ESO Update 50 Dev Stream Recap

Veterancy

Veterancy is a new PvP progression system. It works like a battle pass, except it's completely free - no purchases, no premium track. You just play PvP and earn ranks.

How It Works

Veterancy is account-wide, so any character you PvP with contributes to the same track. Alliance Points are the primary way to progress, but XP earned in PvP zones also counts at a reduced rate. It works in Cyrodiil (any campaign), Imperial City, and Battlegrounds - dueling and Tales of Tribute don't give AP or XP, so they don't progress it.

Each Veterancy season lasts roughly six months (six Cyrodiil campaign durations), with new rewards each season. There are 100 ranks, and after rank 100 there's a repeating reward so there's always something to work toward.

Rewards

The reward track includes titles, armor outfit styles, weapon outfit styles, ability skill styles, Telvar Stones, Imperial Fragments, Merit Marks, Trade Bars, and crafting satchels. Everything you earn is usable across all content, not just PvP.

Armor outfit style

Brutal Mercenary Pauldrons

Veterancy Crafting Pouch

Skill Styles

Season 1 includes two ability skill styles: a purple-themed Critical Charge (applies to Critical Rush and Stampede) and a molten-themed Power Bash (applies to Power Slam and Reverberating Bash). ZOS said they plan to add new skill styles every season.

Critical Charge, Vivid Purple

Skill style tooltip

Power Bash, Molten Might

Skill style tooltip

Titles

Lower ranks give you temporary titles that last for the season. Higher ranks unlock permanent titles - "Brutalist" at rank 50, "Sovereign" at a later rank, and "Warchief" is earnable each season at the top end. Your current Veterancy rank also shows up on your target frame in PvP, replacing the CP display. Your existing Alliance War rank stays alongside it.

Rank 31 Marauder on target frame

Vengeance Perks

If you play Vengeance, this is also where you unlock your perks. Previously during tests, everyone just got all perks. Now you earn them through the Veterancy track - they're front-loaded in the first 33 ranks so you don't have to grind forever before you're competitive. You earn these perks through any PvP mode, not just Vengeance itself.

Vengeance & PvP

ZOS is still looking into the March campaign leaderboard data issue. They're digging through the database to see what can be recovered, and plan to compensate affected players. They're also deciding whether to keep leaderboards account-based or switch back to per-character.

ZOS is running a one-week Vengeance test starting April 20th. The AOE damage cap is going from 3 targets to 6. Healing stays at 3. All other campaigns will be closed for the duration so everyone piles into Vengeance for data.

This is directly addressing the stalemate problem from the last test. With a 3-target cap, even fights turned into slug fests where nobody could get kills. I stopped playing Vengeance because of this - in a 1v6, my skills kept hitting random people instead of the target I was actually trying to burst down. It made coordinated play feel pointless. Bumping to 6 should let you actually focus someone who overextends.

If the servers can't handle it at 6, they'll dial it down to 5 or 4 and keep testing. This is the test that determines what the balance looks like when Vengeance goes live in Update 50. At launch, Cyrodiil will have two campaigns: Vengeance (900 player cap) and Grayhost (360 player cap). If population demands it, they'll add more.

Thieves Guild Part 2

Season One brings a full Thieves Guild sequel - 8 new quests set in Daggerfall and Glenumbra, picking up after the original Thieves Guild story. There's no reputation grind this time. You can play through all 8 quests back to back at your own pace.

• Takes place in Daggerfall with updated textures, new buildings, and previously locked areas now open.
• New Thieves Den inside the Daggerfall Outlaws Refuge serves as the quest hub.
• Heist penalty reduced - getting spotted now costs 30 seconds instead of a full minute.
• If you've completed the original Thieves Guild, you get unique dialogue. If not, the story still makes sense on its own.
• New daily missions tied to the Glenumbra version of the content.
• All content is free and permanent - it doesn't go away after the season ends.

Prowler's Talisman

The new mythic item is the Prowler's Talisman, a necklace that you get from the first Thieves Guild quest and upgrade over time by finding shards hidden across Season One activities. It has four upgrades total.

The shown version gives you: invisibility when crouching while Battle Spirit is inactive (once every 45 seconds), 5% pickpocketing success, Critical Damage that also grants Max Magicka and Max Stamina (up to 1900 at 10 stacks), and non-crit damage that gives Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery (up to 160 at 10 stacks).

The invisibility is mostly pointless since you can already hit 0 detection radius through other means, and the combat stats won't compete with actual combat mythics. The real value is the 5% pickpocketing bonus - that's useful no matter what, and it makes this a solid quality-of-life mythic for thieving.

Sheogorath

A standalone 6-quest Sheogorath story line is also coming in Season One. It starts in an abandoned house in Stormhaven - except now it's the "Shivering Shack," which is significantly bigger on the inside.

The quest shows up in a new journal category called "Tamriel Tales" - a catch-all for stories that don't fit neatly into one zone or DLC. There are no prerequisites. You can jump in without doing anything else first.

ZOS mentioned that the housing team has seen the Shivering Shack and is interested, but nothing is confirmed.

Favors

Favors are a new daily quest system designed to add more variety to the daily loop. You pick them up from "Freerunner's Postboards" in each alliance's starter zone - Glenumbra, Stonefalls, and Auridon.

• Each alliance has a unique NPC: Lady Arabelle (Daggerfall Covenant), Holgunn One-Eye (Ebonheart Pact), and Urcelmo (Aldmeri Dominion).
• Tasks pull from a large pool - delves, world bosses, fishing, gathering, feeding stray cats, and more.
• Completing favors unlocks daily letters from the NPC with a hireling-style ongoing story.
• Some favors send you to the rarest quests in the game - ones that less than 5% of players have found. If you've already done them, you get a free loot box instead.
• Completing enough favors gives you the postboard as a housing furnishing.
• Guild Favors are next after the initial launch, with their own stories and rewards.

Dynamic Encounters

Dynamic Encounters are multi-stage, area-based events that you auto-join when you walk into range. Each one has a story, different stages, and a mix of combat and non-combat objectives.

How They Work

• A unique compass icon appears when one is active. If you're anywhere in the zone, you'll see it on your map.
• Progress bar in the top right of your screen tracks the current stage.
• Mid-stage chest spawns partway through, final chest at the end. Rewards include collectible fragments, consumables, and armor set pieces.
• Difficulty scales with how many players are in the area - more players means more enemies, more objectives, tougher fights.
• Challenge Difficulty affects the monsters but not the chest rewards.
• Roughly 15-minute respawn timer, subject to tuning based on feedback.

Non-Combat Objectives

The farm encounter they showed had you putting out fires with water buckets and rescuing scared horses into a corral. The vampire lord encounter in Glenumbra has you tracking an NPC across the zone. Each encounter has different types of objectives based on what makes sense for that encounter's story.

Rescuing horses to the corral

Boss encounter with mechanics

Launch Encounters

Three encounters at launch, all in base game zones:

• Auridon - A farm under attack by bandits (small encounter, shown on stream).
• Glenumbra - Tracking down a vampire lord across the zone (large encounter).
• Stonefalls - Khajiit werewolf themed encounter.

One of the chest rewards is fragments for a house called the Rogue's Refuge. ZOS said they can add dynamic encounters to any zone and plan to add more in future seasons.

Rumors

Rumors are coming in Update 51, not Update 50, and won't be on the PTS on Monday. This was a preview only.

Rumors are hidden exploration content scattered across the base game world (now including Gold Coast, Wrothgar, and Hew's Bane). You find clues, piece together a story, and reach one of multiple endings - some of which are secret and require you to really pay attention.

Rumors journal

Three Tiers

• Whispers - straightforward, should be self-explanatory.
• Plots - you'll need to think a bit.
• Conspiracies - expect to collaborate with the community or spend real time figuring it out.

Rumors are character-specific (not account-wide) so you can make different choices on different characters. There are mouseover hints to help you find the starting points, but after that you're on your own. Each rumor has a journal entry with visual clues pointing to other clue locations.

PTS & Roadmap

PTS on Monday (April 13th)

Everything from this stream hits the PTS on Monday except Rumors (that's Update 51). This includes:

• Veterancy
• Thieves Guild Part 2
• Sheogorath quest line
• Favors
• Dynamic Encounters
• Challenge Difficulty
• Werewolf changes
• Class Mastery skill lines
• All player experience improvements from the Season Zero roadmap