leveling

[beluga25]

First, apologies if this has been covered in a lot of other threads and I'm wasting bandwidth or people's time, but I just did a search using "leveling" and some other terms and came up with
a lot of citations for "level 24", "level up", etc. but nothing like I'm trying to figure out.

Searching for other things, I couldn't find them again now, but I ran across comments like
"punished for leveling" and "higher levels being weakened" which I think has to do with the
One Tamriel/Battle-Leveled thing. As a pretty new player--3 weeks or so of on and off
playing, level 35 sort of battle-mage character--I've gotten to a point of kind of wondering
what's the point of leveling?

I've got these nice green weapons, several blue items, and one purple, but killing a mud crab
seems just as annoying/tedious as the day I left Cold Harbour. I mean, shouldn't one swing
or spell do it? But everyone and everything seems to be equal to each other and I never have
any feeling of progression. They say its so you can explore all Tamriel (which I want to do!) but I say it's no fun. I want to earn my exploration and if I get into a high-leveled area too soon and
my butt handed to me, that's on me. But right now, level up doesn't feel like a "happy" moment,
it feels like a stress-inducer because I feel like I have to make exactly the right skill/attribute choices to simply avoid falling behind in the slog rather than having an opportunity to truly advance.

I read your character level doesn't matter, it's the level of your gear. Then why do we even
have character levels? And if it's about gear levels, what does the game intend you to do
about them? I've seen what seem to me like conflicting accounts of the value of and how to
craft/enchant. I did put some skill points into various crafting skills and paid for eso+ so I would be able to store abundant resources for crafting, but all the white stuff the merchants sell when I enchant it still comes out lots weaker than the loot I've gotten from drops or quests. If I try to craft something, it's all level 1. I've found tons of runes but whenever I try making something I get a fail or a glyph way weaker than the ones I've randomly received. And so far, I've found one thing that was researchable so I don't really get the value of that either. So are you just supposed to keep on grinding this crafting stuff and a year or so down the road you'll have enough skills or whatever to make powerful gear? I don't think that's the answer, the answer is I obviously don't understand something here, but what?

I really enjoy the quests/writing/lore in this game, so do I just do them and continue
to slog on with the progression/advancement stuff ( I don't even want to think about
Champion Points/ constellations, etc., lol) or I am too dense to figure it out and the game just
probably isn't for me and I should quit while I'm still ahead?

Any suggestions--or flames!--welcome.

Thanks.

[Naravolian]

Alright, there are some common misconceptions from people trying to over-glorify ESO.

First off, leveling. You level up to get more skill points, attribute points, and once you hit level 50, you level up to reach CP (Chamption Point) 160. That's when items stops leveling, and it becomes ideal for you to collect your endgame gear.
Chamption Points can be used on its' own separate skill tree, which will greatly increase e.g. the damage you deal. The current max is 810, but they increase it every now and then.
(There is for example a CP passive called "Thaumaturge", which can increase the damage of your AoE attacks by up to 25%. That is a LOT).

The item quality (white, green, blue, purple, gold) makes the item more powerful, but that doesn't matter if the item level is lower than your character's level. THAT is WHY one of the most important goals is to get yourself to CP 160.

Levels matter, but they matter LESS than your gear and your skill rotation. Your skill rotation, with proper weaving, makes up for about 50% of the damage you do. However, your damage is still dependent upon CP/levels and gear.
(If you don't know what weaving is, look it up on YouTube. It's essential for all dps characters. Basically though, it's about animation cancelling and how you mix light and/or (partial) heavy attacks with your abilities).

I can for example kill mudcrabs in 1 second, whereas someone without a proper setup will still need two or three hits more. (Remember to weave!!!)

People think that players and enemies scale to each other. This is false. Enemies are all the same levels in the overworld, but there is no scaling other than that. Lower level players are given a larger max resource pool (stamina, magicka and health). This bonus decreases as you level up, and is completely gone by the time you reach level 50. This is to allow lower levels to spam skills a bit more, since they deal much less damage per hit than a higher level player. Don't get me wrong, though, higher levels usually have a larger resource pool than lower levels anyways, thanks to armor sets and food/drink buffs.
People who claim they are being "punished for leveling", either only thinks that more health = stronger character, or they gave up after an hour of gameplay yet decided they were experts on the game.

Never buy equipment from merchants. They're garbage, and was never meant to be used in combat.

The reason you can only craft level 1 items, is most likely because you haven't invested any skill points into crafting. Only people who puts skill points into crafting will be able to make crafted items that are level 50 and CP 160. And yes, it's worth your time, because some pretty good sets are actually crafted sets (Hunding Rage or Law of Julianos just to name a few).
Most of the best gear is still from dungeons, trials or just overworld boss drops/chest drops.
(The same goes for food, potions and glyphs. You'll for example need high quality ingredients to be able to make good glyphs. E.g. Kuta if you want golden glyphs).

You research item traits by finding an item which has a trait that you haven't researched yet. Should be pretty easy to come by, especially if you do dungeons. Traits make up a lot of difference in your stats, so they are worth your time. Certain crafted sets require you to have an X number of traits researched in order to make an item from that set.
For example, Julianos requires you to have 6 traits researched for the item you want to make from that set.

Mundus stones are also very important, so look them up and be sure to activate one you think is good.

The major differences between high and low levels are first noticeable once you enter veteran content (dungeons & trials). A high level player should be able to do anywhere from 25k - 60k dps, whereas lower levels will barely hit 15k dps. (You can/should test this out on a dummy target, which is a housing decoration. If you're in a guild, they probably have one).

Trust me, people who say they haven't noticed any difference between low and high levels haven't played the game properly yet. Running around questing is fun and all, but you can't judge skill levels from overworld mobs.

[beluga25]

Naravolian--

Another really helpful response from you (you answered another of my posts a while
back)--thank you!

There is a lot to digest here (I'm going to print it and read it over 2-3 times) but somehow
the way you explain things seems more understandable than the various guides/threads I've
looked at. Thanks again.

[Naravolian]

Originally posted by beluga25:

Naravolian--

Another really helpful response from you (you answered another of my posts a while
back)--thank you!

There is a lot to digest here (I'm going to print it and read it over 2-3 times) but somehow
the way you explain things seems more understandable than the various guides/threads I've
looked at. Thanks again.

No problem!
Hope you have fun with the game! :)

[b1ngnx33]

wow. you are over thinking this game to hell.

Just play the game. You will figure all that out just by playing the game.

But if you like reading 99 essays instead of actually playing the game go ahead.

Thats how I play BDO. NEVER gonna pay for it. Youtube and reading.

ESO is a good deal imo. Pay once and never pay again. Ever.

Have fun over analyzing every move in eso or life or whatever.