Post any tips and tricks you have for those new to or those looking to improve the ESO experience.


One of my tips:

Unless you're super dedicated to the stealth playthrough in RPG's, don't use the nightblade class. It's horrible. May improve with the release of the Dark Brotherhood DLC but I'm unsure.

Great idea for a thread, KoB!

I agree, the Nightblade class is not very rewarding at present. Hopefully there will be a boost (especially healing) for that class as well as for stealth Stamina characters, like dedicated archers.

I suggest starting to learn equipment traits early, even if you don’t think you’ll want to do crafting. It takes a long time to research traits.

Along similar lines, wear at least one piece of Light, Medium, and Heavy armor to increase all of the skills while you’re leveling. Even if you think you will only wear one type, the rules change so it’s best to be prepared to adjust your plan.

I have (unsurprisingly) a number of characters. All of them have some way to earn enough gold every day to train their riding skills when they’re not adventuring. One Provisioning writ will do the trick after around level 15, or they can craft a few items for sale, or one guy is parked in Auridon stealing stuff. By the time some of them get to play for real they will have fully trained mounts. That will help immensely.

Even solo players like me should join a trade guild to unload loot such as surplus crafting materials and style books. Also I’ve found a few traits to research and fun recipes in the guild stores.

I'm going to have to disagree with you guys on Nightblades. Some of the strongest PvP players are Nightblades, dishing out over 20k damage in a single attack. I'd say it's a class for players who are good at managing the minute details of a character's stats, since all of their abilities need to be perfectly in sync.

Echoing Grits, start crafting and researching traits as soon as you can. It can take a while to level it up but I'd say it's essential to be able to craft your own high level gear sets. I'm still trying to do trait research, because I ignored it for ages.

Visit stables and level up your riding skills every day, even if you don't have a mount. The skills applies to all mounts that character has or will have, and once you get a certain number of points in each category your mount gets aesthetic upgrades like armour and saddlebags!

DON'T SPEND CROWN POINTS TO RE-DO YOUR SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES. Took me several months before I realised that some cities have shrines which can be used to reset your skill and attribute points using in-game gold rather than buying those reset scrolls from the crown store.

As an extension to the point above - Don't be afraid to try new abilities and skills, since you can easily reset your points and rebuild your character with the abilities you've tested out and enjoyed. I can't tell you how often I've overlooked a skill for ages, only to find it to be essential to my play style further down the line.

hazmick, sorry I should have specified my context for the Nightblade skills is solo stealth archer Lil, who is still leveling and has no interest in PvP. The issue is self-healing in PvE at her level. Also the flashy melee-style class skills are not her thing, just the stealth ones.

That brings up another point, the importance of context. Attribute distribution including gear and other bonuses makes a big difference in how skills work. Also building a solo adventurer is different from building an optimized character with PvP as the goal, not to mention that things are different while leveling. Aand the many updates have made a lot of online information obsolete, so when reading comments make sure they’re still relevant.

When you play has a big impact as well. I often play without seeing another player outside of towns, which means that materials and treasure chests are plentiful but help is non-existent. On the occasions when someone (Lildereth, poor thing) needs help with something I’ll play when it’s more crowded. Then everything seems easy because other players are helping, but there is no point in trying to get anything but your own loot from the environment.

hazmick, I also played for a long time before I realized what those respec shrines are for. It’s very cheap to switch morphs, so don’t be afraid to try different ones to see what combinations work best.

I need to learn their secrets because Nightblade sucks for me lmao

There are usually threads about Nightblade character builds over on the ESO forums. People always have specific abilities, attribute, champion point, enchantment, item, and gear recommendations.

Classes are always getting messed around with in updates and such too. One update might nerf a Nightblade ability so players need to rework their entire play style, the next update might nerf a different class and Nightblade will need to be reworked again. If you just do PvE then it's not too hard, but if you do lots of PvP then you need to be good at balancing all that stuff.

Deltia’s Gaming videos have helped me a lot. He explains the changes and their implications very well.

Here’s a tip that I may have heard before but just finally sunk in: you can start leveling your second weapon skill by putting it on your bar even while you use the main weapon. It seems obvious now, but I would never have come up with that on my own.

As an extension of that ^ point:

You level up any item or skill that you have equipped at the moment you receive any experience. Want to level up an ability? Put it in your current ability bar. When you get two ability bars (at level 15) your exp will only go to the abilities on the bar you are currently using, so keep switching them around to level them evenly, or make sure to have important abilities equipped when you get any exp.

As Grits mentioned earlier, wearing a mix of light, medium, and heavy armour will level all of them up. Of course the more of one type you wear, the faster that will level. Read up on the different armour types' passive skills to see which ones you might be interested in.

The best way to level up a second weapon is to equip it just before you turn in a quest and get the reward exp. I got my two-handed sword skill to max level without ever using it in combat.


This one is really obvious, but READ EVERYTHING. Don't ignore any bookshelves, because you might find skill books lurking there.


In order to level up your Mages Guild skill line you will need to find rare books from Shalidor's library. These can be found dotted all over the world, in a variety of locations, and can be identified by their purple/blue covers and magical glow.

To level up your Fighters Guild skill line you need to kill Daedra and Undead. You'll encounter endless numbers of both over the course of your adventures so it's not something to worry about.

Here's one that I wish I could go back in time and tell myself - Don't sell weapons and armour. You get very little gold, and would be better off breaking them down into components or researching traits.

Once you hit Vet rank 16, (or champion rank 160 I suppose it is now), you will need lots of materials for max level gear. I'm talking 150 Rubedo Leather to craft a medium chest piece.

If you do need gold, then crafting writs are a good source. If you have the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood expansions then they provide radiant quests that pay out really well for very little work.

There's not much in the game to actually spend gold on. The only thing I buy is the occasional style motif book from guild traders, though most of my spending goes towards repairing my gear.

You DON'T need to be part of a guild in order to BUY things from any guild traders you see in the world. You DO need to be part of a guild if you want to SELL things to guild traders.

Always check out guild traders, and shop around before buying something since there are no set prices. There have been a few occasions where I've bought a style book from one guild trader and then found the same thing for half the price at another trader.

Here’s a tip. If you are using a costume, make sure that you are WEARING YOUR ARMOR underneath it. Last night Jerric went bare-chested into the Banished Cells. *palms face*

'Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.'
- Guildmagister Kud-Ei, Bravil



Edit: Gosh, Grits, what a beautiful picnic screenshot you have currently in your sig! The animals, dear friends, good food. . . and your game looks simply beautiful.

Is there a way to unnock an arrow (to save charges) rather than just firing it?

Yeah, you flip forward while magically zooming in without using a scope

Acadian, I don't know a way to cancel the shot once you start to draw. I wish I did!

I'm confused about weapon enchantments. Do they take effect with every strike?

The reason I ask is because of two weapon traits -

Charge says it increases your chance to apply status effects by X%. I would have thought the weapon simply applied the charge on every strike?
Infused says (in part) ...and reduces enchantment cooldown by X%. Cooldown for a weapon enchantment?

If they don't take effect simply on every shot and I can't unnock an arrow to save charges and they do eat soul gems to stay charged, I'm wondering if I might prefer enchantless bows. . . . I'm hoping that there is something I don't understand.

Edit: Oh, Grits, I simply love that misty shot of gorgeousJerricalloneword in his ancestral snowy homeland.

Acadian, thank you, that was a magical morning in the woods!

As far as I know the enchantments do not apply to every strike, and neither does poison. Putting poison on the weapon suppresses the enchantment, but I don’t know how that works as far as using up the weapons’ charges. I suspect that an enchanted weapon’s charge would not be used while a poison was equipped on the weapon, which could save on soul gems. This is something I’m curious about as well, since Jerric runs through a ton of soul gems and often does not need the extra boost from the weapon’s enchantment. He gets a lot of grand soul gems from his adventuring and greater soul gems from Darnand’s Enchanting writs, but he hates to waste the energy.

So I think that a Charged-trait weapon would have an increased chance to apply a status effect such as the chilled/concussed/burning secondary elemental effects, while an Infused weapon would have a reduced internal cooldown for applying the enchantment effect such as frost/shock/fire, perhaps 3 seconds instead of 4 seconds.

I am still in the dark as to how the applied poisons work with weapon traits. I think it would depend on if applied poison (meaning from Alchemy and not a poison enchantment) is a status effect.

Thanks. Heh, looks like weapon enchantments remain a bit mysterious.

Another question. Buffy has the 'hide helmets' option checked. Does anyone know if that applies to costumes? She quite likes costumes. Some of the ones that come with headgear would be fun - as long as they don't cover her hair!

Yep, it applies to costumes too. Haa-Rei often hides his headgear since most helmets in the game look ridiculous when shaped to Argonian heads. If it ain't a hood, he ain't wearing it.

Oh thanks so much for letting me know. I didn't want to buy a costume just to find out. Thanks!

I also keep my helmet hidden all the time, so was really surprised when I saw my latest helmet for the first time after wearing it quite a while, lol. It looks ilke someone killed a bird and stuck it on her head, lol. I do have some costumes for the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild that come with hoods when I see others wearing them; but don't remember seeing Misa's face covered; so I think the hidden helmet does apply to costumes too.

It surely does apply to costumes! After hazmick mentioned that, I got another set of costumes that have real potential without the headgear. Not only can I lose the headgear but I can dye them as well. Those discoveries go a long way toward allowing me to ignore what her armor underneath actually looks like as she grows into higher level/mismatching/uglier sets.

From what I can tell, the Bosmer bottom of the line rawhide medium armor is the best looking for Buffy of the lot. Even upgrading to hide is a step down appearance-wise. Happily costumes are the cure!

Those clothes Calia was trying on for Buffy are all clothing items that Bubba stole from various places and "laundered" so the girls could have some casual outfits and dresses for hanging out "around town," (AKA: The Daggerfall Crown Store)

I am seriously going to make my girls those Argonian shorts and Bosmer top - just for something to hang around town in that looks cute and casual.

Acadian, Lil still has her Rawhide Bosmer medium armor in its original buckskin colors and her Hide set dyed in her favorite shades of green to wear when she’s not in too much danger. To me the very first set of Rawhide still looks the best. Even Jerric who pays little attention to his appearance has some costumes that he will wear when his armor looks outlandish or otherwise inappropriate. (That’s how he ended up without chest armor in a very bad place. Lesson learned ! ) I think the costume system is genius and just getting better with the new hairstyles, body paints, eyelashes, and other adornments that are coming.

mALX, that Bosmer top with Argonian shorts looks very cute! Jerric used to wear shorts like that for fishing. He called them his fishing garters, lol. “Daggerfall Crown Store,� ha!!

Those hairstyles; can you get hair for a race now that the game doesn't offer? Like Blonde for Bosmer or Red for Imperials? Because if so, I may spend the crowns for that!

Nope, their hair color stays the same and you just change the style. They say that race and gender restrictions are the same as at character creation, but I’d swear that there were more styles available for Lildereth than before. Not new styles, just styles from other races. And Jerric could use some of the Redguard styles that I don’t think he could use at character creation.

I wish Imperials could have red hair. The closest I could get for Rowan is a sort of medium auburn.

Yeah, Calia's hair looks strawberry blonde instead of red.

Charge increasing the status effects just means that (whatever enchantment you have on that weapon) = it won't use up its charges as quicky; won't require charging as often. I normally don't waste a trait on this, just carry enough soul gems to cover recharging my weapons as needed.

On the reducing the cooldown: Some weapon enchants will say something along the lines of “this can only occur every X seconds�, so for these, it will reduce the value of X.

If you enchant your weapon for things like "Crusher," "Rage," "Hardening," or "Weakening" - that cooldown applies. (I never use these enchantments, usually just use them for researching traits or deconstructing when I get them in loot).

mALX, take another look at the Charged trait. It used to just save you on soul gems for recharging, but in the Dark Brotherhood update they changed it to increase the chance to apply status effects.

Here’s a snip from the patch notes, base game section:

~~~

Item Trait Improvements

Item Traits have undergone revision to improve the viability and balance of each Trait. Some Traits have received complete redesigns, other Traits have gained new effects and bonuses, while some other Traits have simply received better number tuning.

• Weapons

o Charged: This trait now increases your chance to apply status effects instead of increasing the amount of enchantment charges on your weapon.

o Defending: This trait now increases your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by flat values instead of percentages.

o Infused: This trait now also reduces the cooldown on your weapon enchantment in addition to increasing its damage.

o Intricate: This trait now also increases the amount of refined materials you obtain whenever you deconstruct the weapon, in addition to increasing the amount of inspiration gained.

o Nirnhoned: This trait now increases the damage of the weapon.

o Powered: This trait now increases your healing done instead of reducing the cooldown on your weapon enchantment.

o Sharpened: This trait now increases your Physical Penetration and Spell Penetration by flat values instead of percentages.

o Training: This trait now increases all experience gained from all kills by a percentage instead of increasing your weapon skill line experience only.

o Weighted: This trait now grants you a chance to gain additional Ultimate whenever you generate Ultimate normally, and has been renamed to Decisive.


• Armor

o Exploration: This trait now increases all gold gained from monster kills instead of increasing exploration experience gained, and has been renamed to Prosperous.

o Impenetrable: This trait now also reduces the durability damage taken of the item, in addition to reducing the damage taken from Critical Hits.

o Intricate: This trait now also increases the amount of refined materials you obtain whenever you deconstruct the armor, in addition to increasing the amount of inspiration gained.

o Nirnhoned: This trait now increases Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by a flat value.

o Sturdy: This trait now reduces the cost of Block.

o Training: This trait now increases all experience gained from all kills by a percentage, instead of increasing your armor skill line experience only.

o Well-fitted: This trait now also reduces the cost of Roll Dodge, in addition to reducing the cost of Sprint.

~~~

Here's a link to the whole thing: DB Update Patch Notes


Jerric is a big fan of the new Well-fitted!

Status Effects is not the same thing as the damage though. It will always do the damage it says it will; but not always give the "Status Effects."

Example: Frost slows with a chance to freeze in place, lightning has a chance to stun, etc.

It is dependent on the weapon’s enchantment; like if your sword or bow is enchanted with fire = every time the fire enchant adds damage there is a % chance it produces an additional burning DoT.

But every time you strike, the enemy is getting fire damage unless they are immune to fire. In that case they only take the basic damage the weapon offers.

There are numerous enemies immune to fire and especially cold; and some immune to shock. There is an enchantment that does "Irresistible" damage; or you can use an "Absorb Health;" which bypasses immunity plus gives you a source of healing while in combat. (Which is what I use).




ELEMENTAL STATUSES:

Chilled - Applies Snared i.e. slows movement speed by 40% for 5 sec. Chance to proc from any frost damage (frost staff, frost enchants, Ice Comet (mages guild)).

Concussion - Applies Minor Maim i.e. reduces damage done by 15% for 4 sec. Animation: electric sparkles. Chance to proc from any lightning damage (sorcerer storm calling spells, lightning staff and shock enchants).

Burning - Flame damage over time for 3 sec (tics 3 times, every 1,5sec). Chance to proc from any flame damage (dragon knight ardent flame skills, flame staff and flame enchants).



DISABLING EFFECTS: complete loss of control of the character

Knocked Down – Totally disabled: knocked to the ground and cannot move or perform actions (duration varies between spells, 2-3.5 seconds). During knocked down status one cannot be pulled or knocked back. Example: Crystal Shard (sorcerer), stonefist (DK).

Stunned – Unable to move, attack, or perform any actions, susceptible to further cc during stun. Example: Shield Charge (1H&S), Toppling Charge (Templar).

Off balance - Short disable that breaks on damage taken AND vulnerability to Heavy Attack (even partially charged) causing Knocked Down. Off balance vulnerability lasts regardless of damage taken for 4 sec unless utilized by heavy attack sooner. Animation: White glowing circle/spiral above head. Blocking enemy’s heavy melee attack or interrupting an enemy cast knocks them off balance and opens them to your Heavy attack and consecutive Knocked Down effect. Also is an effect from many class and weapon skills.

Disoriented – Long but fragile disable (cannot move/perform action) that will break from any damage taken. From many class and weapon spells, Rune Prison (sorcerer), Shock Touch (shock staff), Scatter shot (bow).

Silenced – Unable to cast spells, can move and use physical attacks. From Negate Magic (sorcerer). Countered by Immovable (heavy armor skill), Break free or moving out of the area.

Feared – Running away from the caster unable to perform any actions. Example: Aspect of Terror (Nightblade), Turn Undead (Fighter’s Guild), Roar (Werewolf).

Pull – Pulled to the caster, while in air unable to perform any actions. Examples: Silver leash (Fighter’s Guild), Fiery Grip (DK). Counts as hard cc as it triggers immunity on target in pvp.

Knockback - Pushed away from caster for 5 meters. Note: Spells can have Knockback in conjunction with other status effects like a knock down/stun/disorient effect (like Binding Javelin, Fire Clench, Scatter Shot), or as a plain knockback (like Piercing Javelin or Fire Touch).



SOFT CC: hinder movement (flying creatures are immune to these)

Immobile – Rooted i.e. unable to move, but can attack/perform actions. For example: Dark talons (DK), Encase (sorcerer), Stampede (2h). Note: Frost Touch (frost staff) has Deep freeze and Deeper freeze effects that seem to be equal to an immobilize, but an elemental effect.

Snared - Slowed movement speed, but can perform attacks or other actions. Percentage varying between spells? Animation: cloudy effect around feet. Example: Low Slash (1H&S), Sun Fire (Templar).



OTHER:

Taunted – Forced to attack you (PvE only) for 15 sec. Only from Puncture (1H&S) and Inner Fire (Undaunted) and their morphs.

Blind - Raised chance to miss, percentage varies from spell to spell. Removed from player abilities, but some NPCs use it. Also available as armor set bonus (Akatosh's blessed armor).
Bleed - Physical damage over time, most commonly 10 sec. From passive traits for axes and some weapon attacks.

Poisoned - Poison damage over time for 12 sec (tics 7 times every 2 sec, damage per tic approximately half of burning tic). Chance to proc from poison damage (poison enchants and certain weapon attacks such as Venom arrow or Lethal Arrow (Bow). Note: Poison is often applied in conjunction with healing reduction effect, but is a separate effect.

Diseased - Applies Minor Defile debuff for couple of seconds that reduces healing taken by 15% (suggested to be reduced health regeneration too). Animation: green cloud and health bar has inward arrowheads. Chance to proc from any disease damage (meat bag siege catapults, werewolf infectious claws and foul weapon enchants).

Immovability – “Immunity to knockback and disabling effects�, does not affect soft cc. Animation effect: swirling wind around the character). Gained when hard CC ends (naturally or when broken/reflected), from activating Immovable (heavy armour skill) or from potions.




WHAT CAN YOU DO TO NEGATE STATUS EFFECTS IF THEY ARE USED ON YOU:


Break Free – costs stamina; removes stun, disorient, knockdown, also get 5 sec Immovability.

Dodge – costs stamina (cheaper than CCbreak), breaks soft cc i.e. immobilize, may avoid aoe.

Cleanse/Purge/Purify – Removes negative effects. Templar synergy or AvA support spell, Dark Cloak (NB).

Block - negates any attempt to CC, even if you take partial damage from the attack itself. NO Immovability effect after.

Reflect – negates attempt to CC and gives the effect to its caster instead, get Immovability. From Defensive

Posture (1h&s), Reflective scale (DK), some armor set bonuses.

Invisibility (potion or NB cloak) - avoid projectiles/ targeted CC completely if timed correctly, but does not prevent aoe effects hitting.

Snare Break – Remove snare. Example: Forward momentum (2H).

Oh wait; if you look the "Infused" up instead of "Charged" it talks about a "Cooldown" - looking that up does talk about what you are referring to:

Weapons can have those enchantments on them, like "deal 40 fire damage" -

In ESO such effects don't happen with every single attack you perform, since it would ruin PvP (everyone would just use very fast light attacks instead of heavy combat)

So the game uses an "internal cooldown" for how often those effects can trigger to mathematically normalize the effect vs the given attack speed.

(So you were right, Acadian!!!)

From what I read; the actual cooldown is around 4 seconds, so your fire weapon will trigger the fire damage effect every 4 seconds of your attack. (which is what my poison armor bonus was doing; but the enemy was dying on the first hit unless they were boss fights - so the cooldown didn't matter)

The enchant "Infused" will now reduce this cooldown by 1 second, so it can trigger every 3 seconds instead of 4; plus it increases the effects of the enchantment.

Truthfully - I've never been able to tell because the absorb health has always kept my bow or swords glowing steadily in combat; and my Character's arms glow when she has been injured and the weapon is healing her; so - hasn't effected my combat that I could see.

I normally use Precise; Sharpened; or Infused on my weapon traits; always have. They are just right for me, for my combat style.

Thanks for that cool down info. That all makes sense now.

mALX, thanks for the follow-up! I like Infused while a character is struggling with resource management. Infused trait with an Absorb enchantment helps a lot.

Jerric has a looted Infused sword that was already enchanted with Absorb Stamina. He would have chosen to use Absorb Magicka or Absorb Health, but with his roll-dodge and bashing buffs and that sword he is a maniac at melee range. He could hardly take down river trolls until he started using it, they would heal too fast. Now they are still a horrendously grueling battle and best avoided, but he can manage it.

That’s a great discussion of status effects. I wish I could find a player’s guide that has been updated with info for alchemical poisons. I can’t figure out if alchemical poison is treated the same way as the other poison effects as far as synergy with traits and Champion Points.

I like Well-fitted too; but I notice that description doesn't include the cost of sneaking!

Whenever they talk about "improvements" I read it as "F'n up my game." Exploration was a good trait, Prosperous is ridiculous and useless. A lot of people went through a lot of expense buying armor to help them gain XP and now are stuck with a little extra gold in chests and a big FU for their time researching that trait.

Same with the upcoming "scaling the world to the Player's level" so Players will no longer be able to obtain mats under their level UNLESS THEY DO WRITS; where they will gain low level stuff as a reward? That makes absolutely NO sense.

They already have the low level mats in select areas (starter zones); and the mats increase with the difficulty of the areas. So in order to make "One Tamriel" where people could travel around and do different areas they felt the need to make every enemy at the Players current level; okay - but the plants and trees too? Why? It is just plain stupid, like they didn't know when to rein in their ideas and are taking this too far.

Numerous times since I have been playing this game I have wished they would just stop screwing with it. It was such a perfect and fun game when I started playing it a year ago, and most of the changes they have made other than the DLC have not enhanced the game at all - just the opposite. They keep tweaking and fiddling till they ruin the awesome game they created.

Someone needs to remind them that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Well-Fitted? Is that a Pr0N Star talent?

I wonder if games have always used them and we never knew it, lol.

Sorry for the wrong info I gave on that; I had no idea they would do something like that without a disclosure in the description; especially since they did disclose it in some other places.

Rosa, you can guess why Jerric is a fan of it!

mALX, I suspect that they will eventually change the way they have re-done resource nodes. I liked being able to collect materials for the next level of gear while adventuring so that my crafters can have a set ready as soon as someone levels up. For example Aninah has been collecting Hide while wearing Rawhide from adventuring in the next area. Now she will have to wait until she can wear the new stuff before she can find the mats for it, but on the plus side she will find Leather and Cotton wherever she is as soon as she’s able to wear it.

Crafting for friends will be an issue. It will be easy for the friend to collect their own crafting materials and pass them to the crafter, but surprise gifts are going to be hard to pull off once everyone works through their materials stash. Maybe players will use Guild banks more to offer free deconstructible gear for mats instead of selling it for practically nothing.

Yes, that "Absorb" has saved my character's life consistently. She has died if jumped on by 5 or more; or from some big bosses. Other than that, she can kick some butt with that "absorb" on there, lol.

Someone speaking to Jerric after one of his many arrests: "Someone said you was hung!"

Jerric: "And they was right!"


(Obviously taken from "Blazing Saddles, )


I hope you are right and that they rethink that. I think they are doing this to press for more "Plus" memberships so people will have the space to stock up mats for various levels in their "Crafting Bag of Holding."

But you are right, it totally effects being able to make a nice gift of armor for someone without asking them to provide the mats - then it isn't a gift anymore, what good is that?

"I'll give you a gift, but only if you give me the stuff to make it with...."

I'd feel like a jerk saying something like that! I've already written a scathing letter to them voicing my opinion on their latest list of "improvements."

What I plan to do if they go through with that is to start sending one of my Alts out for mats. Britta - she is like level 11. Calia of Daggerfall (another alt because she grunts and I don't like playing her and hearing it) - can gather for the next level.

I can push Bubba up to the third level to gather; and (Formerly Pantsless but now Topless) Calia of the Aldmeri can grow some and handle the next level above Bubba. Anything above that would be champion level; and Misa should be able to handle.

I'll put them all to work gathering mats at various levels and make a fortune selling them in the Guild Stores, BWAAHAA!!

But it most def will hinder my ability to just spontaneously make a gift for someone - like last night, a very new to the game girl stopped Misa in Davon's Watch and asked about her new armor (screens and stats later) - it takes knowing 5 traits, so I stopped what I was doing (nothing) and made her a set spur of the moment.

Those early materials have always been easy to gather in Stonefalls - and the low level runes to enchant them with too. I can't imagine giving someone unenchanted armor/weapons; so it isn't just the mats I'd need to gather; but runes too. And I wonder if the low level tempers to improve it will become unavailable too! So what, I have to give out white level armor now? Grrrrrr.

Yeah, this is one of those just plain stupid ideas some of these developers just need to be smacked down over. And giving a high level player some low level mats as a reward for doing writs thereby forcing them to do writs if they want them? - every time I heard him say that in the vid it made me want to write them another scathing letter, lol.

If worse comes to it, I'll start another character just to get supplies to Misa for crafting before I'd ever charge a friend for a gift by making them gather the mats.

Armor traits and awkward first dates:

The Bosmeri lass opened her tree-bole’s front door to find her blind date grinning nervously down at her. She sighed. He was a Nord.

“Hi, I’m Jerric. Pleased to meet you. Here, I brought you a gift. It’s boots of Well-Fitted. And a belt of Well-Fitted. And also would you consider wearing this Well-Fitted hat? Uh… no reason.�


I am a fan of having many characters at all levels, so I will be OK with the changes. I can see how other folks will have trouble, though. People with limited time are not going to love making new characters and getting them to certain levels just so that they can be generous to their friends, but I know some will still go to the trouble. Maybe the writs stashes will make up the difference.

On the plus side the first-tier stuff will be super easy to get at all levels for non-crafters since it will make up 50% of everywhere, so it will still be easy to craft for new players. By the time new folks get to the second tier, hopefully they will have caught on to the crafting mechanics and know to gather their own mats. Still, the proposed system will not suit everyone. Maybe it will get another tweak.

- Jerric's subtle hints on how he hopes the date will end, (Did he blow a soundless whistle too? BWAAHAA!!!!


Yeah, I think that change will draw a distinct line between how much effort a Player is willing to put out for another - it will suck the fun out of doing something for others and make it a grueling task.

I am probably a slow learner; but I didn't make my first armor over the lowest level till about a month ago; and have never made one for Misa or my "Alt" characters. This girl from Australia that I met online a year ago and have played with this whole past year has made all Misa's armors for her. The "Alts" have always worn Misa's hand-me-downs.

So my "gifts" had to always be for new (lowest level) players only; which was fine, because they are usually the ones that need the boost and it is a nice "Welcome" to the game for them.

Several people gave me a nice gift of armor and weapons when I first started, so it is kind of a "Paying it back" for me, and I really enjoy it.

Even now I can only make armor and weapons for Buffy's current level (and only because I just now sank points into it to do it for her).

In fact, I didn't even know of or start doing writs till you (Grits) said how much gold they paid, The only crafting skill I've even reached 50 in was Enchanting; and that was because the girl who makes Misa's armor helped her get there.

Here's a tip that we learned through trial and error. To reduce confusion over what is in Buffy's skill bar, we turned on the settings option so the bar shows all the time at the bottom of our screen.

Well, we noticed the skills go bright and dim. . . and figured out that indicates if there is a target in range. Since range is life to Buffy, this lets her know exactly the distance she needs to sneak up to barely within range for an attack. At least for us, this has been a very helpful discovery.

Holy Cow!!!!!ll I never knew you could toggle the hot bar!!! And if it also lets you know when an enemy is in range, that is Awesome !!!!!

That’s a great tip, Acadian! I had forgotten that you could turn it to be always on. The skill greying out until you are in range helps me a lot. Now that Lil is using Snipe all the time I tend to think Jerric should be able to use his ranged skills long before he actually can.

That was one of the things I really enjoy about ESO thus far: the unexpected acts of kindness from other players.

For me paying it forward is helping another solo player take on a boss if I see something going south.

I had a player unexpectedly resurrect Julian out of the blue when I was trying to kill Faolchu in the Glenumbra quest line. Unfortunately I didn't note the player's name (my adrenaline was too high after so many unsuccessful attempts) so I never did thank that player. Julian now carries around filled soul gems so she can do the same.

Mazul hasn't yet collected very many, and she keeps draining the enchantments out of her quest items (she keeps trading up). I suspect she is slower to move through the quests because I noticed she is taking them on at higher levels than Julian did.

That's okay. Julian is currently a level or two higher than the quests she's on right now, so that's cool. And at Level 18 she is starting to feel more confident and not quite so hesitant. She also discovered how to use her magic attack from stealth, but still prefers to take them on one at a time.

I know I had more questions! So here are one (or maybe two) of them.

I suspect part of the reason I'm still struggling with inventory management is I'm not clear on how it works. Notably the bank. If I have items in the bank (not in the player's inventory), can I still access them when I'm working at a crafting station? Or does one need the Crafting Bag of Holding for that? I keep running out of inventory when Mazul or Julian are crafting writs.

Also, what does stacking items mean? Does it mean what I think it means - multiples of identical items take up one slot. I've tried using the "Stack All" key when in the inventory menu but I never see it make a difference.

I just figured out how buying from Guild Stores work. So Julian bought a bunch of crafting style books for Mazul. I didn't pick them up while I was logged in with Julian, because I was afraid they would go into Julian's inventory, then she'd have to put them into the bank, yada yada yada. So I left them in the emails until Mazul logged in, then she picked them up. Mazul is excited to craft some good stuff for Julian, but she needs to get more researching done first. And it's frustrating that she can only research one trait at a time in each craft. Ugh.

Yes, the crafting items that are in your bank are accessible through the crafting stations, you do not need to have them in your character's inventory. Weapons and armor that are in your bank can also be deconstructed or have their traits researched through the crafting stations, so you do not have to carry that stuff around with you either. Just be careful not to deconstruct something that you thought you put "safely" in the bank, I've done that!


As far as stacking, this is what I think it means. When you have more than 200 of the same item, say 207 ores, the first 200 take one inventory space and the next 7 takes up another space , up to the next 200. If you were to remove 30 ores you could "stack" the 7 into the remaining 170 and only take up one space again for the 177. On the PS4 items don't re-stack themselves into different slots when they can, you have to do it by hitting the stack button.


Yay, book shopping! You can use skill points to get perks in the equipment skills that let you research up to three items at a time. My researchers all have those perks, otherwise it would take forever. Once they finish all of their research they can re-spec their skill points at a shrine in one of the major cities, so no skill points are permanently wasted. You just have to pay gold at the shrine or buy a Crown "scroll" and your skill points are reset. You can do the same if you want to change your attribute (Magicka, Health, Stamina) distribution.

Ditto all Grits said, especially sinking points into the ability to research more items than one at a time if you are going to get into crafting. When you have everything researched it is easy to reset your stats and get those skill points back to use in some other place.

On the "Stack all items" = it does work. I have been crafting and used some out of a stack of 200 mats; then did some refining and added some and not had them stack properly for some reason. Hitting that has fixed the issue. It only works if there are two stacks of the same item and both are under 200.






This is what made me fall in love with this game. Strangers passing by resurrected me till I gathered enough soul gems to keep myself resurrected. Then I started paying it back when out in the wilderness or in dungeons. (I don't resurrect people who get killed in town at all, they are dying for a lark or crime spree).

But people I didn't know from a trade guild I joined sent me armor, weapons, etc. People gave me lockpicks, recipes, motifs, etc. People resurrected me when I died - you can't beat that; can't find that in a single player game - or the hilarious antics on weekends in towns!

Ditto on the hilarious antics!

Geez, I saw some funny stuff going on, and some disturbing things too.

In Daggerfall, the NPC's around Crier Martine keep getting killed. I would arrive in town to find a pile of bodies in the town square.

OTOH, I did see one PC riding his horse in tight circles around another NPC who was reading his scroll (Map? Journal?). Made me think of Jerric and Darnand!

I have noticed those bodies several times recently; really not sure if there is some achievement involved in that or what !!!! But I agree, it is eerie the way they are all lying in the same position and all facing the same direction, etc.

That is so funny about the horse! Daggerfall has some spectacular mage light shows on weekends; I have shots of some that were better than fireworks in RL!

I have actually seen PC's killing NPC's from time to time. I'm so new to this still that I'm not sure if this is a new fad or if it's something that has always happened.

Sometimes they are sneak attacks. A PC will sneak up on some nondescript NPC and kill her with an ambush attack. Other times it's a wizard type PC throwing lethal magic around and killing guards and civilians indiscriminately. I suspect those are the bodies you are seeing, mALX - you described the arrangement of bodies typical of a shock wave or blast wave type of event.

Okay, my next question. Both here and elsewhere I keep seeing references to "daily quests." Just what are those? Both Julian and Mazul need to level up before they can tackle the next quests in their stories. Mazul needs to learn how to make enchanted gear so she can forge up a set of heavy armor that will absorb magicka for her. She keeps getting killed by magicians.

Getting the style books to Mazul has helped tremendously. She was able to use up a lot of the style material that has been clogging the bank.

The sneak attacks are usually because people are doing contracts for the dark brotherhood. The not-so-sneaky attacks are just random violence that usually ends up with PCs being taken out by guards.

Daily quests are quests that one completes on a daily basis You find them on quest boards in DLC zones, and it'll either be a quest to clear a specific delve or take on a specific world boss. Completing them rewards players with top-end loot.