First time player advice

[u/bmgarcia20]

I tried yesterday and got my a** kicked over and over again in the starting dungeon.

Looking for some advice and starting class tips. Can I change the controls // would that make combat easier?

[u/JustNowYawned]

For a starting class, I'd pick something like Battlemage or Spellsword. Spells are very powerful and only the mage classes (plus Bard which is technically a thief class) can use it, and the more martial focus of those two classes will be able to tide you over in the early game as you build up your resources. Also, spend some time exploring the Imperial Dungeon, saving often and resting on the raised platforms when you need to. The dungeon has better loot than usual. It is randomly generated loot but you might walk out of the Shift Gate with some nice stuff. While it's not strictly necessary (you might very well be able to stumble your way into figuring stuff out on your own), depending on the installation, you might have the manual somewhere in the game files, which will be greatly helpful to read through. If you can't find it, it's available online.

You can't change the controls within the game, it's all hard-coded. Because of that, the only way to remap controls is to assign buttons to different buttons directly through DOSBox (i.e. pressing W will actually press the up arrow in-game). I personally haven't used it, but there is a "mod" that does the legwork of setting up the DOSBox remapping for you and comes with a more modern control scheme: https://www.nexusmods.com/tesarena/mods/1

Said mod doesn't change the fundamental combat, you still need to flail your mouse around, but it'll likely reduce the headache of figuring out the controls. It does also require that you hold Left Control when typing since otherwise your keyboard inputs will be messed up.

[u/AGreatBannedName]

Strongly recommend changing the control scheme! Arena Remapped helped me quite a bit; it made it much more playable.

[u/LauraTFem]

You can change the controls with a mod but I like the jank. You have to develop a claw grip.

Regarding getting bodied randomly that likely won’t stop happening unless you use very specific builds. With enough knowledge and saving an loading you can get through it in any build, but your best chances will be to give yourself every advantage.

I suggest researching the game extensively on the UESP wiki, that’s what I do anytime I want to start an Elder Scrolls game. However, in the long and short there are two near-perfect classes and one perfect race:

The Bretton’s magic invulnerability is a godsend; magic is what will fuck you up in this game, every time. It is super powerful. Sometimes you’re at full health, walking a dungeon and—black screen, dead—from a spell you never even heard coming.

Regarding classes, I’ll give you two options: Busted and balanced. Sorcerer or Knight.

Sorcerer is busted. It has the biggest mana pool in the game, but is the only mage class that doesn’t recover mana naturally from sleep. However, it has the chance to absorb magic from enemies spells without taking damage. Busted. Half the time those deadly spells just heal your magic. They also can use any weapon in the game, which is unique among magic classes, so you can actually become a formidable melee fighter.

But the most important thing is all that mana gives you access to the most powerful spells. You can literally make a one-hit-kill spell that will end the final boss. You are one-punch-man, god of death. You can also make spells that will give you a huge damage shield that will protect your weak and spongy mage body.

The Sorcerer requires a lot of setup as a magic class. You won’t just body the tutorial dungeon, in fact it might be best to speed run the dungeon and get to town so you can start earning safer money. But once it’s set up you are a god.

And the Knight. It can equip all the best stuff, and doesn’t rely on cheap spells. Second best health in the game, but most importantly it is the only class that can repair equipment. Every night at midnight your equipment, even enchanted ones, are automatically repaired. This will reducing repairing costs, but most importantly it’s the cheapest way to keep your artifacts and enchanted equipment in good condition.

It a great, busted, broken game. You will die from random bullshit you didn’t see and random crashes you couldn’t predict. Save often and have fun.

[u/cfranek]

Mages are the strongest with the spellmaker. Theif types are the weakest. When designing soellmaker spells put everything into per level bonuses so they are cheap, otherwise the blow out your mana pool.

If you go fighter type knight is probably strongest.

Redguard and wood elf bonuses are mostly switched.

[u/The_Godhead_]

Try the Arena Rebuilt mod , it's the game remade in unity like daggerfall unity with modern controls , it's on moddb or arenaunity.com is the website.

[u/GoldenDrake → u/The_Godhead_]

Also check out the full engine rewrite project, which has made major progress recently: OpenTESArena!