Straight out of the box Elder Scrolls Online needs a little bit of love in several departments. Fortunately the gaming community have taken to creating some excellent mods already. Although we’ll continue to add to this list, here are the top five essential add ons to get you started.

How to install Addons

Installing Addons in Elder Scrolls Online is super easy. Firstly, you need to locate your Elder Scrolls Online folder in “My Documents”. Once inside it you’ll see an “Addons” folder (if there isn’t one, just create a file called Addons). All you then need to do is download the Addons and drop them into this folder. When in game, simply type /reloadui and you’re up and running.

Foundary Tactical Combat

Elder Scrolls doesn’t, by default, come with scrolling combat text. If you’re unsure what that is, it’s basically a visual cue as to how much damage you and your opponent deal to one another. Numerical values during combat will fly off an enemy or yourself, providing you with information as to how much damage you’re dealing. Installing this mod is a question of information over immersion. The default UI for Elder Scrolls Online provides no numerical information as to how much damage you heal, how much stamina you have or what your health is as a %. Foundry Tactical Combat or FTC as it is commonly known provides accurate numerical information while also redesigning the basic user interface. What I like the most about this mod is the fact it’s minimal, has been tastefully done and doesn’t attempt to redesign the wheel. The new UI you’re presented with looks great and provides all the information you need while making a massive difference to combat.

Loot Drop

As an individual who always uses Auto Loot in MMOG’s, it’s frustrating in Elder Scrolls to not see what you pick up when you have it turned on. Fortunately there’s a lightweight addon for it. Loot Drop simply shows in the lower right hand corner of the screen the experience and items you acquire from an enemy. Simple.

Soul Gems Counter

Soul Gems in Elder Scrolls Online are used for resurrecting yourself and allies. In order to fill a soul gem, the Soul Trap ability must be used. With the current UI though, it’s difficult to know how many Soul Gems you actually have. Soul Gems provides a visual and numerical counter that you can place anywhere on your screen, it also allows you to customise what you want to see and how transparent it is by going into settings.

Inventory Grid View

Similar to Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online provides a list based UI which means a lot of scrolling and not much efficiency. In addition, the default UI doesn’t color items based on their rarity making sorting through your belongings a lengthy task. Inventory Grid View fixes both these problems instantly by placing your inventory, as you might expect, in a grid, while also coloring all items and their rarity.

Slightly Improved Experience Bar

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A very minor addon that adds makes tracking your experience easier. It prevents the experience bar disappearing when you close your user interface and it also provides a progression %. If you’re like me and want to know how close you are to leveling, it’s a must. I also like the fact it isn’t in your face like some of the alternative experience addons.

XrysGatherer

It’s actually really hard to see in ESO which crafting resources you can gather and which you can’t (especially plants) XrysGatherer allows you to track nodes, be alerted to them when they’re nearby and provides a history of nodes you’ve gathered. What you need to remember with any gatherer mod however is that they require you to gather first, before then recording the data. Although there isn’t a UI like the other addons in the settings window, there are slash commands:

  • /xrga alert - Toggles the display of the Node Alerter window
  • /xrga show - Shows the harvestHistory window with the latest data
  • /xrga hide - Hides the harvestHistory window, can also be closed with the X button
  • /xrga update - Rebuild the harvestHistory table with the latest data
  • /xrga history - Traverse the harvestHistory table and report all harvests in verbose mode
  • /xrga zone [zone] - Traverse the harvestHistory table and report on all harvests in the selected/current zone
  • /xrga item [item] - Traverse the harvestHistory table and report on all harvests of the selected/last item
  • /xrga itemtype [itemtype] - Traverse the harvestHistory table and report on all harvests of the selected item type or all itemtype harvests
  • /xrga tradeskill [tradeskill] - Traverse the harvestHistory table and report on all harvests of the selected tradeskill or all tradeskill harvests
  • /xrga help - Display the commands available

Wykkyd's Full Immersion

If you want Elder Scrolls Online to function much more like a single player RPG, to be fully immersed in the game world, you really can’t go far wrong with Wykkd’s Full Immersion addon. It basically strips the game back to its bare bones and removes all elements of the user interface, compass and more.

Wykkyd’s Outfitter

For anyone wishing to swap roles quickly Outfitter is pretty much a must have addon. It allows you to quickly swap and change roles and equipment with the click of a button from within the skill menu. Well worth having if you’re a hybrid or when leaving PvE for AvA.

Got an addon you think deserves to be on this list? Let me know at lewisb[at]tentonhammer.com or @PersistentWorld


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our The Elder Scrolls Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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