LadyHeloise wrote: »At level 15 you will be able to have two weapons and hence two skill lines to use, where you swap between the two as you may have seen from alcast. So you can have bow on one bar and something else (stamina based probably in your case) on the other bar. My tips for this are that:
a) remember to swap to your second (back) bar just before you turn in quests so the skills you put on there get the experience, as it is only applied to the bar you are using at the time
b) bind the bar swap key to an easy key to use - on PC I have this on my middle mouse button - as you will use this a lot.
Also don't worry too much about getting sets together at low levels - if you are just questing it is ok to use whatever you pick up (and if you quest quite a bit in one area you will pick up set pieces easily) until you get to CP160. if you want to look for overland sets that you can just pick up then en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Overland_Sets will tell you where they are and whether they drop in med/light/heavy. But really it is better to just keep following the zone and main stories, which will take you through the different areas, than worry about this yet.
Retired... my working career just started. Yes, I have watched many YouTube videos before I even started playing. Like I said, this is my first serious MMORPG. I have played a couple years ago, all f2p, but this is really worth paying for. And if I keep interested I will buy Greymoor for sure with all previous expansions.JanTanhide wrote: »Great question OP. Well, I can say I had no one to ask about this game for almost a year of playing. And I mean a LOT of play time. I'm retired so I spent thousands of hours in game just wandering around, doing quests with no idea about gear, skills or character building.
One day someone asked me if I wanted to join a guild. Sure! That was it for me. Once in the guild they took my hand and showed me a lot about this game I had no idea about. I can honestly say a book can be written about character building in this game and it still won't be enough.
My suggestion is to watch youtube videos from some of the best ESO players out there and visit their websites. These folks put a lot of time and effort into compiling the information and making videos and websites for us to use and learn about this game. Here are a few but there are many more, my apologies to those not listed of which there are many: AlcastHQ.com, JDUB (can't remember his site but easily found), Fengrush (works with Alcast on website), Xnodegaming, NefasQS, Dottzgaming and woeler.eu.
I'm sure I missed a bunch and my apologies to all the content creators out there I missed! I can say this to you: You have no idea how much there is to this game in all aspects. It's enormous and like a book with many secret endings you will always be striving to find. It unfolds in front of you as you progress through it. Don't rush through it, take your time, enjoy it and feel it. It's the best MMO out there in my opinion. I'm close to 15,000 hours in game at this time and still play every day when possible.
LadyHeloise wrote: »Starting on crafting early is generally recommended, as research after a while takes a very long time. It's also a fun thing to do. Do you have any crafting skill lines unlocked yet? You might have if you have deconstructed anything, interacted with the different crafting stations etc. By deconstructing things, including glyphs for enchanting, you can increase your level in different crafting skills (there are other ways of doing this e.g. from reading certain books, creating items). There are also crafting writs, for which you need to be certified through a couple of easy quests you can pick up in Daggerfall (or the equivalent), which eventually can be quite lucrative. It's also good to be able to craft your own sets, some of which are very useful depending on your build. As usual, UESP is your friend http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Crafting
If you don't have much cash you can sell things to vendors (you will almost always pick up more, better stuff anyway); you don't need to be in a guild to sell stuff but you won't get much for things this way, although selling through chat will be better. If you join a trade guild (use the guild finder) you can sell some stuff for more. Many trade guilds are also quite social. As Sange13 says, if you get certain alchemy ingredients, such as flowers, try to sell these to players as they go for quite a bit (you can see this at guild vendors).
LadyHeloise wrote: »You could to be honest put them where you like to find out what different skills do. Playing through the main quest, getting skyshards etc means you won't have a problem in getting them. As someone mentioned earlier you can always respec anyway for gold if you find you want to change later and you don't have to spend them all now.
If you are following suggestions from the level up adviser in game, and perhaps following alcast's beginner stamDK guide, then you won't go far wrong. Are there other passives e.g. race, armour etc that you could get? Or you can level up your craft skills further. I notice you don't mention provisioning in your list - this is very useful to keep the food you consume up to your level and is easy to level quite quickly. Any other morphs of skills that look interesting? Have you done the tutorial quest for Cyrodil yet? This is just a tutorial, you don't actually do any pvp, but it gets you a few skills points and unlocks the assault skill line so you can get the 'rapid maneuver' skill, which increases your speed (very helpful as you level your horse). You can also level up 2h skills by putting one on your front bow bar, just not using it, if you are just playing with just the one bar at the moment.
My point really is that there are many more skills that you will find useful than just weapon skills http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Skills
Here is the thing about Crafting, you don't need it until End Game (post CP160) but you can level it in preparation with few to no skill points invested. Crafting can eat up 122 Skill Points to fully invest, so this will gimp your combat while leveling. Best to invest as few points as possible while levleing your character and crafting.
Equipment Crafting
Decon all mob loot other than what you are using to research traits. Research traits, learn two on all items you would use, then learn 3, etc. Focus on Divines, Infused and Training for your first three for Armor, Sharpened, Precise and Training for your Weapons. Then go for the other ones. Nirn is expensive, and a lot of people suggest putting a priority on that, I can't see why. The Trait is all but useless for Armor or Weapons. Best place to find Mob Loot is Public Dungeons, then over land grind spots. Grind on mobs until your bags are full, then go on a decon fest. Remembering to save the ones you need or want to research. Use the Lock Function and or an Inventory Mule to hang on to those. Only invest Skill points while leveling it into the Research and Extraction Passive, the last really only needing one point.
Enchanting
Ignore all the "advice" on the web about using an enchanting partner. First, use Mob Loot decon to raise this up to a point. Later on as you approach end game have some some gold, then start making Green, Blue or Purple Glyphs on one character and decon them on an Alt. You will level Enchanting faster than trading the glyphs with another player, which is tedious by the way. (like pull out your hair and make a doily tedious). Use Green up to about L15 in the Enchanting Skill, Blue up to about L30/35 and Purple up to about L46/47. Then learn the runes you don't know, you should be at or near 50, if not, make/decon some more Purples.
Provisioning and Alchemy
Don't worry about these, you can level these professions in about an 20 minutes, for both. Just collect the Various Solvents and Reagents and Provisioning Ingredients/Recipes as you go along. Once end game, then you can level it. Use Mushrooms to level Alchemy, or Flowers that make potions you won't use. Make sure you grab solvents (waters) as your leveling as they can be rare to find in the guild stores. For Provisioning, make the highest level Green Recipes you can make. Blue or Purples do not give any more inspiration than Greens, so save those for character use.
Yes, use Drop Sets for now, and Yes, level your crafting skills and do the Trait Research. Traits are why you craft as they allow you to make Special Crafted Sets. There are two sets in the game that your going to want to make, Julianos for your Magic Characters, and Hundings Rage for your Stamina Characters. There are no better sets in the game to have 5 pieces of. Period. Well, Twice Born Star is great to, but your a year out from making that. But you need to start learning your traits now.
While it takes 6 traits known to be able to make Hundings or Julianos, 9 Traits for Twice Born Star. You don't need to know learn all of these traits on everything before you craft anything. In fact, there are nice sets that you only need to know 2 or 3 or 4 traits to make. So, learn 2 traits first, then 3 etc. This way you can be making set items in just a few days. So, start learning those traits. Focus on the gear you will use first, then fill in the rest later. This means:
Casters
Heavy Chest/Legs
Light Feet/Hands/Waist
Shoulders and Heads are good to, but there are 2 Piece Monster sets that can take up those slots. So learn the traits on these pieces, but prioritize the ones above.
Staves (all 4 of them)
Stamina
All Medium Armors
Daggers, Swords, Axes, Bow
Tanks
All Heavy Armors, Sword and Shield and maybe Staves (Ice is your tanking stick). Can add in Axes or Maces for the weapons if you want.
For Armors, Sturdy, then Divines, Infused, Reinforced. Same with Shields but Nirn can be nice on a Shield.
For Weapons, Infused, Sharpened, Defending. Charged for the Staff
Learn Training, Divines and Infused on the Armors first, Sharpened, Precise, Infused and Training on the Weapons. Powered is good for the Healing Staff, Defending is good for Sword or other one handed Melee. Then fill in the rest until you have 6 traits on each piece of gear you will use. Eventually you will learn all 9 traits. Some people recommend Nirn as an early trait to learn. Unless they change it, don't listen to them. You might use it on a Shield or a Weapon but that is about it. You need it someday, but it's expensive and you need your gold for other things.
Invest the skill points into the Research Passives. I can't stress enough how much of a time sink Trait Research is. Be able to learn more than one at a time, and reduce the time needed. Get an addon for Trait Research Tracking, I recommend Craft Store. If your on the Consoles, find one of the spreadsheets out there or make one to track this. Have I mentioned you need to learn your traits?
Doing this you will be ready to invest skill points into Crafting when it matters and not have to spend months getting ready. Did I mention Trait Research and how much a time sink it is? The last two traits will take you a month each to learn, on each item you learn them on. Get started now, yesterday would have been better.
Yea true, can always reset them anyway. I followed the beginners stamDK guide but it focused mainly on sword, while I go for bow. I don't want to invest my points yet in armor because I always wear something different, a mix of heavy and medium.
I have provisioning (2), I don't see the point of it yet because I use health potions all the time. Some with most other crafting skills, like smithing, why would I level that if I find enough loot in the open world. And I don't quite understand the system completely, yet.
No, I have not done anything in Cyrodil. I'm still in and around the area of Davon's Watch, haven't been anywhere else. And I still haven't setup my second weapon and skill bar, gotta figure out how it works.
Stamina build, main weapon is bow and my second is now 2handed.
Another thing, I have this huge collection of Glyphs? What is the best thing to do with them? I can't use them all for crafting, just sell most of them?
Ill be honest at such an early level i wouldnt worry too much about characther building.
You wont have the necessary skills unlocked to make a proper build anyway.
If you open your skills menu, on the left hand side there should be the skill advisor. Its pretty bare bones, but it will generally tell you what skills to unlock.
As a general rule of thumb, while levelling, you will want to have at least one skill from each of your class' skill line on your bar.
You said you want to go for 2h/bow, thats a perfectly fine setup, both weapons are stamina based, so i suggest putting all your attribute points from here on out to stamina.
Your class is Dragonknigh i think you wrote, so you will want to focus on unlocking searing strike and fiery breath, and then level them and morph them for their stamina morphs, venemous claw and noxious breath.
On your bow skill line i would recommend going for poison arrow, since stamina dragonknight synergise well with dots.
On your 2 hander uppercut is a great spammable ability which you can get early, it does a lot of damage as well.
But more so then anything just focus on enjoying yourself and feel free to experiment with whatever you like.
Until you hit endgame group content, it really doesnt matter what you build for.
I am going to post some general tips in this thread for you, starting with, have fun, play the game, do quests, get lost in the story. Builds only matter once you get to CP160 and are getting ready for end game content:
While leveling you should be preparing your self for the future, not your build (as that will change). So:
1. While leveling, have one class skill from each class on your bars at all times. Classes level the slowest, so get them done now.
2. Have at least one weapon skill on your bar at all times
3. Have a flex or support skill you want to level at all times
4. Once the skill gets to the Morph stage, then put another one on the bar to level that rather than take the morph.
Your not going to have the best DPS now, but you will have the most flexibility later. You can apply this to both bars equally or some other way, but this is the best method while leveling 1 to 50. Reason, the game handicaps you right now to make you stronger than you really are. So, take advantage of that. You don't need the optimal skill load out, you need the optimal leveling load out.
Also, try to wear at least one of each weight of armor to get all those lines leveled.
Once you get up to or near 50, you should have all the skills that matter at Morph stage, your armors at 50 and most important, your classes at 50. Then, you can optimize your build.
I mostly dont eat food because I don't have it, mainly potions. Sometimes there is food in the daily rewards. I wear 2 rings and a necklace. I know you can block, dodge etc, I'm probably not doing it right then.
I tried to train and get some loot by killing monsters. I went to Alik's desert to kill zombies at the beach. Damnnn, I can beat 2 of them, if they are with 3 I gotta run away or I die! It is definitely not going smoothly.
I mostly dont eat food because I don't have it, mainly potions. Sometimes there is food in the daily rewards. I wear 2 rings and a necklace. I know you can block, dodge etc, I'm probably not doing it right then.
I tried to train and get some loot by killing monsters. I went to Alik's desert to kill zombies at the beach. Damnnn, I can beat 2 of them, if they are with 3 I gotta run away or I die! It is definitely not going smoothly.
As you are in a guild, you really should try to get two full sets and two items from a third set. Guildies can craft you some gear. Be sure to replace all gear every 10 levels. Ask for the Shacklebreaker set in addition to the Hunding's Rage.
I would recommend going to Auridon zone, and farming dolmens there, while on an XP buff. You will level up quickly and your Fighers Guild skill line will go up quickly too. The dolmens there are not so confusingly overcrowded and gone in seconds like the Alik'r ones. Nice sets drop there too, which could form the two odd set items of your gear. For a Stamina character, the Twin Sisters set would be the one to look for.