Update 29 for the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) has been released for PC. And with it came the new Champion System 2.0 into play. We take a look at how the community reacted.
What change did the update bring? The update 29 released on March 8 for PC overhauls the champion system in ESO. You now only have three skill trees: Might, Force, and Agility. You invest your collected Champion Points in these to gain passive skills.
The biggest differences from the old system are:
- There are branches that you must unlock to access desired skills
- You can only activate a maximum of four special skills per tree at the same time
With the new update, the DLC “Flames of Ambition” also released with two new dungeons for PC. The DLC launches this year’s story “Gates of Oblivion”.
Update 29 and the DLC will be available on March 16 for PS4/PS4 and Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
What Players Are Saying About the New ESO Champion System
How is the new system being received? There are indeed significant changes that Zenimax Online has made to the champion system of ESO. It is clear that this means a transition for the players. Opinions on the changes are currently somewhat divided.
The main criticism is that now many Champion Points (CP) must be invested in skills you may not even want, just to unlock the one skill you need. This prolongs the process of obtaining the desired skills. For some, it feels more like grinding.
More Champion Points must be gathered to invest them in a way that eventually grants you the skill you desire. According to players, this is not as bad in the Might skill tree as it is in the other two.
Also, the fact that players can only equip four skills per tree is too few for some.
- N1kl0 comments on reddit: “There are some interesting nodes but too few slots. The grind for Champion Points is too high and some nodes require way too many CPs just to have a very minimal impact.”
- Connorx15 writes (via reddit): “The worst for everyone with few CP is that they have to waste them to get the skills they need.”
- Paschgon explains in the official ESO forum: “I noticed that in the new champion system, to get their heart upgrades, you need to invest a lot of your hard-earned CP into things you really don’t want at all.”
However, not everyone finds the new system bad. It simply requires more adjustment time and one has to think better about how to allocate their Champion Points to obtain the skills that are important for them. It is necessary to be smart and not just distribute points haphazardly.
MeinMMO author Alexander Leitsch was able to play Update 29 and found that overall newcomers and players with few Champion Points benefit as the points are no longer as relevant overall.
- Nayrael thinks the new system is good (via reddit): “I am very happy to have the core RPG component back. The thrill of leveling up has been lost long before reaching CP 810. And some new stars, like double furniture drops, are quite nice.”
- cepheus42 is quite satisfied (via reddit): “I like it. I am at 481 [CP] and I feel that my character is much better now than before. The system is still more complicated than it needs to be, but overall, I think I at least have a better sense of what the spending of certain points for a specific attribute achieves.”
- warg_derpin_gdf writes in the official ESO forum: “At first, I was put off by it, but it really seems to reflect the spirit of The Elder Scrolls of the old school. It’s not about leveling up, but figuring out your personal adjustments that will be difficult to achieve and what can simply be ignored without having to create a whole new character.”
Have you already had the chance to try the new champion system in The Elder Scrolls Online? What do you think about it?
PvP fans can also look forward to a new meta in Cyrodiil. There have been adjustments made by the developers that will last until the update in the third quarter: ESO disables the strongest armors in Cyrodiil – and many players love it.
