The Quest Marker is a series of guides for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.
Author’s note: I deeply apologize for the delay in publishing this guide. Real life has taken its toll this week, However, we are now back in action and ready tackle some new content.
Originally, this installment was meant to guide the readers in the leveling process, gaining skill points, and how to choose the best mundus stone. When putting the guide together, however, it became clear that the guide would be far too long. So, information regarding skill points and mundus stones will appear in a future guide.
INTRODUCTION
There three main ways to level your character in ESO: (1) General Questing, (2) Efficient Leveling, and (3) AoE Grinding. The author makes no claims of originality in the use of these leveling descriptors, as they are common terms used by many players in the MMORPG genre. Nevertheless, they will be used throughout this guide since they are helpful to compare and contrast the different ways to level your character.
In order to determine which leveling method is best, you must first determine the goal for your character. Is this your first time playing ESO? Perhaps you are not planning to tackle high end content or grouping with other players. If so, then you might want to level your character by the General Questing method. Are you planning on joining a guild or a random Pick-Up Group (PUG) for higher-end dungeons and trials but still want to enjoy your character’s journey through Tamriel? If this is you, then you might want to consider Efficient Leveling. Maybe you have already been through most of the quest lines on another character and plan to level an alternative character (ALT) for the purpose of getting to max levels as quickly as possible for high end content or player-versus-player (PvP) action in Cyrodiil. If so, then AoE grinding is your best bet.
It all boils down to your goals. What do you want to accomplish with your character? With those goals in mind, the decision on how to level your character will be much easier to make.
THE BASICS - XP AND LEVELING
Your character’s level is tied to its total number of experience points (XP). Therefore, your character increases its level in direct proportion to its gain in XP. Players gain XP from a variety of sources, such as:
Exploring
Killing mobs
Questing
Dungeons
Dolmens
World Bosses
Delves
Note, killing enemies and helping others kill enemies (including by healing players) give XP so long as the enemies are not too far below the player's level. Completing quests, discovering new locations, unlocking chests, and completing random world encounters also grant experience. (XP is not gained from crafting) The faster you gain XP, the faster you will level. Also, the larger the amount of XP gained in a certain encounter, the faster your character will level. Knowing this, a player who wants to level his or her character as quickly as possible will try to gain the largest amount of XPs in the shortest amount of time possible. More on this as we discuss the various leveling methods.
FIRST THINGS FIRST – THE WAILING PRISON AND YOUR STARTER CITY
(
The Khajiit are badasses in this game)
Elder Scrolls games are notorious for having your character begin his or her journey in prison. The same is true in ESO. In this game, the prison is called "The Wailing Prison" and is located in the plane(t) of Oblivion known as Coldharbor, the sphere of Molag Bal. If this is your first time playing ESO, you have no choice but to fight your way out of prison and back into the Starry Heart of Nirn, Tamriel. If this is NOT your first character, you will have the option of skipping the prison sequence after character creation. If you decide to skip the prison, you will be teleported to your starting city at level 3. While most people skip the prison tutorial, you may want to consider staying to grind the mobs until your character reaches level 4, which is the point at which you can no longer advance your character in that zone. Staying in Coldharbor will give you the opportunity to open up the class, weapon, and armor skill trees. You will also be able to loot weapons and armor along the way. Once you get to the starter city, you can start adventuring right away without having to find/craft armor for your naked hero.
As mentioned above, after leaving Coldharbor, you will be transported to your Alliance’s starter city – Daggerfall, Stonefalls, or Auridon. No matter which leveling method you choose, you really should consider opening up the skill lines for the Fighter’s Guild, the Mage’s Guild, and the Undaunted Guild. Each of these guilds can be found in your starter city and has a skill line that will greatly aid any class – stamina or magicka. Head over to the Fighter’s Guild and talk to the primary quest giver (usually near the front door) get the skill line started. I don’t recommend that you do any of the FG quests; however, getting the first quest in your quest journal will open up the FG’s skill tree. Do the same with the Mage’s Guild and the Undaunted Guild. As mentioned above, by opening their respective skill trees, you can advance the skill line and use any skill you wish. The Fighter’s Guild skill line is advanced by killing undead and daedra, the Mage’s Guild skill line is advanced by finding lorebooks throughout your travels, and the Undaunted Guild skill line is advanced by completing group dungeons and pledges (a future guide will discuss Undaunted pledges). Once you have opened up the various Guild skill lines, you are now ready to start leveling.
NORMAL QUESTING
This section will be the easiest and the shortest! If you have never played the game before or if you don’t plan to ever group up for difficult end-game type content, then just enjoy the game. If this is your goal, then it really doesn’t matter how fast you level your character. Just quest! Take the time to explore and enjoy every part of the story, including all the side quests and unessential zones. Zenimax has made a deep, beautiful game that should be fully experienced at least once. The side-quests can, at times, be a little on the “go-fetch” side, but you get that even in Skyrim. The game is massive and gorgeous. There is nothing like exploring every corner of Tamriel. Some of it may meet your expectations (especially from what you read), while others not so much – but isn’t that in keeping with the Elder Scrolls series as a whole? TES, especially dealing with lore, loves to shake up your preconceived assumptions of the world. Don’t worry – there is plenty of questing to do! Once you have finished your alliance and the main game story lines, you’ll be given the opportunity to experience the story lines of other alliances. So, get out there and enjoy yourself! Complete every quest, public dungeon, delve, dolmen, and world boss. Hunt for those skyshards, lorebooks, and pesky daedra! Defeat Molag Bal and his plans for Nirn – if you can. Experience the Tamriel that we’ve only read about in other games.
EFFICIENT LEVELING
Okay, so you already completed the story lines and side quests (or you do not care about them in the first place). Maybe you want quick access to other alliance areas so you can hunt for more skyshards. Maybe you are leveling an Alt to experience a new playstyle (because you got bored with your previous character) and want to get past the basic stuff. Have you tried tackling Craglorn? It’s a fun, unique zone, but you had better be a higher veteran level before you explore around.
Enter: Efficient Leveling.
Efficient leveling is a term used in many MMORPGs to describe the quickest method to raise your character’s level without engaging in mind-numbing grinding sessions, yet still enjoying some of the game’s more important content (read: XP-heavy quests).
Efficient leveling is designed to ensure that the content you tackle is at a higher level than your character’s level. What?!? That’s right. In order to enjoy questing while getting the maximum amount of XP, you want the quest levels to increase at a faster rate than your character’s level. Put another way, the game is designed to give you more XP when you are several levels lower than the mobs, quests, or other content you are trying to complete. I have personally found that the “sweet-spot” between maximum XP and survivability is when my character is 3-5 levels below the mobs I am killing, the quests I am completing, or the zone I am entering. (I personally prefer 5 levels below) Anything more than 5 levels below the content and you will get killed way too often to make it worth your while. You will not be able to sustain enough resources to whittle down the enemies’ health and the AI will react in quicker, smarter ways (i.e., the mobs will dodge your attacks much more often).
How do you efficiently level?
1) Your alliance quest line will try send you to an extremely low-level starter island or zone (DC: Stros M’Kai; AD: Knarthi’s Roost; and EP: Bleakrock Isle). DO NOT GO TO THESE ZONES. They are unessential to the story and will make your leveling less efficient because the content yields very low XP. In every alliance, you can by-pass these low-leveled areas by speaking to another quest giver in the starter city.
2) Bypass the low-leveled zones and start working through your main alliance story line. However, when your quests take you near a public dungeon, delve, dolmen, or world boss, stop questing for a moment to tackle this content. When you go through the alliance zone and complete the accompanying quests in this manner, the quest levels (i.e., difficulty) will be increasing at a faster rate than your character is progressing. This is what you want. Remember, you want your character to be 3-5 levels below the enemies you face. If you find that the enemies are more than 5 levels higher than you, or you are having a difficult time defeating the enemies, take a few side quests to level up a bit higher. Another option is to complete the alliance story line for your curent zone before tackling the dungeons, delves, dolmens, or world bosses. After all is complete, head to the next zone.
3) With the exception of my advice in #2, DO NOT TAKE ANY SIDE-QUESTS. Side quest content, while interesting at times, tends to yield very low XP.
4) Did you notice that I said nothing about the Harborage (main game story line), FG, MG, UG quest lines? DO NOT DO THESE QUESTS RIGHT AWAY. First work on completing your alliance and main game story line. If done efficiently, you should be around levels 38-40ish when completed. This is a perfect time to do the Harborage and Coldharbor quests. The mobs in Coldharbor tend to be around 43-45 (perfect for gaining the maximum XP), and Molag Bal is level 50. After you’ve finished the main gain story line, go back and enjoy the FG, MG, and UG quest lines, which scale the XP gain according to your level. Consequently, you will now gain higher XP if you tackle this content at v1.
5) After you have completed the Coldharbor quests and defeated Molag Bal, a not-so-good-not-so-bad Daedra will give you the option to “see the world through the eyes of your enemies,” allowing you to do the other alliance quests. Go for it! Not only are these quests enjoyable, you'll gain great XP and have access to more skyshards and lorebooks.
6) What about Cyrodiil? Good question. At level 10, your character will gain access to Cyrodiil, which is mainly a PvP zone. I suggest that you go as soon as you are able, but only do the three tutorial quests in your alliance’s safe zone. The tutorials teaches about siege weapons and how to use them, how to pick up certain PvP quests (bounty, scouting, and warzone missions), and it brief discusses the new threat in the Imperial City (if you have the IC DLC). When you complete these brief tutorials, you will be given a total of 3 skill points! It’s worth doing even if you never plan to step foot in Cyrodiil again.
AoE GRINDING
Our final method of increasing your character’s level is by Area of Effect (AoE) Grinding. Grinding to increase your level involves killing the same set of respawning opponents over and over in order to gain XP. It is a mind-numbing, boring activity, but it has its uses. As mentioned above, some players want nothing to do with questing and would rather grind up their character for 40 hours. Other players have multiple Alts, which have already experienced the story, and now want to reach end-game content quickly. I used this method to bring my Templar from character creation to V1 in 20 hours (4 days, around 3-5 hours per day).
As mentioned before, the amount of XP gained depends on the level of the mob relative to the level of your character. The larger the mob, the more XP you gain, and the faster you kill, the faster you gain that XP.
Putting this together, a grinder needs to learn two things: (1) how to properly grind to maximize XP, and (2) a good grinding location relative to your character’s level.
How to properly grind?
First, make sure your skill bar is properly equipped. Remember, the more mobs you kill the more XP you earn, so you need as many AoE skills as possible. Also, you might need a healing ability, and, in the absence of a dedicated healing ability, lots of health potions.
Second, learn the layout and pattern of the grinding area. Most grinding areas are in a circular or semi-circular pattern. The patterns are different in each area, but it generally means running a big circle lap through the area over and over again. After a few rotations you will begin to memorize the time, location and number of mobs that spawn and can adjust your path accordingly. If you feel this particular delve is not netting you enough XP, move to another one. The key to grinding is using an attack to grab mob groups and bring them together to AoE them down in packs. The trick is not biting off more than you can chew. If you can swing it, group the mobs up into packs of 10 or 20 and burn them down. If you can’t handle that number, reduce the size until you feel comfortable, yet challenged. It’s not supposed to be easy. Grinding is all about speed and efficiency.
How to find a grind spot?
It would take too long to talk about each and every grinding spot available, especially when a Google search can lead you to the right places. I will, however, embed some videos explaining the best places to grind at lower levels in each alliance. But first, I would like to discuss two of my favorite places to grind: Imperial City Sewers and Rkindaleft.
The IC Sewers is, hands down, the best place to grind for maximum XP. You can easily achieve 5 million XP in an hour. The downside is three-fold. One, you need the IC DLC to gain access. Two, IC is a mixed PvE/PvP environment. This means that while you’ll earn mad XP, you also run the risk of being attacked by a player from an opposing alliance, which greatly slows down your progress (but, if you kill the player, you'll gain XP!!). Three, the sewers are incredibly difficult. The mobs - zombies and dremora lords - are dense and strong. Couple this difficulty with the fear of being “ganked” by another player, you may want to consider grinding with a friend.
As evidenced by its name, Rkindaleft is a Dwarven ruin. Located in Wrothgar, Rkindaleft is a gold mine for XP. While running my Templar through this zone, I would easily rack up almost 2 million XP per hour. Since it is located in a pure PvE area, you won’t be attacked by another player. The only downside is that you need the Orsinium DLC. Note, the zone is a v16 area, but the game “battle levels” you to v15. It's a challenge for low level players – but certainly not impossible. I brought my Templar there at level 32.
Other grinding tips.
There are ways to increase the amount of XP gained from grinding. First, the Crown Store (ESO’s cash shop) sells XP scrolls that, when used, increases the rate by which you gain XP by 50%. Second, grinding in a group of (no more than) two actually increases the amount of XP gained by 10%.
See, I told you that this guide would be far too long to include skill points and mundus stones! I hope that this guide has been helpful in deciding how you want to level your character. In the next guide, I'll go over skill points and mundus stones.
Now, as promised, here are some videos of grinding locations (although a bit old, I have used Parfax's videos for my low leveled characters, so they are still valid):
ESO Quest Marker Series, Vol 2
Leveling Your Character
The Quest Marker is a series of guides for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.
Author’s note: I deeply apologize for the delay in publishing this guide. Real life has taken its toll this week, However, we are now back in action and ready tackle some new content.
Originally, this installment was meant to guide the readers in the leveling process, gaining skill points, and how to choose the best mundus stone. When putting the guide together, however, it became clear that the guide would be far too long. So, information regarding skill points and mundus stones will appear in a future guide.
INTRODUCTION
There three main ways to level your character in ESO: (1) General Questing, (2) Efficient Leveling, and (3) AoE Grinding. The author makes no claims of originality in the use of these leveling descriptors, as they are common terms used by many players in the MMORPG genre. Nevertheless, they will be used throughout this guide since they are helpful to compare and contrast the different ways to level your character.
In order to determine which leveling method is best, you must first determine the goal for your character. Is this your first time playing ESO? Perhaps you are not planning to tackle high end content or grouping with other players. If so, then you might want to level your character by the General Questing method. Are you planning on joining a guild or a random Pick-Up Group (PUG) for higher-end dungeons and trials but still want to enjoy your character’s journey through Tamriel? If this is you, then you might want to consider Efficient Leveling. Maybe you have already been through most of the quest lines on another character and plan to level an alternative character (ALT) for the purpose of getting to max levels as quickly as possible for high end content or player-versus-player (PvP) action in Cyrodiil. If so, then AoE grinding is your best bet.
It all boils down to your goals. What do you want to accomplish with your character? With those goals in mind, the decision on how to level your character will be much easier to make.
THE BASICS - XP AND LEVELING
Your character’s level is tied to its total number of experience points (XP). Therefore, your character increases its level in direct proportion to its gain in XP. Players gain XP from a variety of sources, such as:
Exploring
Killing mobs
Questing
Dungeons
Dolmens
World Bosses
Delves
Note, killing enemies and helping others kill enemies (including by healing players) give XP so long as the enemies are not too far below the player's level. Completing quests, discovering new locations, unlocking chests, and completing random world encounters also grant experience. (XP is not gained from crafting) The faster you gain XP, the faster you will level. Also, the larger the amount of XP gained in a certain encounter, the faster your character will level. Knowing this, a player who wants to level his or her character as quickly as possible will try to gain the largest amount of XPs in the shortest amount of time possible. More on this as we discuss the various leveling methods.
FIRST THINGS FIRST – THE WAILING PRISON AND YOUR STARTER CITY
(
The Khajiit are badasses in this game)
Elder Scrolls games are notorious for having your character begin his or her journey in prison. The same is true in ESO. In this game, the prison is called "The Wailing Prison" and is located in the plane(t) of Oblivion known as Coldharbor, the sphere of Molag Bal. If this is your first time playing ESO, you have no choice but to fight your way out of prison and back into the Starry Heart of Nirn, Tamriel. If this is NOT your first character, you will have the option of skipping the prison sequence after character creation. If you decide to skip the prison, you will be teleported to your starting city at level 3. While most people skip the prison tutorial, you may want to consider staying to grind the mobs until your character reaches level 4, which is the point at which you can no longer advance your character in that zone. Staying in Coldharbor will give you the opportunity to open up the class, weapon, and armor skill trees. You will also be able to loot weapons and armor along the way. Once you get to the starter city, you can start adventuring right away without having to find/craft armor for your naked hero.
As mentioned above, after leaving Coldharbor, you will be transported to your Alliance’s starter city – Daggerfall, Stonefalls, or Auridon. No matter which leveling method you choose, you really should consider opening up the skill lines for the Fighter’s Guild, the Mage’s Guild, and the Undaunted Guild. Each of these guilds can be found in your starter city and has a skill line that will greatly aid any class – stamina or magicka. Head over to the Fighter’s Guild and talk to the primary quest giver (usually near the front door) get the skill line started. I don’t recommend that you do any of the FG quests; however, getting the first quest in your quest journal will open up the FG’s skill tree. Do the same with the Mage’s Guild and the Undaunted Guild. As mentioned above, by opening their respective skill trees, you can advance the skill line and use any skill you wish. The Fighter’s Guild skill line is advanced by killing undead and daedra, the Mage’s Guild skill line is advanced by finding lorebooks throughout your travels, and the Undaunted Guild skill line is advanced by completing group dungeons and pledges (a future guide will discuss Undaunted pledges). Once you have opened up the various Guild skill lines, you are now ready to start leveling.
NORMAL QUESTING
This section will be the easiest and the shortest! If you have never played the game before or if you don’t plan to ever group up for difficult end-game type content, then just enjoy the game. If this is your goal, then it really doesn’t matter how fast you level your character. Just quest! Take the time to explore and enjoy every part of the story, including all the side quests and unessential zones. Zenimax has made a deep, beautiful game that should be fully experienced at least once. The side-quests can, at times, be a little on the “go-fetch” side, but you get that even in Skyrim. The game is massive and gorgeous. There is nothing like exploring every corner of Tamriel. Some of it may meet your expectations (especially from what you read), while others not so much – but isn’t that in keeping with the Elder Scrolls series as a whole? TES, especially dealing with lore, loves to shake up your preconceived assumptions of the world. Don’t worry – there is plenty of questing to do! Once you have finished your alliance and the main game story lines, you’ll be given the opportunity to experience the story lines of other alliances. So, get out there and enjoy yourself! Complete every quest, public dungeon, delve, dolmen, and world boss. Hunt for those skyshards, lorebooks, and pesky daedra! Defeat Molag Bal and his plans for Nirn – if you can. Experience the Tamriel that we’ve only read about in other games.
EFFICIENT LEVELING
Okay, so you already completed the story lines and side quests (or you do not care about them in the first place). Maybe you want quick access to other alliance areas so you can hunt for more skyshards. Maybe you are leveling an Alt to experience a new playstyle (because you got bored with your previous character) and want to get past the basic stuff. Have you tried tackling Craglorn? It’s a fun, unique zone, but you had better be a higher veteran level before you explore around.
Enter: Efficient Leveling.
Efficient leveling is a term used in many MMORPGs to describe the quickest method to raise your character’s level without engaging in mind-numbing grinding sessions, yet still enjoying some of the game’s more important content (read: XP-heavy quests).
Efficient leveling is designed to ensure that the content you tackle is at a higher level than your character’s level. What?!? That’s right. In order to enjoy questing while getting the maximum amount of XP, you want the quest levels to increase at a faster rate than your character’s level. Put another way, the game is designed to give you more XP when you are several levels lower than the mobs, quests, or other content you are trying to complete. I have personally found that the “sweet-spot” between maximum XP and survivability is when my character is 3-5 levels below the mobs I am killing, the quests I am completing, or the zone I am entering. (I personally prefer 5 levels below) Anything more than 5 levels below the content and you will get killed way too often to make it worth your while. You will not be able to sustain enough resources to whittle down the enemies’ health and the AI will react in quicker, smarter ways (i.e., the mobs will dodge your attacks much more often).
How do you efficiently level?
1) Your alliance quest line will try send you to an extremely low-level starter island or zone (DC: Stros M’Kai; AD: Knarthi’s Roost; and EP: Bleakrock Isle). DO NOT GO TO THESE ZONES. They are unessential to the story and will make your leveling less efficient because the content yields very low XP. In every alliance, you can by-pass these low-leveled areas by speaking to another quest giver in the starter city.
2) Bypass the low-leveled zones and start working through your main alliance story line. However, when your quests take you near a public dungeon, delve, dolmen, or world boss, stop questing for a moment to tackle this content. When you go through the alliance zone and complete the accompanying quests in this manner, the quest levels (i.e., difficulty) will be increasing at a faster rate than your character is progressing. This is what you want. Remember, you want your character to be 3-5 levels below the enemies you face. If you find that the enemies are more than 5 levels higher than you, or you are having a difficult time defeating the enemies, take a few side quests to level up a bit higher. Another option is to complete the alliance story line for your curent zone before tackling the dungeons, delves, dolmens, or world bosses. After all is complete, head to the next zone.
3) With the exception of my advice in #2, DO NOT TAKE ANY SIDE-QUESTS. Side quest content, while interesting at times, tends to yield very low XP.
4) Did you notice that I said nothing about the Harborage (main game story line), FG, MG, UG quest lines? DO NOT DO THESE QUESTS RIGHT AWAY. First work on completing your alliance and main game story line. If done efficiently, you should be around levels 38-40ish when completed. This is a perfect time to do the Harborage and Coldharbor quests. The mobs in Coldharbor tend to be around 43-45 (perfect for gaining the maximum XP), and Molag Bal is level 50. After you’ve finished the main gain story line, go back and enjoy the FG, MG, and UG quest lines, which scale the XP gain according to your level. Consequently, you will now gain higher XP if you tackle this content at v1.
5) After you have completed the Coldharbor quests and defeated Molag Bal, a not-so-good-not-so-bad Daedra will give you the option to “see the world through the eyes of your enemies,” allowing you to do the other alliance quests. Go for it! Not only are these quests enjoyable, you'll gain great XP and have access to more skyshards and lorebooks.
6) What about Cyrodiil? Good question. At level 10, your character will gain access to Cyrodiil, which is mainly a PvP zone. I suggest that you go as soon as you are able, but only do the three tutorial quests in your alliance’s safe zone. The tutorials teaches about siege weapons and how to use them, how to pick up certain PvP quests (bounty, scouting, and warzone missions), and it brief discusses the new threat in the Imperial City (if you have the IC DLC). When you complete these brief tutorials, you will be given a total of 3 skill points! It’s worth doing even if you never plan to step foot in Cyrodiil again.
AoE GRINDING
Our final method of increasing your character’s level is by Area of Effect (AoE) Grinding. Grinding to increase your level involves killing the same set of respawning opponents over and over in order to gain XP. It is a mind-numbing, boring activity, but it has its uses. As mentioned above, some players want nothing to do with questing and would rather grind up their character for 40 hours. Other players have multiple Alts, which have already experienced the story, and now want to reach end-game content quickly. I used this method to bring my Templar from character creation to V1 in 20 hours (4 days, around 3-5 hours per day).
As mentioned before, the amount of XP gained depends on the level of the mob relative to the level of your character. The larger the mob, the more XP you gain, and the faster you kill, the faster you gain that XP.
Putting this together, a grinder needs to learn two things: (1) how to properly grind to maximize XP, and (2) a good grinding location relative to your character’s level.
How to properly grind?
First, make sure your skill bar is properly equipped. Remember, the more mobs you kill the more XP you earn, so you need as many AoE skills as possible. Also, you might need a healing ability, and, in the absence of a dedicated healing ability, lots of health potions.
Second, learn the layout and pattern of the grinding area. Most grinding areas are in a circular or semi-circular pattern. The patterns are different in each area, but it generally means running a big circle lap through the area over and over again. After a few rotations you will begin to memorize the time, location and number of mobs that spawn and can adjust your path accordingly. If you feel this particular delve is not netting you enough XP, move to another one. The key to grinding is using an attack to grab mob groups and bring them together to AoE them down in packs. The trick is not biting off more than you can chew. If you can swing it, group the mobs up into packs of 10 or 20 and burn them down. If you can’t handle that number, reduce the size until you feel comfortable, yet challenged. It’s not supposed to be easy. Grinding is all about speed and efficiency.
How to find a grind spot?
It would take too long to talk about each and every grinding spot available, especially when a Google search can lead you to the right places. I will, however, embed some videos explaining the best places to grind at lower levels in each alliance. But first, I would like to discuss two of my favorite places to grind: Imperial City Sewers and Rkindaleft.
The IC Sewers is, hands down, the best place to grind for maximum XP. You can easily achieve 5 million XP in an hour. The downside is three-fold. One, you need the IC DLC to gain access. Two, IC is a mixed PvE/PvP environment. This means that while you’ll earn mad XP, you also run the risk of being attacked by a player from an opposing alliance, which greatly slows down your progress (but, if you kill the player, you'll gain XP!!). Three, the sewers are incredibly difficult. The mobs - zombies and dremora lords - are dense and strong. Couple this difficulty with the fear of being “ganked” by another player, you may want to consider grinding with a friend.
As evidenced by its name, Rkindaleft is a Dwarven ruin. Located in Wrothgar, Rkindaleft is a gold mine for XP. While running my Templar through this zone, I would easily rack up almost 2 million XP per hour. Since it is located in a pure PvE area, you won’t be attacked by another player. The only downside is that you need the Orsinium DLC. Note, the zone is a v16 area, but the game “battle levels” you to v15. It's a challenge for low level players – but certainly not impossible. I brought my Templar there at level 32.
Other grinding tips.
There are ways to increase the amount of XP gained from grinding. First, the Crown Store (ESO’s cash shop) sells XP scrolls that, when used, increases the rate by which you gain XP by 50%. Second, grinding in a group of (no more than) two actually increases the amount of XP gained by 10%.
See, I told you that this guide would be far too long to include skill points and mundus stones! I hope that this guide has been helpful in deciding how you want to level your character. In the next guide, I'll go over skill points and mundus stones.
Now, as promised, here are some videos of grinding locations (although a bit old, I have used Parfax's videos for my low leveled characters, so they are still valid):
Thanks for this, Patriarch! I hope your real life events are not the upsetting kinds?
I have just hit level 14 with my Bosmer in ESO and I get the feeling the levelling is only going to get harder from here. I'm quite all right with that. I enjoy tackling enemies four or five levels higher than me. And I have had a lot of experience with levelling from RuneScape. I will probably have to consult this guide soon, though.
Thanks for this, Patriarch! I hope your real life events are not the upsetting kinds?
I have just hit level 14 with my Bosmer in ESO and I get the feeling the levelling is only going to get harder from here. I'm quite all right with that. I enjoy tackling enemies four or five levels higher than me. And I have had a lot of experience with levelling from RuneScape. I will probably have to consult this guide soon, though.
Rest assured, all is well. Work got unsually crazy and it forced me to go out of town for a while. Thanks for your concern, though.
I'm with you on the challenge. I just love it when I feel underleveled. It keeps me from being lazy, forcing me to strategize and think through my choices. It also helps to develop my character playstyle.
Hey, Rancid. Thanks for replying!!
Rest assured, all is well. Work got unsually crazy and it forced me to go out of town for a while. Thanks for your concern, though.
I'm with you on the challenge. I just love it when I feel underleveled. It keeps me from being lazy, forcing me to strategize and think through my choices. It also helps to develop my character playstyle.
No worries man; I just hope Work will get off your back. She's a needy thing. Wish she could take care of herself, eh?
I'll echo that entire third paragraph! There's something so satisfying about completely owning a boss battle after spending a good five minutes crouching in the corner, quietly planning out your course of action.
No worries man; I just hope Work will get off your back. She's a needy thing. Wish she could take care of herself, eh?
I'll echo that entire third paragraph! There's something so satisfying about completely owning a boss battle after spending a good five minutes crouching in the corner, quietly planning out your course of action.
Another very informative guide, Pates, thank you for creating it. I think I have pretty much followed General Questing method which suits my approach to the game, so it is comforting to know I have done nothing wrong at least.
Another very informative guide, Pates, thank you for creating it. I think I have pretty much followed General Questing method which suits my approach to the game, so it is comforting to know I have done nothing wrong at least.
Sorry for not commenting before - life has been hectic and I've also had some connection issues with Ning
Another great raid, packed with helpful tips which I am avidly reading and digesting
I look forward to the next part particularly as I find the skill point allocation in ESO to be perhaps the most perplexing part of the game. The sheer multiplicity of choices in somewhat overwhelming!
Sorry for not commenting before - life has been hectic and I've also had some connection issues with Ning
Another great raid, packed with helpful tips which I am avidly reading and digesting
I look forward to the next part particularly as I find the skill point allocation in ESO to be perhaps the most perplexing part of the game. The sheer multiplicity of choices in somewhat overwhelming!
Great walkthrough Pat! The only thing I seem to struggle at levelling is crafting, I probably need to devote some time to doing just that instead of doing it as I go along.
Great walkthrough Pat! The only thing I seem to struggle at levelling is crafting, I probably need to devote some time to doing just that instead of doing it as I go along.
I'm quite all right with that. I enjoy tackling enemies four or five levels higher than me. And I have had a lot of experience with levelling from RuneScape. 
I will probably have to consult this guide soon, though.
