New player with a couple basic questions

acctingman69 · January 2017

Greetings

So, I just played for the first time last night and after turning level 4 I realized before I get too far and spend my skills points with a lack of info I'm here to ask you experienced players what things should I really consider?

I've rolled a Nightblade. Crafting does interest me, but only Alchemy and armor/weapon making. Are there any other crafting professions that I should consider?

I don't have a guild, but I might consider one after learning the game a bit.

Appreciate any suggestions

Thanks

White wabbit · January 2017

Provisioning if your going to use food

Nestor · January 2017

I spam threads with the following for folks new to the game. So, I will do the same for you: (Click the Spoiler Tags)

Leveling

First leveling character? Forget about Builds right now. No need, your handicapped anyway by the game so you are way more powerful than you need to be. Instead take advantage of this buff to properly level your character so you can be deadly when it matters later on when you are not buffed by the level scaling. In other words, you can create a rotation that makes you think your all that and a biscuit because of the scaling buffs, then get a rude awakening come Champ Ranks when you are on your own.

In other words, right now if your wearing any gear, the mobs will die.

1. Have one class skill on your bar at all times, swapping them out once the skill reaches Morph stage. Worry about your Morphs later.
2. Have one weapon skill on your bar at all times, again until Morph stage
3. Wear a mix of all 3 armor types so they all level about equally
4. From L1 to L20, invest in attack skills and actives
5. From L20 to L35 start investing in Passives and Support Skills
6. From L35 to L50 start investing in Morphs (but only if all your class skills are at the Morph Stage), Passives and Crafting Skills
7 From CP10 to CP160 try out dropped sets to see which ones fit your playstyle, don't worry about traits right now, fill in passives and actives you may have missed
8. Grind on Dolmens to level your Fighters Guild, or find the Lore Books to level Mages Guild
9. Do some stealing to level Legerdemain, best source for money in the game
10. Decon every piece of gear you get that you are not going to use immediately to level equipment crafting, no need to invest skills points until Champ Ranks.

Combat and Gear

Combat in this game comes down to Skill Rotations, with Light or Heavy Attacks interspersed. So, it's more like 1,2,3,4,1,2,3 dead. Pick your skill rotations so that one skill will set up or buff another skill. For example, use a skill that Snares, then a skill that gives Damage over Time to an area so the snared mobs spend longer in pain, then use a spam damage skill. This is just one example.

Once you learn a good rotation, then you can weave in light or heavy attacks between the skills to extend the resource pool you play from. So it's more like 1, LMB, 2, LMB,3, LMB, 4, LMB, 1 Dead. Then once you learn how to weave attacks, then you can start animation canceling to up your DPS.

So, attacks are not just a spam of the Left Mouse Button, but an application of your skills and weapon attacks.

You add in Blocking (reduce damage), Bashing (interrupting a caster or heavy attack wind up), Dodge Rolling (double click on a WASD key to avoid damage and get out of red quickly). Throw in some terrain advantage, and your basically a Mobile, Agile and Hostile wrecking machine.

As for Gear, well, while leveling, gear does not matter as long as you have something. It does not have to be best in slot, or even all that good. Also, we have lots of dropped set pieces so if you spend any time in a zone, you will more than likely pick up a set or two to wear. Each zone has a Magic, a Stamina and a Health or Tank set. Since everything scales, you can use this gear longer than you would think from the levels. It is only once you reach CP160 that you really want to worry about the gear, and by then you will have a good idea of what to use and where to farm for it.

Until then, the most important thing with gear is to wear a mix of it (light/medium/heavy) so they all level up somewhat equally. Also, have one skill from each of the 3 class skill lines on your bar at all times, and at least one weapon skill. For the 5th, it can be another weapon or attack skill or a support skill or some skill you want to level.

General Game Advice

If you need Gold, engage the Legerdemain System and Steal and Fence. There are many areas that are rich in things to steal with few to no NPCs around so the risk is next to 0.

Gear, with Enchants that help your character is important. Not meaning you need the best set, you just need something. And, don't forget Jewelry, either normal stuff, or something that is part of a set. Just have something in all your slots. Note, while leveling, try to wear a mix of armor weights so they all level up. Food can help, Blue for early levels, Purple for higher ones.

Have a Class Skill and a Weapon skill on your bar at all times so you can get those leveled. Mix in a 5th skill to level up and use along the way. Once you get a skill to Morph stage, you may want to slot another one and get that to Morph rather than build the previous one all the way up. Save maxing your skills for later.

World Bosses are not designed to be solo'd. Wait for other players to show up, or send out a Zone chat that such and such World Boss is up, people will show up, as they are farming dropped set items.

Join a good guild, sometimes you can find one by running with a random player, sometimes from zone chat, sometimes from a thread on the boards here. You can always drop a guild, so don't worry about doing that. There is no black list unless you are a complete tool, and while there is still no list, word will get around if you just dump on everyone all the time. But, try a guild, then leave for whatever reason? No worries there.

Delve Bosses you can solo, if your gear is decent (not the best, just decent) and you have some skills in your rotation. Its all about skills in the game, sometimes weaved in with Light or Heavy Attacks, sometimes just skill rotations. The rotation you use needs to make sense to you and your build, so it will be different for everyone. However, some skills will buff the next skill you use, or next set of skills you use, so maybe use that first. Some skills are Damage over Time, so apply those early, but don't spam them until you need to apply it again. Some skills are cheap cost damage dealers, so spam those, but not so quickly you use up your resources. Weaving in Light or Heavy Attacks, with or without animation canceling, can help.

Finally, combat in this game requires you to be Mobile, Agile and Hostile. Move around, attack from advantage. Learn to Block, Dodge Roll, Interrupt (Bash), Stay out of Red etc, and you can soon take very little damage while in combat, at least most of the time.

Good Luck.

Nestor · January 2017

One thing to remember, a lot of guides are written with idea to maximize production to the Nth Degree, which can make sense when your leveling your 8th character. But it can really suck the fun out of the game on your first character worrying about it.

Here is a better approach:

The beauty of the game now is each zone drops a Magic Set, a Stamina Set and a Health (Tanky) Set. You can do the content in the zone and get the gear you need with some nice bonuses to help your characters. It drops in at least Green and Blue is common once you get around the 30;s. A lot of times it drops in the Training trait, but you really don't need to have every single item in Training. Just prefer it as a trait, but wear what you get. When you are done in that zone move on to the next and start replacing the gear with the stuff from that zone. You can usually go about 10 levels over the gear before it starts to get noticeable as needing to be replaced. If you get something that is higher level than your wearing, just swap it out as you go along. Again, don't worry about the traits while leveling. The game is buffing you anyway.

As for leveling crafting, you should do that, but don't be in a hurry to invest all the skill points you need for it. You need those points for combat and defense. Just decon all the loot you have left over after selling to cover any repairs you do. Research Traits on items you think you are going to use. Then do the other traits later on.

Let me give you an example of what I did with my last two leveling characters.

1. I collected all the Skyshards in the zone. I avoided any and all quests other than those that show up in the delves that have skyshards.
2. I would farm the dolmens a few times to get set jewelry that helped my character
3. I would do the Public Dungeons including all the bosses
4. Then I would move to the next zone.

In doing this, I could fully gear up my character with level appropriate stuff, and it was helpful gear. May not have been the best, but you don't need the best while leveling. Then, I had all the content quests left for me once I reached CP160 as those can give you sweet Set Drops in good traits you want. And, Quest Experience is huge for gaining CPs once your past CP160. Kind of a waste before that.

Nestor · January 2017

As for Crafting, best way to level is to decon. You also don't really need to craft until end game, so just worry about leveling it for now. You do that be deconning the mob loot you get that you are not going to use.

Alchemy and Provisioning Level super fast, so you can wait on those.

acctingman69 · January 2017

Thank you for all the Nestor!!

acctingman69 · January 2017

Got it....focus on combat skills first and profession skills later on

davey1107 · January 2017

Some add'l tips on crafting to add to Nestor's excellent advice:

- don't stress about leveling craft lines early on. Just deconning junk gear is going to get your smith, wood and cloth to 50 long before you hit vet. Provisioning is a very fast grind...just burn ingredients on green recipes, the higher level the better. Alchemy is the same, but about half as fast. Enchanting is sloooooooow. On that one you might make a friend and ask them to trade green/blue glyphs back and forth (glyphs from other players reward 3x the xp of world glyphs, and 15x the xp of deconstructing your own...don't decon your own.)

- decide which toons you want to craft what. You'll spend a lot of time and energy researching/learning/grinding, and trade skills require a lot of skill points (let's say 20 per line). I recommend using one character for smith, cloth and wood (they'll learn your motifs) and one for enchant, alchemy and provisioning. (For players without a craft bag, I recommend dividing this further into an enchanter and an alchemist/provisioner, so they can hold all the mats).

- your main can easily be your smith/cloth/wood crafter. There are way more than enough skill points in the game to do this. I prefer this, honestly, because my main farms, deconstructs and refines. But if you don't like shard hunting and are concerned about spending 60 skill points on craft junk, you might want to move equipment crafting to an alt.

- the only thing to get moving on right away is research, if you want to someday craft armor. It takes a year to research everything. So start on your equipment crafter (or even anyone who might become your equipment crafter) by filling slots by researching junk gear. If you have empty slots and no gear, look for dirt cheap gear with the traits you need in guild stores. Or ask people to craft it for you. If you decide to work toward complete research, maybe check out the iOS and android app ESO Workbench, which helps track and manage this effort and was totally essential for me.

- if you know who's going to craft your equipment or food, start learning motifs and recipes. If you don't, hold these until you decide.

- don't stress about spending on crafting line passives. However, One Tam opens 85 shard skill points and 16 public dungeon group event skill points to characters of any level. There are 20 shard skill points in DLCs, and 18 in cyrodiil. So crafting oops need to get their butts out there to collect those points. My friend and I do a zone together each Monday night...we work all of our toons to top level writs.

RavenSworn · January 2017

imo focusing on one main character and levelling 3 professions (Wood working, blacksmithing and cloth making) is much better practice. then use another character to level (enchanting / alchemy). all characters level provisoning since that's is useful for all.

take your time to level. get to know your class and your abilities. Don't just grind and develop bad habits among the way. do a mix of both Pve content and PvP. Don't worry about meta, or Bis gear. right now, explore as much as you want. I find that it's more rewarding to explore and get lost in the world rather than grind grind dungeon queues grind grind. test out new combinations of gear and abilities, use all of them to know which is suitable or best in slot For YOU.

trust me, taking your time to fully understand your class will reward you with a much better game experience later on.

Thornen · January 2017

games trash dont believe me play it for abit and youll see....

Niko1987 · January 2017

@Nestor Those tips are great! As are the rest of your posts.

As a new player myself, this whole thread so far is giving me a wealth of information too. Bookmarked.