Need Help for a Beginner Loremaster

Mendosa · January 2018

I'm just started the game, played 10 hours for now and need some guidance, please help

I'm a WoW Loremaster, never played for big numbers or ranks but lore, spent my 99% time while questing finally started to ESO with an advice but have a trouble with builds.

I wanna be a non-magical lonely ranger in this world who has a bow in his back and use his sword and a modest shield to protect himself.

Afaik, bows are used for dots in melee range between rotations which seems no sense. I wanna make my own build with long range non-dot bow and sword&shield for melee.

I know, this won't be viable for group contents like hard mode raids or mythic dungeons but my primary concern is that can I complete all quests in the game on my own? Or do I have to use one of the well known builds to complete late quests? Is it really possible to complete whole quests and also have fun with my very own sword&shield build (as solo)?

If the answer is "yes" than could you advice a class/race for this kind of hero? (I'm a non-magical lonely ranger who has no pet also no magic and use a sword&shield primary waepon and a bow for long range hunting etc, you know just a human after all)

Robo_Hobo · January 2018

You can do all of the quests with that kind of build. The quests in this game are very forgiving in terms of combat, and everything levels to you - or rather, you level to it.

All you really need is a means of healing yourself and maybe some means of AOE damage, and the rest can be whatever you want.

By the way, welcome, fellow lore lover

Tasear · January 2018

As a healer I can solo some world bosses just light attacking and spaming some skills. You can literally play as you want as long you have quality food. ( Shanters desshan ... check there)

First thing for lore master complete mage guild quest line. There's something related to your profession in there.

Also welcome to the game!

Robo_Hobo · January 2018

Yeah, what Taesar said - definitely do the Mages guild questline. Even though you're not a mage, the Mages Guild is more about collecting lorebooks, lost tomes, etc. and the reward you get from the end of the questline will definitely be something that you as a lore seeker would love.

ssorgatem · January 2018

Yes, you can pretty much solo almost all quests with such a build.

Almost all, or all, I haven't done myself all normal trials yet, so I don't know how viable a suboptimal build would be there.

But you can do 99.99% of the game until getting there without trouble, so I wouldn't worry.

As for race and class... I think, lore-wise, the most fitting would be a Wood Elf (Bosmer), or maybe a Khajiit. Both provide nice passives for that kind of build too.

As for class... the choice is pretty free. Depends on whether you would like on specializing later on as a pure DD or as a tank. Either way, i think a Dragonknight would work well, but a Nightblade or a Templar could do it too.

Or, if you have Morrowind, a Warden. Actually, a Bosmer Warden archer doesn't sound bad at all from a lore perspective.

I think the one I don't think you'd like to pick is Sorcerer.

Mendosa · January 2018

Thanks for your answers, I love non-toxic friendly communities

Could you advice me a chronologic storyline also? I don't want to start with Morrowind. I found something like Aliance zone > Cold Harboor > Imperial City > Orsinium > Dark Broterhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City but have no idea about mage/fighter guilds. And is there any practical way to avoid accidently start the next expension zone prematurely?

VaranisArano · January 2018

I agree with everyone saying your idea for a build is totally viable. if you want more specific build advice:

Stamina is the attribute you'll want to focus on if you are using a bow/sword and shield combo. Those weapon skills cost stamina, heavy attacks with those skills will regenerate stamina, and having more stamina will make your attacks with those weapons hit harder. With bow/sword and shield, you'll be able to transition to tank or DPS if you decide to run end-game group content later in your gameplay. Tanks often run sword and shield, DPS run dual wield, and most stamina builds use a bow.

Once you've got stamina, you can actually choose any class in the game. All classes have some form of class skill that can be morphed to use stamina, but most use weapon skills like one-hand and shield, dual wield, bow, or two-handed for their main damaging abilities. Here's a quick run down of the stamina versions of classes and how they play.

Stamina Dragonknight: Stam DKs have class abilities that give them powerful poison strikes that do damage over time, as well as a lot of innate tankiness from class resistances. Good damage, good self-protection.
Stamina Sorcerer: Stam Sorcs have good self-healing, self-sustain, and powerful AOEs from their class abilities. They were the easiest for me to level, with the AOE from Hurricane chewing up anyone in melee combat. Good AOE damage, good self-heals.
Stamina Nightblade: Stamblades are the glass cannons of the bunch with class skills for stealth and absolutely wrecking opponents with excellent debuffs and executes. They can be pretty squishy depending on how you play them. Fantastic damage potential, much less self-protection. The best defense is a good offense.
Stamina Templars: Stamplars have great ranged and melee options from their class skills fueled by the massive healing capacity of the templar class. They got some great debuffs as well. Good damage, lots of options for healing.
Stamina Warden: Stam Wardens are the first class ZOS really designed to have both a magicka and stamina version, and it shows. Stam Wardens have tons of class skills to work with, from protection to AOE debuffs, to stamina-based heals and self-buffs. Stam Wardens tend to lean towards burst damage, making them fantastic for soloing and PVP, but a little less good as DPS in end-game group content as DPS. They excel as tanks and are actually viable as stamina-based healers. Jack of All Trades, and master of most of those.

As for race, you can pick whatever you want. Race really only makes a difference in end-game top-tier DPS tests. Otherwise it'll just make your life a little easier.
Races with Stamina benefits in passives: Redguard, Imperial, Orc, Khajiit, Bosmer, Nord, Dunmer
I should note that I've got a Breton stam sorc who's racial passives are all magicka based and she does perfectly fine in questing and veteran group dungeons, so again, a "unoptimal" race choice won't prevent you from completing whatever content you want to.

Aurielle · January 2018

It's definitely possible to do all the quests in this game with a 1H+S/Bow build. The difficulty level on overland mobs is trivial. You'd struggle with world bosses using that build (especially if you're not planning on using AOE dots), but that's about the only solo content I can think of that might present difficulties.

Keep in mind, though, that the 1H+S line is optimized specifically for tanking/debuffing and doesn't do great damage. You might get more enjoyment from a 2H/bow build. The 2H line has a great stamina-based healing skill (Rally) that would help you survive taking on more enemies at once. You might also want to invest in Fighter's Guild skills like Rearming Trap (which provides decent damage and immobilizes a single target -- probably a handy tool for any hunter to have at his disposal).

Race doesn't matter all that much (as long as you don't pick one of the magicka-oriented races, like Altmer, Dunmer, and Breton), though as has already been pointed out, Wood Elves and Khajiit are good for bow builds.

Edit: Oops, I see you asked about race as well. Honestly, for an RP build, I don't think it matters all that much -- I'm assuming most of your skills will be drawn from your weapon lines anyway, since you don't want to use magic. Nightblade is a good option if you ever decide to respec later on as a pure stamina damage dealer for dungeons. It fits the rogue archetype more than the ranger/hunter archetype, but it's probably the closest you're going to get. All the other classes rely on magic a lot, and the Warden specializes in pets (which you say you don't want).

ssorgatem · January 2018

lkaragol wrote: »

Thanks for your answers, I love non-toxic friendly communities Could you advice me a chronologic storyline also? I don't want to start with Morrowind. I found something like Aliance zone > Cold Harboor > Imperial City > Orsinium > Dark Broterhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City but have no idea about mage/fighter guilds. And is there any practical way to avoid accidently start the next expension zone prematurely?

Fighters' and Mages' guild quests can be done at the very beginning, story-wise.

Mages Guild is completely unrelated to the rest.

I'd suggest doing Fighters Guild before getting to Coldharbour, though. Otherwise it's a bit... odd, towards the end of the questline.

Also, after Coldharbour, and before engaging in DLC zones, I'd advice doing Cadwell's silver and gold, that, the alliance quests of the other 2 alliances.
Although you could do them before completing the main quest too, but that's not how they were originally conceived.

If you own Morrowind, you will start off in Vvardenfell, make sure to travel to your alliance's first main city (Vulkhel Guard if you are AD, Davon's Watch for EP, Daggerfall for DC), and there you can start the "regular" main quest.

bethsheba · January 2018

I love Lore too! I only play the game to learn this world's every nook an cranny! You have a MASSIVE amount of lore before you, enjoy it, and play any way you want! Build any way you want too, because even if you have an issue later in the game due to the choices in your build, then just ask for help there. So many people are willing to lend a hand in game.

I am sticking to the original Zos promise that I can play the way I want to, regardless of so many pushing you to level fast (including now ZoS themselves with this new levelling advisor that is coming in the next update. Thankfully you can turn it off and ignore it) and I am having the time of my life still. Not only do I love having multiple ways to play, I have filled my slots with different toons so that I can explore and experience in different ways due to different builds.

Loc2262 · January 2018

Welcome to the game @lkaragol!

Most relevant things have already been said, so I'd just like to confirm that a) if you're after lore and solo quests, you've come to the right game. Even though it's an MMO, it has an incredible amount of solo and story content. And the best thing, that content is so easy, you can go with any build you like.

The developer designed the solo quests so that players of any level and any experience can do them. The only thing you're mostly lacking as a stamina char is strong self-heals and shields. So if you have the Morrowind expansion, I agree that you might want to look into the Warden class. In my opinion, it's the best overall solo class, the only one with a dedicated stamina based self-heal outside of PVP's Vigor, and if you like the "bonding with nature" type of character, it'll be the right thing for you lore-wise.

Pair that with the cuteness and nature-closeness of Wood Elves and you're set. I just leveled up a Bosmer Stamina Warden during the last double XP event, and it was great fun.