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 a lot of this stuff wil come around later in the game or other guides so it will help.
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. 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.
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 have a similar issue 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. More info can be found in our post on How the Transmutation System works.
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. They 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.
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.