Back in Chapter 5 of this guide, we discussed how to spend those first few precious skill points to make your character viable in combat and adventuring around Tamriel. Essentially, my recommendation was that the first ten or so skill points should be spent in acquiring the class skills and chosen weapon skills – and then morphing those skills – so that your character has survivability. It’s no fun playing ESO if you’re getting absolutely wrecked every time you run into a group of enemies!
By the time you get to about Level 10, you’ll have around 15-16 skill points to play with – not only your skills from levelling up, but also a couple from completing quests and two or three from collecting Skyshards. At this stage, you are going to start getting skill points that you don’t actually need to spend just to fill up your skill bar. You’ve a few choices at this point:
Oooh, this one thinks something shiny might be hidden under this dig
So what are passives?
Passives are skills that apply at all times – in the background, so to speak. The important thing to note is that they do NOT have to be slotted on the skill bar – so you can have as many passives buffed as you like, without worrying about taking up precious slots on your skill bar.
As they act passively, they are ‘always on’. As such, they can be extremely powerful! We’ll come onto some of the choices in a little while, but first let’s look at the different types of passives
There are many options for passives, far too many for one character to grab – especially given that the passives typically have two or three ranks that will become available as you level. You will need to do your research and think carefully about which passives you think will best develop your character.
Khajiit wants to be nimble at all times
Picking passives
San-daro is a sneaky assassin – so my choice of passives is geared towards staying undetected, getting the jump on enemies and conserving stamina. I took a look at the available Nightblade, Medium Armour, Dual Wield and Khajiit skills and detected the following likely candidates:
San-daro needs to not be seen when looking for things
These are the passives that are on my own personal ‘wish list’ for San-daro. As ‘spare’ skill points become available, these are going to be my first picks. There are, of course, plenty of other passives that are worth having – that will increase health or buff spell critical, for example. So, the odd spare skill point will always find a useful passive to invest into…
All-in-all, passives are powerful enhancements – and sometimes overlooked by new ESO players. Choose wisely – you can’t buff everything – and you will find that they can give you the edge in combat situations.
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