Am I playing the game correctly or what should I put my points to now?

Davor · May 2017

While I had ESO since almost the beginning on release I never played much and played it when I did just as a I would in a single player. From reading posts and threads it seems I could be playing the game wrong. I am having fun even though it seems I am playing it wrong. I am level 22 with an Altmer mage. For some reason all our stats are reset and I guess this could be a good time to reset them.

So I am curious what should I set my points to? Before I put some in health maybe 10 points and the rest into magicka. I keep reading people say to max out magicka but I seem to die a lot when I don't put nothing into health. So what should I be doing at level 22? Should all points go into magicka or should I just keep doing what I did 5 points into health then 10 into magika, 5 into health 10 into magicka? I know people will say this is wrong but I don't understand why it would be wrong.

Any help and or tips and explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Davor

Magdalina · May 2017

Aww. Hello there, and welcome back to the game - it seems you've been gone a while if everything has reset for you

There isn't an ultimate "wrong" unless you're doing group content and/or aiming to be competitive. So if you're enjoying yourself, just keep at it:) Also level 22 is really early into the game so you have a long journey ahead of you to figure things out.

Far as some tips go though...I assume by mage you mean a magicka sorcerer?
Generally you only need like 17-20k health to survive everything in this game. How you achieve it is up to you, don't forget to eat some food though, these +5k health and magicka really do come in handy

For surviveability magicka users generally greatly rely on damage shields, though I'm not sure you have them unlocked yet. Check out Annulment - light armor active skill, and Ward - pre last skill in Daedric summoning skill tree(assuming I was right about you being a sorc). You really want those.

Keep in mind that if a spell uses magicka its damage/heal scales with your max magicka, spelldamage and spell crit, so you basically want sets boosting those(possibly with some recovery thrown in the mix. Seducer and Julianos are always good options among crafted gear). Shields are bit of an exception in that they only scale with max magicka.

Oh and if you're a sorc you really want Surge, it's a decent heal and (morphed version) great damage buff.

That aside I don't think there's much point in recommending you a specific build just yet, just experiment with skills and have fun for now:) If you do feel you're underperforming you can always look up a guide to point you in the right direction in terms of doing more damage etc.

dpencil1 · May 2017

I was going to comment, but @Magdalina literally said everything I would have said.

Davor · May 2017

Thank you so much @Magdalina. I appreciate it. Good to know I am not doing it wrong. I keep forgetting to eat the food. Thanks for the reminder. Didn't know about the scaling so again thank you. Will keep my eye out for shields or what you said they are called and will try them out.

davey1107 · May 2017

To expand on attribute points...here's why people say put them all into magic or stamina. Each point gives you 115 points in that resource. An enchantment on a top-level single piece of gear offers about 900 points in whatever you enchant it with. So in the long run, it's easier to fine tune your character by changing enchantments if you need to, which is less expensive than paying to reset attribute points.

In your 20's you're learning the basics of the game. These are good things to focus on learning:

- continue unlocking abilities. Aside from their raw attacking power, what benefits do they offer? How do these buffs change your damage or survivabikity?

- collect gear sets. How do you maximize the 11/12 slots on your character? Which buffs are most beneficial for your character, and how do you use sets to get the most possible from them?

- speaking of gear, DO NOT over level it by much. This might be part of your problem. One Tamriel works by giving you and your gear handicap buffs so that you can take on the same c160 monsters everyone else fights. A lot of those works in tandem with your armor. In the old days, a level 40 toon could wear level 20 armor and get by. Now they can't...it will make them way, way squishy. Wear gear within 5 levels of your toon, and swap it out as you level.

- watch the passives you've unlocked. You should be investing in every one that benefits you. That's most in your class skills, and many others throughout the trees. When you have one unlocked, go get the shards to unlock it.

- now that you can go anywhere, you can do any quest lines you like. To refresh your memory (it's easier to get lost now), there are three factions in the game. Each has a faction quest line that picks up in that faction's starter zone and proceeds through the five zones. The Mage and Fighters guild storylines run in tandem, with these, as does the main harborage quest line. These all lead to colharbour.

If you like questing and the storylines, be aware of this. Each faction's zone quests pick up in that zone whether you completed the quests before it or not. For example, the quest in the entrance to Reapers March continues the Almeri Dominion story from the previous four zones. If you just randomly pick it up and try them out of order, it might be way confusing.

Davor · May 2017

Thank you so much Davey that has helped me a lot. So maybe instead of doing everything every where, I will just do the Aldmeri first then I will do one of the other factions to make it less confusing. I guess the only exception would be Morrowind correct? I can do that now and not be confused?