ESO Champion Point System Guide

Welcome to our ESO Champion Point System Guide!  This is a guide for players in the Elder Scrolls Online who are looking for easy-to-understand information about the ESO Champion Point System. 

ESO Champion Point System Guide

This guide assumes you have very little understanding of the system and will discuss the basic mechanics of CP, which ones you should take, and how to earn CP quickly.  For specific builds and champion points per character and playstyle, click  HERE.  Also come check me out live on TWITCH if you want to see my play specific builds or ask me questions. Thanks for reading!

Last updated for Necrom Chapter, June 1, 2023

Table of Contents

• Champion Point Overview
• CP System
• Important Slottables
• Content per CP
• Earning CP Quickly
• Champion Point list
• Summary

Champion Point Overview

The champion point system is an alternative form of progression and is a bit confusing for a lot of new or returning players. I’m going to give you some bullet points on how the system works and show you how you can use CP effectively.

• You start earning champion points at level 50.
• Champion points are account bound, so any character beyond level 50 earns points for your entire account and other character(s).
• Champion points are earned the exact same way as levels, through experience points.
• The system has both passive perks and active perks (or what I call slottables) that increase your characters performance and convenience.
• The system has three constellations.
• The green Craft tree is comprised of perks that provide increases to quality of life and mainly non-combat related benefits.
• The blue Warfare tree is the most important for role dependent builds like Tank, Healer, Damage Dealer.
• The red Fitness tree provides perks focusing on defensives, PvP, resources and unique perks like movement.
• Each constellation allows for only four slottables, so you’ll need to make decisions carefully.
• The system is uncapped at 3,600 points but has a soft cap on performance at or around 1,500 CP; beyond this you won’t an increase in performance.
• That’s due to the limited number of passive perks so beyond the four slottables per character, you won’t see any advantage over other players because there is a limit to the passive advantage you gain and this is what keeps the playing field level.
• CP has both a catchup mechanic and diminishing returns, so if you’re a new player debating if it’s worth playing the game, I reached 1,000 CP on PC EU very easily with little effort in comparison to other MMOs I’ve played.
• CP structure has path-based advancements that looks like a spider web requiring you to take points in the path in order to move in a direction towards other perks.
• The system also has unconnected slottables which can be taken independently and do not require any path.

Now you have a sense for what the system is, let’s break it down further into specifics.

CP System

The three-constellation system limits you to four slottables per constellation which is shown on the top of your bar.  Consider the active perks the most impactful performance perks and what distinguishes your build from another player.  You can highlight and see what are slotted and/or take them out for a cost of 3,000 gold.  You can also save presets via the Armory system.  If you leave a blank armor slot, you can have a free respec.

This addon I have on PC called Dynamic CP shows the names of the CP ‘stars’ which can be helpful when navigating.  An example of an active perk or slottable is Arcane Supremacy which Increases Max Magicka per stage.  Consider only taking active perks if you have enough points per stage.  If one costs 25 for stage one, don’t spend 18 points and receive zero benefit. It’s much better to spend points elsewhere.

Now you have the passive perks, which add power to your character but do not require a slot on your CP bar. This is the real advantage to having a lot of CP.  A good example is Eldritch Insight which grants 260 Max Magicka per stage from Blue Warfare.  You can get a decent boost to max magicka on top of the active CP perk Arcane Supremacy.  The actual appearance of the slottable is noticeable and if you read the tooltip of each, the CP will tell you if it needs to be slotted for power or if it’s passive.

Now, if you scroll through the CP system, you’ll start to notice a limited number of passives and the majority of the system is slottables for specific roles like healing, tanking, and damage dealing.

Take the left portion of the blue Warfare tree. This is mainly for healers. The bottom of the Warfare tree, mainly tanking. Then the upper middle and right tree, mainly for DPS.  The reality is this, what seems like a complex system is very easy to understand once you realize, almost all roles for both PvE and PvP take nearly the same CP slottables with little variation.  (Green of healer, yellow for tank, red for DPS).

Now, let’s say you start earning some CP, and you can use or equip them by stages.  You need to take the minimum of one stage to move along the constellation to get the next passive or slottable.  Some have 1 to 5 stages.  These stages can be anywhere from 8 to 120 points. Once you start navigating, you’ll also notice stars which are a purpleish color and these are called sub constellations.  Think of them like a drop-down menu for CP.  You can go in here and find more slottables and a few additional passives.

An important tip here is what I call independent or unconnected slottables in your constellation. This is especially helpful for new players because you won’t have to move along the CP tree in order to start using them, assuming you have the CP.   There are also CP slottables without stages and each point increases your power. Ideal for new players – example would be CP Boundless Vitality which increases Max Health per point spent.

Important Slottables

In the green tree, I’d recommend taking the independent slottable Steed’s Blessing which increases your out of combat Movement Speed. Now make your way through the constellation up to Treasure Hunter, which Increases the quality of items you find in treasure chests. This will dramatically increase your ability to find weapons and jewelry in chests and help fill out your sticker book.

Performance Based slottables to consider

• Gifted Rider increases your Mount Speed.
• War Mount improves your mastery with mounts, removing all mount Stamina costs outside of combat.

Gold Savings slottables to consider

• Rationer – Adds 10 minutes to the duration of any eaten food or drink.
• Liquid Efficiency – Whenever you use a potion or poison you have a % chance to not consume it.
• Plentiful Harvest – You have a % chance to gain double the yield from normal resource nodes per stage.

Next up is the blue Warfare constellation, your go-to for damage, healing, and tanking.  The most important passive to consider for new players in PvE is Preparation which Reduces your damage taken from non-player attacks by up to 10%. Follow the path along, taking the minimum CP to move on the spider web and drop down into the sub constellation Staving Death, at first using the least possible amount of points to get access to this and max it out straight away.  You can also select the unconnected active perk like Untamed Aggression straight away which can help your damage and/or healing. When I started over on PC EU, this was the first thing I did to dramatically increase my survivability and damage.

Here are some other active perks to consider and why:

Damage Dealers

• Wrathful Strikes – Grants Weapon and Spell Damage to your damaging abilities.
  • Great because it effects every attack vs one type.
• Backstabber – Increases your Critical Damage done.
  • This is useful if playing with coordinated tanks that can turn bosses away from you. The value is higher, but if you’re front facing or solo, it’s not worth taking.
• Fighting Finesse – Increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing.
  • This is useful if playing solo or in none coordinated groups because you’ll be facing the mob and not see the benefit of backstabber in comparison.
• Master-at-Arms – Increases your damage done with direct damage attacks by 2% per stage.
  • Great because it increases the damage of almost all your important attacks.

There are plenty more like damage over time, AoE damage, and direct damage. I almost always take a damage producing active perk that effects my main spammable. My magplar uses Puncturing Sweeps and I want to ramp that ability up greatly, so Biting Aura might be best. If you want to know if an active perk increases your damage, check your tooltip on the ability, take the slottable and see if it went up.  For example, a magplar DPS loadout might looks like this:

• Fighting Finesse
• Master-at-Arms
• Biting Aura
• Wrathful Strikes

Tanks want to take each damage reduction slottable because well, less damage = good.  A simple tank loadout would look like this:

• Duelist’s Rebuff – Reduces your damage taken by single target attacks.
• Unassailable – Reduces your damage taken by area of effect attacks.
• Enduring Resolve – Reduces your damage taken by damage over time attacks.
• Ironclad – Reducing damage taken from direct damage attacks.

Healers

Similar to tanks, you can take the default increasing healing from area of effect, single target, and over time.  But there’s an additional CP that I love and that is:

• Rejuvenator – Grants 33 Weapon and Spell Damage to your healing abilities per stage.
  • Good because it’s any type of heal.

The other healing ones are

• Focused Mending – Increases your Healing Done with single target heals.
• Soothing Tide – Increases your Healing Done by area of effect heals.
• Swift Renewal – Increases your Healing Done with healing over time effects.

Miscellaneous slottables

• Reaving Blows – When you deal Direct Damage you heal for % of the damage done.
  • Great for brand new players who struggle with survivability and lack the Pale Order ring.
• Occult Overload – Whenever you kill an enemy under the effect of a status effect, they violently explode for Oblivion Damage per stage to all other enemies in a 4-meter radius.
  • Makes a mini bomber in PvP regardless of class.
• Untamed Aggression – Increase your Weapon and Spell damage by 3 per point.
  • Useful because you can access it right away without a lot of champion points. You’ll also get the benefit per point as there’s no stages.

Now moving on to Fitness or red constellation.  Consider this the resource sustain, movement and PvP’ish tree.  This tree has three very useful unconnected active perks you can access straight away:

• Boundless Vitality – Grants 28 Max Health per stage.
• Fortified – Grants 34.6 Armor per stage.
• Rejuvenation – Grants 3 Health, Magicka and Stamina recovery per stage.

Tanking

• Bracing Anchor – While in combat, increase the amount of damage, but reduces your Movement Speed.
  • Incredible for tanks or anyone with a back bar ice staff or sword and shield.
• Celerity – Increases your Movement Speed.
  • All around a go to PvP slottable on almost all my builds.
• Pain’s Refuge – Reduces your damage taken by 2% for every 2 negative effects active on you, up to a maximum of 20%.
  • This is another meta damage reduction CP slottable for PvP and I use it on nearly all builds.
• Slippery – When you are affected by a disabling effect, you automatically Break Free for no cost.
  • This CP is great in lag Cyrodiil and gives you a free break-free, saving stamina.
• Sustained by Suffering – Increases your Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery by 30 per stage while under the effects of a negative effect.
  • Consider this one a PvP sustain slottable.
• Siphoning Spells – Restore 300 Magicka per stage, whenever you kill an enemy.
  • PvE sustain and usually my fourth slottable.
• Bloody Renewal – Restore 300 Stamina per stage, whenever you kill an enemy.
  • PvE sustain and usually my fourth slottable.

Content Per CP

Now people constantly ask me at what Champion Point level should I be doing dungeons, vet dugeons, hard mode dungeons, trials, vet trials etc.?  Here are general recommendations for PvE:

• Normal dungeons – start at level 10 and are the easiest in the game for group content.
• Base Game Veteran dungeons – start at CP level 160 so you can collect the gear, specifically the monster helms. You can do them earlier, but you’ll just have to recollect or reconstruct the gear.
• DLC Veteran dungeons – Random DLC Vet dungeons are punishing because some can be done in 10 minutes very easily while others are a slog. Start queuing between 400-600 CP depending on your skill level, gear, and experience.  If you get Veteran Lair of Maarselok with blue gear and one 5pc set, you’re going to kicked from the group.
• DLC Dungeon Hard Modes – at around 800 CP with optimal gear for your role this shouldn’t be an issue. Remember, it’s more about optimal gear than raw CP so prioritize the correct gear sets.
• Normal Trials – at CP 160 or higher. We’ve had level 30’s in our group before but it doesn’t really make sense to complete normal trials sub CP 160 so a good target would be between 200-400 CP, higher if you’re a DPS because it’s a math race.  ESO has done a much better job making the Normal trials MUCH easier than Veteran so don’t be afraid to try them. The gear sets from normal to vet are a 2% difference or less which makes it much easier to have close to min-max gear without all the sweat.
• Veteran Trials – at CP 800 – 1,000 or so depending on all the factors listed previously.
• Veteran Hard Mode Trials – 1,500+, you’ll need every ounce of performance with min-max gear. Can people complete it sooner? Sure, but don’t be that person, get a fully optimized build ready.

Now let’s break it down for PvP:

• Battlegrounds = BGs are zero CP and almost ENTIRELY gear and skill dependent. I would say your best bet is to start at or around level 30 to get the hang of the combat and pace.  Once at max level, you need a strong gear set with monsters and mythics especially the longer you play and the higher your match making gets (also called MMR).  BGs are a great place to play PvP and get the combat down but it’s entirely gear/skill dependent.
• Cyrodiil = there are CP and Non-CP campaigns. Treat the Non-CP campaigns like BGs, very gear dependent though unlike BGs, they don’t have “proc” enabled.  Meaning, the super high burst damage sets, monsters, mythic, etc. are mostly turned off and this is a more stat based environment.  The upside, you won’t have to get super sweaty mythics or procs. The downside is there’s nothing to break up what we call “ball groups” so unless you’re in a huge clump of players, it’ll be trouble.  Now for CP based campaigns, I started doing more serious stuff at 400 CP on PC EU.  I was at a huge disadvantage especially without having all the red passives that help stamina sustain. Therefore, I’d recommend right around 800 or so depending on your skill level and if you’re playing solo or following a zerg.
• Imperial City = consider IC almost exactly like Cyrodiil. The difference here is IC heavily favors Nightblades who can cloak and Sorcerers who can streak away.  I recommend experimenting in No CP IC first because the population is so small. Then the same 800 CP or so for IC and expect to get ganked constantly.

Earning CP Quickly

Great Deltia, I’m fired up to earn 3,600 CP, but how do you do this quickly.  Step one is to increase the amount of CP you earn per hour with boosters or modifiers.  Here’s a list if you’re unaware:

• 10% from Each Armor & Weapon piece (purple quality)
• 10% ESO Plus Membership
• 10% from Marriage (need to equip ring with partner)
• 10% for being in a group of two
• 100% ESO in game Events (Witches & New Life Festival etc.)
• Scroll or a drink only one be active:
  • 50% from Psijic Ambrosia Drink or EXP Scroll
  • 100% from Aetherial Ambrosia Drink or EXP Scroll
  • 150% from Mythic Aetherial Ambrosia Drink or EXP Scroll

Now you have the modifiers, there’s a couple of ways to grind out XP and CP.  The “fastest” way to earn CP is by grinding mobs. I prefer instanced based grinds with one other player because the XP is reduced the more players you have in your group.

There are two great spots currently, Skyreach Catacombs in Northern Craglorn and normal mode Blackrose Prison (or BRP) in Murkmire.  Skyreach is base game, you can earn fighters guild and is good XP but is less than BRP.  In Skyreach you’ll do a lap around the instanced based public dungeon with a friend and/or a companion.  At various intervals you’ll stop, kill all the mobs and move on. I have a grind video on this for more details, check out my CP grind video here.

Normal BRP is mathematically the best but is a bit more difficult to do and is best with a lot of DPS and a partner.  The new strategy for this is to complete up to round 2.  Finish all the mobs but the last enemy and one player die to it. Then the other player grabs the resurrection sigil (wing looking) and the other player dies.  Next the person instantly activates the resurrection sigil popping both players back to life, respawing the ads and keeping the XP flowing.  This is the densest and XP heavy stage so bring some repair kits and watch the CP fly. For a more indepth video on the BRP grind, click here.

The best overall method in my opinion is doing random daily dungeon and battleground dailies.  These reward massive XP per character and can be done on any character over 50. Thus, it helps to have alts and rotating through each getting heaps of XP.  Another way is crafting writs on each and every character.  Do these on multiple toons and you’ll earn a lot of XP, gold, items and gear sets.  This is the preferred method by far.

Champion Point List

Craft Green Tree

Warfare Blue Tree

Fitness Red Tree

Summary

Hope you got something out of this guide.  Don’t forget to check out my builds HERE and interactive with me live on TWITCH.  The TLDR summary of CP:

• You start earning champion points at level 50.
• Champion points are account bound, so any character beyond level 50 earns points for your entire account and other character(s).
• Champion points are earned the exact same way as levels, through experience points.
• The system has both passive perks and active perks (or what I call slottables) that increase your characters performance and convenience.
• The system has three constellations.
• The green Craft tree is comprised of perks that provide increases to quality of life and mainly non-combat related benefits.
• The blue Warfare tree is the most important for role dependent builds like Tank, Healer, Damage Dealer.
• The red Fitness tree provides perks focusing on defensives, PvP, resources and unique perks like movement.
• Each constellation allows for only four slottables, so you’ll need to make decisions carefully.
• The system is uncapped at 3,600 points but has a soft cap on performance at or around 1,500 CP; beyond this you won’t an increase in performance.
• That’s due to the limited number of passive perks so beyond the four slottables per character, you won’t see any advantage over other players because there is a limit to the passive advantage you gain and this is what keeps the playing field level.
• CP has both a catchup mechanic and diminishing returns, so if you’re a new player debating if it’s worth playing the game, I reached 1,000 CP on PC EU very easily with little effort in comparison to other MMOs I’ve played.
• CP structure has path-based advancements that looks like a spider web requiring you to take points in the path in order to move in a direction towards other perks.
• The system also has unconnected slottables which can be taken independently and do not require any path.

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