The Basics of Developing Your ESO Character

Video games are interesting in the way that they can cater to people. Although some games may be stricter than others, you can still say that there’s a game for everyone. Case in point, the Elder Scrolls Online is something of a ‘theme park MMO’. Theme parks have a variety of rides. There are those for thrill-seekers and those for more easygoing customers.

ESO offers the same experience. You’re not prohibited from diving into PvP mechanics and ignoring the rest. Another alternative is to explore and discover the lore of the world. Otherwise, you could just be a crafter and have a collection of various types of equipment. Whatever your interest, you’re sure to find a niche in the game. However, you might be confused about some mechanics, especially if you’re very new to RPGs and gaming in general.

Here are the basics on how to create your own ESO character builds to clear the content you need.

The Basics

The basics first! As you walk the walk in ESO, you also have to talk the talk. Here are some essential words to add to your ESO gaming knowledge.

• Resources: These fuel your attacks and directly affect your damage output. There are two: Stamina (Stam) and Magicka. Health can be considered a resource, though it only affects how long you can stay in a battle.
• Stamina (Stam): Affects your physical damage and fuels stamina abilities such as Sprint or Roll Dodge. It also determines how many of those skills you can use and how effective they will be.
• Magicka (Mag): Influences your spell damage, and fuels spells. It also limits how many you can cast and how effective they will be.
• Health: As explained above, it determines how much damage you can take. It also is a factor in how effective healing will be. If it runs out, someone else has to revive you or you get respawned to a safe area.
• Sustain: As battles go on, you use up your resources. Sustain is how well you can cope with the drain of constantly using the resources. There is a natural regeneration for all three, but it slows during battles. Skills and bonuses help with sustain, as well as potions and other healing consumables.

ESO players are fond of naming their character builds by the primary resource they use, then an abbreviation of the class. A ‘Stamden’ is a Stamina focused Warden, for example.

Building Your Character

Character specialization is one of the most important considerations in ESO. As mentioned above, Magicka and Stamina are the two main resources important for DPS. You will have to choose a style, and stick with it.

Then you can check out the classes and choose one that fits the style you prefer. Though there is enough leeway for you to ‘hybridize’ your class, there should still be a heavier focus on your chosen damage style.

Once you’ve decided on the above, you can choose a race for your character. Each one has strengths that will synergize well with certain classes. By picking a race that’s a good fit with your chosen class, your effectiveness in your chosen role will shoot up.

As you play and collect equipment to use, you might be wondering what weapon and armor you should be using. That still depends on your specialization of Stamina or Magicka. All weapons, save for staves, base their damage on the physical-oriented resource. As the exception, staves base their damage on the magical-oriented resource. As for armor, heavy ones are only for pure protection. Medium ones give bonuses to Stam, and Light ones do the same for Mag.

What this means is that to optimize your character, you will need the right equipment. If you put all your points on magic and yet use physical weapons and skills, that’s not a good use of your main attribute, Magicka. More than that, you’ll be an ineffective physical DPS because of low Stam. The more content you clear, the better the equipment you can find. Mix and match to get the best results!

Practice Makes Perfect (or Optimal, at least)

There’s a technique players use to boost their damage output further. It’s called Weaving. Light Weaving is intertwining abilities in between the animations for the normal attack. In detail, it’s using a skill to cancel the animation of the strike. If timed right, the game registers both the activated skill and the attack, increasing the damage you can do.

Heavy Weaving is entwining other skills between heavy or charged attacks. It’s somewhat difficult to time compared to Light Weaving, since it takes a heavy toll on your resources if you fail to do it right. Although some heavy attacks do restore some resource, a mistake in Heavy Weaving will turn it into a medium attack. Those do not replenish anything and are slightly weaker than heavy attacks.

As with most techniques, you’ll have to practice this for some time. You’ll need this even if you’re just going exploring, so you can survive and safely hop from place to place. When you decide to go with a party as well, you’ll be able to contribute and not be a deadweight.

Whether you’re a beginner or a total pro, these are still good to know. Whatever you decide to be, we hope you’ll enjoy the Elder Scrolls Online!