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Online:Skills

< Elder Scrolls Online

In Elder Scrolls Online, you advance your character by using different abilities, granted to you through different skill lines. In order to increase your progression in a skill line, you must use those skills. There are three types of skills: Passive Skills, Active Skills, and Ultimate Skills.

Passive Skills provide a bonus all the time. Some require certain items to be equipped or Active Skills to be slotted, but otherwise you don't need to think about them. They generally have a number of upgrades available, which can be acquired by increasing your level in the relevant skill line. In most cases, this is achieved by using the Active Skills within the same skill line. In other cases, such as crafting skills, this can be achieved via crafting items or research. Each upgrade costs an additional skill point. Some Passive Skills do not require an investment of skill points, but are instead provided free as a result of certain situations. For example, each race gets one free passive which increases their experience gain with a given skill. The first level of each of the Crafting quality skills is free. There are free Passive Skills associated with becoming a Werewolf or Vampire, as well as some provided by the keeps and resources owned by your Alliance if you take part in the Alliance War. All current Emperors also receive some free Passive Skills.

Active Skills are the ones you'll be using most in the game. You can have up to five slotted in your Action Bar, by default bound to the 1-5 keys. At character level 15, when you acquire Weapon Swapping, you gain an additional 5 slots for your alternate weapon. Like Passive Skills, they become available once a certain level in the skill line is reached. However, they cannot be upgraded, but rather improve through use. They have 4 Ranks, after which they may be Morphed into a new version. You will have two Morph options, which add different effects to the skill. Morphing a skill costs an additional skill point. Once a skill is Morphed, it can increase in Rank 4 more times, but may not be Morphed again (so you can't get both Morph bonuses for any skill). Using your Active Skills will increase your overall level in the skill line, making new skills become available as you progress.

Ultimate Skills are similar to Active Skills, but instead of using Stamina or Magicka as most Active Skills do, these use a third resource called Ultimate. Ultimate builds over time as you fight, and (with one exception) completely depletes when you perform an Ultimate Skill. No skill line has more than one Ultimate Skill, if it has one at all. Like Active Skills, they become available after a certain level in the skill line, raise in Ranks, and can be Morphed into new skills after Rank IV. You may only have one Ultimate Skill slotted at a time (two if you have Weapon Swapping after reaching level 15). By default it is bound to the 'R' key.

ClassEdit

Each of the game's classes has three skill lines associated with it, which are immediately available to your character and are specific to your class:

Dragonknight Sorcerer Nightblade Templar WardenCrown Store NecromancerElsweyr
Ardent Flame
Draconic Power
Earthen Heart		 Dark Magic
Daedric Summoning
Storm Calling		 Assassination
Shadow
Siphoning		 Aedric Spear
Dawn's Wrath
Restoring Light		 Winter's Embrace
Green Balance
Animal Companions		 Grave Lord
Bone Tyrant
Living Death

WeaponEdit

There are six weapon skill lines, each linked to a specific type of weapon. These lines are:

Any class can advance in any of the Weapon skill lines, while using the appropriate weapon.

ArmorEdit

There are three armor skill lines:

Any class can advance in any of the Armor skill lines, while wearing the appropriate armor type.

RacialEdit

Each race has its own skill line. Your overall character level determines the abilities you may choose from your racial skills. See:

WorldEdit

Not all of the skill lines are visible at the beginning of the game. You must discover other skill lines around the world, by completing certain quests, or finding certain items. The six World skill lines are:

GuildEdit

The Guild skill lines include lines for NPC guilds:

Alliance WarEdit

Alliance War skill lines are the Player vs Player lines. These include siege weapons and other PvP abilities. Currently there are three Alliance War skill lines in the game:

ArtifactsEdit

In addition to the above, participating in the Alliance War has a chance to provide you with the use of certain unique Artifacts that grant you special powers:

CraftEdit

Crafting skill lines are each related to a profession and help boost the products you create in the related profession. These include:

  • Alchemy - which allows you to craft custom potions
  • Blacksmithing - allows you to craft custom melee weapons and heavy armor
  • Clothing - allows you to craft custom light and medium armor
  • Enchanting - allows you to craft custom enchantments to apply to your gear
  • Jewelry CraftingSummerset - allows you to craft custom rings and necklaces
  • Provisioning - allows you to craft custom food and beverages
  • Woodworking - allows you to craft custom bows, staves, and shields

DungeonEdit

These skills are temporarily available as part of certain group dungeon mechanics:

Earning Skill PointsEdit

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There are several methods of earning skill points, listed below, up to a current total of 457 points (as of patch 6.1.5):

Spent skill points can be refunded at a Rededication Shrine for a fee of 50 Gold per point, or with a Skill Respecification ScrollCrown Store available in the Crown Store. Note that the cost scales up with how many skill points you have acquired (including from Skyshards), and even if you only refund a single skill point and leave the others unchanged, you still have to pay the full cost (e.g. If you have acquired 10 skill points, you will have to pay 500 gold, regardless of how many skill points you want to refund).

Unobtainable Skill PointsEdit

Three of the skill points listed above are unobtainable depending on your owned content and choices you make in the game.

  • 2 Skill Points – unobtainable if you decide not to accept the Folium Discognitum in the Mages Guild questline.
  • 1 Skill Point – unobtainable for any character created before the Morrowind chapter was applied to your account (due to not being able to complete the new tutorial quest). This tutorial was replaced in turn by the Summerset, Elsweyr, and Greymoor chapters. Each chapter tutorial rewards 1 skill point, but only one of them can be completed by any character.

NotesEdit

  • As of patch 2.1.6 there were a total of 517 abilities, ultimates, morphs, and passives to spend skill points on for any given character, in the base game. This assumes one Racial skill group, three Class skill groups (for one class), and all possible Weapon, Armor, World (including both Lycanthropy and Vampire), Guild, Alliance War, and Crafting skill groups.
  • The Thieves Guild DLC adds 11 more options to spend skill points on.
  • The Dark Brotherhood DLC adds another 11 options.
  • The Summerset Chapter adds 36 more options between the Psijic Order and Jewelry Crafting lines.
  • The Greymoor Chapter added 27 more options between the Excavation and Scrying skills.
  • Despite the name, Riding Skill is not technically considered to be a skill.
Skill Lines
Class Skills
Dragonknight
Necromancer
Nightblade
Sorcerer
Templar
Warden
Equipment Skills
Armor Skills
Weapon Skills
Racial Skills
World Skills
Guild Skills
Crafting Skills
Alliance War Skills
Artifact Skills
Dungeon Skills
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Last edited on 9 January 2021, at 16:39