Champion Points

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

Im currently running a Khajiit Stamblade dread assassin build.

i keep hearing "dont worry about your gear and stuff cuz it all changes after 50"

can anyone interpret this for me so i know what to expect?
what are champion points?

what is "scaled to champion level 160" mean?

what should I be looking forward to? it should only take me a week or so to grind up to 50. just trying to plan my attack to get the most out of my build.

davey1107 · February 2017

A lot of being successful in ESO is gearing your characters correctly - finding sets that mesh with your play style, overcome character weaknesses and buff their strengths. But working on this doesn't really come into play until you're a champion rank character, so people are suggesting you not spend hours grinding lower level gear that will last a few days then need to be deconstructed.

When you're under level 50, focus on leveling your skills lines and abilities. Learn the gear slots and how set armor works. If you want to wear sets (and they'll really help), research 2-3 traits for each medium armor piece and weapons you use and make yourself some night silence armor.

Champion Rank

Once your character hits level fifty, they're champion rank. There are no more character levels. They begin earning something called champion points. Think of champion points as "mini skill points." You spend them on passives in a special skill tree, and each one opens a teeny, tiny perk, like increasing your stam recovery by 0.1%. The buffs are small, but there are a lot of them so they add up.

Champion points are accumulated by vet characters by earning xp, and apply to your account, not that character. So let's say you get to vet and quickly earn 25 champion points. Your account has 25 CPs for each character, so your vet gets to spend 25 champion points in their skill tree. But every other character on your account, vet or not, gets to spend 25 in their own trees. So if you start a new toon, they're going to be stronger than your first one was. And if you level multiple toons up to champion rank, they'll all contribute to earning champion points.

The game is currently set to allow you to earn unlimited champion points, but you can only spend a certain amount. As of today, 561 is the limit. In update 13 it increases to 600. Like most things in MMOs, it's an algorithmic scale. Champion point #1 is earned with 33,000 xp. #100 requires 140,000. And today my characters were working on 1,300,000 xp to get number seven hundred something.

There is also a catch up mechanism called "enlightenment" that will offer you a daily dose of super charged Xp. I won't go into detail here, but the game is designed to help you catch up to all those 561 players.

Champion gear

Once you hit champion rank, you don't wear gear by player level anymore, you wear it by champion rank. A vet with 70 champion points can wear champion 70 (or C70) gear. As with the gear you wear now, you can were lower level gear than your champion rank.

Right now, the game allows gear to go up to C160 - there's nothing better. So that's when most players start spending a lot of time and gold on their gear - they might be using it for quite a while. Many of my characters have been using their c160 gear since the system rolled a year ago.

Remember that champion points are account bound. Any character I create is a c561 the moment they hit level 50. So worrying about all those champion gear levels is something you'll do only once. Once you have 160 points on your account, Subsequent vet characters go straight into best-in-game c160 gear.

How long does it take to grind champion points?

With the enlightenment catch up mechanism, once you hit vet if you play about an hour a day you'll get to c160 in about 35 days. If you play more and grind hard, that can be reduced to a couple of weeks. It can't go much faster because your enlightenment bonuses are limited, and when they run out the xp comes in at 1/4 speed, so an hour of grinding with enlightenment produces the same xp as 4 hours grinding without. In other words, if 7 hours a week produces 2.8 million xp, then doubling that to 5.6 million doesn't take 14 hours of play, but 35 hours.

To get to 561 champion points...or 600 as of update 13...or whatever the cap is when you get there - that's going to take a looooooooong time. I haven't done the math, but more than a year.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

ok @davey1107 so will there be a small tutorial prompt when i hit 50 to guide me a bit?

and also, if all my charcters get the bonuses, would it behoove of me to make a character for my main and one for crafting.

i never deleted my Nord DK becasue i figured i could either make him my blacksmith character or, if i decided i liked PvP but died to much, make him my tank character.

and also i guess im still confused as to how to acuire these 160 gear sets? i apologize if thats an overly stupid question but im just trying to make sense of it all.
it seems like its going to be a whole different game.

Nestor · February 2017

CP10 to CP160 is kind of weird for a first character in this game. For one, your gaining CPs so fast during this period, worrying about gear is not going to to you any good as you may outlevel it in an hour. Also, a good set of CP10 gear can hold you until CP160 (maybe a weapon upgrade or two along the way)

But, your still going to be leveling your Class, Armor and some Weapon skills CP10 to CP160, so your still not ready for your build yet. And, your going to be putting in Champ Points with more an eye to the Passives you can unlock, not necessarily what is best for your build. In other words, your probably going to respec your champ points at or around CP160/180

So, if you just keep thinking and working with your first character up until CP160 as you do when leveling it, then you will be on the right track.

To that end, I would tend to avoid dealing with a second character until you get one to CP160. Not that you can't load them up and play them, but better to focus on only one character during this time, so you get through it as quickly as possible and your only making one gear set for your Alts. Instead of worrying about intermediate CP gear sets, and champ point loadouts that you are probably going to change anyway.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor so basically keep the grind going like i have till CP160 then revist this topic? lol

this is my first character to go to champion points because i was discovering my favorite playstyle and choosing that, as you know, can sometimes be hard. you might think yourself a Tank and realize you much prefer a healer. or maybe youre a battlemage who realize he likes a bow and daggers too much.

im excited for whats in store for my character and taking a soild build to cp160 is my goal.
as long as im enjoyih playing a building and growing, no much else to want !

Nestor · February 2017

This is the time you want to try stuff out, especially with the Dropped Sets. You may want or need Regen, you might prefer Critical Strike, you might want low skill cost, etc etc. So, try things out, worse that happens is you wipe, and go try again.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor yeah ive been trying all kinds of things, bouncing between Stam recovery and critical hits.

right now my stamina recovery is 2284 and my weapon crit is 35.1% so i think im finding a happy balance. though my max health and stamina are oretty low i feel for being lvl 38 ( Health: 13.6K Stam: 21.2k)

im basically concentraing on resource management so i can bob and weave and stay on the outside and not die unless needed, since as an assassin thats the job i think lol

Veraen · February 2017

This is a really great thread. I've been struggling to find something to add but so much has already been said! @Nestor you are one helpful dude.

davey1107 · February 2017

@NocturnalGuideMe In case there were still some outstanding questions...I think Nestor assisted with most:

1. Don't ever delete a character unless you have no empty slots and need it. There's no reason to. A toon you've worked might become viable in the future, and at the very least they can be a crafter or holding character. Feed their mount...invest in hirelings if you want to...let them sit in reserve until you need them.

2. There is no significant tutorial when you hit fifty. Once you open the champion tree...which is way confusing at first...your best bet is to look at some online videos or guides.

3. Many players prefer to use a secondary character for crafting. The benefit is dividing up skill point expenses so you don't have to grind as much for them. With One Tam this is less of a concern...you can go get shards in all areas right away. So it's up to you, but it sounds like you have an unused/semi-retired DK, which would be perfect for crafting. Respec him to get your skill points back, give him a basic fighting bar so he can shard hunt when needed, then have him start researching traits and deconstructing your stuff.

4. 160 sets will drop all over. When your character is 160 or above, any drop set will be 160. You can craft them. They're for sale in guild stores. Like all armor in the game, it'll start flying at you when you're at that level, lol. If there are specific sets you wanted to know about, let me know.

5. Like Nestor says, for now mostly you just need to enjoy playing the game. Try different skills, level your abilities and skill lines. Don't worry about rushing to c160.

6 If I didn't recommend it before for your stamblade, the easiest armor config for me was to wear a combo of night silence and ashen grip (later night silence and Hundings rage). These are craft sets, the first two which only require 2 traits known for each piece to craft. Your crafter can get there in a weekend...so maybe research 2 traits in each piece of medium, as well as daggers/swords/2h/bow then try out these sets. I wore these all the way to champion, and in fact still have a set of night silence / Hundings for general overland play. This is a good option if you want to just throw on some armor and go play, without worrying about configuring all the random drop sets and garbage you'll find in the world, lol.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@davey1107 as always super helpful.

i wish i had thought of this before, because i have been researching the heck out of crafting traits and learning styles on my Main instead no realizing that crafting level has nothing to do with the actual passive that you put points into. I havent put any points into crafting but now im wondering if i should just wait till later on and most everything maxes out that i used and then start into crafting, and use drop sets for now. i surmise the only reason for crafting your own set would be to control the potency, armor value and style of the armor itself. which can easily be supplemented by venturing to get enough dropped sets.

i do really want a Dro m'athra or thieves guild style, stamina fortifying set wiht a sneak bonus and maybe two daggers of a set that has stamina bonus and bow with poison. but idk thats alot to think about and a long way off for now.
hit level 41 last night, grinding 20-40 was easy and now its getting hard again, (i think mostly because the missons are spacing farther apart, but i am dying less and having more fun and getting comfortable with what skills i like on my bar and what i really dont have a use for.

thanks for all your help. you and @Nestor

Nestor · February 2017

NocturnalGuideMe wrote: »

@davey1107 as always super helpful.
now im wondering if i should just wait till later on and most everything maxes out that i used and then start into crafting, and use drop sets for now.

Yes, use Drop Sets for now, and Yes, level your crafting skills and do the Trait Research. Traits are why you craft as they allow you to make Special Crafted Sets. There are two sets in the game that your going to want to make, Julianos for your Magic Characters, and Hundings Rage for your Stamina Characters. There are no better sets in the game to have 5 pieces of. Period. Well, Twice Born Star is great to, but your a year out from making that. But you need to start learning your traits now.

Leveling Equipment Crafting is easy, just decon the mob loot you are not either selling to cover repairs or using to research traits. No skill points needed while leveling it, other than maybe a point or two into the Extraction Passives.

Back to the Crafted Sets, it takes 6 traits known to be able to make Hundings or Julianos, 9 Traits for Twice Born Star. You don't need to know these traits on everything, but you do need to know them on the items you will use. So, start learning those traits. Focus on the gear you will use first, then fill in the rest later. This means:

Casters
Heavy Chest/Legs
Light Feet/Hands/Waist
Shoulders and Heads are good to, but there are 2 Piece Monster sets that can take up those slots. So learn the traits on these pieces, but prioritize the ones above.
Staves (all 4 of them)

Stamina
All Medium Armors
Daggers, Swords, Bow and Shield

Learn Training, Divines and Infused on the Armors first, Sharpened, Precise and Training on the Weapons. Powered is good for the Healing Staff, Defending is good for Sword or other one handed Melee. Then fill in the rest until you have 6 or eventually 9 traits. Some people recommend Nirn as an early trait to learn. Unless they change it, don't listen to them. You might use it on a Shield or a Weapon but that is about it. You need it someday, but it's expensive and you need your gold for other things.

Invest the skill points into the Research Passives. I can't stress enough how much of a time sink Trait Research is. Be able to learn more than one at a time, and reduce the time needed. Get an addon for Trait Research Tracking, I recommend Craft Store. If your on the Consoles, find one of the spreadsheets out there or make one to track this. Have I mentioned you need to learn your traits?

Doing this you will be ready to invest skill points into Crafting when it matters and not have to spend months getting ready. Did I mention Trait Research and how much a time sink it is? The last two traits will take you a month each to learn, on each item you learn them on. Get started now, yesterday would have been better.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor I have already done some traits in the medium armor and weapons that i cant. anytime i find a weapon or armor with a trait i dont have, i make it a point to research it if i have the slot. as well as learning motifs when i can and the like.
i decontstruct any Intricate weapons and armor and research anything i dont already have or i know i need as far weapons and armor.

im running a stamina nightblade so all traits for medium armor and dagger swords axes etc that i can dual wield.

i should have used my secondary charcter for this so i dont have to waste skill points, but does that really matter? how stunted will my character be if i put a few points into blacksmithing and such for my Main? or should i not bother and just get to veteran level and then use my second charcter to craft?

Nestor · February 2017

My Master Crafter is about the deadliest seamstress you will ever meet. She has every craft leveled, every skill leveled, and every weapon leveled. Of course not all of these have skill points invested. But I can make her anything I want with just a respec. It was painful from 1 to 50 let me tell you.

It takes 122 Skill Points to fully skill out a Master Crafter in all Crafts, figure about 65 or so for an Equipment Crafter. Once you start chasing skyshards, doing zone main quests, faction main quests, game main quest you will have more than enough points. Nice thing is, you have to invest 6 to 18 Skill Points to effectively level equipment crafting, and you can get away with just using about 6 to 9 if you don't care about how much you extract during decon. Then, invest the points later when you have them to invest.

Put some skill points into Research, some into Extraction if you can spare them, and nothing else while leveling crafting. Decon all Green, Blue and Purple you are not going to use, decon the whites you have left over after selling to cover repairs. It will all work out.

I know people who level a character for the express purpose of being a crafter. Get them to CP160, collect all the skyshards in the PvE zones and without doing any real questing, you will have enough points to make a fully skilled crafter, and, they can survive Farming Activities. And, run a dungeon or two along the way.

The following will take you 2 to 3 hours per zone, if you putter. If you blaze through it, an hour, maybe two and you will have all the content to savor and all the skill points you need to do whatever you want.

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.

Did I mention getting your Trait Research done?

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor okay because i was worried about putting points in the blacksmithig, clothing and woodworking skill lines if it was going to stunt my main character. otherwise i was going to cp160 with this charcter and then using my secondary to deconstruct and research everything. but since i have so much already researched on my main guy and his crafting levels fairly high, i might as well put points in when i have a few to spare.

i already maxed out my medium armor skill tree, close to 50 on dual wield , assassination anf shadow, and bow is behind but thats fine cuz its purely utility.

so i can probably afford some points in crafting until im ready to unlock more in the class skills and weapon skills. right?

Nestor · February 2017

NocturnalGuideMe wrote: »

so i can probably afford some points in crafting until im ready to unlock more in the class skills and weapon skills. right?

Just for Research and Extraction. If your farming, maybe Keen Eye, but you only need that for Alchemy. Hirelings are OK, but they are not a great source of mats as they used to be.

Here is why, your Offense and Defence Skills are going to come in batches as they unlock. You will be going along with 10 or 12 skill points unused thinking your all fat and happy with points. Then bam, several skills and passives unlock and you spend the points and you use them up. Remember, you have Class Passive, Weapon Passives, Armor Passives, Racial Passives, Guild Passives in addition to your Actives.

Trust me, trying to craft as you level your first character makes the game harder than it needs to be. Don't get me wrong, it can be done, but it is painful. Preparing your character to craft once you reach CP160 makes the game so so so so much better in the long run. And funner in the short run.

Besides, think about how nice it will be to pimp out your alts as you level them up with your crafter who knows the traits.

Did I mention getting those traits researched? Just want to make sure that is clearly understood.....

Oh, and don't ignore your Light Armor Traits, Casters are much more fun to play than Stamina characters.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor ill keep that in mind

ill just sit on these points until later then.

ill probably start over with a sword and board viking character once i hit level 160 on my nightblade.

done put in too much work already. i think i have like almost 2 traits in each thing i need save maybe gloves.

bow has like 6 traits unlocked.

im good at decon'ing everything i dont need or that would be worthwhile. so pretty much once i have points in all my offense and defense passives, i can just dump them into crafting as ill already have the levels in them

but whats this you say about researching traits? should i be doing that?

davey1107 · February 2017

I concur with everything Nestor is advising, so I won't be redundant and recap any of that.

Don't worry...I'm pretty confident you haven't invested so much time or materials in your crafters that it will hurt you to move them around. Trait research is a process that takes over a year to complete, and there are hundreds of recipes and motifs in the game. There is very little planning you need to do now, and no way to "wreck" a character or crafting process.

I level all six trade skills to fifty on all characters. Don't worry about grinding these...ultimately the game is going to throw so much garbage at you that you'll level them all just deconstructing it. The main reason for this is that once I have a vet character, they get their butts out there to get the 48 skill points needed to allow them to do crafting writs in all six trades. I won't go into the details, but the writs can basically fund a full slate of vet characters. But Nestor is right...don't worry about spending skill points until you're further along and know what you need/want to spend in and have the points.

As for trait research...it won't take you long to start over on the new character. It's a long haul...over a year...so you're not so far down the road that a change will affect you much. If you're not sure who will be your crafter, just do trait research on everyone. Why not? Once you learn a trait, that character can craft a junk piece for research by another.

If I didn't mentio it before, I used an app called ESO workbench when I was researching. It's on android and iOS. I got it for 99 cents, and it was well worth it. It has a grid where you can plug in research you've done, items you're no,ding for research, then it times ongoing research. Way useful. If you're going to do the crafting game, it's a good tool. It also has sections for enchanting, alchemy and recipes.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@davey1107

yeah after talking to @Nestor im just going to wait until my main is far enough along with offense and defense skills to where he should be and then throw a couple points at crafting so i can use the Motifs and Writs and the like.

ive already got a bank ful of crafting material, style material and trait gems in the waiting and my main has at least two traits reasearched in everything i need (i.e medium armor, daggers, bow) except for gloves and waist i think.

so ill be good to go once i get crafting up to use better materials and such, ill be in a good spot for him to make his own set of badass custom gear.

im noticing now that ive grinded out alot, im coming close to maxing out the skills i use most. it makes it easier to choose where i spend my skills, and also harder as to decide what i need right now vs. should i hold off until i unlock a new one.

as far as making my other charcter a craftsman, i think i could come up with some strategy but]since i can only play one at a time and unless i decide to try a Viking style tank build for my Nord i might not bother. and im already so far ahead in this one.
or you know...just lean on a guild member to make me stuff haha

Nestor · February 2017

NocturnalGuideMe wrote: »

@davey1107

yeah after talking to @Nestor im just going to wait until my main is far enough along with offense and defense skills to where he should be and then throw a couple points at crafting so i can use the Motifs and Writs and the like.

ive already got a bank ful of crafting material, style material and trait gems in the waiting and my main has at least two traits reasearched in everything i need (i.e medium armor, daggers, bow) except for gloves and waist i think.

so ill be good to go once i get crafting up to use better materials and such, ill be in a good spot for him to make his own set of badass custom gear.

im noticing now that ive grinded out alot, im coming close to maxing out the skills i use most. it makes it easier to choose where i spend my skills, and also harder as to decide what i need right now vs. should i hold off until i unlock a new one.

as far as making my other charcter a craftsman, i think i could come up with some strategy but]since i can only play one at a time and unless i decide to try a Viking style tank build for my Nord i might not bother. and im already so far ahead in this one.
or you know...just lean on a guild member to make me stuff haha

1. Roll an Inventory Mule, give them the first two Character Bag Upgrades and use them to store excess swag. Park them in a Bank
2. You should try to level all skills in your class and main/secondary weapons to at least the Morph Stage, even if your not using them. And, some skills might sound like crap, but you fold them into a rotation, and its like "Whoa, that mob died fast" Anyway, pick a slot like Slot 5 and just put skills there your leveling. The Developers will always buff some skills and nerf others, so what is good/sucks today will change tommorrow
3. A good candidate for leveling as you go but may not use right away is Restoration Staff. You might have to slot a resto staff for one or two mob kills to get the first skill unlock. I have leveled Resto on every character just by slotting the a skill as I play and no resto staff was equiped, or even in inventory. Rule of thumb, unless you need a 5 skill loadout for a Dungeon, always have a skill or two that your leveling on your bar.
4. If you need something made a Guild is a good place to get that done. Just be cool and either farm or buy the mats needed to send to the crafter with a tip.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor ive basically been doing all of that besides leveling skills ill never use.

it might be stunting my pllayer growth but i feel like i use all 5 skill on my main bar fairly frequently.
i do keep a dual wield skill there that i rarely use just so i can max out that skill line because i want the last passive maxed (twin blunt and blade for dagger crit.) and the Ulti Lacerate.

my back bar is bow and that where i keep couple bow skills, and then utility like fighters guild skill, Assault for PvP (rapid manuvers is awesome for powering through quest in PvE) and things like that. i try to make a point to switch to the Bow bar before i finish every other quest, so those skills get the XP bump.

i think im a more rounded charcter than i have been coming of as, adn definetly more well rounded since posting in these forums thanks to you guys.

Nestor · February 2017

The back bar method certainly works if your questing. But, I have been alternatively leveling my last characters and avoiding quests so all I got are Mob Kills.

NocturnalGuideMe · February 2017

@Nestor

yeah im big on the story lines and questing. plus for me right now its the best source of XP.