Which level is the most fun ?

Harold_Hedd · October 2022

Perhaps one can not ask such a question, but I was wondering at which time in the game it was the most fun to play.

I am stil only 5 weeks in the game and currently at level 39, and for now I can kill the delve bosses and the 4 daedra and the beasts spawning out of thin air, and I finally got a damage shield and a weapon with some penetrating abillity.

I am going to try a public dungeon and see what happens, and hopefully join some world events and try and learn how it is played correctly.

But there ia a lot talk about how annoingly it is when some stats are being nerfed, contra how boringly easy it is to kill everything.

I am clearly not at that level, but it made me wonder if it is getting more and more fun to play towards the max level, or if there is a spot at at a certain level, where thje game is most rewarding towards enjoying playing it ?

I am still fighting this game and some days are really fun and good and other days are totally frustrating with stupid game machanics and stupid "you have to go there" questline and as soon as you set foot in the area "completed: you have to go there" "go back to where you just came from"

So are the quests getting more "adult friendly" or will they still be somewhat childish ? Or am I simply missing something the game is trying to offer me ?

Snamyap · October 2022

At lvl 50 and 160 champion points you can start working on your sets as that is the max level for gear. That's a good point to start doing group content if that's your thing. There is more challenge there.
Quest content will remain at the same difficult level, there is a sticky thread at the top discussing the pros and the cons of that. As for the quests themselves: there will always be some go fetch and run around stuff but generally I like the quests (apart from the lack of difficulty). Reading all the dialogues makes it worthwhile though imho, else it will always be go there, kill or fetch that and run back.

heaven13 · October 2022

In truth, a part of me misses when I did not know about rotations and optimal gear sets. That me knew nothing about CP or how to properly assign them and that me certainly didn’t realize how to allot my attributes either. Sure, that me struggled with content more but there was something simple too about just enjoying the game for the story and not worrying about my dps or weaving or anything else.

I absolutely enjoyed my time doing vet dungeons and trifectas and trials too once I had an amazing group of people to run with so I’m not saying it get worse.

Just enjoy what you’re doing now instead of rushing to try to get to somewhere else. As Snamyap said, take time time listen to the dialogue and read books and such. Stop to pick the flowers!

jecks33 · October 2022

Veteran Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Arena are waiting for you

Sarannah · October 2022

Welcome to the game.

There isn't really a level which is the most fun, as the entire game is open and you can do whatever you want whenever you want. So which level is the most fun is dictated by what you want to do. As mentioned above, the level 50 / 160 CP is the highest available gear. That is when you can start collecting your sets and gear you want to keep forever.

The difficulty in this games scales up. Overland is easiest, as this is available to everyone. Including new players and those inexperienced in MMO's. Then public dungeons/world bosses are sort of the second difficulty. Followed by normal group dungeons, and then veteran group dungeons(DLC dungeons are tougher on both normal and veteran). After which we also have normal trials and veteran trials. If you want to test yourself, there are also some solo and group arena's, which can be done in both normal and veteran difficulty. The solo arena's are Maelstrom arena located in the east of Wrothgar, and the Vateshran Hollows which is located in the south of the Reach(Markarth DLC).

Feel free to start doing group content at any level, though be warned, some players rush normal dungeons for the rewards. And do not feel bad if you ever get kicked or if someone insults you(sadly this does happen sometimes). The one run you can be the hero, the next you can be yelled at. This all depends on the group you are placed in. But do not let one bad experience stop you, as the game is a lot of fun. You can also find a guild, these could help you with starting out and with running dungeons with familiar players.

Then there is also other things you can do: Housing, excavating, Tales of Tribute, arena leaderboards, PvP, outfitting, crafting, daily quests(zone and crafting), skyshard hunting, thieving, dark brotherhood, there's also the mage/fighter guild questlines, psijjic order questline, treasure chest hunting, some zones have a collection quest(precursor, instruments, idols, tapestries, and some more), collecting dyes or event items, etc.
The game is huge, but there isn't really anything holding your hand to tell you where to go and what to do.

Do not feel bad if you fail something or if something does not work out. Recently I found out I skipped quite a bit on my first character as I did not know what I was doing, or for which I was too weak to do it back then.

Goodluck, and enjoy the game!

PS: On the first character I would suggest playing through the story in the correct order as that will let you know what is what. You can easily google the correct story order.
PPS: The first time doing any quest it is worth it to listen to the dialogue and make sure to pick the longest quest options. There is no rush to the end.

Danikat · October 2022

I think it depends on a lot of factors so there's no one right answer. Some people have fun feeling like their character is extremely powerful and could easily defeat anything in the world, others enjoy challenging fights they're not sure they'll win and find it boring when everything is easy. Neither of them is wrong, they just like different things.

I liked getting to CP160 because it meant I could take the time to make a full matching set of gear with good set bonuses without it becoming obsolete and needing to be replaced. Although this isn't directly related I was mostly done levelling skills by then so I could use the ones I really liked instead of the ones that needed levelling up. Likewise I had enough skill points to have a lot of options available to me. Having that freedom to choose is more fun for me than the progression of gradually unlocking things. (Although I appreciated not being overwhelmed with options right away.)

But I didn't want things to be too easy and wanted to keep doing open-world exploration and questing instead of focusing on harder areas of the game so after a bit of experimentation I decided not to use any Champion Points. There's other ways I could have adjusted my character, like using lower level gear or not using set bonuses, or maybe fewer attribute points, but removing CP was the easiest for me. Especially now we have the armoury system - my main character has 2 builds saved, one with CP for using in groups and one without (and with a few different skills) for using solo.

It's not practical to avoid getting to level 50 or getting CP because you can't really do anything without getting XP, so I wouldn't worry too much about what level is best, but it's worth considering the things you can choose and how you want to use them.

SammyKhajit · October 2022

The level that you are in is the most fun. Enjoy the moment!

Kng_Ayumayuma · October 2022

Level 1. Everything scales to your level. Fighting is a breeze. It just gets harder from there.

Stinkyremy · October 2022

Best levels of fun are 0-50 when you are new to the game and do not know [snip] is going on.
As soon as you click on and if you get to the point you realize you actually "need" to be 160 to make a build and gear doesn't matter until then, that is when the fun gets sucked out.

Enjoy questing and do not be in a rush to do anything, it is an MMO. End game is about grinding the same content over and over...
Don rush to end game.

[edited for profanity bypass]

Roukoru · October 2022

Very first PC right from start -- whole world is new!

Soarora · October 2022

I think I most enjoyed cp 160 to like… 800 or so. I didn’t have to change my gear every time I leveled but also chose sets I thought were cool rather than good. My naïvety made the game more fun, though I wouldn’t go back there now as I’ve made some great friends and acquaintances from endgame.

chessalavakia_ESO · October 2022

It depends a bit on how you level, what prior expectations you have, and how interested you are in the content.

For me, 1-10 and CP 160+ are the best areas because my builds while leveling tend to stink because I'm trying to level up a variety of skills rather than a build I want to play, I'm used to doing and mitigating a fair bit of damage on my other characters and my new characters after the first few levels do not compare to them at all, finally much of the time I'm not that immersed in the content which makes things taking longer annoying.

It's one thing to have an extended engagement with the commander of an Imperial Legions that you've been working against for an extended period and it's another to be slogging through a bunch of nameless npcs that are going to respawn again before you leave.

whitecrow · October 2022

Honestly, I miss being new and discovering everything for the first time, progressing and acquiring new skills, and trying out the different sets as they came along. It's nice being powerful but ...

I don't worry about stats personally. They only time I notice a "nerf" is when they remove a feature from a skill, like the arrow drain that used to knock foes back a few feet.

opalcity · October 2022

1-50 are the best because after that you stop getting the level up animation..

ZOS_Icy · October 2022

Greetings,

This thread has been moved to the Players Helping Players section, as it is better suited there.

Thank you for your understanding.

AcadianPaladin · October 2022

I really think it depends on how you want to enjoy the game. I'm at +CP2100 and absolutely love the fact that I play simply to enjoy the game. I don't need to grind for gear, skills, materials, transmute crystals, sets or anything. I simply love simply doing what I feel like in the game, be it pursuing events, hunting world bosses or riding my precious mare at a walk along the beach admiring the sights and sounds. The difficulty of content runs a very wide range and I enjoy that. When I'm picking flowers or exploring, I'm not particularly interested in white-knuckles combat with overpowered wolves so I enjoy the overland difficulty. Similarly, dungeons range from pretty easy (delves) up through public dungeons, non-DLC group dungeons, DLC group dungeons, trials with vet options for all group dungeons. If I want fights that I cannot win, there are plenty of options in ESO.

One thing I'll mention about high CP. Once you achieve about 1200 CP, you can max all passives and comfortably fill all 12 of your slottable spaces. More CP beyond that simply allows you to max our more slottable options that you can swap out if you want. That is, beyond about CP1200, there is no more CP power gain, just flexibility to change things up.

Harold_Hedd · October 2022

Okay, thanks a lot for answering and commenting.

I was aware that the question was a little abstract, but I did gain some valuable knowledge.

And as I understand I just have to be in the game, it is a process that runs its own course, with both good and bad elements.

I began my character building with even attribute levelling and even skill points in weapons, but it doesn't feel like it suits the game, and I changed it to only Magicka and Health, and for now, only staffs. This gave a lift for me, dealing with the numerous npc attacks when exploring and a winnable chance with bosses.

But it doesn't feel like the game is becoming more enjoyable, it is becoming more easy to play with more knowledge and more experience. It still feels much like the previous games in some of the quests, but then all of a sudden if I decide to wonder off or somebody thought of it as a good idea, I am drowned in hack&slash, which seems unavoidable.

And for me, that removes all the tension and excitement I have build up in the quest, trying to save a king or make it thruogh a dark ruin with puzzles, and leaves me with a "Oooooohh no, not again" feeling. I mean, running through the same zombies, orcs or ravagers or whatever, several times right after one another - that is totally kiling it for me.

I will have to see what happens at higher levels, and if it becomes easy enough to play, to offset the hack&slash elements.

And I do have an aversion to just sprint through the masses, I do not know exactly why, but it bothers me that somebody desgined the landscape and the game and put some effort in to it, and then ( someone else ? ) decides that the only way to pass it, is to hack&slash your way thruogh. It reminds me so much of a FPS scenario, which I did not expect in a RPG game.

Nestor · October 2022

Best advice, get your first character to CP160 before you start Alts. The journey from L50 to CP160 is the goofiest part of the game gear wise. Story content can get you there and you don't need build power for that. Go back to the original zones of you have not and play those story lines, focusing on your Alliance zones first.

Anyway, once at CP160 you can start acquiring gear to support your builds and alts. Sounds like you might want some harder content, and you need cohesive sets that support your build. Get those at CP160. Wearing even CP150 at CP160 and above will not do you any favors.

Putting in your Attributes equally is a Hybrid approach. More doable than it used to be, but still loading up all Stamina or all Magic is the better approach. You will get a leveling award that lets you re spec attributes for free. So deal with that when you get it. Same with Skills, so play with as many skills as you can until then.

Pelanora · October 2022

Get a companion, then if you want to wander in the overland, but don't feel like fighting, they can take care of it for you.

DreamyLu · November 2022

I agree with what someone said before: it has to be enjoyed at all levels. However, personally, I enjoyed mostly up to around 20-22, because during this time, a lot of new things happen and there is a continuous feeling of significant progression that is very rewarding/satisfying.
After that, at least for me, up to 50, things were different and I started to be bored. The feeling of progressing was stalling and there was no more much new stuff happening. Once at 50, I regain some interest and after I got the CP160, I just found a different way to play that brought me fun again.

Amottica · November 2022

The stories are good while leveling up. However, like pretty much every MMORPG, one has to obtain all the required skills and passives to get a good feel for the game and be most effective.