Questions from a possible new player

Alverant

I got ESO last year on a Steam sale for $10 and haven't installed it yet. Right now, I'm getting a little tired of my current MMO and thought I'd fire this up and see how it is. I played a little bit of Skyrim a few years ago but didn't have much of an idea what I was doing. I played some of STO, NW, WildStar, and I'll include WoW for the sake of being complete but it wasn't long and it was years ago. My current MMO is City of Heroes Homecoming but I've done the content often enough that it's feeling stale. If I play ESO I'm pretty much going in a total newbie. Until I determine if I'll keep playing, I don't want to spend more money on it. So I'm wondering:

Which ESO server is RP and PVE? How newbie-friendly is it?
Which race/class is best for a beginner who will likely be soloing for a while?
What can I expect when I play (yes, this is an open-ended question, sorry)?
Any suggestions for someone starting out?

I'm willing to leave my comfort zone a bit so don't take my past games as a deciding factor in whether or not I'd like ESO. I stopped playing those games for a reason. Thank you in advance.

Sovrath

Alverant said:

I got ESO last year on a Steam sale for $10 and haven't installed it yet. Right now, I'm getting a little tired of my current MMO and thought I'd fire this up and see how it is. I played a little bit of Skyrim a few years ago but didn't have much of an idea what I was doing. I played some of STO, NW, WildStar, and I'll include WoW for the sake of being complete but it wasn't long and it was years ago. My current MMO is City of Heroes Homecoming but I've done the content often enough that it's feeling stale. If I play ESO I'm pretty much going in a total newbie. Until I determine if I'll keep playing, I don't want to spend more money on it. So I'm wondering:

Which ESO server is RP and PVE? How newbie-friendly is it?
Which race/class is best for a beginner who will likely be soloing for a while?
What can I expect when I play (yes, this is an open-ended question, sorry)?
Any suggestions for someone starting out?

I'm willing to leave my comfort zone a bit so don't take my past games as a deciding factor in whether or not I'd like ESO. I stopped playing those games for a reason. Thank you in advance.

Good news!

Elder Scrolls Online is very easy to start.

First off, there is only one server. It's Mega! So you would want to find guilds that have role play. All pvp is in Cyrodiil (there's even a quest to get you there and try things out).

As far as classes go, pick one you like and you will see, under the skill screen on the left, a list of builds to help start you off. Usually, the first one says "good for a beginner."

So what do you like to do in these games and that will help us steer you to a good class.

Kyleran

There's only two mega server choices, US or EU. No real RP on the US that I've observed and PVP is restricted to special realm or battlegrounds, the rest of the game world is PVE only.

Very friendly to new players you won't have any problems getting started, though there is quite a lot to take in so consider joining a new player guild like ESO University early, just for the information they can provide.

As for best race / class combos go to this site for starters.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-race-guide-elder-scrolls-online/

What can you expect? Quests, hundreds if not thousands of them some with very good stories behind them if you care to take the time to follow them.

Since One Tameril in 2016 players can go almost anywhere except Trials and other Veteran dungeons right from the start.

It's both liberating yet a bit bewildering as there is a staggering amount of content available, strangled in part by a ridiculously low quest log limit of 25.

One major point is player made mods, game play is significantly enhanced so much so you really should plan on using some.

Rungar

i'm not playing at the moment but if you need in-game help to get going send me a pm, assuming your on pc and in north America.

ill get ya rolling...without spoiling ya. 

all classes can easily solo but the templar is the easiest by far if you want to be a magic user.  High elf is the best choice for that I believe though Breton is good too. 

Scorchien

should be no problems ,  Helen Keller managed to solo ESO

klash2def

what everyone else said, ESO is very new player friendly as far as getting started.. pick what race and class appeal to you the most and go for it.. my advice on the first toon, don't worry about meta, min/max, etc stuff just play how you want until end game. By then you should know your class enough to figure out what you want to be. If you ever make a mistake you can always reset skills/attributes for in-game gold and try again.

As for the RP bit, a large community I've been part of since beta..try https://www.eso-rp.com/ I'm sure something in there will interest you! There isn't really a server but there a ton of guilds..

Welcome to ESO!

KnightFalz

Welcome to the game!

Another good place for builds is:

https://www.hacktheminotaur.com/

He has several solo and one-bar builds available. Some find they don't enjoy swapping between two ability bars, commonly the way the game is played. If you find yourself among them this could be a good build source for you.