Elder Scrolls Online - More Like Fashion Scrolls Online

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Synthwave Crusader: Feb 13, 2011

OP IS OUT OF DATE FOR THE MOST PART, JOIN THE GOON ESO DISCORD IF YOU HAVE ACTUAL QUESTIONS :siren:

PvP with Goons, get messages like this:

FAQ and other useful info here

Ok so much like Tamriel Unlimited, The Elder Scrolls Online: One Tamriel marks the second "rebranding/rebirth" of the TES-themed MMORPG developed by Zenimax Online Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks.

More info about TU, here in my previous thread (majority of the stuff will come from that thread anyway)

"Ok so what's changed in One Tamriel?"
Well, in an attempt to make the game come closer to its TES roots, Zenimax Online has completely removed the mechanic of "level-locked regions" and basically allowed the entire map/game to open up to everyone the moment they finish/skip/sleep through the tutorial. This means that immediately upon entering the game for the first time, you can travel to any region in the game, regardless of level, faction, or main quest completion status, and you won't get immediately murdered! Zenimax is doing this by basically implementing the same battle-leveling mechanics present in Cyrodiil, and all of the DLC regions currently in the game, meaning that your stats are essentially boosted up to those of a max-level character. In short, levels gone, open-world, good times (hopefully).

"Ok so if level progression is out the window, how the gently caress am I going to feel any sense of progression?"
There are still levels in the game. You still have to level up from 1-50, and with every level comes additional skill points, class/skill/racial passive progression, and after hitting level 50, Champion Point (similar to D3's Paragon system) accrual, which unlocks even more passives. And don't forget gear progression. So yeah, there's still progression involved.

"Ok so the game is essentially more like a traditional TES game now, why the new OP?"
Old OP was a year old and outdated, and I didn't feel like going through and editing it.

One Tamriel will officially go Live on October 5th. Prospective players can currently buy a Gold Edition of the game, which includes the base game, the first 4 DLCs, a few ESO funbux, and a horse. Anyone with the base game can pick up the "Guilds and Glory" content pack through the in-game store which includes the first four DLCs in one pack.

Premium Content for The Elder Scrolls online comes in a few forms: DLC, and a monthly (OPTIONAL) subscription called "ESO Plus."

Currently, ESO Plus offers:

A monthly allowance of premium currency (Crowns, 1500 per month if recurring)
Unlimited Access to all DLC regardless of ownership
The Almighty Craft Bag, which is a godsend to crafting spergs like myself.
The ability to dye your cosmetic costumes for free (non ESO+ members can only dye them using specific dye packs)

Note that if you lose your subscription, you lose access to any DLC areas that you don't own, and you also lose the ability to store items in your Craft Bag (although you can still retrieve items from it).

You can purchase a recurring monthly sub, or you can purchase blocks of membership in 30, 60, and 90 day subscriptions, with each block offering a specific amount of Crowns based on the length.

Crowns are the game's virtual currency which allow you to buy DLC, costumes, cosmetic items, mounts, or convenience/utility items through the in-game Crown Store.

DLC is basically a fancy way of saying "expansion packs," and include access to new regions, new (passive) skill lines, and more quests/items/etc.
There are currently 5 DLC packs available:

Imperial City
Orsinium
Thieves Guild
Dark Brotherhood
Shadows of the Hist (technically not a DLC since it's just two dungeons, but we'll count it for reasons)

Note that if you let your subscription last, you will lose access to all DLC that you do now own, but will keep the items, rewards, skillpoints, etc. that you gain from those areas.

There are a few major elements to combat in ESO:

Basic Attacks
These are your basic attacks. Should you run out of resources (Magicka/Stamina), these will always be available to you. Light attacks are done by clicking your attack key, while heavy attacks are executed by holding down the attack key to charge them up. Learning to weave heavy and light attacks between casting skills is essential if you want to build ultimate and increase your overall damage. Heavy attacks also restore resources as well.
:ssh:

Remember, you can press Tab to cycle between targets :ssh:

Class Skills
Class skills are learned/unlock as you progress through your individual class ranks. You assign them to your hotkey bar and execute them from there. Each class has three sets of unique skills that they can use, ranging from damaging attacks, to self-buffs, to area control/debuffs.

Weapon Skills
There are six weapon classes in the game: Sword and Shield, Two-Handed, Dual Wielding, Bow, Restoration Staff, and Destruction staff. All players have access to these skills regardless of what class they choose when creating a character. They are executed the same way as class skills, by placing them on your hotkey bar and using them from there. Starting with One Tamriel, each Weapon Line now has an Ultimate again, ranging from turning into an automatic blocking machine, to raining down elemental death on your opponents.

Some More Combat Essentials:

Single-target skills execute immediately without having to choose a target. Some AoE skills fire off immediately (usually skills that aim to the caster's immediate front), while others must be targeted before they fire off.
Blocking is done with the right mouse button with all weapons. Holding block then clicking left mouse button will interrupt any charging attacks, be they auto, weapon or ability attacks. If you interrupt a charging attack of any sort, the caster will be stunned momentarily (generally for two to three seconds) and your next attack against them of any type will cause quadruple damage as well as knocking them down.
Group healing is accomplished either with the skills of a Templar, or the Restoration staff weapon skills. Both types of healing are semi-random, with your ability to choose whom to heal basically non-existent with many skills. Most of them choose two random targets, or the lowest target in your group or near you. There are several area heal skills available but they are frequently short lived with somewhat lengthy cooldowns.
Resurrection is handled in a special way in ESO. You require a filled soul gem of your level to resurrect yourself as a result of a PvE death, and other players require an appropriate level soul stone to resurrect you in PvP or PvE. Soul stones cover a range of 10 levels for each time, are destroyed on use, and are filled with the Soul Trap spell, a skill line which you upgrade by doing the Main Quest.

Questing in ESO is your normal MMO affair with a few quirks. You collect various quests from hubs, or at points of interest around the world, then go do their requirements for completion. However they've made several interesting design changes, notably in that there are very few "Kill X monsters/Collect X bits and bobs" quests, and most quests can be completed without interference from other players. There are a few of each of those quests however, and they do tend to be rather abrasive to complete.

Speaking to an NPC quest giver.

Questing remains your main source of experience both in PvE and PvP. Quests can take you anywhere in a zone but are typically within a minute or two of walking distance of the quest giver, with the exception of most quests involving dungeons, with the exception of Guild Daily quests, which usually involve sending you all over Tamriel to either kill targets, or clear out dungeons.

The Champion System is the progression system that opens to players upon reaching level 50, and is account-wide. Once you begin earning Champion points, any time you get a new character to level 50, they immediately level up to the accountwide Champion rank.
Champion Points (CP) drive character progression after reaching level 50. You will earn Champion Points by gaining EXP, doing things like quests, exploration, dungeons, fighting and crafting.

Champion Points, once earned, can be spent on all of your Characters.
For example if Character 1 earns 20 Points then Character 2 and 3 will also be able to spend 20 Points.

There are Constellations, each with three Signs, each with four specific passive bonuses. The Constellations will �rotate� meaning that you must spend Champion Points in each Constellation at even rates however you can choose any Sign within these Constellations. The Champion system allows for extreme flexibility and customization with many different options and specializations available, divided into the three Constellations � The Warrior, The Thief and The Mage.

The Warrior Constellation provides bonuses to your character's defensive aspects
The Mage Constellation provides bonuses to offensive aspects
The Thief Constellation provides bonuses to resource management and utility mechanics(dodging, etc.)

^^^ ESO PVP in a nutshell ^^^

PvP in ESO is handled similarly to Guild Wars 2 and Dark Age of Camelot. You have a large map with three factions, each starting in one corner of the map and attempting to take keeps and resources from each other to fuel the war effort. There were originally several campaigns that were open to all players and lasted 90 days, but because of poopsockers and the pretty steep drop in player population after a few months, and as such, ZOS went and overhauled the PvP system.
PvP has changed dynamically since its original iteration back at launch. Gone are the days where a small group of people would be able to take on large groups with ease, replaced by zerg vs zerg action, with the occasional skirmishing happening along the way.

There are a few campaigns:

A sub-50 PvP campaign
A campaign that lasts for 30 days open to all levels, which allows the use of Champion Points
A campaign that lasts for 30 days open to all levels, which disables the use of Champion Points
A campaign open to all levels that lasts for 7 days that allows the use of Champion Points

If you are not at Champion Rank 160, any time you enter a PvP campaign, you will be Battle leveled to 160, taking gear into account. So the better your gear is, the more stats you will have.

A fight in front of a keep with a couple dozen participants.

Many things happen at once in PvP:

Keep sieges
Small group PvP
Zergs
PvP-PvE dungeons
Imperial City

Keep Sieges
Keep sieges have three main components; defenders, attackers and siege equipment. The attackers are attempting to breach the main gate of a keep (or in the case of a mile fort, the singular gate), then the interior gate, then take control of two flags within the main keep. Each fort can have 20 siege weapons on each side at a maximum, meaning if the keep is being attacked by both enemy parties, there will be, at most, 60 pieces of siege at keep. It is only possible for one side to control a keep at a time, meaning that if all three sides are clashing over a single keep, the two attacking forces will often oppose each other outside the walls if possible.

Siege Equipment
Siege equipment in ESO comes in several categories

Trebuchets come in three varieties: fire pot, snowball and stone.
Catapults come in three varieties: stone, oil, and meatbag.
Ballistas come in two varieties: fire and steel.
Rams come in ram. Also hot boiling death.

Keeps come in two varieties, regular keeps and mile forts a la DAoC. Regular keeps have two layers of protection; an outside wall with gate that must be destroyed to access the main keep. You can destroy the gate with a battering ram or the walls with trebuchets, catapults and ballista. Either way will give you access to the central keep which has a gate that must be destroyed to access the two stage flag capture system. Once you control both flags (you have a majority of players in their ZoI) for a period of time you control the keep, and have to repair the damage you caused. Mile forts only have the inner keep with gate and no defensive walls.

Keeps have various postern doors, only readily accessible by the faction that owns the keep, both for the outer wall and the inner keep. Both kinds can be destroyed for quicker access to the keep, though speed is relative being that you must destroy the wall surrounding it. If you are somehow stuck inside a keep when it falls to the enemy and they repair the walls before you exit you won't have access to the postern doors. Repairing the walls or doors of a keep grants you XP in both your class and Alliance level.

Additionally, each has three resource camps around it, some nearer than others. The longer you control a keep, the more resources these camps auto-generate to allow your keep to upgrade itself. If your keep runs long enough, your stone camp will upgrade the walls, giving them more hitpoints, making it harder to destroy them. Lumber camps upgrade the doors, and food camps upgrade the NPCs.

Small Group PvP
Basically all but wiped out of Cyrodiil, small group play involves groups of less than 8 people all moving together and usually involves voice communication and precise coordination. This is probably the fastest way to make AP and increase your PvP rank, but it is the most difficult playstyle to maintain. Expect lots and lots of zergs to chase you down for attempting to capture a resource. However, if you're smart, you can hold off a larger force while the bulk of your faction attacks a keep to claim it.

Zergs
Zerging has become the main playstyle in Cyrodiil, mainly due to mechanics changes made by the combat team (mainly Wrobel's stupid rear end) that have increasingly favored numbers over skill. If you want easy AP, just join a zerg in zone chat, and move from keep to keep taking everything. You will get hate tells from players who hate the zerg playstyle, and you probably won't learn very much.

PvP-PvE Dungeons
There are 18 delves in Cyrodiil that act like Public Dungeons in the PvE overland. The big difference here is that you are susceptible to getting killed by enemy players while doing the dungeon, so be alert at all times.

Imperial City
Starting back in late summer 2015, Zenimax opened up the Imperial City at the heart of Cyrodiil for all players. This place is both a PvE, and PvP zone, meaning that you have to contend with both enemy factions, and the Daedric forces laying waste to the city. You can earn AP in IC, and you are also introduced to a new currency called Tel Var stones (lore says these are bits and pieces of the White Gold Tower that have fallen to the ground). Killing daedric mobs grants Tel Var, but beware, if you are killed by an enemy player, they will receive 50% of your current Tel Var count. Fortunately, Tel Var can be banked, unlike AP. Tel Var is used to purchase unique item sets from the vendors in your faction's home base, as well as other goodies like crafting materiel, or lotto boxes that have a chance to drop unique rewards.

Crafting is moderately in-depth for a modern MMO. Several specializations exist, and require skill points to invest deeply in:

Blacksmithing - You'll use this skill to craft Heavy Armors and Physical Melee Weapons
Woodworking - You'll use this skill to craft Bows, Staves, and Shields
Clothing - You'll use this skill to craft Light and Medium Armors
Enchanting - You'll use this skill to craft enchantment glyphs to attach to weapons and armor (by far the hardest one to level, IMO)
Provisioning - You'll use this skill to craft Food and Drink that provide boosts to your attributes. Food provides raw boosts to your base attributes (Health, Stamina, Magicka), while Drinks provide boosts to attribute recovery. Food is still the better one to craft at the moment, since they provide larger boosts (this was the easiest to level pre-Update 6, since drinks gave a shitload of exp; most people had this skill maxed before even hitting their third or fourth zone)
Alchemy - You'll use this skill to craft potions that provide either immediate attribute recovery, or quick combat boosts (such as weapon crit, spell power, and speed). You can also craft Poisons as well, which are equipped onto any of your equipped weapons, and have various negative effects against your enemies.

Each profession has several different tiers of materials, each one with a specific range (and usually a specific zone to accompany it). As you level up, you'll find that you'll need to level up your chosen crafting skills to be able to keep your gear up to par. Each profession (excluding Provisioning) also has a skill that lets you identify resources throughout the world for easier collecting. You'll need to collect these resources, and then either refine them (in the case of Blacksmithing, Woodworking, or Clothing) to get actual crafting material, or just directly use them to create your items (Alchemy, Enchanting Provisioning).

In addition to the base element of crafting, you also have the opportunity to learn different racial styles (which change the appearance of your items), different traits (which provide different bonuses depending on the trait), improve them (which, get this, improves the item's usefulness), and dye them in unique colors to create a unique style for yourself.

Racial Styles change the appearance of your items. In order to create these styles, you'll need to know the style, which can be done by finding crafting motifs throughout the world, and have the proper racial material, which can also be found throughout the world. There are 9 base styles, one for each of the faction races that make up the game, plus a plethora of additional styles that you can learn. The majority of these styles are broken up into chapters that only teach you one specific item for that style, like daggers.
Traits change the special effect that your equipment has. There are several traits that do different things, from providing protection from critical hits, to providing a stamina reduction bonus to sprinting. In order to use these traits when crafting, you'll have to learn them, same as racial styles. Learning a trait is known as Research, where you destroy an item with a trait you want to learn in order to obtain knowledge of the trait. Research takes time, and also increases with each additional trait to a specific piece of equipment. There are 9 learnable traits, and learning them all for one specific item will take you at least 2 months to do so. Luckily each crafting line has a passive skill that reduces the amount of time required to learn a trait, as well as increasing the amount of traits that you can be researching at any given time. In order to apply a trait to an item, you'll need to know the trait, and have the proper trait stone needed. Trait stones can be found by deconstructing found equipment, refining raw material, and looting crafting sacks scattered throughout the world.
In addition to traits, you can also create item sets based on the amount of traits you currently know. Each item set requires a number of traits to be known, ranging from just two traits needed, to having to know all nine traits. Item sets provide unique bonuses depending on the number of items that you have equipped from that set, and are pretty crucial if you want to be competitive in either the raiding scene or the PvP scene. Each zone has three different unique item set crafting stations where you can craft these item sets. Additionally, there are several item sets that cannot be crafted and must be found.
Improving an item gives it a boost in terms of offense/defense rating, the strength of the enchantment, and the strength of the attached trait as well. In order to improve an item, you'll need to have Tempers, which can be obtained by looting items, refining raw material, or deconstructing found equipment. As you improve an item, it becomes progressively harder to do so, and will require a hefty amount of temper material to get it to higher qualities.
You can also change the color of your armor by visiting a dye station (always located next to the alchemy station in each city). There are quite a few colors to choose from, and you can unlock more by completing achievements.

There is one final part to crafting: Certification and Writs. You can be certified in any given profession, which opens up daily quests called Crafting Writs. Upon receiving a writ, you'll be required to create several items and deliver them to a specific location for Base EXP, Crafting EXP, and Crafting Containers. Writs are scaled to your respective crafting skill level, not your character level. Crafting containers usually contain a range of stuff, from trait stones, to random equips, and can also include crafting surveys, which are treasure maps that, instead of providing you with hidden treasure, provide you a location to travel to which contains high quantities of raw materials to gather. Surveys are instanced to you, so don't fear anyone else coming in and looting your poo poo.

There are multiple elements to dungeons and dungeon raids in TESO, ranging from Solo Dungeons to Trials:

Solo Dungeons are your basic dungeons that most if not all people can clear by themselves. Each zone in the game has multiple solo dungeons, each with a quest, skyshard and dungeon boss at the end.
Public Dungeons are dungeons that are moderately harder than Solo Dungeons, mainly because of the increased number of mobs located within. Each zone has one of these public dungeons, and each has several achievements tied to it along with the usual dungeon bosses, skyshard, and quest. Most of it may be done solo, but you may need another person to help you get through these completely, especially if you wish to complete the main dungeon achievement that provides you with a free skill point.
Group Dungeons are dungeon instances that are specifically geared towards groups of players for completion. Soloing these is all but impossible, so a group will be required for them. Like Public Dungeons, each zone only contains one of these. Each Group Dungeon also contains unique bosses and a quest that provides you with a Skill Point instead of a Skyshard. Each group dungeon also has a chance to drop unique item sets, and an Undaunted Monster Helm, which are unique items that grant some unique bonuses. These dungeons also have normal and veteran modes. Normal mode is easier and provides inferior rewards, while Veteran mode guarantees a helm drop upon completion, and offers better loot.
Trials are by far the hardest of the raid elements in TESO, and are dungeon raids designed for 12-player groups. Currently there are four trials, 3 in the Craglorn area, and one that is exclusive to the Thieves Guild DLC, located in Reaper's March. They are usually time-consuming affairs, especially if attempting to clear Veteran mode, and usually involve a lot of communication, coordination, and advanced knowledge of your class and specific role. People who complete Veteran mode trials have a chance to end up on the leaderboards for sweet sweet loot.
Undaunted Pledges are daily quests from the Undaunted guild that involve exploring a group delve, and clearing it of all monsters. You can completel up to three pledges on a daily basis. Completing a Normal or Veteran mode pledge grants one Undaunted key, which is used to open Undaunted chests that reward the second piece of an Undaunted Monster Set, while completing a dungeon on Veteran mode with Hard Mode activated rewards 2 keys. So you have a chance to obtain up to 6(!!!) Undaunted keys per day.
Arenas are instanced small group/solo trials that are designed to be a test of skill, awareness, and in Dragonstar's case, a test of coordination. The Dragonstar Arena is the 4-man group arena, while Maelstrom Arena is the solo arena. Completing either Arena in veteran mode grants you a Master or Maelstrom weapon, which are incredibly powerful weapons that provide massively powerful bonuses. Like veteran trials, completing an arena in Veteran mode allows you to compete for a spot on the leaderboards for sweet sweet loot.

The Justice System is TESO's crime, justice, and bounty system. If you've played any TES games, you'll have a basic idea of how the system works. A vast majority of containers in the world (particularly in cities) are now marked as "owned" by NPCs, and looting them now amounts to stealing. Stolen items cannot be stored in your bank or sold to merchant NPCs. Instead you must take them to Fences to either sell them, or launder them (in the case of crafting materials and equipment). You can find Fences in what are called Outlaw Refuges, which are sort of hideaways located in each zone's main city, with entrances both inside the city and on the outskirts of the city. Beware though, Fences can only buy and launder a limited amount of items before they won't accept anymore, in order to keep the heat off of them. In addition to stealing, you can also pickpocket and assault/murder NPCs located throughout the world. Pickpocketing them can yield stolen loot, while murdering them does exactly that, it kills them.

Be careful though, if an NPC catches you committing robbery or murder, you will receive a Bounty on your head. Should a guard spot you, they will approach you, and demand that you pay off the bounty. You can either choose to pay it off, at which point they will take that bounty and all stolen items, or you can decide to make a run for it, at which point you will be marked as a fugitive which allows the guards to kill you on sight. Should they succeed, they will also take your bounty from you, as well as any stolen loot. There are three wanted levels in TESO:

Disreputable - You'll be stopped if you get too close to a guard
Notorious - You will be hunted down if you approach a guard too closely
Fugitive - You will be killed on sight by the guard

In order to keep players from rushing all the guards and murdering them, all town guards are immortal and cannot be killed. They can be rooted/knocked down to help you make your escape though. Additionally, some NPCs may engage you in combat if they catch you in the midst of a criminal act.

If you do not want to harm innocent civilians, there is an option in the Gameplay Settings menu that disables attacking innocents. Be wary though, this also disables you from fighting back against the guard if you're being hunted.

The Alliances within Elder Scrolls are how you determine three major factors; your available races, questing areas and faction in PvP. Each race also has unique racial skills, which is good to know if you're a min-maxing sperg who needs to have everything perfect. Imperial Edition owners also have access to the Imperial Race, as well as the ability to select any race for any faction.

Queen Ayrenn, ruler of the the Aldmeri Dominion, is a 28 year old High Elf who claims not to hate the races of Man, but would really rather they back the gently caress off. From the Altmer throne at Summerset she rules over an alliance of High Elves, Wood Elves and Khajiit.

:eng101:

Your typical AD faction member is a zergling who isn't afraid to admit that they zerg. Also they are more than likely a Templar designed strictly for mashing the heal keys. :eng101:

High Elves (aka Altmer) � "The High Elves, or Altmer, arrived in Tamriel thousands of years ago from Old Aldmeris. They see themselves, perhaps justifiably, as the ruling race of Tamriel... They are powerful mages and warriors, and the de facto leaders of the Aldmeri Dominion." Also they're a bunch of pointy eared dicks who are fun to kill in Skyrim. Just sayin'. Altmer receive bonuses to Magicka, Magicka Regeneration, and elemental magic.

Wood Elves (aka Bosmer) � "The Wood Elves, or Bosmer, are mischievous, curious and nimble. Because their homeland of Valenwood is often attacked by the Colovian Imperials, Wood Elves are experts at the art of defense." The capital of the Aldmeri Dominion, Elden Root, also happens to exist right in the middle of the Bosmer homeland. Bosmer receive bonuses to Stamina, Stamina Regeneration, and Stealth

Khajiit (aka the Furry Race) � They're cats. Unfortunately they all got feline lukemia recently (or rather the "Knahaten Flu"), so there ain't many of them left. Queen Ayrenn did them a solid by helping them recover after the plague. But really all you need to know is that they're cats. Khajiit receive bonuses to Critical Rate, Health and Stamina Regeneration, and Stealth

High King Emeric is just a dude trying to get poo poo done. A Breton, ruling from Wayrest in High Rock, he seeks to take control of the Ruby Throne by uniting the Bretons and Orcs through shrewd diplomacy, and the Redguards through crafty marriage arrangements.

:eng101:

Your typical DC rear end in a top hat claims that they only run "small man groups" and do not zerg. Far from the truth however, since said "small mans" tend to ball up anyway. DC is also probably the most toxic of the factions and usually involves idiots who play Flavor of the Month builds in an attempt to please their Twitch streamer overlords. :eng101:

Bretons � Once ruled by the High Elves, the Bretons are the most magically-attuned of the human races. "Passionate and flamboyant, intelligent and resourceful, the Bretons are renowned and talented craftsmen, shrewd merchants, gallant cavaliers, and inventive wizards." They're also the ugliest humans in pretty much every TES game. Bretons receive bonuses to Spell Resistance, Magicka, and Spell Cost Reduction

Redguard � Hailing from Hammerfell and the sands of the Alik'r Desert, the Redguards are a desert people and make for fantastic warriors. "Their culture is based on preserving ancient traditions and defying their harsh environment. They prize honor and dignity above all else, combining a deep reverence for the divine with a suspicion of all things magical." Never trust a wizard! Also. something something "Roll Redguard with Long Blade." Redguards receive bonuses to Stamina and Stamina Regeneration.

Orc (aka Orsimer) - Also known as the Race With The Most Dental Problems, Orcs are some of the fiercest warriors and greatest smiths in all of Tamriel. Hailing from the kingdom of Orsinium, "orcs live under a simple code of honor by which the strong survive and the strongest rule." They're orcs. You've seen them in every fantasty game ever made. Orcs receive bonuses to Health and Stamina, Health and Stamina Renegeration and healing received, and Speed and Melee attacks

Voted Most Likely to Rule Over Weird Elves and Lizard People in his high school year book, Jorunn, High King of the Great Moot rules over the races making up the Ebonheart Pact. His sense of humor probably comes in handy as this alliance has a lot of bad blood � Nords and Dark Elves aren't the best of bros, and Argonians were enslaved by the Dark Elves for thousands of years (because we thought they were just big iguanas, okay? jeez). Also, for some reason, Jorunn rules the Pact, yet the capital city is Mournhold in Deshaan, also known as home of the Tribunal (which for some reason, only Almalexia makes an appearance in TESO. Vivec was probably busy getting down with Molag Bal, and who know what the gently caress Sotha Sil was doing).

:eng101:

EP is known for running shitloads of DKs, either Nord block machines or Dunmer magicka DKs. Also the majority of EP is loving retarded when it comes to PvP :eng101:

Nord - Also known as "that guy I played in Skyrim," Nords have at one point or another conquered most parts of Tamriel. "The Nords are excellent with arms. They are quick to anger, boisterous, and strong. They are natural-born warriors who fight with an ecstatic ferocity that terrifies their enemies." They hail from the land of Skyrim, which I hear is very cold this time of year. Nords receive bonuses to Health and Stamina, Health Regeneration, Frost Damage Resistance, and Overall Damage Mitigation

Dark Elves (aka the Dunmer) � A deeply intelligent and magical race hailing from Morrowind, the Dark Elves are best known for having hosed up red eyes and dark gray skin. Their homeland has been invaded over and over again by the Akaviri and the Nords, but it's chill, bro. They're willing to roll with it. Dunmer receive bonuses to Magicka and Stamina, Fire resistance, and Elemental Magic

Argonians � They're lizards. From the swamps of Black Marsh, Argonians "are possessed of a cool intellect, and are well-versed in the magical arts, stealth, and the use of blades. They are also guerilla warfare experts, long accustomed to defending their borders from invaders." They'll also pick your pockets and poison you for good measure. Argonians receive bonuses to Health, Magicka, and Healing capabilities.

:black101:

Also our only Goon Emperor is an Argonian, so Glory to the Argonian Master Race :black101:

There are four classes in Elder Scrolls Online - Tamriel Unlimited:

Dragon Knight
Nightblade
Sorcerer
Templar

Before you read about the classes themselves however, it's important to understand a few things about classes and builds in ESO:

There is no limitation on armor or weapons between the classes. Any class can use any armor or weapon and specialize in it to the exact same degree.
There are no class/race/faction restrictions.
Class skills are entirely weapon independent.
All skills and abilities can be reset for a cost in your capital city.
Anything you really know about tanks, healers and DPS can be readily thrown out the window (for the most part anyway, see below)

Now that the game has been out for quite a while, the min-maxers have come to determine the best options for The Holy Trinity^TM of MMO grouping:

Dragon Knights are considered optimal for Tanking
Templars are the de-facto Healers
Nightblades and Sorcerers are considered the DPS source

This isn't definitive, but for the most part, most people have come to accept this as standard. Obviously you can do whatever if you can make it work.

The Dragon Knight is a fire breathing, spike exploding, magic using bruiser. Their skills involve controlling the position of their enemies, making themselves harder to kill, and generally being a nuisance. Dragon Knights have three class skill trees:

Ardent Flame deals in fire damage and minor control abilities, ranging from Scorpion from Mortal Kombat's chain ability, to being a perpetual torrent of fire. The ultimate ability of Ardent Fire is Dragon Knight Standard, which damages enemies as long as they stay in the radius, and allows allies to activate the Shackle skill synergy, damaging and rooting enemies in the area.
Draconic Power is the Dragon Knights survivability tree, offering self heals, a smattering of control and general absorbs and damage reduction. The ultimate ability of Draconic Power is Dragon Leap, in which the Knight leaps towards a target, damaging and knocking back all enemies at his landing point.
Earthen Heart offers heavy enemy control and ally buffs skills, ranging from stuns to weapon damage buffs. The ultimate ability of Earthen Heart is Magma Armor, which caps incoming damage at 3% of the Dragon Knight's health and does fire damage to all nearby enemies for the duration.

The Templar is a holy spell slinging, spear winging light-murderer of justice. Their skills involve tangling attackers in their own damage and abilities, healing their friends and debuffing their enemies. Templars have the following skill lines:

Aedric Spear is the direct attack line of the Templar class, allowing charging, interrupts and general damage output. The ultimate ability of Aedric Spear is Radial Sweep, dealing large amounts of magic damage to nearby enemies.
Dawn's Wrath is the buff and debuff tree of the Templar, allowing them to reflect spells back at enemies, cause enemies to take additional back-loaded damage and generally interfere with ability use. The ultimate ability of Dawn's Wrath is Nova, reducing the damage enemies cause for the duration, and allowing allies to activate a synergy ability causing damage and stun to enemies in the area.
Restoring Light is the healing tree of the Templar, and the only class tree that is explicitly geared to healing other players. The ultimate ability of Restoring Light is Rite of Passage, a channeled ability that heals allies in the area for considerable amounts of health as long as the Templar channels it.

The Nightblade is ostensibly the stealth class of ESO. It has actual invisibility, teleport skills and general burst damage capabilities. Nightblades have access to the following:

Assassination is the direct attack line of the Nightblade, allowing teleporting to enemies, attack speed buffs and direct damage. The ultimate of Assassination is Death Stroke, reducing the healing the target receives and gaining a damage boost the more ultimate the Nightblade has available.
Shadow is the debuff and control path of the Nightblade, allowing damage debuffs, defense reduction and true invisibility. The ultimate ability of Shadow is Ultimate Darkness, snaring enemies in the AoE, granting allies damage reduction and true invisibility.
Siphoning is the debuff and self-heal abilities of the Nightblade, allowing for life steal, snares and various self regeneration. The ultimate ability of Siphoning is Soul Shred, stunning and damaging enemies in an AoE, allowing an ally to activate a synergy ability causing a high damage life steal ability.

The Sorcerer is the mage of ESO, throwing lighting, summoning dark forces and controlling minor daedra as pets. Sorcerers have access to the following:

Daedric Summoning is the conjuration and summoning skill line for Sorcerers, allowing control of minor daedra who fight on your behalf, a couple damage over time abilities, and the ability to summon Bound Armor which provides bonuses to Armor and damage mitigation. The ultimate ability of Daedric Summoning is Summon Storm Atronach, which summons an immobile Storm Atronach, stunning enemies in the area and causing AoE damage over time. Allies can activate the Charged Lightning Synergy allowing them to channel additional damage through the Atronach and prolonging its duration on the battlefield.
Dark Magic is the control and debuff tree for Sorcerers, allowing for knockdowns, roots and self-healing. The ultimate ability of Dark Magic is Negate Magic, which dispels enemy placed effects in an area while stunning and damaging monsters.
Storm Calling is the direct damage line of Sorcerers, allowing for immense burst damage and AoE area denial. The ultimate ability of Storm Calling is Overload, which lets you go all Emperor Palpatine on your enemies.

In addition to Class, Weapon, and Crafting skills, TESO also offers several other skill lines that are available to all classes. Some are available immediately upon starting the game, while others, like Vampire and Werewolf, must be acquired under specific circumstances.

Soul Magic is a skill line directly related to resurrection and soul gems. It has two active skills, Soul Trap(Basic) and Soul Strike(Ultimate). It provides a way to fill soul gems, as well as passives that either let you resurrect without needing a soul gem, or making your soul explode on death, damaging those around you.
Ledgermain is the basic criminal skill line in TESO, which is tied to the Justice System (covered in its own section). This is mainly a passive skill line, providing bonuses to pickpocket success chances, reducing the cost of stealth, increasing the amount of stolen items you can fence, and reducing the amount you pay when you wish to remove a bounty. This skill is leveld by picking pockets, picking locks, and fencing/laundering stolen items.
Fighter's Guild is a guild skill line that becomes available upon joining the Fighter's Guild faction in TESO. The main focus of this skill line is providing bonuses against Daedra, Undead, Vampires, and Werewolves, and is leveled up by killing said enemies. Skills range from offensive stuff like Silver Bolts, to defensive skills like Circle of Protection.
Mage's Guild is the second guild skill line that also becomes available upon joining the Mage's Guild in TESO. There really is no direct focus in this skill line, but if you're a mage type character, you'll want the Candlelight skill it offers, which provides you with additional spell critical chances. You can level up this skill by finding and reading Lore Books throughout Tamriel.
Undaunted is the third guild skill line that becomes available upon joining the Undaunted, a faction dedicated to dungeoneering. This skill line provides skills that are helpful when tackling group dungeons. This line is leveled up by completing Undaunted tasks, such as killing Dungeon Bosses, or clearing specific Dungeon Objectives.
Thieves Guild, exclusive to owners of the Thieves Guild DLC, offers passives that synergize well with Ledgermain to help you be a better thief.
Dark Brotherhood, exclusive to owners of the Dark Brotherhood DLC, also offers passives that synergize with Ledgermain, but instead help you be a better murderer.
PvP Skills are, as the name implies, skills focused on the PvP aspect of TESO. The Assault skill line provides boosts to offensive capabilities as well as movement speed, while the Support skill line provides boosts to your defensive capabilities and support skills. These are leveled up by doing stuff in PvP.
Werewolf and Vampire are two mutually exclusive (as in you can't have both) skill lines that, once again, are exactly as they imply. Vampire is geared towards Magicka builds, while Werewolf lets you wolf out and eat everyone in sight, and is geared towards a Stamina playstyle.

With One Tamriel, faction is rather irrelevant when it comes to PvE. However if you want to PvP with goons, then you want to roll Ebonheart Pact.
That being said, there are currently 2/3 major goon guilds:

Chill Bros Chat Lounge - This is the main guild that we use for in-game chat and stuff.
Deconstruct Circlejerk/Lusty Argoonian Maids - Guilds specifically created to help goons level up crafting professions.

If you want an invite, just drop your @username in the thread and someone will get you an invite into the guild.

There IS an EU guild, House Awful, an EP guild. Make sure you mention in the thread if you're looking for either an NA or EU invite as well.

Guild Bank Rules: (This mainly pertains to the Ebonheart Goons Guild Bank, but it also applies to the Deconstruct Guild and Daggerfall banks to a lesser extent)

You can use the guild bank to store garbage items that you don't want cluttering up your own personal storage.
Please make an effort to stack identical items so we don't end up flooded with 20 individual stacks of Moonstone/Carnelian/etc.
If you need to take a piece of equipment to research it, feel free to do so. Just make sure you deposit an item with the same trait once you get the trait learned or if you come across an item with that trait.
Don't be a dick and clear out the bank just because you feel like it. The bank has a deposit/withdrawal history so we'll know who took what.
Remember, Goons help each other out by offering discounts on crafting materials or flat out trading materials for finished product. Don't scam other goons when trading with them, it makes you look bad.

In the spirit of TES games, TESO also allows for several mods/addons to be installed to help streamline the gaming experience. Below are a list of some of the more particularly useful mods.

AUI - AdvancedUI: Overhauls the UI
FTC - Foundry Tactical Combat: Probably by far the best combat addon, this provides a plethora of info, from buff timers to live combat feedback.
Wykkyd's Gaming Suite: Another particularly good group of addons, this one includes most of the Wykkyd mods, including the Outfit Manager
SkyShards: Addon that marks all Sky Shards on the map
LoreBooks: Same as SkyShards, this addon marks all LoreBooks on the map
Craft Store: One stop addon for all your crafting needs. Tracks everything from motif knowledge to trait research and then some.
Multi Craft: Allows you to quickly craft multiple items
No, thank you! to stop annoying messages and the forced spinning around when opening the character sheet, among other things.
Lost Treasure for getting treasure maps and surveys shown on your map.
Destinations for labeling achievements and other interesting things on your map.
Master Merchant for tracking the price of items in guild stores, as well as a log of what items you sold in which guild store.
Awesome Guild Store overhauls the horrible Guild Store system and makes it actually usable.
Shissu's LUA Manager helps with managing your LUA memory allotment
pChat improves the user chat interface, and helps you copy/paste any text from the chat box, either by message or by line.

Synthwave Crusader fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Feb 1, 2020

# ? Oct 4, 2016 03:17

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 23, 2024 16:11

Synthwave Crusader: Feb 13, 2011

Starter Guides!
Click here for a beginner's guide to Stamina Sorcerer using Dual Wield and Bow (gently caress 2handers)
Click here for a beginner's guide to Magicka Nightblade
Want to be a cool Nightblade Tank like the OP? Click here for Scyantific's Sap-tacular Tank build, now with 100% more War Horn
Want to burn all the things? Click here for a rundown on MagickaDK DPS-ing
Click here for a beginner's guide to Magicka Templar

FAQ

Do I have to do X build to be good at this game? - No you do not (not until endgame at least). The cool thing about this game is that you can do whatever you want from levels 1-50 and still have fun. Once you hit endgame, this will change slightly, but goons can help you out there.
How do I level a particular skill line? - If you open up your skills menu (on PC at least), and hover over the experience bar in a particular skill line, it will tell you exactly how you level that skill. For example, Fighter's Guild is leveled by killing daedra/undead, Mages' Guild is leveled by collecting lorebooks, and Undaunted is leveled by completing dungeon based objectives
How do I get a fancy mount? - Buy one from the stables for 10k gold, or it comes free with the Imperial Edition. You can also buy different mounts in the Crown Store. Mounts are purely cosmetic. You can access your mount collection (and all your other collectibles) by bringing up the Collections menu ("U" on PC). Press "H" on PC to mount up. You can train your mount at any stable once per day for 250 gold in one of three aspects: Speed, Stamina, and Carrying Capacity.

Increasing your Bag and Bank Space
Carrying Capacity is on a per-character basis, which defaults to 60 slots, and can be upgraded one of two ways ingame.

The first is by going to a Pack Merchant in any of the major cities of each region, and you can upgrade to a maximum of 140 slots this way. Below is a chart detailing the costs for each individual upgrade, and the cumulative cost for each upgrade.You can, of course, bypass this by purchasing Bag Upgrades in the Crown Store with Zenimax funbux, with each individual upgrade costing 1000 Crowns (if you didn't know it already, it is NOT worth it).

The second way is by training your mount, as mentioned in the FAQ above, by spending 250 gold daily on your Carrying Capacity skill. You can train Carrying Capacity up to 60 times per character. Once again, you can bypass this by purchasing Crown Riding Lessons: Carrying Capacity, from the Crown Store with Zenimax Funbux. Once again, this is usually not worth it, especially if you have to do it across 12 characters.

Bank space, however, is account-wide, and is accessible by all characters under that account.. There is only one way to upgrade your Bank Space ingame, by purchasing more slots from any Banker NPC while in your own personal bank menu. Below is a chart detailing the costs associated with upgrading your Bank. As you will probably see, this is a very large gold sink, and probably one of the few times I will probably recommend using Crowns to purchase the last few upgrade slots in your Bank.

As mentioned above, you can upgrade your Bank by purchasing Bank Slot Upgrades from the Crown Store at 1000 Crowns each. Do remember that these upgrades are account-wide, in which case it can be better to get the last upgrade slots through the CS to save yourself some gold.

And finally you can open up an additional 500 slots by joining a guild and hoping that it falls apart so you can use the Guild Bank as your own personal storage facility. That's what I use Lusty Agoonian Maids for.

One Tamriel Loot System Basics

So no one gets confused about what chest drops what Undaunted shoulder piece:

Maj al-Ragath's Reward Chest:

Banished Cells I & II - Shadowrend and Maw of the Infernal
Darkshade Caverns I & II - Rkugamz and Engine Guardian
Elden Hollow I & II - Chokethorn and Bogdan
Fungal Grotto I & II - Kra'gh and Spawn of Mephala
Spindleclutch I & II - Swarm Mother and Blood Spawn
Wayrest Sewers I & II - Slimecraw and Malubeth

Gilirion the Redbeard's Reward Chest:

Arx Corinium - Sellistrix
Blackheart Haven - Pirate Skeleton
Blessed Crucible - Troll King
City of Ash I & II - Inferal Guardian and Valkyn Skoria
Crypt of Hearts I & II - Ilambris and Nerien'eth
Direfrost - Iceheart
Selene�s Web - Selene
Tempest Island - Stormfist
Vaults of Madness - Grothdarr
Volenfell - Tremorscale

Urgalarg Chief-Bane's Reward Chest:

Cradle of Shadows - Velidreth
Imperial City Prison - Lord Warden Dusk
Ruins of Mazzatun - Mighty Chudan
White-Gold Tower - Molag Kena

Here's a full graphic for the locations of all set drops in One Tamriel

To further clarify where you should be going to collect specific set pieces:
Group Dungeons/Trials:

Mini-bosses drop Hand, Feet, or Waist set pieces
Bosses drop Chest, Shoulder, Leg, or Head set pieces
Final Boss drops Weapons and Jewelry
Normal Mode drops are Superior Quality (blue)
Veteran Mode drops are Epic Quality (purple)

Overland:

Delve (solo dungeon) bosses drop Waist and Feet for any of that region's item sets
Overland (World) bosses drop Head, Chest, Legs, or Weapons for any of that region's item sets
Public Dungeon (the cave entrance icon on the map) bosses drop Shoulder, Hand, or Weapons for any of that region's item sets
Dolmen (Dark Anchors) reward chests drop Jewelry for any of that region's item sets.
The quality range will always be between Fine (green level) and Epic (purple level).

The only places to acquire Legendary (Gold Level) Jewelry are the Final Boss for any Veteran Hard Mode Trial, or through the weekly Cyrodiil Special Gear Vendor :siren:

POWER-LEVELING ALCHEMY AND PROVISIONING:
To max your provisioning, acquire recipes of the required level and craft the amounts below:

LV.15 - 96 Units
LV.25 - 77 Units
Lv.35 - 92 Units
Lv.45 - 128 Units

Here is the exact amount of ingredients you will need to achieve max rank in Alchemy:

86 Purified Water
20 Clear Water
41 Pristine Water
48 Cleansed Water
60 Filtered Water
255 Reagent A
255 Reagent B

Synthwave Crusader fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Oct 20, 2016

# ? Oct 4, 2016 03:17

boho: Oct 4, 2011; on fire and loving it

TRUE FACTS AS OF ONE TAMRIEL:

- Unlike every other modern MMO, race matters A LOT. Do your research up front. It's hard to go wrong with Redguard for Stamina builds or Dark/High Elf for Magicka builds.

- Magicka builds are typically much weaker than Stamina builds and are generally much more difficult to play effectively at the same level. The lead design has confirmed in a reddit AMA that Stam/Magic balance will change in the patch after 1T, but based on his track record it will probably result in Stamina getting heavily buffed.

- The only really effective Magicka build right now is Magicka Templar (Magplar), and they are based entirely on spamming one skill that needs to be nerfed. Meanwhile, every class has an effective Stamina build.

- Avoid things written by Delita. Alcast is pretty smart, his site is at http://alcasthq.com/

- Don't put stat points in Health, ever.

- Very little is missable in the game. The EP newbie island (Bleakrock) has an achievement you can miss if you evacuate early, and you will permanently miss two skill points if you're *not* a dick at the end of the Mage's Guild quest line. That's all I can think of, though.

- Raids are called Trials. Instanced dungeons are called Dungeons. Non-instanced sorta-dungeons are called Public Dungeons. Hastily slapped together McDungeons like from Oblivion are called Delves. McDungeons inexplicably full of elite mobs are called Group Delves.

boho fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Oct 4, 2016

# ? Oct 4, 2016 03:33

Mr. Carrier Pigeon: Aug 22, 2013; Those birds certainly know what they're doin'!

gently caress! As I was typing FIRST POST ALL HAIL FLOOBY boho went and snaked it and now I don't even remember what I was gonna say.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 03:41

Aramek: Dec 22, 2007; Cutest tumor in all of Oncology!

That's a good rear end OP. Really looking forward to One Tamriel.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 03:53

Usenet Magic-User: Jun 13, 2010

I might re-sub for one tamriel. Never stopped liking the game just did other things and I forgot this was ever going to be a thing.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 04:03

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

Been waiting for this update. Awesome.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 04:54

GO FUCK YOURSELF: Aug 19, 2004; "I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who beat you, and pray for them to beat the shit out of the Buckeyes" - The Book of Witten

Do we still have an Argoonian Emperor?

# ? Oct 4, 2016 06:56

Bustycops: Mar 3, 2010; Sup Lads

People were asking about the really good money-makers for tempering alloys so figured I would post it.

South-West Hews Bane is the uncontested best Rubedite farming in-game atm because of the node density.

The above is the basic route, which if nobody else is farming it will give you a chance at 25~ nodes in <5 minutes. And there's only two or three spots with guaranteed combat so you can mostly just speed around with Rapids.

Although I prefer to do shorter loops around the center since it lets you re-adjust and change direction of your farming so you avoid trailing other players who are also farming.

Also I more or less focus purely on Rubedite nodes because they're worth more than Ruby Ash or Ancestor Silk, and if the run is uncontested the next node in the sequence will always be up, but there's a lot of chances for Kuta/Columbine as well if you want to supplement the run.

Bustycops fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Oct 4, 2016

# ? Oct 4, 2016 07:17

Section Z: Oct 1, 2008; Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?; Pillbug

So I've had the imperial edition in my library from a sale for a while, and new thread/new content reminded me of such (along with finally beating Skyrim's main plot).

Would the basic advice for baby's first puttering around solo as the whims take you Dark Elf wizard be basically "Don't, roll a Nord DK"? Or is casual tourist Dark Elf wizard not as bad as it sounds, even with the OP warnings that magic builds are harder than stamina stuff?

EDIT: Also, why the gently caress do MMO's make global handles yet STILL stick to "First come first served" names?

I should not be looking to Champions Online for "Get your poo poo together, MMOS" tips.

Section Z fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Oct 4, 2016

# ? Oct 4, 2016 09:12

Fridurmus: Nov 2, 2009; Break a leg!

I made an Argonian Nightblade and a Dunmer Sorcerer. How hosed am I, on a scale of 1-10?

Pretty sure my @-name is Fridurmus, wouldn't mind an invite or what the gently caress ever.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 09:48

Bustycops: Mar 3, 2010; Sup Lads

Fridurmus posted:

I made an Argonian Nightblade and a Dunmer Sorcerer. How hosed am I, on a scale of 1-10?

Pretty sure my @-name is Fridurmus, wouldn't mind an invite or what the gently caress ever.

Not very, my Stamsorc is Argonian, and while if I start tallying up numbers I can definitely notice the lack compared to my Redguard, it's not really relevant in terms of what either character can accomplish. There isn't any content or builds that immediately become unworkable just because of your race, although a proper min/max'd race will end up with higher resource pools and regeneration.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 10:00

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

Just as a reminder for new and existing players, you can get ESO Plus + 3000 crowns for less than $20 if you look around online.

You can also get ESO Gold for $32-$35

# ? Oct 4, 2016 11:03

guns for tits: Dec 25, 2014

This looks like a good time to reinstall. I think I have a level 15 Dunmer nightblade.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 17:43

Rollersnake: May 9, 2005; Please, please don't let me end up in a threesome with the lunch lady and a gay pirate. That would hit a little too close to home.; Unlockable Ben

Alexander DeLarge posted:

You can also get ESO Gold for $32-$35

drat it. Oh well, I'm sure running around aimlessly with my wife and a couple of friends pretending to be animal people is easily worth double that, right?

# ? Oct 4, 2016 18:50

Sky Shadowing: Feb 13, 2012; At least we're not the Thalmor (yet)

ESO is A Good Game if you do not go into it wanting literally Skyrim with Multiplayer.

It's perfectly fine being called The Elder Scrolls Online. If they tried to call it The Elder Scrolls 6 I would have had an issue.

The lore isn't as deep as a mainline game, and I have a few quibbles (a literal loving crown that controls all elves really really doesn't fit in with TES), but it's worth playing, especially with Goons.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 19:32

mooski: Oct 5, 2005; Sassy

has playing in parties improved since launch? Back then I played with a few friends and it wouldn't let us enter instances when we were in a party, so the game pretty much was a single player game with a chat room.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 19:57

Aramek: Dec 22, 2007; Cutest tumor in all of Oncology!

One Tamriel, specifically will let you party/quest with anyone of any level, so that aspect will get way way easier.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 21:16

Cpl Clegg: May 18, 2008

Sky Shadowing posted:

ESO is A Good Game if you do not go into it wanting literally Skyrim with Multiplayer.

I wanted it to be Skyrim with Multiplayer, but it didn't allow my nightblade to be a proper murderhobo so I quit. Then I returned because it's still Elder Scrolls but I started a templar, did the first Dark Brotherhood quest and got the definitive murderhobo skill, Blade of Woe. For people who don't play it yet, it allows you to sneak up on people and murder them (many city dwellers are eligible too). It also has a nice killcam !

This skill has changed the game for me. Now I'm back with a sneaky bosmer stamina nightblade, and when I'm sneaking around towns and stealing everything not bolted down I can finally kill that annoying servant who is always looking in my direction when I'm trying to pick a lock.

Advice to newbies with similar playstyle: get Dark Brotherhood DLC as soon as you've created your character (you don't need to finish the quest as you get the skill as soon as you talk to the guy). Now you can play ESO just like those good old times in Skyrim ! Sneak around, steal, murder and have loads of fun !

Only thing lacking is the ability to put baskets on peoples' heads before stealing everything, but I hope that Zenimax will add it to the game in the future.

Sky Shadowing posted:

The lore isn't as deep as a mainline game, and I have a few quibbles (a literal loving crown that controls all elves really really doesn't fit in with TES), but it's worth playing, especially with Goons.

Didn't someone say in the previous thread that ESO has actually a deeper lore than previous Elder Scrolls games ? I'm not an expert but there is a lot of books in the world (and even a Librarian addon to read them later).

# ? Oct 4, 2016 23:05

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in ESO if you're a lorehound. I really like the books that explain game mechanics like fast travel and why your dude respawns when he dies. Don't discount the game because it's an MMO, a lot of care went into the background detail on this one.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 23:16

Neato: Mar 2, 2016

It's the first time I've ever cared about the lore in either an mmo and an Elder Scrolls game.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 00:27

Synthwave Crusader: Feb 13, 2011

mooski posted:

has playing in parties improved since launch? Back then I played with a few friends and it wouldn't let us enter instances when we were in a party, so the game pretty much was a single player game with a chat room.

They've improved quest instancing a bit, but if you've already done a quest that they're doing, obviously you won't be able to help.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 00:32

Spider Plant: Jan 1, 2007; A more dignified life-form.

Can any PvP veterans share some wisdom for a poor newbie? I'm trying to grab myself a few of the skills but it feels really slow going. I'm a StamNB and I'm trying to be useful; repairing walls and the odd bit of siege, but it doesn't add up to much.

In big fights I try and stay on the edges and pepper things with my bow, but I don't think I'm being much use. Getting into the fray might net me a kill, but a death as well and that's less useful.

It could be that I joined the low pop campaign, but it seems like a lot of waiting for something to happen, then trying to find and join up with the group before it's all over.

Also, do people not actually group up much? There's a lot of the same people asking 'lfg' in the chat, without much reply.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 00:44

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

Rollersnake posted:

drat it. Oh well, I'm sure running around aimlessly with my wife and a couple of friends pretending to be animal people is easily worth double that, right?

Doubt you're eligible for a refund but the Gold Edition is an incredible value regardless.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 01:01

Blazing Zero: Sep 7, 2012; *sigh* sure. it's a weed joke

is the pvp a hot mess of lag and stuttering like most of these zerg v zerg games are?

how much of this game is botted and abused by cheat engines

# ? Oct 5, 2016 02:04

boho: Oct 4, 2011; on fire and loving it

Blazing Zero posted:

is the pvp a hot mess of lag and stuttering like most of these zerg v zerg games are?

how much of this game is botted and abused by cheat engines

Depends on how much of a potato your computer/connection is.

It's barely abused at all as far as I can tell. I don't know if I've ever seen RMT spam. I just assume it's not profitable enough to exploit compared to, say, WoW.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 02:36

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

Blazing Zero posted:

is the pvp a hot mess of lag and stuttering like most of these zerg v zerg games are?

how much of this game is botted and abused by cheat engines

I asked this in the other thread, the AZ campaign was picked because it doesn't lag. I've only played on that campaign but I have not once seen the Cyrodiil lag that the game is infamous for and I've done a lot of PVP. Probably about 60 hours worth by now.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 02:58

sluggo is mad: Jan 14, 2012; Buglord

Spider Plant posted:

Can any PvP veterans share some wisdom for a poor newbie? I'm trying to grab myself a few of the skills but it feels really slow going. I'm a StamNB and I'm trying to be useful; repairing walls and the odd bit of siege, but it doesn't add up to much.

In big fights I try and stay on the edges and pepper things with my bow, but I don't think I'm being much use. Getting into the fray might net me a kill, but a death as well and that's less useful.

It could be that I joined the low pop campaign, but it seems like a lot of waiting for something to happen, then trying to find and join up with the group before it's all over.

Also, do people not actually group up much? There's a lot of the same people asking 'lfg' in the chat, without much reply.

Train 2h and be really mobile. Not speaking as someone who has pvped as a stamblade, but as someone who has been killed by a bunch.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 09:03

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Heh, managed to get into a "baby" Maw run since it won't be a thing anymore with the update. We got inside and the server down in 20 warning appeared.

We managed to finish it and turn the quest in 30 sec before the server went down, it was pretty exciting. I'm assuming I should hold onto that coffer until max lvl?

# ? Oct 5, 2016 09:04

Rollersnake: May 9, 2005; Please, please don't let me end up in a threesome with the lunch lady and a gay pirate. That would hit a little too close to home.; Unlockable Ben

Probably a silly question, but if I'm playing a sorcerer focusing on storm calling, are there any other viable weapon options besides the elemental staves?

I haven't invested any skill points in a weapon yet, and I'm tempted to switch to dual-wielding and attempt some sort of mage/thief hybrid�but I'm guessing that would be a bad idea in the long term, or even the short.

Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Oct 5, 2016

# ? Oct 5, 2016 09:09

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I've seen people DW sometimes since the passive bonuses like increased damage for using swords (or increased crit from daggers) can apply to all weapon types. However damage scales with max amounts of magicka or stamina. If you're gonna be a full on mage you're gonna have most or all your increases in magicka, meaning the actual DW skills (which are all stam-based and therefore scale with stam) will be really really lovely. On the other side of the coin if you're a stamina based guy, Destro Staff's skills will be garbage.

I'd probably recommend just sticking with Destro staff, maybe have resto for a backup or something.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 09:31

Rollersnake: May 9, 2005; Please, please don't let me end up in a threesome with the lunch lady and a gay pirate. That would hit a little too close to home.; Unlockable Ben

Ah, man, I hadn't even considered the damage scaling from different stats. I might restart as a different class as I'm really surprised how much I'm enjoying the hand-to-hand combat above all else, but I might end up being content just as a pure mage dabbling in legerdemain.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 10:09

sluggo is mad: Jan 14, 2012; Buglord

Rollersnake posted:

Ah, man, I hadn't even considered the damage scaling from different stats. I might restart as a different class as I'm really surprised how much I'm enjoying the hand-to-hand combat above all else, but I might end up being content just as a pure mage dabbling in legerdemain.

One of the reasons you'll see sorcs (or any other spec for that matter) using dw is armor set bonuses. With sword and shield or dw you can run two 5/5 set bonuses with a full monster set using jewelry. Also, I believe the 5% (2.5% per sword) blade and blunt passive does apply to magic. It certainly used to and I haven't heard anything about it changing. On the other hand, I never read patch notes.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 10:32

Alexander DeLarge: Dec 20, 2013

If I could reroll my Templar 200 hours in as a PVPer, I'd go Sorcerer. They look like they're loads of fun.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 11:17

Rollersnake: May 9, 2005; Please, please don't let me end up in a threesome with the lunch lady and a gay pirate. That would hit a little too close to home.; Unlockable Ben

I looked around on some other forums a bit, and I guess some people have had success with a sword & shield sorcerer with a very specific build that I'm still on track for, so I think I'm going to give that a shot.

The combat in this is so satisfyingly actiony that no matter what I don't want to spend the game plinking away from mid-range.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 11:54

Sky Shadowing: Feb 13, 2012; At least we're not the Thalmor (yet)

Cpl Clegg posted:

Didn't someone say in the previous thread that ESO has actually a deeper lore than previous Elder Scrolls games ? I'm not an expert but there is a lot of books in the world (and even a Librarian addon to read them later).

I suppose what I meant more was that there's a lot of lore, but nothing that really goes full-in on a Province or something, because obviously ESO features all 9 Provinces, and- to steal a phrase from Tolkien- it's like butter scraped over too much bread. They touched on everything but didn't really delve deep in the way a main TES game can on a province. It's nothing against ZOS or ESO, it's just a feeling, and obviously the DLC has made it better, and will make it better.

# ? Oct 5, 2016 12:48