not quite a newbie, but mostly a single player....but how do I beat the harder baddies on quests?

Justwondering · November 2018

Okay, so I am a level 32 player, magic character, mostly a healer, I play mostly single and generally just hope someone might be doing the same activaty as me.

But due to enemies generally levelling to my level, how can I ever beat larger groups or even the harder main bosses in quests ? as I presume I can never become over powered as everything scales with the level.

Am I basically destined to failure without finding groups to play with ?!?!?

I do not play very often , so I generally just try to solo quests.

My weapons and gear are all around my level some a little bit lower....I do sometimes do the dungeons for gear.

Help and advice please.

DMuehlhausen · November 2018

By looking at them essentially.

The game has been so watered down it's not even enjoyable leveling anymore really.

You can almost light/heavy attack your way through all the content anymore. If you are struggling then your gear or something is broken, but even then you shouldn't really struggle to much.

Minyassa · November 2018

When I start to flag with quest bosses I know it is time for a full gear upgrade. In under-50s that is your best bet. Not only do you want your gear as close to your level as possible but you also want them enchanted with the best glyphs you can get for them. Also make sure you have a full stock of potions, a good two-stat food (health and your main stat), and ALWAYS have your weapons poisoned. When the quest bosses get tough it's miraculous how a full gear upgrade will let you go back and whoop their butts and feel avenged for the last 16 times they killed you.

Qualanthar · November 2018

What class are you?

You have some options - put more attribute points into health. Check if any of your skills have a healing effect - at the very least you could find a restoration staff and use it as one of your weapons.

The game gets easier once you hit 50 in my experience because you can start using Champion Points to buff up various attributes.

Good luck!

Tasear · November 2018

Make sure you have food and a gear set. Then try crushing shock+ blockade and you shouldn't have trouble as much.

phairdon · November 2018

Should be relatively easy at lower levels as character stats are quite high. Stay out of red circles. Maneuver around enemies. Snare them, knock them down, burst them down, reflect damage back at them, so forth. Learn to dodge roll. Find out which skill are most effective at bring down the enemy.

geonsocal · November 2018

what class are you?

my suggestion...stick with mostly heavy armor early on, no matter what class you're on...

make sure you are using a food/drink buff and you are quickslotting health/magicka/stamina potions...you can find cheap, but, useful stuff like this from the siege merchants at the starter gates in cyrodiil (not sure if the battlegrounds merchants also sell this stuff)...

be prepared for a grind it out victory against tougher public dungeon mobs and bosses...you should also be able to handle dolmens (not the geysers though) solo...

I can't think of too many quest bosses though that should completely shut you down...

just make sure you're able to heal, shield, and block...

you have to focus a bit on surviving, then sustaining, then dealing damage...hence, grinding out the win...

for world bosses and some public dungeons "events" you may need to hang around and wait for help, or, try calling out in zone chat and ask for help...

heaven13 · November 2018

What platform/server are you on, @Justwondering ? It doesn't matter for beating quests bosses but if you're on PC-NA, I'd be happy to give a hand in game.

Aliyavana · November 2018

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

By looking at them essentially.

The game has been so watered down it's not even enjoyable leveling anymore really.

You can almost light/heavy attack your way through all the content anymore. If you are struggling then your gear or something is broken, but even then you shouldn't really struggle to much.

Agreed. OP is likely wearing underleveled gear

malicia · November 2018

@Justwondering
The most difficult time for me in Eso was between lvl 30 and about CP200. Mobs may be scaled to your level, but it really feels as though lower levels are significantly buffed, losing the buff as they get closer to 50. Also, players at CP cap forget the very real impact of CP, and the massive difference a build makes where your skills, gear, attributes and CP are weaved together to make you pretty powerful. I'm roughly at CP 900, so I'm not seeking excuses when I say that CP plays a significant role.

On what server are you playing? Ideally you'd like to get build advice from a player who knows your class, and it would make a big difference if someone would craft you two complimentary sets.

As for being overpowered, that comes with experience, CP and gear.

If you are on PC EU, send me a mail ingame: @taciti - I'll see if I can help you out a bit. Replies will be slow - I'm wrapping up for the night.

MartiniDaniels · November 2018

If you are NB or Warden try to use vampiric buffs all the time + heavy armor, when I was at that game stage when I knew nothing about mechanics (happy times ^^) that combination allowed to solo many WB which don't spawn adds, because you slow but steadily put them down and your vampiric healing is faster then boss damage against high resistances. And on glass cannon WB will just kill you in 2 strikes..

malicia · November 2018

Oh, and mobs scale to CP160 only, I think? 🤔

Abigail · November 2018

Aliyavana wrote: »

Agreed. OP is likely wearing underleveled gear

That was my first thought.

My other thought was lack of mobility. I've learned that scrambling and kiting are my best skills.

As a healer, you can self heal. Do it.

MartiniDaniels · November 2018

malicia wrote: »

Oh, and mobs scale to CP160 only, I think? 🤔

They all CP160, it's your hero is scaled to CP160 at lvl1 and then become weaker and weaker with each level, compensating weakening base parameters with passives and gear. That's why lvl20 (cp810) hero in epic gear in best crafted sets is so amazingly powerful

Derra · November 2018

Does OP even have CP?

I think most people tend to forget that new players start without - and the game can actually be challenging at times if that´s the case.

geonsocal · November 2018

Derra wrote: »

Does OP even have CP?

I think most people tend to forget that new players start without - and the game can actually be challenging at times if that´s the case.

Justwondering wrote: »

Okay, so I am a level 32 player, magic character, mostly a healer, I play mostly single and generally just hope someone might be doing the same activaty as me.

But due to enemies generally levelling to my level, how can I ever beat larger groups or even the harder main bosses in quests ? as I presume I can never become over powered as everything scales with the level.

Am I basically destined to failure without finding groups to play with ?!?!?

I do not play very often , so I generally just try to solo quests.

My weapons and gear are all around my level some a little bit lower....I do sometimes do the dungeons for gear.

Help and advice please.

they're a newer player...

i just recently started some fresh toons over on the EU server for my platform...i can definitely cosign on the OP's concerns...

i've been playing for years, and, i definitely had some challenges just starting out without optimum gear or cp backing me up...

took me til about level 15 to be able to solo dolmen's and level 20 before i could make it through some of the public dungeons...

i tackled doshia with a level 15 toon, and, that stupid harvester almost killed me...

i can't even mess with the cyrodiil resource guards that much...i have to use siege to clear the guards around the flag out

it's a different game without cp, prime gear, or, a bunch of experience with all the different skills, passives, and game mechanics...

FrancisCrawford · November 2018

You didn't give your race/class.

What the others said about blue food. It's really, really cheap to make. It's the one thing you could ask for help with in zone chat in Vivec City without anybody getting annoyed. (The only complication is that most accounts only have one provisioner, who may not be the character they're logged onto at the moment.)
All or almost all your attribute points should be in magicka.
Light armor passive skills are strong. By Level 32 you should be wearing at least 5 pieces of light armor.
If you run the dolmens in one particular zone, such as the Alik'r Desert, you'll soon have a matching 3-piece set of magicka jewelry, assuming you don't have it already. That's easy to find a group for, at least in Alik'r.
Elemental Blockade is a great skill for any magicka class.

Beyond that, assuming you're a templar:

Puncturing Sweeps, Honor the Dead and Elemental Blockade alone are more than enough to solo almost any quest boss.
Reflective Light is an excellent and often underrated skill.
Channeled Focus is great when you get it.
Blazing Spear is a good skill.
Solar Barrage has become a good skill, but mainly if you have some understanding of light attack "weaving".

Feanor · November 2018

I mean, telling the OP that the game is really easy when it comes to questing - which it is - isn’t going to help him. I’d say most of the problems result from playing a healer setup - I know at least from own experience that leveling a tank is a royal PITA because you lack damage. Can imagine it’s the same for a healer setup.

So, my advice is to use more damage skills and level 2 healing skills on the bars passively.

DMuehlhausen · November 2018

Feanor wrote: »

I mean, telling the OP that the game is really easy when it comes to questing - which it is - isn’t going to help him. I’d say most of the problems result from playing a healer setup - I know at least from own experience that leveling a tank is a royal PITA because you lack damage. Can imagine it’s the same für a healer setup.

So, my advice is to use more damage skills and level 2 healing skills on the bars passively.

Sure, it's slow. I didn't level as a healer. It's what I play now, but I leveled with Damage skills. That being said like I said if your gear isn't broken (and as another person after me it isn't under leveled) you can light/heavy attack through everything. If you're a healer it should be even easier since you would have a heal or two to keep you topped off.

Salvas_Aren · November 2018

I'm quite astonished that nobody snapped on that *not quite a newbie* from a level 32.

Well, basically ask a kind soul to craft you something nice for levelling up. Ditch your gear every 10 to 20 levels completely and you're good. Don't waste your time while getting to CP level 160, then the real fun begins.

geonsocal · November 2018

ha @Justwondering , we're all eagerly awaiting to hear your race, class and current weapon and skill set ups so we can help you re-tool your toon

believe it or not - being challenged with quest bosses and such is an "issue" many of us more seasoned tamriel wanderers wish we had still...

FrancisCrawford · November 2018

Feanor wrote: »

I mean, telling the OP that the game is really easy when it comes to questing - which it is - isn’t going to help him. I’d say most of the problems result from playing a healer setup - I know at least from own experience that leveling a tank is a royal PITA because you lack damage. Can imagine it’s the same for a healer setup.

So, my advice is to use more damage skills and level 2 healing skills on the bars passively.

In any of the five classes, I level magicka characters with one destro bar and one resto bar.

TaliColdwater · November 2018

Justwondering wrote: »

Okay, so I am a level 32 player, magic character, mostly a healer, I play mostly single and generally just hope someone might be doing the same activaty as me.

But due to enemies generally levelling to my level, how can I ever beat larger groups or even the harder main bosses in quests ? as I presume I can never become over powered as everything scales with the level.

Am I basically destined to failure without finding groups to play with ?!?!?

I do not play very often , so I generally just try to solo quests.

My weapons and gear are all around my level some a little bit lower....I do sometimes do the dungeons for gear.

Help and advice please.

Ok, so as someone who did absolutely no research whatsoever for ESO before I started playing, and I'm currently only at 215CP, and I play solo 90% of the time, I may not be the best person to add my suggestions. However, I know how it feels to be completely lost and not know what I'm doing in the game.

My advice is this because it's what helped me:

Food and potions, most definitely. If you know you're going up a big quest boss or even just a tough one, eat food for health, stamina, and magicka help. Quickslot those potions that help restore health. You get a lot of those from just logging in with the daily rewards. I didn't even know you could "quickslot" something for a long time. When I figured it out, changed my life, lol.

Make sure your gear is always at your level and always repaired. That's another thing I didn't realize was that you had to repair your gear. For me, gear that focused on my health as I was starting out was best. Try to get set pieces, and you'll need 5 to make it a set. Pay attention to what the bonuses of the sets are.

Learn what weapons you work best with. It took me a long time to realize I fight best with a destruction staff. Everyone has their own fighting style. Learn yours and roll with it.

Make sure you're spending your skill points, and grab every skyshard you see as you see it. You may forget where it is if you don't get it right then.

Soul gems! Grab any and all that you can. I had a hard time finding them when I first started. I think I got to a point where I had 3 or 4 of them and thought I was rich, lol.

Lastly, try not to get frustrated. I remember a quest boss in Vvardenfell. I was about a level 15 or so. I could not beat her. I didn't know what to do. I tried probably 20 times. I thought about abandoning the quest. I hoped someone would just randomly show up in there with me. It just bothered me that I couldn't beat her. I ended up coming back to that quest like, 20 levels later. By then I had figured out more about my own fighting style, had a set of gear on, and had food and potions. I'd also spent skill points in good areas for me. When I finally beat her, it was satisfying, lol.

Sylvermynx · November 2018

@TaliColdwater: thanks for that - yes, I too have had to wait 20 or so levels to do some stuff.... It's galling really - in WoW and RIFT, I could get a couple of levels and then go back to do what needed doing. This game's not set up that way, and that was a hard lesson for me.

You know, when you start here with no background besides TES SPMR games, and other MMOs.... you don't get what's meant by "CP160" overland. And when I finally figured it out.... I almost quit playing.

But, I'm a tough old broad. I am trying really hard not to let the game devs beat me.

TaliColdwater · November 2018

@Sylvermynx Oh, I bet. Honestly, I had no experience with MMOs before ESO. Seriously, I was a Super Mario girl before. I really didn't play video games except for Hobbit Lego.

But I'm learning as I go, and you know what, yeah it's a challenge, but it's fun too!

TheShadowScout · November 2018

Justwondering wrote: »

...how can I ever beat larger groups or even the harder main bosses in quests ?

Point one - learn the important stuff...

Block the golden sparkles! Heavy attacks hurt!
Bash/Interrupt the red sparkles! Special attacks are nasty!
Bash the head swirlies! Never pass up a chance to stun your enemy when possible.
Dodge the red ground! Never just stand in an AoE

...this is where many people throw otherwise easy fights, there are quite a few opponents who can mess you up with one not blocked heavy attack to make the fight all the more difficult if not impossible (a certain gargoyle at a certain cliff comes to mind - the fight changed from "died thrice" to "won over half HP" by the blocking of the heavy attack for me when I first went through that one)

Point two - food buffs are your friend! Especially the HP food... 'Nuff said.

Point three - know yourself; the right skills change the whole fight!
If you face large group, make sure you have an AoE skill.
If you face a tough boss, make sure you have an selfheal. Actually, -always- have a selfheal, just in case.
A CC is always a good idea to mess up your opponents game.
If you are a ranged fighter, prioritize getting a ranged special attack interrupt (Crushing Shock / Venom Arrow), that one helps a lot in some fights. If you are a melee fighter, a gap closer is a must.
Sometimes you will want to adjust your skill load for a specific fight at hand, especially when it comes to ultimate selection... and that is the reason why its a good idea to max and morph -all- your skills, since you never know which one might become important at some time... ut that also requires you to -know- which skills are good for what, and that means a lot of experimenting. Don't be afraid to take your time and find out!

Point four - learn resource management.
Don't just burn all your stamina/magica on skills, keep mixing in heavy attacks (unless your opponent has a shield, you don't want to get blocked) to keep your resources high enough to be able to break any CC that might get laid on you, or block a heavy attack at any time.
Same for your health, while you often can breeze through standard mobs on pure force, many bossfights turn into endurance matches where its important you keep your HP up. Don't be afraid to use those healing potions from your quickslot even before you get to deaths door!

Point five - know your enemies!
This is important, you can get a lot better once you know what an enemy will do. See a Dwemer Centurion bend his knees, know the steam blast is coming and dodge before the red even appears, then get in a free attack from the flank. See a troll raise his fists, know the ground bash is coming, dodge to his rear and get a free heavy attack at his back since that one can hit from outside the AoE range. Et cetera. Its even more important for bosses...

Point six - gear up!
With the battle levelling the level of your gear is not as important as before, but you still should have a halfway decent selection. More important is getting a few partial sets together (it helps if you run characters in each alliance on paralel - one mage gets all the light armor sets, one rogue gets all the medium and one tank gets all the heavy, that way you will always have a good selection!); don't worry about wasting the better tempers, green is good enough for general questing until you get to CP 160 and start assembling your "dream set". Also keep looking for treasure chests, those are a -great- source for soul gems to power your weapon enchantments, and free gear to use... and all it takes to find them is time spent exploring all the maps nooks and crannies. Same for thieves troves.

Point seven - get support!
Friends can help a lot, be it by questing with you, helping you farm gear in dungeons, crafting for you, giving hints or advice on mobs you haven't figured out yet... and naturally, guilds are a great place to find the people who might help you out if you just ask nicely; a lot of the experienced people there may just love to show off how much they know, and some will enjoy helping newbies just for the fun of it (as long as you don't overstrain their good nature)!

Point eight - stop complaining and start grinding... champion points!
Once you get through it all for the first time and start on the champion system, things will get easier and easier as you raise that one. Until you might start threads here complaining that the overland mobs are just no challenge anymore...

Hope some of that helps out a bit!

LaveniaRose · November 2018

ESO was the first MMO or RPG that I ever played and I definitely struggled around level 30 as well.

What made the game easier for me, even without CP or gear:
1) Put all of your attribute points into magicka or stamina, not both and not health. I put them into whatever resource I ran out of and ended up not being able to kill anything as a result.
2) Put one damage over time, one area attack, one high tooltip attack, and one heal on your bar. It should use whatever you put your attribute points into. I only looked at tooltip starting out (so yes, I only hit snipe).

That should make questing easier...

ihazzit · November 2018

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

In any of the five classes, I level magicka characters with one destro bar and one resto bar.

This ^^

Zardayne · November 2018

Justwondering wrote: »

Okay, so I am a level 32 player, magic character, mostly a healer, I play mostly single and generally just hope someone might be doing the same activaty as me.

But due to enemies generally levelling to my level, how can I ever beat larger groups or even the harder main bosses in quests ? as I presume I can never become over powered as everything scales with the level.

Am I basically destined to failure without finding groups to play with ?!?!?

I do not play very often , so I generally just try to solo quests.

My weapons and gear are all around my level some a little bit lower....I do sometimes do the dungeons for gear.

Help and advice please.

IMO one of the keys to ESO combat is AOE (area of effect) spells. Drop 2 or 3 of these and watch the majority of your targets melt, even without cp. Blockade of Storms out of destro staff and mix in one or two others. I always run destro/resto staves but I very rarely use any healing for overland. If your running public dungeons and tackling big groups of mobs just buff up, hit yourself with a HOT (heal over time like mutagen or rapid regen), and run in and drop your 2 or 3 AOEs and use block. You might get to fire off one or two single target abilities before they're all dead. Takes a little practice but you'll get it down pretty quick. Before long you'll be doing the rotation in your sleep.

Other things which others have mentioned is if your magica, put the majority of your attribute points into magica. I usually put in 6 or so into health just to toughen up my breton a tad. Make sure you make and use food. For everyday food I use blue dual stat food for health/mag.

Do a little research about equipment sets. It's amazing how much wearing proper armor sets helps you and there's some good ones you can craft. IMO playing in game on a MMO is only part of the fun. Doing some reading/watching videos about the game and then coming up with your own armor and skill mixtures is the other.

Shadow Scout had some good ones above as well.

Tannus15 · November 2018

As a general rule, use blue food, in your case, max health and max magicka.

Find a way to get major sorcery and major prophecy. You can get these from entropy and mages light via the mages guild. Most classes have other options, but no matter what these are available.

Other than that use heavy armour for your chest and legs and light armour for everything else and you should be fine.

Pick a zone which has a decent light armour and heavy armour set and farm for a little bit through delves, dolmens, public dungeons and treasure chests and you'll be kitted out in no time

Alik'r desert or Glenumbra will do fine for this.

Alik'r also pretty much always has a bunch of people farming the dolmens which makes getting jewelry super easy.

Justwondering · November 2018

Hi, A HUGE THANK YOU , to you all for your wonderful and helpful replies...

I would like to confirm my character is currently level 34

Race High Elf
Class Nightblade
CP (not sure where to check for this)

It looks like I have put too many points into a variety of things on my character, current magic is 20 , health 14 and stam 8 ....any way to reset these ?

I would also like to say, your points have all been valid for my case, I was not quick slotting things such as food and potions.
My armour is mostly at my level 34, but some is as low as 32 but tended to be the good stuff from dungeons, my armour is made up of different sets and I have not been repairing my gear !!

I was also playing more like a tank, I need to practice my blocking for sure, I was treating the game more like a hack and slash !!
I think I might install a couple of addons such as for skyshard and the lore books.

I did not relaise until yesterday that pressing "U" pulled up all my DLC's, I have most of them all accept the latest one that is currently available.....but I shocked myself to see out of all my DLCS some of them I had not yet even done the starting quest !!!!!!!!! so I have a lot of content to be going on with....

It is also good to know that solo play is not a pointless task , I just need to work on my character...I have not even really done much in the way of making food or potions !!

Just been playing this evening and I had a couple of free high percent 2 hour bonus xp boosters, so I have been doing dungeons , went up 2 level so far and got loads of fresh gear.