-bar will allow you to "setup" for other forms of content, like solo questing. A tank who normally uses a 1-hand and shield may also put a 2-handed weapon on their off-bar for questing. A healer might use a destruction staff, or someone who prefers to use a 2-handed weapon may have a bow on their off-bar for when ranged combat is necessary. Make use of your off-bar! It's a great place to put your secondary skills too, like buffs that you only need reapply occasionally.


Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this post. I truly hope you have found something useful here, and if so, stick around for the next one! I will continue to add threads of varying topics to this effect, so long as people find it useful. Feel free to add in your own suggestions, but please remember to be polite and constructive.