UESP Forums

On ESO, I have multiple characters, but my newest, main favorite one (Which I only made a few days ago) happens to be a Dark Elf/Sorc/vampire and I have no idea what style I want to play him as. I'm comfortable with hands-on weapons (bladed weapons and shield-type), but I am fine with a style change-up. Any suggestions ? Also could use some help for SPECIFIC armor and weapons types to use. Thank you.

P.S.
NO LIE, ESO IS MY FAVORITE GAME !!!!!

I'm not the best person to ask about builds and gear and roles and such, because my personal preference is to play solo PvE for the most part, and I haven't gotten into the whole rabbit hole of the latest meta, the best build, the best-in-slot gear, the best skill bar layout, etc.

But since no one else has piped up yet, I'll comment to get the ball rolling.

My suggestion would be to figure out which skills you want to develop and use-- not just the skill lines, but the actual perks. That should help you decide whether you need to be upping your Magicka or your Stamina. It should also help you decide which sets of gear you'd like to acquire or craft. And you should decide which type of armor you want to use, since that might also affect which sets of gear you can acquire from drops. (I'm not sure if certain sets come exclusively in Light and Medium Armor, but I don't think I've ever seen them drop any Heavy Armor pieces-- although that may just be because I haven't done any serious grinding for them.)

Personally, I like to up my Health as well, since I prefer to play solo and need to be able to survive without having a healer to pull my ass back from the brink of death, or a tank to draw the enemies' attention while I try to get in a few licks. But I've seen other players talking to newbies and saying things like "Don't ever tell anybody that you leveled that s**t" (in reference to Health), so presumably I'm a total n00b who should just QQ or something.

Huzzah, Second Era Tamriel!

Well, the real question is whether you want to just play as you want or you want to be really meta. Typically, you pick one of three roles: healer, tank, or DPS/damage. If you like sword and shield, that typically lends itself toward tank. I would be terrible at giving you tank advice, however. Dunmer aren't necessarily suited for very end game tanks (although, with enough experience, you can get any race to do any role for a majority of the content).

If you want to play as you want - do you. Dark Elves can do all right with stamina, and if you want to be a stam-sorc, that's doable. In that case, you want to lean toward medium armor. Hundings Rage is still a great craftable set for stamina. Arms of Relequen is also a pretty good stam set, if you don't mind running the Cloudrest trial (which is super fun). Dark Elves do have a dual wielding perk as a racial as well, so you can do double weapons and have fun! Bows are also helpful for stamina.

If you want to be real meta: Dunmer are more slated toward magicka, and as a sorc-vamp mix, you have a lot of magicka perks. If that's the case, you want light armor. There are a couple of good sets: Mother's Sorrow (found in Deshaan zone) is a solid set, and not too difficult to get, if you don't mind some farming (you get several pieces from the zone quests as well). Mantle of Siroria is another sought after set, also drops in Cloudrest. You can also craft the Julianos set. Divines is the trait you want in most cases. Light armor also gives you a useful shield in Harness Magicka, which helps out. If you decide to do magic, you want to run destruction staffs. Typically it's recommended to run infused flame staff; healers usually will back-bar a lightning staff, and a DPS double flame.

Oh, and get your weapons to gold status when you can, because that will impact your damage hitting.

Honestly, in the beginning I recommend just playing what you like and finding your style. You can always go back and respec or what not if you decide you want to be meta. You can do a vast majority of the content out there doing a reasonable build without the super meta stuff. Have fun first and foremost.

I'm not sure if you play PC or console, but the UESP guild on PC-NA always has lots of advice, training sessions, etc. I recommend joining a guild to help out!