ESO HUD Setup For New Players Will Change Your Gaming Life
Head’s Up Display Not Initially Active
Recently I added a video guide for Efficient Leveling in ESO to the top of the Beginner’s Guide series page. In that video, I mentioned some options that would be very helpful to players just setting up their character. In this article, I will explore that in a little more detail.
Setting up your Head’s Up Display (HUD) in The Elder Scrolls Online is required. When you first begin the game, it is NOT active. Many players new to ESO or for that matter new to online gaming don’t know about the HUD and it is literally LIFE CHANGING!
Let’s go over some of the things that are valuable to set up and why. Try them – these settings are not permanent. If you don’t like something then remove it, if you want something more, add it. Your game, your way!
Options Menu
Under Options then Game Play, look for Inverse Kinematics. Turn this ON. Kinematics enables the feet to perform so that they rest more naturally on the terrain. If you thought your player looked a little wonky, this is probably why 😉
Combat Cues ON – this is very helpful, especially to a new player.
Custom Combat Colors – you decide. I like to change it up. There is a LOT going on during combat especially if you’re in a group situation and for a new player, it can become overwhelming. Changing the friendly and enemy combat colors can really help a lot. You can also adjust the brightness of those new colors and test them out.
Prevent Attacking Innocents ON – this will help a new player with fumbling fingers NOT get a bounty 🙂 As you develop your skills, you can turn it off if you’d like. Once you begin the Dark Brotherhood, you’ll need to turn it off.
Quick Cast Ground Abilities AUTOMATIC
Companion Ultimate Auto Cast ON
These two allow these abilities to be cast without the need for additional confirmation. This is one less button push and very helpful to beginners.
Consolidate Area Loot ON
Auto Loot ON
Auto Loot Stolen Items OFF
Instead of looting items one by one, you’ll be able to pick up the entire area in one swoop. And you won’t have sticky fingers by looting stolen items. Of course, when you enter into the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild skill lines, you’ll want to reconsider this option for stolen items.
Interface Options
Under Interface then Head’s Up Display Prefer UserID – this option allows you to see the player name, not the character name. This is very useful if someone uses multiple toons.
Group Revive Counter ALWAYS SHOW
Next is a series of Quest Trackers, Compass, and other Indicators all ON except for Only Known Players and Self – those should be OFF. All these things will be very helpful for you as a new player and will help you to head in the correct direction.
Nameplates For Everyone
Nameplates ON – this is very helpful for a new player to find a merchant, banker, etc. If it’s annoying, you can turn it off. Typically anything SELF is turned OFF or NEVER.
Some of the other options that are pretty helpful in this area are as follows:
Group Members (Show) ALWAYS – you want to see who’s in your group.
Group Members (Highlight) INJURED OR TARGETED – this will alert you to a group member who’s in trouble.
Friendly Players ALWAYS – make some new friends.
Friendly Players (Highlight) INJURED OR TARGETED – same as with group members, you will be able to tell who needs help.
Friendly NPCs NEVER – it’s just too much unnecessary info for my taste.
Enemy NPCs (Show) ALWAYS – you want to clearly know who your enemy is.
Enemy NPCs (Highlight) INJURED OR TARGETED – capitalize on an opportunity 🙂
Enemy Players (Show) ALWAYS – same reason as NPCs.
Enemy Players (Highlight) INJURED OR TARGETED – use all the advantages you can get.
Combat Options
Located under the Combat are you will find:
Healthbars – all ON – you can never have too much information here.
Ability bars, resource numbers, ultimate numbers, ALWAYS SHOW or ON. I like NUMBER & PERCENT too.
Active Combat Tips ON – very helpful, especially to a new player.
Buff & Debuffs turn everything ON – as you become more familiar with the game, you may want to turn off some of these things but for a newer player, they provide you with a TON of useful information.
Lastly, until you’re feeling it, under Social, set Auto Decline Duels to ON. While dueling certainly has its place, the number of requests for a new player can be terribly overwhelming. This setting with automatically decline all duel invites.
Your ESO Life Is Forever Changed
If you’ve not done this before, you will be amazed at all the information you have now just gained. As mentioned earlier, as you become more familiar with the game, you can change these settings at any time. Some you may want to always keep, others you may not. But this advice will get you started on your adventures in Tamriel.
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