In the end, it’s impossible to completely avoid toxicity in The Elder Scrolls Online, but you can at least keep the trolls on their toes by avoiding these rookie mistakes.

In this guide, I’m going to cover the top eight mistakes new players most commonly make when they’re first starting out in The Elder Scrolls Online. Some of them will simply set you back as you gain power and expertise on your character, but others may earn you the ire even the death threats of community members who have not yet figured out how to grow up.

Mistake #1: Not Researching Traits

If this is your first character in The Elder Scrolls Online, you’ll definitely want to make it into a crafter. And, one of the first and most important steps in becoming a crafter is researching traits.

Every kind of gear in the game can have a variety of traits. And to be able to craft that type of gear in that trait, you have to research it first.

To research a trait on a particular piece of gear, you need to acquire a piece of that gear type with the desired trait. All you have to do is select the item to research, click “Research Trait,” confirm that you want to destroy the item you’re researching, and the timer will begin counting down.

As of Update 49, the amount of time it takes to research traits on gear has gone down significantly. So, there’s never been a better time to begin the researching process.

Keep in mind that by allocating certain Passive Skills within each crafting skill line, you can make it possible to research up to three different traits at the same time. Under Blacksmithing, it’s Metallurgy. For Clothing, it’s Stitching, and for Woodworking, it’s Carpentry.

The one time this isn’t the case is with Jewelry crafting, which is kind of different. For more information on how to craft Jewelry, check out this video guide.

In general, it’s a good idea to start researching as many traits as possible on Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Clothing as soon as you can. That way, when it comes time to craft your first pieces of endgame gear, you won’t be left in the lurch. You’ll be ready to start crafting, and you’ll be one step closer to that fancy title, Grandmaster Crafter.

That’s my first mistake that new ESO players often make — slacking on researching crafting traits. Definitely start researching now so you’ll be able to reap the benefits later.

Mistake #2: Selling Instead of Deconstructing

The second mistake that new players commonly make in ESO is selling all the gear they pick up instead of deconstructing it or using it for trait research. When you go to a vendor and look at the amount of gold you can get for your gear, it can seem enticing — especially as a new player.

But, you’ll be selling yourself short if you sell this gear to vendors instead of deconstructing it or saving it for trait research. Not only does deconstructing gear give you crafting materials, but also gives you XP for your crafting skill lines.

This is especially true for Intricate pieces of gear. These give you 280% extra inspiration for your crafting skill lines. So definitely make sure to deconstruct and not sell any Intricate pieces of gear you get.

There’s only one exception to this rule, and that’s Ornate gear. This gives you the same amount of inspiration for your crafting skill lines if you deconstruct it, but it gives you a lot more gold than normal gear.

So, sell your Ornates, but keep everything else either for researching traits or to deconstruct for inspiration and crafting materials.

As tempting as it may seem when you’re a broke new player, keep in mind you will find other sources of gold as you continue with the game. The amount of gold you get for gear is really not that high anyway, except for Ornates.

You’re going to be investing in your long-term success in the game much better if you either deconstruct that gear or save it for trait research.

Mistake #3: Skipping Daily Crafting Writs

The next mistake that new ESO players often make is not getting started on Daily Crafting Writs early. It’s really easy to do: You can go up to any Writ Crafting Board, pick up a quick quest, and then talk to the associated NPC.

This is where all that deconstructing you’ve been doing is really going to come in handy. If you’ve already been deconstructing gear and you’ve gotten the crafting skill line associated with the Writ up to at least Level 10, you’ll be able to skip the intro fetching quest for unlocking that particular Crafting Writ.

You’ll be able to tell the NPC that you’re already experienced and get certified without having to do any legwork.

The NPC you talk to about Consumables Crafting Writs is Danel Telleno. He’s located in every major city.

The NPC you talk to about Equipment Crafting Writs is Millenith, also located in every major city.

Once you’ve unlocked a certain type of Crafting Writ, you just pick it up from the board and then go over to the associated station. I have an addon that I really recommend called Dolgubon’s Lazy Writ Crafter that does this automatically.

You just go up to the crafting station and Dolgubon’s will craft it for you. If you don’t have Dolgubon’s, you can do it manually. But do keep in mind these Writs scale to your current crafting skill level.

One common misconception is you need to wait until the endgame to start doing Crafting Writs because you need endgame materials and lots of Skill Points. That is simply not true.

You can get started with Crafting Writs right from the very first thing you do in the game. But I do recommend getting all of your crafting skill lines to at least Level 10 to avoid the intro quests. But, there’s absolutely no reason not to start doing this early.

Once you’ve completed your Writ, your quest marker will tell you where to go to turn it in. And, you will notice when you turn it in that you get quite a bit of inspiration for that crafting skill line and also quite a bit of gold along with plenty of raw materials. Right from the beginning of your time in the game, this is one of the best ways to make gold.

Unlock all the different Crafting Writs. Remember, they do scale to your current crafting level. There’s no reason to wait. Do them with Dolgubon’s Lazy Writ Crafter, an addon that’s available on both PC and console. Go and turn them all in, and that’s an easy 5k gold every single day on that character.

Don’t make the mistake of not doing your Crafting Writs. Get started on them early, make some money, and get some crafting experience. This will pay off majorly in the long term.

Mistake #4: Vendoring Crafting Materials

Another thing you really want to avoid doing early on in the game as a new player is selling your crafting materials to vendors. It’s understandable if your bag gets cluttered and you want to make some more room, but these sell for a really low amount of gold.

Regardless of the crafting material, you can always sell it for more to other players. Either link the material in Zone Chat or, once you get to Level 10, join a trading guild and put it in the guild trader. Or, simply get ESO Plus and stack your crafting materials up until you want to sell them later.

Selling off your crafting materials to vendors is a great way to lose money in the game — a great way to waste potential gold you could have gotten. And, there’s also the fact that you might end up using these materials later on.

One of the major benefits of getting ESO Plus is the Craft Bag. This is not included unless you have a subscription to the game. But even if you don’t have ESO Plus, just invest in some more bag or bank space and stash these away for later. Or even better, find other players to sell them to.

Simply put, you will hardly get any gold for crafting materials from in-game vendors. Either hoard them or sell them to other players. Don’t make this rookie mistake.

Mistake #5: Paying for Fast Travel

Let’s move on to some general quality of life mistakes to avoid. First, as a new player with hardly any gold, you should avoid using the fast travel system unless you’re at a Wayshrine.

Once you’ve unlocked it, you can fast travel to any Wayshrine in the game from whatever location you’re in. To do so, you just go to the map, click on the Wayshrine, and select “Fast Travel.”

But, you will be shown a tooltip telling you you will have to pay gold to do this. It costs a lot more to fast travel again if you just did it recently.

So, because you probably won’t have very much gold to waste, it’s a much better idea to simply go to a Wayshrine and then select the other Wayshrine you want to go to.

Fast traveling from one Wayshrine to another is always free. The only time you have to pay is when you’re out in the world away from a Wayshrine and you want to go to a Wayshrine. Definitely don’t fast travel without a Wayshrine as a new player who doesn’t have much gold.

As a new player, you probably won’t have unlocked Champion Points yet either, but it is worth noting that there is a Passive Node in the green champion point tree called Wanderer that does reduce the cost of traveling between Wayshrines by up to 50%.

Once you do get to Champion Level and start investing in your Champion Point Nodes, this is an important one to invest in early.

Mistake #6: Not Training Your Mount

Something else that new players often do is underestimate the importance of training your mount. As a new player, your mount is going to start off really slow, but you can speed it up by going to the Stablemaster.

The Stablemaster now gives you +3% to the particular Riding Skill you choose every day. So, now more than ever, it’s important to train your mount every single day at the Stablemaster.

Stablemaster are located in every major city and they’re marked by a horse head icon on your map. You want to train your Mount Speed first, and then it’s up to you whether you choose to train Stamina or Carry Capacity next.

Mistake #7: Missing the Cyrodiil Mount Speed Passive

There’s one way you can get a major boost to your mount speed early on in the game — something that a lot of new players overlook.

When you get to Level 10, you will unlock Cyrodiil. This is one of the main PvP modes in the game. And while PvP might be a little bit too much for brand-new players, you should at least go to Cyrodiil once and do the introductory quest.

This quest takes about 10 minutes to complete and simply involves going around talking to people. There’s one point where you have to repair siege weapons, but otherwise it’s very simple.

Just talk to the quest-giver right next to where you initially port into Cyrodiil. And remember not to skip the intro quest because that won’t give you as much XP.

If you do complete the whole intro quest, you will get to Level 3 under the Alliance War skill line Assault. This unlocks the passive Continuous Attack which gives you +15% to your mount speed.

That’s the equivalent of five days of mount training all in one go. All you have to do is go to Cyrodiil, do a quick intro quest, and you’re done.

This is an often slept-on tip. If you want your mount to start going fast immediately, definitely at least pay Cyrodiil a visit and do this intro quest.

Mistake #8: Standing in Stupid (Red Circles)

My final tip is something easy you can do to get those trolls off your back right from the start.

In The Elder Scrolls Online, many enemies cast area of effect ground attacks. These are always marked by red circles that are relatively easy to see and also relatively easy to avoid.

One way to avoid dying and keep your team happy in group content is to simply not stand in the red circle. In the game, this is affectionately called standing in stupid.

So, don’t stand in stupid, and you’ll give the people you’re playing with one less reason to get mad at you.

Conclusion

Those were my top eight mistakes to avoid as a new player in The Elder Scrolls Online. Obviously, there are a lot more things to do and not to do. That’s why I also have a guide out recently with the top 17 things you should do first as a new player or as a returning player with a new character.