(This is a guide for a discord server called AAC which explains the basics of the game)

ESO has a very simple way of monetizing itself.
You have access to a crown-store and ESO+ for extra monetization once you buy the base game.
In the crown store you can buy crowns which are used to buy cosmetics such as mounts, pets, and costumes (mounts in ESO are all the same speed and depend on your own riding level).

You can also gain all these things by doing achievements (not the same mounts/costumes, since that would make those achievements seems less prestigious). Achievements in ESO are things such as clearing a dungeon on hard-mode with a time limit. Hard mode in ESO means you are supposed to intentionally avoid mechanics which might assist you, or you fight a stronger/smarter boss.

Every year there is a new expansion, and there are 4 new DLCs related to said expansion during that year. All the DLCs and Expansions are available in the crown-store except for the newest expansion which must be bought to get. You will not be able to get the newest expansion from the crown store until the next expansion comes out. The reason for this is because trading crowns to gold is not only a common occurrence but also a legal activity in ESO. You are supposed to be able to grind your way into getting all the DLC content. As an ESO+ member, you will gain access to all the DLC so long as your maintain your subscription but you will not get the newest expansion either.

For reference, an expansion might cost around 3,500 crowns and a DLC might cost 1,500 crowns. Each crown is worth 100 gold, so if I wanted to buy one of the older expansions I would around 350,000 gold. That's the same worth as 2 semi-rare world boss drops, and about 1/4 the worth of an extremely rare boss drop such as a full style page (a cosmetic drop). If I wanted to grind that amount of gold by just doing dailies, it would likely only take a couple days.

Would I say ESO is pay to win? No. You can trade crowns for gold in this game, but most of the high end gear isn't actually trade-able (raid boss gear), neither are the cosmetics that you get from raid achievements. ESO is pay to play, but it gives you the option to pay less to play more.

As a lower level player, you will have higher base stats but less access to skills which might provide an advantage. Every level you will receive a skillpoint and the ability to put points in Health/Stamina/Magicka. Any equipment you find aside from traded equipment will be dropped at your level. This caps once you are level 50 with 160cp. All skill-lines cap at level 50, and so does your actual level (meaning no more skill-points). Once you are at level 50 you can infinitely gain champion points which are allocated to gain minor stat-buffs. At 160cp you can gain the max level gear, meaning you are finally viable to trading decent items to other players for money.

In ESO there are skill-lines which you level by gaining EXP in those specific skill-lines. The skills which gain EXP are determined by what skills you have on your bar (and since ESO has a bar-swap system, that means that you only need 1 of your bars to have the skills you want to level up.)

There are multiple different kinds of skills which level up in unique ways:

Racial, Vampire, Werewolf = You gain any EXP

Class, Weapon, Armor skills = You have them equipped or on your bar when you receive EXP

Base Game Guild Skills (Fighter, Mage, Undaunted) = You participate in activities which pertain to the guild, Mages guild requires you to find lore books, Fighters guild makes you kill undead, Undaunted makes you clear dungeons.

DLC Guild Skills = requires you to clear their quests

As a new player, you have many options as to how exactly you want to level your character but it is generally necessary that you complete the (basegame) mainquest as it will provide you with alot of EXP and skillpoints. You can find the basegame mainquest by going to your alliance's capital and talking to an NPC that approaches you.

The most viable ways to level up are as follows:
Questing - This actually might be the slowest way to level up, but it gives you alot of unique cosmetic rewards and achievements. Also, the quests which typically take you across the map which gives you a chance to smoothly collect Skyshards (I'll explain that later)

Dungeon Queue - Once you get level 10, you can start queuing for random dungeons. These will skyrocket your EXP and each time you complete a new dungeon you will get a skillpoint. The great thing about this is that you can AFK farm while you're in queue.

Battlegrounds Queue or Below 50 PVP - This is a high-risk/high-reward way to level up, it can either be really fast or extremely slow depending on how good your class is in the early game and how good you are at PVP.

Mob Farming - You can go to large grinding spots when other players will be grinding many mobs at once, all you need to do is hit each one once and you can get all the EXP. The downside to this method is that you're really slow at leveling up without training gear (specially crafted gear for leveling up alt characters) and you won't get any skill points at all. Mob farming works best for players who already have a high level character and are looking to try another class.

* you will see Skyshards in the tutorials, but I'll just mention that they are collected for skill-points and can be found throughout the map (there are hundreds of them, dont expect to need them all or ever come close to getting them all.)

Every player has access to a set of basic abilities which can assist them in combat, and they should always be used.

1. Light attacks - this is the most basic attack, and since it has no actual animation you can use it between every single ability without any deficit. That's called "light attack weaving", and it is vital if you want to get a high DPS (damage per second)

2. Heavy attacks - especially useful in PVP for combo'ing players in a single burst animation, since you can hold it and quickly do a skill animation before it even hits. As a PVE player you will only use it when you need to restore stamina or magicka.

3. Block - use this for mitigating damage from attacks that you absolutely cannot avoid or heal through (because if you tried to heal through you would run out of magicka or stamina). In PVP you use blocking to stop people from CC'ing you.

4. Roll Dodge - it's literally just a dark-souls roll dodge, you are completely immune while in this animation. It also stops roots. (a root is an ability which locks in you place but does not stop you from casting)

5. Break Free - a high cost stamina command which you can use to stop any CC besides roots.

You also have access to 3 resource pools.
Health - pretty self explanatory
Stamina - consists of most melee weapons and classes (besides bow users)
Magicka - most mages, self-buff spells, and healers

Only the tank will ever need to allocate stat points into health, in ESO you use your stamina/magicka to sustain your hp with heals and shields. For this reason, every class is split up into 3 build categories: Stamina, Magicka, or Tank. You might see class names combined with one of these sub-types such as the phrase "Stamplar" or "Magplar" which means Stamina Templar and Magicka Templar.

In ESO the class you pick is only a mold to how you will play, theoretically any class can play any role (though some are more meta than others). The race you pick however is very important to making your build work. In general, there are 3 ways to build you character.

-Solo PVE
-Group PVE
-PVP

Class Meta only matters to players who want to play Group PVE, since all that matters is how well they can deal damage, heal, or mitigate damage. The best healers, tanks, and dps are as follows.

Tanks:
1. Dragonknight
2. Necromancer/Warden
3. Nightblade

DPS:
this is the meta that changes the most so I'm just going to list which classes are most commonly meta as DPS
1. Stamina/Magicka Nightblade
2. Magicka Sorcerer/Magicka and Stamina Necromancer
3. all else

Healer:
1. Warden or Templar (all healers are magicka)


**Note that Warden and Necro are classes added by expansions, so if you want to get them you'll need to either buy the expansion with money or directly buy the class with crowns. You can "trade" gold to crowns by giving someone gold in exchange for a gift from the shop (as in they buy it for your account rather than for themselves),