Question about enemy scaling

ncheek16 · May 2017

How does it work? Obviously mudcrabs are going to stay weak, but will beginning dungeons stay relatively the same , or do they get harder as my level goes up as well.

I'm used to skyrim and other games with levels for enem9es , and am confused about how they progress throughout the game . So as I grow, will the enemies as well?

Meetre · May 2017

The enemies don't scale, you do. At low levels you get "scaled" up to the content. As you level up, the scaling effect goes down.

Magdalina · May 2017

There used to be levels in ESO but then they took the battle leveling system to the knee.

Basically, right now every single monster in the game is level cp 160 - the max level of gear available to the player. They will not become stronger nor weaker as you level up, only YOU yourself will change. This enables all of us to play together in any zone we like without one shotting every single WB nor getting rekt by a single mudcrab. The downside is a somewhat diluded feeling of progress. What happens is the game scales you to the monsters' level. As you're low level, the buffs you get from it are the strongest as the system is trying to compensate you for missing skills and passives, however as you level up the buffs will slowly wear off, to become significantly weaker after level 50 and disappear completely at cp 160. This may in fact make you feel like you're becoming weaker as you level up, but it's only partially true. Do keep your gear up to your level as much as possible. 4 levels below you is okay, 24 levels below you is gonna cause your stats to drop like twofold. Use food and potions closest to your level. Don't forget to unlock new skills and passives as they become available to you, that's a big part of what makes you stronger.

Good luck and feel free to ask if you have any other questions

ncheek16 · May 2017

That's interesting, it makes sense to encourage grouping up. So essentially it's my weapons and abilities that will set me apart from the enemies. So they'll essentially be just as strong to me now as they will in the future.
What about going indifferent areas? I had a quest take me to a new area from auridon, and I was getting my butt locked so I felt like if I leveled up a bit and came back I'd be better off

ThePonzzz · May 2017

At earlier levels, you'll have more difficulty because your stats, skills, and gear are more limited. Once you're self healing and have more skills at your disposal, you'll just breeze through the whole game.

Magdalina · May 2017

ncheek16 wrote: »

That's interesting, it makes sense to encourage grouping up. So essentially it's my weapons and abilities that will set me apart from the enemies. So they'll essentially be just as strong to me now as they will in the future.
What about going indifferent areas? I had a quest take me to a new area from auridon, and I was getting my butt locked so I felt like if I leveled up a bit and came back I'd be better off

Zones used to go by level, main zone's questline basically takes you to all of them in order, for AD it's Khenarthi's->Auridon->Grahtwood->Greenshade->Malabal Tor->Reaper's March, but since One Tamriel and battle leveling got around it no longer matters. All the enemies, in every single zone, are the same. I mean they might have some unique abilities, World Bosses each have special mechanics of their own, some being significantly harder than the others, but base enemies' health is the same and they won't change one bit as you level up - if you see a mob having(for example) 125k health now, it'll still have 125k health as you come back at cp 600(or any other level in between now and then).

One thing that is still somewhat different is I think in first zones the mob placement is somewhat more sparse, I think you don't run into packs of 3 as often in Auridon, mostly 1-2 which makes it easier for low level players that don't have aoes unlocked yet.

Leveling up will unlock some more skills and passives for you to use, some of which are really powerful(some of the best class skills tend to be the last ones in the skill tree; especially true for a sorcerer), but the gist of it will stay the same, and the battle leveling buff will actually grow weaker, encouraging you to update your gear and use food etc. What level/class are you? Are you using food? Are you using set gear?

ncheek16 · May 2017

Magdalina wrote: »

ncheek16 wrote: »

That's interesting, it makes sense to encourage grouping up. So essentially it's my weapons and abilities that will set me apart from the enemies. So they'll essentially be just as strong to me now as they will in the future.
What about going indifferent areas? I had a quest take me to a new area from auridon, and I was getting my butt locked so I felt like if I leveled up a bit and came back I'd be better off

Zones used to go by level, main zone's questline basically takes you to all of them in order, for AD it's Khenarthi's->Auridon->Grahtwood->Greenshade->Malabal Tor->Reaper's March, but since One Tamriel and battle leveling got around it no longer matters. All the enemies, in every single zone, are the same. I mean they might have some unique abilities, World Bosses each have special mechanics of their own, some being significantly harder than the others, but base enemies' health is the same and they won't change one bit as you level up - if you see a mob having(for example) 125k health now, it'll still have 125k health as you come back at cp 600(or any other level in between now and then).

One thing that is still somewhat different is I think in first zones the mob placement is somewhat more sparse, I think you don't run into packs of 3 as often in Auridon, mostly 1-2 which makes it easier for low level players that don't have aoes unlocked yet.

Leveling up will unlock some more skills and passives for you to use, some of which are really powerful(some of the best class skills tend to be the last ones in the skill tree; especially true for a sorcerer), but the gist of it will stay the same, and the battle leveling buff will actually grow weaker, encouraging you to update your gear and use food etc. What level/class are you? Are you using food? Are you using set gear?

I'm only a lvl 8 stam nb right now. Having a lot of fun with him. I don't get in too many fights that I can't control, just got my butt kicked in grahtwood when I went as a lvl 6 and haven't been back yet.
What do you mean by set gear ? I'm using the best items I have come across so far. Dual wielding swords and full med gear

Nestor · May 2017

ncheek16 wrote: »

That's interesting, it makes sense to encourage grouping up. So essentially it's my weapons and abilities that will set me apart from the enemies. So they'll essentially be just as strong to me now as they will in the future.
What about going indifferent areas? I had a quest take me to a new area from auridon, and I was getting my butt locked so I felt like if I leveled up a bit and came back I'd be better off

While all the enemies are "scaled" to CP160, I have found that for the most part, as you go from Zone 1 to Zone 5 the enemies get a little harder. This is not a huge difference, but it is noticeable.

Now, this scaling does not mean you don't gain in power as the game goes on. For one, you get more skills to use in your rotations, and once in the Champ Ranks, you get more points for more power.

What you can do while leveling to "level the playing field" with regards to scaling and mobs and whatnot is to keep your gear closer to your level. I recently leveled a character with no CPs allocated, and once I was about 8 to 10 levels over the armor, I found the content to be very difficult to beat. Note I am using crafted sets improved to Purple on my leveling characters. So I can cover a few more levels. But you will find lots of Blue Improved Gear as you go about the game. Just replace your underleveled stuff as you go along.

Also, don't worry all too much about optimal gear while leveling, just have something that benefits your character (magic or stamina or health) and try to have some set bonuses (wearing 2 to 5 pieces of a set) to add power to your character. Once you get to CP160, then worry about chasing the optimal gear.

starkerealm · May 2017

ncheek16 wrote: »

That's interesting, it makes sense to encourage grouping up. So essentially it's my weapons and abilities that will set me apart from the enemies. So they'll essentially be just as strong to me now as they will in the future.
What about going indifferent areas? I had a quest take me to a new area from auridon, and I was getting my butt locked so I felt like if I leveled up a bit and came back I'd be better off

You do get more powerful, it's just... peculiar.

As a starting character you have an enormous buff to your resource pools. As you level up, that goes away. However, you do become more powerful as you play, because you gain access to more abilities, learn more about the game's mechanics, and gain access to better gear. The better gear part is a bit tricky, because you'll actually be working towards creating a more coherent build. So it's not that the items have inherently higher stats, but they'll be using completed gear sets, which come with a wide variety of benefits.

Now, all things being equal, if you had green gear, and they had green gear, there should be a rough parity at work. But, if you're looking at an endgame character, they're probably, at least, in purples. Which will be statistically better than whatever you're wearing, before you take their set bonuses into account. They'll also be enchanted and traited, which are things you'll start picking up as you go.

So, in spite of the scaling, you do actually get more powerful, it's just kinda subtle, and a lot of it relates to system knowledge more than bigger numbers.

Kiwi · May 2017

its alot better this way trust me

i went really hard when the game launched and there was a lot of content that many just couldnt do, it was too hard

Magdalina · May 2017

Ah well you have a lot to look forward to then:) You might want to level up to level 15 for starters perhaps because that's when you unlock weapon swap, letting you use 10 skills rather than 5 which is a huge help.

By sets I mean that some items are just generic "iron cuirass of increase health" or whatever while others belong to certain sets, like it can be "iron cuirass of Hunding's Rage"(just random example off the top of my head), where wearing 2+ pieces of Hunding's Rage set would guarantee you certain bonuses, in Hunding's case something like
2 pieces = +wep critical
3 pieces = +max stamina
4 pieces =+weapon critical
5 pieces =+increase weapon damage
Some sets(like Hunding's) can be crafted while others only drop in open world or dungeons/trials. However, you can't craft jewelry. You can check like all the sets out here - http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Set+Bonus+Crafting+Locations

At level 8 though it doesn't really matter, just some insight for the future for now;) Try to keep your gear up to your level and unlock that weapon swap, then if you find yourself struggling perhaps try to find someone to craft you some set gear(you can farm dropped sets too but crafting is simply a lot faster) and some food(which again isn't very important at level 8 because battle leveling is probably giving you like 20k health for free now).

Enjoy the journey

starkerealm · May 2017

Kiwi wrote: »

its alot better this way trust me

i went really hard when the game launched and there was a lot of content that many just couldnt do, it was too hard

A quick note on this. There was a major difficulty rebalance fairly early on in the game's life. Before that, there was some brutally difficult content mixed in. In fact, there was a main quest instance (so, you couldn't bring friends), that nearly hard countered Nightblades, making the entire experience grueling and unpleasant (for me), (while my girlfriend breezed through on her Sorc).

That said, yeah, it is better. Before this, it was fairly common to out level content before you even finished a zone. There were also the DLC zones, which always had scaling like this, but because you'd earn 10 levels in them, you'd come out, and have nothing to do at your level, forcing you to wander around aimlessly looking for a quest challenging enough to award XP and loot.

The approach to leveling is a little strange for an MMO, but the end result means you're never left without content to play, or shoved out the door when you're enjoying content, but leveling up too fast for it.

ncheek16 · May 2017

Nestor wrote: »

ncheek16 wrote: »

That's interesting, it makes sense to encourage grouping up. So essentially it's my weapons and abilities that will set me apart from the enemies. So they'll essentially be just as strong to me now as they will in the future.
What about going indifferent areas? I had a quest take me to a new area from auridon, and I was getting my butt locked so I felt like if I leveled up a bit and came back I'd be better off

While all the enemies are "scaled" to CP160, I have found that for the most part, as you go from Zone 1 to Zone 5 the enemies get a little harder. This is not a huge difference, but it is noticeable.

Now, this scaling does not mean you don't gain in power as the game goes on. For one, you get more skills to use in your rotations, and once in the Champ Ranks, you get more points for more power.

What you can do while leveling to "level the playing field" with regards to scaling and mobs and whatnot is to keep your gear closer to your level. I recently leveled a character with no CPs allocated, and once I was about 8 to 10 levels over the armor, I found the content to be very difficult to beat. Note I am using crafted sets improved to Purple on my leveling characters. So I can cover a few more levels. But you will find lots of Blue Improved Gear as you go about the game. Just replace your underleveled stuff as you go along.

Also, don't worry all too much about optimal gear while leveling, just have something that benefits your character (magic or stamina or health) and try to have some set bonuses (wearing 2 to 5 pieces of a set) to add power to your character. Once you get to CP160, then worry about chasing the optimal gear.

The majority of what in wearing is either damage bonus or stam bonus

starkerealm · May 2017

ncheek16 wrote: »

The majority of what in wearing is either damage bonus or stam bonus

You might not realize it now, but it's actually a bit more complicated than that. For example, if you're wearing heavy armor, that will also increase your health recovery, and apply other effects (if you have the appropriate passives), if you're wearing medium armor, that will apply weapon crit, stam recovery, and (eventually) increase your weapon damage, if you're wearing enough pieces (again, if you've ranked the skill up far enough, and bought the passives).

This is kind of what I'm talking about when I say you do get more powerful. A character with maxed medium armor will have +12% weapon damage from their armor, and a massive weapon crit boost, in addition to whatever it's "printed" stats say.

Nestor · May 2017

Also, was one of those quests a Mages Guild quest to collect some trinket from a coffer? For some odd reason the Mages send you to Public Dungeons. They have dense mob packs and are really meant to be done with a group of players. Although they can be solo'd once your leveled and geared up. But further add to it, the coffer is in the back of the dungeon, under the nose of the group boss....

starkerealm · May 2017

Nestor wrote: »

Also, was one of those quests a Mages Guild quest to collect some trinket from a coffer? For some odd reason the Mages send you to Public Dungeons. They have dense mob packs and are really meant to be done with a group of players. Although they can be solo'd once your leveled and geared up. But further add to it, the coffer is in the back of the dungeon, under the nose of the group boss....

I honestly find those easier on low level characters, but... I also kinda know what I'm doing. Which loops back to what I said earlier about system knowledge being an important component in all of this.

Also, having 600CR on a level 15 doesn't hurt.

Nestor · May 2017

starkerealm wrote: »

Also, having 600CR on a level 15 doesn't hurt.

@starkerealm

I was leveling one of my 3 year old mules that was still at L9. So I start doing things and then I start to wonder if a Nord Magic DK was really that bad. Only about L40 did I go into my Champ System and then I realized, I had no champ points assigned on this character. Made a big difference.

starkerealm · May 2017

Nestor wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Also, having 600CR on a level 15 doesn't hurt.

@starkerealm

I was leveling one of my 3 year old mules that was still at L9. So I start doing things and then I start to wonder if a Nord Magic DK was really that bad. Only about L40 did I go into my Champ System and then I realized, I had no champ points assigned on this character. Made a big difference.

@Nestor, yeah, that was the joke.