All the way back in 1996, Bethesda introduced an interesting feature with its second Elder Scrolls RPG. Daggerfall included “spellcrafting,” a system that allowed players to modify and combine spells to make new ones. As it sounds, spellcrafting was a very sandboxy feature prone to exploitation, yet it proved to be popular enough to continue through the sequels.
When Gold Road arrives in Elder Scrolls Online this June, we won’t be seeing spellcrafting – not exactly. Instead, ZeniMax is introducing spell scribing, a kind of precursor to spellcrafting with a distinct twist. So what is scribing, and how much will it change the face of ESO when it arrives?
What is scribing?
While ZeniMax uses the convenient fiction that ESO is set in the distant timeline past and therefore wouldn’t have fully developed spellcrafting, the truth is more practical and obvious: Allowing MMO players to min/max spells would create balance headaches that the dev team has no interest in handling. So instead we are slated to get the more constrained and controlled arena of scribing.
It’s best to think of scribing as a way to customize spells past morphs. ZOS is adding 11 scribe-able spells and abilities for the cross-class spell lines (like weapon skills, support, fighter’s guild, etc.).
The first step toward scribing is going on a Gold Road-exclusive quest line to unlock the system. So if you don’t have the expansion, you can’t access this feature. From reports, it’s a pretty epic and expansive storyline involving the Luminaries and several challenges, so don’t think you’ll get scribing in 10 minutes after you log into the chapter.
Once you unlock a skill that can be scribed, you can apply a grimoire to adjust the primary (focus), secondary (signature), and tertiary (affix) script of that spell. The script addresses the type of effect, the effect’s potency, and any side effects that occur when you use that ability. So for example, you could equip a skill to do frost damage with an extra burst of healing when activated.
It should be noted that you won’t be seeing scribing for class-specific lines, which is unfortunate, but it makes sense when you consider that ZeniMax initially is targeting universal skill lines. To make you feel better, the studio is giving each class its own unique script that can apply to these skills, such as a Necromancer getting a buff if a corpse is nearby.
One of the extra effects is altering the colors. There are about two dozen of these cosmetic variants that are obtained through normal questing in the chapter, which may be one of the biggest selling points for the fashionable among us.
How much will scribing change the game?
In doing my research on scribing, it quickly became apparent that ZeniMax is playing this very cautiously. This isn’t a top-down game overhaul in which every single skill and spell can be transformed into some wildly powerful ability. Rather, it’s a new system that the studio is rolling out in a very limited fashion with the option to expand over time.
I think that’s pretty smart, all things considered. Tossing in old school spellcrafting could’ve broken ESO entirely, so keeping things controlled while giving players more options than in the past is probably the best way to go. And I do have faith that this is a system that’ll see expansion, as ZeniMax has a great track record for building upon legacy features from past chapters.
Will it change the game? A bit, but probably not as much as some players might assume upon first glance. I doubt that most of us will be changing our tried-and-true skill rotations for a brand-new array of scribed abilities. Rather, what’ll probably happen is that maybe one or two of these customizable skills will get folded into our rotations to help bolster up a build that’s faulty in some way. Maybe you feel that you need more healing or a synergistic damage type, for instance.
It’s certainly sure to be a time sink, as players love to collect unlocks that can be used forever after. It’ll take a while to see how the community reacts to this after tinkering and hands-on trials are performed. “It has potential” is a phrase that keeps bouncing around in my mind in regard to this.
I do think that scribing will be a strong selling point of Gold Road. After all, this is pretty much the only wholly original feature, so it stands out by default. It remains to be seen whether this becomes another niche card game-like feature or the start of a favored system that’ll only get better from here.
Given how few MMOs do something like this, ZeniMax would be wise to promote and capitalize on scribing going forward — as long as it doesn’t break the game or prove to be a dud.
Traverse the troubled land of Tamriel in the Elder Scrolls Online! Justin Olivetti will be your guide here in Tamriel Infinium on Wednesdays as we explore together the world created by ZeniMax and Bethesda in one of the biggest MMOs in the genre.
