Levelling a character to full is too time consuming

Elsonso · April 12

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

I agree completely with OP. I've quit creating any new characters. Class change ability is the ONLY option I'll consider when considering trying a new class.

I have to pause here and say that with Account Wide Achievements, the only game play reason to ever create a new character is for a new class. If they ever did class change tokens, then they could pretty much drop us back to 1 character slot.

Desiato · April 12

My approach to new characters integrates the skill line grind into the levelling process.

To prepare, I upgrade my horse before getting started. Sometimes I can do this with daily rewards that I've saved, sometimes I buy the upgrades with crowns, but usually I make my new characters months before I start playing them so I have time to upgrade their horses. They are used as storage mules until I am ready to play them.

My go-to levelling set is Adept Rider for the speed buffs. I usually don't bother with crafted sets until level 10. I go as long as I can between upgrades, usually something like levels 10, 20, 30, 36, 46. When I craft new gear for my character, I include also craft new weapons for every 2 levels to help maintain combat viability.

I don't do any exp grinding at all. I start by collecting overland shards, lore books and completing dolmens. At around level 10, I start the psijic quest line and use it as the basis of all of my activities until it's done. It's been a little while since I've done this, so I don't recall the minimum level to start the psijic quest at or if there is one.

By doing this, I'm done the psijic line within my mid 20s. When I've collected all of the base game overland shards, I move on to completing delves. When I have some AEs unlocked, I start to do base game public dungeons.

I use the delve and public dungeon quest exp to level alternate set of abilities which I switch to with an addon like wizard's wardrobe.

So by the time I hit 50, I've completed the psijic and mages guild leveling, and probably fg too. I have enough skill points to effortlessly move on to the normal dungeon/undaunted grind to flesh out skill points. Again, I use the quest reward exp to level alternate skills so by the time I'm done undaunted, most of my weapon skill lines are either maxed or close to it.

This approach makes the psijic questline effortless.

Mesite · April 12

I love levelling new characters. I just started again. What do you do if you aren't levelling?

Destai · April 12

My first couple of toons were alright to level, partially because I was new to the game then. I find leveling too tedious at this point and can't bring myself to level new characters. The prospect of leveling things like the guild skill lines is daunting, and I'm incredibly put off by the horse training in this game. Were it buyable in one go, I'd be more inclined to create alts.

I don't see value in the leveling experience, especially when I have 7 endgame characters. There's too many nudges towards the crown store in character leveling, and much of it could be avoided by having more alt-friendly product designs like account bound armory and outfit slots and better horse training.

moo_2021 · April 12

why do you need so many skill lines?

3 class lines, 1 weapon line, 1 vampire line and 3 armor lines (passively grows). Undaunted would reach 9 by doing each dungeon once to level up. Assault/support comes from under 50 BGs.

I got craft maxed in some event this year, but otherwise only food and potion need leveling. Guilds are only level 1 for dialogs. I'm at cp 1500 and never finished lore books or psijic portals.

GimpyPorcupine · April 12

kringled_1 wrote: »

GimpyPorcupine wrote: »

Other than glowing treasure chests, what is the purpose of levelling scrying on alts?

If you want to use the lancers, you need to have a character on whatever particular alliance with excavation leveled to some extent - the items are tied to the alliance of the character who digs them up

Good point about the lancers. Since all 20 of my characters are DC, that hadn't occurred to me.

Juju_beans · April 12

I have several characters. On my main I'm aiming for everything.
On my other characters...I just hunt down what they need for their class and then pick up stuff along the way as I quest.

My thief has the least but maxed out on Legerdemain, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood

RicAlmighty · April 12

[Removed]

barney2525 · April 13

we have an event that gives 100% bonus xp for everything, 24/7.
we can use scrolls to increase that
and we have 20 days where you can run dolmens and get gift boxes as a bonus if all you want to do is fast leveling

and that's not good enough?

Mesite · April 13

I've only levelled my mount to full level on one of my toons. Ever

Tandor · April 13

Mesite wrote: »

I love levelling new characters. I just started again. What do you do if you aren't levelling?

A lot will do the same dungeon, trial, BG, EA or PvP campaign again, and again, and again, night after night after night, but that apparently is neither grinding, boring nor time-consuming compared to adventuring all over the world

! I'm like you, I much prefer levelling up multiple characters and a lot of the time the game world is now so large that there are still plenty of zones and questlines I haven't completed, plenty more I haven't completed more than once or twice, and even when I do something I've done before it was often done quite a few years ago so is pretty fresh doing it again.

Each to his own, however

!

Tandor · April 13

RicAlmighty wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Whoever asks why is obviously not a completionist.
.

A completionist would not look for shortcuts to bypass the grind. They understand and accept the grind as part of being a "completionist." Sounds like some people want to pretend to be a completionist instead.

I do think the term is greatly over-used. I also don't understand what completionism has to do with urgency. I get that some players feel they have to do everything once, and some players have to do everything on every character (although I do think in some more extreme cases it reflects a condition that would be better treated outside the game rather than being used as a reason to change the game), but surely there's no reason why it all has to be done instantly, and as long as you're working steadily towards achieving those aims then doesn't that count?

TheMessengerOfDeath · April 13

I have 15 character 1 is my main the other 14 are daily writ crafters. Too much content in the game for me to be worrying about leveling more toons through the same zones, collecting skill shards, etc. just too time consuming but if you enjoy that then go for it.

Elsonso · April 13

barney2525 wrote: »

we have an event that gives 100% bonus xp for everything, 24/7.
we can use scrolls to increase that
and we have 20 days where you can run dolmens and get gift boxes as a bonus if all you want to do is fast leveling

and that's not good enough?

Well... to be fair, after a certain point, additional CP isn't really all that exciting, so an XP bonus isn't that exciting, either.

Besides, the XP is just there automatically. Now that they made that change, I forget about it. Honestly, until I saw this message I had totally forgotten that there even was an XP bonus for this event. Actually, I am sort of taking the word of the internet on this, as I have not gone back to ZOS sources to actually see if there is one.

MJallday · April 13

I don’t know anyone that uses psijic skills these days.

The passive is ok for the portals but the skills - meh

Elrond87 · April 13

they do it on purpose making it tedious to redo it, and sell it on the crown store

MidniteOwl1913 · April 14

I wuzz out and buy the mages and the one that let's you see treasure chests at a distance.

Amottica · April 14

Most non-class-specific guild lines and sky shards can be purchased from the crown store. Even mount training is available. After the short time it takes to level a character to 50 the rest can be done in minutes for those who do not want to grind it all again.

That is the solution Zenimax has provided. I will not say they will never add a class change token but I will suggest people not hold their breath waiting for it.

HumbleThaumaturge · April 14

Every new character gets fully leveled on: (1) Mages Guild; (2) Fighters Guild; (3) Psijic Guild; (4) all "Class" skill trees to maximum, with both morphs; (5) all "Armor" skill tress to maximum, with both morphs. Partially level: (1) Undaunted skill tree leveled-up enough to get Orbs. About half of my characters are level 10 on Scrying and Excavation, but I've not been motivated to level-up the new characters. (Maybe someday.)

Every new character goes to Cyrodiil between level 10 and level 14. Usually stay in Cyrodiil until level 50, getting all the Cyrodiil skyshards and level Alliance War skill trees to maximum. With account-wide achievements, no longer need to run Cyrodiil delve bosses and dolmen with new characters, just grab the delve skyshards.

- First thing (level 3), I join the Mages Guild and the Fighters Guild to get the skill trees. I used to get the Undaunted skill tree at level 3, but they changed that to level 10.
- Psijic Skill tree: max level all characters. I pick up the Psijic skill tree at level 3 or 4, then get Psijic to level 1 while collecting the Summerset above-ground skyshards. I then follow the Psijic quest sequence to get to level 5 on the Psijic skill tree. After the new character reaches level 50, I continue the quest sequence to level 10 on the skill tree. It takes less than 3 hours total to go from nothing (level 0) to level 10 on Psijic skill tree. So I do it for all characters.
- Mages Guild skill tree: max level all characters. I use the Lorebook addon. I follow the Psijic quest sequence and grab all of above-ground skyshards and lorebooks along the way. In in this manner, I normally reach maximum level on Mages Guild before my character reaches level 10. Since I need to get skyshards anyway, getting Lorebooks at the same time is no extra bother. Shortly after reaching level 50, I complete the Mages Guild quest sequence for all character to get eidetic memory.
-- Fighters Guild skill tree: max level on all characters. Hit level 10 just by running dolmen, delves, and dungeons after I get to level 50. Can also grind one of four favorite locations if I want to force Fighters Guild to maximum earlier. Shortly after reaching level 50, I complete the Fighters Guild quest sequence for all characters.
-- Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood take extra time to get to max level. I've only finished those on one character. Although I pick up the Thieves Guild skill tree for all new characters first thing (at level 3).
-- Scrying and Excavation are a time consuming. But I can get to level 7 (gold-quality master leads) in about 5 hours.
-- Legerdemain can just occur as the game progresses. But I have a special place to kill livestock that yields lots of "stolen" items to sell or fence. I can get to level 20 in about a week or more, with only 1 skill point in "Trafficking."

AlterBlika · April 14

MJallday wrote: »

I don’t know anyone that uses psijic skills these days.

The passive is ok for the portals but the skills - meh

Precognition is mandatory if you solo

Scaletho · April 14

Preach to the choir my friend.

AT LEAST, ZOS could give players that already have a full leveled character a CONSTANT QUICK BOOST for every new characters we make.

But no. We have to suffer. We have to deal with the agonizing slow leveling again and again and again.

If you spend your money (crowns), you can buy some leveling experience booster that last 30 MINUTES each. Or you can pay more money (crowns) for the better booster that last 1 hour.

You have another solution: abandon your vision health, fingers and sanity and you can level up in few hours (some guys do that in 30 minutes don't ask me how) pushing buttons in the Alik'r desert dolmens.

Next time you want to create another character, do this craziness all over again. Congratulations.

Amottica · April 15

Scaletho wrote: »

Preach to the choir my friend.

AT LEAST, ZOS could give players that already have a full leveled character a CONSTANT QUICK BOOST for every new characters we make.

But no. We have to suffer. We have to deal with the agonizing slow leveling again and again and again.

If you spend your money (crowns), you can buy some leveling experience booster that last 30 MINUTES each. Or you can pay more money (crowns) for the better booster that last 1 hour.

You have another solution: abandon your vision health, fingers and sanity and you can level up in few hours (some guys do that in 30 minutes don't ask me how) pushing buttons in the Alik'r desert dolmens.

Next time you want to create another character, do this craziness all over again. Congratulations.

OP is not complaining about leveling up to 50 as they specifically note that is quick.

It is everything after that, the guild skill lines and such, that are the real grind.

Also, we are given free XP boosts for leveling up to 50 which are additive to the XP boost during the regular cadence of events that offer that double XP.

HowlKimchi · April 15

I made an almost complete arcanist in one weekend. After that weekend, he has been able to:

- solo veteran vateshran and maelstrom arena
- reach arc 5 in IA
- PVP in cyrodiil reliably
- farm ~300k telvar in CP IC with other people around
- do hardmode dlc pledges and vet DSA

It wasn't that hard really.
- I just did the BRP grind to reach 50 in less than 2 hours. I also maxed all armor lines and most weapons lines because of this
- I also did alik'r dolmens to get fighter's guild to 10, get the staff replica, and level the other weapon skill lines as well.
- I then did easy public dungeons, easy story lines, and easy dungeons solo to get the necessary skill points to do PVP.

The only things I wasn't able to finish that weekend were:
- max undaunted for the extra stats
- mages guild 10
- psijic order max.
- just a bit mor skill points

Yeah sure these are going to be a big help for PVP, but I was able to do PVP and 1vX comfortably to some degree already without these. But now though they are already max level as well. I had a blast throughout the whole process. Now, i'm focusing on theorycrafting and minmaxing my arcanist for pvp. Ive been dueling non stop and testing sets and skill combinations in BGs/IC/Cyro and duels and it's so much fun.

Treeshka · April 15

I agree but i have managed go through this grind six times.

Creating a character, then levelling it to 50 and then levelling all possible skill lines along with all skills, both morphs. Then doing Cadwell Silver and Gold. Doing all dungeons for skill points.

It takes around 180 hours of non stop playing for one character for me.

KekwLord3000 · April 15

Playing mmos is leveling multiple chars to max in order to be effective in raids, will arcas get nerfed? probably we will see this PTS what's zos's plans are for it. When will it happen? in at least 6+ weeks doing all the level up content will probably take like idk 2 weeks if you don't grind too hard so that's 4 weeks to enjoy the arcanists.
But what if it doesn't get nerfed?
But yeah if you are afraid of the arca getting nerfed wait for like 3 or so weeks from now for like pts weeks 3 or so, if the arca nerfs too bad I guess drop it, if they aren't bad or there aren't any nerfs level it up.
If you want a semi safe bet go with dks they are neck in neck with arcas now and if zos nerfs arcas it will be dk meta all over.

Silaf · April 15

Change game.

frogthroat · April 15

I think the most annoying to level up are:
- Mages guild
- Psijic
- Skill points
- Ledgerdemain
- Excavation

Everything else levels up while you level up your character. Alchemy and provisioning can be levelled up in a few minutes.

Ledgerdemain and excavation on alts are useful just for the chest passives, Force lock and keen eye. Can be skipped if you don't need those.

Alliance war level 3 to level 6 can be done while you are below level 50.

Fighters guild is easily levelled up in Skyreach. In the worst case scenario you could do Alik'r dolmens, but that is only half of Fighters xp compared to Skyreach.

For the remaining skill lines, Mages, Psijic and getting skill points, I usually combine all three. Do the Psijic quest and at the same time collect all books and skyshards. Try to get full collections for the extra 20 mages guild xp. Mages is maxed out when you are at about Psijic level 6.

While I do the Psijic, I use training gear with heartlands conqueror and level up all the remaining skill lines and skills. Even if you have a bad loadout on your skill bar, just use a companion. It's enough in overland.