Hey and welcome to this guide that will give you a rough guide line of the milestones till you reach level 50.
Basic game concepts
I know it’s boring to read up on all this stuff since you just want to jump into the game and slay your first dragon. But i will throw around a lot of terms and abbreviations later in this guide. When you are just starting out feel free to skip this section you can come back later and look up what is what when you need it. Which is also the reason this is at the very top.
Concepts
Level scaling
ESO scaling system is kinda weird since they removed the level requirements for each zone. Your character gets buffed from level 1 to level 50. With each level these buffs will get weaker and weaker and will require you to substitute this with gear and skills. You will be the weakest once you reach level 50 and from there on feel getting stronger and stronger with every Champion point you gain. An important thing to note is that even the gear you collect is scaled up the closer it is to your actual level. A piece of level 10 gear on a level 10 character will have the same stats as a piece of max level gear on a high level char. The more you out level that piece of gear the weaker it will get. This will require you to get new gear every other level assuming you don’t just want to rush to the max gear level.
Bar Swapping
At level 15 you will unlock a second bar of skills with a second weapon. You will need to swap bars and apply your back bar skills mid fight and swap back. Usually there are longer running damage over time abilities (dots) on your back bar while you have shorter skills or spammables (abilities you cast while all dots active) on your front bar)
Side note: There are one bar builds using the oaken soul mythic. I will disregard them in this guide since you will need to be Champion Level 160 to be able to use a mythic and also the Damage Ceiling for one bar builds is lower than it is for two bar builds. They are still viable for all veteran content but won’t be for most hard modes which is why i advice against using them if you want to progress into end game since you will gain bad habits/not train your rotation (sequence in which you casts skills) properly.
Light Attack weaving
Light attack weaving is an important part of ESOs combat system. Every time you cast a skill there is a global cool down (GCD) of 1 Second in which you won’t be able to cast another skill. Light attacks have their own cool down and can be queued up between skill casts. Once the GCD for the skill is done you can cast the skill and cancel the animation of the light attack. With this you can do extra damage between skills without wasting any time. This concept takes some time of getting used to but it’s a fun extra mechanic in the games combat system.
Side note: There are heavy attack builds which only hold down the light attack button and cast skills in between heavy attacks. They are disregarded for the same reason as One bar builds.
Set bonuses
ESOs gear system works with sets. It is beneficial (you could say absolutely necessary) to wear a matching set of gear to get the most out of your character. Most sets give you a bonus once you wear 2 pieces of it up to a max of 5 Pieces. There are some exceptions to this. The most prominent ones being Monster sets which contain of only 2 pieces (head+shoulder) and Mythics which only have 1 piece in it. Every piece of armor and jewelry and every one handed weapon will count as one, two handed weapons will count as two pieces towards the set bonuses.
Enchantments
An enchantment is a bonus you can apply to a piece of gear. These enchantments are applied by crafting a Glyph at an enchanting station. These bonuses give you some extra magicka or stamina, increase your weapon and spell damage, reduce your potion cool downs, etc. Glyphs can be bought from guild traders in the world. Glyphs need to be the same level as your gear to be applied. if the gear is a higher level than the glyph or the other way round you won’t be able to apply the glyph to your piece of gear.
Traits and research
Every piece of gear provides three bonuses. A set bonus as explained above, an enchantment as explained above and a trait. The trait is the one bonus you actually need to work for. A piece of gear always drops in one of 9 Traits to change this trait you will need to use a transmute station, spend transmute crystals and have the trait researched. To research a trait you will need to have a piece of gear in that trait (which will be destroyed in the process). You just go to the corresponding crafting station which can be found in every city or in a lot of player houses, select the research tab and then click on the trait you want to research. The research will take quite an amount of real time and every trait will take longer than the one before with the last 2 taking 30 days of real time (the timer continues while logged off). This is the reason i will recommend researching traits early and in a certain order to have an easier time once you get to the point where you want to put your final build together.
Champion Points
Champion Points (short CP) are levels earned after you reach level 50. Champion Points are shared account wide and have an overall maximum of 3600. On every character that reached level 50 you can earn CP for your account. Each Champion Point will take more experience than the previous one. the first CP take a lot less XP than the last levels so your progress will feel a lot quicker once you reach level 50 than it did from level 40 to 50.
Gear cap
The maximum level for Gear is CP 160. Afterwards you won’t out level your gear anymore and you can start farming your endgame gear.
Scribing
Scribing is a system that was introduced with gold road and will come to the base game with update 46 in June. It allows you to craft custom abilities once you completed the introduction quest. You will need to play the complete quest line once. Every new char you make just needs to complete a short 5 minute quest. Once unlocked you can start collecting Grimoires and Scripts that can be combined to skills at a scribing altar.
Subclassing
Subclassing is a new concept introduced with Update 46 on June 2nd for pc and June 16th for console. It allows you to trade up to 2 skill lines of your main class for ones from different classes. You can only pick one skill line of any other class at once so you can’t play a templar with 2 sorcerer skill line for example. But if sorcerer is your main class you can keep 2 of your Sorc skill lines and add one templar skill line. Subclassing is unlocked once you are level 50. You will need to do an introduction quest and can then pick your subclassing skill lines even if you have no character of that class. (DLC Classes Warden, Necro, Arcanist still need to be unlocked for your account)
You can check out my Guide to Subclassing for more Details.
Respeccing
ESO is rather nice when it comes to correcting your mistakes. At any point in the game you can reset all your skill points as well as your attribute points for a small amount of in game gold. Respeccing will get more expensive the more skill points you have. The Most convenient shrine to respec is in vivec city directly next to the vivec city temple wayshrine.
Level 1-9
Gear
Make sure to equip 3 Pieces of light, medium and heavy armor each (at least once) as soon as you can to unlock the skill lines (the skill lines level up even when you don’t see them).
For now which gear you equip doesn’t matter. In the best case keep at least one piece of each armor type (light, medium, heavy) on to level all skill lines. I will give some recommendations once you reach Level 10.
Weapons
Once you are out of the tutorial area you will find a great sword in your inventory which is nice. Equip it and go kill some stuff. Once done you will unlock the Two Handed Skill line. Once you have the opportunity make sure to do the same with two One Handed weapons and a Destruction Staff. If you feel thievie you can steal some weapons at the crafting stations in most beginner towns.
Mundus Stone
A mundus stone will increase your stats passively by quite a bit. The DD Mundus is usually The Thief. They can be found across the world in a few zones. I recommend picking this one up as early as you can.
The Thief Locations
Malabal Tor
Alik’r Desert
Eastmarch
Cyrodiil
NPC Guilds
There are three non player guilds in the game (and they have absolutely nothing to do with player guilds). I recommend joining all of them as early as possible. You can join them in your starter zone. You will gain levels passively for these while playing or can actively farm them later on.
Fighters Guild
The fighters guild upon joining gives you a skill line where some useful skills come from that are widely used in endgame builds (Barbed Trap, Camo Hunter, Dawnbreaker). You level this skill line by killing undead monsters or daedra (atronachs count as well). If you grab this early on you will just level it passively while going through the game.
You can join the Fighters Guild in their Guildhall in the starter town of you alliance:
Aldmeri Dominion
Auridon
Daggerfall Covenant
Glenumbra
Ebonheart Pact
Stonefalls
or in any of the newer Chapter main Towns. For this you can check out the Guide on ESO-Hub.
Mages Guild
The mages guild very much like the fighters guild gives you access to some popular skills like Shooting Star. The big advantage is that you can level the mages guild even while not having the skill line. Once you unlock it all of your progress will be there. You gain Ranks in the mages guild for finding lore books in the world (5 Points per book, 20 extra points when you complete a collection) or for their daily quest.
You can join the mages guild in the starter towns as well.
Aldmeri Dominion
Auridon
Daggerfall Covenant
Glenumbra
Ebonheart Pact
Stonefalls
You can also join in the Chapter main towns. A full guide how to level is here on ESO-Hub.
Undaunted
I know surprising at this point but the undaunted give you a unique skill line as well when you unlock them. You gain levels by completing dungeon quests (more on level 10) the undaunted daily quests, trial quests, and the pledges (more on level 45). You can join them by walking up to them in the pub of your starter area. They will give you a quest line to complete a group dungeon (unlocked at level 10). You actually don’t need to complete the dungeon to get the skill line tho.
Aldmeri Dominion
Auridon
Daggerfall Covenant
Glenumbra
Ebonheart Pact
Stonefalls
Level 10
Congratulations you reached the first big milestone in ESO. You just unlocked a bunch of group activities so please read carefully:
Group Activities
PVP
Battlegrounds: You can do these by queueing up in the party window (P Key on PC). The first battleground you win daily gives you an extra XP reward
Cyrodiil: You can join the Open World PVP fight by going through the campaign menu (L Key on PC). Here you can attack castles and help your alliance triumph.
Imperial City: Another type of open world PVP where you fight for dominance in the districts of the imperial city
PVE
Group Dungeons: Maybe you stumbled across the Dungeon Icons 
on your map already. These Dungeons are meant to complete by 4 players. You can queue up in your party window (P Key on PC). The first Random dungeon of the day will reward you with extra XP and Transmute crystals. I highly recommend doing them early on. You will stack up Transmute Crystals which are important later in the game and also unlock some gear along the way.
Gear
As promised here are some recommendations for easy to get gear to make your journey a little easier. If you have the chance to get some gear crafted by someone i would recommend doing so right now. You would want to get 5 Pieces Heartland Conquerer (Jewelry+Weapons), 5 pieces of any crafted set from the section below and 2 pieces Druids Braid 1 light 1 heavy. All armor and weapons should have the training trait. For weapons get whatever your guide was using till now.
If you play completely solo you can either continue by just using what ever you pick up or farm some overland gear. There is no need to worry about gear at this point but i still want to give some recommendations in case you want to feel a little more powerful. Use as many pieces as you get in training and make sure to equip 5 pieces of each set you farm (2h weapons and staffs count as 2 pieces). You will have to slots open you can fill with whatever you get. A set that is great for that purpose is Armor of the Trainee since it gives a buff for equipping one or two pieces.
All Gear recommendations are there to give guideline on what can be used. A lot especially of the Basegame Overland Sets will not perform as good as their DLC counter parts. If you are starting out the Base game ones are usually easier to get which is why I list them.
Damage Dealer
Overland
Basegame: Mothers Sorrrow (Deshaan), Mad Tinkerer (Vvardenfell), Spriggan’s Thorns (Bangkorai)
DLC: Briarheart (Wrothgar), Macabre Vintage (West Weald)
Templar: War Maiden (Vvardenfell)
You can buy overland sets from guild traders even if you don’t own the DLC
Crafted
Basegame: Hunding’s Rage (Bangkorai, Reaper’s March, The Rift), Law of Julianos (Wrothgar | Basegame as of U49)
DLC: Order’s Wrath (High Isle and Amenos), Tide-Born Wildstalker (Solstice)
You can craft DLC sets of DLCs you don’t own in a lot of player houses.
Dungeon
Basegame: Leviathan (Crypt of Hearts I/II), Overwhelming Surge (Tempest Island)
There are a few situationally good sets like Storm master (Tempest Island) for Heavy Attack Builds
DLC (Unlocked at level 45): Pillar of Nirn (Falkreath Hold), Aegis Caller (Unhallowed Grave)
PVP
Deadly Strike (Cyrodiil)
Can also be bought at Guild Traders.
Tank
Overland
Basegame: Witchman Armor (The Rift), Akaviri Dragonguard (Eastmarch), Hide of the Werewolf (Glenumbra)
DLC: Kynmarcher’s Cruelty (Deadlands), Senchal Defender (Southern Elsweyr), Full Belly Barricade (Solstice)
You can buy overland sets from guild traders even if you don’t own the DLC
Crafted
Basegame: Hist Bark (Greenshade, Rivenspire, Shadowfen), Spectre’s Eye (Coldharbour), Green Pact (Grahtwood), Vampire Cloak (Rivenspire)
DLC: Fortified Brass (Clockwork City), Wretched Vitality (Deadlands)
You can craft DLC sets of DLCs you don’t own in a lot of player houses.
Dungeon
Basegame: Ebon Armory (Crypt of Hearts I/II)
DLC (Unlocked at level 45): Crimson Oath’s Rive (The Dread Cellar), Turning Tide (Shipwright’s Regret),
PVP
Powerful Assault (Imperial Sewers)
Can also be bought at Guild Traders.
Healer
Overland
Basegame: Stendarr’s Embrace (Eastmarch)
DLC: Bright-Throat’s Boast (Murkmire), Winter’s Respite (Western Skyrim)
You can buy overland sets from guild traders even if you don’t own the DLC
Crafted
Basegame: Armor of the Seducer (Deshaan, Grahtwood, Stormhaven),
DLC: Daring Corsair (Southern Elsweyr), Telvanni Efficiency (Telvanni Peninsula)
You can craft DLC sets of DLCs you don’t own in a lot of player houses.
Dungeon
Basegame: Spell Power Cure (White-Gold Tower)
DLC (Unlocked at level 45): Jorvuld’s Guidance (Scalecaller Peak) (Usually used with Roaring Opportunist)
PVP
Powerful Assault (Imperial Sewers)
Can also be bought at Guild Traders.
Horse
You just unlocked your free hors. You can equip it in the collection tab (U Button on PC) and use it by hitting H on PC.
Consumables
I want to dedicate a small part of this guide to Buff food and potions.
Potions
Especially when coming from single player games people tend to keep potions for emergencies. Screw that. You should use the basic Stamina/Magicka Potions you find in the world as much as you can/need. They Provide you with an instant recovery of the resource a well as some resource recovery over time.
Buff Food
Buff Food can have multiple effects that really help your game play. They increase your max resources (which will also increase your damage) and can help with recovery. You can always use the Crown Fortifying Meals you get for free. If you have someone who can craft it for you and want to use a little more Fancy buff food as a Stamina DD the recommendation is Dubious Camoran Throne for Magicka DD/Healer it is Witch Mother’s Potent Brew.
For Tanks the usual Buff Food is Jewels of Misrule if you are new and tend to block much Bewitched Sugar Skulls is also a great option.
Level 12
Ultimate abilities
You should have your class skill lines at level 12 by now which unlocks a new form of ability for you. The ultimate abilities. These go into a separate slot at the right edge of your skill bar and will consume a unique Resource called ultimate. You generate ultimate after light attacking, blocking damage, etc for a few seconds. Don’t be afraid to use whenever you are in combat you will generate it back fast enough.
Level 15
Congrats on unlocking the second big mile stone in the game. Your Back bar. You will now have a second bar to put skills on. It is usually used for long running Damage over time effects.
Level 45
Congrats on the next BIG Milestone. You can finally take pledges from the Undaunted and unlocked access to the DLC Dungeons via group finder.
Pledges
You will receive an Invitation to the Undaunted Enclave (Letter in your inventory) as a level up reward. Start the quest and travel to the specified undaunted enclave in Mournhold – Deshaan (EP), Wayrest – Stormhaven (DC) or Eldenroot – Grathwood (AD). You need to talk to the three people there and finally write your name into the book of undaunted. Now you can pick up three Quests Daily which will need you to complete three specific dungeons.
Two of them will be from the base game. One will be a DLC Dungeon. DLC Dungeons are much harder than base game ones and the reward for the pledges are slightly higher. Talking about rewards. The pledges reward you with Undaunted Keys as well as some transmute crystals. You can use the Keys to buy Boxes at the Undaunted vendors (Same people that hand you the quests) which will give you the shoulder pieces for Monster sets. Monster sets are 2 Piece sets which are used in quite a lot of builds. The helmets are a guaranteed drop when you complete their veteran dungeon. And the shoulders come from the undaunted.
Level 50
Veteran Dungeons
This is the last big mile stone here. You unlocked the veteran difficulty. I really recommend not jumping in head first tho. Wait till you reach CP160 or are with a group of people who are up to run with you while you are below. Even in base game dungeons the difficulty spike is rather high.
Closing Remark
Congrats you reached the end of this guide but your journey just begun. Once you reach CP160 you will be able to farm max level gear and get the best build together for your character.
For everyone that is disillusioned by the high number. To reach Cp160 you will need roughly 8 Million XP which is less than what you needed to go from Level 46 to 50. You will also be enlightened for the first 4.8 Million XP and then for 100k XP every day. This gives you a 4 Times XP buff which makes you reach CP 160 rather fast.
On the other hand your character will now feel the weakest it does during your entire game play. You lost all the nice buffs from Level scaling but don’t have the CP and gear to make up for it. If you don’t just want to rush to cp160 this might be a good point to revisit the level 10 section with overland gear recommendations.
If you on the other hand want to power level to CP160 you can check out my guide on How to Power Level in ESO in 2025.
I recommend you check out the Hyperioxes Solo/Tank guides, Skinny Cheeks Group DPS Guides or Healers Haven for healer Guides.