One of the purest joys of older Elder Scrolls games like Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion is the ability to create your own spells. Removed in later entries like Skyrim, spellcrafting is now making a return – of sorts – in the form of Scribing, a brand new feature coming to The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road. Bethesda has lifted the lid on how it’s going to work in a new video, showing just what it’ll mean for ESO adventurers.
Scribing in The Elder Scrolls Online isn’t going to work exactly how it did in the older games; you won’t have full control over every aspect of your spells. This is an MMORPG after all, so balance will always play a part in any new gameplay feature. Instead, 11 new spells are being added to the game, each with a bunch of ways to tweak their effects and customize what they do for you on the battlefield.
These new spells, called Grimoires, already cover a range of functions even without being put through the Scribing process. For example, the Vault spell for bow users allows you to fire a burst of arrows at your feet while flipping backwards out of danger. When Scribing launches there’ll be one Grimoire for each weapon skill, two world spells, one for each major guild, and one focused on PvP.
Once you’ve unlocked and selected a Grimoire, you’ll be able to customize it in a three different ways at the new Scholarium area.
- Focus Script: This will define how the spell works at its core and determines what other scripts you can put on it. It’s here you’ll decide what kind of damage your spell does, if it’s a damaging spell at all or if it becomes a heal, if it immobilizes foes, or if it drags enemies into melee range.
- Signature Script: Allows to you add extra effects to the spell. If it’s a damaging spell, maybe it now heals too. You could stick a damage over time modifier on it, snare foes so they can’t run away, or make a spell that accesses your existing class skills.
- Affix Script: Applies buffs or debuffs that work alongside your spell, like a movement buff for yourself and allies in range, or an interrupt to stop enemy spellcasting.
The example given in Bethesda’s video was the Soul Burst spell, which started out life as an AoE damage ability but by the end of the Scribing process became a powerful healing spell which worked on both the caster and nearby allies, giving a heal over time along with a boost to movement.
Unlocking Scribing looks to be simple, new questgivers will appear outside Mages Guilds across the lands when ESO: Gold Road launches on Monday, June 3. You’ll need to own ESO: Gold Road in order to access Scribing, so if spellcrafting is something you’ve been aching for, make sure to add it to your Steam wishlist.
If all this talk of ESO has awakened your hunger for something multiplayer, why not dive into our guide to the best free MMORPGs you can play right now. For those looking a little farther afield, we’ve got a guide to everything we currently know about the upcoming Elder Scrolls 6 release date.
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