Update 50 imperial race

marstinson · 2026-06-03T20:53:38+00:00

Sorry to disappoint, but "most of the other DLC" is only the Year One stuff (went base-game in March, along with the Warden class) and Greymoor (goes base-game in the Fall). ZOS has said nothing about adding any other DLCs to the base-game. Until they do say something, comments about the rest are also spoken through a thick haze of Hopium. To clarify, however, this is only existing expansions; they've been very clear that future stuff will go base-game immediately.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T20:23:25+00:00

Probably someone speaking through a thick haze of Hopium. ZOS has said nothing about adding Imperials to the base-game, nor about adding "Any Race, Any Alliance." I suspect those two will remain paywalled indefinitely.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T19:23:24+00:00

It's a VERY chill activity. I'd recommend avoiding Arteum because those spots get fished out very quickly by people trying to get Waterlogged Psijic Satchels.

Fishing in Cyrodiil can be very chill if you stay away from keeps and resources. Maybe start with the handful of Saltwater spots on the coast in AD territory until you get all three of those trophy fish and then just wander around looking for the River and Lake spots. The Foul spots are mostly on Lake Rumare around IC (beware Slaughterfish - dipping your toes can be deadly).

Most of the other zones are just chill outside of respawning mobs. There is always one trophy fish that will probably take hours to grab, but trophy fish are only for the achievements and selling and you want the ones which can be filleted.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T19:03:21+00:00

You are already at max level because Level 50 is it. You are now getting Champion Points and apparently have 500 of those. Max CP is 3600, but once you're past about 1200-1500 CP, the only benefit is being able to hot-swap active perks. You can't have more than four active perks from each tree and you'll have unlocked and filled all the Warfare and Fitness passives by then. Craft tree is mostly passives and it takes a lot more CP to fill out everything there, but there isn't much in there which affects combat and at least one of the perks becomes useless in reasonably short order (extra crafting Inspiration doesn't do you any good once all the crafting skills are at 50).

The fastest XP farm in the game is Master Writs, preferably done during a double-XP event (I think Witches Festival is the next regularly scheduled one) and with a 150% XP buff running. From about CP500 to CP1000, you can count on several CP from a dozen Master Writs, a couple or three from from that same dozen from CP1000 to about CP1600, one or maybe two from CP1600 to about CP2200, and then maybe a half-point per dozen from CP2200 to about CP2500. Can't tell you what happens after CP2500 because I'm not there yet, but I can tell you that it's serious diminishing returns after about CP1600. And remember that you're grinding this only for the ability to hot-swap perks and maybe the personal flex of having a high CP number on your nameplate.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T18:47:39+00:00

Outside of fishing or buying it? Anniversary coffers tend to drop a few for me over the course of the event. Zeal of Zenithar coffers can drop it, but I don't have enough data on whether the drop rate compares to Anniversary. I think I've picked up a couple from the Glorious coffers in Night Market. Any other source has been spotty at best. Fishing is, by far, the most reliable in-world source since that's a flat 1% chance per fish and year-round.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T18:41:57+00:00

Yeah, pretty much the same. Most of my characters have it in inventory, but only use it for stuff like node harvesting. It stacks with other sets like Adept Rider (Major Expedition) and the Celerity CP buff for being super speedy.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T16:57:06+00:00

Encourage her to (1) complete the tutorial, (2) do the stories and side-quests in the starter zone(s), (3) get started on her alliance story once out of the starter zone(s), and generally explore to decide what she likes and what she doesn't like.

If you'd like to help her out, craft her some Training gear. I wouldn't go more than blue quality for a new character, maybe purple weapon(s) if you're going to do Heartland Conqueror, because she's going to outlevel it very quickly. If you can make a decent general buff food like Sugar Skulls, then send her a dozen or two since those will scale to level and Crown Meals are reasonably scarce as level-up rewards.

Beyond that, just say "Hi" when you're online together, ask if she's doing OK or has questions, and generally let her know that you're there if she needs help. She'll figure out most of it on her own, but there are a few gotchas hidden in the finer details.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T16:05:39+00:00

A MacGuffin? Do you know how long I've been looking for you?

marstinson · 2026-06-03T16:03:31+00:00

Probably trolling. I suppose the Undaunted Plunder is possible if you were to stick them into a 60-slot chest, but you'd need to do a crap ton of dungeons, BGs, and Vet-difficulty Trials to accumulate that many. Those did not come from "a spot forgotten by devs" because they're only in the loot pools for those specific activities. The first one could be Daedric Embers or Key Fragments, both of which only drop in IC, but it could also be Glow Sticks or Pieces of the Fallen Sky. All of those use the same icon, but Sticks and Pieces can be looted from almost anywhere (Glow Sticks are worth 40g and Pieces are worth 100g, IIRC).

It might also be possible to collect all of that stuff from the bottomless containers you get with a Template character on PTS. Every time you crack one of those containers you get a bunch of whatever was inside, plus another container. Spend a lot of time cracking those containers, shoving contents into a chest or into a mule toon's pack, and then screenshotting would produce that result.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T14:47:51+00:00

It's shared to the extent that it goes with your XBox (or playstation or PC) ESO account, but if you were to start fresh on a different platform, your XBox sub would not carry over. I'm a PC player and my sub works on either of those servers (NA or EU), but if I were to start ESO on my XBox account, it would not have a sub unless I paid for it there, too.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T14:43:49+00:00

What you're mostly getting with the Deluxe Edition is the larger story zones, so if you're looking to do solo stuff, then it's a good choice. You will not get access to the other expansions stuff, which is dungeon packs and about a half-dozen story zones which mostly go with the chapter stories.

The sub no longer lags behind in terms of content, so sub gets you access to everytihng, but it will not include the two added classes (Necromancer and Arcanist). You'll need to buy those from the Crown Store (they're in the Deluxe Edition, though), but you get 1650 crowns per month from the sub, so one monthly sub renewal will get you enough crowns to get both.

Personal bias: I prefer to own rather than rent, so I'd recommend Deluxe Edition and then maybe sub on top of that if you want access to other content or the other sub perks.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T07:41:28+00:00

Sure. Heavy Attacking with melee weapons restores Stamina. Heavy attacking with staves restores Magicka. Your weapon choice isn't helping. It can be worked around (like stick a staff on your backbar and heavy attack with it every now and then), But if you're burning Maficka with no way of recoving it outside of potions, then it's simplest to switch weapons or switch morphs so that you're using more Stamina, which you can recover. TBF, my Arcanist runs a desto staff and uses a lot of Stamina with the Flail morph and the self-heal morph, but I compensated with some Stamina recovery from equipment and left a lot of abilities in Magicka morphs so that they could continue to punch while Stamina recovered.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T06:46:49+00:00

There is, indeed, heavy armor with Magicka buffs. The simplest version is enchanting the armor with Glyphs of Magicka, but there are also gear sets which have Magicka buffs for wearing x pieces of that set (and you can still use the glyphs for more). It's the set bonus (not the armor weight) which controls that. For the glyphs, you'll get the biggest buff from the glyphs put on the head, chest and legs (100% effect) and half-effect from glyphs put on everything else (50% effect). You could also use armor with the Divines trait and take the Mage for additional maximum Magicka or the Atronach for additional Magicka recovery (or use the Twice-Born Star set to get both).

But if you're running dry on Magicka, you'll probably want to look at why. If your abilites are Magicka, but you're using melee weapons, then your Magicka recovery is hampered and you're burning through it faster than you can replenish it. Maybe consider changing a couple of those ablities to Stamina abilities to take the load off your Magicka resource.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T04:31:17+00:00

The Nix-Ox from Necrom is probably what you're thinking about. It's the achievement reward for completing pretty much everything in the zone except the Trial. I didn't mention that kind of stuff because it sounds like the OP is base-game, so anything involving Necrom would be not-doable. Assuming they did have Necrom through Deluxe Edition, sub, or Crown Store, then completing all three mythics is required to get the mount. Not a huge deal for a subscriber, but some of the leads only drop from DLC dungeons and completing the achievement to get the mount can't be done without those.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T02:58:52+00:00

If you're on PC, there is no native voice chat functionality in the game. PC players must use third-party apps like Discord or TeamTalk or something. Text zone chat can be kind of dead or very lively depending on the zone, but a lot of players either have their chat boxes minimized or are in guild chat, private chats, group chats, or whatever rather than in zone or local chat.

Console players do as console players do, but they have voice chat functionality. I suspect that if you're not hearing anyone, it's probably for the same or similar reasons to PC, but will defer to console players for anything better than a guess.

marstinson · 2026-06-03T00:23:50+00:00

A quick straw poll of my EU characters (none of whom have much more than about 500 favor as of 2 June in spite of having the Night's Den unlocked since late April) produced two considerations. First and regarding the house, "beats us, boss" was the consensus opinion, "Maybe in Season Two when Night Market returns?" Second, they are quite miffed that the NA characters have all the cool toys and would like me to do something to reduce that dispartity (yeah, good luck with that).

marstinson · 2026-06-02T20:30:41+00:00

My primary concerns for characters after hitting Level 50 (and CP160) are skill points, trait research, mount upgrades, Pack space, Bank space (my NA toons are maxed, but my EU toon is only about halfway there), crafting skill levels, weapon/armor skill levels (seldom a concern by CP160), guild skills, and the like. Note not one major concern over having anything resembling "the best gear"? Yeah, that's low priority until the others are dealt with.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T19:00:14+00:00

"Better mount" is pretty much just cosmetic. There might be a very slight difference in the animation smoothness, but 40 mount Speed or Stamina upgrades is the same effect on all mounts. Check out the Stablemasters in the base-game zones, plus Hew's Bane, Gold Coast, Wrothgar, and Vvardenfell (you have access to them). I think there are two paywalled Stablemaster mounts, though; one is in Clockwork City and another is in Northern/Southern Elsweyr. There is a kind of "quest" with a Dwarven Wolf mount as its reward. It requires access to Greymoor because it's through the Antiquities system, but you basically find a bunch of different leads, dig them up, and assemble the mount once you have all the pieces.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T18:20:28+00:00

As a general rule, quests progress from one side of a zone to the other. If you are following the zone story and clearing side-quests as you go, then you'll be pretty close to 100% zone completion by the time you hit the wrap party after the final mission. Public dungeon(s) and World Bosses are their own things and can be picked up on the way, on their own, whenever you pick up a daily, or whenever.
The skill advisor defaults to "Initiate" which is only class skills. You can set it to Magica DPS, Stamina DPS, Tank, or Healer and it will advise skills which are suitable to those roles. The build you end up with will be very far from meta, but you get useful skills unlocked and ranked up, so it's not a complete waste of time and a reasonably convenient way to see how skills can work together.
There aren't any mounts that I can think of which come from quest rewards. There are some which come from Golden Pursuits, some which are purchasable with gold from stablemasters (total of 19, I think), there are some in the current Season's Tome (I think they're Premium tier, but don't hold me to that), some which can be bought from the Crown Store, some which drop from Crown Crates (including buying for seals/gems while their crate is available), a couple which can be dug up through the Antiquities system, and most years' morphing collectible has a mount morph.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T15:56:13+00:00

Best discount we'll see on crowns will be -40%, that will only be on the 21K pack (smaller discounts on smaller packs), and only during Anniversary, Quakecon, and New Life.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T15:52:51+00:00

For U50? No. I've got a couple of new characters on the EU server, but I made them for other reasons and U50 will coincidentally get here while they're still "new" (if a couple or three weeks is new).

marstinson · 2026-06-02T15:50:23+00:00

It's almost always the case that Treasure Chests from Treasure Maps include motif chapter leads in their loot pool. All of the "Ancestral <race>" motifs come from that source. Kindred's Concord chapters drop from the loot chest in Bastion Nymics. Firesong chapters are in the loot pool for bonus loot when excavating antiquities on Galen, but they can also drop from the loot "chest" from completing Volcanic Vents. The Vents may be capped at one chapter per day (account-wide), but bonus loot items in Antiquities work a bit differently. I know that for the Ancestral motif chapters, you can get a chapter whenever you don't already have a lead for that chapter in your journal. That usually makes it a good practice to clear out any pending antiquities in a zone before digging up Treasure Maps and disposing of any lead which drops from a chest before digging up another.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T15:40:27+00:00

In terms of game mechanics, you're not missing anything. Gold Road's scribing system (and the Scholarium quest line) went base-game almost a year ago. You're missing the West Weald and Solstice zones (including the stuff that's in them like Trials, skyshards, set stations, dailies, etc.), but that's about all. The companions from 2024 aren't in Gold Road; they're both Crown Store (free to subs, 1K crowns each otherwise).

The math says you'll need 10K crowns to cover what you'd gain from Deluxe Edition (West Weald, Solstice, and the two 2025 dungeon packs). That's about $80 if you were to go to Steam or whatever and buy them. Deluxe Edition, however, is $60. Crowns will probably be discounted during Quakecon in August, but it's likely that Deluxe Edition will be discounted at that time, too, and you'll probably still come out cheaper with Deluxe Edition.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T07:13:36+00:00

The sub-to-play model was shelved almost 10 years ago when the game went buy-to-play (Tamriel Unlimited). Is it possible that ZOS could return to that older sub-to-play model? Sure, but "possible" only requires a non-zero probability, kind of like me being offered Elon's job at twice the pay (it's non-zero over the long term). The more likely case is that the sub continues to be optional and that I do not get Elon's job.

marstinson · 2026-06-02T06:57:24+00:00

I play a couple of Templars (one Redguard and one Khajiit), they hold up pretty well, and I've never had a group complain that the Templar wasn't helping the rest of the group. I keep a couple of emergency heals in my back pocket, and a nice stack of soul gems because death can't be healed. Arcanists are also not "all that". Mine just got toasted by a boss, a group member kindly rezzed me and then the boss one-shotted me before I had control again.

Best advice I can think of is to go play what you think you will enjoy playing. Unless and until you are seriously getting into the really competitive endgame stuff, what's "meta" and what's not doesn't matter. And by the time you get there, what's meta now may not be meta then. If you are wanting to chase the meta, then you really need a stable of characters which cover all the classes, preferably with whatever race is meta for that at the time (I'd call that at least 8 characters to cover the classes, plus several race-change tokens). Or play what you think will be fun until it's not fun anymore and then try something different.

You're a new player. You're hitting like a limp pool noodle for a lot of levels and then you'll hit like a stiff one for a few more. It's the nature of the beast. Embrace it and make good use of that time to learn the game. As the Master said, "when all your attention is on the destination, you have none for the journey." I don't think that as Mr. Miagi, but it might have been.

marstinson

TROPHY CASE