New Player with story/quests questions

Jushiro · May 2018

Hey everyone, returned to ESO two weeks ago and I'm utterly in love with it. Although there are many guides online about builds, PVP, Dungeons, etc, I have yet to find a guide on the quintessential quests lines I should go for to get up to date on the current story. I started playing all my main quests and found myself on Coldharbour at level 28. I feel like I skipped so much story (the line assumed I had already met all these characters and many of them it was the first time I have seen them) and maybe I should not be in Coldharbour just yet.
Here is the question- Do you recommend me continuing with just the main quest line and ignore everything else until Im current or should I maybe pause and go back and do the guilds, alliances, important side quest- and if I do, which ones and in what order should I do them?

Thanks everyone!

kringled_1 · May 2018

For plot consistency, I would recommend going back and playing through your alliance quest line through all 5 main zones. Fighter's and mages guild quests are somewhat of a sideline to this, although they were intended to somewhat follow the same order. This still won't completely fix the issue with npcs that you don't know yet, as Coldharbour has npcs from all three alliances, but it helps somewhat.

Beardimus · May 2018

I always say to do

- main quest
- alliance quest
- clear zones of dolmens, delves, group event, skyshards, lore books as you go
- fighters / mages either as you go or rattle through it in one hot to keep the story fresher.

Great XP, relevant story, and sorts a few skill lines you will need out.

Jushiro · May 2018

Beardimus wrote: »

I always say to do

- main quest
- alliance quest
- clear zones of dolmens, delves, group event, skyshards, lore books as you go
- fighters / mages either as you go or rattle through it in one hot to keep the story fresher.

Great XP, relevant story, and sorts a few skill lines you will need out.

That sounds like a good plan! So do I continue in Coldharbour until I complete the main quest or should I go back and do the alliance line like Kringled_1 suggested?

davey1107 · May 2018

In the vanilla game original release, several quest lines meet up in Coldharbour at the point where there’s a sort of council meeting.

- the main story quest

- the mages guild quest, approx six quests that proceed by collecting blue books and leaving the skill line.

- the fighters guild quest, approx six quests that proceed by leveling the line by killing undead and daedra and closing dolmens.

- each of the three faction quest lines, which start in the zone one starter city and progress through all five zones with ~5 multi-stage, major quests in each zone (and three skill points per zone).

Note that the faction quests can be confusing because of One Tamriel and the ability to go anywhere. Not only can you run all three factions at the same time, the quests in these lines can be run in multiple zones within a faction at the same time. In other words, Auridon sets the state for Queen Ayren’s situation. But you can pick up the Dominion quest at the entrance of Reapers before completing Auridon, and jump into the middle of the story. This can be really confusing. To prevent getting lost, as you run a faction quest line always pick up the next quest at the location where you complete one. There will always be a quest giver pointing you along the path.

In the original release, you did not have to complete any of the other lines to finish the main quest. You could not complete more than one faction, because you were not allowed into the other areas until you’d completed the main story quest. You can complete however many of them as you like...but the more you do, the higher level you’ll be when you go to coldharbour. This isn’t a problem, it’s just if you were to run all three factions you’d be way, way into vet by the time you wrapped the main line.

After the main quest

The dlc quest lines occur after the main story. However, they’re designed so you can’t really tell and there aren’t any spoilers. You occasionally meet familiar characters, but the quests are written in a way where you could be meeting them before or after your Morag bol adventures. These quest lines currently are:

- Craglorn, a major storyline through the zone
- Imperial city, a really loose story inside IC
- Wrothgar, major line w/ skill points
- Hew’s Bane and Gold Coast, major lines w skill points through the guilds in those zone
- vvardenfell, two major lines and multiple area quests. This zone is designed to be played in any order and can be considered before or after the main quest.
- Clockwork City, a major line w/ points.

The dlcs vaguely reference one another in the Ryder they were released. They can be played in any order, though.

Jushiro · May 2018

davey1107 wrote: »

In the vanilla game original release, several quest lines meet up in Coldharbour at the point where there’s a sort of council meeting.

- the main story quest

- the mages guild quest, approx six quests that proceed by collecting blue books and leaving the skill line.

- the fighters guild quest, approx six quests that proceed by leveling the line by killing undead and daedra and closing dolmens.

- each of the three faction quest lines, which start in the zone one starter city and progress through all five zones with ~5 multi-stage, major quests in each zone (and three skill points per zone).

Note that the faction quests can be confusing because of One Tamriel and the ability to go anywhere. Not only can you run all three factions at the same time, the quests in these lines can be run in multiple zones within a faction at the same time. In other words, Auridon sets the state for Queen Ayren’s situation. But you can pick up the Dominion quest at the entrance of Reapers before completing Auridon, and jump into the middle of the story. This can be really confusing. To prevent getting lost, as you run a faction quest line always pick up the next quest at the location where you complete one. There will always be a quest giver pointing you along the path.

In the original release, you did not have to complete any of the other lines to finish the main quest. You could not complete more than one faction, because you were not allowed into the other areas until you’d completed the main story quest. You can complete however many of them as you like...but the more you do, the higher level you’ll be when you go to coldharbour. This isn’t a problem, it’s just if you were to run all three factions you’d be way, way into vet by the time you wrapped the main line.

After the main quest

The dlc quest lines occur after the main story. However, they’re designed so you can’t really tell and there aren’t any spoilers. You occasionally meet familiar characters, but the quests are written in a way where you could be meeting them before or after your Morag bol adventures. These quest lines currently are:

- Craglorn, a major storyline through the zone
- Imperial city, a really loose story inside IC
- Wrothgar, major line w/ skill points
- Hew’s Bane and Gold Coast, major lines w skill points through the guilds in those zone
- vvardenfell, two major lines and multiple area quests. This zone is designed to be played in any order and can be considered before or after the main quest.
- Clockwork City, a major line w/ points.

The dlcs vaguely reference one another in the Ryder they were released. They can be played in any order, though.

Awesome break down!!! Thank you so much! Ill definitely follow your suggestions!

kringled_1 · May 2018

For story purposes, I personally do main quest up to and including "the shadow of Sancre
Tor" early, as the connection to alliance storyline is low that far.