NEXT LEVEL GUIDES
PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU!
Level Smartly - Power Leveling Guide
Suitable for Harrowstorm
Contents:
​
​
​
​
- Consumables to use when leveling
​
- How to optimise your skill bar
​
- Places to level at for solo and duo
​
Improve
Introduction + Video Guide
Learn how to level quickly and efficiently so you don't waste your time. This guide covers the best in slot leveling armour combination I've found in 4 years, shows how to optimise skill bars to avoid wasting time and how you can level multiple skill lines at once. It also includes many grind spots you can use to level by yourself or in groups. It's truly the fastest and easiest way I've found taking between 4-8 hours to hit level 50 depending on experience buffs. What's more, you don't have to keep changing gear as you level and can use the same armour on multiple characters.
Attributes to focus Whilst leveling
Magicka damage dealer (PvE/PvP) - All points into magicka
​
Stamina damage dealer (PvE/PvP) - All points into stamina
​
Tank (PvE/PvP) - Pick either all magicka or all stamina whilst leveling then change to all health at level 50
​
Healer (PvE/PvP) - All points into magicka BUT level as a damage dealer
Equipment / leveling armour
PROPHET'S [WEAPON]
LEVEL 9,15,25,41
(1 item) Adds X Maximum Health
NB: Reward for leveling up. Choice of weapon with training trait.
​
Rewards at levels: 9, 15, 25, 41
Twice-Born Star
LEVEL 50 CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) You can have two Mundus Stone boons at the same time.
Mechanical Acuity
LEVEL 50 CHAMPION 160
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon Damage
(3 items) Adds 129 Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina, Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) When you deal direct damage, you have a 15% chance to gain unerring mechanical vision for 5 seconds, causing your attacks to always be a Critical Strike. This effect can occur once every 18 seconds.
Important Note
I would highly recommend making this set combination at level 4 once and upgrade the armour to purple and use white jewellry - details are below. You DO NOT need to have multiple copies at varying levels with this setup - it's why I use it. The only time you want another version if you plan to make a magicka and then a stamina character.
​
How to setup the character
If you're leveling a magicka focused character use light armour.
If you're leveling a stamina focused character use medium/heavy armour.
To level ALL armour lines at once, make sure you have 5 of your main armour type and 1 of each other type i.e.
- 5 light + 1 Medium + 1 heavy
- 5 medium + 1 light + 1 heavy
- 5 heavy + 1 medium + 1 light
NOTE - you need 3 pieces active in order to see the skill line but even if you can't see the skill line but have 1 medium, you'll still level up the medium skill line.
​
You then want 5 Twice-Born Star (level 4) + 5 Mechanical Acuity (level 4) active at all times with your weapon slots empty to use the prophet level up rewards or items you pick up. This helps maximise our damage without needing to make loads of weapons. Training on all armour at purple quality for a total of a 70% experience boost + prophet weapon experience boost. The jewelry can remain white quality and I wouldn't worry about enchanting armour but you can do.
Example load-out but can be changed as long as both 5 pieces are active and weapon slots are empty for prophet weapons or weapons you pick up.
Why this armour combination?
Because you are not at CP 160 whilst leveling, the game adds an invisible buff to help you be more viable in PvE or PvP. As you level, these buffs get weaker and so you find your damage will drop and the game is harder. What's more, any numerical value such as 'adds 128 weapon damage' will be correct at level 10 if you're level 10 too. However, if you're level 20 and are using the same item, then that 128 bonus will be heavily reduced and it will continue to be reduced as you level. This means the 2,3 and 4 pieces bonuses usually get weaker as you out-level your armour. As such, you are forced to constantly update gear in order to maintain an equal power rating or forego a lot of damage.
Thankfully, with my setup, we take advantage of 2 sets that have special bonuses that are not numerical but rather special effects such as 100% crit chance when we get unerring vision and we are allowed to 2 mundus stones at once. The 100% crit chance does not get reduced as we level and so the 5 piece, which is the set's power, remains just as strong regardless of level. This is also true for Twice-Born Star as mundus stones are not reduced as you level so we can capitalise on the power of these stones. What's more, by using bloodthirsty (white quality) we gain bonus damage that doesn't get reduced as it's a % and not a numerical value. This is also true for swift if you want to move around faster to go from spot to spot.
What makes this special is that, by the time we have grouped the enemies and layered the ground with AoE dots like wall of elements, we then proc mechanical acuity and have 100% crit chance on ALL attacks which is effectively a 50%+ damage boost on EVERYTHING! You will find that the enemies will simply melt. Once the group is dead, we then move to the next group of enemies. During this time, the set goes on cooldown and once the next group ready into a pile/stack, the set can then proc once more and we can rinse and repeat.
​
The final added benefit of this setup is that you can make it for level 4 and can use it all the way to 50 and even to 160cp if you need to. You are also able to bank this and can call upon it for future characters and so you'll save a lot of bank space without needing multiple setups!
Mundus Stones to use
Stamina
The Warrior (Weapon Damage)
​
The Lover (Penetration)
​
The Tower (Max Stamina)
​
The Serpent (Stamina Regen)
​
The Shadow (Bonus Crit Damage)
Magicka
The Apprentice (Spell Damage)
​
The Lover (Penetration)
​
The Mage (Max Magicka)
​
The Atronach (Magicka Regen)
​
The Shadow (Bonus Crit Damage)
For maximum damage, you want The Lover + The Warrior/Apprentice.
​
For high damage and good sustain, you want The Lover + The Serpent/TheMage as you have more resource to work with
​
For good damage and easy sustain, you want The Lover + The Serpent/The Atronach
Consumables to use
Stamina
Dubious Camoran Throne
Health, Max Stamina, Stamina Regen
​
Buyable drink from guild trades. Scales with your level.
Magicka
​
Witchmother's Potent Brew
Health, Max Magicka, Magicka Regen
​
Buyable drink from guild trades. Scales with your level.
How To Optimise your skill bar
Skills in the Elder Scrolls Online level up when you gain experience on your active bar and it is shared equally between all skills on the bar at the point of the experience gained. This allows us to do some useful things but can also be a little confusing.
​
For example, if we use a skill on the back bar and then swap and kill a target, you'd naturally expect the experience to go to the skill that did the kill and the one you used originally. However, ESO does not do this. It will instead share the experience equally between all the skills on the active bar at the point of the target being killed and will level up those individual skills and their respective line. It will also award experience to any armour piece you have, leveling their respective skill line. As well as this, it will also give experience to the weapon and level up that respective skill line too. Not only this, your racial skill will level and if you're a vampire, that will also level up too (slowly). Finally, if you have Fighter's Guild, you can also level this by killing undead - I would suggest picking up the skill line just incase.​
​
This means we can really take advantage of this to level multiple skill lines at once. I usually level up all of my class skills, 2-3 weapon skills lines, all armour skill lines, racial skill lines, and the vampire skill line. I can also level the Fighter's Guild skill line should I choose to kill the undead. You will reach around level 38-50 in each skill line if you do it this way, with your racial skill line hitting the max level as well as the vampire skill line by the time you hit level 50.
​
In order to ensure you can kill fast, I would suggest using the back bar as an AOE damage overtime bar and useful buffs and treat the front bar as a leveling bar with a flex spot to allow you to swap skills in and out so they are all morphable and ranked fully. I also suggest you have an AOE direct damage ability on the front bar that can be spammed such as whirling blades, reverse slice, deep fissure, sap essence, endless fury, talons, jabs, scythe and more.
​
Below is an example bar I would use in order to achieve this.
Front Bar:
Inferno Staff
Back Bar:
Weapon of Choice
Things to note:
The front bar should have 1 of each class skill (can include your ultimate).
​
The front bar should include a skill from a secondary skill line you plan to use later i.e. use an inferno staff but have a restoration skill on the bar too so restoration staff levels up. You can add a 3rd weapon skill line too like sword and shield by having a skill slotted. You don't need a skill from destruction staff if you're using a destruction staff on that bar.
​
TOP TIP - remember you can use your ultimate to level a skill line so you can swap and use a class ultimate to level other class skills with the flex spot!
Deep Fissure
Class Skill - Animal Companions
AOE Spamable
Living Trellis
Class Skill - Green Balance
Skill Slotted For EXP Only
Rapid Regen
Restoration Staff
Skill Slotted For EXP Only
Puncture
Sword and Shield
Skill Slotted For EXP Only
Elemental Blockade
AOE Damage Over Time
Winter's Revenge
AOE Damage Over Time
​
Ice Fortress
Armour Buff
​
Blue Betty
Damage Buff
​
Flex Spot
Spare Slot To Morph Skills OR AOE Spamable
​
Flex Spot
Buff / Heal
Northern Storm
Class Skill - Winter's Embrace
Skill Slotted For EXP Only
Healing Thicket
Skill of Choice
​
Places to level
Bangkori - Natalia Ruins
- Solo/Duo
- Enemies = Spiders
NO FIGHTER'S GUILD EXP
- EXP 4/5
- Ease 3/5
- Gold 3/5
- Access to merchant nearby
- Near a wayshrine
- Lots of spider eggs
Click to expand
Rivenspire - Moira's Hope
- Solo/Duo
- Enemies = Zombies
FIGHTER'S GUILD EXP
- EXP 3/5
- Ease 4/5
- Gold 3/5
- Access to merchant nearby
- Near a wayshrine
- Not used often
Click to expand
Malabal Tor - Crimson Cove
- Solo/Duo
- Enemies = Imperials
NO FIGHTER'S GUILD EXP
- EXP 3/5
- Ease 3/5
- Gold 5/5
- Not used often