Since last week’s ESO Live discussion and all the new juicy Champion System news, I wanted to make a Top Five Things to Prepare for Champion System.  Here’s a video and written guide on preparing for Elder Scrolls Online 1.6.

 5) Addons and Performance

Remove Outdated Addons – Find those old pesky addons that haven’t been updated in months and remove them.  Even old, unable addons can still cause problems for your game and possible crashes.  On Champion System launch day, we want zero excuses not to be playing until our fingers bleed.

Check Drivers and update everything! – I know it sounds simple, but updating your video drivers, windows OS, and even security software can prevent a catastrophic failure on launch day.  Believe me, I’ve had old Norton close the firewall to a game after an update taking precious seconds away from my gaming time (sounds extreme huh?).

Clear Hard Drive Space – The last item here is to make sure you have plenty of Hard Drive space as testing the content can require 20+ GB of space and who knows how big the patch will be.  Extra music, old videos, get rid of those suckers in order to rock the Champion System day one.  Did someone say Dragonknight Execute????

4) Gear and Supplies

Horde Gear Sets – Those old gear sets that no one thought were valuable just might become the new best in slot.  I’m hording gear that centers around Ultimate since that has completely changed.  Anything that helps you gain ultimate faster will be sought after in  patch 1.6 and hopefully you can snag these up before anyone else does.  A good example of this is the Werewolf set below.

Werewolf set – up to Veteran Rank 13 | found in Upper Craglorn

• (2 items) Adds Armor
• (3 items) Adds Max Health
• (4 items) Adds Max Stamina
• (5 items) Blood Rage: Generate 3 Ultimate when damaged. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

With ultimate changing to be a liner generation via attacks, this could be a monster set in the future.  Even buffs and debuff sets might be more valuable.  It’s a gamble, but buy these sets while they’re cheap now as they might be the next “Warlock.”

Load up on supplies – The best time to buy legendary material (mats) is prior to a patch.  Most people have upgraded their gear and are simply waiting for more content.  Now is the time to start stocking up, either to update your own gear or to resell for a profit.  Stop at your faction’s Capital City or in Craglorn’s Belkarth if you’re at end game.  These are great trade spots which have some bargains on legendary mats.  Even consider hawking wares in the local market.  Anything to get those Dreugh Wax!

3) Skills

Level Skills – I honestly have no idea which skill/skill lines will be affected by the Champion System change.  However, I can be as prepared as possible by taking extra skills and leveling them up in case of changes.  Now there are a couple of different places to level skills effectively, one is Spellscar in Lower Craglorn.  You round up  a million zombies, killing them endlessly and ranking up those skills until they can be morphed.  Who knows what will be good, so might as well be prepared because respecs will be cheap at launch.  So, how do you get those needed skill points anyway?

Find Extra Skill Points – I currently have around 281 skills points on my Dragonknight main Deltia (he’s a BA Nord, if you didn’t know).  I’ve done this a bunch of different ways and in the video I kind of walk you through it.  Here’s a list:

• Skyshards -The most common way to obtain skill points is through collecting Skyshards (three shards = one skill point).  If you’re like me and want to get this done fast, consider downloading Garkin’s “Skyshard” addon as it shows you the map location of each shard.  Think outside the box on these Skyshards as well.  Every zone has them, even Upper and Lower Craglorn, plus a great many in Cyrodiil the PvP zone.  Get a group together and roam Cyrodiil together as these can net 15 total skill points!  Medg and Codogg from Akatosh guild have a reoccurring even on Aldmeri Dominion faction, check if yours has something similar.
• Sliver and Gold Quest – If you’re done with the main story, you can now experience other faction’s quests.  Not only does this give you access to more Skyshards, but more skill points.  The first thing I do is start tracking the quests or quest lines that reward skill points.  I travel about collecting Skyshards and completing these quests.  You can rack up 5-6 skill points per zone doing this and unlock gold content, which is another five zones.  Plenty to get.
• Group Challenges – Most people don’t think about group challenges but these each reward a skill point.  Each zone has a different looking cave picture that has a “group challenge” somewhere in the dungeon.  They are called public dungeons and usually require one or more players at or around that level to complete it.  You can easily find if you’ve done these by checking your journal (J key by default) then achievements, open up dungeons, than public dungeons.  Disregard the Vanquisher and Conqueror achievements and look for Group Challenges.  There’s another 15 or so points to collect (starting to add up).
• Dungeons – Completing a dungeon for the first time also rewards a skill point.  And if the dungeon has two difficulty modes like say Fungal Grotto or City of Ash, complete both versions to receive separate skill point.  That’s right, completing Fungal Grotto at level 15 and then again at Veteran Rank 12 will give you one skill point per completion (only once).  There’s another 15 or more skill points.
• PvP –  Alliance Ranks also reward skill points, though these are slow to obtain.  If you’re like me and have nearly all skill points in the game, it’s time to head to Cyrodiil and rank up your AvA to obtain the last set of skill points.  These will take much longer to get as no one has even reached the top rank in PvP yet.  But every skill point counts so get to it!

2) Ranks

Alliance Ranks – Speaking of Alliance ranks, there’s another incentive for PvPing and that’s gaining access to new skills.  ZOS has announced four new AvA skills coming in the future.

• Magicka Detonation (Assault)
• Vigor (Assault)
• Revealing Flare (Support)
•  Guard (Support)

I have no idea what AvA rank you will have to be to obtain these, but this is now my primary goal to level up my PvP skills. Guard is finally coming baby!!!!

Undaunted Guild – Some of you may have seen the passives in my Undaunted Guide, but for those that aren’t aware the Guild skill line ranks up to 10.  The rewards go up to nine and for some reason there’s no incentive to reach 10.  Just a guess here, but I bet there will be something added in this patch or another one.  Now is a good time to reach Undaunted 10 so when that Undaunted Ultimate hits, you’ll be the first to get it (that is not confirmed just a joke).

1)  Public Test Server

Access the PTS or Public Test Server – What I feel is the most important part of this is preparing to get on the Public Test Server and help test the content.  I know we are not paid employees, but the benefit of seeing and playing the next content is enough incentive for me to jump on and start figuring everything out.  Not to mention you can play with other friends from different faction and different servers (EU and NA are combined).  Clear up that Hard Drive space because we need help testing this patch and make sure we report bugs, exploits, over and under powered abilities to ZOS because they listen.  Here’s some screenshots on how to get the PTS up and downloading.

Thanks for reading and can’t wait to see you all testing in January!