The Elder Scrolls Online has been around for over 6 years now, and the game has changed a lot since then. This can be confusing for returning players. But with our tips and advice, you’ll be able to return optimally.
2021 is once again a great year for ESO fans. With the new chapter Blackwood, the realms of Oblivion finally make a prominent return to the game this summer. Unfortunately, there isn’t a new class, but now you can lead NPC companions into battle, who also have their own story. But when returning to a large MMORPG like ESO after a long absence, confusion can set in. You suddenly find yourself in the world again, with an inventory full of strange items and tons of messages pointing to all sorts of new features.
This can quickly ruin the fun or even prevent you from checking out an old game again. But don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it seems. We from the ESO team at MeinMMO have summarized our experiences in the game along with tips from the community from the German ESO Facebook group as well as the popular ESO streamers Alex0s and MiezeMelli here in a comprehensive returnee guide.
A special thanks to the following community members for your tips and advice:
- Tanja Burri
- Julia Gore
- Yorghan Elkaroon
- Samuel Crow
- Sonja Kolthof
- Bastian Lassdass
Old Hero or New Character?
As a returning player, you already have at least one character that you created earlier. Is it worth playing that character again or is it better to start fresh?
The Benefits of Starting Fresh with a New Character
Reasons to choose a new hero: Unless you already have a powerful character at max level, it would be a good idea to start over with a new hero. ESO thrives on its story and atmosphere, which unfolds especially when you are there from the beginning.
Additionally, this way you will get to know the many new systems and tutorials from the start and can optimally reap the new rewards as you level up. Once you are familiar with the game again, you can always bring out your old hero.
Here are all the advantages of a restart at a glance:
- You get to know the game and the story properly from the beginning
- You won’t be overwhelmed by numerous skills and passive abilities and can reintegrate optimally.
- You can test the new, now changed racial bonuses and save yourself the expensive race change tokens (you received some for free).
- You receive the newly introduced rewards per level, including a mount starting at level 10.
- You can immediately focus on a role like DD, Support, or Tank.
- You can play the new classes of the Warden (introduced with Morrowind in 2017) or the Necromancer (released in 2019 with Elsweyr). There is still no option to change classes.
What You Can Do to Reacquaint Yourself with Your Old Hero
How to get back into your old hero: However, there are certainly some of you who have an old, beloved hero whom you don’t want to give up. In that case, you’ll just find yourself lost in the wilderness and confronted with the following things:
- Your old build and skills have probably become obsolete due to various patches and upgrades. It’s likely that all your skill points have also been reset.
- Your mailbox is probably full of information about past events, so clean it up.
- Make sure to check your notifications for received items. You may have received free stuff while you were away. And what’s better than starting the game with a few gifts?
If you are now no longer satisfied with your hero, you can still change your name, race (much has changed here as well), and appearance for a fee.
Help, what happened to my veteran ranks? Those who were around much earlier and knew the good old veteran ranks will be surprised. Because they are now gone.
Now, when you level up beyond the max level, you instead receive so-called Champion Points (CP). The Champion Points were recently significantly revamped in Update 29. Instead of the previous 9 constellations, there are now only 3, and these provide you with access to passive bonuses, including a higher chance to catch fish or more damage for certain actions.
The respective skills in the constellations give you corresponding bonuses that noticeably accumulate over time.
More Useful Tips for Anyone Returning to Tamriel in 2020
Depending on how long it’s been since you last played ESO, the following advice will make your return easier.
Pay Attention to the Zone Guide and the Class Guide
This is how you find your way around the world again: One of the biggest problems in ESO was that you often got lost in the large areas and could even miss exciting quests.
But finally, in 2019, a solution to this problem came: the Zone Guide. You can find it in the group finder menu or on the left side of the map. There you will see detailed listings of quests, wayshrines, dungeons, crafting stations, and other things to discover in the selected region.
The Zone Guide makes returning and reorienting in ESO much easier and less confusing, so be sure to give it a try.
Get the ESO special magazine, now without shipping costsYou Can Now Play Anywhere with Anyone at Any Time
This is what has changed from the old system: In the past, you could only wander around in your faction’s areas and only play regions that were appropriate for your level. But thankfully, this was changed in 2016 with One Tamriel.
Since then, you can go anywhere you want, regardless of race, alliance, or level. So you can truly play ESO like a typical Elder Scrolls game without a rigid framework that restricts your play style.
And yes, it really doesn’t matter what level you are. The game scales you, your companions, and the enemies to a common level, so theoretically, you can play with complete beginners and absolute veterans as a mid-level hero, and everyone can receive appropriate loot and experience points.
Join Guilds, Including Trade Guilds!
Here’s what guilds offer: In ESO, you can join not just one but up to 5 guilds. It’s best to find a beginner-friendly group that can assist you with questions. The ESO community is still one of the friendliest and most helpful in the MMORPG genre.
Once you have gained a bit of experience, you will surely also get invited to dungeons or even “trials” (that’s what raids are called in ESO). There you can earn special gear that scales optimally due to the aforementioned One Tamriel. So you can comfortably go into instances even before reaching the maximum level.
This is why guilds are essential for crafters: The guild is especially invaluable if you (still) don’t have ESO Plus. Without the crafting bag, your inventory will fill up quickly with resources. You need them for crafting dailies, but you can safely store them in the guild bank. And if you are missing a certain herb or material, your guildmates will surely help you out quickly.
Reasons for Trade Guilds: Trade guilds are especially useful if you find a lot of stuff that you just want to sell. You can utilize the trade system optimally through the trade guild and achieve better prices for your items.
This is the optimal distribution of guild memberships:
- 1 Raid or Dungeon Guild
- 1 Personal Guild (for the guild bank as extra storage, but you need to have 10 members to unlock this)
- 1 Casual Fun Guild, e.g. for roleplay – ESO is actually very suitable for this
- 1 Trade Guild with several different trading locations
- 1 additional guild at your discretion, for example a PvP guild or another trade guild if you want to sell a lot of stuff.
You Can Now Steal and Sell Expensively
This is how thievery works: Since the Thieves Guild addon, you can steal and sell items much better and more effectively. However, you must not be seen. Ideally, you should steal in secluded corners or sneak up from behind unsuspecting NPCs and pick their pockets.
In this manner, you can obtain valuable items that you can sell to special fences in every major city. There are also daily quests for heists in these thief hideouts, which can be quite lucrative. So you can quickly make a lot of money. But be careful not to get caught, as it can get expensive.
Complete Area Quests and Collect Sky Shards
Here’s why you should do this: Especially at the beginning, you should go hunting for sky shards to earn enough skill points. Additionally, always complete the respective area quests, as they also grant skill points.
You will always need them, especially since with Greymoor, the antiques system comes a new skill line for all heroes, for which you will again need new skill points.
On PC, you can find sky shards particularly well with mods and addons. We have linked some especially useful ones for you here. Don’t forget the best mods for the user interface:
Explore Specific Locations for Optimal Crafting
This is why you should go there: Crafters in ESO have to walk a lot. Each craft has its own workbench, and you can only create, dismantle, enhance, and research there. In many cities, the individual crafting stations are often far apart, and you will frequently have to run quite a distance for profitable crafting dailies.
However, luckily there are places where the crafters are closely grouped together. You can craft particularly effectively in:
- Gramfeste in the Deshan region from the base game
- Vivec City in Morrowind
- Knurr’kha in the Khajiit region of the base game.
All of these places have no long walking distances, so the relevant crafting stations are all located in one place, and you can complete your crafting dailies in no time.
There’s Now Housing and It’s Even Free!
Here’s how to get your free house: You currently receive a nice house from the Elsweyr main quest line with unlockable additional rooms. This is the perfect way to get into housing.
If you don’t have access to Elsweyr, you can settle for at least a small room. This is also available for free through a questline that you can get from the Crown Store.
The housing allows you to create your perfect home and fill it with all kinds of knickknacks from your adventures. Additionally, you can place access points to the bank and crafting stations here.
These are house guests: Also cool are the new house guests. These are NPCs that you can place in your house. They will walk along designated paths and make your housing feel more alive.
You Can Now Change Your Item Attributes Under “Personalities”
This is why roleplayers love this feature: For some time now, you can not only use a ton of cool emotes, but you can also change the entire animation set of your hero. You do this by opening the menu where you find your costumes and selecting the “Personalities” tab.
This allows you to become, among other things, the heroic leader, the sly thief, the cold-blooded assassin, or the drunken bum staggering around with a full mug. Personalities are worth their weight in gold, especially for roleplaying. You can obtain them from the Crown Store or as rewards for certain actions and dungeons.
You Can Now Change Item Properties
This is why you no longer need to farm equipment endlessly: Since the “City of Clockwork” DLC was released, you can change your equipment during crafting. So if you like the axe you just looted but want it with a different attribute, you can now easily change it.
Provided you have already researched the respective attribute for the equipment category beforehand. So if you want the axe to be “Precise” instead of “Infused,” you’ll need to have already unlocked the “Infused” attribute for axes via deconstruction. Then you just need the coveted transmutation crystals, which are obtainable through:
- Dailies of the Undaunted
- Raids
- Arenas
- PvP
Thanks to the transmutation system, you no longer have to farm new equipment every time a patch nerfs your previous attributes or if some aspects of the loot don’t suit you.
What it means for set collections: Since the patch around Markarth 2020, there’s the option to rebuild once-found set items with transmutation stones anytime. You won’t have to carry your sets around forever and can safely dismantle and utilize them. If you need them again later, restoring them is no problem.
Consider a Subscription Early On, It’s Worth It
This is why ESO Plus is useful: You can play ESO with all your purchased addons at any time without restrictions. However, if you subscribe to ESO Plus, you get many useful benefits. If you intend to play longer, you should definitely consider at least a monthly subscription. Among other things, you’ll receive the following advantages:
- You get an unlimited bag for crafting materials that would otherwise clutter your inventory
- You can further indulge in housing because there are more placeable objects in the subscription
- You gain more experience and gold
Additionally, you receive a ton of otherwise paid DLCs and addons at no additional cost as long as the subscription is active.
Claim Your Daily Login Reward
This is why you should log in every day: For some time now, ESO offers you a small reward just for showing up each day. Log into the game and claim, for example, an XP booster scroll, tasty buff food, or other useful items for free.
Visit the Stable Master Every Day
This is the benefit of your daily visit to the stable: This simple trick was particularly recommended by the community. Because every 24 hours, you can buy a horse upgrade from the stable master at the local stable. Don’t miss your daily upgrade, as you won’t be able to claim it retroactively.
- Speed: You ride faster
- Carrying capacity: You get an additional inventory slot, the most useful upgrade.
- Stamina: Your horse consumes less stamina when sprinting and you will be thrown off less frequently.
Play ESO at a Relaxed Pace, Don’t Rush Through the Content
This is why relaxation is important: This tip has also been mentioned frequently in the community. Because you should definitely enjoy ESO without pressure and stress. The game never forces you to reach a specific level quickly or to complete a certain quest line.
Rather, the vast world of Tamriel invites you to explore thoroughly. So don’t just run straight to the quest, but take detours, explore new areas, and occasionally do a small instance through the dungeon finder or the guild.
Even the developers largely play their own game this way and recommend this approach just as we do here at MeinMMO and as the ESO community does.
