Secondary Character

Oatme4l · November 2020

Hi,
I was wondering what your opinion is on leveling a secondary character.

Do you craft training gear? If yes how many set (which levels), what quality, how good enchantments etc.

Also i noticed that you unlock skill lines ,that you reached max on your main char, to be purchased in the crownstore. Is it the crowns worth? Is it better just to grind? Which skill lines could be worth buying?
Same questions with sky shards.

Personally I have ESO Plus and don’t really buy that often in the crown store. I am considering using these skill to skip the grind, but don’t really know if it is a waste of money.

Are there any other leveling tips I am missing here?

SirAndy · November 2020

I have 6 mains that i play (plus 4 mules for storage) and i never found leveling the skill lines or finding the sky shards to be too much of a grind.

I have used training gear below CP160, starting with blue quality until level 50 and then purple until CP160, updating the gear every 10 levels or so.

If you have some gold to spare, you can use XP boosters along the way. I found that running through the main quest and the main zone quests is a very quick way to level and is less mind-numbing than spending days in the same grinding spot running circles.

El_Borracho · November 2020

Do you craft training gear? If yes how many set (which levels), what quality, how good enchantments etc.

Yes, usually Julianos for mag and Hundlings for stam, with whatever secondary set you want, all with training traits. I either head to the regions where I want to farm the overland gear to clear out that I want next or craft another set of training gear at level 30.

Also i noticed that you unlock skill lines ,that you reached max on your main char, to be purchased in the crownstore. Is it the crowns worth? Is it better just to grind? Which skill lines could be worth buying?
Same questions with sky shards.

Personally I have ESO Plus and don’t really buy that often in the crown store. I am considering using these skill to skip the grind, but don’t really know if it is a waste of money.

Just grind, with maybe one exception: the Mages Guild skill line. That one takes forever if you want Meteor. Skyshards and other skill lines are easily levelled up through the process of developing your new character's morphs, Fighter's Guild, Undaunted, etc. It really doesn't take that long. Maybe a week or so if you play only a couple of hours a day.

You might be tempted to buy some speed and stamina skills for the mount. Its excruciatingly slow. But being cheap, I don't. I just run. Rather use my crowns to buy character slots, houses, or other things.

Are there any other leveling tips I am missing here?

Oh yeah. Wait until there is a double XP event like New Life, then use your XP scrolls in conjunction with that. However, if the event says 100% XP boost, you can't use a 100% XP scroll. But you can use a 50% or 150%, just can't be the same amount as the event. Writs are an easy XP source. I typically save dolmen farming until I hit 45 because the XP gain from other things tends to plateau. Don't forget the main story line/Harborage. Lots of XP, easy skill points. And of course the main quest lines in each region to amass skill points.

Normal dungeons at level 30-40 are great, too. Like FG 1 or COA 1. But, just remember that any gear will be garbage.

Last, don't forget about Cyrodiil. You will probably need things like Vigor for stam and Barrier and War Horn for tanks and healers. Much easier to level those things in the under 50 campaign if you do not like PVP

Fennwitty · November 2020

I haven't yet unlocked a skill line with crowns. Usually completing a skill line comes with side benefits like picking up skyshards and unlocking wayshrines and points of interest while you're getting books.

Even the Psijic line if you just put it on mute is ok after the first couple times. :P

Wandering_Immigrant · November 2020

I have 17 characters. I always craft them gear, usually in impenetrable trait so I can jump into BGs easily. I used to just wear whatever dropped until the mid 20s before giving them crafted gear, but I eventually started doing it at level 10 and every 10 levels after so I could have better control over making sure thier weights are leveling equally.

Every character gets a different setup and I like to use the opportunity to play around with sets that I normally wouldn't use, since I level pretty casually just doing quests and working on leveling skill lines and collecting skill points.

The process starts the same on all of them, after creation I start off by running around unlocking all thier guild skill lines and whatever weapon lines I plan to use on them. This usually gets me to level 6. Sometimes it comes up a little short, when that happens I just run an undaunted delve daily, it usually does the trick.

At 6 I do the quests to unlock crafting writs and from 6-10 I log into them once a day to do writs. I'll also do an undaunted delve daily if I'm feeling like it. During this time I'm evaluating thier look and feel to make sure I'm not gonna want to redo them, so I'll do things like play around with the outfit station, or run up to everyone I see and stand next to them for awkward lengths of time which is of course to make sure thier height is where I want it.

From 10-16 I start adding dungeons to thier daily routine. I don't bother doing randoms, I'm more interested in the skill points from the dungeon quests. So I do FG, Spindle, and BC which all unlock at 10 and then every 2 levels I do the next one that unlocks. While queued they do thier writs and maybe a delve daily. During this time I also go to cyrodill and do the intro quest for skill points and to unlock the alliance skill lines.

At 15, with weapon swap unlocked, I consider them ready to play. From 15 on they all do different things, the only constant between them is that they will all continue to do dungeons as they unlock every 2 levels. Most start off doing the zone quests of a zone that seems appropriate for thier race or character. Some, like my breton templar healer, continue questing all the way through. She did all of DC collecting lorebooks and skyshards along the way, then did the mage's guild questline. This got her to a little over level 40 with level 8 mage's guild. She finished off doing a combination of dungeons (randoms & pledges), mage's guild dailies and undaunted delves. Others do other things, like my stam dk werewolf who I knew would need a lot of skill points. He started with the Alik'r questline because he's redguard, then did the psyjic questline collecting all the overland skyshards from the zones it took me too. After that he returned to those zones to clear the delves and public dungeons which, combined with regularly doing battlegrounds, took him to 50.

I think the best advice is to always be leveling skills and skill lines. When doing overland or solo content your skill bars should each have one ablity from each of your three class skill lines, an ability from at least one weapon skill line, and any other slots can be used to level other abilities you'll need. Morph them if you want to, or wait and do that later, but once an ability is no longer gaining experience replace it with something that can.

My newest is a necro tank, right now she has a bow equiped with no bow abilities slotted, instead she has a 1h&s ability and a destro staff ability slotted, so she's leveling both of her tank weapons and her solo/pvp weapon all on one bar, plus she has 1 ability from each class line (one of them being an ultimate) on the same bar as well as the fighter's guild leash. So 6 skill lines are leveling plus a fighter's guild ability all on one bar. She's wear turog's pact and grave stake collector in 3 heavy, 2 medium, 2 light. Once her heavy has leveled enough to unlock some of the 5+ pieces passives she'll switch to 5-1-1, but for now she's getting a head start on light and medium. In dungeons and BGs I switch her bars around to be more appropriate, but overland delves this works fine.

Hotdog_23 · November 2020

18 characters personally. My usual method is deciding if it is a magic or stamina toon first. Magic, I make 3 light, 2M 2H. Stamina I make 3 medium, 2L,2H. All training gear. Usually start making gear at level 10, 30. At level 40 I make 5 light or 5 medium to pick up the passive for that particular armor.

You get to 10 so quick not much need to make any before then. Always level all armor lines to 50. Honestly, I level all class and weapons lines as well just in case I decide to change from a magic to stamina or play healer or tank later. I don’t focus to much on making them a straight dps, healer or tank. Hybrid really to start with to work on leveling all skill lines.

Join fighter’s guild at the start as well as you will level it as you play. Done enough mages books on enough characters that for the last 3 I purchased that skill line and will again if we ever get new character slots. Purchased the Psjic as well for the last 3. Didn’t have the will power to do it a 16th, 17th,18th time.

Start doing BG’s at level 10 to work up the assault/support skill lines. If you hate PVP you can purchase this as well, but I do enjoy BG’s from time to time and don’t mind leveling the skills line for it. Take all my character to level 10 also in the Alliance War. Personally preference.

Do the main quest for the exp and skill points from it. Generally, don’t do the zone stories. Focus more finding and doing all the delve. and killing the boss in them for the exp. Don’t always do the quest for the delve but kill the boss for the experience.

Always do the public dungeons and kill the skill point boss for the extra skill point they give. Good exp doing the quest in these places as well.

Also, while doing the delve and public dungeons I pick up the skyshards in them. I know on PC there are add-ons that help with finding them but since I am on console, I use ESO app which works great. Have an 8-inch tablet that works great for this. Think the app cost 2-3 dollars but well worth it. Little slow to update with new zones but it is up to date thru Southern Elsweyr. Skyrim not added yet. Little tip if you go this route. Tap on the icon for the delve and it will show you a map of the delve/public dungeon and the boss or bosses and where the skyshard is. Took me a month to find that little gem, lol.

Do the DLC’s zones story since they 8-9 skills points for completing them. The base zone stories only give 3 for each area. Honestly you can do a DLC story in a day or 2 at most each.

Start crafting research on day 1 as well. Only take a press of a button and waiting. Pays off in the long run. All mine are now 9 trait crafters. Nothing special about it just takes time to do it.

It goes without saying to train your horse every day. Honestly At the start I made the all eight characters and trained them daily so when I got around to playing them, they were maxed already. Did the same each time they increase the cap on characters available. If you go this route. Plan ahead since you can not change class once made. So, make them evenly across classes. Currently I have one to many templars and nigthblades and one to few Sorcerer and Warden. Really wish we could change class. Not deleted a character yet once made and want. It’s a me problem I know but that’s how I do it.

Do the random daily dungeon and battleground the exp from it.
To level Legerdemain skill line, I always steal apples in Craglon beside Belkarth. Apples stack to 200 and the entrance is near it. Only one guard and npc. Hard to get caught stealing if you pay attention. Generally, I would have a small route and steal in Belkarth as well then hit the apples and sell everything else first the max out on the apples. Takes about 2 weeks to max it out if I remember correctly given that you spend skill points in the passive that lets you sell more to the vendor. By the end you can 140 items a day. The value of the item does not matter on the quantity. Takes about 10-15 minutes a day while doing this into loading screens. Do this for the force lock passive. Hate picking locks.

For what it’s worth for the last 3 I also purchased the skyshards in Cyrodiil and Imperial city. Just to save time and get a jump start on skill points.

On my skill bar I put one skill form each skill tree and One for two weapons lines. Once I can slot an ultimate, I put 3 different weapons skills on my bar and 3 class skills one from each tree. This way can level all 3 class skill trees and 2-3 weapons skill line at the same time.

All I can think of right now sure I missed something.

Be safe and have fun

etchedpixels · November 2020

For levelling - cowards gear and crafted fortified brass or hundings usually. After the first 3 or so toons you end up with a chest of levelling gear you can recycle forever. If you don't have access to crafted sets join a guild or if allergic to guilds then farm dolmens for two matching rings/necklace and delves/chests/dailys for other bits. Venomous smite is an easy to get stamina set, winters respite ditto for magicka levelling, mothers sorrow and sword singer likewise - and plenty of others.

For magicka I've got pass down mothers sorrow and winters respite sets I use rather than crafted ones.

Cowards gear was originally just a handy speed up but after the rapids fiasco it's now an essential at low level , or start a couple of toons extra and put them at a stables with cash so you can level their riding every day. That way when you finally want to play them 60 days later they don't totally suck. Cowards is easy enough to get via battlegrounds.

My normal tour is to set the mount on day 1 so I can start riding lessons, also visit every crafting table type except jewellery, buy the first few backpack expansions so I can use the character as a cupboard as well then asap mages guild, fighters guild, crafting, cyrodull (3 free skill points) IC (trivial visit for cash), cycle through 3 pieces of each armour type, hit a random mob with each weapon type.

For skill points on top of levelling: Murkmire is 7, Clockwork city is 8 and Southern Elsweyr is 9. There are also 26 (more maybe with Markath) public dungeon group events. Many of those you can solo by CP160, or if you can find a few like minded guild members you can simply clear all the group events in an afternoon as only a few DLC ones are actually difficult or have serious mechanics - and all come out with 20+ more skill points. Each group dungeon is a skill point the first time through so random daily dungeon will net you a few as you go up.

I usually level chars as slightly tanky pvp like builds (20 health at level 50) and leave it until the scrolls near level 50 to actually change anything. You don't want to start as a tank and spend all day killing a goblin or solo as a dps who dies the moment anyone sneezes in their direction.

ghastley · November 2020

The problem with buying what your main has unlocked, is that the alt ends up with the same profile as the main, so most of the reason for an alt has been wiped out. As others have pointed out, leveling need not be a grind, and if you built a alt to use different skills, you'll need to practice with those.

Danikat · November 2020

I'd say it depends on why you want an alt. If you want to do something like PvP or vet dungeons with a different class then it probably is worth doing what you can to level them quickly so you can start actually playing them. But if you want to do open-world PvE, normal dungeons, or just try out different classes and see how they play then there's no need to rush and therefore no need to make special gear or buy skill lines. Just play them like you do your main character.

I have 7 characters and I've never bought skill lines for any of them. I do craft them gear sometimes but it's sets I think would be useful for their build or something I feel like trying, rather than focusing on levelling them up quickly. They all have different builds and focus on different PvE areas so it doesn't feel repetative to me.