The Elder Scrolls Online will soon give the heroes of Tamriel more opportunities. You can create your own spells – and a lot of them.
With the next chapter “Gold Road”, a new feature is coming to the world of The Elder Scrolls Online. The Scribing allows characters to create their own abilities in the broadest sense, thereby customizing their play style. You can expect many variations, and over 4,000 combinations allow for a great deal of variety.
How does Scribing work? You start Scribing by interacting with the Scribing quest giver. You can usually find them in front of the Mage Guilds. Talk to Adept Irnard, who will set you on your journey.
Some of the Scribing abilities are unlocked right at the beginning, while others you have to learn during the course of the game. Once you have unlocked enough components, you can create your own spells, which consist of four components.
- Grimoire: The basic concept of your ability. Is the spell an AoE? A targeted attack? A damage-over-time spell?
- Focus Script: Determines the basic type of the spell. Does the spell deal damage? Does it heal? Does it have additional effects, such as pulling enemies?
- Effect Script: Determines an additional effect. Thus, a healing spell may become a healing over time.
- Affix Script: Grants another additional effect, usually smaller than the previous one. For example, a small speed boost or some damage reduction for affected allied targets.
By combining these effects, there are a total of over 4,000 ways you can shape your spells with Scribing. This allows you to further enhance the strengths of your character or to compensate for their weaknesses.
What does Scribing cost? To use Scribing, you need to spend a new resource. The so-called “Luminous Ink” can be found in many places in the world. Depending on how much you want to change a Grimoire, you need to use more ink. If you only change one aspect of a Grimoire, you only pay one Luminous Ink – for additional effects correspondingly more, up to a maximum of 3.
How are the developers using Scribing? The developers have already presented some of their spell combinations in advance to illustrate what is possible with the system (via elderscrollsonline.com).
For example, Caleb Noffsinger (Senior QA Tester) presents his travel knife. This is a knife that you throw at an enemy, which returns after a short time and hits enemies again.
He combines this Grimoire with the Focus Poison Damage, the effect of Travel Mastery, and the Affix minor Frenzy. Poison damage works well with his Dragon Knight, and Travel Mastery increases the damage of his “Separating Cuts” and “Rapid Thrusts”, as well as the damage allies deal.
Gilliam (Combat Designer) is very pleased with the Grimoire Elemental Explosion. This is a spell cast over a large area, but also has a long casting time, which keeps the user occupied for a long time. It is risky because it takes a lot of time – but also correspondingly powerful when timed well.
With the focus “Recoil”, hit targets are thrown a bit through the air, which can cause chaos, especially in PvP. The effect “War Mage Defense” then gives them a shield that becomes stronger the more enemies are hit. Finally, the Affix “Cowardice” ensures that hit targets have slightly less magic and weapon power, and therefore deal less damage.
If you prefer grinding – “Gold Road” also offers one of the hardest achievements of all time.
When is the feature coming? The Scribes will appear with the chapter “Gold Road” on June 3rd on PC. Players on Xbox and PlayStation will have to wait until June 18th, when the feature will launch on the consoles.
What spells will you create when the update goes live? And what do you think of the Scribing system in general?
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