Elder Scrolls Online provides one of the most rich experiences in the market when it comes to MMOs. That said, ESO launched in 2014 and contains a large amount of content, including various systems which may seem overwhelming, and a combat system which feels more engaging than many of its competitors. This may feel overwhelming to some – or maybe just a desire to optimize and maintain better control during your time in game. This is where Addons come into play – let’s jump into my recommended add-ons and game settings to make a more enjoyable (and efficient) experience in Tamriel!
Add-ons
Alright, add-ons. This is a listing of those I found useful, along with a quick summary of what each add-on brings to the table. Note, these are not required, but rather a means to enhance your time in game. Reminder: Minion is the preferred app to manage your addons. Don’t forget to download any dependency Lib Addons that may be required!
Please note, I’ve marked the high priority add-ons with **. If there are any add-ons not listed here, which you recommend, please share in the comments!
- Account Achievements – enhances the achievement UI to show account-wide progress.
- Action Duration Reminder ** – shows duration on action bar for easier buff tracking.
- Advanced Filters ** – adds some filters to inventory for more granular sorting.
- AI Research Grid – shows which traits you have researched for easy reference.
- Auto Recharge ** – automatically recharges and repairs your weapons/armor when out of combat.
- BugEater – Captures addon errors and posts to the chat window.
- Champion Point Respec – adds UI for saving champion point specs.
- Circonians Addon Selector ** – create sets of addons to load to save memory.
- Code’s Combat Alerts ** – timers for pve encounters.
- Combat Metrics ** – your DPS meter and log analysis tool.
- DarkUI – adds a darker theme treatment to the UI, bit cleaner look.
- Dolgubon’s Lazy Writ Crafter – auto completion for daily crafting writs, huge time saver.
- Dressing Room – Updated ** – adds UI for saving gear and skill sets.
- Dungeon Tracker – shows dungeon completion and achievement information.
- Dustman ** – marks vendor trash and automatically sells at vendor.
- EasyTravel ** – commands to quickly travel to locations, convenient when in large guilds (saves money / time).
- Harven’s Improved Skills Window – adds UI enhancements to the skills window.
- HarvestMap – adds resource nodes and chest pins to the world map, as you discover them.
- Inventory Grid View – improved grid view for inventory management.
- Light Attack Helper ** – simple counter to show successful light attacks to help with weaving.
- Lootdrop Reborn – customizable loot history, much cleaner than native (disable native if using).
- Lui Extended ** – UI rehaul with lots of customization, including buff tracking. Put some time into configuring this to your liking!
- Map Pins ** – adds a variety of pins to the map including lore books, skyshards, treasures, achievements, etc.
- pChat – enhancements and customization to the chat.
- Potion Maker – adds UI for much easier potion crafting.
- PvpMeter – some UI additions/enhancements for various forms of PvP.
- Quest Map – adds pins to world map, showing incomplete quests, for completionists.
- Ravalox’ Quest Tracker ** – custom quest tracker, much better than native.
- Tamriel Trade Center ** – used in coordination with the TTC desktop app to add price check functionality to tooltips and right click on item.
- Urich’s Skill Point Finder – adds UI for showing where remaining skill points can be found.
- Votan’s Achievement Overview – enhancements to the achievement UI.
- Votan’s Fisherman – enhancements to the fishing experience, saves successful bait/fish to pools.
- Votan’s Improved Multicraft – enhancements to the native multicraft UI.
- Votan’s Improved Quest ** – enhancements to the quest listing on the world map UI.
- Votan’s Keybinder ** – adds support for account-wide keybindings
- Votan’s Minimap ** – lightweight, customizable minimap, using the world map.
- Votan’s Rune Tooltips – enhancements to rune tooltips.
- Votan’s Search Box ** – adds ability to search inventory and bank.
- WPamA (What Pledges at my Alts) ** – adds UI for daily/weekly lockouts/pledges, as well as lots of useful information for alts, extremely useful.
- Zolan’s Auto Repair ** – automatically repairs your gear/weapons when at a vendor.
Settings
Outside of add-ons, there are some native game settings you change to improve the experience as well.
- Combat Cues – This is the most important setting you should be enabling. Telegraphs (bad stuff on ground) are extremely important to identify. Combat cues allow you to change the look of these. Turn them bright pink and never stand in bad again!
- Auto Loot – Dealing with loot is often a major time sink, so ensure you have consolidated area and auto loot enabled to save some time and allow you to focus on the fun.
- Camera – These settings will likely vary between folks, based on preference. But putting time into calibrating your camera is a must.
Updated for Blackwood (2021)!