First of all you might see that they've done away with the Veteran ranks and instead use a Champion Point system.

1. Some say CP160, others say CP300-400. Getting to CP160 ASAP is a priority, as that is the gear cap - meaning all item drops from then on will be maximum level and thus usable for end-game activities. It also makes the rewards from Vet Dungeons a lot more valuable, as you don't need to go farm them again when you progress in levels. Currently I can't be bothered dealing with the group hassle, so I solo non-vet dungeons for pledges and get Undaunted Keys that way (keys that unlock some really sweet loot everyone uses); and I guess once you can solo everything non-vet with ease, you're ready for doing group Vet dungeons - boss mechanics is the thing to google in Vet dungeons.

PVP is played in Cyrodiil on a large map with different keeps and outposts, it's not "team deathmatch" mode as some seem to believe, there is strategy and through observation you'll eventually learn to anticipate enemy movements and prepare. There's a lot of depth to it if you "play the map", and you also get awarded a hell of a lot more AP than those who just run to a random keep, kill something and then die, and then respawn and do the same thing again. Playing strategically also means that your gear and level play less of a role, a dude with 10CP who uses oil during defenses for instance is like a million times more valuable to the alliance than some maximum level guy with legendary gear spamming light bow attacks.

I'm a sucker for PVP and the feeling of fellowship it provides, so I usually end up running off to PVP-land before hitting CP levels. You won't be competitive in a 1v1, unless your enemy is a noob (there's a lot of CP561 noobs, keep an eye out for their PVP-rank) and you use CC to your advantage. CC's have the same effect independent of level, and a lot of players are not used to fighting unpredictable enemies. If you play smart and compensate for your character's weakness that way, you can be highly succesful even at lower levels.

2. Save the XP scrolls for when you hit the higher CP levels, where it takes a stupidly high amount of XP to level up. What I do on fresh characters since One Tamriel is grabbing the main quest (not the alliance quest, but the one with The Prophet and his cave) in one go, as you get awarded a lot of skill points for the quests, as well as basic jewelry that helps when low level. Then I do Fighter's Guild and Mage's Guild story quests (the latter will require you to go collect some books for the quests to be available - when searching for the books (google their location or use an add-on) grab any nearby skyshards for skillpoints), and then I move on to the Public Dungeons where you get decent kill XP, monsters respawn fast, and you get a skillpoint for clearing the Public Dungeon group challenges (which are easily soloable).

There's currently a holiday event going on, that will provide you double XP. I think you need to go to the Crown Store and "purchase" a free item that will start the associated quest. Exploit these holiday event XP boni to their fullest.

3. On PS4 currently, so can't help with that.

4. Make sure you do Blacksmithing/Woodworking/Clothier on the same character, as the motifs (the styles you can fashion your crafted gear in) are character-bound. It's very taxing on skillpoints - the main quest and also some of the alliance quests will reward you with skillpoints, as well as levelling up PVP-rank. Make sure your research queue is always full, it takes months and months to get to 9 traits.

Provisioning and Alchemy both gives you passives that are highly usable on non-crafting characters. The rest you can skip on a non-crafter.

5. Yes and no... I learned to play the game by PVP, so whenever some class killed me a lot, I went and made a character of that class to find its weaknesses. It does mean slower progression as you need to gather gear for each one to really be able to compete, but I would argue that you get more familiar with the game and class mechanics this way - which isn't really that important if you only plan on PVE'ing though.

6. Deltia and Sypher both frequently post builds, tips, guides and rotations that are beneficial. Deltia's site is IMO easier to use, as he puts emphasis on text (I prefer text over videos, it's faster to get to the point).

UESP is a treasure trove of everything Elder Scrolls, including ESO. Tamrieljournal and TES Life are good for maps of dungeons, skyshards, lorebooks etc.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Online
http://tamrieljournal.com/
http://teso.mmorpg-life.com/
http://deltiasgaming.com/
http://www.sypherpk.com/


7. Me too!

8. There's no division between PVE and PVP, thankfully. Upgrades carry over. The gold gear is "Legendary", it provides better stats and you upgrade to it using Tempers/Tannins/Resin which are highly expensive. A pro-tip is only upgrading your weapons to Legendary if you are poor, as you will feel a significant boost compared to upgrading armor. Make sure you only upgrade CP160 items to Legendary, unless you are ridiculously rich - also make sure your crafter is maxed out, as it will make the upgrade a lot cheaper.

9. Good luck, I think you'll have a higher chance of success out there in the real world though.

10. Great. It might be a good idea to also join an established guild (you can be a member of up to 5 guilds simultaneously), as they can help you with gearing up, running dungeons and more.

11. Hope you can use the info, it's somewhat subjective and there are of course a lot of different ways of doing things.