Second character reached lv50...and the game turned into a nightmare

lorgarnb16_ESO · May 2019

I have tried to find if someone else has the problem but so far I did not find anything. This is what happened.

I am a causal player. I hop on and off to the game, as everybody's fixation on the endgame is turning me down. I would like to find others to play along the landscapes, delves and public dungeons and (god forbid) roleplay, but people are not interested in that any more. I have been through this in several guilds, without finding one to suite my play style so I mostly play solo.

My first character is a tank, which can do most things on his own, although he takes ages to defeat most elite level enemies. I decided to try a different kind of game mechanism and rolled for a stamina nightblade, initially having huge problems as on how to survive playing that 'glass cannon', but after developing some key abilities and working around my load out things went fine....

Well until i reached lv 50 with the second character. Now the game scales everything on the CP level of my first character, all my gear is worthless and even with crafting I can not compensate. I can not survive most elite enemies any more, I cant do delves and most quests now pose a problem. So instead of getting a level up, my character now feels completely under powered.

How does one overcome that level and equipment gap? It feels like i have to do a huge grind now, just to get my character back to a kind of standard, which he already had and lost by leveling up, in fact, I feel punished for leveling up.

Any advice on this?

Best regards.

NordSwordnBoard · May 2019

Any useful equipment at 160 the tank picked up?

Any gold to buy some equipment?

Try crafting some Hunding's Rage to start, you must have some materials saved. I don't understand how crafting equipment equal to your level is not good enough. Are your weapons purple or gold? Applied all CP on the NB?

Not being able to do a delve on NB is a problem.

lorgarnb16_ESO · May 2019

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Any useful equipment at 160 the tank picked up?

Just some runes.

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Any gold to buy some equipment?

Do the NPC Vendors have anything I can use?

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Try crafting some Hunding's Rage to start, you must have some materials saved.

I do not have enough materials. I started running around killing tigers and crocodiles for random drops and leather but I cant replace all my gear in that manner.

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

I don't understand how crafting equipment equal to your level is not good enough.

Because I could only do standard items, if I had the materials.

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Are your weapons purple or gold?

Hell, no !

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Applied all CP on the NB?

Yes.

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Not being able to do a delve on NB is a problem.

Indeed it is....

Nestor · May 2019

It's not that it's your second character, the game scales things the same way. In fact, if your CP Level is 160 or better, the game is not scaling anything.

What it probably is, assuming your at or near CP160, is your gear. Nothing is weaker in this game than a CP160 in leveling gear. Even base non set drops in CP160 are better than leveling gear.

Ilsabet · May 2019

Okay having read your second post, I'm modifying the response I started with.

Since it sounds like you haven't been doing research to be able to craft set gear, don't even worry about crafting. Also don't bother with buying gear from NPC vendors because that's junk. What you want is gear with set bonuses, some of which you can farm from overland monsters or more easily buy from guild traders. I would suggest doing some reading about sets (here's a big ol' list) and pick out a couple of medium armor stamina DPS sets that come from regular zones, and then run around looking for treasure chests or find groups doing dolmens or world bosses to start picking up some set gear. Or you can peruse guild traders for set gear that fits your budget. Eventually you'll want to accumulate two 5-piece sets to get all of those bonuses.

In the meantime, though, just equip whatever green or blue or purple gear you find that's at your current level. That will at least overcome the severe disadvantage of having underleveled gear. As a general piece of info, the game doesn't scale to the level of individual characters. Everything in the game, including our characters, is scaled to CP160. Lower-level characters actually benefit more from being scaled up, so you will feel "weaker" as you level and that benefit gradually diminishes. This is why it's very important to use gear at or near your character level, because the scaling punishes you for having underleveled gear.

Also general stuff like using food (preferably blue with your resource of choice + health), buff and crowd control skills, staying out of red, interrupting, etc. will help a lot with surviving.

Nestor · May 2019

Peruse the guild kiosks and buy a couple 5 piece sets that are slanted to either Stamina or Magic as your character is set up. Sure there are some sets that are better for some builds than other, however any set that matches your attribute choice is better than nothing.

NordSwordnBoard · May 2019

NPC Vendors have crap gear unless its the Golden in Cyrodiil

Find a couple dungeon sets you like. Use your tank on normal (vet if you want purple jewelry) to save gear for your NB. Tanks have a quick que in random dungeons, and maybe a few people will also be farming gear with you. Most folks will give up what you ask for.

Decon the gear you don't want and save the materials. Wearing two 5 piece sets or a combo of 1 with 3 Agility jewelry will be OK for delves and such until you start getting into monster helms and higher end gear.

At least make the weapons purple and enchant them.

Another alternative is joining a guild that looks to help people as its main objective, and have someone walk you through this.

SirLeeMinion · May 2019

So.. assuming you don't have the gold to buy a lot of stuff... The easiest way forward is probably to make sure your CP are applied pretty well (check out Alcast's site). Go to Elden Root or another trade center that has an undaunted enclave. Use the new and improved guild trader to search for blue cp 150 food. Buy a bit of max stam, max health blue food and eat it.

Then, go to Auridon and farm dolmens for an hour or so. There's a decent, not great, stam set that drops there. And during prime hours there's almost always a group running there. Since there are other players, you can run the dolmen easily even if your gear is terrible and your build is tissue paper. Get 5 pieces of the stam set (twin sisters, iirc).

By the time you've done that, you'll have enough gold to buy five pieces of something else. What else? Something cheap and stam based. Go to guild traders, search for purple CP 160 gear and look for sets that are common, under 1.5 K each, and have some sort of stam or weapon damage bonus. Fill out your missing slots (avoiding head and shoulders if possible for later monster sets). You now have two mediocre stam sets with 5 piece bonuses, and you'll find life much easier.

SirAndy · May 2019

with @Ilsabet ...

- Find medium armor overland gear that increases stamina based stats and weapon damage from the list that Ilsabet linked above.

- Go farm treasure chests, treasure maps, normal delve bosses, dolmens etc for those set pieces in the zone where they drop.

- Level your Clothier, Blacksmithing and Woodworking crafts to the point where you can improve items to purple.

- To get a bit more tanky on your Nightblade, use 5 medium pieces of armor (to get the extra bonus from the medium armor skill line (spent skill points for all passives there) and use a heavy armor chest piece and a second heavy armor head or shoulders or legs or feet (spend points in the first 3 passives only in the heavy armor skill line).

- Use blue food that increases your max stamina and max health. Get provisioning to a level where you get extra time bonus to your food buff. For example: Braised Rabbit With Spring Vegetables
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Recipe:+Braised+Rabbit+With+Spring+Vegetables

That should make you hit harder and be able to take more damage.

Maulkin · May 2019

How much gold do you have at your disposal? For 20k gold you can get a purple build together from hundings and battlefield acrobat, including weapons and rings. It will work fine for questing and delves.

lorgarnb16_ESO · May 2019

Thank you for all your statemens so far, though I have to admit I do not understand anything Nestor said in his post
.
As I understand it, I have two options:

First: Do a lot of farming just to close the level gap in my gear.

Second: Buy stuff from guild vendors.

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

To the second one: I have no idea how that guild shops work. Perhaps someone could elaborate in that.

Best regards.

IzzyStardust · May 2019

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

Thank you for all your statemens so far, though I have to admit I do not understand anything Nestor said in his post
.
As I understand it, I have two options:

First: Do a lot of farming just to close the level gap in my gear.

Second: Buy stuff from guild vendors.

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

To the second one: I have no idea how that guild shops work. Perhaps someone could elaborate in that.

Best regards.

If you’re on PC NA send me an in game mail @Izzystardust and I’ll get you some gold or help make/craft/get you some gear etc.

If you’re on PCEU I can still send you some gold but you need to @ me here so I know to log on and send any as I don’t really play on EU anymore.

This is an MMO though, so you’ll have to work with others to get good things at times.

If you prefer to leave then that’s up to you - but I’ll help you if you’re on the same server as me.

zvavi · May 2019

...just grab guldies and go do nCoH once or twice, should br enough to get u full Leviathan gear (in case if stamina toon), then pay gold to someone to craft u hundings for the pieces you lack. Purple shouldnt cost more than 10k (i think, too braindead to math)(unless jewelry cause jewelry is expensive as hack, just keep it white)

NordSwordnBoard · May 2019

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

Thank you for all your statemens so far, though I have to admit I do not understand anything Nestor said in his post
.
As I understand it, I have two options:

First: Do a lot of farming just to close the level gap in my gear.

Second: Buy stuff from guild vendors.

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

To the second one: I have no idea how that guild shops work. Perhaps someone could elaborate in that.

Best regards.

3rd option: Join a guild or make a friend that will provide these things for free.

SirAndy · May 2019

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

Farming overland sets can be a lot more enjoyable than it sounds.

You can explore the map to find treasure chests and treasure map locations, you can venture into delves (the normal dungeons, not the public or group dungeons) to battle some of the bosses in there, clear some dolmens etc., all of which can be enjoyable. Look at the armor/weapon set drops as an added bonus to your exploring.

The same is true for crafting, it also can be rather enjoyable and you'll be able to make your own set gear and improve set items you found while playing the game.

PS: You can buy zone specific treasure maps for cheap from guild traders and they have a guaranteed set item drop. Guild traders can be found in any of the major cities, usually close to the city's main wayshrine.

FrancisCrawford · May 2019

There are plenty of good medium armor sets you get as drops from killing things. For example, look at the list in

https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Medium+Armor+Sets

If you want to do thief things, Night Mother's Embrace drops in Deshaan and Night Terror drops in Stormhaven. Also, Night's Silence is very easy to craft.

If you want to do more general things, Spriggan's drops in Bangorkai, Leviathan drops in the fairly easy dungeon Crypt of Hearts, Red Mountain drops in Stonefalls, Automaton drops in the easy dungeon Darkshade Caverns 1, Toothrow drops in the easy dungeon Wayrest Sewers 1, Unfathomable Darkness drops in Clockwork City (especially from repeatable daily quests), Viper drops in the very easy dungeon Fungal Grotto 1, and so on.

And if you do Fungal Grotto 1 in veteran mode, you can also get the Krag'h monster set.

Cortimi · May 2019

Absolute worst case scenario:

1.Go to Clockwork City.
2. Find the "Innate Axiom" forge. This set requires just TWO traits researched to craft.
3. Make five pieces of CP150 armor. Even though it isn't as good as what it "should" be, it is FAR less expensive in mats to make compared to CP160, and will be "good enough" while you save mats or find better gear.
4. Have someone make you five green (or blue if they are nice) CP150 Stam/Mag Glyphs. You can buy the green mats for like 50g each from someone if you must.
5. Use those glyphs on your crafted gear.

You now have a 5 piece set bonus that isn't being scaled catastrophically.

4. Suffer through some Battlegrounds queues. Even if you go 0-20 and lose every time, you will get enough Alliance Points after four or five matches to buy a couple purple weapons that are your level, from Skatinava just outside Davon's Watch.

You now have purple CP160 weapons (with an extra set bonus if you use staff/bow/2h) and will be able to farm better stuff and complete quests.

Lumsdenml · May 2019

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

Thank you for all your statemens so far, though I have to admit I do not understand anything Nestor said in his post
.
As I understand it, I have two options:

First: Do a lot of farming just to close the level gap in my gear.

Second: Buy stuff from guild vendors.

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

To the second one: I have no idea how that guild shops work. Perhaps someone could elaborate in that.

Best regards.

I agree with what most people are saying, your gear must be under leveled. A pretty easy setup to obtain for a stamblade would be Briarheart (overland drop set Wrothgar for wepons and jewelry), Hunding's Rage (Craftable Med + 1 heavy chest all devine), Velidreth (Cradle of Shadows).

Since you can not craft the 160c Hunding's, the best place I'd look is joining a friendly guild. Most crafters will craft for free (just charge for mats) for guildmates. If you can't find anyone, shoot me a mail in game (@KnightofTacoma) and I'd be happy to craft for you. Also, if you need help grinding out the Briarheart set, let me know, I can help (I might have some I could give you laying around).

JoCom13195 · May 2019

Using guild traders isn’t too daunting, even if you’ve never done it before: each trader offers the items that have been put up for sale by the members of the guild that currently “owns” that trader. What you can purchase is completely dependent on what the members of that guild believe will sell.

If you shop around at guild traders, you’re not 100% certain to find exactly what you want for a price you’ re willing to pay, but you should be able to deck yourself out in CP160 blue/purple gear relatively cheaply. That would at least get your NB onto the CP160 playing field, so that you can pursue sets you like better.

As was stated earlier, you could quest in a zone with your tank (perhaps respec for better damage for the duration) to get CP160 drops and quest rewards, which you then drop in your bank and pass to your NB for the same result.

lorgarnb16_ESO · May 2019

I am thankful for that suggestions and I would like to comment on them:

This is an MMO though, so you’ll have to work with others to get good things at times.

I am not trying to do endgame stuff I would just like to continue questing.
Please do not get me wrong, I would LOVE to play with others, but that is a huge problem nowadays. It is not a problem of ESO but a general MMO issue.

...just grab guldies and go do nCoH once or twice, should br enough to get u full Leviathan gear (in case if stamina toon), then pay gold to someone to craft u hundings for the pieces you lack. Purple shouldnt cost more than 10k (i think, too braindead to math)(unless jewelry cause jewelry is expensive as hack, just keep it white)

I do not have a guid sadly. I am sorry I do not understand the rest of your post.

Farming overland sets can be a lot more enjoyable than it sounds.

You can explore the map to find treasure chests and treasure map locations, you can venture into delves (the normal dungeons, not the public or group dungeons) to battle some of the bosses in there, clear some dolmens etc., all of which can be enjoyable. Look at the armor/weapon set drops as an added bonus to your exploring.

The same is true for crafting, it also can be rather enjoyable and you'll be able to make your own set gear and improve set items you found while playing the game.

Yes, that WAS fun. I enjoyed it very, very much, as long as i was lv 49 and could actually GO somewhere without getting my ass kicked.

1.Go to Clockwork City.
2. Find the "Innate Axiom" forge. This set requires just TWO traits researched to craft.
3. Make five pieces of CP150 armor. Even though it isn't as good as what it "should" be, it is FAR less expensive in mats to make compared to CP160, and will be "good enough" while you save mats or find better gear.

I do not have access to any DLC with the exception of Morrowind.

Davadin · May 2019

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

Thank you for all your statemens so far, though I have to admit I do not understand anything Nestor said in his post
.
As I understand it, I have two options:

First: Do a lot of farming just to close the level gap in my gear.

Second: Buy stuff from guild vendors.

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

To the second one: I have no idea how that guild shops work. Perhaps someone could elaborate in that.

Best regards.

3rd option: Join a guild or make a friend that will provide these things for free.

This.

Or ping me if you're in PC NA username @pecelayam and ill send some stuff your way.

oh btw, quite a few folks still do RP in taverns/pub in big cities, Riften is one such city. there's a lot of people also explore and really playing the game casually.

either way, joining a guild that shares ur interest is the big secret.

good luck!

Ghanima_Atreides · May 2019

OP - first of all, just to make sure you know that all your points should go into the attribute that powers your abilities - that is Stamina or Magicka - and should not be spread around. Hybrids do not work well in this game, and while it might seem like a good idea to put points in Health, unless you're a tank, that is probably not needed. Definitely don't put anything in Magicka if you're a stamina-based character (like a Stamina Nightblade) and vice-versa.

Several people have suggested grinding group dungeons, battlefields etc. to get gear, but I think that's a step too far at the moment, first you should focus on getting comfortable with the game and its mechanics. Joining a guild to get crafted gear is a solution, but my advice would be to start learning to craft yourself - deconstruct all the dropped pieces you don't need and research the traits to unlock sets - because it really pays off in the long run. Even sets that require 2 or 4 traits to craft are quite useful. Night's Silence and Night Mother's Gaze, for example, are easy to unlock and you can craft them yourself.

Until then, buying from guild stores is probably your best bet - look at the description of each set and find something that adds Max Stamina, Stamina Recovery and in general effects which help Stamina characters. They don't have to be the best sets ever, but just enough to get you through the game. You don't need endgame sets for quests and delves. Ideally the sets should be Purple quality, but blue will do in a pinch. Each set has 5 pieces, so you can wear more than one.

Davadin · May 2019

SirAndy wrote: »

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

To the first one: I guess I am of to another game, if that is required, just to continue in the story quests in the game.

PS: You can buy zone specific treasure maps for cheap from guild traders and they have a guaranteed set item drop. Guild traders can be found in any of the major cities, usually close to the city's main wayshrine.

ah yes this too. i got lotsa map sitting in my inventory doin nothin. selling them at guild trader seems off so im planning to let my alts use them whenever i got time to work on them lol

doing those treasure hunts is really fun and let u explore Tamriel far reaches!

PM me ur in-game username and i can mail it to ya. (if ur NA...)

MentalxHammer · May 2019

What platform/server are you on? I would be happy to throw you a guild invite!

lorgarnb16_ESO · May 2019

MentalxHammer wrote: »

What platform/server are you on? I would be happy to throw you a guild invite!

I am playing on PC on the European servers.

I would gladly join a guild, but I have been through this 3 or 4 years ago, when it was virtually impossible for a 'filthy causal' to find one.

azjuwelz · May 2019

I have to also ask what skills you're running.

I just reached CP100 on my first toon, a stamblade, and while I can't take on a dungeon or World Boss by myself, I can solo just about everything else. And I'm leveling so fast at the moment that I'm only wearing one 5 piece set, and that's Night's Silence at CP60 that I crafted myself, and it's only normal--white. (I also picked up 3 Leviathan pieces during last week's dungeon pledge, so I agree those are good too, but you might find the CoH dungeon a bit hairy).

The key for Nightblade aside from half decent armor and weapons is to have sustaining skills--particularly Leeching Strikes. I run mostly bow and that keeps me alive.

DarcyMardin · May 2019

I’ve been in this position, because I’m crazy enough to have leveled multiple characters on multiple servers (meaning I started out afresh each time with zero gold, zero CP, zero gear and zero crafting ability). Once I hit level 50, I usually go to Deschaan, where delves and World bosses drop decent gear for all 3 types of armor. What I don’t use for the character I’m leveling, I can sell for extra gold. Do the public dungeons in all regions for gear and skill points. Do the main quest and skill point quests in each area for extra skill points, which are almost always needed.

Dolmen runs (I usually do Alik’r desert) are great for adding CP, jewelry, and glyphs for your armor...white, but better than nothing.

Do all crafting writs on both your characters for the 10k a day that they’ll earn you. Pick up mats from every node you see while your out playing on the landscape. Break down all unwanted gear for mats.

Do dungeons if you want the specific sets that drop in them.

Good luck! Once you build up your CP, things’ll get a lot easier.

sionIV · May 2019

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

MentalxHammer wrote: »

What platform/server are you on? I would be happy to throw you a guild invite!

I am playing on PC on the European servers.

I would gladly join a guild, but I have been through this 3 or 4 years ago, when it was virtually impossible for a 'filthy causal' to find one.

I can make you some gear, if no one has done so yet.

Pheefs · May 2019

lorgarnb16_ESO wrote: »

MentalxHammer wrote: »

What platform/server are you on? I would be happy to throw you a guild invite!

I am playing on PC on the European servers.

I would gladly join a guild, but I have been through this 3 or 4 years ago, when it was virtually impossible for a 'filthy causal' to find one.

Welcome to the Future!
Filthy Casual is practically its own Guild Category these days, pick a few and give them a try... and swap out the ones that don't play when you do.

The main thing is to keep an eye on your "Equipment Bonus" on your character sheet
3 stars is good, hit hard - stay alive
Get Sets! Overland Set CP160 purple gear is inexpensive on the guild traders
Good Luck!

SidraWillowsky · May 2019

If you're not absolutely dead-set on a stamblade, you could consider switching to magblade. I've got both and my stamblade's my main and love of my ESO life, but I play on my magblade a lot more when it comes to solo play. She does a solid half of the DPS that the stamblade does on a good day, but it's usually a bit lower and I hit 17-20k. HOWEVER, she far outstrips the stamblade in terms of survivability. I can solo dungeons with her, whereas the stamblade tends to melt pretty easily. I use the Swallow Souls skill from the Siphoning line as my MB's spammable, and in combination with her ability to go into stealth (cloak) basically any time and for a long time, she can stay alive for all solo play.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · May 2019

Couple things.

First, this game definitely feels a little funny between Level 50 and CP 160. Once you are past 160, it should not be an issue anymore. It also won’t be an issue on any subsequent characters you make, as CP are account wide. I also wouldn’t invest much of anything in gear until you hit 160.

Second, it has nothing to do with having multiple characters. You might not have noticed it as much on your “tank” because well, you were harder to kill.

Third, stamina nightblades are generally pretty squishy. I would advise getting Vigor or running a 2Hander for Rally in the meantime. DW is more damage than 2Hander, but 2H is better utility for the most part. If you are really struggling with staying alive, magic Nightblade is a much better option.

Forth, it’s a little strange to be a solo tank. Tank is by definition a group role (as is a glass cannon DPS). If you want to play alone, you really need to blend these roles to some degree.