Efficient Veteran Ranking Guide

Thanks to nerevarine1138, Zakua, Artemiisia, and kirnmalidus for helping me make sure this guide is accurate.

Hello beautiful people. I've been grinding veteran ranks lately and boy is it different than leveling to 50!  Mobs are tougher, quests are more important, and boss fights are intense! Below are a few tips that will help you get to VT 10 efficiently, but be warned! This guide is not about helping you get the most out of the game.  It is about getting to VT 10 as quickly as possible. Some of the tips may sound like 'cheating.' You have to make up your own mind and decide what is important to you. In the end, it is your decision.

Quest, quest, quest!

Avoid unnecessary fights by sneaking or running past mobs.

You may have been able to grind out levels on your way from 1 to 50 but gaining veteran ranks is not so easy! A single mob gives you basically nothing, but quests (and world bosses) give you big chunks of XP. It would take 5000+ kills to go from VR1 to VR2 and the curve gets even steeper as you rank. It is best to avoid unnecessary fights.  If there is a pack of mobs that you can avoid by sneaking or running past, do it! If someone is spamming chat with something like 'X is up LFM' join in, but remember you only get good VP the first time you kill a world boss so don't try to grind them.

You will be following Cadwell's Almanac (a new tab in your journal). You cannot move to the next faction until you have completed ALL of Cadwell's objectives! Cadwell will give you a handful to complete in every zone. Some zone require you to complete the main quest line before advancing to the next zone and since there are no guild quests to move you around the map you have no other way to get out! In short, don't leave a zone until you have done every quest! You can also get points from PvP and dungeons but, in my opinion, the fastest way to rank up is to quest. The addon Slightly Improved Experience Bar will put your experience bar in the upper-left-hand corner of your screen so you can see it as you rank up.
 

Forget about quest text and make friends with YouTube

Blah, blah, blah.  I've heard it all before!

This will likely upset escapists who read all of the quest text. It even contradicts my own recommendation in my previous leveling guide, but for veterans ranks I recommend that you skip the quest text.  You are done with the Coldharbour quests and the main quest line.  The quests you will be doing are much less epic.  They are versions of quests that you have already seen before and there is very little penalty for failing to listen to NPCs. 

You can also rely on YouTube to get past complicated puzzles. Most puzzles are out there.  It may seem like cheating, but do you really have time to futz around with a star sign puzzle when you have 10+ played days of questing in front of you?  If you are a purist and you want to read all the text and do all the puzzles, then by all means do it, but it will not help you rank up faster.

Use your ultimate wisely

Use your ultimate wisely!

I got used to using my ultimate on cooldown when I was leveling from 1 to 50 but that can hurt you in veteran content.  The pulls get much harder, especially during VT 1 when you don't have any gear. For some fights, like 3 pulls, your ultimate is necessary for survival .  You should also have your ultimate ready for boss fights, which can be very difficult.  It is also not a bad idea to have one in your pocket just in case you get into a hairy situation.  If it saves you a death then it is worth it!

Consumables!

Consumables can be the difference between success and failure.

Buff food, soulstones, and potions become even more important in veteran content.  A few hundred extra health or magicka and a timely potion can be the difference between success or failure on a long boss fight.  A pouch full of soulstones can save you a long walk through a gauntlet of mobs. Since repair costs only go up, consumables are an even better investment than they were from 1 to 50.
 

Horses, gear, and dungeons

You may have gotten used to just replacing lower level gear with higher level gear from 1 to 50, but in veteran content you should devise a gearing strategy.  For instance, as a melee DK I am most effective when I stack stamina and just enough magicka . Find the optimal balance for your character.  

A good horse can make traveling a breeze.

Veteran dungeons are the best way to get good gear, so you should do them often.  Plus, they are a great break from the tedium of questing and you get decent points from boss kills.  

You should also save your gold for a good mount. Resist the urge to go out and spend your money on gear until you have one.  Moving from objective to objective more quickly will make questing that much more efficient. Don't forget to feed your horsey either!

...and, of course, have fun

Maybe efficient ranking takes a back seat to the enjoyment of solving a puzzle, or the satisfaction of running someone through with your sword, or the feeling of immersion you get when you listen to every NPC.  Hey, I get it.  It's about they journey.  Don't let the desire to get to the top of the mountain keep you from enjoying the climb. 

Thanks for reading.  See you in Tamriel!

-Phaz

 

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