newbie lvl 16 Stam NB (also new to ESO), a few questions

EternallyMithril · August 2016

Hi all,

Just joined ESO about a week ago. Spent a few days experimenting with different races, classes, and so forth to get a feel for things. Have dabbled in everything, I've landed upon a Stamina NB as my main character for now. I'll be playing this game, at least for now, mostly to do solo PvE and just enjoy the quests, visuals, etc. (I also play another MMO where I am an officer in a large, organized guild...so this game is more my "escape" from the intensity of being constantly "on" for guild-related stuff while online. So I'm not looking to join any big guilds and start running dungeons or anything like that...just slink off into my own little corner of the world and disappear...) So I'm not looking to min-max, I'm generally not a big PvP-er so if I do any of that it will only be a little here & there, and certainly am not going to be planning doing large PvE dungeons or whatever the equivalent of raids there are in this game.

So I have a Nord Stamina NB. (I know Nord isn't the perfect race for a Stam NB, but doesn't seem too gimped and the fact that some of the Nord racials boost health might not be a terrible thing for a mostly solo character.) Putting all my level-up points into Stamina so far. I've been using almost entirely dual wield. Love it, both for the DW skills and just for the "feel"...it matches what (in my head) I think a NB should be like. Just hit lvl 16. Here are a few questions that I have at this point.

Is there any "best" choice for a second weapon? One or two guides I read insisted on 2h in order to get Rally as a self-heal, but it seems Stam NB's already have a variety of skills that give self-healing... maybe no big, burst self-heal which I suppose Rally is. Is Rally really so good it is "necessary"? Then again, none of the other options appeals to me much. Bow doesn't seem to fit in with the sneaky aspect of NB. 1h and shield seems a little "meh"; at least from their descriptions, none sound all that amazing. Staff skills are all Magika-based so it seems those are out. Just not sure what to work on as a second weapon.
Most of my skill points so far I've put into either active skills (getting new ones, or morphing old ones) and a few points into some crafting stuff. I haven't done much at all in the way of passives, either class passives or race passives. Seems like there are a lot of options. Are there any that are just amazing that I should be focused on putting points into ASAP?
I got an initial quest for Thieves Guild (meet someone in Windhelm), I tried riding there and was suddenly out of Stonefalls and in a zone way above my level. With the Dark Brotherhood Guild there was a teleport to Gold Coast right in Davon's Watch, but I haven't found the equivalent for the Thieves Guild. Have I missed something?
If I wanted to have DW on both of my bars, it seems I can't use the same weapons for both and just change up skills, can I?

Any help with any of those questions, or heck, any other general advice, would be most appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Kraynic · August 2016

You can't use the same weapons for both bars, though you could have both as dual wield if you have the 4 weapons to set it up. I would recommend going with either 2h or bow on your second bar.

If you go with 2h, that gives you a self heal, a charge, a knock down, and a sweep attack with shield (just going by memory of some things I have used, and will probably reflect morphs of skills). If you go with bow, you get some nice single target damage and dot, two different aoe, and a knockback. I'm not going over dual since you have been using it, but it has very nice aoe as well as giving another item slot for set bonuses once you get to using sets.

You probably will want to level all 3 of those as you get the chance because you will probably end up using a combination of 2 of those 3 on your bars. A lot will depend on how you want to play your character and the situation you are going into. And the way you play will change over time as more skills unlock from your class and weapon skill lines.

Once things are upgraded and morphed, it is hard to beat laying down the endless hail aoe and standing in it to fight things. As you unlock passives, nb gets a lot of bonuses to stealth openers whether melee or ranged. You can abuse this with a ranged weapon, and keep things at range between nb and bow abilities. You can run around like a chicken with it's head cut off throwing acid spray everywhere (a bow skill morph). You can get trickle self heals from weapon and class skills.

The main thing will be figuring out what you want/need at the moment as you spend skill points. Try to get all skyshards in each zone before moving on. You may decide there are a few skills from your class or weapon lines you won't use, but in general you will want them all as well as all passives. You will want all passives for medium armor and your race. There will be others as well, but those will eat your points well enough for a while.

One final note. Your primary bar (and the skills on it) will gain xp from every kill you make. Once you set up your second bar, switch to it when you turn in quests, and that bar will benefit from the quest xp.

Edit: I skipped over your question about the Thieves Guild... I would recommend waiting until your higher level and have some passives that help sneaking. It isn't absolutely necessary, but will make things a lot easier for you.

Nestor · August 2016

Kraynic wrote: »

You can't use the same weapons for both bars. I would recommend going with either 2h or bow on your second bar.

@Kraynic

You can absolutely use the same weapon on both bars, even one of the loading screen tool tips says this. I have 3 characters who sport Destro Staff on both bars.

Kraynic · August 2016

Nestor wrote: »

Kraynic wrote: »

You can't use the same weapons for both bars. I would recommend going with either 2h or bow on your second bar.

@Kraynic

You can absolutely use the same weapon on both bars, even one of the loading screen tool tips says this. I have 3 characters who sport Destro Staff on both bars.

I just edited that to make it more clear. You can't use the same weapon in bar one as you do in bar two.

That was what I was trying to get across anyway.

Nestor · August 2016

EternallyMithril wrote: »

Hi all,

Is there any "best" choice for a second weapon? One or two guides I read insisted on 2h in order to get Rally as a self-heal, but it seems Stam NB's already have a variety of skills that give self-healing... maybe no big, burst self-heal which I suppose Rally is. Is Rally really so good it is "necessary"? Then again, none of the other options appeals to me much. Bow doesn't seem to fit in with the sneaky aspect of NB. 1h and shield seems a little "meh"; at least from their descriptions, none sound all that amazing. Staff skills are all Magika-based so it seems those are out. Just not sure what to work on as a second weapon.

Most of my skill points so far I've put into either active skills (getting new ones, or morphing old ones) and a few points into some crafting stuff. I haven't done much at all in the way of passives, either class passives or race passives. Seems like there are a lot of options. Are there any that are just amazing that I should be focused on putting points into ASAP?

I got an initial quest for Thieves Guild (meet someone in Windhelm), I tried riding there and was suddenly out of Stonefalls and in a zone way above my level. With the Dark Brotherhood Guild there was a teleport to Gold Coast right in Davon's Watch, but I haven't found the equivalent for the Thieves Guild. Have I missed something?

If I wanted to have DW on both of my bars, it seems I can't use the same weapons for both and just change up skills, can I?

Any help with any of those questions, or heck, any other general advice, would be most appreciated! Thanks in advance.

For PvE content outside of Trials you can make any build work, so don't worry about that.

A Stamina NB has weak heals from their class, Magic NB's do much better. So, Rally would be a good way to go for that if your Stamina. I also like a Bow for Ranged Attacks and that is what I currently use on my StamBlade. 1H/S is great for Tanking and other reasons, but your right, does not seem to fit most NB's.

From L1 to L15 Put your points into Actives, both Class and Weapon, L15 to L20, invest in your second weapon if your going to do that, or, start putting them into Passives. Once over L20, then start investing in Passives and unlocking Morphs as they come. Developing Crafting while developing a deadly character is tricky. Fortunately, you can level most crafting with no skill points invested, just decon mob loot for Equipment and Enchanting. Alchemy and Provisioning you can level in about 20 minutes when you need to level that, so don't worry there.

For the Thieves, you go to Hew's Bane, and you should have that Wayshrine Unlocked. However, I would avoid the DLCs for a while as you won't have the skill points to invest in the passives to leverage what they can offer. BTW< most of the Passives in the Thieves and DB are more for dealing with Guards and Bounties. Legerdemain, which is stealing in the base game help you with just pilfering stuff. You can go poke around and do stuff, but really play the content once you have gotten to Champ Ranks and you have some skill points to spend.

Going back to having the same weapon on both bars. You can put the same skills on both bars, or support skills on one, and attack skills on the other. Or you can do Single Target DPS on one, or AoE on the other. It's all up to you. But, you won't get the second bar until you reach L15, so that may be why you can't put skills on both bars.

EternallyMithril · August 2016

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Very helpful!

Nestor · August 2016

Kraynic wrote: »

I just edited that to make it more clear. You can't use the same weapon in bar one as you do in bar two.

That was what I was trying to get across anyway.

@Kraynic

Yes, your right, you have to have two Destro Staffs if you want to run them on both bars. I typically load one skill bar up with Single Target or DPS skills and the other bar up with AoE Trash Mobs skills. Some use the other bar for supports skills like Shields.

One thing, if you are going to use the same weapon type on both bars, then make them of a different racial style so you can see quickly which bar you are on.

EternallyMithril · August 2016

Nestor wrote: »

One thing, if you are going to use the same weapon type on both bars, then make them of a different racial style so you can see quickly which bar you are on.

That makes good sense. Nice tip!