As I make plans to storm my way through ESO, PC NA, I have been giving some thought to add-ons. Here's a list of what I was thinking:
Map Pins
Master Merchant (for when I start to trade)
Harvest Map
Dulgobon's Lazy Writ Crafter
Combat Metric
Srendarr
Inventory Grid View
Alpha Gear or Wykkyd Outfitter
I'd love to hear some opinions on what add-ons I should consider.
As I make plans to storm my way through ESO, PC NA, I have been giving some thought to add-ons. Here's a list of what I was thinking:
Map Pins
Master Merchant (for when I start to trade)
Harvest Map
Dulgobon's Lazy Writ Crafter
Combat Metric
Srendarr
Inventory Grid View
Alpha Gear or Wykkyd Outfitter
I'd love to hear some opinions on what add-ons I should consider.
I think I commented with these two on your status but I'll do it again here. I only use the two because I'm too lazy to install more but I'd certainly suggest Enchatned Quality which lets you see the quality of the enchantments on your gear which is nice because I forget without it, and Action Duration Reminder which gives you a timer for abilities on both bars just as an extra reminder of when to recast them.
I think I commented with these two on your status but I'll do it again here. I only use the two because I'm too lazy to install more but I'd certainly suggest Enchatned Quality which lets you see the quality of the enchantments on your gear which is nice because I forget without it, and Action Duration Reminder which gives you a timer for abilities on both bars just as an extra reminder of when to recast them.
Alright so, I'm going to say it probably depends on what your early-game goals are a little bit.
Early Game:
If you want to level a crafter ASAP, definitely get the Lazy Writ Crafter one you've picked out. Any time you visit a board it automatically picks up all the writs you can do and when you visit a table, if you have the materials it automatically starts crafting it for you. Only exceptions to that are Provisioning (for some reason) and Alchemy, so that you can be discerning with your rarer ingredients supply. When you turn in your quest it jumps the dialogue and automatically unpacks all the rewards from their vessels. So nice, I get all my writs done in less than 5 minutes. Works on Master Writs too.
I also recommend SkyShards, as they pop up on your map and it makes hunting them down and getting those extra skill points way easier. It even works in delve and public dungeons, so you know exactly where you need to go to grab that SkyShard. No more wandering aimlessly = more time for other fun shit in game.
I also love having a mini map and I use Votan's Mini Map so I can sort of see what other quests might be around as I'm working through a zone without switching to a full screen map.
Mid-Game:
Combat metrics is fantastic, especially for tracking the progress of your DPS characters. I could stand at a target dummy obsessively all day and try different gear combinations and see how I'm stacking up.
I have Alpha Gear and I use it some. It's handy but there's a bit of a learning curve on how to configure it. I've considered switching to Wykkd, but I feel a little like that would be opening a can of worms, since it's part of a suite of add-ons. I like what I have now so I'm feeling a bit resistant to change. :) Could be that it's way better though. If you try it and really like it, let me know.
I agree with Goldie that Action Duration Reminder is a really solid pick. When you're developing your rotation for a dungeon it's so helpful to see when you have to start queuing up your next ability or attack.
Master merchant is nice but if you're using a controller you have to turn off gamepad mode to access some of those features. It's a little bit of a pain but when you start selling in guilds, you'll probably be glad you have it. I like being able to price check things but that's sort of all I really use it for right now.
I tried S'rendarr briefly... idk, it could be that I was already running too many add ons that already gave me what I would have gained there, but I wasn't particularly impressed by it. It's not quite the same thing, but I really like Azurah. Once you start down the paths of add-ons you find that the screen sometimes becomes a bit cluttered in certain spots and that some of them overlap in certain areas and make it a little tough to read. Azurah lets you customize the information you receive and lets you move everything around, even the game's native screen notification panels, to wherever you'd like. It also lets you lock your ability and experience bars so they're always showing, and will let you know when your bag is almost full, among many other things. The utility it adds is awesome. Consider this the swiss army knife of add ons.
End Game:
I'm only putting this here because I feel like a lot of people leave PVP and Cyrodiil for last. I joined in this summer for Mid-Year Mayhem, and I'm definitely not at "end game" yet, but if you venture into Cyrodiil, especially during any sort of event, get Votan's Adaptive Video Settings. It makes SUCH a difference. Lag is the fucking worst in Cyrodiil, and it tends to crop up in massive three-way battles at certain chokepoints on the map. This add on smooths textures when frame rates and latency start to drop, which gives you a huge edge over anyone not running this add on. I almost never see it click on when I'm in a dungeon or adventuring, but it makes an enormous difference in PVP in Cyrodiil, so I just leave it on all the time.
Ones I haven't tried, want to try, and have heard good things about:
SWAPS: save your action bar presets so you can quickly switch them in and out.
Champion Point Respec OR Champion Point Slots: save your CP allocations. I think Respec is a little more user friendly, and Slots is more in-depth and can help you maximize your point allocations down to a decimal point, but there's a little learning curve.
Votan's Lore Library search: Like Google for lore books
Raid Notifier: See when you have (or are about to have) a negative effect applied to you
There could be others I have installed that I'm forgetting. I'll look later this evening and let you know. If you want a screenshot of the adds on I have configured so you can see what the UI looks like, just lemme know. I would recommend just starting with a few and seeing how you like them. If you do too many all at once, it can be a little overwhelming to figure out what's triggering what. So start with a few and build from there. You only really need a few "quality of life" add ons at the beginning, but they do make a huge difference. :)
Alright so, I'm going to say it probably depends on what your early-game goals are a little bit.
Early Game:
If you want to level a crafter ASAP, definitely get the Lazy Writ Crafter one you've picked out. Any time you visit a board it automatically picks up all the writs you can do and when you visit a table, if you have the materials it automatically starts crafting it for you. Only exceptions to that are Provisioning (for some reason) and Alchemy, so that you can be discerning with your rarer ingredients supply. When you turn in your quest it jumps the dialogue and automatically unpacks all the rewards from their vessels. So nice, I get all my writs done in less than 5 minutes. Works on Master Writs too.
I also recommend SkyShards, as they pop up on your map and it makes hunting them down and getting those extra skill points way easier. It even works in delve and public dungeons, so you know exactly where you need to go to grab that SkyShard. No more wandering aimlessly = more time for other fun shit in game.
I also love having a mini map and I use Votan's Mini Map so I can sort of see what other quests might be around as I'm working through a zone without switching to a full screen map.
Mid-Game:
Combat metrics is fantastic, especially for tracking the progress of your DPS characters. I could stand at a target dummy obsessively all day and try different gear combinations and see how I'm stacking up.
I have Alpha Gear and I use it some. It's handy but there's a bit of a learning curve on how to configure it. I've considered switching to Wykkd, but I feel a little like that would be opening a can of worms, since it's part of a suite of add-ons. I like what I have now so I'm feeling a bit resistant to change. :) Could be that it's way better though. If you try it and really like it, let me know.
I agree with Goldie that Action Duration Reminder is a really solid pick. When you're developing your rotation for a dungeon it's so helpful to see when you have to start queuing up your next ability or attack.
Master merchant is nice but if you're using a controller you have to turn off gamepad mode to access some of those features. It's a little bit of a pain but when you start selling in guilds, you'll probably be glad you have it. I like being able to price check things but that's sort of all I really use it for right now.
I tried S'rendarr briefly... idk, it could be that I was already running too many add ons that already gave me what I would have gained there, but I wasn't particularly impressed by it. It's not quite the same thing, but I really like Azurah. Once you start down the paths of add-ons you find that the screen sometimes becomes a bit cluttered in certain spots and that some of them overlap in certain areas and make it a little tough to read. Azurah lets you customize the information you receive and lets you move everything around, even the game's native screen notification panels, to wherever you'd like. It also lets you lock your ability and experience bars so they're always showing, and will let you know when your bag is almost full, among many other things. The utility it adds is awesome. Consider this the swiss army knife of add ons.
End Game:
I'm only putting this here because I feel like a lot of people leave PVP and Cyrodiil for last. I joined in this summer for Mid-Year Mayhem, and I'm definitely not at "end game" yet, but if you venture into Cyrodiil, especially during any sort of event, get Votan's Adaptive Video Settings. It makes SUCH a difference. Lag is the fucking worst in Cyrodiil, and it tends to crop up in massive three-way battles at certain chokepoints on the map. This add on smooths textures when frame rates and latency start to drop, which gives you a huge edge over anyone not running this add on. I almost never see it click on when I'm in a dungeon or adventuring, but it makes an enormous difference in PVP in Cyrodiil, so I just leave it on all the time.
Ones I haven't tried, want to try, and have heard good things about:
SWAPS: save your action bar presets so you can quickly switch them in and out.
Champion Point Respec OR Champion Point Slots: save your CP allocations. I think Respec is a little more user friendly, and Slots is more in-depth and can help you maximize your point allocations down to a decimal point, but there's a little learning curve.
Votan's Lore Library search: Like Google for lore books
Raid Notifier: See when you have (or are about to have) a negative effect applied to you
There could be others I have installed that I'm forgetting. I'll look later this evening and let you know. If you want a screenshot of the adds on I have configured so you can see what the UI looks like, just lemme know. I would recommend just starting with a few and seeing how you like them. If you do too many all at once, it can be a little overwhelming to figure out what's triggering what. So start with a few and build from there. You only really need a few "quality of life" add ons at the beginning, but they do make a huge difference. :)
Oh! And you probably know this already but make sure you get the Add-On manager, Minion (https://www.minion.gg/). It makes it so much easier to manage any add ons and will automatically keep them up to date for you. :)
Oh! And you probably know this already but make sure you get the Add-On manager, Minion (https://www.minion.gg/). It makes it so much easier to manage any add ons and will automatically keep them up to date for you. :)
Thanks for the great advice, everyone!
Trying to contain my excitement, here. Although I am leaving a lot with xbox, I am looking forward to hitting the reset button on the game when coming to PC. There is so much I know now that I wish I knew as a first-timer.
I've logged into ESO on xbox to finish up some guild duties and log into each of my characters (10 total) for the last few times. Isn't interesting how we can develop attachments to game characters? Each one is fairly unique and has an identity all to their own.
Thanks for the great advice, everyone!
Trying to contain my excitement, here. Although I am leaving a lot with xbox, I am looking forward to hitting the reset button on the game when coming to PC. There is so much I know now that I wish I knew as a first-timer.
I've logged into ESO on xbox to finish up some guild duties and log into each of my characters (10 total) for the last few times. Isn't interesting how we can develop attachments to game characters? Each one is fairly unique and has an identity all to their own.