One of the biggest elements in The Elder Scrolls Online end game content will be the coming addition of Craglorn. The new area will be the first Adventure Zone released for the game. These are areas designed for end game players to test their skills. At present, you will be able to enter Craglorn at Veteran Rank 1, but the zone is designed for Veteran Ranks 11 and 12.
One of the biggest aspects of Craglorn is the new trial system, which allows groups of 12 players to run through trials and be ranked via online leaderboards. While the top groups will get special rewards based on leaderboard placement, there will be weekly rewards for all players. In addition, the trails will drop loot just like every other dungeon. The groups who run through the trials the fastest will get special items, but it’s more of a bonus for those players, rather than items that are must-haves for all. They may be sought after, but everything you need to be a top player will be freely available for all, regardless of your time running through the trials.
For those looking forward to running through the new trials, expect an experienced group to complete it in roughly 30 minutes. However, if you’re playing with a “pug” group of random players, it may take you as long as 90 minutes to complete a trial. The content is designed for players of all skills, but the better players who complete the trials faster will be rewarded with the leaderboard perks.
Players will lose time if they have to resurrect a party member. At the moment the development team is allowing for 60 resurrections in a trial. While that may seem like a lot at first glance, keep in mind this is for a group of 12 players. That’s an average of five resurrections per player. Given the fact that the trails are designed for all skill levels, and it will reported take a lesser skilled group 90 minutes to complete, it’s safe to assume that it will be challenging for lesser skilled players, but fairly easy to avoid the resurrection limit for better groups. However, players looking to top the leaderboards will have to get through without any resurrections, which should pose quite a challenge.
While the main draw of Craglorn will almost certainly be the trials, these instanced runs will not be the only aspect of the zone that appeals to players. Much of the zone is an open area (non-instanced), allowing groups of four to explore the zone and venture out on quests. You’ll run into other groups as you’re adventuring in Craglorn, but only people within your faction. You won’t find any PvP battles in Craglorn, so only your faction will be present.
As you venture through Craglorn you will come across delves, which are basically four-player dungeons. Many of these will be found as you take your group of four through the main storyline quests in the Craglorn area. You should definitely run through the main storyline with a group, but don’t limit yourself to just the story quests and the trials. If you do a bit of exploring, you’ll find dungeons and other enticing places that are not part of the main storyline.
End game in The Elder Scrolls Online will not consist entirely of Adventure Zones like Craglorn, but most of the content will be geared toward groups of players instead of individual players. Cragon has PvE content for groups of 4 or 12 players, which will likely be the norm as more new content is released for the game. PvP is a major part of Elder Scrolls Online, and while it’s not a prominent feature in Craglorn, it’s a safe bet to assume that more PvP content is coming down the road. For now, players can expect to venture throughout Craglorn when the new content hits later this month.
