User blog:GrandOldPartyer/ESO Guide 2018 For Beginners and Advanced Players

When you begin your ESO journey, you will find that there are a lot of mechanics you didn’t know existed. I'll be honest, it can be overwhelming at first. Let me help you ease that anxiety I know you're feeling. Here are just a couple tips to get you started. Read on to learn everything you need to know to master ESO without anyone knowing you’re a “Noob”.

Starter Tips
1. Don’t worry too much about your gear until you hit Level 50 CP 160. This is because armor and weapons are only craftable up to CP 160.

2. Even if you don’t want the armor, weapons, or jewelry you come across, grab them anyway! Deconstruct all of it to build up your crafting skills and to obtain materials.

3. If you do not have plans to subscribe to ESO Plus, upgrade your bank space and backpack. You can find a Pack Merchant and Banker in most cities.

4. Explore. Explore. Explore! It is the easiest way to gain experience points and opens new and interesting locations you may want to spend time in.

5. Set yourself up for success in the beginning and research everything you can in Crafting. The training trait is useful when you are leveling up (Increases experience gained from kills by a percentage). Other traits that you learned can be used on your CP armor to just give you that extra boost in dungeons and battlegrounds.

ESO Combat Tips (Roles)
I would recommend choosing what role you are going to play in the beginning. There are three roles available in Dungeons and Trials. The reason this is so important is because you wouldn’t go into a dungeon claiming you’re a healer but you have no healing abilities, right? You will make a lot of people upset by misconstruing your role and causing your team to be down a key player. It is very possible that if your group is not satisfied with your abilities in the role you chose, they can unanimously kick you from the Dungeon or Trial. Below is a description of each role and the suggested class and race:

DPS (Damage Per Second)  – Causing as much damage as possible so building up Stamina is crucial to constantly be laying down attacks. With DPS you can cause damage with either a Stamina build (Dual Wield and Bow) or Magicka (Staff).

Race:

High Elf (Magicka) Breton (Magicka) Khajiit (Stamina) Redguard (Stamina)

Class:

Sorcerer (Magicka) Nightblade (Stamina)

Tank  – The Tank’s role is to draw aggro from the mobs of enemies and the bosses. Basically, to draw attention away from the rest of the group so Health is where you are going to want to put all of the attribute points you receive.

Race:

Orc Imperial Nord

Class:

Dragon Knight

Healer  – Self-explanatory but healers provide health to the group making Magicka the attribute priority. With the bar swap, you can have a resurrection staff to heal and then swap to a destruction staff to help cause damage in between healing.

Race:

Breton High Elf Argonian

Class:

Templar Sorcerer Warden

What ESO Race to Pick
Every race belongs to a specific faction, unless you purchase Any Race, Any Faction in the Crown Store. Every race has passive abilities that are helpful depending on what role you want to play in Dungeons and Trials. Racial passives give an additional boost to your build. Below are the races, their faction, and passive abilities:

Aldmeri Dominion

High Elf (Altmer):

High Born - Increases experience gain with the Destruction Staff Skill line by 15%. Increases your experience gained by 1%. Spellcharge – Increased Magicka Recovery Gift of Magnus – Increases Max Magicka Elemental Talent – Increases your Flame, Frost, and Shock damage

Wood Elf (Bosmer):

Acrobat - Increases experience gain with the Bow Skill line by 15%. Decreases your fall damage taken by 10%. Y’ffre’s Endurance – Increases Stamina Recovery Resist Affliction – Increases your Max Stamina Stealthy – Reduces your detection radius in Stealth

Khajiit:

Cutpurse - Increases the experience gain with the Medium Armor Skill line by 15%. Increases your chance to successfully pickpocket by 5% Nimble - Increases your Health and Stamina Recovery Stealthy - Reduces your detection radius in Stealth. Carnage – Increases weapon critical

Daggerfell covenant

Breton:

Opportunist - Increases experience gain with the Light Armor Skill line by 15%. Increases your Alliance Points gained by 1%. Gift of Magnus – Increases Max Magicka Spell Resistance – Increases Spell Resistance Magicka Mastery – Reduces the cost of Magicka

Orc:

Craftsman - Increases experience gain with the Heavy Armor Skill line by 15%. Increases your crafting Inspiration gained by 10%. Brawny – Increases Max Health and Max Stamina Unflinching – Increases healing received and Health Recovery Swift Warrior – Increases your damage done with melee attacks and reduces cost of Sprint.

Redguard:

Wayfarer - Increases experience gain with One-Handed and Shield Skill line by 15%. Increases the duration of eaten food by 15 minutes. Exhilaration – Increases Stamina Recovery Conditioning – Increases Max Stamina Adrenaline Rush – Melee attacks restore Stamina

Ebonheart Pact

Argonian:

Amphibian - Increases experience gain with the Restoration Staff Skill line by 15%. Increases your swimming speed by 50%. Resourceful – Increases Max Magicka Argonian Resistance – Increases Max Health Quick to Mend – Increases healing done and received

Dark Elf (Dunmer):

Ashlander - Increases the experience gain with the Dual Wield Skill line by 15%. Reduces your damage taken by environmental lava by 50%. Dynamic – Increases Max Magicka and Max Stamina Resist Flame – Increases Max Magicka and Flame resistance Destructive Ancestry – Increases your Flame damage done

Nord:

Reveler - Increases experience gain with the Two-Handed Skill line by 15%. Increases the duration of any consumed drink by 15 minutes. Stalwart – Increases Max Stamina and Health Recovery Resist Frost – Increases Max Health and Cold Resistance Rugged – Increases damage reduction

Exclusive

Imperial:

Diplomat - Increases experience gain with the One-Handed and Shield Line by 15%. Increases your gold gained by 1%. Tough – Increases Max Health Conditioning – Increases Max Stamina Red Diamond – Melee attacks restore Health

ESO Classes
Your character’s class is another decision you are going to make during your character creation. This is the initial decision in which role you plan to play in Dungeons and Trials with. Once you choose a class, you cannot go back and change it later. Below are the official descriptions for each class:

Dragonknight  - "These skillful masters-at-arms use the ancient Akaviri martial tradition of battle-spirit, and wield fearsome magic that pounds, shatters and physically alters the world around them."

Nightblade  – “Spell and shadow are their friends. By darkness they move with haste, casting magic to benefit their circumstances.”

Sorcerer  - "Sorcerers summon and control weather phenomenon: hurling lightning bolts and creating electrified fields, summoning tornadoes and impenetrable fog, and calling upon Deadric forces to summon Storm Atronachs and magical armor."

Templar  - "These traveling knights call upon the powers of light and the burning sun to deal massive damage to their enemies while restoring Health, Magicka, and Stamina to their allies."

Warden  – “Wardens are defenders of the Green, master storytellers whose nature tales become magical reality. They wield frost spells against enemies and summon animals to aid them.”

ESO Dungeon Guide
There are different types of dungeons you can explore in ESO. Not all of these dungeons are ones that you will need to queue for. Below is a brief explanation of what you will find:

Public  – Public dungeons are just that, public. These dungeons are open to everyone and provide side quests, mobs, and loot. There is a Public dungeon per zone and each one has a Boss in the end with a reward. You will typically find other players farming for materials or completing quests making it easier to defeat enemies.

Delves  – Delves are smaller dungeons that contain smaller groups of enemies. Same rules apply, there will be other visible players and there are typically Skyshards to be found in each one.

Group  –You can either group with guild members, random players, your friends, or use the Activity Finder and queue for a dungeon to run. There are two different types per Dungeon: Normal and Veteran. You are going to want to be Level 50 CP 160 for at least Normal.

Undaunted/Pledges  – The Undaunted are a sort of guild that live life on the edge and boast of their accomplishment. The Undaunted provide daily pledges that once you complete, they will give you a key to open one of three chests they provide. These chests contain pieces of high quality sets you earn on top of the Dungeon daily rewards you complete.

ESO Trials Guide


Trials are much more difficult than Dungeons. If you are interested in experiencing Trials, I would recommend waiting until Level 50 CP 750, max out your CP, and run with people that are comfortable teaching you the mechanics. Trial groups contain 12 members and it sounds like a lot but you will want all of those spots filled. This way you can see what it’s like and if it is something you want to participate in.

Available Trials:

Aetherian Archive  (Craglorn)

Set drops: Defending Warrior, Healing Mage, Serpent

Hel Ra Citadel  (Craglorn)

Set drops: Berserking Warrior, Destructive Mage, Poisonous Serpent

Sanctum Ophidia  (Craglorn)

Set drops: Wise Mage, Twice Fanged Serpent, Immortal Warrior

Maw of Lorkhaj  (Reaper’s March)

Set drops: Lunar Bastian, Moon Dancer, Roar of Alkosh, Twilight Remedy

The Halls of Fabrication  (Vvardenfell)

Set drops: Automated Defense, Inventor’s Guard, Master Architect, War Machine

Asylum Sanctorium  (Clockwork City)

Set drops: Chaotic Whirlwind, Concentrated Force, Defensive Position, Disciplined Slash, Piercing Spray, Timeless Blessing

Cloudrest  (Summerset)

Set drops: Mantle of Siroria, Vestment of Olorime, Arms of Relequen, Aegis of Galanwe

It’s important to know what sets drop in each Trial. Each set of armors appeals to one of the three roles (Healer, Tank, or DPS). You can get your friends to help you out in a specific Trial farming armor and weapons. This will enable you to strengthen your abilities for End Game content.

ESO PvP Guide
PvP stands for Player versus Player. PvP can be accessed on an individual basis anywhere. Walk up to another player and offer to duel them, typically this occurs with higher level player preying on much weaker. The good news is that you can decline these offers.

Battlegrounds are neat PvP events that you can find in your Activity Finder. These are small matches that last no longer than 15-20 minutes. Battlegrounds offers multiplayer games like Domination, Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, Chaos Ball, and Crazy King.

There is only one zone that is openly PvP, and that is Cyrodiil. Cyrodiil offers side quests and the Alliance War gameplay. You are grouped with your faction to take over other enemy faction keeps. You can earn alliance points to purchase gear and siege weapons to aid you. I highly recommend asking for help from guild members or random players in your alliance especially if you are lower levels. Your PvP build (Armor, weapons, skill points, class, race, etc.) will be different than the one you run Dungeons and Trials with.

Build a second character for PvP play and create a separate character for PvE. Unless you completely fall in love with one or the other. This way your primary character for PvE won’t be slaughtered in Cyrodiil.

ESO Crafting Guide
When you very first begin, there will be a trainer in the Fighter and Mage guild that will “certify” you in crafting. Basically, this means they are teaching you the basics of constructing and deconstructing. It can feel redundant but it is extremely useful if you aren’t sure what you are doing.

You will be able to access your crafting upgrades in your skills. Walk up to any of the crafting tables and the Skill Line will be added. The skill line is used to upgrade the materials you can use in a specific level. Max out all of your skills and you will be able to craft Level 50 CP 160 armor when you reach that level.

You can gather materials for crafting by purchasing from other players, deconstructing your loot, or farming it. Once you have gathered materials, there are several craft stations available.

Blacksmithing : heavy armor and weapons Woodworking : staffs, bows, and shields Provisioning : cooking Jewelry Enchanting : glyphs for armor, weapons, and jewelry Clothing : light and medium armor Alchemy : potions and poisons

These stations allow you to research components as well. As you progress through researching traits on each piece of equipment, the time it takes will lengthen. For example, researching your first trait on your helmet will take a couple hours in real time. The next time will take about 10 hours. The following trait will take 21 hours and so on. Learning all the traits will help you to craft armor, jewelry, and weapons for your CP character.

How Questing works


Quests can be completed in any order you choose to or not at all if you choose not to. Quests become available when you talk to NPCs with a black arrow over their head or by finding random objects that also have a black arrow over them. You can hold up to 25 quests at a time. Each time you complete a quest you will be awarded with coins, gear, and even skill points.

If you find that you need help with a quest, you can always share it with someone else. Once the quest is complete, you both will get the rewards from it. The blue arrows over pin boards and NPCs are daily quests. Each day, there are several daily quests that NPCs offer. The rewards from these quests are much rarer than the side quests.

Once you have chosen a quest to pursue, a white arrow will help you to track that specific quest and lead you to where you need to go. You can use mounts to travel more quickly, use Wayshrines, or even fast travel from any location but keep in mind that last one requires coin.

How to Level Fast In ESO
Everyone has different ideas of leveling quickly. The most common answer is grinding in Craglorn. Craglorn has a bunch of mobs scattered throughout the zone, group areas, Dungeons, Trials, and side quests. I can tell you right now that all of them are difficult. If there is a group that you can put together, maybe all of you are leveling your new characters, do that rather than going solo. See, what they don’t tell you is you CAN gain a lot of experience killing the mobs in Craglorn but you have to stay alive to receive those experience points.

Being a newer player, that is not likely to happen going solo. The way that I have leveled characters quickly, is honestly questing. Questing provides experience points when completed. It also requires you to travel to new places. When you discover a new location, a Wayshrine you haven’t been to, or locating a Dungeon, you gain experience points from that! You could literally not talk to NPCs and just run around discovering every location in every zone and level up.

Best Way to Earn Gold In ESO
1. Sell your materials to other players via Zone Chat 2. Sell Armor, weapons, and jewelry to Merchants 3. Become a Master Crafter (knowing all traits, all racial motifs, and armor levels) and sell your abilities to players that are not Master Crafters. You can make a lot of gold doing this. 4. Join a guild that has a Trader and sell unwanted items through your Guild Store for any player to buy. 5. Quests! Questing is a good way to gain some coin quickly.

ESO End Game Guide
End game content for PvE players is more of Dungeons, Trials, and Undaunted pledges. For PvP it is more of Cyrodiil and mastering Battlegrounds. There is still plenty to accomplish in End Game such as gear farming and reaching Master Crafter (Level 50 in all crafting skill lines, unlock all traits, unlock all passives, and unlock all racial motifs).

After completing the main quest, you can continue a large-scale quest by completing Cadwell’s Silver and Gold. These huge quests allow to play in another faction’s homeland like you would if you had chosen a character from another faction. Upon completion, you will receive coin rewards as well as rare armor. This is not including all the rewards you receive per quest.

ESO is constantly updating and adding content to the Crown Store. You can purchase mounts, costumes, homes and furniture. If decorating isn’t your thing, ESO has events around the holidays like the Jester’s Festival and Midyear Mayhem. These and many, many more events give you the chance to acquire rare items, unlock new side quests, and accomplish new achievements.

ESO DLC
ESO offers DLCs for guilds and quests that were provided with Skyrim. The good news is that the DLCs are bound to your account, so every character you create has access to all the same DLCs. ESO Plus subscribers get all the available DLCs in the crown store with their subscriptions. Below are the DLCs currently available:

Imperial City – Located in Cyrodiil, includes two additional dungeons and side quests in PvE/PvP zone (2,500 crowns)

Orsinium – Located in Wrothgar, includes the Maelstrom Arena and two additional dungeons in the Orc city (3,000 crowns)

Thieves Guild – Located in Hew’s Bane, access Thieves Guild skill line, side quests, and an additional Trial, The Maw of Lorkhaj (2,000 crowns)

Dark Brotherhood – Located in Gold Coast, access to Dark Brotherhood skill line and costume, side quests available (2,000 crowns)

Shadows of The Hist – Two Argonian based dungeons, new gear, and Personality reward (1,500 crowns)

Horns of The Reach – Two new dungeons, Bloodforge gear and costumes (1,500 crowns)

Clockwork City – New Trial, Asylum Sanctorium, Asylum armor and weapons in a whole new zone (2,000 crowns)

Dragon Bones – Additional dungeons, new gear and mounts available (1,500 crowns)

Wolfhunter – (Launches August 13th, 2018 PC/MAC and August 28th, 2018 PS4/XBOX One) includes new dungeons, housing locations, gear, and side quests!

Essential ESO Addons
Unfortunately, console players do not have access to mods and add-ons for ESO. PC users have tons of addons to choose from. The essentials being:

Master Merchant – View your guild trader stats Advanced UI – Customizable inventory bar and damage icons Harvest Map – Displays resources, chests, and fishing locations on map Lore Books – Displays lore book locations on map Potion Maker – Makes a list of available potions you can make with the resources you have Srendarr- Ability to track your buffs and debuffs