I think the class and combat style make a difference in a character's needs too. Melee is going to need more hit points than ranged; and like Acadian pointed out = Sorcs and Templars have no need of the health because they can produce their own.

I've been putting a lot of stamina on my three builds lately.

Mazul and Julian both have some health stats (I'll have to look them up later tonight), so they're a bit tougher in a melee. But both are quite weak when up against sorcs, so that's something that will have to change.

For Mazul, getting that new set of armor with the high HP really made a difference in her confrontation with the Shield Wives. She was also able to survive Forge Mother Alga.

After completing the Orsinium quest line, I have a greater appreciation of the role of women in Orc culture. Without them, the men are nothing. Nothing.

I've been reading a lot about the health vs stamina for melee. I think the best one out there supports putting a lot of health into a melee tank, and a lot of stamina into a DPS style melee (like Nightblade dual wield, for example). Heavy armor builds should have high attribute points into their health bar, while stamina builds should go for medium armor. In summary, use the armor and its enchantments to cover your weakest attribute.

Stamina Templar Jerric has all of his points in Stamina. He relies on food, enchantments, heavy armor, his own skill-line buffs, and set bonuses to be able to survive on his own at melee range. The plan is to make a full set of medium/DPS gear so that he can tackle the group content, since he will not make it in those fights without a healer. However it concerns me that all of the massive damage dealers I see are staff-wielding mages. Hopefully his ranged Templar spells will make up the difference against those bosses where you really have to stay at range.

The problem I had with some points in health was that he could stay on his feet for a long time, but using One-Handed and Shield he couldn't do damage fast enough. He would eventually run out of all bars and just get overwhelmed.

My pure Stamina Sorcerers have done well with melee if they're wearing some heavy pieces since they have a good self-heal through the clannfear. My Stamina Nightblades have to not get hit. Too soon to tell with my Orsimer melee Stam Dragonknight. I suspect she will also rely on heavy armor until she gets through her solo content and can respect with some health.

Quick question, and purely hypothetical of course, but does the PC version of ESO have good gamepad support? (such as Xbox or Playstation controllers).

I know that it has it, but just wanted to know if any of my trusted Chorrol comrades have tested it for themselves.

An excellent question. I don't know yet. I have a wired Xbox controller to try it out, but it's put away somewhere in a box labeled Things With Cords. We have a lot of those boxes. It could be awhile before I find it.

Yes. Press "Escape," on the list that pops up choose "Controls." From that menu you can change the binding keys for any action, and even set some actions to be toggled that are set to off by default (such as walk instead of run; auto-run/walk (which I think is normally "Num Lock") - and also set toggle keys up to access your add-on menus.

I have set up the "Num Lock" to auto walk so I use my left hand less; it automatically stops walking if you activate something or draw your weapon. I have the number "7" on my numeric pad set to toggle between walk and run; and the numbers "9" and "3" to toggle up my "Trait Buddy" and "Recipe List" add-ons respectively.

I can't remember; but may have exchanged the space bar and "E" key functions to swap them out.

I am also pretty sure Acadian changed his left hand keys to something else as well; whatever he was used to in Skyrim.






Oh wait, XBox controllers? Not sure. I haven't tried that yet. I thought you meant the ability to reset the key coding to your own taste.

No problem. As always, most of the threads that I find about the topic are from last year when gamepad support was first introduced, with most people saying that it wasn't working properly at the time.

It's likely one of those things that works best by testing it myself. Hmmm.

Yes, yes, you should definitely test it yourself!!!

RE: PC Gampepad support
Khajiit has played with it. It changes the UI a lot but it makes your main hotbuttons very convenient to reach. This one prefers the mouse and keyboard for this game, though he really needs to test the gamepad more.

Thanks Cheshire. What's the sensitivity like with the gamepad? That seems to be the biggest complaint I'm hearing, but I'm not sure if people mean that the sensitivity is actually bad or just that it's not as good as a mouse (which it obviously won't be).

Well, it was a little stiff on its default setting for Khajiit's taste, so he had to bump it up a touch and then it was fine.

So what does "disease damage" do? Mira made a glyph last night that has this as an effect.

Disease Damage:

Disease Damage comes from Weapon Enchants and and also from a number of Nightblade ability morphs. Disease Damage has the chance to proc the Diseased Status Effect which reduces the healing received by the target by 15% for 10 seconds. Disease Damage is mitigated with Armor (Physical Resistance).


In Player vs Player, Disease Damage is excellent gorilla warfare because it keeps the "enemy" players from being able to heal themselves and most players enchant their jewelry to make them immune to fire/ice/shock for spells that can be cast on them; but they rarely wear jewelry to make them immune to disease, so it is almost always irresistible damage. (or used to be, seems now they have made it blockable by a physical resistance enchant)


Here is a page that goes into detail about the kinds of damage you can use against enemies in both the environment and player:


http://esoacademy.com/faq/what-are-types-of-damage/

Oooh ok, Khajiit gets it now. Thanks for the info!

Ugh, Khajiit tried playing just now but the server is laggy as cub over-full on milk.

Sometimes logging out and logging back in well get you a different instance that is less over-full.

They say they are presently fixing whatever they patch-broke that caused the connection and performance issues (PC).

Wanted to play before work yesterday.

No dice. Server was down until 12:45, by which time I was just pulling into the parking lot at my work.

Damn.

Came home about 11 pm last night, did a little mats hunting with Alise around Davon's Watch (we did find the location of the Harborage, then found it again to fix its location in our minds), killed a few hostile critters and some remaining Covenant troops down on the beach, then came back to Davon's Watch to get another riding lesson, finish the last writ and to start some new research.

I don't know why but Alise wants to research traits across all the crafting lines, not just wood.working and light armor. She also wanted to get certified in all six crafts. I said okay . . .

Julian just did some riding lessons last night. She's about ten days away from finishing the horse encumbrance lessons. Then she'll move on to speed.

Mazul also did riding lessons. She is just a day behind Julian on the encumbrance lessons. She is not sure about speed or stamina, she prefers to walk. She has been riding Paint when adventuring with Gray and Bear, but her behind doesn't like it. She did finish research on a couple of pieces, so she started a couple more, but they are taking a couple days each.

I promised myself that I would have a couple of hours this morning with my gang before I took my mom to her low vision specialist appointment, but no. NA server is down. Again.

Damn. Damn.

Alise has a good idea. On the PS4 I made the mistake of giving one equipment craft each to three characters. Now instead of finding one motif book or chapter to get a set in a particular style, I have to find two or even three of them. I've taken steps to fix that by having one character start studying traits across all craft skills, but it will be a long time (and a fourth set of rare motif books!!) before I get to where I would have been if I started out with one equipment crafter.

That's why in my PC crew, Elke of Green River is doing all of the equipment crafting. Whew!


I hope you get some time to play tonight!

Yes, my initial-stage plan was to have Mazul do all the equipment crafting, and Julian do the Consumables. Both are certified in the equipment, I can't recall if Maz can do the Consumable writs or not as well. She is not interested in that at all.

But she did learn woodworking and clothing as well, since she is the only one who can craft the medium armor at Julian's level. Her dream is to someday be the armorer for the entire crew across three alliances. Blacksmithing is her first love (spoken like a true forge-wife), but she enjoys crafting in all materials.

Julian is Master Provisioner, as I mentioned before, but she also does Enchanting and Alchemy for the same reasons - she is the only one with the skill to enchant Mazul's crafted equipment.

But ultimately I hope to have each character (I have six planned out, though I have no idea who the sixth one will be) concentrate and become master of one craft while being conversant in the other lines.

I think my Saxhleel trait researcher Stays-Up-Late will make the move to the PC (meaning be re-created there) so he can help Elke with her inventory management. Elke is not super-organized but she loves the work, while Stays likes to categorize and meditate on the nature of things, preferably while lying down in the sun. Actual crafting is bad for his beautiful claws. Plus he never got along with Darnand.

Both teams could use a merchant. Not the NPC, but a teammate to hold on to things that they might sell or might want later. When my PS4 guild asked for auction donations it took me forever to dig through everyone's stuff for the items that didn't quite suit but were too good to just deconstruct or sell (purple gear mostly). Plus whenever someone wants to go shopping they have to hit the bank first. The merchant could have a decent stash of pocket money and just go get what's wanted. Hmm.

Agreed on one person doing all the equipment crafting. I mean, the regular motifs are easy to come by; but the specialized ones like Dwemer, Primal, etc - especially ones that have 14 different motifs to learn and cost thousands in the Guild Stores to buy - don't want to have to be repeating that process several times!

The only thing about that is - do you want whoever you have doing your major equipment crafting to have access to the specialized forges; (like if you want to make Soul Shriven, or the Fighters and Mages Guild's forges).

(Meaning they would have to go out adventuring first before becoming a crafter; to get access to these).

And as for Provisioning = since One Tamriel; the only items you will have access to in loot will be stuff at the skill level of the character out there looting. So high level recipes will have to be bought unless your character has the strength to adventure and find those recipes. (unless you can afford to buy them in the Guild Stores).

I made the mistake of respec'ing Bubba too early into a Master Crafter. He can make master level recipes, but doesn't know any! He has to either buy them or go out in the world to get them; which he is too weak to do. And he can't access Soul Shriven, meaning I have to get him past Molag Bal somehow when he has trouble passing a mudcrab.

So in the end, not sure if Misa will end up having to take over the crafting, since she has access to all these things already. But I'm not respec'ing her to crafting till I've finished everything she can enjoy doing, because I already found out through Bubba how weak it will make her.

That is an excellent point about the questline locations, mALX!

I had forgotten about Soul Shriven and the Coldharbour sets. Is Soul Shriven a reward motif given directly to the character, or a book that can be passed through the bank to another character on the same account? For some reason I thought it was a costume.

Soul Shriven is a quest reward from doing Cadwell's Silver that is bound on giving = can't be passed amongst characters or put in the bank. (unfortunately, because it is my favorite swords in game; and after passing Molag Bal once with Misa = not anxious to do that fight with another character - especially a weaker one, lol).

But yeah, Bubba has to go through all that now, or I can decide to make Misa my major crafter.

I don't think Alchemy matters, haven't seen any thing it offers different by sinking skill points into it, so actually any character can take on the Alchemy; it doesn't have to be the same one that is doing the rest.

Enchanting may be the same; I really don't know if you find different runes after you sink skill points into Enchanting, does anyone know? I haven't really noticed that because all my characters have level 50 in enchanting, but only Misa and Bubba have skill points sunk into it. I really haven't noticed if Calia or Mia bring in different stones than Misa or Bubba.

But Provisioning Writs = Bubba is bringing in rare provisioning ingredients that I've never seen or heard of till he spent the skill points in provisioning. He brought in some Atherial Dust as a writ reward that sold for 97,000 for one piece!

So maybe one questing adventurer can become the crafter for Equipment and Provisioning; and the Alchemy and Enchanting can be stuck on just any character?

97,000 for one unit of an ingredient?!

Wow, you got some gold dust as a writ reward?! That is fantastic!

OK, thanks for the info on Soul Shriven. I'll turn Elke loose on her questlines first and then plan to respec once everyone else starts leveling up and needing her services. She is a sorc, so hopefully she'll do OK.

Darnand is doing top-tier Enchanting writs and sometimes gets Kuta runes in the reward. But Lleduri (on the PC) is doing tier one Enchanting writs and also just got a Kuta rune in a reward. So I have no idea. The reward glyphs seem to be the same level as the writ that they do, but I can't be sure because Darnand's skill rank and character level are both at the top bracket. Everyone else is at rank one and gets Trifling glyphs regardless of their character level. So probably, lol.

Yes, and it sold in just a day after posting it. And I actually priced it lower than what I found in the guild stores, most were asking upwards of 100,000 gold for one piece of it.






Same here on the writ rewards for enchanting. Everyone else gets a trifling glyph and an empty soul gem. Bubba and Misa get Superb glyphs and a kuta.

(Kuta = I've sold about 40 Kutas in the past two weeks for 4,730 gold per each - saving up for my house in February, lol).

Not surprising, that Aetherial Dust is pretty rare!

Selling it is the best option, unless you have all the other ingredients.

If this one was to take a screeny of Mira wearing her armor, would someone here be able to identify what style the cuirass is?

I can only tell if you link it so my game can scan it. I mean, some of the early sets are easy to tell; like Argonian/Bosmer/Redguard. But beyond those three - I can't tell by sight.

Hmmm ok

If no one here can identify it, try looking through the ESO Fashion site: LINK.

If it is from a named set you can check the lists, they have the motifs listed somewhere.

We could certainly try

Grits's link there is really handy too.

Ok, let's try it:


It's an iron cuirass of some sort but Khajiit is not sure of the style. He really likes it though!

Wow that's nice, and Mira looks great!

I have no idea. It looks Nordish with the fur trim and round medal, but I've never seen gold-colored iron with sleeves like that. How improved is it, meaning white, green, blue, etc? I wonder if that changes the appearance significantly.

Hmmm not sure. This one will have to check it when he is on next. Khajiit didn't do anything to it so if it was improved, it came that way. Ordinary Nord iron armor looks like chainmail.

Yep, that's Nord style armour, crafted using Calcinium or another higher tier material. Not sure why it would say it's iron, unless it's part of a set or something. How strange.

Yep, you're right. After some research (using the link Grits provided), Khajiit can concur that is the Nord style normally reserved for upper tier gear. This one will check the next time he is on to see if it is indeed just plain ol' iron.

Oh, she is gorgeous!!! What level the armor is makes a difference in the appearance too; and glad you let us know it was heavy armor. I think the Nordish armor has the fur trim like that.

Grits - Yes, improving armor does change the appearance of it.


This is probably part of a set to have those leaves inset; one of my bank mules has armor like that from Lamae.

Thanks! There is another shot of her without all of the hardware on the ES:O Screenshot Thread if you care to have a looksy!

So, do we ever learn the circumstances behind our death? Like were we captured while fighting or what?

We aren't dead! Our souls were taken by Molag Bal (because souls generate power) - along with hundreds of thousands of other souls. (one of the things I like about this game = you are not "the chosen one," and the only reason you are given any importance whatsoever is because - without a soul, you can bypass more barriers than someone with a soul; and have nothing to lose going places where your soul would be forfeit.

Hunh. Khajiit could've sworn Lyris Titan-born said we were dead.

All I've heard is that we were sacrificed personally by Mannimarco in some kind of mass ritual. Our original bodies are dead somewhere, possibly the toys of necromancers. I find it easy to ignore all of this and bend the game's world to my storyline.

Oh, okay; the dialogue from Lyris does say dead, but the prophet and everything else kind of points to a living dead = like a husk or shell that will eventually turn into those zombie-type things you see in Coldharbour:

"I died, but that was only the beginning...
I awoke in Oblivion. My body is intact, but my soul has been torn from my body."
— The Soul-less One


Lyris: A man named Mannimarco. His Worm Cult is doing some kind of ritual back in Tamriel. They sacrificed you, and everyone in this prison, to the Daedric Prince Molag Bal. After you died, whatever was left showed up here. They call you the Soul Shriven.


Player: Vestige?
Prophet: That is the name I have given you. You are but a trace of your former self. A Soul-less one. An empty vessel that longs to be filled. It is as the Scrolls foretold, but not exactly as I imagined.


And then here is the Wiki description on Soul-Shriven:



So technically, I think we escaped Coldharbour after our soul was taken, but before he was able to turn us into one of those zombies you see up there.


According to the Wiki, this is what our lives would have been had we not escaped:

Yikes!

I'm using an Xbox360 controller for my PC game now, and so far it works great. Poor Elke has been my test subject. I've gotten her killed by the guards once. The only issue is that I can't find a good place for the chat box. It blocks the loot text in its lower left spot, and moving it to lower right makes it zoom across the screen from the left bar every time it maximizes. If I can figure out how to move the little bar all the way right, I'll be in business.

Best thing is the keyboard still works for text entry and keyboard shortcuts. *happy dance*

Yeah, Khajiit was fairly happy with it. The special moves buttons are very easy to reach on the game pad and is easier for this one to manage than the number buttons on the top of the keyboard.

I was having the same issue using an Xbox One controller, so I just minimized the chat box since I don't use it anyway.

I like the way the UI changes when you use a gamepad - it's exactly the same as it was on Xbox so everything is familiar for me.

Most people have the loot text in the lower right; maybe move it instead of the chat box. (to eliminate it zooming across the screen to get to the right)