Champion Points 1.0: How Did They Work?

What are Champion Points?

The Champion Points system was introduced to The Elder Scrolls Online quite a long time ago to serve as both a marker and reward for endgame progression once players hit Level 50. As it currently stands, once a character reaches Level 50, the player will start accumulating Champion Points by gaining experience points. If the player were to make a new character that new character cannot earn Champion Points as it must get to Level 50 first.

Note that once you earn Champion Points, these Champion Points can be used by every character on your entire account including characters below Level 50. Getting these Champion Points allow you to allocate towards very potent perks and passives in terms of damage, damage mitigation and sustain.

With the phasing out of the old "Veteran Ranks", Champion Points are now also an indication of your "rank" or "level" post-Level 50. This means that item sets after Level 49 will scale to "CP" (Champion Points) scaling from CP10 (formerly Veteran Rank 1) to CP160 (formerly Veteran Rank 16).

All item sets cap out at Champion Point rank 160, however after you reach CP160, you can continuously gain more Champion Points letting you unlock even more perks and drawing more power from the passives offered by the system.

In addition to this, getting up to and investing 300 Champion Points will give more max stats to your Health (red CP), Stamina (green CP) and Magicka (blue CP) pools across all your characters. After 300CP, you no longer get free max stat gains.

Currently the most Champion Points you can use is 810 Champion Points. While you can continue to earn even more Champion Points with more XP gain, those Champion Points cannot be used. The absolute limit is 3600 Champion Points though very few players have come close to this number.

Enlightenment/XP Boost

If all of this sounds too grindy to you, don't worry! The game has substantially reduced a lot of the grindy aspects compared since its launch in 2014.

For example "Enlightenment" (which stacks up to 14 days on your account even if you're not logging in) will let you earn millions of experience points at a much faster rate allowing you to acquire more needed Champion Points. The amount of XP you need per Champion Point scales off of how many Champion Points you possess meaning the lower CP you are, the faster it is to earn more CP while the higher CP you are, the slower it may be to earn more CP when grinding.

The Warrior, The Thief and The Mage Constellations

To simplify things, there are three constellations or branches per type of Champion Point totaling up to 9 different most players will refer to the "Warrior" Champion Points as "red CP", the "Mage" Champion Points as "blue CP" and the "Thief" Champion Points as "green CP".

You can put up to 100 points into each passive modifier (whether it's a passive that buffs your Damage Over Time effects or your mitigation against physical damage) although with the cap of 810 Champion Points you may need to think about where you'd get the most benefits with the limited amount of points you own.

The 'up to' values shown below per Champion Point passive will reflect 100 points put into that node.

Red - Related to Damage Mitigation, Healing Received

The Steed

• Ironclad (Reduces the damage you take from Direct Damage type attacks by up to 25%).
• Spell Shield (Increases your Spell Resistance up to 5280 points).
• Medium Armor Focus (Increases your Physical Resistance up to 5280 when 5 or more Medium Armor pieces are equipped).
• Resistant (Reduces the amount of damage you take from player Critical Hits up to 1650).

The Lady

• Hardy (Reduces Poison, Disease and Physical Damage dealt to you up to 15%).
• Elemental Defender (Reduces Flame, Frost, Shock and Magic Damage dealt to you up to 15%).
• Light Armor Focus (Increases your Physical Resistance up to 5280 when 5 or more Light Armor pieces are equipped).
• Thick Skinned (Reduces the damage you take from Damage Over Time effects up to 25%).

The Lord

• Bastion (Increases the value of your damage shields up to 25% except Conjured Ward and Annulment if they are hitting the health cap).
• Expert Defender (Reduces damage taken from Players' Light and Heavy Attacks up to 35%).
• Heavy Armor Focus (Increases your Physical Resistance up to 5280 when 5 or more Heavy Armor pieces are equipped).
• Quick Recovery (Increases the effectiveness of your Healing Received up to 15%).

Green - Related to Sustain

The Tower

• Siphoner (When light or heavy attacking a player, you decrease their Health, Magicka and Stamina resource restore and recovery up to 15% for 3 seconds).
• Warlord (Reduces the Stamina cost of you Breaking Free up to 25%).
• Sprinter (Reduces the Stamina cost of you Sprinting up to 35%).
• Bashing Focus (Reduces the Stamina cost of your Bash attacks up to 35%).

The Lover

• Tenacity (Increases the amount of Magicka or Stamina your Heavy Attacks restore up to 15%).
• Arcanist (Increases your Magicka Recovery up to 15%).
• Mooncalf (Increases your Stamina Recovery up to 15%).
• Healthy (Increases your Health Recovery up to 15%).

The Shadow

• Befoul (Increases the effectiveness of your healing reduction abilities up to 35%).
• Shade (Reduces the Stamina cost of moving while in Stealth up to 35%).
• Tumbling (Reduces the Stamina cost of Roll Dodge up to 25%).
• Shadow Ward (Reduces the cost of Blocking up to 25%).

Blue - Related to Healing Done, Damage Done

The Apprentice

• Blessed (Increases the effectiveness of your Healing Done up to 15%).
• Elemental Expert (Increases your Flame, Frost, Shock and Magic Damage up to 15%).
• Elfborn (Increases damage and healing dealt from your Critical Strikes with Magicka Abilities up to 25%).
• Spell Erosion (Increases your Spell Penetration up to 5280).

The Atronach

• Staff Expert (Increases the damage of your Light and Heavy attacks with Destruction and Restoration Staves up to 35%).
• Physical Weapon Expert (Increases the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks with Bows, Daggers, both one hander and two hander Swords, Axes and Maces up to 35%).
• Master-at-Arms (Increases the damage of your Direct Damage attacks up to 25%).
• Shattering Blows (Increases your damage done against enemies with a Damage Shield up to 25%).

The Ritual

• Mighty (Increases your Physical, Poison and Disease Damage up to 15%).
• Thaumaturge (Increases the damage of your Damage Over Time effects up to 25%).
• Precise Strikes (Increases the damage and healing dealt from your Critical Strikes with Stamina Abilities up to 25%).
• Piercing (Increases your Physical Penetration up to 5280).

Perks

By this point you will notice that you can only put points into 4 out of 8 nodes per Champion Point constellation. These nodes that may or may not "light up" you cannot interact with are referred to as Champion Point perks. These useful or powerful or sometimes not so great passives are unlocked when you put a certain amount of points into their respective constellations.

This means if you want a Perk that unlocks at "The Steed Rank 10", you need to simply put 10 points overall into any of the Champion Point passives in the Steed constellation.

The Steed

Invigorating Bash (Unlocked at 10 Points): When you use Bash, you have a 20% chance to heal for X Health.

Phase (Unlocked at 30 Points): When you use Roll Dodge, your Physical and Spell Resistance is increased by 660 for 3 seconds.

Resilient (Unlocked at 75 Points): When you take Critical Damage from players, you heal for X Health.

Reinforced (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you begin Bracing/Blocking, you gain a damage shield that absorbs 1254 damage for 3 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.

The Lady

Spell Absorption (Unlocked at 10 Points): When you take Flame, Frost, Shock, Magic or Oblivion Damage equal to 30% of your Max Health, you restore 3465 Magicka. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.

Bulwark (Unlocked at 30 Points): While you have a Shield or Frost Staff equipped, your Spell and Physical Resistance is increased by 1500.

Critical Leech (Unlocked at 75 Points): When you deal Critical Damage, you heal for 330 Health. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

Unchained (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you Break Free, the cost of your next Stamina Ability used within 5 seconds is reduced by 80%.

The Lord

Field Physician (Unlocked at 10 Points): While you are resurrecting another player, your damage taken is reduced by 15%.

Infusion (Unlocked at 30 Points): When you resurrect another player, you increase their Magicka Recovery by X for 8 seconds.

Revival (Unlocked at 75 Points): When you are resurrected by another player, you gain a damage shield that absorbs 10,230 damage for 5 seconds.

Determination (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you drink a potion, you gain a damage shield that absorbs 1287 damage for 15 seconds.

The Tower

Ensnare (Unlocked at 10 Points): When you Bash an enemy, you have a 33% chance to reduce the enemy's Movement Speed by 20% for 3 seconds.

Inspiration Boost (Unlocked at 30 Points): Increases your crafting inspiration gained by 20%.

Mara's Gift (Unlocked at 75 Points): When you die, you heal all allies within 8 meters of you for 3300 Health.

War Mount (Unlocked at 120 Points): Improves your master with mounts, removing all mount Stamina costs outside of combat.

The Lover

Plentiful Harvest (Unlocked at 10 Points): You have a 10% chance to gain double the yield from normal resource nodes. 

Synergizer (Unlocked at 30 Points): When you activate a Synergy ability, you generate 2 ultimate.

Master Gatherer (Unlocked at 75 Points): Reduces your gathering time by 50%.

Windrunning (Unlocked at 120 Points): Increases your Movement Speed and Mounted Speed by 2%. Increases your Health and Magicka Recovery by 10% while you are Sprinting.

The Shadow

Fortune Seeker (Unlocked at 10 Points): Increases the amount of gold you find in treasure chests and safe boxes by 50%.

Merchant Favored (Unlocked at 30 Points): Reduces the cost of repairing your armor by 10%.

Treasure Hunter (Unlocked at 75 Points): Increases the quality of items you find in treasure chests.

Shadowstrike (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you kill an enemy with a Heavy Attack, you become invisible for 2.5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

The Apprentice

Vengeance (Unlocked at 10 Points): When you block 3 spells within 10 seconds of each other, your next damaging Magicka ability used within 5 seconds will always be a Critical Strike.

Spell Precision (Unlocked at 30 Points): Increase your Spell Critical by 9%.

Foresight (Unlocked at 75 Points): When you drink a potion, the cost of your next Magicka ability used within 7 seconds is reduced by 80%.

Arcane Well (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you kill an enemy, you have a 20% chance to restore X Magicka for up to 3 friendly targets within 2.5 meters of the enemy.

The Atronach

Retaliation (Unlocked at 10 Points): When you block a Heavy Attack, your next Light Attack used within 7 seconds deals 30% additional damage.

Riposte (Unlocked at 30 Points): When you block a melee attack, you have a 15% chance to deal X Physical Damage to the enemy. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

Butcher (Unlocked at 75 Points): Increases your damage done with Light and Heavy Attacks by 5% to enemies below 25% Health.

Tactician (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you Roll Dodge to dodge an attack, you set the enemy Off Balance.

The Ritual

Opportunist (Unlocked at 10 Points): When you interrupt an enemy, your next Physical Damage ability used within 7 seconds deals 15% additional damage.

Perfect Strike (Unlocked at 30 Points): Increases your Weapon Critical by 9%.

Exploiter (Unlocked at 75 Points): Increases your damage done against Off Balanced enemies by 10%.

Last Stand (Unlocked at 120 Points): When you fall below 20% Health, you gain Major Heroism, granting 3 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds for 9 seconds. This effect can occur once every 20 seconds.

Diminishing Returns

Champion Points are very "front loaded" meaning the first points you put into each passive are going to produce more effective gain than you would at a certain threshold after putting in many points.

For example:

You will notice that the jump from putting 26 points into Spell Shield to 27 points into Spell Shield will net you an additional 78 Spell Resistance but:

Putting another point from 50 into Spell Shield to 51 will only net you an additional 52 Spell Resistance, a lower value than you would see with less points into this node which means you could consider putting this point or more towards a different node to get the most out of your Champion Points!

Additionally at a particular point for certain modifiers, 14% may not even make a noticeable difference compared to 13%, etc.

Jump Points

Champion Points Percentages are rounded down. So something like 18.72 percent is actually 18 percent, instead of 19 percent or 18.72 percent exact. This means that the difference between 18.00000001 and 18.99999999 is nonexistent for all intents and purposes in ESO; both will round down to 18 percent.

So jump points are just the number of CP you need to put into a node to "jump" to the next whole number. The exceptions are the 19 percent and 23 percent jump points (i.e. 51 and 72 points). In the game code, these are actually 18.99999999 and 22.999999999, but are displayed as 19 and 23. However, since they aren't actually hitting 19.0 or 23.0, they are rounded down to 18 and 22 instead.

Thaumaturge at 72 however seems to still go to 23%.

Hardy, Elemental Defender, Quick Recovery, Mooncalf, Arcanist, Healthy, Tenacity, Siphoner, Blessed, Elemental Expert and Mighty are affected by Jump Points as shown in the chart below showing their Jump Points:

Ironclad, Thick Skinned, Bastion, Elfborn, Shattering Blows, Master-at-Arms, Precise Strikes and Thaumaturge are affected by Jump Points as shown in the chart below showing their Jump Points:

Befoul, Expert Defender, Staff Expert, and Physical Weapon Expert are affected by Jump Points as shown in the chart below showing their Jump Points:

The following Champion Points are not affected by Jump Points:

Asayre's thread on the official forums goes over the Jump Points and the Champion Point system in great detail.

Optimizing Champion Points

"Optimizing" Champion Points simply means critically thinking about what would be most beneficial for your build and your situation.

For example, if the most occurring damage that may kill you in Aetherian Archive is going to be magicka based damage, you would want to invest more into Elemental Defender.

How many points you would want into Spell Erosion or Piercing will also vary on the groups you run with or how many points into Tumbling you think you may need may depend on your PvP build.

For reference, definitely check out our Champion Points allocations which have been fine-tuned.