The basics and nothing else, lots of questions

Dashiva_USA · March 2017

I have just started playing EOS so literally everything is new to me here. Having played Everquest 2 for many years i'm struggling to come to grips with the game and how everything ties together. So here's where I am at, my DragonKnight is level 13, he's a Nord but he's questing in Auridon as my wife who is also new is playing a elf.

Here goes:

1. I am VERY confused by the whole skill system. I literally have no idea what to put skill points into. Should I put skill points into armor, a weapon type, class skills? Should I focus on one armor type and one weapon, with one select class ability tree?

I basically want my DK to be a DPS class, and hopefully plan on using him to duo with the wife's class. It seems like it's very east to make a lot of 'bad' choices early on and throw points into skills that you don't use later on. For example I was going sword and shield, so I threw some points into that but now i'm looking to play around with a dmg staff.

2. Crafting. I haven't touched it, it seems crazy difficult. Again are you supposed to focus on one crafting style like alchemy or all of them. Is the gear you use any good or is quested gear better?

I'm lost typing this, it's a fun game but I am finding it difficult to work out how to build a character due to the multitude of options.

kadar · March 2017

I'm lost typing this, it's a fun game but I am finding it difficult to work out how to build a character due to the multitude of options.

@Dashiva_USA
And that's really what you have in ESO! A multitude of options. First off, the only decision that as of you cannot change is your class. Everything else can be altered later either with in game gold or crowns (race/name). So don't stress too much about making wrong decisions. For skill points in particular these can be redeemed from a shrine in your alliance capital city for gold.

I recommend leveling all 3 DK class lines (do this by slotting at least 1 ability from that line and gain XP while on that ability bar). As DPS you'll be pulling from all 3 of them + weapon skills.
Try to get a good mix of damage, defensive, and healing abilities on your bar(s). At level 15 you unlock weapon swapping, giving you 6 more ability slots (for a total of 12) to work with.
On weapon choice: This game mostly divides each character into a Stamina or Magicka character. The reason for this is that your damage scales higher as your primary resource pool gets bigger. So say you have a weapon skill like Puncture (1H/shield skill). It costs Stamina to use and does physical damage. As your Stamina pool gets larger, Puncture does more damage whereas increasing your magicka pool will make no difference. The same is true for a Magicka skill like the DK's Whip. Increase your Magicka and Whip hits harder leaving Stamina skills like Puncture with no change. If you're using a Destro staff, your damage will increase as you increase your Magicka pool (Damage is actually a combination of Magicka and Spell dmg).

Let me know if any of that doesn't make sense.

Jitterbug · March 2017

Dashiva_USA wrote: »

I have just started playing EOS so literally everything is new to me here. Having played Everquest 2 for many years i'm struggling to come to grips with the game and how everything ties together. So here's where I am at, my DragonKnight is level 13, he's a Nord but he's questing in Auridon as my wife who is also new is playing a elf.

Here goes:

1. I am VERY confused by the whole skill system. I literally have no idea what to put skill points into. Should I put skill points into armor, a weapon type, class skills? Should I focus on one armor type and one weapon, with one select class ability tree?

I basically want my DK to be a DPS class, and hopefully plan on using him to duo with the wife's class. It seems like it's very east to make a lot of 'bad' choices early on and throw points into skills that you don't use later on. For example I was going sword and shield, so I threw some points into that but now i'm looking to play around with a dmg staff.

2. Crafting. I haven't touched it, it seems crazy difficult. Again are you supposed to focus on one crafting style like alchemy or all of them. Is the gear you use any good or is quested gear better?

I'm lost typing this, it's a fun game but I am finding it difficult to work out how to build a character due to the multitude of options.

You should, at least for now, pick to go either Magicka (staffs, all points in magicka, and magicka morphed abilities) or Stamina (weapons, all points in stamina, and stamina morphed abilites). You then use your secondary resource for buffs/utility. Magicka builds can get some good use out of SnB so you could pair that with a fire staff, but you shouldn't be using both stamina based and magicka based abilities to do damage. Not saying you can't if that floats you boat, just answering your question with the "most efficient thing to do".

1. Unlock the first skill in each skill line (class skill line) and level your planned secondary weapon enough to unlock a skill from it and then put that on your bar. Then use your planned primary weapon to level. By the time you reach level 15 both primary and secondary weapons will have leveled and you can build 2 bars. As you level, if something unlocks that you want, unlock it and put that on your bar in stead, but always have 1 from each class skill line and 1 from each weapon (until level 15). After level 15 (two weapons unlock) you can use your primary (damage) weapon to do the quests and turn them in with your secondary (support) weapon so they both level.
Wear all 3 armor types as you level. I typically go 5-1-1 with the 5 being my planned main armor type, but 3-2-2 is smarter as the two other types level faster.
The only "bad choice" you can make is to not level all the skills. There will be plenty of skill points down the road and worst case scenario you have to wait a bit to morph something.

2. You should definitely craft. Put in the time to understand how it works and ask on here if you are in doubt about something. There are also some very good guides to crafting on youtube. MizzBizz, Kevduit, and Deltia probably have some.
The only crafts that have a direct influence on your characters "power" are Alchemy and Provisioning with Alchemy bringing longer duration on potions (need to have) and Provisioning bringing longer duration on food/drink (nice to have).
I have spread my crafting out on 3 characters, but could do it with 2 and I know some do it all on the same character. That takes a large amount of skill points though.
The big advantage to starting woodworking/smithing/clothing early on are the research of traits. It takes like a year to research them all and the sooner you get started the better.

The last part about options I wouldn't fret about if I were you. Just pick a focus you like and enjoy the game. By the time you are cp160 (and then have access to end game gear) everything will make so much more sense and everything you need will be unlocked.
Also, don't restart the character if you haven't done what I advise, just play catch up and do it from now on.

Glamdring · March 2017

Just use the armour u pick up along the way. Deconstruct the pieces, weapons and glyphs u dont use to lvl crafting, wood, clothing, blacksmith and enchanting.

Wear atleast 1 piece of each armourtype, heavy medium and light to lvl all armourtrees.

Dont worry about where to put skill points and what u morph, u can reset attributes, skillpoints/morphs later on just be aware that to lvl a tree u need atleast 1 skill from that tree slottet on your bar.

So basically just play around and test skills and stuff, read the skilldescriptions, and passives try different combos. Thats how u learn your class,

dont do the mistake many do and use premade lvling builds and then when they reach endgame they use premade endgame builds. Without a deeper understanding of your class the gameplay not just get boring after a while u also will not be able to excell and tweak your build to fit your needs and how u like to play.

Cogo · March 2017

Hello there!

EQ2 is a fairly challenging MMO so I dont think you will have much problems with ESO once you get the hang of it.

I have a few simple advice for you that helped me tons.

1. Take your time. Dont rush, dont grind. Just like old EQ, you learn the most by doing. Not watchings vids or copy others.
2. The skill info in game is awesome. You can pretty much read what each skill does. Choose what you like. Skill points are easy to reset and you get many skillpoints during your travels. When you reset skills you do not loose the level you learned. You only loose the ability to use the skills untill you put a skill point in it again.
3. For gear, read the PASSIVE skills of each type of armor. They are far more important then most skills.

Crafting: Pick blacksmithing and go to a craft station. You research traits that you use on your crafted gear as effect and the number of learned traits opens up more sets for you to craft. Crafting is not stuck to your level, so you can start at any time. Start with just 1 tradeskill.

Have fun and pick up friends while you enjoy ESO

If you play on PC-EU, give me a call. I like helping out new players. Cheers!

Dashiva_USA · April 2017

Awesome replies, I feel a little better and less lost now so thank you.

A few points though:

1. So basically I need to be wearing one of each time of armor so that they all level up correct?

It was mentioned that 5-1-1 is good but 3-2-2, I assume this is the number of pieces of armor you are wearing of each type. Five pieces of heavy, two medium, two light. So the number of armor pieces of a type makes a difference in terms of how quickly you level that piece?

2. To level skills I just need a skill on the hotbar as I quest etc, regardless of if I use it? Does this include skills on the 2nd hotbar?

So basically I need to level my each of my class trees by putting one of each skill on the hotbar. I then level a weapon by using it, and when I hit 15 make sure I hand in quests with my secondary weapon equipped so it also levels.

Crafting is still confusing me. It sounds like I should use Alchemy to make potions and also one of either woodworking/smithing/clothing.

I didnt quite understand the whole 'traits' and researching them, what does that mean?

Other questions that spring to mind:

1. What is CP160, I know at level 50 you are capped and earn champion points, but I keep seeing CP160 a lot. Why that specific number of champion points and not CP80, CP90 etc?

3. Money - How important is it and how does a new player make some? I'd like a horse but at the moment I only have around 5000 gold from questing. Is there a broker in the game, I remember on other MMOs that the early level mats would soar in value as older wealthier players wouldn't want to farm them.

4. Any recommendations for finding a guild, it's just the wife and I and we are looking for a friendly guild that I we can just login, chat, ask questions, nothing serious. I used to a raid a lot and don't have any interest in raiding at the moment.

Again thanks so much to everyone who has replied it's really helped me out a LOT.

Merlinah123 · April 2017

I have played Skyrim for many years. Essentially if you want to be stealthy, choose the stealthy skills. I always go for the bow, Health siphoning, and a weapon ( of your choice.) I am completely new to playing on line and EOS
is way more complicated than Skyrim. I'm, at least I think, finally figuring out the crafting.

kadar · April 2017

1. So basically I need to be wearing one of each time of armor so that they all level up correct?

It was mentioned that 5-1-1 is good but 3-2-2, I assume this is the number of pieces of armor you are wearing of each type. Five pieces of heavy, two medium, two light. So the number of armor pieces of a type makes a difference in terms of how quickly you level that piece?

Yes, your armor skill levels faster the more pieces you wear.

2. To level skills I just need a skill on the hotbar as I quest etc, regardless of if I use it? Does this include skills on the 2nd hotbar?

So basically I need to level my each of my class trees by putting one of each skill on the hotbar. I then level a weapon by using it, and when I hit 15 make sure I hand in quests with my secondary weapon equipped so it also levels.

Yes, you're skills level as you get XP while on that skill bar. I like to swap to my back bar before I turn in each quest cause it tends to get less XP than my front bar. But you can also just rearrange skills to avoid having underleveled stuff.

kadar · April 2017

Crafting is still confusing me. It sounds like I should use Alchemy to make potions and also one of either woodworking/smithing/clothing.

I didnt quite understand the whole 'traits' and researching them, what does that mean?

Being a game of choices, ESO does not limit us to focusing on one profession/craft or another. You can become proficient at as many crafting professions as you have extra skill points. Early on, you'll have very few to spare and most of your skill points will have to go to combat stuff (at least that's how it was with me). I highly recommend eventually leveling every profession but yes, you can focus on Alchemy, Provisioning, and 1 of the other 3 depending on your build. A good way to level everything without investing tons of skill points is to just Deconstruct all the bad gear you get or don't want. Especially decon any piece of gear that has the intricate trait. Intricate gives more "XP" in a craft skill line when you Decon it than normal.

As for traits.... most pieces of armor/weapons each have a trait (e.g. divines/infused/sharpened/precise/ornate/reinforced/ect.), each giving that piece of gear a small stat boost. In order to craft gear in the divines trait for example, you need to first Research a piece of gear that is the divines trait. When you research a heavy divines chest, a few days later (it's a timer) you'll be able to craft heavy chest pieces with the divines trait. The reason people are telling you to start researching everything NOW is because of the sheer amount of time it takes to research all the traits you need. To craft a Twice Born Star heavy chest, you'll need to have researched all 9 traits for that single armor piece. Consider the fact that you need to craft all 5 pieces to get a full set you're looking at 45 (9x5) individual traits just to craft a full set of TBS. That and the fact that each successive trait you research on an armor piece takes and increasing amount of time (the 9th trait for your heavy chest piece will take you 30 IRL days to complete research).

SORRY FOR TEXT WALL: TL;DR: You can eventually do every profession. Start researching every trait you can asap.

kadar · April 2017

1. What is CP160, I know at level 50 you are capped and earn champion points, but I keep seeing CP160 a lot. Why that specific number of champion points and not CP80, CP90 etc?

CP160 is the current highest level of gear available making it the technical "max level." There is no CP 180 gear or content for example. From there the only other level milestone is CP600 which is the highest level of effective CP, meaning players have more, but they can only spend 600.

3. Money - How important is it and how does a new player make some? I'd like a horse but at the moment I only have around 5000 gold from questing. Is there a broker in the game, I remember on other MMOs that the early level mats would soar in value as older wealthier players wouldn't want to farm them.

Gold is nice. If I were you, I would vender all the ornate trait gear you get (it sells for higher), deconstruct all other gear that you don't equip and sell any of the mats you don't need (in guild stores, not to venders), don't repair you're gear: if a piece of armor breaks, just replace it. You'll be replacing your armor so fast as you level it's a waste to spend gold repairing.

On guild stores: they are ESOs "auction house." It's a bit complicated but basically: join a trade guild with a guild trader. Some like "LF large Trade guild" in a major city, or asking a high level friend/nice person if they have room in theirs will typical work. From there, access the Store from any Banker. From there you can sell any mats or other valuables fairly easily.

Note on horses: Start training your riding skill asap. I don't think you actually need a horse to start this (someone correct me). Find the stable master and train your speed skill once a day every day, you'll thank me later!

4. Any recommendations for finding a guild, it's just the wife and I and we are looking for a friendly guild that I we can just login, chat, ask questions, nothing serious. I used to a raid a lot and don't have any interest in raiding at the moment.

@Dashiva_USA What platform/server are you on? I'm on PC/NA.

Rainwhisper · April 2017

There are some excellent responses here. Unless your goal is to min/max for veteran content, you can basically build your character any way that makes sense to you, and you'll be fine. This is especially true if you'll mostly play as a duo with a family member.

Merlinah123 · April 2017

When you decide what you want to be think about what kind of skills you need to accomplish the task. I have long range skills then I also have close up battle skills. My siphoning skills allow me to run backwards and suck out the foes life force when my life is draining away, after refilling my life, I can run up to them and beat the heck out of them.