We interviewed Rich Lambert, the Creative Director of The Elder Scrolls Online, about the new expansion and the DLCs for 2019.
2019 will be a special year for the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online. For the first time, the developers are trying out an overarching storyline, bringing in an unprecedented area and garnishing everything with a new, controversial class.
For all these topics and a few more, we were able to get Rich Lambert, the Creative Director at Zenimax, for an interview.
The new class Necromancer
MeinMMO: How can one imagine the Necromancer?
Rich: It’s not a Mage or Dragonknight with undead. The Necromancer is its own class with unique gameplay mechanics. It will have pets. We thought about that during the concept phase.
They will not be the permanent pets of other classes. Rather, they will be “Fire and Forget” minions that you summon to do something for a while. For example, you summon skeleton mages, who then nuke your opponents or a “Bomber” that rushes toward enemies and explodes, or even an undead healer that heals for a short time and then disappears.
This fits well with the lore of Necromancers. Necromancy is not perfect; it does not create permanent beings. And it fits wonderfully with the idea that players have of a Necromancer: “I stand above you, these are my servants, they do everything for me and I don’t care about them!”
However, they also have other abilities; they can fill all three roles in the game. They can tank, heal, and deal damage; they can do all of that. There is a skill line for each role.
Players will certainly be very excited about the new class because it feels different. Many effects from the Necromancer go over corpses that he uses.
MeinMMO: Does the Necromancer explicitly need corpses, i.e., previously defeated enemies, or is that just a visual effect?
Rich: They can use existing corpses or create them with a skill. You can still use abilities when there are no corpses. But your skills will be stronger when there are corpses available.
MeinMMO: So, one must play tactically smart and use corpses wisely to achieve maximum effect?
Rich: Yes, exactly.
MeinMMO: Again about the lore: Necromancers have been the “bad guys” in the game so far, and necromancy is, or will be, forbidden in the Elder Scrolls series. How does it fit together that a Necromancer is now a playable hero? Do you play as a good character or an antihero?
Rich: We leave that up to the players and how they roleplay it. There are already good Necromancers in the base game. And we are currently planning something special: NPC reactions in the world to your character. So, if you summon undead in the city as a Necromancer, the residents will panic and scream, “Help, a Necromancer!” And then the guards will come and arrest you.
MeinMMO: Really?
Rich: Yes, exactly! We want it to feel real and authentic. That the new class is well and credibly integrated into the world. Necromancy is, after all, forbidden. That’s precisely why the Mages Guild was founded because necromancy became a problem issue. They wanted to stop and suppress this practice.
MeinMMO: Many players love new classes but are not keen on leveling a new twink for ages. Is there possibly going to be a class change token for existing heroes?
Rich: We have something in the works, but I can’t say anything about it yet. But we are working on something, and we understand that players want something in that direction.
Dragons and Story
MeinMMO: Okay, the next thing that many players are concerned about is the dragons. What’s it all about? Is it a dragon like in “the Season of the Dragon”?
Rich: There will be a “Limited Outbreak of Dragons”. Dragons are definitely enemies.
MeinMMO: So fewer dragons than in Skyrim?
Rich: The big difference from Skyrim is: There is no Dovahkiin in this era. Your heroes are not Dragonborn; they have no shouts. So you can’t defeat them so easily. Dragons are powerful, “badass” creatures that are not easy to deal with.
MeinMMO: So dragons don’t just spawn randomly on the map; they are bosses?
Rich: Yes, they are definitely bosses. And you will need friends and help when you take them on. Dragons will also appear in dungeons and in the story as enemies. In story mode, NPCs will help you fight against the dragons.
MeinMMO: What else can you tell us about the setting and the story?
Rich: The storyline spans a year. It’s about the Imperials invading Elsweyr and the Khajiit having to deal with it. Your heroes will work together with them.
MeinMMO: We help the Khajiit?
Rich: Yes, you are the champions of the Khajiit.
MeinMMO: Are the Khajiit still part of the Dominion?
Rich: Yes, they are. But the Dominion is busy elsewhere. No help is to be expected from there.
MeinMMO: No one cares about the poor Khajiit…
Rich: Not that, but they are tied up with the Three Banners War. There is really a big and interesting story behind it. It’s so extensive that we didn’t want to process it all in a single chapter expansion. Therefore, each of the four updates we are bringing in 2019 will flow into this story.
ESO gets a yearly theme
MeinMMO: You just mentioned four updates. How will that play out in 2019? Will the big Khajiit chapter be the first DLC?
Rich: No, we will bring the new area in June as the second update. The introductory story will come in the first quarter. It starts the entire storyline arc. It will be a dungeon DLC, and the dungeons there will provide the background for where the “Wrathstone Tablet” [the artifact from the teaser] comes from, which Abnur Tharn intends to use to end the Three Banners War and reunite Tamriel at last. He has always wanted to do that. That was also the reason why he was involved in the events of the main story of ESO.
In the second quarter, the Elsweyr chapter will come, Q3 is again a dungeon DLC with more story, and then we will end the year in Q4 with a story DLC that will have a scope similar to Murkmire.
MeinMMO: Will the Elsweyr chapter be about the same size as Summerset or Morrowind, or smaller?
Rich: It will be the size of Summerset. It will even be a bit bigger than Summerset! It will have tons of quests and a raid for 12 players. A raid for “big boys”. You will fight dragons there. We are listening to player feedback, and they wanted a big raid again, an epic journey through the instance. Each boss will have its own hard mode, not just the last boss.
Elsweyr and the Khajiit
MeinMMO: Will the entire province of Elsweyr be present in the game?
Rich: No, the province is too large for that. We will focus on the middle of the province in Q2. In Q4, more of the province will come. Together with the already known areas of Khenarthis Roost and the Harvesting Fields, there will be a total of four areas related to Elsweyr. The two existing areas from the base game are fringe areas. This time we are going directly into Khajiit territory, and you will see things that have never been seen before.
MeinMMO: I’m wondering if we will see more of the Khajiit? There are numerous subspecies of them…
Rich: 17 different!
MeinMMO: Exactly! Will we see new ones? I’m not asking about all 17, but will there be some that we haven’t had before?
Rich: We will show you things you have never seen before. You will interact with the Alfiq [housecat-sized Khajiit] and the Senche-Raht [massive saber-toothed tigers]. We have some cool stuff planned. However, some of the subspecies of Khajiit are very rare and hardly seen. But it makes sense that we show more of the Khajiit in Elsweyr.
MeinMMO: You previously mentioned that the game world reacts to necromancers. Will there also be reactions if you play a Khajiit in Elsweyr?
Rich: Yes, we will consider that as much as possible.
General Questions
MeinMMO: The new DLCs are packed with additional content. But isn’t that just more of the same? You’re not planning completely new gameplay elements, game modes, and so on?
Rich: We have new features and quality-of-life improvements planned for the year. What we will bring early on is the new zone guide and a revamped guild trading UI. The zone guide is something really new.
It is designed to help you navigate the areas better. You can easily get distracted by side quests in our game. With the zone guide, you can then instantly find your way back to the story quest. But we have more improvements planned, including the PvP in Cyrodiil.
More interviews to follow: We have more information from Rich on other topics. So there will soon be more articles coming.
Here you can find more information about Elsweyr and the other innovations in 2019 in ESO.
