Am I doing it wrong?

BillK · January 2017

So I made a Breton Magicka Templar as my first character a week or so ago. I'm currently level 18 (just shy of 19) and other than a full level 16 Seducer set of armor, I'm just using random crap I've found from mobs I've killed or got in various delves.

Ran through the tutorial Prophet crap and ended up in Cold Harbour. Did a bunch of free-soandso quests there, saved the mage and king and am at the point where I can go to the war council to hear what they have to to say (but have not). Other than all that, all I've really done is ride the boat over to the Orc place, ran some of those quests and ultimately picked the one where I ticked off the boat captain woman with my decision.

So...should I go back to Stros M’Kai and sort of start over there and try to complete all the quests in that zone and progress logically to whatever the next zone is, or is it ok to just keep jumping around from zone to zone doing random quests I run across like I am now, while holding off on the War Council thing until I'm higher level?

I'm feeling sort of lost on what I should be doing next and it just seems I've got everything kinda jumbled up with no logic behind what I'm doing or why.

Having played Everquest and WoW pretty extensively, I think I'm used to the "complete this zone to get to the next" type of progression and it doesn't feel like ESO has that and let's you just sorta run amok - or perhaps I missed that in Stros M’Kai by worrying too much about the Cold Harbour stuff.

Thanks for any advice.

Rohamad_Ali · January 2017

If you want the full story line for the DC faction then go back and catchup . The most important storyline is with the Prophet when he appears . You can just run amok if you like but stories will probably get confusing .

BillK · January 2017

Yes it's feeling weird and like there's no point to any of the quests I'm doing. Gonna try to go back to the starter area tonight and do it to completion once my kids are in bed.

Thanks for the reply.

davey1107 · January 2017

You're not wrong...the quest lines are confusing for new players, and the game does a bad job at explaining the progressions. I will not spoil anything, but based on what you've said you've completed let me break down the various quest lines:

1. Main quest line: you've lost your soul, there's this prophet recruiting you...welcome to the main story line. You are allowed to proceed through this line every ten character levels. Each quest awards a skill point and boring exposition. Quests always spawn at the Harborage until they start spawning one after the other to the end.

2. Three faction main quest lines: while molag bol is bol-ing about, a civil war has started. Originally the leveling system kept you in the right area, but with One Tam you can do them whenever, or all at the same time...thus the confusion (partly).

The faction stories proceed through each zone in that faction in order, with each zone containing 4-8 major quests in the line. So for Daggerfall: Stros and Betnik (although the game allows you to skip the "starter zones" in any faction...they're mainly designed to help players totally new to gaming), then Glenubra (zone 1), Stormhaven, Rivenspire, Alik'r, and finally bankorai (zone 5). Generally, these quest lines always have a new quest giver at the previous quest turnin. In other words, you finish a quest and an npc with a marker runs up...that's the continuation. There are many, many skill points in these quests, but only at major milestones.

What can add to the confusion is that you can pick up the first quest in a zone even without completing the previous zones. For example, if you travel to the entrance to Rivenspire you can pick up that line, even if you haven't done Stormhaven, and even though stuff that happens in Stormhaven informs the Rivenspire story. Therefore, it might be helpful to refer to a list of sequential quests if you get lost:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Daggerfall_Covenant

Not a lot of good lists exist. That one appears to be a pretty complete list of only Daggerfall faction quests.

3. The guilds have quest lines. So....sigh...great. Quick breakdown. Mage Guild levels by collecting blue lorebooks, and this opens these quests. Fighters Guild levels by killing undead and daedra and dolmens, progressing that line. Undaunted has an intro quest then then eventually guides you to group dailies, but no quest line other than an intro.

4. DLCs: Craglorn and Wrothgar are their own mega-dlc self contained storyline zones. They all have their own storyline and many, many other quests...with the stories being independent of everything else in the game, mostly. Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild Are smaller, self contained DLc zones with progressions with 6-8 skill point quests as you level those lines. And Imperial City has a quest line.

5. A gazillion, bazillion side quests. They're all over the game. A tiny fraction award skill points (maybe 3-4 side quests in the whole game). Play them or skip them...you won't lose out on anything essential.

Tip: the map icons are black if there's still a quest or activity there to complete. Once they've cleared, they go white. If a town's map icon is a little black hut, there's a major quest or quest line in that immediate area.

So, how to do it "right?" The game is designed as a sandbox...you can do everything in any order you like, but that can make the narratives utterly confusing. If you like the stories and want to experience that aspect, I recommend starting in zone 1 and playing through that quest line. When the npc sends you off to zone 2, either go back and play the side quests if you're having fun, or move on. Play the guild quests either as you open them, or save them to do in order - mage and fighters are designed to be done one per zone as you level.

ESO stories are very convoluted. Feel free to travel to other factions, but I don't recommend trying to play multiple main faction quest lines unless you're very good and making sense of this stuff. And they barely make sense if you play them in order.

If you're wondering about chronology, at a point in the main story quest the prophet will ask you to speak to three leaders. This occurs immediately after the three faction quests end, and right after the final fighters and mages guild quests. This is where all content in the original release converges. However, in the original release you played one faction to this point, then moved on to a showdown. The game "ended" and you were invited to see how things looked from the other factions' points of view. With One Tam you can play through the factions before ending the story, but if you were to play all three faction lines before the main story ends, you'll be waaaaaaaay into vet levels before you meet Molag Bol. DLC stories take place after the main story and faction quests end...generally in the order these were released, although the stories aren't dependent on the original game content.

Yes, it's overwhelming, lol. Hope that helps...have fun!

MethTheMadman · January 2017

Is there any way to tell which quests are side quests and which ones are mage/fighters/faction story/main story?

I hate running to an icon and seeing it's some stupid side quest.

BillK · January 2017

davey1107 wrote: »

You're not wrong...the quest lines are confusing for new players, and the game does a bad job at explaining the progressions. I will not spoil anything, but based on what you've said you've completed let me break down the various quest lines:

1. Main quest line: you've lost your soul, there's this prophet recruiting you...welcome to the main story line. You are allowed to proceed through this line every ten character levels. Each quest awards a skill point and boring exposition. Quests always spawn at the Harborage until they start spawning one after the other to the end.

2. Three faction main quest lines: while molag bol is bol-ing about, a civil war has started. Originally the leveling system kept you in the right area, but with One Tam you can do them whenever, or all at the same time...thus the confusion (partly).

The faction stories proceed through each zone in that faction in order, with each zone containing 4-8 major quests in the line. So for Daggerfall: Stros and Betnik (although the game allows you to skip the "starter zones" in any faction...they're mainly designed to help players totally new to gaming), then Glenubra (zone 1), Stormhaven, Rivenspire, Alik'r, and finally bankorai (zone 5). Generally, these quest lines always have a new quest giver at the previous quest turnin. In other words, you finish a quest and an npc with a marker runs up...that's the continuation. There are many, many skill points in these quests, but only at major milestones.

What can add to the confusion is that you can pick up the first quest in a zone even without completing the previous zones. For example, if you travel to the entrance to Rivenspire you can pick up that line, even if you haven't done Stormhaven, and even though stuff that happens in Stormhaven informs the Rivenspire story. Therefore, it might be helpful to refer to a list of sequential quests if you get lost:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Daggerfall_Covenant

Not a lot of good lists exist. That one appears to be a pretty complete list of only Daggerfall faction quests.

3. The guilds have quest lines. So....sigh...great. Quick breakdown. Mage Guild levels by collecting blue lorebooks, and this opens these quests. Fighters Guild levels by killing undead and daedra and dolmens, progressing that line. Undaunted has an intro quest then then eventually guides you to group dailies, but no quest line other than an intro.

4. DLCs: Craglorn and Wrothgar are their own mega-dlc self contained storyline zones. They all have their own storyline and many, many other quests...with the stories being independent of everything else in the game, mostly. Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild Are smaller, self contained DLc zones with progressions with 6-8 skill point quests as you level those lines. And Imperial City has a quest line.

5. A gazillion, bazillion side quests. They're all over the game. A tiny fraction award skill points (maybe 3-4 side quests in the whole game). Play them or skip them...you won't lose out on anything essential.

Tip: the map icons are black if there's still a quest or activity there to complete. Once they've cleared, they go white. If a town's map icon is a little black hut, there's a major quest or quest line in that immediate area.

So, how to do it "right?" The game is designed as a sandbox...you can do everything in any order you like, but that can make the narratives utterly confusing. If you like the stories and want to experience that aspect, I recommend starting in zone 1 and playing through that quest line. When the npc sends you off to zone 2, either go back and play the side quests if you're having fun, or move on. Play the guild quests either as you open them, or save them to do in order - mage and fighters are designed to be done one per zone as you level.

ESO stories are very convoluted. Feel free to travel to other factions, but I don't recommend trying to play multiple main faction quest lines unless you're very good and making sense of this stuff. And they barely make sense if you play them in order.

If you're wondering about chronology, at a point in the main story quest the prophet will ask you to speak to three leaders. This occurs immediately after the three faction quests end, and right after the final fighters and mages guild quests. This is where all content in the original release converges. However, in the original release you played one faction to this point, then moved on to a showdown. The game "ended" and you were invited to see how things looked from the other factions' points of view. With One Tam you can play through the factions before ending the story, but if you were to play all three faction lines before the main story ends, you'll be waaaaaaaay into vet levels before you meet Molag Bol. DLC stories take place after the main story and faction quests end...generally in the order these were released, although the stories aren't dependent on the original game content.

Yes, it's overwhelming, lol. Hope that helps...have fun!

Thank you very much! That is incredibly helpful and I appreciate you taking the time write that out.

I did go back to Stros last night and cleaned up a few little quests I missed and got everything on the map completed except a couple of treasures - then off to Betnihk and did the same (I think I got it all) - which lead me to Daggerfall so I'm now working on those quests.

You are right in that the game does not hand hold you very well - but I guess that's part of fun. Now that I've went through those starter zones that I blew through early on it feels like things make more sense now.

Part of my problem is I want to know I got everything (or most everything) done in each zone - and it feels like it takes a crazy amount of time to do that without having my ipad sitting next to me to look up what I may have missed - then it feels like I'm cheating.

Rev Rielle · January 2017

You're not wrong...the quest lines are confusing for new players, and the game does a bad job at explaining the progressions. I will not spoil anything, but based on what you've said you've completed let me break down the various quest lines:

Personally, I cannot disagree with this more. The quest lines are great, and they explain things very well. There is only one thing I think that must be done to allow this to happen: Pay attention to the NPC dialogue. The developers went to great pains to make the quests flow in a logical kind of order and for the most part they have achieved this.

You can start in Stros M'Kai and your missions will lead all through every Daggerfall Covenant Zone in a logical fashion all the way to the end of Coldharbour.

Things are a little bit more freer now with One Tamriel, but if you let the quest and their arcs be your guide they still do a very good job of leading you through all a faction's zones and storylines therein.

If you want a guide, let your in-game achievements be your guide (that is actually their primary role). You can see which you have and which you haven't completed in each zone, for a whole host of things. It's very useful, and you don't have to use any external resources to complement you if you don't want. ESO is not like EQ2 or other MMOs (where you had to use a guide for some of the more difficult content or you could be lost for months!). ESO is comparatively simple.

AzuraKin · January 2017

prophet quest: story behind your imprisonment and the fall of the empire.
zone story quests (these are the ones that give skill points): each alliance's tale of power stabilization, and fight against the other alliances backstory.
random quests: all other quests no skill points just for added depth to the pve game.