At an early briefing I was invited to by Zenimax Online, the team unveiled a new expansion for ESO before its global showcase, including the reveal of Scribing, an early imitation of the fan-requested spell crafting system in other games.
Going live on June 3 for PC/Mac and June 18 for PlayStation and Xbox, the new ESO expansion will send players into the West Weald – between Cyrodiil, Gold Coast, Reaper’s March, and Craglorn – searching for the long-forgotten Daedric Prince revealed at the end of Necrom.
Zenimax plans to add a prologue patch leading into Gold Road’s story events, which spans three major biomes in West Weald. From the fall-colored trees of The Gold Road to the jungly rainforest in Valenwood Annexation to the rocky highs running through Colovian Highlands, the West Weald’s zones will seemingly have some chaotic and magical connection to the Daedric Prince.
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Zenimax explained the Prince, known as Ithelia, has lost her memory and ventures around as strange phenomena spring up around her, and a splinter group of wood elves called the “Recollection” are working to restore her powers. Supposedly, Ithelia comes from a realm called “Mirrormoor,” which players will learn about later in the new ESO expansion.
As for what players should expect in the expansion, there will be the usual fair of objectives, delves, world bosses, public dungeons, a 12-player trial, and more around the hub city of Skingrad in West Weald. However, unlike previous chapters, new Companions have been moved out of the upcoming ESO Gold Road expansion into a Q4 update in 2024.
Seemingly as a trade-off, Scribing debuts with Gold Road as a game system unique to the upcoming chapter. Players will get to collect and customize skills to tailor their builds, offering “the power and freedom to truly play your way” by editing their primary, secondary, and tertiary effects.
What this looks like is a feature built around using Grimoires, Scripts, and Inks to scribe characteristics on abilities in the Weapon and World lines.
Supposedly, this allows you to change damage types on an ability, add a healing effect to another, and so on. Furthermore, alongside Scribing is a Styling feature that lets players change the visual look of an ability. Zenimax aims to add 22 unlockable styles when Gold Road launches.
Beyond the expansion, ESO players will see a substantial housing update in Q3 2024, and a PvP feature that isn’t Cyrodiil-related will launch sometime in Q4 with two new companions.
ESO is available on PC, Xbox, and Playstation.
