The Elder Scrolls Online

May have to resub to do some tanking dungeon tours/trial tours on weekends or some shit. New world is delayed and ashes of creation alpha buy in not until this winter.

One cool thing about ESO is the lack of gear resets. It's actually an end game activity to collect the sets your class/build could possibility use; not counting your own imagination on shit to try out. Dungeons from the base game drop sets that are used in end game for example.

getting to CP160 is a huge milestone for your account because CP levels are account wide and gear item level caps out at 160.

Thats my current main right now, Templar Magicka. I can take a few hits without dying from a boss. My main ability heals me incredibly fast. I can switch over to be a primary healer for the group. Or, if healing is an afterthought - kit myself out with a deeper dps line up with two Destro Staffs. Templar Magicka build is just an incredibly good tool kit. I think the class/spec so much that I think it's a great go-to class for new players. I didnt tell my g/f anything about what I was playing or influence her choice at all, and she ended up picking the exact same class as mine. We've been killing world bosses as a duo ever since we started, though at times.. I really wish I had just played my Dragonknight cause some of them hit like a f'n truck. But instead, we're just kiting the world boss until we lose aggro, then trade places between dps and kiter. Good times.

I personally like this website (AlcastHQ Homepage. Builds & Guides for ESO - AlcastHQ) cause it has different builds and such there. Maybe you can find a class that has good synergies with the Bow on there and you like the skill line up of the class.

The experience scrolls they hand out like candy are the real ticket to leveling. I thought the grind from 1-50-cp160 was quite fast. Between the main story quest and a few DLC stories you should be 50 in no time. keep your self queued for a dungeon and grab the dungeon quest as there all worth a level. grinding out the CP is a joke.

Alternately just pop an exp. scroll and run the dolmen loop in Alik'r Desert, mindless as fuck but it works and always at least 2-3 groups doing the loop so zero effort. Leveled ever class aside from my main this way during events.

Daidraco said:

Thats my current main right now, Templar Magicka. I can take a few hits without dying from a boss. My main ability heals me incredibly fast. I can switch over to be a primary healer for the group. Or, if healing is an afterthought - kit myself out with a deeper dps line up with two Destro Staffs. Templar Magicka build is just an incredibly good tool kit. I think the class/spec so much that I think it's a great go-to class for new players. I didnt tell my g/f anything about what I was playing or influence her choice at all, and she ended up picking the exact same class as mine. We've been killing world bosses as a duo ever since we started, though at times.. I really wish I had just played my Dragonknight cause some of them hit like a f'n truck. But instead, we're just kiting the world boss until we lose aggro, then trade places between dps and kiter. Good times.

I personally like this website (AlcastHQ Homepage. Builds & Guides for ESO - AlcastHQ) cause it has different builds and such there. Maybe you can find a class that has good synergies with the Bow on there and you like the skill line up of the class.

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Is rolling a tank a bad idea for a newbie?

How many hours of playtime am I going to get out of this if I pick it up without any expansions, before I get tired of grinding? And is solo playable?

It's one I've thought about picking up many times over the years but I've just never bothered.

Tanking for a newbie -- Not unless your new to mmo's and it's not really viable unless you're dungeon spamming. Even then you'll likely end up as a half assed dps with a taunt anyway.

No xpacs can be a bit boring; some of the best stories like Clockwork and Orsinium are DLCs. The game is very solo friendly and has a huge achievement system with rewards. There are 3 factions and each have their own connected zones, and each zone has an overall story. If you enjoy the base story but just want to try other shit sub for a month.

Plus there are no level restrictions. Quest where ever even the newer DLCs.

I mean, MW was enjoyable for a lot of people I know and myself. That comes standard, so if you can find joy out of that zone - then I dont see why you wouldnt enjoy playing in EW or any other newer content (Which should come with any version you buy w/o Skyrim). Honestly, the oldest content you can literally fly through at higher levels. I mostly skim through the stories now and will pick up on the ones I want to read/listen through. Thats more often than not if that has any weight to it.

Although the worst part I can tell you is that I enjoy the game far more grinding out Champion Points rather than leveling. The content at lower CP and in the leveling phases is laughably easy. So much so that I think I only died a handful of times and thats because Safe Fall isnt a thing in ESO. But now, I'm running up against content that wipes my groups. Only thing that really bothers me about the game at this point is that rezzing can be done on the fly - so I feel like Im constantly rezzing people during encounters. I wish they would have went more towards WoW and locked rezzes to maybe a rebirth or single use cast.

*Edit* As far as tanking? I dont think there isnt a reason to play one if thats what you want to do? Quick queues, can solo a lot of stuff - always needed. Some neat armor sets. I dont consider them to not be fun if thats what you're asking. I just enjoyed the Templar far more than the Dragonknight for w/e reason.

ESO has tons of systems to grind and a lot of story content. I putz around in it a couple of months a year or so. Never really get that far, always end up getting sucked into the crafting grind then get bored and leave. Only to come back a year or so later.

I have a few toons up to mid levels. It's a good game for what it is and I enjoy it in small doses. Mileage will vary.

My brother is a huge Elder Scrolls fan, so he really plays this game a lot. Maxed out cp, does all the dungeons and dlc, rvr etc. They apparently did a pretty good job of keeping it faithful the the originals. So a lot of fans of the original games like ESO.

Xerge said:

Tanking for a newbie -- Not unless your new to mmo's and it's not really viable unless you're dungeon spamming. Even then you'll likely end up as a half assed dps with a taunt anyway.

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Ah not great at solo leveling? I'll do the magicka templar for now, then.

PS. What are the must-have addons?

Brikker said:

Ah not great at solo leveling? I'll do the magicka templar for now, then.

PS. What are the must-have addons?

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Tanks and healers genuinely cannot do anything aside from their perspective roles in ESO. There's some gear sets that let tanks do some fun aoe stuff for situational dps. Pick either mag or stam dps style and level as that and respec later. I don't often encounter new player tanks, it's not an ..inviting role.

As far as addons go i'll make a huge list in another post. I use over 85 addons, everything from QoL, minimp, emote spamming, dps meter, raid leader shit.

Brikker said:

Ah not great at solo leveling? I'll do the magicka templar for now, then.

PS. What are the must-have addons?

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I followed this guide pretty faithfully. Has a list of addons there, but like Xerge said, if you're looking for the full kit... its a LOT. But at least they arent memory hogs as far as I can tell. I would say if you know someone, or have someone in a guild that you join thats a kitted out crafter - get them to make you armor thats +%Training. Between that and exp scrolls, you'll shoot up in level.

It's cool to know that we have at least one high tier end game player here, Xerge . So many of the people I play with play for a while, then quit, then come back and play for a while and then quit, and repeat it all over again. Sometimes on a different character, which .. again, I didnt start having a lot of fun until I was high up in CP and could start working towards sets rather than just general upgrades.

Addons --

*Install the app called Minion Minion - Premier AddOn Management

*Go to addon website ESOUI

Absolute must haves --

*Emacs - Allows modifers in your keybinds (shift, alt, control)
*DLQI - Simple QoL that changes the default quest tracker to auto track if you complete an objective of an untracked quest.
*Mer Character Sheet - Adds Horse training timer and researcher timers to your character sheet.
*Alpha Gear 2 - Separates the men from boys; allows build sets with hotkeys for changing shit up on the fly. Tanks and healers on top of their game will use this a lot.
*Harven's Improved Skills Window - Massive improvement to your skill page. Tooltip showing the next morph or level.
*PointsofColor - Holy fucker does this ever change the game, especially for completists. Changes the main map to have colored icons instead of white/black combo. I know it's graphical but the change for a plug and play add on is amazing.
* Simple Durability - Adds dura % to gear page.
* Dungeon Tracker - Adds expanded tooltop info to your dungeon queue page. It'll show what youre missing, like no death, speed run, etc.
* Map Pins - basically spoils the game for you but god damn the fucking thing is great to have.
* Journal Quest Log - Big QoL change with an added tab for completed quests
* Info Panel - embeds more useful info into the default ping/fps frame.
* SpentSkillPoints - Default skill page UI is a lot better once you can see some numbers.
*Votan's Minimap - Very effiecent minimapcode wise because it basically resizes the main map and turns it into a mini.
*Action Duration Reminder - Adds numbers to your ability bar and allows you to see your backbar when you swap with timers on both visible.
*Auto Category - Custom Inventory Categories - Install and your inventory will be suddenly organized.

The above are all 1 click installs via minion and shouldnt have too much set up once you log in and should enhance game play a lot.

Once you're comfortable playing the game --

Look into these addons for changing health display, UI changes, group frame changes, etc.

*bandits User Interface - Huge UI suite that covers almost every aspect of the game. Think one of the UI packages WoW has. There's a lot of settings to go thru upon logging in so be prepared. Also is widely used for it's feature to move frames around.
*LUI Extended - Same as above
*Advanced UI - Same as above

The above addons are modular so they can be used to together while cherry picking the features you want from each.

*Combat Metrics - the go to DPS meter. Bandits also has a built in one.
*Dolgubon's Lazy Writ Crafter - Once you get into crafting this will make sense.
*Combat Reticle- Customize reticle
*LFG Auto Accept - Don't miss a dungeon queue, don't get kicked either though lol.
*Wykkyd Full Immersion - This addon has the only option i've seen to resize the compass. Technically a must have for me, I hate the compass's default size.
*QuickEmotes - Adds access to emotes on your chatbox
*Slightly Improved Experience Bar - I like an always showing exp. bar
*TraitBuddy - If you're into crafting you want a trait tracker. This will make sense if you're getting into it.
*Untaunted - Absolute MUST HAVE as a tank.
*Urich's Skill point finder - spoils the game and breaks down your skill point discovery in the game and shows you what/where others are.

my UI

Xerge Can you go a bit more into crafting and the addons for it?

I have yet to look up what Scry's are and only thought of it now. I have this website open on the server at work, but my work place has to be really sensitive about websites since we have so much personal information on hand. So I cant just look it up here.

The traits that I'm researching, I ended up making a full excel sheet of what i have and dont have researched. In conjunction with that, I also have a full list of gear in the bank that has the traits that I'm missing. Still missing a few traits, but when I'm breaking down equipment - it makes it a lot easier to see if I need to keep it or not. If there is an addon that I can use that will eliminate the need for that excel sheet, then thank..f'n..God!

As far as gear goes for Monster drops - I get a lot of different traits at the moment on gear. I havent looked into it simply because I just met 160 CP and havent had time to really collect many pieces of any one particular set - but can you change Traits? So for example, if I pick up a set piece (1) will it have a set trait? (2) If not, do I have to keep farming that piece until it drops or can I change it? Same kind of thing for enchants - will it have a set enchant? Can the set piece be overwritten by mistake with a new enchant?

Lastly - is there a craft that you would recommend having regardless if I craft a lot or not?

Awesome list Xerge , thanks a lot.

Anyone got a guild?

Brikker said:

Awesome list Xerge , thanks a lot.

Anyone got a guild?

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Thats a burning question for a lot of people I know that have played. I get all kinds of invites to guilds - I was grouped with one person in a dungeon and they invited me to their guild. I didnt think anything of it, thinking "oh just another guild, but whatever". Only to find out towards the end of that day that I joined some LGBTP'thinga'majiger guild. I only found that out when I saw them advertising the guild in General Chat in EW "Blah Blah Guild - LGTPGHL:AIHA Friendly - We take great pride in having a positive atmosphere for people off all orientation and races. Especially Black Gays."

Like... whoa buddy. I play games to escape the real world, not riot in the streets of Vivec City. I already did that quest!

(Still have yet to find one, cause I really dont have any clue what I'm actually looking for in a guild with this game.)

Daidraco said:

Xerge Can you go a bit more into crafting and the addons for it?

I have yet to look up what Scry's are and only thought of it now. I have this website open on the server at work, but my work place has to be really sensitive about websites since we have so much personal information on hand. So I cant just look it up here.

The traits that I'm researching, I ended up making a full excel sheet of what i have and dont have researched. In conjunction with that, I also have a full list of gear in the bank that has the traits that I'm missing. Still missing a few traits, but when I'm breaking down equipment - it makes it a lot easier to see if I need to keep it or not. If there is an addon that I can use that will eliminate the need for that excel sheet, then thank..f'n..God!

As far as gear goes for Monster drops - I get a lot of different traits at the moment on gear. I havent looked into it simply because I just met 160 CP and havent had time to really collect many pieces of any one particular set - but can you change Traits? So for example, if I pick up a set piece (1) will it have a set trait? (2) If not, do I have to keep farming that piece until it drops or can I change it? Same kind of thing for enchants - will it have a set enchant? Can the set piece be overwritten by mistake with a new enchant?

Lastly - is there a craft that you would recommend having regardless if I craft a lot or not?

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I personally swear by the Traitbuddy addon. It will track your traits, research timers, adds tooltip research info, and has a motif tracker/locator. Install it and bind it to a key. get rid of that fucking spreadsheet.

So basically in eso every player needs to touch crafting a bit and the reason being is in order to change a trait on an item you must have learned the trait, and monster helm drops are random from vet. dungeon content. Changing an item's trait (usually a monster helm drop) costs 50 transmute stones, which drop from vet. content. Anyway, this all boils down to every player doing max level content should have their basic helm/shoulder/weapon traits reseached, ex. divines trait for dps.

Other crafts to invest yourself into are likely provisioning and alchemy for the passive skill medicinal use, 30% increase duration for pots. Potions are part of a min/max DPS parse, I also use them liberally while tanking. Provisioning for the passive points for increased duration for food/drink buffs.

If you're farming set items it's easier to just buy/farm until you get the piece with the trait you want. 50 transmute stones will be rare to come by at first, best reserved for your first few monster helm drops.

Guilds in eso serve a functional purpose and you can join up to 5 as well. Top 2 reasons are..

1. trading, the economy in eso is run by the guilds. A lot of people find this jarring coming from WoW as there's no global AH. I came from Bazaar/ec tunnel so I enjoy eso's auction system.

This website is exclusive to PC use and allows for a "global" search between guild stores. Buy or Sell ESO Items - Tamriel Trade Centre

2. Teleporting, you can teleport to other players in your guild and there's several addons that facilitates this. Literally joining a massive guild is a huge benefit.

Join at least 2 for those reasons alone

Bids for guild traders can get really fucking cut throat. ESO provides PvE competition I haven't seen since everquest imo. Even the best trial boss strats are kept close due to the leaderboards/score for veteran raid content.

Whats more concrete than a world first? Well.. an entire top 100 listing that the whole game population can see. Walk the talk with your raid score or fuck off.