Play the base game for awhile if you're new, then when you get to a decent champion level, get eso+ for a few months or however long you can afford. Then during that sub time, get as much done in the dlc zones/dungeons that you can. You only need to run each dlc dungeon a few times on vet to get the monster set in say two weights, then snipe for the correct weight shoulder with undaunted keys for 5-1-1 setups. After getting the monster helms, I usually don't feel compelled to return to dlc dungeons unless I want one of the sets that drop there, so research into which sets, or even monster helms you might want. Zone dlcs like orsinium, clockwork city, or the old expansions shouldn't take super long to clear if you only do the main storyline in each and run through the map getting all the skyshards. Thieves guild and dark brotherhood storylines are unfortunately locked behind the level you are in their respective guild skill lines that are only increased by doing the dailies from their zones, at least as far as I remember, so those may or may not present a time crunch in your eso+ time.

If you were to permanently get up to three dlc's, then I personally recommend only orsinium and clockwork city. Orsinium contains the maelstrom arena as mentioned by others and I expect those weapons to be useful for a long time in terms of pve dps at least. It's just that the grind to get the maelstrom weapon you want may or may not take a long time to get, depending on rng. Not to mention the time spent learning the arena itself before you can farm it, which could take awhile to get your first clear, but it gets faster after that. I only recommend clockwork city as a permanently bought dlc because of the transmutation station offered in the main town there. Gear trait changing is frankly a life saver in terms of farming the correct gear if traits can just be changed later, especially for really rare gear where its troublesome to farm a whole lot, like maelstrom arena. Otherwise you'd have to either buy the transmutation station itself by in game means via writ vouchers(honestly unfeasible for most people, it costs a whole lot of them), or buy a transmutation station with crowns and place it in your house(which requires you to have a house. But more importantly, I'm pretty sure the standalone transmutation station costs more than the clockwork city dlc itself). Three months of eso+ gets you 4950 crowns and a new account starts with 500. Orsinium costs 3000 crowns at base and clockwork city costs 2000 going off the prices of this site so you could just buy these two if you sub for three months. But anniversary events which happen near the time of each dlc's original release often drop these prices by like 40-50%. So if you're patient you can just hold on to these crowns from eso+ until sales happen.

But bringing up this eso+, do everything in the dlc's, then stop your sub idea really depends on how much you can play during the time you're subbed. You don't necessarily need to sub three consecutive months in a row though.

The zone DLCs , Clockwork City, Orsinium, Murkmire unless you have it already. later on if you get a plus you can try the dungeon dlcs out. And imperial city as well unless you have it included as well.

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Summerset has the best art in the game. It's just a pleasure to be in the zone.

Wrothgar has one of the better stories in the game (as does Summerset). Also, Maelstrom Arena is the single best place to practice your play.

There are many reasonable candidates for third choice. Just don't choose Murkmire.

Why? I think Murkmire story better than Orsinium...well content wise perhaps a bit too few.

CLC, Summerset and Orsinium

If DLCs only then I'm not sure I would bother. It depends on your tastes. I don't like stealing, murdering innocents or PvP so I don't find any of the DLCs particularly interesting, except maybe Clockwork City, but really you need the Morrowind and Summerset chapters to experience the purpose of that storyline.