The Elder Scrolls Online Gold Road chapter is shaping up to be a highlight in the MMO decade-long journey, introducing a revolutionary new Scribing system that has the potential to reshape the character-building landscape and a ton of new lore development that will likely shape the series’ story from now on. Gold Road features around 30 hours of solid story content, as well as a plethora of memorable dungeons, quests, world bosses, and new 12-player Trials that, if they’re too difficult to beat, will require a ton of ESO Gold to power up your class. The Gold Road chapter looks like Zenimax’s pinnacle of gaming.
I recently had the opportunity to spend some time exploring the wild west of Gold Road, where we got to experience the new Scribing system and its associated questline, and we also got to know some of the chapter’s main story involving the new Daedric Prince. Of course, with the limited number of players in our preview, we couldn’t handle a 12-player demo, so we mostly stuck to single-player content, of which there’s always plenty in The Elder Scrolls Online.
Westweald Region is Surprisingly Diverse
As The Elder Scrolls Online continues to flesh out the map of Tamriel as a whole, it once again finds itself depicting another location from Oblivion that series fans fondly remember: Westweald, home to Skingrad and its famous vineyards. The Elder Scrolls Online’s depiction of Skingrad is certainly one of the more visually unique human cities in the game to date, with darker, all-brick buildings and an almost gothic visual style complete with spires and stained-glass windows. Surprising details hide the activities of NPC in and around Skingrad, making it feel more alive than your typical MMO hub city.
Venturing out of Skingrad, the “gold” of Gold Road is immediately apparent. The surrounding area is filled with bright fall colors, with meadows and trees broken up by Ayleid ruins, but heading further into the Westweald reveals some surprising biome diversity that breaks up the main theme of the area. The past of Skingrad’s vineyards is the Blighted Lands, a grey, gloomy, dead place that stands in stark contrast to the bright and idyllic golden landscape that surrounds it. Ostumir, meanwhile, is a dense, dark green jungle that appeared almost overnight, filled with predatory plants that do little harm to passersby. It’s also very dangerous for players to play with, and you’ll need some powerful weapons to defend yourself, which requires you buy ESO Gold in advance. Overall, Gold Road offers above-average geographical diversity, making this signature aimless Elder Scrolls-style exploration as interesting as we hoped.
As expected from an ESO region, the area is dotted with proper caves, public dungeons, treasure chests, and unique points of interest. It also comes with an event system reminiscent of Dark Anchors, namely the Mirror Marsh Invasion. Like Dark Anchors, these invasion points are marked on the map and feature some new mechanics, and we think rotating between invasion points will become a popular farming activity for Gold Road players. You can earn Elder Scrolls Online Gold and other rewards through this event.
A New Daedric Prince
Of course, one of The Elder Scrolls Online’s strengths, like other games in the series, is its storytelling and exploration, and Gold Road’s storytelling has had us hooked from the start thanks to its unique premise. In the previous chapter, Necrom did something unexpected in an Elder Scrolls Online chapter, ending on a cliffhanger, and while Gold Road doesn’t necessarily require having played Necrom, it is the second in a series of stories following the reveal of a brand new Daedric Prince, Ithelia.
We won’t spoil too much, but suffice it to say that Gold Road’s main quest involves uncovering the secrets of Ithelia, who has lost her memory and is wandering around Tamriel with chaos in her wake. The main antagonist faction players will face is the Recollection, a group of rogue elves who want to restore Ithelia at all costs. This is one of the most interesting chapter storylines we’ve experienced in ESO, especially because of its lore implications. Now that Ithelia is known, we can’t help but wonder if she’ll make an appearance in some way in Elder Scrolls 6.
The quest to unlock and advance the Scribing system takes about six hours, though Scribing unlocks in the first thirty minutes or so of starting the quest. It’s a highly complex questline that requires players to follow hints from the book, walk around Tamriel, do some simple treasure hunts, and then do a “hidden item” search in a small area to discover one of the four deities that players will learn about during this quest. Once you encounter a deity, they’ll ask players to choose from several challenges that may involve completing a certain number of quests or Dark Anchors in a specific area, or participating in a PVP battleground. This is a great way to get players to explore areas they may not have visited in a while, or participate in content they would normally ignore. That being said, there are enough options that we didn’t feel forced to participate in something we really didn’t enjoy.
In addition to these core quests, there are naturally a lot of side quests, where we often deal with the aftermath of Iseria’s arrival, and some of the side quests have particularly moving moments that once again show that ESO’s side quests are more emotional than your standard “collect 10 boar skins” MMO game.
l Also Read: An In-Depth Discussion Of The Impact Of The Changes To Guild Trader System In ESO Gold Road
Scribing System
One of the big features of Gold Road is ESO’s new Scribing system, which involves skill customization, but it’s important to temper expectations. Scribing involves combining three elements or scripts: Focus scripts that determine the damage type or defining characteristics of an ability, Signature scripts that modify the behavior of an ability, and Affix scripts that typically add small statistical bonuses or buffs. In the first iteration, Scribing will be limited to weapon, world, and guild skills, so it’s unlikely that an entire build will consist of just custom Scribing skills.
However, we expect that Scribing abilities will be very useful in certain builds from the start. For example, a healer player might enjoy scribing the new Wield Soul ability using a healing focus script, healing signature script, and vitality affixes to create an ability that can instantly and continuously heal players while boosting their vitality and giving them a healing bonus. This system is not quite the same as Oblivion’s spell crafting system, but hopefully it will be expanded to class abilities in the future. Scribing can also affect the visual effects of skills, such as elemental explosions that produce fiery, icy, or even blood-red explosions depending on the selected script. Of course, it is very difficult for you to complete a very powerful build first. At this time, you need a complete build strategy. If you don’t know where to find it, you can go to IGGM to find it. There are many strategy guides written by game masters, and IGGM also sells very cheap ESO Gold. In order to welcome the arrival of Gold Road chapter, IGGM.com has also launched a new promotion. You can use coupon code “LONG” to get 5% off to buy ESO gold now.
The scribing system also brings a new skill appearance system. This is different from writing. Players can change the visual effects of skills through new color choices. These customization options can be obtained for free by completing tasks and earning achievements, while some advanced options will be available in the Crown Store. In a game that’s always been about player freedom, this new level of customization, both in combat skills and appearance, marks a major milestone for Gold Road and a fitting way to kick off the game’s 10th anniversary.