imperial magicka templar.
the first 3 skills are already enough to get you through the main story pve.

1. a ranged attack that hits 3 targets when morphed
2. the best single target burst heal in game
3. a spammable attack that hit decent single target and AoE damage and heal you at the same time

as the first character without champion point it's the easiest class. put all your level up points into magicka.

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the reason i suggest imperial race is that, once you got to lv50 cp160, you might want to try playing group dungeons, and if you are not very good at fast action, the easiest role to try would be the tank.
imperial templar, with the right sets, can turn into a tank with more than 60k health, and have access to two skills to grant you a damage shield equal to 30% of your health (ie, two 20k damage shield), and one of which will reflect damage back at mobs so you wont be completely useless in dealing damage.

the imperial blazplar build is the easiest build to play in late game group content.

If you're on PC/NA send me a message (@Aricris) for some free crafted gear to help you start the game.

Some tips:

- At such low level, armor passives are not unlocked so it really doesn't matter what armor you are using, damage wise.
But for survival, heavy armor will always give you more resistance, even without passives. So wear at least 3 pieces of heavy armor (the big pieces: head, chest and legs), maybe more if you need but keep at least 2 pieces of light armor to level it up (gloves and belt) and even 1 medium, it will be handy for undaunted passives later on..

- Use the Lover mundus stone: at low level, this mundus will give you the most damage increase of all of them since your critical rating will be so low and you won't have any increase in spell damage anyway.
If you're still struggling to survive, use the Lady instead, available in the first maps you're doing.

- The best trait for your weapon at such low level will be either Sharpened for damage or Defending for a tankier feel.

- As others have suggested, use your first summon. I would try out the Clanfear morph first, because of his higher tanking capability and the self heal, although later, once you have Ward and Surge unlocked, the Unstable Familiar is by far the better choice.

- Once your Clanfear has aggro just use Encase to keep mobs rooted away from you (doesn't work on most bosses)and then use Crystal shards (morph it to the one that makes an instant cast) and spam to proc it in between Mage's Fury (morph it to endless fury, it's better for resource management) especially when the mobs are at low health.

- Keep your Lighting Form up at all times.
- I haven't used any of the destro staff abilities here because i think it is better to use all your slots to level your class skill lines as fast as possible. The staff will level itself just by wearing one and you can worry about the skills later.

So your bar will look like this:
1. Clanfear (press to heal yourself when needed)
2. Endless fury (spamable)
3. Crystal Shards
4. Encase
5. Lightning Form
6.Ultimate: I would put the Storm Atronach here because that way you have 2 skills of each of the 3 class skill lines to level them up. When you get your second bar, i would put Overload there.
All are 1st or 2d skills in the respective skill lines.

Don't give up on Sorc just yet. Templars are in fact easier to level but Sorcerer is the number 1 class when it comes to solo play at end level.
Also, if you don't mind starting a new character, Altmer is a far better Sorcerer than Breton, because of the +4% to shock damage

Mag sorc use 2 summons like familiar and matriarch and game over. Maybe empowered ward when you get it and surge is cool. You can also use resto staff for heals...

Ask someone to craft you Julianos or/and Seducer or you can go to Rivenspire and farm Necropotence set.

Also a good idea is to get gud

Altmer Magic Templar

firedrgn wrote: »

Sorc is pretty survivable. Stack shields and crit surge. And dark deal.

Sorcs get shields and surge way too late in their class trees. People who say that sorcs are newbie-friendly are all endgame players who forgot what it's like to play a sorc for the first 30-40 levels as you desperately try to get access to those skills.

Yes, once you get them, sorcs are easy. But they don't start out easy.

Magplars and magblades start out easy and stay easy. And magblades have the advantage of being ranged. And being able to cloak through the trash that you can't be bothered to fight.

Dunmer Sorcerer because there is no reason to live if you aren't one.

LordSkyKnight wrote: »

You are probably dying because you are eating heavy attacks and standing in giant reticles of red death. Learn to block telegraphed heavy attacks and move out of red reticles of death. If you don't get out of the red areas fast enough, block those as well.

Make sure you're playing in third person, not first person, otherwise you won't see the red circles (the colour of which you can now change if you have any colour blindness issues).

***_Cara_Sterling wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

***_Cara_Sterling wrote: »

Dantaria wrote: »

bmannb16_ESO wrote: »

firedrgn wrote: »

Sorc is pretty survivable. Stack shields and crit surge. And dark deal.

shield stacking can be a challenge, Templar or DK is easy sauce.

Why would you need to shield-stack in overworld PvE? o_O

I would argue about magDK. He actually doesn't have any good self-heal. But sorc? Unlock Surge => Morph to Power Surge => Take Mundus Stone => You are an immortal god.

Surge easily carries you through pretty much everything in overworld PvE. Heck, normal dungeons are rekt with Surge. Unlock Hardened Ward and you can solo vet.

OP, just use Clanfear at first (1st skill in Daedric Summoning). He will keep things away from you. The moment you'll be able to unlock Surge - unlock it and take Thief Mundus. All possible problems in overworld PvE will be pretty much solved.

Nice, but at level 11 I haven't been able to get surge or power surge let alone the ward spell. You don't get a second bar until level 15, right? In the meantime, I am stuck trying to complete two different quests. When I was trying to fight the Warclaws one of them hit me once with a broad sword and knocked me down and my health nearly disappeared. I was down to a dot.

Do you use food? it give an huge health bonus, blue food give health+ magic.
What skills are you using?
Your main problem is not killing enemies fast enough so they get time to kill you, you want the clanfear as it will hold at lest one of the enemies. use area effect spells like the wall of elements too.

You might want some crafted leveling gear too.
I had problems with the warclaws back on the test server using just dropped gear and food, with blue food and crafted gear it was no issue, as in was not killed overland anymore except from world bosses and fall damage

zaria wrote: »

***_Cara_Sterling wrote: »

Dantaria wrote: »

bmannb16_ESO wrote: »

firedrgn wrote: »

Sorc is pretty survivable. Stack shields and crit surge. And dark deal.

shield stacking can be a challenge, Templar or DK is easy sauce.

Why would you need to shield-stack in overworld PvE? o_O

I would argue about magDK. He actually doesn't have any good self-heal. But sorc? Unlock Surge => Morph to Power Surge => Take Mundus Stone => You are an immortal god.

Surge easily carries you through pretty much everything in overworld PvE. Heck, normal dungeons are rekt with Surge. Unlock Hardened Ward and you can solo vet.

OP, just use Clanfear at first (1st skill in Daedric Summoning). He will keep things away from you. The moment you'll be able to unlock Surge - unlock it and take Thief Mundus. All possible problems in overworld PvE will be pretty much solved.

Nice, but at level 11 I haven't been able to get surge or power surge let alone the ward spell. You don't get a second bar until level 15, right? In the meantime, I am stuck trying to complete two different quests. When I was trying to fight the Warclaws one of them hit me once with a broad sword and knocked me down and my health nearly disappeared. I was down to a dot.

Do you use food? it give an huge health bonus, blue food give health+ magic.
What skills are you using?
Your main problem is not killing enemies fast enough so they get time to kill you, you want the clanfear as it will hold at lest one of the enemies. use area effect spells like the wall of elements too.

You might want some crafted leveling gear too.
I had problems with the warclaws back on the test server using just dropped gear and food, with blue food and crafted gear it was no issue, as in was not killed overland anymore except from world bosses and fall damage

Yes, you are right about the killing time. Yes, I use food. I don't have any AOE spells. See my previous reply that lists the spells that I do have. The other thing is that I cannot craft anything because I don't have any traits. I can't purchase anything because I have no money. I got to tell you the cost of things in stores and in guilds are like the price gouging going on in Florida right now. And, for the length of time that it takes to learn to craft, I cannot blame them. But then, that is ESO's hook, isn't it?

And, as I have stated before, I am terrible when it comes to mashing keyboard buttons: As I generally hit the wrong buttons because I am trying to watch the action on the monitor too. It seems I can't do both simultaneously. Perhaps I don't belong here. I am strictly an old single-player gamer.

Don't feel discouraged, @***_Cara_Sterling, and certainly don't feel like you don't belong here! One of the problems I'm seeing is that a number of people here are not taking into account the fact that you have not been playing this game for years like they have been; some people are making things sound far more complicated than they need to be. Don't worry about light/heavy attack weaving, acquiring trial gear (I actually laughed when someone in your other thread recommended the Moondancer set to you -- I probably couldn't even get Moondancer gear at this point, and I've been playing for years), etc. Just focus on the basics for now.

Do you know much about how blocking/interrupting enemies works in ESO? If not, check out this video (info begins at 1:50):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHAD2nB9JsQ

Once you learn when to block and when to interrupt enemies, you'll increase your survivability significantly. I didn't know for MONTHS when I first started that white-yellow lines meant I should block, and that red lines meant I should interrupt. The game really doesn't do a good job of explaining these mechanics to new players.

If you're lacking in skill points to spend on your passives or morph your skills, take the time to hunt down some overland skyshards: http://teso.mmorpg-life.com/skyshards/

I found when I first started out that I was gaining access to active skills/passives much faster than I could acquire skill points to spend in these areas. Finding skyshards helped a lot, in that regard. You need three for each skill point. Some skyshards are located in delves (little solo dungeons) that you'd need to fight enemies in order to get to, but many are overland and can be reached easily without fighting.

With regards to your question about the most survivable class, that would probably be the Magicka Templar, as others here have mentioned. Argonian would probably be the most survivable race to pair with it, but Breton is good as well. If you decide to start over with a templar, I would recommend using a destruction staff (lightning preferably, but fire and frost work too) in order to gain access to the skill Wall of Elements, a VERY effective area of effect/damage over time skill. You'll have a healing skill right off the bat as well that will help a lot if you're overwhelmed by multiple enemies and don't block heavy attacks in time. Once you hit level 15, you can start using a restoration staff as well and will eventually gain access to some very strong general healing and buffing skills.

Also, if you are in fact interested in crafting, I recommend finding someone who can craft some traited gear for you so you can start the research process. I play on PS4 these days and am not on PC anymore, but if you like, I could definitely patch the game on my laptop and help you out with getting your research started if you're on the PC NA server. Guild store prices are absolutely prohibitive for new players, so heck, I could send you all my crafting materials/gold as well. It's not like I ever plan on returning to PC ESO anyway.

P.S. Just want to say as well that I hope I'm still a gamer gal when I'm in my 70s. You're awesome!