The Adventurer's Guide to Tamriel (Unlimited)
Alright guys, I figured I would start out our new series of ESO guides with some tips, tricks and advice on getting used to the game, leveling and smoothing over the beginning stages. These are all things I personally have found or have been told by other, more experienced players. In either case, I hope these tips help you as much as they have helped my friends and I.
This is NOT Skyrim
I want to start by saying that this is not Skyrim, this is not Oblivion and this is not Morrowind. With that out there, I also want to say that this is not World of Warcraft or Everquest. This is The Elder Scrolls Online. I am telling you now, the moment that you stop comparing it to other games and understand that it is still an Elder Scrolls game you are just playing with other people you will enjoy it a hell of a lot more.
“Maximum Security” Wailing Prisons
After playing through the tutorial in the Wailing Prisons once, you have the option to skip it on all your proceding playthroughs. To be honest though, unless you are really in a hurry you should playthrough it. For one, you can find a few rare items in all of the urns laying around such racial stones and even a racial motif if you are lucky. Second of all, you can stockpile some decent weapons and armor to start with, either to use or to sell since gold is difficult to come by in the early goings. When you skip the tutorial you’re stuck with your little present from the Prophet and a two-handed sword, these are not really favorable conditions unless of course you already determined you were going to use those things. Lastly, when you skip the Wailing Prison you start at level 3 with three skill points and one skyshard, along with the equipment I already mentioned. Well I have found that through effective leveling, not grinding but natural leveling, you can leave the tutorial at around level 5 with five skill points, and some extra gold, armor, and weapons. Trust me it is a big difference.
Starting Off on the Right Foot
The original version of the game would plop you on a starter island as soon as you left the prisons, now it thrusts you right into the starting cities which are not too friendly to beginning players. Like the tutorial, I suggest also going to your starter island as soon as you can, well after you join your guilds but more on that later. These islands are Khenarthi’s Roost, Stros M’Kai and Bleakrock Isle for the Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant and Ebonheart Pact respectively. The reason being, similar to playing the tutorial, it is a gold mine for new characters. If you did playthrough the tutorial there is a chance you may be a level or two higher than most enemies on these islands, but that is not a bad thing it just means that from here on out you will be ahead of the game, literally. In either case, it is a good place to help you get acclimated to the questing system and get a feel for your character’s combat style. Not to mention each island will be carrying Skyshards and is meant to overload you with easily accessed crafting materials and other equipment.
Leveling Up
Fair warning, this section is a little bit longer than the others so I am going to break it up into smaller pieces to hopefully make it easier to digest.
- Class and Weapon Skills – I am about to share with you a technique that is so simple it is absolutely brilliant! With your first three skill points… put one into each of the first abilities in your class skills line. Mind blowing, I know right? All jokes aside, whether or not you think you are really going to use every skill line, it is good to at least start them all so they all will level simultaneously and in return your character will level faster. Something relatively new in this game is the introduction of skill lines for each individual weapon. This theoretically creates an infinite amount of subclasses which is one of the things that makes this game special. When leveling a weapon skill it is a similar concept, except you actually level your weapon skill for just having it equipped. When you slot a weapon ability it will further boost your experience gains in that weapons skill lines. You do not even have to use any of these skills actually, just having them on your bar will level their respective skill lines. You should not be hard pressed for slot space in the early goings so put that space to good use. Along the same lines, spend your early points wisely, particularly on active abilities because many passives will not have a noticeable effect until you get to the mid-levels of your character and passives do not help you level.
- Armor – This idea is a little tricky because most people starting out just want to jump right into their full set of robes or juggernaut armor. While it can be that simple, when it comes to leveling effectively you should try to wear at least one piece of each kind of armor. If you know what armor you are going to use end game, I advise you try to follow a 5/1/1 spread just to reap the benefits of leveling. 5/1/1 means wearing 5 pieces of your preferred armor, and 1 of each of the others. The magic number here is 5 because for your armor’s passive abilities, 5 pieces is considered a full set. Wearing one of each of the other armor weights will not only help you level faster, but will also set you up to switch armor style if you so desire and/or have you set up to run a 5/2 or keep the 5/1/1 split end game with your ideal armor and one or two of the others.
- Guilds – Right off the bat, after you finish the tutorial and before you head to your money, I mean starter, island, you should join the Mage’s, Fighter’s and Undaunted guilds, unless you feel it will really hurt your roleplay. This is because each guild has their own skill line and each skill line progresses in a unique way aside from completing their respective questlines. For the Mage’s Guild, it levels as you find lorebooks scattered across the world; the Fighter’s Guild will level as you kill daedra and undead; and the Undaunted Guild line will level as you conquer dungeons and earn achievements. Each skill line has some pretty awesome skills that any character can make us of, so it is a good idea to join all of these guilds as soon as you can so you can level them fast, by the way did I mention that leveling these will also add to your overall experience gains? Hmm that sounds like something that would be great boost when trying to level effectively and get a little boost. Good to know.
Explore. Explore. Explore.
The Elder Scrolls Online offers a gigantic world for you to explore and you should, well, explore it! Going off the beaten path is one the best things you can do in this game because it rewards you for it. These rewards can be anything from lorebooks, to Skyshards, to crafting materials, to unmarked quests and locations, to simply just getting a little experience boost for finding a new location. Search every urn, backpack and chest to find different things like racial stones, recipes, lockpicks and even some equipment. Search crates and barrels for provisioning ingredients and maybe even alchemy ingredient once in awhile. Another thing that falls under exploring is bookshelves. Search every single bookshelf that you can, many of them have a skill book in them which will raise one skill by one point and will make your leveling go even smoother.
Giddy Up!
At first I was not entirely sold on the whole mount thing considering how much they cost in game and on the Crown Store, but believe me when I tell you it is worth it. With all the land to cover, a mount will be your best friend. After you get your first couple pack upgrades, start spending money on upgrading your mount. The faster you get from place to place and the less you have to travel back to town the faster you can level. And the less you have to use Wayshrines, the more things you can find and you may even save a little bit of gold in the long run.
Tag Team Action
Questing with a friend can be both fun and rewarding. I for one was always a pretty die hard single-player guy, but there have been a couple exceptions I've made so I can play with my friends. This game is one of those exceptions, being able to take on an Elder Scrolls game with my best friend Hainesy has been great. It really lightens the mood and it makes time fly when you a friend to play with. As far as the game itself goes, you will actually get an experience bonus for rolling in a group with your pals and some places like Group Dungeons are nearly impossible to do early game without a friend or two. On another note, running with a friend means you will be killing things faster and turning in quests quicker which is basically synonymous with leveling faster. Something to keep in mind, is that unless you have a really organized group, I wouldn’t quest in parties of more than two, max three, because it will actually start to slow you down trying to keep things together. If you don’t want to play with a random group, be sure to head over to our Guild Registry or upcoming Buddy List and join some of your fellow Tamriel Vault-mates.
The Return of Iron Daggers
Crafting in ESO is different and yet similar to previous games TES games. This is because even though all the skill lines are new and fresh, the styles are still familiar (and sadly making iron daggers is still the most effective way to level Blacksmithing). There are six crafting skills: Alchemy, Provisioning, Enchanting, Blacksmithing, Woodworking and Tailoring. Each craft is pretty essential to making the most of your character, but you do not have to truly invest in all of them. I would advise you not to specialize in more than two or three just because they are so point intensive (unless of course you have an alternate account for crafting then by all means go right ahead). Only invest in the crafts you truly need for your character and if anything try to spread them across your different characters, but for the ones you do not invest in there is good chance you will be able to find what you need in one of the local guild stores if you have the gold for it. There is also the possibility of asking one of your friends or someone here to craft what you need. With the ones you do invest in, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, if you aren't making iron daggers, one of the best ways to level your main craft skills is through deconstruction. Especially deconstructing items that offer increased inspiration, as this is basically the medium of crafting experience, and colored items in order to get improvement materials. Secondly, research your items as soon as you can. The research times get to pretty lofty after you learn a couple traits on each item so you want to get through it as quickly as possible because making custom crafted sets in the end game is pretty much a necessity at the time of this writing. Unless of course you can get lucky and find these sets in guild stores. Finally, get certified in your preferred crafting professions. You will make a little extra gold, a little extra experience and you might get a nice gift like a crafting survey. For now, I won’t delve too far into crafting in this post because I hope we will have a few crafting guides made in the near future.
Your Leveling Build is Not the Same as Your End-Game Build
I really want to stress this, the build you have at level 10 is going to be different from your build at level 50. Don’t get upset if it isn’t working exactly how you would like at level 5 or even 15 or if you put a point in something you don’t like, the skills you use to level will typically be different than what you use in the end because that’s just how the game works. Some skills work better early on, some work better for leveling, some work better for PvP, etc. It is possible to follow the theme of your end-game build while you are leveling, but remember that it is bound to be different in terms of actual abilities used and that can influence your overall effectiveness especially if you rely on the last ability in a skill line. That also goes to say if you screw up your skills or if you find you want to relocate some magicka points or stamina points to do more magic or weapon damage, respectively, respecing in this game is cheap enough to do it multiple times. That is why I suggested using at least one ability from each skill line to level because in the end, if you don’t use it you can easily fix it, but you will get the experience boost from it regardless.
Just Have Fun!
Above all else, just have fun. If you get stuck in a random group with a bunch of try-hard elitist, and you are not into that, then just leave. Go in solo if your confident enough or as I said earlier, our guilds are always welcoming new people and you will always have someone there to help you, don’t let anyone else spoil this wonderful game for you. Don’t worry about if you’re using the right skills or if your build is min/maxed to perfection, just do what you find fun. Choose whatever race, class, and weapon you want because this game gives you the freedom to do that and nearly all combinations are viable. And here at the Tamriel Vault I like to think we foster imagination and innovation, so if you’re doing what you truly enjoy and not just doing what everyone else is doing you are bound to stumble upon new things and have fun doing it. Then hopefully you will share your fun times and interesting ideas with the rest of us. It all comes down to you doing something you enjoy. So seriously, just go out there and have fun.
This guide will be ever evolving as we learn more about the game, so check back periodically. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments and I shall try to work them into the original post if I can.
For anyone looking for a few more tips that I could not fit into the original post, look at Teccam's comment, it contains a ton of excellent information that could warrant a post all its own.
Remember everyone, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In no time we will be rolling out crafting guides, roleplaying guides, character builds and much more so stay tuned!
The Adventurer's Guide to Tamriel (Unlimited)
Alright guys, I figured I would start out our new series of ESO guides with some tips, tricks and advice on getting used to the game, leveling and smoothing over the beginning stages. These are all things I personally have found or have been told by other, more experienced players. In either case, I hope these tips help you as much as they have helped my friends and I.
This is NOT Skyrim
I want to start by saying that this is not Skyrim, this is not Oblivion and this is not Morrowind. With that out there, I also want to say that this is not World of Warcraft or Everquest. This is The Elder Scrolls Online. I am telling you now, the moment that you stop comparing it to other games and understand that it is still an Elder Scrolls game you are just playing with other people you will enjoy it a hell of a lot more.
“Maximum Security” Wailing Prisons
After playing through the tutorial in the Wailing Prisons once, you have the option to skip it on all your proceding playthroughs. To be honest though, unless you are really in a hurry you should playthrough it. For one, you can find a few rare items in all of the urns laying around such racial stones and even a racial motif if you are lucky. Second of all, you can stockpile some decent weapons and armor to start with, either to use or to sell since gold is difficult to come by in the early goings. When you skip the tutorial you’re stuck with your little present from the Prophet and a two-handed sword, these are not really favorable conditions unless of course you already determined you were going to use those things. Lastly, when you skip the Wailing Prison you start at level 3 with three skill points and one skyshard, along with the equipment I already mentioned. Well I have found that through effective leveling, not grinding but natural leveling, you can leave the tutorial at around level 5 with five skill points, and some extra gold, armor, and weapons. Trust me it is a big difference.
Starting Off on the Right Foot
The original version of the game would plop you on a starter island as soon as you left the prisons, now it thrusts you right into the starting cities which are not too friendly to beginning players. Like the tutorial, I suggest also going to your starter island as soon as you can, well after you join your guilds but more on that later. These islands are Khenarthi’s Roost, Stros M’Kai and Bleakrock Isle for the Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant and Ebonheart Pact respectively. The reason being, similar to playing the tutorial, it is a gold mine for new characters. If you did playthrough the tutorial there is a chance you may be a level or two higher than most enemies on these islands, but that is not a bad thing it just means that from here on out you will be ahead of the game, literally. In either case, it is a good place to help you get acclimated to the questing system and get a feel for your character’s combat style. Not to mention each island will be carrying Skyshards and is meant to overload you with easily accessed crafting materials and other equipment.
Leveling Up
Fair warning, this section is a little bit longer than the others so I am going to break it up into smaller pieces to hopefully make it easier to digest.
- Class and Weapon Skills – I am about to share with you a technique that is so simple it is absolutely brilliant! With your first three skill points… put one into each of the first abilities in your class skills line. Mind blowing, I know right? All jokes aside, whether or not you think you are really going to use every skill line, it is good to at least start them all so they all will level simultaneously and in return your character will level faster. Something relatively new in this game is the introduction of skill lines for each individual weapon. This theoretically creates an infinite amount of subclasses which is one of the things that makes this game special. When leveling a weapon skill it is a similar concept, except you actually level your weapon skill for just having it equipped. When you slot a weapon ability it will further boost your experience gains in that weapons skill lines. You do not even have to use any of these skills actually, just having them on your bar will level their respective skill lines. You should not be hard pressed for slot space in the early goings so put that space to good use. Along the same lines, spend your early points wisely, particularly on active abilities because many passives will not have a noticeable effect until you get to the mid-levels of your character and passives do not help you level.
- Armor – This idea is a little tricky because most people starting out just want to jump right into their full set of robes or juggernaut armor. While it can be that simple, when it comes to leveling effectively you should try to wear at least one piece of each kind of armor. If you know what armor you are going to use end game, I advise you try to follow a 5/1/1 spread just to reap the benefits of leveling. 5/1/1 means wearing 5 pieces of your preferred armor, and 1 of each of the others. The magic number here is 5 because for your armor’s passive abilities, 5 pieces is considered a full set. Wearing one of each of the other armor weights will not only help you level faster, but will also set you up to switch armor style if you so desire and/or have you set up to run a 5/2 or keep the 5/1/1 split end game with your ideal armor and one or two of the others.
- Guilds – Right off the bat, after you finish the tutorial and before you head to your money, I mean starter, island, you should join the Mage’s, Fighter’s and Undaunted guilds, unless you feel it will really hurt your roleplay. This is because each guild has their own skill line and each skill line progresses in a unique way aside from completing their respective questlines. For the Mage’s Guild, it levels as you find lorebooks scattered across the world; the Fighter’s Guild will level as you kill daedra and undead; and the Undaunted Guild line will level as you conquer dungeons and earn achievements. Each skill line has some pretty awesome skills that any character can make us of, so it is a good idea to join all of these guilds as soon as you can so you can level them fast, by the way did I mention that leveling these will also add to your overall experience gains? Hmm that sounds like something that would be great boost when trying to level effectively and get a little boost. Good to know.
Explore. Explore. Explore.
The Elder Scrolls Online offers a gigantic world for you to explore and you should, well, explore it! Going off the beaten path is one the best things you can do in this game because it rewards you for it. These rewards can be anything from lorebooks, to Skyshards, to crafting materials, to unmarked quests and locations, to simply just getting a little experience boost for finding a new location. Search every urn, backpack and chest to find different things like racial stones, recipes, lockpicks and even some equipment. Search crates and barrels for provisioning ingredients and maybe even alchemy ingredient once in awhile. Another thing that falls under exploring is bookshelves. Search every single bookshelf that you can, many of them have a skill book in them which will raise one skill by one point and will make your leveling go even smoother.
Giddy Up!
At first I was not entirely sold on the whole mount thing considering how much they cost in game and on the Crown Store, but believe me when I tell you it is worth it. With all the land to cover, a mount will be your best friend. After you get your first couple pack upgrades, start spending money on upgrading your mount. The faster you get from place to place and the less you have to travel back to town the faster you can level. And the less you have to use Wayshrines, the more things you can find and you may even save a little bit of gold in the long run.
Tag Team Action
Questing with a friend can be both fun and rewarding. I for one was always a pretty die hard single-player guy, but there have been a couple exceptions I've made so I can play with my friends. This game is one of those exceptions, being able to take on an Elder Scrolls game with my best friend Hainesy has been great. It really lightens the mood and it makes time fly when you a friend to play with. As far as the game itself goes, you will actually get an experience bonus for rolling in a group with your pals and some places like Group Dungeons are nearly impossible to do early game without a friend or two. On another note, running with a friend means you will be killing things faster and turning in quests quicker which is basically synonymous with leveling faster. Something to keep in mind, is that unless you have a really organized group, I wouldn’t quest in parties of more than two, max three, because it will actually start to slow you down trying to keep things together. If you don’t want to play with a random group, be sure to head over to our Guild Registry or upcoming Buddy List and join some of your fellow Tamriel Vault-mates.
The Return of Iron Daggers
Crafting in ESO is different and yet similar to previous games TES games. This is because even though all the skill lines are new and fresh, the styles are still familiar (and sadly making iron daggers is still the most effective way to level Blacksmithing). There are six crafting skills: Alchemy, Provisioning, Enchanting, Blacksmithing, Woodworking and Tailoring. Each craft is pretty essential to making the most of your character, but you do not have to truly invest in all of them. I would advise you not to specialize in more than two or three just because they are so point intensive (unless of course you have an alternate account for crafting then by all means go right ahead). Only invest in the crafts you truly need for your character and if anything try to spread them across your different characters, but for the ones you do not invest in there is good chance you will be able to find what you need in one of the local guild stores if you have the gold for it. There is also the possibility of asking one of your friends or someone here to craft what you need. With the ones you do invest in, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, if you aren't making iron daggers, one of the best ways to level your main craft skills is through deconstruction. Especially deconstructing items that offer increased inspiration, as this is basically the medium of crafting experience, and colored items in order to get improvement materials. Secondly, research your items as soon as you can. The research times get to pretty lofty after you learn a couple traits on each item so you want to get through it as quickly as possible because making custom crafted sets in the end game is pretty much a necessity at the time of this writing. Unless of course you can get lucky and find these sets in guild stores. Finally, get certified in your preferred crafting professions. You will make a little extra gold, a little extra experience and you might get a nice gift like a crafting survey. For now, I won’t delve too far into crafting in this post because I hope we will have a few crafting guides made in the near future.
Your Leveling Build is Not the Same as Your End-Game Build
I really want to stress this, the build you have at level 10 is going to be different from your build at level 50. Don’t get upset if it isn’t working exactly how you would like at level 5 or even 15 or if you put a point in something you don’t like, the skills you use to level will typically be different than what you use in the end because that’s just how the game works. Some skills work better early on, some work better for leveling, some work better for PvP, etc. It is possible to follow the theme of your end-game build while you are leveling, but remember that it is bound to be different in terms of actual abilities used and that can influence your overall effectiveness especially if you rely on the last ability in a skill line. That also goes to say if you screw up your skills or if you find you want to relocate some magicka points or stamina points to do more magic or weapon damage, respectively, respecing in this game is cheap enough to do it multiple times. That is why I suggested using at least one ability from each skill line to level because in the end, if you don’t use it you can easily fix it, but you will get the experience boost from it regardless.
Just Have Fun!
Above all else, just have fun. If you get stuck in a random group with a bunch of try-hard elitist, and you are not into that, then just leave. Go in solo if your confident enough or as I said earlier, our guilds are always welcoming new people and you will always have someone there to help you, don’t let anyone else spoil this wonderful game for you. Don’t worry about if you’re using the right skills or if your build is min/maxed to perfection, just do what you find fun. Choose whatever race, class, and weapon you want because this game gives you the freedom to do that and nearly all combinations are viable. And here at the Tamriel Vault I like to think we foster imagination and innovation, so if you’re doing what you truly enjoy and not just doing what everyone else is doing you are bound to stumble upon new things and have fun doing it. Then hopefully you will share your fun times and interesting ideas with the rest of us. It all comes down to you doing something you enjoy. So seriously, just go out there and have fun.
This guide will be ever evolving as we learn more about the game, so check back periodically. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments and I shall try to work them into the original post if I can.
For anyone looking for a few more tips that I could not fit into the original post, look at Teccam's comment, it contains a ton of excellent information that could warrant a post all its own.
Remember everyone, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In no time we will be rolling out crafting guides, roleplaying guides, character builds and much more so stay tuned!
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