Elder Scrolls Online Necrom Preview – Arcanist Class and More! – A couple of days ago, we had a sneak peek preview of the much-awaited Necrom Chapter. 9 years in and 6 Chapters after, we’ll revisit Eastern Morrowind, specifically the Telvanni Peninsula. And then we’ll take a look at the Apocrypha Zone, which was last seen in Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC. In this Necrom Preview, we’ll also unpack the new Arcanist Class, Companions, and the Sanity’s Edge Trial so if you want to know the details behind the upcoming chapter in ESO, then this article is for you!

Elder Scrolls Online Necrom Preview (Shadow Over Morrowind)

Elder Scrolls Online Necrom Preview – Story & Setting

In ESO’s Necrom, players will make their way to two distinct Zones, namely the Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha, where players will encounter the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora. Hermaeus Mora is a highly intelligent being and Master of Fate who is extremely knowledgeable, and protective about the things he has discovered about the world. But with this knowledge comes a deadly secret that can bring about the ruin of Nirn and Tamriel the moment it escapes to the public. To make things worse, conspirators are also banding together against him. It’s through Leramil, the Prince of Fate’s Mortal Agent, that your journey begins.

Right off the bat, biomes in the Telvanni Peninsula will feel both familiar and alien just like in Morrowind because the areas are populated with lava, ash, rocky spires, giant mushrooms, and otherworldly creatures such as Ogrims roaming about. One could also say that this location is older than the Dark Elf Tribunal and that the City of Necrom is built on the corpses that Vivek slayed in one of his bloody conquests.

In terms of developing this huge and unpredictable storyline, Zenimax had to find a way to ground Hermaeus Mora into the real world, and what’s better to do this than to focus on one of the great five houses in Morrowind, particularly the Telvanni. Unlike the other Houses such as the Hlaalu and Redoran, the Telvanni are known to wield great and powerful magic. They’re also similar to the Daedric Prince in terms of immersing themselves in deeply understanding the lore of Tamriel and keeping this knowledge within their inner circle.

Now as you progress in the story, you’ll end up traveling to Apocrypha, which is the Daedric Plane of Existence of Hermaeus Mora. This time around, you’ll get to experience the Cosmic Horror side of Elder Scrolls. The first biome features hues of green and black, often giving off an unusual and eerie feeling of isolation. References from Skyrim will also be present here if you’ve been reading the books, that is. Meanwhile, the second biome depicts the mind of Hermaeus in a chaotic and confusing manner as represented by multiple colors and shapes of different sizes.

The Necrom Chapter will be as huge as High Isle, meaning you can expect to play through this expansion for more than 30 hours.

Elder Scrolls Online Necrom Preview – Key Characters & Companions

In addition to these two Zones as well as Hermaeus Mora and Leramil the Wise, players will come across a once prominent but now dead Telvanni Magister named Meln the Mouthless together with the watchling Scruut who is a devoted servant of the Daedric Prince. Fan favorites such as Morag Tong veterans Naryu Virian and Ashur will make a return as well as Sotha Sil, the least known Tribunal. But it still remains a mystery when you’ll be meeting them and what their roles are in this narrative.

In Necrom, you’ll be facing two major antagonists who go by the names of Master Shelreni and Torvesard. Shelreni is a power-hungry Telvanni Magister who is vying for total control of the council while Torvesard is the prominently featured Dremora leader in the Cinematic Announcement Trailer. He’s an enigmatic figure though, meaning no one knows how he acquired his powers, what his motivations are, and who his true master is.

Additionally, the Seeker from Skyrim will be making its return together with new enemies like the Mind Terror and Hushed. The Hushed are interesting creatures who were originally mere mortals. But after spending too much time in Apocrypha, and learning a lot of dark secrets that their minds couldn’t handle, they were eventually transformed into these one-eyed and mouthless feral creatures we now know today.

When it comes to Companions, you can choose to aid Azandar Al-Cybiades or Sharp-As-Night. Azandar is a Redguard Arcanist who, like the Telvanni, is focused on acquiring knowledge to the point that he’s considered a mad scientist. As a result, Azandar will need your help to save one of his failed experiments. On the other hand, Sharp-As-Night is an Argonian Warden who has no memory or recollection of his previous life. He’s also skilled at doing odd jobs as a mercenary to survive. But Sharp-As-Night needs your assistance to figure out who he really is and how he got here in the first place. Who, then, will you take as your Companion?

Elder Scrolls Online Necrom Preview – Arcanist Class

Next the Arcanist, which takes its inspiration from Hermaeus Mora himself, is the latest Class to join the ranks of the Dragonknight, Sorcerer, Nightblade, Templar, Warden, and Necromancer. It’s also the first Class since Elsweyr Chapter’s launch back in 2019. Unlike the previous ones that came before, the Arcanist won’t be the same Stamina-centric Class with familiar Skill rotations, but they do have damage, tanking, and healing Skill lines.

This new Class will have the ability to create runes of power (as depicted by green corrupted pyramids floating around them) from the dark books of Hermaeus Mora. Their purpose is to conjure dangerous effects in order to obliterate their opponents. The way the Arcanist works is through an elaborate “Combo Point System” or Crux. Some abilities can either spend or generate Crux. It often begs the question of when the right time is to activate them.

When you spend Crux, the abilities associated with it may either grant more potent effects such as dealing greater damage or lowering the cost of resources. For instance, if you wish to heal an ally and decide to use a Crux, you’ll also end up restoring a portion of their Stamina or Magicka resources. Furthermore, you can choose to build Crux to a maximum of three to then reserve your empowered abilities for more challenging encounters. It’s also possible to morph specific abilities into Spenders or Builders, allowing you to pilot the Arcanist Class with added flexibility.

One of the interesting Skills the Arcanist has is the Apocryphal Gate, which lets them summon two gates that they can go through in order to close the gap between themselves and their enemies. Another is their ability to simply produce a beam to destroy a target. These are certainly interesting and it’s made all the more exciting thanks to the Skill’s visual and sound effects as well as interactive animations.

For now, though, Zenimax has no plans to revamp the existing animations of current Classes but they’re going to consider feedback about this during the PTS. Also, they won’t be adding a Class Change Token so players will need to level up their Arcanist from the ground up.

Sanity’s Edge Trial

Next, we have the Sanity’s Edge 12-player Trial, which is similar to Rockgrove in terms of its overall difficulty and Dreadsail Reef in terms of its size and scale. Here, what Zenimax has done is push their engine to the limit by exploring three major sections of the mind of a Mage Guild member. There’s the Nightmare Realm where Mages are being persecuted together with the Dream Realm where everything’s upside down, meaning the Mages themselves are involved in the persecution. And finally, there’s the Broken Mind where players will be vying for control over the Mage’s mind.

Necrom and Beyond – What’s Changing?

On top of the massive changes that we’ve already gone through, the structure of ESO’s yearly updates will be done differently in Necrom. In Q3, the main focus will be on the general improvements of the game instead of introducing another Dungeon. The idea is to focus on streamlining the processes to improve the server’s stability while enhancing the QoL for players.

In Q4, there will be a new feature rather than a story-centric DLC. The goal here is to provide a repeatable mode that’ll keep players excited, and therefore entice them to come back, instead of coming up with another story, which can be finished quickly anyway. Additionally, to replace the lower number of Dungeons this year, there’s going to be a new Endless Dungeon Mode to look forward to.

When it comes to PvP, plans are in place to add more content but at the moment, the current priority is to complete hardware upgrades to improve the system’s stability and performance. But as to what this new PvP content entails and when they’ll come into play is anyone’s guess since no further details have been mentioned.

Another feature in the Necrom Chapter will be the addition of a new Tales of Tribute deck, particularly one that’s centered around one of the Tribunals, Almalexia. And lastly, players will also be able to hunt after 10 new item sets together with 4 new Mythic Items that’ll shake up the current meta!

Final Thoughts

ESO’s Necrom Chapter features a lot of exciting content from the storyline of this enigmatic cosmic being to familiar and new characters as well as monsters we’ll encounter along the way. But above all of these, no one can deny how cool and interactive the Arcanist Class is, and how Crux Management will affect combat in meaningful ways.

The Necrom Chapter is now available for pre-purchase starting at USD 39.99 if you already have ESO’s Standard Edition. If you don’t own the base game yet but wish to take part in this upcoming expansion, then the entire collection will cost USD 59.99. It’ll also include all of the previous chapters from High Isle to Morrowind. Necrom will be released on June 5, 2023 for PC and June 20, 2023 for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Will you be participating in Necrom’s PTS or will you wait for its launch date instead? What systems or features are you looking forward to trying out first? Let us know in the comments section below!

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For more previews, be sure to check out Total War: Warhammer III – Should You Play It? Is it Worth it and Wayfinder Closed Beta Impressions – NEW MMORPG.