Newbie Question on levels

Ahnog · May 2018

How does this work? You hit level 50, then something called CP (what is that). I see people talking about getting to 160, I thought there were only 50 levels. Not overly concerned with this, only level 11 right now. Enjoying Morrowind Warden.

Ilsabet · May 2018

CP (champion points) is basically a secondary leveling system that kicks in after you get to level 50. Technically everyone in CP (or "vet") levels is level 50, with a certain number of CP. The major thing that's different about gaining CP versus gaining levels is the practical benefit. When you gain a level on the way to level 50, you get attribute and skill points to use and your base stats change a little. When you gain a champion point, it doesn't do anything for you until you assign it. There's a whole champion point array (which you can see by hitting = if you're on PC; not sure about console) with lots of different passives that you can choose from. So you can tailor your CP allocation to fit the kind of build you want. It's a kind of specialized horizontal progression rather than just basic "I get stronger."

Another important thing is that champion points are account-wide. If your main character is over level 50 and is earning CP, all the other characters on the account can assign the same number of available CP, even if they're not level 50 yet. And if you get other characters to level 50, they will automatically be whatever CP level your main is.

The CP 160 mark is important because that's the requirement for the max level gear in the game. Most people will wait until then to go all-in on their gear because there's no more trading up at that point.

Eeri_Ravencaw · May 2018

Your level is capped at 50. After that you don't receive any skill points though you can still get them from sky shards and quest rewards.
What you gain after level 50 are champion points (CP) which you can put in constellations to improve your stats.

Ahnog · May 2018

Thanks Guys

davey1107 · May 2018

Wardens are totally fun. Let me answer your question, then after I’ll insert some general tips that might he,p on unrelated topics...things I might have wanted to know as a newbie. Just in case they’re helpful.

Champion Points

To clarify a little, the level number and Champion Point number are totally different. When your character hits level 50, they become a vet with 0 champion points.

CPs are earned by vets earning any XP...quests, kills, whatever. They’re on an ascending scale, meaning your first CP requires ~25,000 xp, then Point number 100 requires about 200k xp. Point 300 takes 400k xp. It takes more and more xp for each point. So you earn them really fast at first, then they slow down.

Points you earn are spent in the champion tree, which you don’t have unlocked yet. The points buy small buffs that add up to a lot as you accumulate more. As an example, one passive in the tree increases direct damage, and another increases stamina recovery. If I spend five on those, maybe I get 1% more damage and 1% more recovery. When I spend fifty points in each, maybe I get 18% more damage and 12% more recovery. They’re tiny buffs that add up to a lot.

CPs are by account, not character. So if your account has 100 CPs you get to spend 100 on EVERY character in your account, even non-vet characters. Once you have a vet out earning CPs, any new character you roll will be stronger than your first because of the ability to spend CP.

All vet characters on your account work toward CPs together. If I log off my vet main having earned 200k of 800k for my next point, and I log into my vet mag sorc, he picks up where I left off, working toward that point from the 200k mark. Your character sheets on vets will have a CP progress bar.

Once you have the CP system unlocked, you will start getting something called “daily enlightenment.” This is a catch up mechanism that helps you earn CPs faster by giving you a daily dose of super charged xp on your account, to be used by vet characters. When you get to vet and become really confused how this works, come back here and ask. It’s complicared and you don’t need to know the specifics right now, lol.

Other tips (the more you know...ding ding ding)

- if you join a guild you can travel to the wayshrine closest to any online member for free. This can help you get around if you don’t want to walk. Go into social...guilds...roster. Select any online player then travel to. They aren’t notified or anything, you just move to the wayshrine closest to them.

- if you haven’t noticed, class and weapon skill lines level by slotting abilities from those lines. Like if you discover your Animal Companions line is leveling slow or fast, that’s why. To level a line faster, slot more abilities from it as you earn xp.

- to get a weapon line to show up in your menu you need to equip that weapon type and kill something. To get an armor line (light, ledium, heavy) to show up you need to wear three pieces of that type. This is a stupid change they made recently and it can cause confusion. You should at least go put on junk gear to open the armor lines so you can see future options.

- you should join the mage and fighters guild. You can do this in your zone 1 city. You don’t have to play them now, but it’s helpful to have the lines unlocked. Fighters is especially important, because you’ll be earning a lot of stuff that levels it as you play. I forgot to do this on a character I got all the way to vet...it was stupid, lol.

- now that you are over level 10, you may enter Cyrodiil. You can try PvP if you like, but even if you don’t you might pop in to unlock a pretty handy skill for a low level character - retreating maneuvers (+30% speed for 30 seconds). This can help long horse rides seem more bearable, lol. To get into Cyrodiil:

Go into campaigns in your menu

Find the non-vet campaign (or whichever you prefer)

Join as home or guest (doesn’t really matter)

Once joined, you may queue up into line, then when there’s room you’ll be prompted to enter Cyrodiil.

At the entrance to your home base there is a quest giver that does a little Cyrodiil tutorial. You’ll be rewarded AP for this quest, which is the XP currency in PvP. This AP will be enough to level up your alliance war rank, which will give you one skill point and open the assault and support skill lines. You’ll be able to unlock retreating maneuvers from there.

Feel free to explore Cyrodiil beyond that...it’s a huge zone.

To leave Cyrodiil you have to use the wayshrines at the bases, not the transitus shrines.

Hope that helps. Good luck, and welcome to the game!

Ahnog · May 2018

davey1107 wrote: »

Wardens are totally fun. Let me answer your question, then after I’ll insert some general tips that might he,p on unrelated topics...things I might have wanted to know as a newbie. Just in case they’re helpful.

Champion Points

To clarify a little, the level number and Champion Point number are totally different. When your character hits level 50, they become a vet with 0 champion points.

CPs are earned by vets earning any XP...quests, kills, whatever. They’re on an ascending scale, meaning your first CP requires ~25,000 xp, then Point number 100 requires about 200k xp. Point 300 takes 400k xp. It takes more and more xp for each point. So you earn them really fast at first, then they slow down.

Points you earn are spent in the champion tree, which you don’t have unlocked yet. The points buy small buffs that add up to a lot as you accumulate more. As an example, one passive in the tree increases direct damage, and another increases stamina recovery. If I spend five on those, maybe I get 1% more damage and 1% more recovery. When I spend fifty points in each, maybe I get 18% more damage and 12% more recovery. They’re tiny buffs that add up to a lot.

CPs are by account, not character. So if your account has 100 CPs you get to spend 100 on EVERY character in your account, even non-vet characters. Once you have a vet out earning CPs, any new character you roll will be stronger than your first because of the ability to spend CP.

All vet characters on your account work toward CPs together. If I log off my vet main having earned 200k of 800k for my next point, and I log into my vet mag sorc, he picks up where I left off, working toward that point from the 200k mark. Your character sheets on vets will have a CP progress bar.

Once you have the CP system unlocked, you will start getting something called “daily enlightenment.” This is a catch up mechanism that helps you earn CPs faster by giving you a daily dose of super charged xp on your account, to be used by vet characters. When you get to vet and become really confused how this works, come back here and ask. It’s complicared and you don’t need to know the specifics right now, lol.

Other tips (the more you know...ding ding ding)

- if you join a guild you can travel to the wayshrine closest to any online member for free. This can help you get around if you don’t want to walk. Go into social...guilds...roster. Select any online player then travel to. They aren’t notified or anything, you just move to the wayshrine closest to them.

- if you haven’t noticed, class and weapon skill lines level by slotting abilities from those lines. Like if you discover your Animal Companions line is leveling slow or fast, that’s why. To level a line faster, slot more abilities from it as you earn xp.

- to get a weapon line to show up in your menu you need to equip that weapon type and kill something. To get an armor line (light, ledium, heavy) to show up you need to wear three pieces of that type. This is a stupid change they made recently and it can cause confusion. You should at least go put on junk gear to open the armor lines so you can see future options.

- you should join the mage and fighters guild. You can do this in your zone 1 city. You don’t have to play them now, but it’s helpful to have the lines unlocked. Fighters is especially important, because you’ll be earning a lot of stuff that levels it as you play. I forgot to do this on a character I got all the way to vet...it was stupid, lol.

- now that you are over level 10, you may enter Cyrodiil. You can try PvP if you like, but even if you don’t you might pop in to unlock a pretty handy skill for a low level character - retreating maneuvers (+30% speed for 30 seconds). This can help long horse rides seem more bearable, lol. To get into Cyrodiil:

Go into campaigns in your menu

Find the non-vet campaign (or whichever you prefer)

Join as home or guest (doesn’t really matter)

Once joined, you may queue up into line, then when there’s room you’ll be prompted to enter Cyrodiil.

At the entrance to your home base there is a quest giver that does a little Cyrodiil tutorial. You’ll be rewarded AP for this quest, which is the XP currency in PvP. This AP will be enough to level up your alliance war rank, which will give you one skill point and open the assault and support skill lines. You’ll be able to unlock retreating maneuvers from there.

Feel free to explore Cyrodiil beyond that...it’s a huge zone.

To leave Cyrodiil you have to use the wayshrines at the bases, not the transitus shrines.

Hope that helps. Good luck, and welcome to the game!

Thank you. Everyone is so helpful in this game. I've already joined two guilds and both are great. I'm a PVE story guy, but I'll try what you suggested. Again, thank you for the advise.