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This month I put down my thoughts on the Necrom reveal. This upcoming ESO Chapter releases later this summer and features a new class: the Arcanist, as well as two new areas. One of them is an expansion into east Morrowind called the Telvanni Penninsula. The other is the Daedric prince Hermaeus Mora’s plane of Oblivion, itself, Apocrypha. Hermaeus Mora isn’t necessarily an antagonist, but can’t be considered wholly bad or good. He does, however, happen to possess quite a bit of knowledge about Mundus – including a devastating secret about the Dunmer city of Necrom that can result in mass destruction if discovered by the wrong people.
On January 25th, 2023, the team at ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS) revealed the latest chapter for the Elder Scrolls Online, titled Necrom. With the reveal comes several updates to the game that we can look forward to when the chapter goes on June 5 for PC and Mac, and June 20 for consoles. I’ll be giving you a breakdown of my reactions and what pieces I am personally looking forward to the most.
The Story
The new Chapter will be themed as “Shadows Over Morrowind,” focusing on the Dunmer of Morrowind’s eastern Telvanni peninsula in the city of Necrom. Necrom is a city on the Telvanni Peninsula, and considered a neutral area between the Great Houses of Morrowind to bury their dead in elaborate tombs.
The Daedric prince Hermaeus Mora also plays a prominent role in the story and we will be able to interact with him directly. I’m personally excited to be given a chance to meet the Seeker of Knowledge in the game more than what felt like a brief cameo in the Vile Manse area of Reaper’s March. Developers described the upcoming Chapter as “Elder Scrolls meets cosmic horror,” and so many players are excited for its arrival in June.
New Area: Apocrypha
In addition to the Telvanni Peninsula, we will also be exploring Apocrypha, the realm of Oblivion known as home to Hermaeus Mora. I’ve never played Skyrim, myself, so this will be the first time I’ll experience the Apocrypha. Players might remember the Dragonborn DLC that featured the plane of Oblivion. This time around, Apocrypha introduces foes both old and new:
Lurkers
Tomeshells
The Hushed
New Class: Arcanist
The biggest reveal from the presentation was the announcement of a new playable class coming in Necrom, the Arcanist. This will be the 7th playable class in the game, which brings the “specializations” up to 28.
The community long requested a new class feature for ESO after the last new class, the Necromancer, was released with the Elsweyr Chapter in 2019. The Arcanist class announcement has so far been met with excitement since the global reveal.
The Arcanist is themed after the seeking of knowledge, and has several unique design elements that will help it stand out from the crowd. There are runes of power which enable you to do things such as place portals for increased mobility in combat and outside of it as well.
The class is the first in the game to use a combo point system, which is described as “not so robust that new players wouldn’t be able to use it”.
In my MMO career, I seem to have developed a habit of gravitating towards combo point classes, such as rogue in World of Warcraft or summoner in Final Fantasy XIV. I have no intentions of swapping from my Dragonkinght main, but I will almost certainly be rolling an Arcanist as an alt.
New Companions
In Elder Scrolls Online, players are able to recruit an NPC to permanently aid in combat as part of a Companion system. There are currently four companions in the game, and with Necrom, there will be two more added to the roster.
The first is Sharp-as-Night, an Argonian Warden who can’t remember his past and is always searching for clues to who he is. I’m personally very excited to meet him, even if he is more reserved than the current companions.
The second, and the one that will probably appeal to more of the playerbase, is Azander, a Redguard Arcanist, who the developers described as “Willy Wonka meets Dumbledore”. This companion certainly fits with the theme of the expansion, which is why I foresee him being the more popular Companion from the excitement I’ve read post reveal.
Content Update Changes
There was a change in the content cadence announced as well, with there no longer being dungeon content added to the game in the third quarter update. Instead, there will be a larger focus on quality of life improvements and bug fixes. However, this will balance out with the fourth quarter update that will include an “endless dungeon.” Unfortunately, very sparse details were given regarding that so we must wait until then.
In fact, the only new live content updates we got in the reveal of Necrom was “endless dungeon with a friend.” Having played other MMOS with similar systems, I have concerns about this, but do not feel that player power will be ultimately tied to this. That alleviates my concerns to some degree.
How will Dungeons be Affected?
In World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion, the Torghast dungeon was initially introduced in a similar manner, before currency for legendary items was tied to it, which made the game mode feel more of a chore than a reward.
However, in Final Fantasy XIV, the deep dungeon system is a beloved game mode that is completely optional. If this new system leans more toward the deep dungeons of FFXIV than Torghast of WoW, I think it will be a massive success. I’m looking forward to seeing more news as it comes out throughout the year and seeing how the team at Zenimax goes about it.
My Final Thoughts
Overall, I think that this is looking like a fantastic year to be a player and fan of the Elder Scrolls Online. Necrom is looking like it is giving players more of what they want, and even retiring a development decision that caused some light burnout in some players with no longer including dungeons in the third quarter update. I can’t wait to load into the new zones for the first time and see what the storytellers have in store for us.
Shantyman
Shanty's journey into digital gaming starred with a trip to a friend's house in his first year of school, where he played Sonic for the first time. Since then he has fallen in love with rpgs, and especially mmorpgs, from WoW to FFXIV, from Lotro to ESO, he still tries to make time for them when he is away from his day job and the shantycats aren't begging for cuddles.
