New Player Guide: Skills & Leveling Up

Last Updated: 6/6/2024

As you gain experience, you'll earn levels. As you gain levels, you'll receive rewards through the Level Up Advisor, including Attribute and Skill Points to distribute to your character, making them more powerful. You can see your current level progress on the top-left of the Character Menu.

As you level up, the Level Up Advisor will provide attribute points that you can distribute to Health, Magicka, or Stamina.

Health determines the number of hit points your character has.

Magicka is used to power magical abilities.

Stamina is used by physical abilities and by sprinting, blocking, dodging, interrupting, and sneaking.

An Ability's Magicka or Stamina cost is displayed in its tooltip, which you can see by mousing over the ability if on PC/Mac or by highlighting it in the Skills Menu if on console.

To spend Attribute Points on PC/Mac, press “C" to open the character menu. Click the plus icons to allocate points, and when you're satisfied, press “E" to commit your changes.

To spend Attribute Points on console, open the Character Menu and highlight an Attribute. Use the left stick to add points to a specific trait. Press "A" if on Xbox or "X" if on PlayStation® to commit your changes.

Level Up Advisor

Each time your character levels up, you will be presented with the option to claim rewards for your new level. You can do so by opening the character UI once you have gained enough experience for a new level. When this occurs, your normal character UI screen will be modified to include the Level Up Advisor menu. This menu not only grants you character improvements such as Attribute and Skill Points, but also provides additional rewards and unlocks at milestone levels. 

Skill Lines and Types of Abilities

Your skill lines offer new options for your character.

All abilities are sorted into Skill Lines. As you gain experience while having an ability slotted, you gain experience in the associated Skill Line. Most abilities cannot be purchased until you reach a particular Skill Line level. As you pick up new weapons and armors or join organizations such as the Mages or Fighters Guilds, you will learn new Skill Lines and abilities related to them.

Note: Your level with a Skill Line is separate from your overall character level and represents your use of, and experience with, that particular set of abilities. Most Skill Lines progress by being used, such as wielding the relevant weapons in combat or crafting associated items, while a few have their own progression mechanics—for example, your Mage’s Guild Skill Line advances when you read a new Lorebook. Many Skill Lines require that they be represented on your active ability bar when earning XP—you won’t earn Destruction Staff progress while wielding another weapon unless you have one or more Destruction Staff abilities slotted on the bar for that other armament.

Abilities are divided into three main types:

• Active Abilities that can be used on your ability bar and activated.
• Passive Abilities that are “always on" once purchased.
• Ultimate Abilities that are powerful active abilities. You can only have one ultimate ability on your ability bar at once.

You can see all of your skill lines by pressing “K" if on PC/Mac, or by going to Skills from the Main Menu if on console.

Selecting a category (such as “Class") expands the list to show you available skill lines in that category. Selecting on a Skill Line displays that line's abilities on the right side of the screen.

Note: You don't start the game with all possible skill lines—they can be unlocked by using different weapons and armor, interacting with crafting stations, or completing quests, among other methods.

Skills Advisor

You can spend your Skill Points on whatever skills catch your fancy, but if you want to try and come up with a specific plan, the Skills Advisor is available to suggest possible combinations of skills to purchase and slot into your ability bar that work well together. Each class has several sets of suggestions available from the Skills Advisor. Just pick one that sounds like it fits your playstyle, and it can recommend where to put your next Skill Points, as well as point out which skills you have already purchased fit into the recommended build.

None of the Skill Advisor’s recommendations are binding, so feel free to spend Skill Points outside its recommendations if you want, or select the option to turn it off entirely if you want to try to make your own build. You can re-enable the Skills Advisor from your Skills interface if you change your mind later.

Learning Abilities

Skyshards can be found in all sorts of places.

You receive skill points among your rewards from the Level Up Advisor, as you discover Skyshards hidden throughout the world, or even by completing quests.

Note: You need to discover three Skyshards to gain a Skill Point.

To spend skill points:

1. Press “K" if on PC/Mac or navigate to Skills from the Main Menu if on console.
2. Select the category and skill line you want from the menu list.
3. Abilities you can purchase are indicated by a plus icon.
4. Select the plus icon to purchase the ability.
5. Confirm your selection.
   

Slotting Abilities

Once you have purchased a new ability, you need to slot it into your ability bar to be able to use it in combat. 

PC/Mac

Your ability bar is displayed at the bottom of the skills menu. You can drag any active ability icon to your ability bar from its skill line. This assigns it to a number key 1 through 5 (or “R" in the case of ultimates). When you press that key, you'll use that ability.

Xbox

Your ability bar is displayed at the top of the Skills Menu. To slot abilities:

1. Highlight the bar.
2. Select a cell.
3. Press "A" to choose from the list of skills.

PlayStation®

Your ability bar is displayed at the top of the Skills Menu. To slot abilities:

1. Highlight the bar.
2. Select a cell.
3. Press "X" to choose from the list of skills.

You can only have one ultimate ability slotted per ability bar, so choose carefully.

At level 15, you gain the ability to have two different weapon sets equipped. Each weapon set has an ability  bar, so your second weapon set can have its own set of six abilities.

To set your secondary abilities, swap your weapon set by pressing the tilde key (“ ` ") if on PC/Mac, "Y" if on Xbox, or "Triangle" if on PlayStation® and slot abilities as outlined above.

Ability Morphs

Many abilities can be morphed to add or change functionality. When an ability is ready to morph, you'll see an icon next to it in the skills menu. By selecting this icon, you'll be presented with a choice, allowing you to customize that ability. The morph icon looks like three squares:

Confirming an ability morph requires you to spend a Skill Point, just like purchasing a new ability.

Morphs change what an ability can do.

Other Level Up Rewards

Upon reaching certain levels, you gain access to new types of content such as PvP Battlegrounds or new group PvE dungeons. Additionally, the Level Up Advisor rewards items, collectibles, and currencies intended to help you learn about different aspects of Elder Scrolls Online.

Special milestone rewards are available every five levels for your character or account (in the case of milestones that award an account unlock). Details on milestone rewards can be found in this help article.

The Champion System

Upon reaching Level 50 you will unlock the Champion System. The Champion System is accessed by pressing the "Equals" key on PC/Mac, or by navigating to Main Menu, then Champion if on console.

You will earn Champion Points as you gain experience after reaching Level 50 and can assign these Champion Points to a myriad of passive abilities. Champion Points are account wide, but each character can decide which passive abilities to spend them on. Some Champion Point unlocks are active immediately upon acquisition, while others must be slotted into your Champion bar to take effect. As with your ability bar, there are more options than slots, so choose the right Champion abilities for your current situation!

Characters below Level 50 can still benefit from Champion Points earned by other characters on your account and assign them as normal, but cannot earn new progression in the Champion System until they also reach Level 50.

Don't forget that if you ever have additional gameplay questions, you should navigate to the in-game Help menu for more information on the game's features and mechanics. In addition, you can visit the Players Helping Players section in the official ESO forums to talk to the ESO community or check out any of the player-made guides right here.