Yesterday i mentioned being level 25 with Nuria Solstrum in Elder Scrolls Online. One thing that’s becoming clear right now is that i can hit level 26- the recommended level for continuing in the main story as well as guild quests, easily and a good while before finishing all there is to do in Grahtwood. Elder Scrolls Online is designed to give huge amounts of questing content and it doesn’t fail here.
After researching a bit, i’ve found that there are many players facing the problem of outlevelling content in Elder Scrolls Online. It’s an easy thing to do if you go into dungeons, pvp a bit, take a look at the new DLCs and so on. There are a few suggestions out there on how to deal with that, but they didn’t fit me- the most detailled suggestion was nice enough, but disregarded questing more or less completely.
So into the game i went, to take a look at the achievements and see if they’d provide guidance. I think they do, so i’ll just formulate my own suggestion here and see if it works out in the end- it’s just an idea, basically, and has yet to prove itself. But it’s the way i’m going to approach it.
Preamble
I won’t be chasing each and every quest in a zone, but i also like progress, so i won’t try and stop me from gaining experience or levels. And i respect the variety of content ESO offers- while it’s still mostly combat-based, there are quite a few ways to spend some quality time in ESO: ranging from Delves, Dolmen, Dungeons, Questing, World Bosses, PvP up to the newer DLC. As a sidenote: actually, that’s another reason to look forward to the Thieves Guild DLC- while all the sneaking and stealing usually isn’t my style, it offers something different, at least.
Anyway, i’m going to try and keep variety and freedom in how to approach each zone in ESO. Another thing that should be mentioned: once you get into the Veteran Ranks, you’ll be able to do old quests for Champion Points- so you can still do everything and get some reward later on, even when- if i understand correctly- your alliance’s questing maps won’t be scaled to VR. I think this is a nice thing to keep in mind- even if you’re a completionist, you can return later with two benefits: first, you’ll revisit outlevelled zones, which is a nice thing. And you’ll even get rewarded for doing so.
So this will be the way i’ll try to move through the zones and even “complete” them to an extent while hopefully not outlevelling the zones by much even when diving into DLC from time to time.
Questing
I’ll keep with the quest flow. In Grahtwood, i did the quests in order of the recommended level, but i think i’ll change that up in the next zone and do level-appropriate quests when some of them turn green. My hope is that this way, i’ll see most of the zone i’m questing in at any given moment, which is important regarding the later points in my plan as well as gathering resources and might be good in terms of variety. Also, of course you should do guild quests and main storyline quests as soon as you can get them/reached the corresponding level. In addition, i’ll do the Dolmen if/when they pop up. I’ll stop questing in a zone when i’ve earned the corresponding achievement.
As you can see, right now i still need to complete 4 quests in Grahtwood to get the Achievement. It is very likely that i’d get to level 26 by doing those remaining quests. But as i said, this is not intended to stop outlevelling altogether but to keep it in check, at least.
I’d also try and finish quests that reward skill points, but it’s actually surprisingly difficult to find a list sorted by location. I think Cadwell’s Almanac covers most of them, but there’s might be others.
Exploration
In the exploration area, i’ll make sure to visit all striking locales- they’re marked as “eyes” on your map.
Next up will be all the caves (torches on your map).
Finishing those achievements will grant you a nice meta-achievement and a dye.
Character
When all this is done, i’ll go and look for the missing Skyshards. Regarding Skyshards, in general, i take the following approach:
- first, i’ll keep an eye out for them while questing and finishing up the other achievements from above
- then, i’ll look into the corresponding achievement tab- there are hints to the locations of the skyshards. I’ll try and decipher them
- if i still can’t find them, i’ll simply look them up in the internet
I know there are addons for all this kind of stuff- but using them would rob me of the enjoyment of exploring in ESO- and this is one of the best MMORPGs for exploration out there- i’d even call it the best.
Conclusion
Will it work? I don’t know, really. But i think it’ll help me decide on when to move from one zone to the next while also keeping all options open- i’ve put them in this order because chances are you’ll find striking locales, caves and skyshards while questing. You might find skyshards in caves and so on, so it is somewhat efficient. I’ll soon subscribe to ESO and gain +10% XP, so the problem might get worse. If i see it failing, the quest achievement will be the first i’ll drop- i can get back to that later on and treat them as longterm goals, but i will have my dyes and skill points!
Party Business 