Elder Scrolls: Online

[Epona]

If you like that first dawn's wrath ability (I find it very handy as an opener against multiple targets whilst I run into Puncturing Sweep range), you'll love Radiant Destruction when you unlock it. It's single target and channeled, but you can move while channeling so can usually sidestep out of the red - it does seriously more damage against enemies under 50% health, so leave it until later in your rotation against bosses when you have already whittled them down, and watch their health bar melt. It's known as the "templar nuke" in PvP. I think you'll enjoy that skill

Templar is by far my favourite class (I actually hated it during beta for some reason!) because it's a great all-rounder with a bit of everything which makes it great for solo play, and for a magicka build you have a choice of healing or dps roles in groups, or as I do, dps with backup heals. A stamina templar can fit either dps or tank roles (although Dragonknight is a better natural tank as has more cc abilities, a templar is more than capable of tanking effectively) with a change of gear. They aren't particularly OP in any direction (except natural healing ability), but so so flexible.

EDIT to add: Stamina templar is also really fun to play, it doesn't have quite the resource sustainablity of the magicka build or the same level of 'oh shit' self-heal capability, but makes up for that in slightly increased physical resistance and high weapon damage/weapon crit. It's a build that is definitely best done mostly melée with the buff/heal from the 2H weapon line. There are a number of "when slotted" buffs from various skills that I use for my stamplar build which makes it a bit of a killing machine, and every so often daedra and undead just evaporate in a mess of blue flame when I hit them (due to Evil Hunter from the Fighter's Guild line, which is very satisfying). With that build, I do occasionally have to sit behind a rock panting whilst my stamina bar refills though

 

[Vintage Paw]

With your 2 maces, do you take any dw skills, or rely on class skills? If you're all magicka, you won't have much to play with while leaving enough for a couple or so dodge rolls in a pinch.

I've seen others talking about 2 swords because of the 3% damage increase rather than maces for less physical damage resistance. I'm going to re-read your post about that, because physical damage won't be racking up if you're only using spells, that's spell damage, right? So what's the benefit of the maces in that instance? (I understand about the trait bit, just the twin blade and blunt passive is confusing me a bit, as to what types of damage it applies to and how the numbers stack up - not that I'm looking to min-max, I just don't want to be useless.)

 

[Epona]

2 swords is better for hybrid builds that actually do weapon damage, 3% of barely any damage is not worth it for a pure magicka build imo. I don't slot any dw actives, I put most of my attribute points in magicka (with maybe a few in health at high levels, at VR16 the aim for a dps build should be to have health of around 20k with buffs from enchantments and consumables, highly competent players with lightning reflexes can get away with 18k but I do not fall into that category) so all that will happen is that a dw active will use a good portion of my stamina bar and not do a lot of damage whilst taking up a spot on my bar that could be used for something more effective.

I DO put some dw skills on my 2nd bar and switch to it to turn in quests, as it levels the dw skill line to unlock the passives quicker.

I do take some of the dw passives - Dual Wield Expert, Ruffian, and Twin Blade and Blunt - as I still mash light attacks between casting spells, but ignoring 10% physical resistance is, as I understand it, better than 3% extra damage for a pure magicka build. I don't honestly think it makes a vast amount of difference except to min/maxers mind you, so go with whatever you like the look of best.

 

[Epona]

Having said that, either maces or swords is preferable to axes or daggers - with the first 2, they always do that extra damage or armour penetration on every hit. Axes and daggers are a small chance of the passive doing anything at all over not having the passive, and as we all know, the RNG deities are cruel masters

 

[Epona]

Oh just looking over the last few posts and there's one more thing I wanted to say something about that I forgot in my excitement about discussing templars

It is in regards to thieving - you may not think it is worth laundering stuff, but every single item you process through a fence, whether fencing or laundering, is worth 1 point in legerdemain skill. Fenced blue thieving item gives you 1 point, fenced armour piece gives you 1 point, fenced lockpick gives you 1 point, a laundered ear of corn gives you 1 point, laundered recipe gives you 1 point, a laundered style mat gives you 1 point - so if you want to level legerdemain and don't mind thieving (there are a lot of palaces and noble homes in DC territories, not so much in AD but still ample opportunities for guilt-free theft), nick EVERYTHING and either fence or launder it, even if it's only worth 1g. (Try to split it about half and half between fencing and laundering, as your daily max for each is separate). If you're fussy about what items to nick, it will take forever to level the skill. And I quite like the sneak bonuses that the skill-line provides

 

[Vintage Paw]

Okay that's really useful, thank you. I haven't been to a fence yet so I don't know how much it costs - I was wary of it costing me more than the value of what I was having laundered/fenced. I'll give it a go, though. I'll go on a crime spree I stole everything I could from that Lady whatshername who wants that Jewelled Crown.

Talking of that, that's my favourite quest of the entire game so far. Just a pointless side quest but god, poor Stibbens! I chose to take the cursed crown, and as soon as Stibbens went to pick it up I was all, "no no NO NO NO!" trying to work out some way to stop him!!! That fucking quest. Sheer brilliance.

I figured daggers wouldn't be worthwhile, I think the tool tip says the bonus only applies to attacks with the daggers, or to dw skills? Can't remember, but I know I discounted it immediately. And axes is bleeding damage, which again presumably only applies when using the axes or dw skills? Still, while I love dots in general (and often build characters around that in some way in most games, dots and crit), I see no need to have any more other than the burning damage from the sun fire line.

I can't state (and restate) enough how much of a revelation healing is though. I know I'm only healing myself (although while I was hanging around a bit in Bad Man Hollows for the bosses to spawn I healed passing various people who were getting low on health), but it makes encounters far less stressful. Balancing magicka is the problem, needing to make sure you don't use it all in healing and end up with none for attacks (and in the heat of battle I always forget I have a weapon equipped that can do damage lol, and especially forget I can switch to my resto staff and actually get magicka back from heavy attacks... or is it health? I forget ... I know I get magicka back from something, might just be my glyph of choice when I can make them - magic damage and returns magicka with each hit... I think health back is from the passive). If I know a fight might be tough, I start by casting rapid regen on myself, then switch to destro, open with sun fire, then a heavy staff attack while they make their way to me (I'm lazy, let them do the leg work), then pummel them with puncturing sweep. I have BoL on both bars so I have a useful insta-heal should I drop too low, and I can switch back to resto now and again to recast rapid regen.

I mean, I love proper hard hitting dps characters, I always have - the feeling of awesomeness that comes from one-shotting, or from doing such huge amounts of damage that you don't need to worry about survivability too much. But I'm not the best player at these things (I'm much better in non-mmos where I can pause, take a break, save, think it through), and while I haven't had too many problems with my NB so far, it's always risky going up against bosses (I solo world bosses and public dungeon bosses a lot, because I tend to play quite late at night when there aren't many people around... sometimes I'll make a point of saving a really tough one for a weekend or early evening when there are more around - not a problem for you I guess since you're playing on US time). And I have to be very precise about how I open, from stealth with snipe, then straight to that fire arrow aoe, then straight to barrage(? the cone attack that pins them), then I usually throw a siphon on one of them, then I spam the cone one to keep them in place, and use that knockback single target bow skill if any get out of the fire arrow aoe. It's probably not that efficient in terms of raw dps, but I like the cc of it, and that if I'm effective even casters/archers can't get off any/many attacks against me because they're stunned a lot of the time. But with templar? I feel like I have more leeway because I can just heal myself in a number of ways should I fuck up.

I notice 2H has the same bonuses as DW, but obviously only the one weapon so you don't benefit from 2 traits and 2 glyphs. On my last templar, decades ago I was going bow and 2H because 2H seemed pretty fucking cool frankly. I saw some discussion on deltia's site (who... idk, I don't understand half of their replies in the comments, they seem unnecessarily vague sometimes) about 2H potentially being even better than DW, but I don't know what the reasoning was. As I said, I'm not planning on min-maxing, so it's not really an issue. And was it you or did I read it somewhere else? That levelling another weapon can be easier in Vet ranks anyway because the amount of xp ramps up? I guess the beauty is you're not limited to one build, and with Cyrodiil and various trials etc there's plenty to do to level up a new line if you want, even though it'll take a while, and you can respec when you want.

So, I see Wrothgar levels with you. Is it worth doing at some point early-ish, or would you recommend waiting until you're vet 14+ for the rewards? I know they're getting rid of VR, I don't know how it'll work though... just level up to 66? Will the champion system still kick in at a certain point? I haven't read about it much, so I don't know what exactly they're changing other than what they call it. And having never reached VR I don't know what's really that different about it atm anyway.

Gawd, sorry for the walls of text

 

[Vintage Paw]

Did they change the way soul trap works at some point?

Maybe my memory is bad, but back at the beginning I seem to remember unmorphed it affected 1 target, filled 1 soul gem, and one of the morphs was 2 targets, 2 soul gems.

Now unmorphed it's 2 targets 1 soul gems (sounds rude), and one of the morphs is 3 targets but still 1 soul gem. That I can understand, anyway. I'm going to morph it to the other one, so it gives back resources on death. I don't always have it on my bar (well, I do atm for templar, but that will change in time as I unlock other skills), but when it's there I find it useful.

 

[Epona]

I adore Stibbons and even Lady Laurent grew on me a bit - you will have more fun to come in the DC zones and in side-quests in Coldharbour - they are 2 of the reasons I suggested to play through the DC questline before doing Coldharbour on any character because they are superb, and amongst my favourite characters in the entire game (there are another 4 reasons besides that pair) and it just seems right that any player ought to get to know them a bit.

I really hated templar class during beta, like hated it with a passion. At that time it did very paltry damage, but has since been tweaked a few times to be a very competent dps class. Due to my less-than-great beta experience with the class, when the game went live, I tried every class except templar quite early on. Then I thought 'oh well, might as well give templar another shot' and was blown away. Even a stamina templar has better self-heal options than any other class in the game, making either build good for solo PvE.

You get magicka back from heavy staff attacks, and stamina back from heavy attacks with other weapons. 2H is the preferred weapon for stamina builds as with high stam just the basic attacks do high damage, and there is that stam based weapon damage + hot ability on the 2H skill line which is invaluable for stam builds, and pretty cheap - just use that skill on the run in to combat and do 20% more weapon damage, hot, and larger heal at the end of the duration, rinse and repeat. That and executioner, which is one of the best execute skills in the game for stamina builds, and wrecking blow is popular/unpopular in PvP. Those are why you see so many people using 2H weapons, I bet they are all stamina builds though. In terms of your magicka regen, gain a few levels and equip jewellery that either reduces magicka cost of spells, or increases regen rate - at VR levels and with arcane jewellery I don't tend to run out of magicka.

My advice would be to leave Wrothgar at least until you hit Veteran Rank - not because of the rewards (I think I deconned all my quest rewards, I don't recall anything very exciting other than the recipes you get for a side quest, and the costumes that you can unlock), but because if you do it while you are questing in your home faction pre-level 50, you'll get over-leveled for your home faction zones. Getting over-leveled is not much of a concern once you hit veteran rank (as content up to 5 vet ranks below your own VR level still counts as being within the level range of your character). You will probably want to continue doing the daily quests though once you max out, as often the reward contains a piece of Trinimac/Pariah/Briarheart dropped sets, which are fairly good for various builds (basically 1 set is for magicka builds, 1 for stam builds, and 1 for tanks).

When they eventually remove vet ranks, you'll get to 50 and then stop gaining levels, just switch straight onto champion points - the 2 systems run concurrently at the moment. Post level 50 gear will require a certain number of champion points to use it, so there will still be a high-end in terms of gear. The existing VR1-16 levels will (as far as I know) be replaced by a bonus of 10 cp and an attribute and skill point per old vet rank equivalent up to a total of 160 cp (making it equivalent to 16 veteran ranks in terms of attribute and skill points). We'll have to wait and see for the exact details.

I don't recall whether they changed soul trap as I haven't used it for a while, once you finish the main quest you're unlikely to need it to fill gems (unless going out filling soul gems for lower level characters that do not have access to the passive yet, in which case you want to fill gems quickly) as the soul lock passive in the main quest skill line usually means that soul gems do not stay empty for very long. It is not a bad skill in of itself though (ignoring the filling soul gems aspect of it). Another one to consider if you have a spare slot is Silver Bolts/Silver Shards from the Fighters Guild line, very handy against daedra and undead. Don't bother with the tether morph, it really annoys people if you start snatching enemies away from them when they are trying to melée (I'm usually pretty easy-going in game, but I've been known to log off and sulk when someone comes through a delve snatching enemies out of my melée range with tether or fiery chains it's more annoying than someone running through hostile territory/fleeing in terror and dropping a bunch of mobs on you whilst you are trying to talk to an npc or interact with a quest objective), the shards morph for multiple targets with a knockdown is way way better and won't piss anyone off!

 

[Epona]

As the NA server was down for a hotfix for a bit today, I hopped onto the EU server to see what sort of stuff I had and gave my bank/inventory a bit of a sort out - I seem to have a fair number of runes, so Vintage Paw - if you are still missing any that you need for writs, let me know and I'll see if I can send you some.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Thanks! I'll take a look next time I go on. I popped in briefly earlier to train horses and research, but I'm busy with other stuff today so might not get any playing done. I can't remember what my current writ is, nothing too onerous I don't think. Still haven't fulfilled that provisioner one. Can you abandon crafting writs in the hope of picking up a different one? I'll try it. I've looked in guild stores for both the recipes and the ready-made food/drink but no luck. (On the off-chance your EU characters can make them... carrot soup and golden lager, I think - really simple stuff but I can't find it at all.)

Enchanting is a pain in the arse to level, isn't it? I'm way above in character level what my enchanting level allows me to make, which is very annoying. I think I only have an enchanting level of 11, whereas I topped out provisioning days ago. I decon everything I find. I take a cursory look in guild stores for cheap glyphs to decon but I'm wary to spending too much money on them. I use up all my runes to make the highest level glyphs I can, but they give paltry amounts of inspiration.

In other news, I've been stealing in earnest. My NB is made for this, because I have a lot of stealth passives, and she has 2 levels of the final wood elf passive that extend the stealth radius too. I just snuck my way all through Skywatch (I was there to make a Night's Silence 2H sword) and stole everything I could lay my hands on through the market, crouched right next to guards ffs and no one noticed I just piflered the lock box in the mage's guild in Marburk, within touching distance of the guard.

My templar has a harder time of it, with no stealth passives of course, but it's still fun. Really looking forward to the thieve's guild as a result

 

[Vintage Paw]

Had a grumpy moment the other day when I remembered you can't join the same pvp campaign with characters of a different faction. Which, for someone who is levelling several characters at once, is a total fucking annoyance considering there's only one non-vet campaign. I wanted to take my templar in there at 3am when it'd be pretty quiet to try to get a bunch of skyshards. No such luck. I read they're looking at letting you drop a campaign, rather than transfer to another, so that's one (still annoying) way around it, whenever it comes, which might be months yet. I took my NB in there a week or so ago to try to get some of the last remaining shards... I'd been in there in a group when the game released and we went shard hunting through the whole map. I don't have many left to get at all. Still grumpy about my templar.

I don't want to transfer my NB to a vet campaign just so my templar can go in and get the skyshards, because I do want to pvp now and again, and I feel more confident doing that with my nb, but she'll be locked out if I transfer, because there's no way she'll get the alliance points to transfer back again.

 

[Epona]

Not sure what I can do in terms of food/drink for writs as I haven't really played on the EU server since the provisioning changes so not sure what I am able to make in terms of the new recipes, but I'll certainly have a look.

Really not sure what I was up to on the EU server at all but my inventory was a complete mess and my research was all over the place, and I hadn't upgraded a single horse I am trying to get some research sorted out now, because I will want to use those spare character slots in due course - I always get to a point where I want to start new characters and I'm pretty much filled up on the NA server, can't quite justify buying another copy of the game when I have spaces available on the other server.

The PvP campaigns are really annoying in that regard, I wish there were a few more campaigns tbh, even with the vet campaigns there are only 4 of them, so even then if you have characters in each faction and decide you want to switch campaigns it's a complete pain in the arse. I don't normally do PvP until vet level simply because I normally level a character in each faction concurrently (yes that is a bit weird, but I like to compare stats between them at various stages of leveling).

 

[Epona]

Turns out I could do carrot soup and golden lager, you should have a mail from me

 

[Vintage Paw]

OH! Thank you. Just about to log in briefly so I'll take a look

 

[Epona]

Let me know if there's anything else I might be able to help out with in terms of writs, it's the sort of thing it can be difficult to get started on until you have a stock of mats and recipes built up, and I have some bits and pieces lying around. I'm logging in on that server daily atm to try to get my research up to date for if/when I want to start new characters (serial altoholic), so if you send me an in-game mail I'm bound to see it.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Thanks, epona, will do.

I've barely started Stormhaven, but I went into Rivenspire last night to drop off one of my writs (enchanting, I think). Everything in the starting area is 2-3 levels above me and posing no problems. This is the problem with insisting on doing every side quest and killing everything in between (multiple times) - I'm constantly overlevelled. I went around and discovered a handful of shrines (I've already gone around and discovered all the ones in Stormhaven), which is another annoyance with these writs... realising it's telling you to go to another area you haven't discovered yet to drop them off.

Rivenspire is a nice change of scenery from the featureless grassy areas of Glenumbra and (so far) Stormhaven. I mean, they're pretty, but that gets boring after a while.

 

[Epona]

Oooh, camel mount coming up with the Thieves Guild, I've been wondering whether/when we'd get one. I might actually get that, it would make a lot of sense (in my own internal RP terms) to use a camel in the desert areas of the game

Repeatable activities include "heists" - can't wait to see what that entails.

March 7th release date for PC/Mac (that will likely mean 7th for NA server, 8th for EU server), March 22nd XBox, March 23rd PS4.

Oh and 64bit client (FINALLY) as part of the base game patch for PC/Mac.

 

[Epona]

Thanks, epona, will do.

I've barely started Stormhaven, but I went into Rivenspire last night to drop off one of my writs (enchanting, I think). Everything in the starting area is 2-3 levels above me and posing no problems. This is the problem with insisting on doing every side quest and killing everything in between (multiple times) - I'm constantly overlevelled. I went around and discovered a handful of shrines (I've already gone around and discovered all the ones in Stormhaven), which is another annoyance with these writs... realising it's telling you to go to another area you haven't discovered yet to drop them off.

Writs are REALLY annoying in that regard, why you can't pick them up anywhere and turn them in at any delivery station is beyond me. It gets doubly confusing if you get onto what should be vet level writs before you hit Vet rank, because normally you'd hand them in in Craglorn, which you can't go to until you hit VR, so they cap out at Coldharbour writs (which I think is VR1 mats) and if you need to get to Coldharbour before the questline takes you there, you'll need to get a port to Hollow City to turn them in because you can't just walk there. So it might be a good idea not to go above rank 5 in any craft (or stop doing writs temporarily) until you hit that point in the story. Max level writs turn in in Orsinium if you have the DLC, and anyone with the DLC can go there at any level, it makes no sense really.

It's a pain in the arse the way they've done it tbh. I could port you to Sentinel (Alik'R) and Evermore (Bangkorai) for DC and similar for the last 2 zones of AD, (can't recall where the writ turn in is in Malabal Tor, but it would be Rawl'kha for Reaper's March) but I didn't get as far as Coldharbour on any character, but if you're in a guild you will probably be able to find someone to assist!

Rivenspire is a nice change of scenery from the featureless grassy areas of Glenumbra and (so far) Stormhaven. I mean, they're pretty, but that gets boring after a while.

I know what you mean, I actually quite like Glenumbra as it kind of reminds me of childhood holidays camping in Wales (well, apart from the hazardous fauna, undead, and giant vines all over the place), but it is a bit same-old-same-old "could be anywhere in NW Europe" classic fantasy fare. Rivenspire is my favourite zone in the entire game, not just for the look of the place, but also the main zone quest is really good and there are some great characters.

 

[Epona]

I do wish fishing was a bit more... involved. I really want the fishing achievements, but my mind wanders after about 10 minutes and I start wasting bait because I find I am no longer looking at the screen for the reel-in cue. It doesn't help that Nate has been playing Rise of the Tomb Raider most of today and it is an interesting game to watch

 

[Vintage Paw]

I've got a couple of fishing add-ons - one of which has a big old visual cue on the screen when it's time to reel in. I think you can configure it to play a sound, too.

Votan's Fisherman

It plays nicely with Rare Fish Tracker which has a little overlay on screen (which you can keybind to hide) in every zone showing which rare fish you've already caught and which you still need.

I've been doing a bit more fishing, but I find collecting some of the bait an absolute chore (damn you, worms *shakes fist*). I have loads of insect parts (so many pretty butterflies in Rivenspire!!), and plenty of crawlers. Guts sometimes run low. But fucking worms

I've had a handful of greens and blues now, but I haven't completed a set for a whole zone yet.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Do you create little stories in your head about how your characters interact with the characters they meet, when you're not around and so on? I do

I haven't quite got to the point of wanting to write fanfic for it but I like thinking about what they get up to.

 

[Epona]

I use Rare Fish Tracker, and along with Destinations (which marks a whole load of fishing holes and water types on the map) helps me to work out where I need to fish. I will check out the Votan one though, having it make a noise at me would be really useful if I'm sitting staring into the distance completely zoned out or at Nate's monitor rather than watching my screen

Worms are definitely the worst to get as they only come from plant nodes and (occasionally) zombies, everything else you can pretty much farm. Glenumbra seems to have a lot of rats for some reason, some around each of the upturned carts off the road between Daggerfall and Delyn's Mill, and there are often rats in delves and frogs around the boggy areas (and plenty of frogs in Grahtwood too), so not too bad for guts.

I don't really think about what my characters might be up to when I am offline, I really don't have much creative imagination for such things I do RP them in terms of their motivations and responses when I am playing and they are each a bit different, but it doesn't really go any further than that for me. I'd be quite happy to read some fanfic though, I may be deficient in the imagination department myself, but I often enjoy what other people come up with

 

[Vintage Paw]

Oh yes, I have destinations too. I often find fishing holes that aren't marked on it, I don't know enough of what goes on under the hood to understand whether that means they've just been missed off, or whether rare fish never spawn in those spots. I'm presuming the former, but to be safe I stick to fishing holes that are marked

 

[Epona]

Oh yes, I have destinations too. I often find fishing holes that aren't marked on it, I don't know enough of what goes on under the hood to understand whether that means they've just been missed off, or whether rare fish never spawn in those spots. I'm presuming the former, but to be safe I stick to fishing holes that are marked

I think it's the former, it's just a massive job adding all the fishing holes, especially since they aren't always all active at the same time. It marks more fishing holes in the current version than it did 6 months ago, so I think it's just a case of "work in progress"

 

[Epona]

It's not as if fishing isn't worth it though, I just got 2 Kuta from a wet gunny sack

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Every time I try to get back into this, the lack of any meaningful kind of social interaction puts me off. The 'join multiple guilds' mechanic seems to actively work against forming relationships with guildmates, since you end up with hundreds and hundreds of people, none of whom are all that communicative for the same reasons.

Epona Vintage Paw Any suggestions for this? Is there a great resource for finding a guild that is right for your playstyle and is actually more than just a place to get cheap stuff?

 

[Epona]

Look for the right kind of guild - trade guilds exist purely to get a guild kiosk/for people to sell stuff to other players and don't tend to be very social (seriously, most trade guilds no-one even uses guild chat except to get price checks on items, and most don't organise any play events because trade guilds are usually cross-faction). Most guilds are trade guilds, and won't be what you are looking for - but that doesn't mean the smaller, more intimate play/social guilds where people actually get together and play don't exist - they are out there!

I suggest having a look on the official forum, there is a guild recruitment forum for each server, hopefully you will be able to find something that suits your needs there.

There is also a guild recruitment forum at Tamriel Foundry, which may be of use.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Also, how does the shared bank thing work if you delete characters? Since I haven't played for months I was planning to roll a brand new character, but the fact that he has a bank full of junk is kind of annoying. Can I liquidate all of the stuff in my bank on another toon and send my new one the gold before deleting it?

 

[Epona]

Yeah, just empty everything (including gold) off the character you want to delete into the bank, it will stay there.

Tbh though, if you have spare character slots then it's handy to have a couple of bank alts to hold stuff that you don't need just yet. Of course if you wanted to use the same name you'd have to delete the old character first anyway. But yeah, stuff is safe in your bank.

 

[Vintage Paw]

You can't send mail to yourself (i.e. to another of your characters) because it goes to your username, not to your characters. Mail is account wide, your bank is account wide, it's just your characters' individual bag space that is separate.

So yes, as epona says, stuff what you want to keep in the bank, inc gold, and then delete your character. The stuff will be there waiting for your new character the first time they go to the bank. Any bank space upgrades you've bought will persist, but any bag upgrades you'd paid for on your character will be lost, since as I say bag space is individual.

I always try to invest in bank space more often than bag space precisely because it persists across characters. (And don't forget that you can feed your horse so you have extra personal bag space... one feeding = one extra inventory slot.)