Future of ESO panel recap

Elder Scrolls Online developers showed up in full force during the recent QuakeCon 2014. They held a very important 2 hour panel (this includes a Q&A session) discussing what we can expect in the future for Elder Scrolls Online. Great many features were announced and discussed. There are a bunch of new features planned and some old systems are being reworked. Here’s a list of the most important announcements together with an image gallery of some of the things to come.

  • Imperial City – new PvP zone found inside Cyrodiil that players will be able to unlock through keep ownership. You’ll be able to enter it through 3 sewer entrances that are guarded by imperials (and probably camped by PvPers). Zone contains Molag Bal’s minions and tons of quests related to them (boss mobs will be present) that reward high XP and gold rewards. You can unlock various parts of the city (Market, Arboretum, Temple District, etc.) and have special vendors, crafting stations or respawn points there.
  • New Veteran Dungeon – City of Ash coming in Update 5
  • Grouping system improvements that will also include Dungeon difficulty scaling (to group leader’s level) and repeatable dungeons as part of a daily quest setup for the Undaunted
  • Solo Instance dungeons will also scale to you – if something is difficult and you die repeatedly they will scale to be a bit easier after several attempts
  • Craglorn will get the next chapter of the story where you will fight the Serpant aspect in a new 12 man trial
  • Dragonstar Arena – it will contain 4 man mini trials with leaderboards, two difficulty modes and progressively more difficult timed PvE encounters
  • Veteran Gameplay is getting a complete overhaul – veteran points are being removed and Veteran Ranks are from now going to be gained through experience points. Champion system is getting introduced and this system will introduce a separate tree (called constellations) of passives. You unlock these passives by spending champion points that you earn through earning experience points in post lvl 50 game. Gear will not have Veteran Rank as requirement. New gear will come out in seasons.
  • Justice System – allows you to steal items and attack NPCs. Consequence is that there is a bounty incurred on your character. You can pay the bounty or flee. Players will be able to hunt other players with high bounty so active PvP will be a consequence of the Justice system.
  • Spellcrafting – new system that will allow you to create customized spells. You will have to find the base spell through exploration in the world. You can customize this spell with focus items (add AOE, make it an ultimate, reduce cost, etc.). You can
  • New Armor and Weapon style – Glass armor, Dark Brotherhood style, New PvP gear, Thieves Guild style, new Undaunted styles. It was also mentioned that when you kill a boss in solo instances you might get an item that is skinned as the boss so there will be a Dwemer spider, Spider Daedra, Harvester themed armor pieces.
  • New Adventure Zone Murkmire – similar to Craglorn. Four man content with 12 man trials. It will contain a new non player race called Naga.
  • New Solo Pve Zone Wrothgar – in the north between High Rock and Skyrim.

Click here to see a screenshot gallery of the panel and full video

spliter

ESO can now be purchased on Steam

steam pet dog

QuakeCon 2014 is in full swing and we got our first big news concerning Elder Scrolls Online. From today, ESO will be available for purchase on Steam. In addition to that, the game will be on sale for the duration of Quakecon 2014. so you can purchase the Standard edition on Steam for $30 and Imperial will set you back for $47.99. The game still requires you to have an ESO account and all that other stuff you are used to from a standalone client, but if you get it through Steam you get the friends overlay or you can even gift it to your steam friends. Another boon for those that choose to purchase the Imperial Version of the game through Steam right now is that they will get the Whiterun Wolfhound vanity pet. On the sale page it says that the vanity pet offer will last only until July 21st so you better hurry if you are planning to get it.

Existing subscribers are currently not able to import their game into Steam. If you add the game to steam it will not behave the same as if you purchase it there. We have to wait on Bethesda to give us import keys or something similar to be able to integrate our existing clients with Steam.

In other QuakeCon news related to Elder Scrolls Online we have “THE FUTURE OF ESO” panel happening on Friday where various developers should discuss what’s in store for different aspects of the game. Event is taking place on Friday, July 18th from 5:00PM to 7:00PM CDT on QuakeCon Ventrilo Main Stage. You can submit your questions to developers on the official ESO forums and Twitter ahead of time, and you may see them answered live at QuakeCon! (Please use the #ESO and #QuakeCon hashtags on Twitter.) If you are not at QuakeCon, you can watch the panel and Q&A live on Twitch at Twitch.tv/bethesda or later on the official ESO Youtube channel.

spliter spliter

Craglorn Treasure Map Guide

Craglorn is the first adventure zone available for Veteran Rank players. In this zone, players can acquire 4 treasure maps.

Craglorn Treasure Map I

  • In the southwestern part of the Craglorn map
  • Use Sandy Path Wayshrine and head south towards Taborra’s Camp.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Continue reading →

spliter

Updated ESO Skill Calculator to 1.1.2 data

With the release of ESO patch 1.1.2, that brought the new adventure zone Craglorn, we’ve seen an update to existing skills. Some of the skills were changed enough for Zenimax to provide free skill point refunds to everyone that had them invested in certain skills. You can see the full changelist in our Patch 1.1.2 Notes article. Most significant changes are the introduction of a cap to some AOE skills (like Dragonknight Inhale), and having some skills finally work as intended. If you had points in Templar’s Master Ritualist, Destruction Staff’s Impulse, Dual Wield’s Flying Blade, One hand and shield’s Deadly Bash and Support’s Battle Resurrection, you will have those skill points refunded and you can respend them in the same ability or somewhere else.

Old builds are still valid so you can still browse our database of submitted builds to find a useful one even if it was made prior to this patch. Remember though that the most optimal builds might have changed and you might want to look for the latest submitted builds to see what people have started using now.

Skill calculator tool for all classes has now been updated with the latest data from live patch 1.1.2. A lot of tooltips have been changed and values of some skills have also been changed. As always, keep in mind that our skill calculator uses 500 magicka, 500 stamina and 30 weapon and spell damage for base calculations of all values in spell tooltips. Things for your character in-game will be different based on what your individual stats are. Also remember that choosing a skill in our skill calculator chooses Rank IV of that skill immediately. We presume that you will level the chose skill to its maximum level. I hope you enjoy our updated skill calculator tool and feel free to leave any feedback in the comment section bellow.

Click on the buttons bellow to see the skill calculator for that class

spliter

ESO Craglorn Skyshards Location Map

Craglorn is a Veteran Rank zone that became available to all ESO players with Content patch 1.1. This zone is filled with group oriented challenges that require you to travel with VR 10+ friends in order to accomplish anything meaningful in the zone. Same goes for twelve Skyshards scattered around Craglorn's dungeons. Shards are usually guarded by Veteran rank 11 mobs or even worse, dungeon bosses. Mind you, these are not your regular solo dungeon or public dungeon bosses. For some of these you will need an experienced VR10+ group to take them down and collect the skyshard. Shadow nightblades are at a clear advantage if getting collectibles is your thing. We hope our screenshot guides for each Craglorn Skyshard bellow will help you obtain them easier (we included a few tips on how to avoid the nastiest encounters).


1. Lava flows where Ayleids walked.


Dungeon location on the world map.

Mob pack is guarding the way to the skyshard.

Shard location on the dungeon map.
Click here to read the full ESO Skyshards guide for Craglorn
spliter

ESO Patch Notes v1.1.2

The first major content update: the Adventure Zone Craglorn is live on ESO servers and brings a handful of changes as well as many other fixes and refinements. You’ll need allies to take on the new challenges—Craglorn’s quests and exploration are designed for groups of four Veteran Rank 10+ characters. (You can enter Craglorn and play the content earlier than Veteran Rank 10.)

The first Trials have been added in Craglorn, 12-player adventures meant to test even the strongest heroes. In Trials, your team will have a limited number of resurrections to use as you attempt to reach the final boss. If you finish the Trial quickly, you might earn a place on the leaderboards and receive extra rewards!

Another new feature is the Death Recap. This screen will help you understand what contributed to your death and hints that can help improve your performance next time.
 
Continue reading →

spliter

Cyrodiil Treasure Map Locations Guide

Cyrodiil Treasure Maps

Cyrodiil occupies the central part of the Tamriel world. This PvP zone is available to all players once they reach level 10. Unlike any other zone in Elder Scrolls Online, adventurers in Cyrodiil can acquire more than 20 treasure maps. This guide is still work in progress, and if you have any screenshot of Treasure maps that are not listed below, please share it with us and ESO community.
 
Find out where Cyrodiil treasure maps can be found »

Craglorn preview part 3 – Hircine’s Haunt dungeon

Beside open world events and quests that you can do with passer-byes in the new zone of Craglorn there are also group dungeons available that are instanced and that have tough bosses at the end of each dungeon. These dungeons are instanced for your group (as far as I know) and trash mobs do not represent much of a challenge for a well organised group of veteran rank 9+ players, but bosses could prove to be extra tough without proper usage of tactics. This kind of challenge is what my biggest impression I took away from from playing through the new zone. Complicated group challenges that reward you with satisfaction of beating something with your friends and getting epic item rewards while doing it.

Dungeon we visited on the Public Test Server is called Hircine’s Haunt and it is comparable in size to regular public dungeons in other zones. It has a lot of trash mob groups with 8+ mobs in each group. If you are looking for other types of content you’ll be able to find in Craglorn please check out parts 1 and 2 of our Craglorn video previews.

Craglorn preview part 2 – Anka-Ra Burial Site

There are several types of content you will come across in the new zone Craglorn, upcoming with ESO patch 1.1. You have these events, similar to dark anchors in other zones, that you can repeat and attempt with random passer-byes. You also have various quests that you can do on daily basis. Public and solo dungeons are replaced with dungeons that require a full group to finish and have very hard bosses at the end. There are also trials for the most hardcore groups of 12 to conquer. In our previous preview of Craglorn we showed you one of the repeatable open world events called Magical Anomaly. We managed to do that content with a group of four VR9 players.

In the video bellow you can see another repeatable event type called Anka-Ra Burial Site. Your goal is to protect the NPC, performing a ritual, from waves of different mobs. In the video you will see each of the waves and their mechanics along with what happens in the end. We did not manage to complete this event with a group of 3 adventurers. We lacked in DPS. I believe a fourth member would be enough to get us through the whole thing.

Each of these events and POIs give a lot of Veteran Rank points and I believe it will be a great way for people to level through the last veteran ranks. Afterwards, they can do the hardest group content in the game. Craglorn, as a whole, is a wonderful place to spend your end-game time in. Challenging, with lots of great mechanics and all requiring group efforts, we think this is the end game content Elder Scolls Online deserves.