Leveling the Mages Guild Skill Line in The Elder Scrolls Online is easy — with the right tools! Learn why simply grinding Lorebooks is the best way to level Mages Guild fast, and discover the other methods you can try (such as Mages Guild dailies) if you’d rather not run around Tamriel picking up books.
The best way to level up the Mages Guild skill line in The Elder Scrolls Online is simply to go around collecting lorebooks. Thankfully, there’s an add-on on both PC and console that makes the whole process a lot easier.
In most cases, the Mages Guild skill line in ESO is really worth leveling up. With skills like Magelight, Entropy, and eventually the ultimate skill Meteor, there are many builds where having this skill line completely maxed out is extremely beneficial.
However, the process of getting to level 10 in the Mages Guild skill line can seem daunting, which is why I made this guide covering the easiest way to do it while also going over all your different options.
Prerequisites for Leveling Mages Guild
The best way to max out the Mages Guild skill line is just going around and picking up lorebooks. These are scattered around Tamriel.
In addition to adding excellent insight into the world of the Elder Scrolls, they also give you experience points to your Mages Guild skill line. Every lorebook you find gives you +5 to the Mages Guild.
Joining the Mages Guild
But, before you start going around and hunting down lorebooks, there are a couple things you’re going to want to do. First, you need to go to your Mages Guild in your starter city. So for Aldmeri Dominion, that’s going to be Vulkhel Guard. For Daggerfall Covenant, that’s going to be the city of Daggerfall. And for Ebonhart Pact, that’s going to be Davon’s Watch.
When you go inside the Mages Guild, you’ll come across an NPC called the Magister. Simply talk to the magister, answer a couple questions, and you will unlock the Mages Guild skill line.
Murf’s Lorebooks
Technically, after that point, you have everything you strictly need to start hunting down lorebooks. But if you’re on PS5, Xbox Series X, or S, or on PC, you can save yourself a lot of pain by getting a simple add-on. It’s called Murf’s Lorebooks. This add-on will show every single lorebook on the map.
Every single one of the add-ons by MurphieX are worth getting. Murf’s Skyshards and Murf’s Treasures are equally useful, but for different purposes.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed Murf’s lorebooks, you will see icons on the map showing you where you need to go to pick up that particular lorebook. It even tells you which lorebook it is and how many books in that series you’ve already found.
Before Getting Started
So, once you become a member of the Mages Guild and you have gotten Murf’s lorebooks, it’s time to go run around the world of Tamriel picking up books. While you’re at it, you should download Murf’s Skyshards because there are Skyshards scattered around everywhere as well, and you’re going to be going past them in many cases. Most people combine the lorebook hunt with the Skyshard hunt for efficiency.
It’s worth getting your mount speed as fast as possible before you embark on this journey. Even if you have a slow mount, though, it’s really not going to take that long. The difficult part is finding all the lorebooks, but Murf’s Lorebooks does that for us.
You might find some low-level enemies along the way, but you’re able to avoid world bosses doing this. There shouldn’t be anything that challenging between you and your lorebooks. You can always pin where the lorebook is on your compass to make it easier to find.
How to Find Lorebooks in ESO
Alliance zones have the most lorebooks. These are the zones that came out with ESO when it was released. In Aldmeri Dominion, they consist of Auridon, Grahtwood, Greenshade, Malabal Tor, and Reapers March. In Ebonhart Pact, you have Stonefalls, Deshaan, Shadowfen, The Rift, and Eastmarch. In Daggerfall Covenant, you have Glenumbra, Rivenspire, Stormhaven, Bangkorai, and Alik’r.
Lorebook Collections
Once you’ve progressed through all the alliance zones in your alliance, you should be at Mages Guild level 8 or so. For the remaining levels, you can just go to other alliance zones. As you pick up lorebooks, you will be completing sets or series of books. And once you complete an entire series, you get a whopping +25 to Mages Guild.
So, it can be useful to take a look at which book you’re going for and trying, for instance, to complete Tamriel history first. But in actual practice, it generally makes the most sense to just go from one book to another.
Multiple Lorebook Locations
And by the way, most books have multiple locations in the map. So, don’t be surprised if you go to one and then other lorebooks disappear off your map. You’ve already collected that particular book, so it won’t show up in its other locations anymore.
Another reason to pick up Skyshards along the way is you will need to invest skill points into your new Mages Guild skills. So, I usually go pick up a lorebook and then see whether a Skyshard or a lorebook is closest, and then I pick up whichever one is nearest.
Other Methods for Leveling Mages Guild Skill Line
Collecting lorebooks may be the best way to level up the Mage’s Guild skill line, but it’s not the only way. For the remainder of the guide, we’re going to cover a couple other options you have as well.
Mages Guild Dailies
Once you’ve joined the Mages Guild, you can go to your capital city and pick up a daily quest. For Aldmeri Dominion, the capital city is Elden Root. For Ebonhart Pact, it’s Mournhold. And for Daggerfall Covenant, it’s Wayrest.
You need to go to the Mages Guild in your capital city. In Elden Root, for instance, it’s on the second floor over on the left. And if you pick up and complete that daily quest, which involves finding relics from public dungeons, you will get +10 to Mages Guild.
There are also Relic Hunter achievements that are associated with these quests. Completing one of those achievements gives you +5 to Mages Guild.
Because you can only get one per day per character, doing Mages Guild daily quests is not the most efficient way to level up your Mages Guild skill line. But, if you’re tired of hunting lorebooks, it is another option. Doing these quests with your companion also levels up their Mages Guild reputation.
Mages Guild Citations
Another way you can level up your Mages Guild skill line is by buying Mages Guild citations. You can farm these during certain events, but all throughout the year, you can find them at guild traders. Right now, they’re relatively cheap because there’s an event going on where they are dropping.
It’s not a very economically efficient approach, but you do get 15 points to Mages Guild for every single citation.
Buy the Skill Line in the Crown Store
There’s one more option, but it will cost real money unless you trade crowns. If you’ve already leveled it to maximum once, you can buy a fully maxed out Mages Guild skill line from the Crown Store for 3,000 crowns.
You do have to get Mages Guild to level 10 on at least one character to unlock this product. And honestly, 3,000 crowns is pretty steep for this.
It is definitely an option, but I don’t feel like it’s a very good option. If you do want to skip the entire grind, though, and just get straight to the finish, just shell out 3,000 crowns, which is equivalent to about 15 to 20 bucks or so, and you can be at max Mages Guild instantly as long as you’ve completed it on one character.
Summary
Let me know if I missed any ways you can level the Mages Guild skill line. Just summing it up one more time, the best way is to go around hunting lorebooks. And the greatest concentration of lorebooks are to be found in the Alliance Zones.
Completing a full series of lorebooks gives you a big boost to your Mages Guild skill line. You can also level your Mages Guild skill line by completing the daily quest that’s given out in the Mages Guild in your capital city. This also helps you complete achievements, but it’s not a very efficient method.
You can also buy Mages Guild citations from guild traders or grind them during events. However, this method is very expensive and not very efficient.
Lastly, it is technically possible to buy the entire Mages Guild skill line from the upgrades menu in the Crown Store. It costs 3,000 crowns to do so, though, and you have to max out Mage’s Guild on at least one character before you can buy it.