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Elder Scrolls Online Elsweyr: 6 Biggest Changes

In this Elder Scrolls Online article we’re going to be taking a look at some of the bigger changes coming to the MMO, along with some of the smaller ones. Elsweyr releases in just a few days, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t give you a heads up of what’s in store. We have not covered Class changes in this, and these will be covered by a separate article, since there are simply too many to list here. So, keep your eyes out for that while we fill you in on the changes coming with Elsweyr.

Elder Scrolls Online Elsweyr: 6 Biggest Changes

The first of the major changes to the game probably comes as no surprise since it’s been advertised all over the place, and that is the addition of Necromancers to ESO. Players will finally get to summon undead and use the forces of darkness to aid Tamriel.

1. New Class – Necromancer

The Necromancer Class features 3 new Skill Lines: Grave Lord, Bone Tyrant and Living Death, and these are their DPS, Tanking and Healing lines respectively. Though this Class is not a “Minion Master” type of Necromancer that maybe some players wanted, you can summon at least 1 undead at a time and use corpses to further enhance your spells, some of which use the undead in unexpected ways.

In addition, practicing necromancy in Tamriel is a criminal act. In most cases, mages caught casting necromantic spells can feign ignorance or insist that the spell originates from a different school of magic. Some spells, however, are too horrific to overlook, and any necromantic ability marked as a “CRIMINAL ACT” is a major crime, and will offend the locals and alert the guards. You can see what these are in your Skill list or on the Wiki.

This Class will only be available to players who purchase the Necromancer expansion, and much like the Warden (at the launch of Morrowind), all early indications are that it will be very powerful at launch. Prepare for the rise of the Necromancer, as you see them spring to life all over Tamriel, including Cyrodiil. This brings us to our next topic: PvP.

2. PvP Artifacts

PvP Artifacts have finally made their way to Cyrodiil in ALL campaigns. These legendary Weapons will replace your entire skill bar with a brand new set of Skills, and your stats will be adjusted accordingly as you become the living embodiment of these Weapons. These will spawn in Cyrodiil 4 or 5 times a day, but whether or not they will make their into Battlegrounds remains to be unseen, however it seems unlikely.

Players will have a small tutorial explaining these weapons led by none other than Sheogorath at each Alliance stater gate (where quest boards are located). There players will learn that you must keep feeding these weapons Alliance Points (repairing structures or resurrecting other players doesn’t count) or else the power of the weapon will drain your life, killing your character.

Currently only Volendrung has been added to the game, but more are expected to be added with future Updates, all containing their own unique Skills.

3. Cyrodiil Campaign Adjustments

All currently-existing campaigns will be shut down once Elsweyr launches, and will be replaced with entirely new ones. In keeping with the Season of the Dragon, Zenimax will be introducing 6 brand new campaigns with some additional rules added, all named after Dragons. These are as follows:

    • Bahlokdaan: 30 Day No Champion Points & Alliance Locked
    • Kaalgrontiid: 30 Day Champion Points Enabled & Alliance Locked
    • Yolnahkriin: 7 Day Champion Points Enabled
    • Mulaamnir: Levels 10-49
    • Imperial City: No Champion Points
    • Imperial City: Champion Points Enabled

Alliance Locked Campaigns are a new style of Campaign that’s only being applied to 30 day variants. In these Campaigns, each account will only be able participate with, and represent, a single Alliance for the duration of the Campaign. This means no more switching between alts that belong to different factions if you don’t like how the map looks.

There are two methods of locking in your Alliance for a Campaign. In both cases, Alliance selection is determined by the Alliance of the character you are currently logged in with. Method 1: Assign a “home” Campaign in the Alliance War menu. Method 2: Enter Cyrodiil on a Campaign you’ve not previously joined. Once you’ve locked in your Alliance, only characters of the same Alliance on your account will be allowed to enter Cyrodiil in that Campaign.

There is no option to change your locked Alliance until the Campaign duration has elapsed. Multiple in-game notifications have been added to warn you when you’re about to join an Alliance-locked Campaign. Campaigns not flagged with the “Alliance locked” rule set remain unchanged. Any character above level 10 from any Alliance can play in those Campaigns at any time.

Imperial City is now its own Campaign and the doors in Cyrodiil have been shut down and no longer work. To get into Imperial City, you simply use the Campaign selection menu. You’ll end up in the Sewers just as if you had entered from Cyrodiil. Note that Imperial City now has its own population cap (including the Sewers and Districts) which is now removed from Cyrodiil’s population caps. Rejoice!

Guest Campaign will no longer exist as a status, so you no longer need to manage your “guest” Campaign and are now free to play in any Campaign at will. Note that a Home Campaign status is still needed for earning Leaderboard rewards at the end of Campaigns and participating in Emperorship leaderboards. Emperor Leaderboards have also been adjusted. Once you have served as Emperor in a Campaign, you cannot be crowned as an Emperor for a different Alliance for the rest of that Campaign’s duration.

A few other miscellaneous Cyrodiil changes are as follows:

  • Melee guards will no longer use Bash or Power Bash.
  • The roof of “cathedral” style Keeps can no longer be destroyed, such as Bloodmayne.
  • Towers can no longer be destroyed.
  • Siege damage in CP-Enabled Campaigns will now hit approximately 30% harder than prior update adjustments. Damage in No-CP Campaigns remains the same.

4. Guild Finder

Guild leaders now have the ability to list their guild within the Guild Finder, a new tool for connecting players to like-minded guilds. A new section is present within the Guild menu for Recruitment. Here, a guild leader can fill out information about their guild, as well as include a custom headline and a guild description. Once they’ve provided enough information, they can then list their guild in the Guild Finder. Other players within the guild will be able to see their guild’s listing while it is active as well.

If you’re looking for a guild, you can now access the Guild Finder within the guilds menu, located below the list of any guilds you may be currently in. From here, you can browse by multiple different types of guilds and filter down potential matches by several additional criteria. Once you’ve found a guild that looks like a fit, you can send an application to the guild that includes some basic information about your character and account, as well as the option to include a custom message. Members of a guild with the new “Manage Applications” permission will be able to view and respond to applications. Accepting an application adds the player to your guild, and declining removes their application.

5. Skyshard Achievements for Alternate Characters

Fully completing a Skyshard Hunter achievement on one character will now unlock the ability to purchase that achievement on other characters from the Crown Store. The purchased achievement will award all associated Skillpoints, or any remaining Skillpoints, that your current character has not yet acquired. This is huge because one of the biggest things that prevents players from rolling alts is not the XP needed to reach max level, but the Skillpoint grind. This will give players the option to bypass this all together, albeit for money. Still I’d rather have this option than not, and will probably end up using this on my Necromancer, as I have a ton of Crowns from ESO Plus with nothing to spend them on.

Image taken from PTS, does not reflect updated crown prices

6. Dragons

Lastly, it wouldn’t be the season of the Dragon without actually having Dragons, and now they have finally made their way to Elder Scrolls Online. With the Elsweyr Expansion players will face these terrifyingly huge monstrosities out on the landscape, and they will need all the help they can get to bring them down. Featuring unique mechanics and health pools of 8 figures, Dragons will not be defeated without the help of many players, and they should see tons of action at launch. Imagine Dark Anchors at the release of One Tamriel, but more fun…and with Dragons!

But that’s not the only place players will face them, as they make an appearance in the game’s new Trial: Sunspire, as well. There you will do battle with several Dragons, again all with their own mechanics, and all new Trial Sets as rewards. Team up with 11 other to take them down, in Normal, Veteran, or Hard Mode.

Miscellaneous Changes

In this section we’ll take a look at some miscellaneous changes coming to the game that are somewhat notable and we felt should be shared. These are as follows:

  • Removed the 200ms post global cooldown from cast time abilities. This was done to improve the feeling of using these abilities in rapid succession with other abilities, to allow for a more fluid transition, and less down time between usage. We also made some adjustments to the cast times and power levels of specific abilities, which will be called out on a per case basis in further notes. Note that channeled beam attacks, such as Soul Assault or Radiant Destruction, retain the post global cooldown, but have had them reduced to 100ms rather than 200ms. This was done to prevent animation errors.
  • Player abilities that fear targets will no longer cause them to flee in terror. Instead, they will now cower in terror, unable to move while feared. Note that this does not affect abilities that monsters can cast. This should be an interesting change in Cyrodiil to say the least, oil anyone??
  • All Immobilizes from player abilities and item sets will now apply Immobilization Immunity once applied, to prevent multiple Immobilizes from applying on the same target. Once an Immobilize from these abilities ends, you gain immunity to Immobilizes for 3 seconds after, similar to the Dodge Roll mechanic. Thank god!
  • Befouled: Reduced the maximum value of this star to 35% from 55%. This was done to allow better balance between Healing bonuses and reductions within the CP system. RIP Befoul…
  • Decrease Health Enchant (Oblivion damage): Reduced the damage of this enchant by 33%. Probably a needed change.
  • Dubious Cameron Throne & Witch Mother’s Brew: Reduced the Max Health and Max Resource (Stamina or Magicka) granted by these drinks by approximately 12%. The Recoveries remain unchanged. Damn I have a full stack of Witch Mother’s…
  • Artaeum Takeaway Broth & Clockwork Citrus Filet: Reduced the Max Health and Max Resource granted by these foods by approximately 15%.
  • Shield Breaker: Redesigned this item set so it no longer deals damage when you Light Attack a target with a shield active. Now, it increases your damage dealt by 6% at all times. This effect is doubled when attacking targets with a damage shield active. This is a great change and will see a surge of players using this Set.
  • Removed the snare applied from all abilities that deal with character charges, leaps, teleports, or other movements. Removed all minimum ranges from these abilities. Drastically increased the speed of all of these abilities, and increased their auxiliary effects’ (damage, debuffs, etc.) range to ensure they always apply to their target. Note: Dragon Leap and its morphs are an exclusion to some of these changes. They will continue to fire a snare, which has new visual effects introduced to it. This is due to the fact it cannot be used in quick succession compared to other instant cast abilities. Dragon Leap has had its speed increased as well, but not as drastically, to ensure the visual fidelity remains.

Final Thoughts

These are some pretty big changes to the game, or I should really say improvements. The addition of Guild Finder will be a god send for new players and those who play less frequently, and should help Guilds in general become more active. I fully expect Guild rosters to see a substantial increase, and that’s great news for everyone. Nobody likes being a part of a dead guild, and Guild Leaders can get exhausted from recruiting constantly.

Cyrodiil has also made some great changes, with the addition of character locks for the 30 day campaigns. This prevents some players from just swapping to the character of the faction that’s dominating when things look grim. This should help to keep the longer campaigns more interesting, and with this change (and the the Imperial City change), hopefully decrease queue times to get into them as well.

Removing Guest Campaigns is also a great change, and I’m really looking forward to the increase in Siege damage in CP campaigns. This has been sorely needed for a long long time. What I’m not sold on is the new PvP Artifacts, as there is potential for abuse by factions already dominating. This is something that could go either way, and my guess is that we’ll find out real quick.

With the addition of the Skyshard Achievements carrying over to other characters if you pay in the Crown Store I think you will see many more players trying out new characters. There isn’t an overabundance of things to spend Crowns on if you’re like me and don’t care for all the cosmetics, and this seems like a good use of them. I am sure, however, we will see a few people scream “pay to win” at this addition. It should make for some “interesting” forum discussion to say the least.


Stay tuned as we dive into the Elsweyr Class Changes in detail. There were simply too many to fit in this article, so we decided to cover it separately. Elsweyr releases on PC on May 20th, and Xbox One and Playstation 4 on June 4th, 2019.

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