Solo content neither requires crafting nor light attack weaving and you only have to switch weapons maybe once in most fights.
You will probably have to look into that stuff if you want to do high end group content. But also, the selling point of ESO is the solo quest content, IMO. You can have (and I have) hundreds if not thousands of hours of fun doing nary a raid and nary a veteran dungeon.
DeepT
4870
What is the difference between magica vs stamina builds? I mean is there a theme like all magical builds are about DPS and all stamina builds are about being tanky? Or maybe there isn’t a theme its just two ways to build each class?
The idea of a 2h heavy armor necromancer/death knight appeals to me, but every video I see has people playing like a caster. Are some classes just not meant for certain things?
Basically I want to explore the world and not have a tough time about it.
I guess what I am worried about is finding some area or dungeon I want to explore and then I just die horribly unless I find a group, but then find that if I had some build that I could easily do the dungeon.
Just two ways to build things. The main thing to know is that you want to focus on either magicka or stamina, not split between the two. And you can do basically whatever - class skills are IMO a pretty limited percentage of your overall build most of the time. I am personally playing a sorcerer who wears medium armor and mostly kills things with dual-wielded melee weapons. But there’s a couple of very handy sorc skills for the build - Hurricane, which does player-based AoE damage, and one that gives me spell crit (which I ignore), but also a big heal on crits. which I get constantly from the AoE damage I’m shitting out everywhere.
All very true. But if you want to optimize your play you need to do all that stuff. The common guides for magsorc, for example, have me keeping up 3 separate buffs and like 5 separate DoTs, all with a fairly short duration between like 8s and 30s. It’s hella-annoying and I don’t do it.
Yup. But you don’t remotely need to optimize for 95% of the content in the game. I think it’s important to emphasize that for people considering jumping in.
Oh sure, absolutely. If you’re running around solo like me it really doesn’t much matter. I do like how I just wtfpwn mobs out in the world though with a semi-optimized build, a bunch of CPs, and full 5+5+1+1 sets. And that lifesteal ring is like a cheatcode, even though as a magsorc with critical surge I didn’t really need one.
Only thing that might stop me jumping in is horse training. That suuuuuucks.
ESO is completely different from any other MMO in terms of what and how builds are made. It’s worth delving into some youtube vids about various builds, to understand what is really going on. Short version, builds are all or nothing, there aren’t really any “combo” or hybrid builds per se. Builds are more defined by weapons equipped, than they are by starting class, to a large extent. It’s entirely possible to play a magika or stamina build for any class and have it be viable.
For example, one of the best builds in the game is a stamina sorcerer.
Daagar
4876
This is super important to understand (and good to hear). At some point you will potentially look for guides on how to get gold, and they will almost all tell you to do writs (aka., crafting). Not just on one character, either, but on as many as you can manage. And the game crosses a threshold from fun to second job.
I’m a casual player with mix/max or OCD/completionist tendencies so I easily get swept up by stuff like this. I always think I’m going to be raiding at some point and better have all my bases covered! And as it turns out, I don’t really like crafting. Understanding what kind of player you are, and knowing that you can play without crafting if you tend towards casual is huge.
I write this as much to help convince myself as anyone else…
(Doing housing related stuff, alas, I believe requires crafting. I don’t know how much or the limits without).
habibi
4878
I think when you first started out, it will make life much easier by joining a player guild and getting someone to craft you a set equipment. It makes questing solo easier and less frustrating. I wish I knew it in my earlier games.
I couldn’t stand doing writs as they were nothing but a boring grind to me so I stopped doing them. A buddy of mine loved to do them on multiple characters. To each his own.
You can make a lot of stuff for your house with crafting and/or you can get some furnishings from doing antiquities leads. The latter requires access to the Greymoor chapter.
Daagar
4880
With the crafting bag, and if loading times weren’t such trash I could see it being better - but still a grind that I’d rather not do. Nice to hear there are alternatives for furnishings!
Initial loadtimes are extremely long, that’s all serverside with “requesting character load”. After that it’s very fast for me.
Daagar
4882
Right - sorry, I meant in the context of trying to grind writs on multiple alts where you’re going to hit that initial load time repeatedly. I agree that once in-game, it isn’t a big problem (though if you are a heavy writ grinder, you’re still going to aim to minimize doors between stations).
Oh yeah, true. That initial load is brutal. For some reason they’re unable to fix it.
This game still have the … quirk … that you have to join a guild to be able to sell things, and competitively sell enough to not get kicked from such guild?
Yes, the guild trader system is annoying too. I’ve never sold anything and buying stuff requires checking multiple traders.
Also it seems to take forever to mail your purchases unless you log out and back in.
Tamriel Trade Center is a quick way to find what you are looking for: https://tamrieltradecentre.com/
Ahh thanks for the reminder, forgot about that in the past couple of years since I played.
habibi
4888
No need to logout. You just need to travel to another way shrine and your items will be mailed to you.
Razgon
4889
huh - I bought something last night, and it was in my mail immediatly?
Just got my templar to level 50 last night - was a lot of fun. The double xp time is really good for this, and with the upcoming LYDIA expansion, I feel I am in a good place.
I do wonder how well they will balance content now - will it be more or less as easy as if you were two people now, doing overland questing?
Seeing how they want you to be able to do dungoens duo now with the new companion system, the strength of our LYDIA should be comparable to standard players, I guess.
Should be fun!
