How am I doing so far?

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

I picked up ESO on PS4 back on Boxing Day for half price. This game is really fun, and I'm beginning to wish I'd gotten into it sooner. That said, ESO has the largest learning curve in a game I've come across.

I have a level 15 Templar, Dark Elf, and I've been putting all my points in Magicka. From what I've read, a "Magicka Templar" can do well for a new player, and can hold its own when playing PvE. I've been using this guide here - http://deltiasgaming.com/eso-magic-templar-dps-build/ - to help me out, so as of now, I have Puncturing Sweep, Sun Fire, Honor the Dead, Elemental Blockade, Rapid Regeneration, and Nova.

In regards to weapons, I'm using a Destruction staff, and now I have a Healing staff as my second weapon. Which ones? No idea. I don't think they're anything special. Same goes for armor - just whatever I've found or received from Quests. I think I've completed a Vivec (sp?) quest after restoring his power and giving awards to others.

So my questions for all of you experienced pros here:

How am I doing so far?
Is there any quest I should go for next?
I'm only at about 3500 coin. I'd really like to get a horse for that 10k... Does it normally take this long?
What is "sustain" in ESO? I see it mentioned a lot.
Anyone wish to befriend a simple Canadian on PS4 and help him learn the game?

Thanks in advance, everyone!

shadelon · January 2018

Are you on NA?

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

shadelon wrote: »

Are you on NA?

Yes. Sorry, I didn't know to specify that.

shadelon · January 2018

I can inv you to my guild, and we can help you out. What's your psn id?

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

shadelon wrote: »

I can inv you to my guild, and we can help you out. What's your psn id?

That's very kind of you! It's KnightfallZX2.

I'm normally online between 6 and 10pm CST weekdays, and off and on during weekends.

Nestor · January 2018

What is your goal? Get to end game as quickly as possible, or just enjoy the content and let the levels happen as they do?

Both ways are fun, but I would say the second method is the most fun over all.

The game drops gear in the zones that you can use. There is a Magic Set or a Stamina or a Health Set. Just collect the Magic set peices and use those, replacing at you out level them. Worry about the best gear once you get to CP160. And, by the time you get there, you will know what you want from the gear and can choose accordingly (or farm the zone that drops it)

As for Sustain, you have a resource pool that your skills draw from. The trick is to not run out of resources before the battle is over. That is Sustain. Trash Mob fights, this is easy, Boss fights, not so much. In a nutshell, you give up attack power for more sustain, but you can't do damage if you have no resources.

Legerdemain can get you all the gold you need. In Daggerfall near the Wayshrine are some docks with two ships. Loot the two ships, only one NPC to avoid on the deck, none in the cabins or hold. Grab everything and fence the valuable stuff and launder the ingredients. Unlock the first Trafficking passive and you can steal and fence 5K to 15K of gold a day.

Zone quests are great for the story of the game, so go to Vulkhel Guard in Auridon, or Daggerfall in Glenumbra or Davons Watch in Stonefalls, find the quest markers and you will be soon set upon the zone quests. You will also grab a bunch of side quests too. If you don't have the Wayshrines, the Navigators can get you there. Look for the Anchor Icons on your local maps. Sometimes its a Wagon.

shadelon · January 2018

Alright i sent you a psn msg.

Magdalina · January 2018

Just a little something to add - I would recommend you get into crafting asap. It takes a looooong time to research all the traits and even if you end up buying gear instead of crafting, it's still a good thing to have the deconstruction passives to at least get your own tempers etc. Don't worry about investing skillpoints into it just yet, but do try to get some research going and deconstruct all the things for the crafting experience.

It also sounds like you're doing fairly well so far

But really what matters most is that you're having fun. The game is completely open world now and you can really do zones in whichever order you prefer. If you want to see the original story, start at the starter island/first zone of your alliance(Stonefalls is the first EP zone, Auridon first AD, Glenumbra first DC, I think there should be a boat in Vivec taking you to those) and work your way up from there. Vvardenfell can kind of be done at any order, ZOS tried to fit it in as first zone for new players(with adding a new starter quest in addition to the original one) but older players have played it after the original storyline and that also works.

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

Nestor wrote: »

What is your goal? Get to end game as quickly as possible, or just enjoy the content and let the levels happen as they do?

Both ways are fun, but I would say the second method is the most fun over all.

Well, I find myself enjoying battles and fights more so than running around and talking. So if the end game means more fighting, than I may choose getting to the end game quickly. If it doesn't matter, than I'm fine either way. Right now, I feel the "rush" to get a horse. Running around on foot is getting tedious for me.

Nestor wrote: »

The game drops gear in the zones that you can use. There is a Magic Set or a Stamina or a Health Set. Just collect the Magic set peices and use those, replacing at you out level them. Worry about the best gear once you get to CP160. And, by the time you get there, you will know what you want from the gear and can choose accordingly (or farm the zone that drops it)

So for the time being, I take it you suggest I don't concern myself with weapons and armor too much, other than choosing ones that provide Magicka?

Nestor wrote: »

As for Sustain, you have a resource pool that your skills draw from. The trick is to not run out of resources before the battle is over. That is Sustain. Trash Mob fights, this is easy, Boss fights, not so much. In a nutshell, you give up attack power for more sustain, but you can't do damage if you have no resources.

Ah, that makes sense! I certainly need more sustain then. I tend to spam the Puncturing Sweep and run out of Magicka before the end of a boss fight. What do I need to watch out for, or do, to add more sustain? Just keep adding to max Magicka as I level up?

Nestor wrote: »

Legerdemain can get you all the gold you need. In Daggerfall near the Wayshrine are some docks with two ships. Loot the two ships, only one NPC to avoid on the deck, none in the cabins or hold. Grab everything and fence the valuable stuff and launder the ingredients. Unlock the first Trafficking passive and you can steal and fence 5K to 15K of gold a day.

Zone quests are great for the story of the game, so go to Vulkhel Guard in Auridon, or Daggerfall in Glenumbra or Davons Watch in Stonefalls, find the quest markers and you will be soon set upon the zone quests. You will also grab a bunch of side quests too. If you don't have the Wayshrines, the Navigators can get you there. Look for the Anchor Icons on your local maps. Sometimes its a Wagon.

Fantastic. Looks like I need to research how to leave Vvardenfell and check out these new areas you speak of. Thank you!

Amadis001 · January 2018

KnightfallZX2 wrote: »

So my questions for all of you experienced pros here:
How am I doing so far?

Is there any quest I should go for next?

I'm only at about 3500 coin. I'd really like to get a horse for that 10k... Does it normally take this long?

What is "sustain" in ESO? I see it mentioned a lot.

Anyone wish to befriend a simple Canadian on PS4 and help him learn the game?

Thanks in advance, everyone!

Sounds like you're doing great! Welcome to ESO.

If you haven't done it yet, I suggest that you take a wayshrine to Stonefalls (the first full zone for your Ebonheart Pact alliance), talk to the hooded stranger, get teleported to Coldharbour and start the main quest chain of the original game. It's a great story that gives you a skill point for each and every quest and lots of XP, probably a full level per quest, which will also give you more skill points.

Yes, getting your first 10K to buy a horse can take a bit of time. But you'll get there soon enough, and eventually 10K will feel like small change. After a year of playing, I earn about 100K a day. But I still look back fondly at the first couple of weeks that I played on foot, exploring every inch of the world because I didn't have my first mount. If you want to try to accelerate your gold accumulation, you can try pickpocketing wealthy city dwellers (which is also hard at first but gets easier as your legerdemain and Thieves Guild ranks go up), or selling harvested crafting materials. Alchemy ingredients in particular sell quickly in chat. Have you found any columbine or corn flower? that stuff can sell for 300g a piece in chat. Many other alchemy mats can go for at least 100g a piece. So just wandering around and collecting stuff can get you to 10K pretty quickly. But just doing quests will also reward you more and more gold as you rank up, so you'll get to 10K just by questing if you're not in a hurry.

"Sustain", in your case, means your Magicka recovery rate -- the ability to continue to use your abilities without exhausting all your resources and then getting killed because you can't defend yourself or kill your enemy fast enough. There are many ways to improve sustain, which you'll learn as you decide on the details of your preferred build and play style. But some of the most obvious and easy are: fully charged heavy attacks with your staff will return you some Magicka. And using the Atronach mundus stone will increase your character's base Magicka recovery rate. You can also improve your sustain by reducing the Magicka cost of your skills. Some racial and other passives can help here. In your case, as a Templar, you have the Restoring Spirit perk of the Dawn's Wrath skill tree. Make sure you put points there as soon as you can. There is a lot more to say about this topic, but you get the idea.

Good luck!

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

@Amadis001 and @Magdalina thank you both for the suggestion about the main quest line. Is there a particular reason I began in VVardenfell if the original story quest isn't there, or was this just random?

Magdalina · January 2018

KnightfallZX2 wrote: »

Amadis001 and Magdalina thank you both for the suggestion about the main quest line. Is there a particular reason I began in VVardenfell if the original story quest isn't there, or was this just random?

I think they made all new characters start in Vvardenfell (if you have Vvardenfell bought obviously) as it's the newest(was at the time)/biggest/argueably best addition to the game etc. Without Vvardenfell your toon would just start at the first zone of your alliance.

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

Magdalina wrote: »

KnightfallZX2 wrote: »

Amadis001 and Magdalina thank you both for the suggestion about the main quest line. Is there a particular reason I began in VVardenfell if the original story quest isn't there, or was this just random?

I think they made all new characters start in Vvardenfell (if you have Vvardenfell bought obviously) as it's the newest(was at the time)/biggest/argueably best addition to the game etc. Without Vvardenfell your toon would just start at the first zone of your alliance.

I bought the game on sale on the PlayStation Store. The one marked "Morrowind." I think it has all the DLC? It was one one large download, so I don't know original content from DLC unfortunately.

Thanks for clarifying!

Nestor · January 2018

You can get from Vvardenfell to the rest of the game using the Navigators there too. It might take a couple of trips to get to where you want to be. There are lots of places to steal in Vvardenfell, but Daggerfall is so much easier for learning and leveling Legerdemain.

Combat is all over the game. End Game refers to PvP, or Group Dungeons or Trials. But there is plenty to fight with doing the quests. And, pay attention to the stories, this series had some of the best writing and stories. It only adds a minute or two to each quest.

There are several ways to handle your sustain. You don't have to do them all, but some can be done more than others:

In no particular order:

1. Use Magic or Stamina Regen glyphs on your jewelry or choose gear sets that increase your regen
2. Use Fully Charged Heavy Attacks to regain resources. Weave those in between your skills
3. Slow down your attacks and let the Damage over Time do that they do. Easiest way to slow down is to weave the Light or Heavy Attacks.
4. Use Cost Reduction gear, similar to Regen mentioned above
5. Make sure your armor has Glyphs on them to give more Magic or Stamina or whatever your focus is
6. Make sure you invest all or most of your Attribute points into the pool that feeds your skills.

Me I try to use the least amount of skills to kill mobs, even if takes longer. Dropping a couple DoT's and watching the mobs melt while I stand there is quite satisfying. Of course the Group and end game stuff is going to want you to do thing faster, but your still at the early stages.

Magdalina · January 2018

If you are interested in the original story line order, here are a few more things: once you hit mainland, a ghostly figure should approach you and send you to the Harborage, which is where you get main quests for most of the main questline. They used to be level gated but it's no longer the case and you can basically do them all in one go now if you want(ghostly figure will basically approach you with new quest as soon as you finish old one). At some point in the main storyline you'll get sent to Coldharbour, which is an out-of-the-world zone that you'll have to complete in order to finish the story. That's fairly straightforward.

There also are the alliances' storylines which are more or less separate from that. There's a main questline in every zone, you'll run into them one way or the other if you quest at all. I think on the map it's the quest pointers which have the clues on them written in green(everything else is in white). In your journal, I honestly don't remember if it says it's zone's main story but either way those are also pretty straightforward in the sense of following one another and sending you to the next zone once you finish this one. There are of course also many side quests which are not really related to either main story(although often there will be a non related side quest in the places where main quest leads you to).

For main zones, there're 5 zones and 1-2 small starter zones per alliance:
AD - Khenarthi's Roost for starter, Auridon, Grahtwood, Greenshade, Malabl Tor, Reaper's March
EP - Bleakrock and Bal Foyen for starter zones, Stonefalls, Deshaan, Shadowfen Eastmarch, Rift
DC - Stros M'Kai and Betnikh for starter zones, Glenumbra, Stormhaven, Rivenspire, Alik'r, Bangkorai
(all zones listed in the order they were originally intended to be done)

Craglorn is a no-faction zone accessible to everyone, like Coldharbour, except it's been added later so it's not really related to the main story. Morrowind is a chapter(which is basically a big dlc you cannot buy for crowns really). Everything else is dlcs. Tbh I'm not entirely sure if Morrowind edition includes dlcs or not, but you can easily check that in Crown Store - open the dlcs sections and look there, they'll be greyed out if you have "purchased" them.

It's not really as complicated as it must look for you now, you just find some quests and follow them around, people just get confused sometimes when they start in random places and/or jump zones

The game has originally been designed with linear progression in mind and level-specific zones, you could not do them in the wrong order if you wanted to, but now it's all open and sometimes not so obvious.

Amadis001 · January 2018

KnightfallZX2 wrote: »

@Amadis001 and @Magdalina thank you both for the suggestion about the main quest line. Is there a particular reason I began in VVardenfell if the original story quest isn't there, or was this just random?

This is the way all new characters start since they introduced Morrowind. For years, every new character started in the Wailing Prison in Coldharbour, and the tutorial mission was to escape the prison and get to your first starter island. But you are free to go whenever you want from VVardenfell to the mainland to experience the original game.

Whenever I start a new toon, I still port to the mainland as soon as possible and leave VVardenfell for later. I want to experience the game the way it was originally designed. I even try to follow the zones of my alliance rather than running around, "One Tamriel" style, anywhere I can go. It's a loss, in my opinion, that new players don't experience the original storyline of the game in the way that OG players did.

nihirisutou · January 2018

As a person who started by picking up Morrowind, I can confirm that you just own the Morrowind chapter + the base game.

I tried to play way back in 2014, but it didn't stick. However I did remember vaguely the start of the original quest and the first EP zone. So with that knowledge I felt a bit wronged for now starting in Vvardenfell without a clear indication how to initiate the original start.

Haven't gotten to explore Vvardenfell yet though so I can't argue on the experience of the zone's quests.

KnightfallZX2 · January 2018

nihirisutou wrote: »

As a person who started by picking up Morrowind, I can confirm that you just own the Morrowind chapter + the base game.

Yes, as I explored the map and learned how to zoom out (way, way out) I saw the other locations and how some say I need to purchase more DLC. Considering I only paid $20 CAD during the sale, I feel I did alright and probably won't mind picking up more DLC as I progress.

I wanted to thank everyone here for the tip on leaving Vvardenfell and beginning the Main Quest line. Wow, what a treat the past few hours have been! I was really missing out!