There is the update of Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road through the new additions - from the beautiful new areas of Valenwood, the Colovian Highlands and Gold Road itself to the intricate Scribing system that lets you craft your own spells, there are a lot of things that will surprise you. Let's take a closer look!

The Gold Road Chapter

The new chapter for Elder Scrolls Online is Gold Road - an eternally autumnal stretch of West Weald, a picturesque zone nestled in the southeast corner of Cyrodiil that reminds me of the Rift in Skyrim. A rolling sweep of orange and crimson and occasional trolls that need setting on fire. Most excitingly, you get to explore the city of Skingrad, a place that Oblivion fans will fondly remember.

As well as Gold Road, you've also got Dawnwood, a tangle of enticing jungle from nearby Valenwood, home to the Wood Elves - Mecca for stealthy archers - and the Striking Colovian Highlands, a mountainous region littered with mysterious Ayleid Ruins. We've been promised 30 hours of content in this new chapter, and it's easy to see how.

I am sure you may happily spend all that time rambling about, accompanied by the classic ambient bloom of background music which, much like in Oblivion and Skyrim, does a brilliant job of soaking your senses in that intangible sense of adventure.

Only in Elder Scrolls Online, it feels more expansive and lived-in. Get ready for some ESO Gold and immerse yourself in the adventure!

Scribing System

Perhaps the biggest new addition gameplay-wise is Scribing, which essentially lets you craft and customize your own spells. After an initial quest that involves being sucked inside a mysterious portal (classic Elder Scrolls), you eventually meet a talking crow who takes you through the basics.

You can choose the nature of the fire spell damage, for example, then how the spell works, so that could be an immediate blast of damage or a stream of pain over a number of seconds. And finally, you can add a visual flourish, making everything purple, for instance.

In Elder Scrolls Online, the Scribing is explained as imbuing an element of artistry into your spells, and it does feel satisfying concocting something, slotting it into your skill line, and then unleashing it in battle. It reminds me of a bit of enchanting weapons in Skyrim - you're provided with all the base elements, but it's up to you how you assemble them.

Chapter For Returning Players

For returning players, there's the promise of a fresh story, with Gold Road picking up after the events of the previous chapter, Necrom. There's a new Daedric Prince on the loose in the Scions of Ithelia, a character never before seen in the Elder Scrolls Online, and it's your job to investigate, track down, and then ultimately stick a sword in.

Besides, there's a new 12-player trial called Lucent Citadel, set in a long-lost Ayleid Vault. That's where the MMO meat is - teaming up with friends and taking on the kind of sprawling challenge that simply wouldn't be possible in a single-player Elder Scrolls game. But as a new player, you may be pleasantly surprised by the welcoming familiarity of much of this world.

Final Thought

There's plenty to do on your own, and I don't think it's a disservice to say that for long stretches, the Elder Scrolls Online feels a lot like Oblivion and the Skyrim. You can solo quest away to your heart's content. It's just even more enormous, and you occasionally get the thrill of bumping into other players off on their adventure.

This guide will discuss the NPC guilds available for joining in Elder Scrolls Online and provide insights on leveling them up.

Types Of NPC Guilds

There are 3 NPC guilds you can join: Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, and the Undaunted. If you have additional chapters and DLCs, you can also join:

• The Psijic Order, which is accessible through the Summerset chapter
• The Dark Brotherhood, which is accessible through the Dark Brotherhood DLC
• The Thieves Guild, which is accessible through the Thieves Guild DLC

Starting with the base game guilds, each of the faction starting zones will give you access to all 3 of the main guilds:

• Davon’s Watch in Stonefalls
• Vulkhel Guard in Auridon
• Daggerfall in Glenumbra

You can find these guilds in major DLC zones, such as Somerset and Western Skyrim, also feature these guilds.

While each of these guilds has a rich and unique storyline associated with them, you are not required to do them in order to join the guilds and reap the benefits of their skill lines.

Their unique skill lines include both active and passive skills. To get access to the full line of skills, you will need to level each guild.

Fighters Guild

To level up your Fighter Guild, you will need to defeat certain types of enemies or conquer Dolmens, Vampires, Werewolves, Undead, and Daedra, which are your primary source of points. To defeat them easily, it is necessary to use your ESO Gold to equip yourself!

These enemies can be found in many places throughout Tamriel. Some recommended locations for power leveling are Alik’r Desert Dolmens, Banished Cells group dungeons, Crypt of Hearts group dungeons, and the Vaults of Madness group dungeon, as these locations are filled with Undead and Daedra.

You will receive 1 point per enemy defeated, and 20 points for each Dolmen conquered. Since Dolmens are such a rich source of points, some zone players advertise dolman groups in chat. The most popular place for this is Alik’r Desert. By grouping up, you will receive all points from kills made by your group members as well as your own. If you can get one hit in, you’ll get credit.

Another way to level this skill line is to visit Cardea Gallus at the Fighters Guild for a daily quest that will ask you to complete 3 Dolmens in a particular zone. Completing this daily will award you 10 points.

Mages Guild

To level the Mages Guild skill, there are special lore books scattered throughout the world. Each book will provide 5 points when collected.

In a particular area, there are 4 copies of the same book, giving you options. Once you collect one of them, the other copies will disappear. If you are on PC, we recommend using the Map Pins addon, which will show you the location of all lore books, making collecting the books much easier.

Just like the Fighters Guild, you can also visit the Mages Guild for a daily quest. Alvure Baren will send you to a specific public dungeon to retrieve an item for him.

Undaunted

Undaunted is leveled by completing group dungeon quests, pledges, delve dailies, and trial quests.

Completing the initial dungeon quest will award you 25 points. Completing a trial quest on normal difficulty will award you 50 points. And completing a trial quest on veteran difficulty will award you 100 points.

Once you hit level 45, you’ll receive an invitation to join the Undaunted, allowing you to unlock 3 daily pledge quests:

• Pledges completed on normal difficulty will award 25 points each.
• Pledges completed on veteran difficulty will award 50 points each.
• Pledges completed on veteran hard mode difficulty will award 100 points each.

The Undaunted also has a daily quest available at any Undaunted Enclave for an additional 10 points. Bolgrul of the Undaunted will send you to complete a quest in a specific zone Delves.

For any of the three guild dailies, while the character you’re on can only obtain one of each daily, friends may receive a different daily and can share them with you for even more points.

Psijic Order

For those with access to extra content beyond the base game, there are 3 additional guilds available for joining.

If you possess the Summerset chapter, you can become a member of the Psijic Order after completing the initial main quest in Summerset, known as "The Queen's Decree."

Upon reaching Artaeum, locate Loremaster Celarus within the Ceporah Tower. The Psijic Order is one of the most tedious to level, as you will follow the questline, which brings you to the far reaches of Tamriel.

If you don't have many wayshrines open yet, get your running shoes on. If you are on PC, we recommend using the Map Pins addon, which will show you the locations of all the time breaches, making it a bit easier to navigate.

Thieves Guild

If you have access to the Thieves Guild DLC, you can join the Thieves Guild, which is started by talking to Quen in any Outlaws Refuges or by going into the Crown Store and obtaining the free quest starter.

The fastest way to level the Thieves Guild is to steal. We recommend heading to the Belkarth docks in Craglorn and looting all the containers, which will net you a ton of stolen items to sell to a fence.

Another great option is to go to Khenarthi's Roost and turn the fields of sheep into veal. Selling and laundering the meat will give you a ton of points.

Note that there is a daily limit to how much you can sell and launder, which can increase as you level the skill line.

You can also complete 3 daily quests for additional points, including Heist, the Tip Board, and the Reacquisition Board.

Dark Brotherhood

Finally, if you have access to the Dark Brotherhood DLC, you can join the Dark Brotherhood, which you can start by talking to Amelie Crowe in any Outlaws Refuges or by going into the Crown Store and obtaining the free quest starter.

The Dark Brotherhood skill line is leveled by completing a variety of Dark Brotherhood daily quests, including Black Sacraments and Marked for Death.

Note that Black Sacraments will not be available until you complete the first half of the Dark Brotherhood quest.

The new Elder Scrolls Online's chapter, Gold Road, is heading to West Weald. It will be rather familiar to those who have previously played Oblivion. 

Intro

This next chapter will continue on from Necrom, however, offering a complete tonal shift and moving away from the cosmic horror Stylings of Necrom.

Here, we'll go over what the chapter Gold Road has to offer, but we won't be diving into any main plot points, just the area and the new Scribing system. 

Of course, if you want to still have excellent performance in the next chapter, it is still very important to prepare sufficient ESO Gold!

Skingrad

Your main hub will be in Skingrad, which is found along the Gold Road with beautiful autumnal colors – those golds and reds. 

It looks like it'll offer a stunning backdrop for the next chapter, especially with those delicate falling leaves. 

Being well known for its wine, Skingrad has an air of wealth surrounding the town with vineyards, grand structures, and a bustling town to explore.

Valenwood Annexation

Heading into Valenwood Annexation, which has seemingly sprung up overnight, you'll be greeted with a lush jungle rainforest with overgrown vegetation, plants, and buildings becoming one, the perfect home for Bosmer. 

Colovian Highlands

Finally, Covian Highlands, a rocky hilly area, going back to those autumnal colors, offering sparse vegetation and some strange-looking enemies.

Also Read: A Detailed Guide To ESO 2024 Guilds And Glory Celebration Event

Extras & Companions

Throughout this chapter, expect a lot of crystallized and colorful enemy variants, as well as your unusual blend of other creatures. 

This chapter will come with your standard array of delves, world bosses, public dungeons, a 12-player trial, etc. 

However, the companions are being moved to the fourth quarter as they want to work on their stories more.

Scribing 

Gold Road will offer us new customization features with Scribing and Styling. 

Scribing will let you play with the nature of magic itself. This new system will let you collect and customize skills, letting you alter their primary, secondary, and tertiary effects. 

From what I have seen so far, you will start with a grimoire, which will be the main scale that's based around you. 

You will then slot scripts into the 3 sockets available. These will let you change various characteristics of the ability, such as healing, damage type, and buffs. And this is all done with a new sort of currency called inks, which is what you will use to change or scribe an ability.

Styling

As part of this new system, Styling will also be introduced. 

This will give you the option to change the visual appearance of an ability. For example, Wall of Elements could now be purple in color. 

I'm excited about this part of the update because it'll be nice to tailor abilities to the look and personalities we have given our characters over the years and help them stand out a bit more.

The focus at launch will be weapon and guild lines so as not to limit specific classes, giving everyone a chance to try it out. They have said there will be 22 styles at launch, which will be unlockable in-game. 

Whether they will add anything to the Crown Store at a later date has not been mentioned. So for now, it's all free to earn, other than needing to purchase the chapter.

Roadmap

We will get 2 new dungeons in the first quarter of the year titled Oathsworn Pit and Bedlam Veil. 

Quarter 2 will be the release of Gold Road, including Scribing and the new trial Lucent Citadel. 

Quarter 3 will offer us a new housing feature that we have been given no hints to whatsoever. 

And in Quarter 4, there will be a new PvP feature. However, it's unrelated to Citadel. We will also get the two new companions, which are currently nameless. 

We will get be getting a glimpse of what’s to come for the Elder Scrolls Online in 2024 in the very near future - this is the 10th anniversary of the game, so it’s a big year! We have got some teasers so far! 

Impressario Morphing Pet For The Year

Firstly, the Impressario’s morphing pet for this year will be Molag Bal Illusion Imp and the first morph of it for the year will be these body and face markings. 

Influencer Teaser Letters And The Maybe Next Zone? 

And then, there is this letter that some influencers received from a brother of Eveli Sharp Arrow, which gives us an idea of about where on the map the new content will be. 

Influencer Teaser Fragments Combined 

We also got this quick little clip with some familiar symbols, seemingly hinting at some content centered around the Green Pact and the bosmer. 

All 3 alliance colors are shown, and this looks to be a fargrave symbol, so I am excited to see what’s coming and how all of these ties together. 

What Could Players Be Hoping For In 2024? 

So, we know we will be getting new content, balance changes, new features, all of the usual stuff, but what else could we be hoping for? 

Of course, there are some things players will always ask for: more storage, more housing slots, cross saves, cross play, no nerfs. Don’t get your hopes too high for these ones! 

My Wishlist For ESO In 2024 

Here are some of the other things on my ESO wishlist.

No Scoreboard, Progress Saving Mode For IA 

Let’s start with the newest game mode, which I’ve had a ton of fun with, but the infinite archive could use a second mode where progress can be saved instead of starting over, mostly because of how long and time consuming the runs can be. 

We Need An Evil Companion 

I would also love to see a companion that is fully evil. Obviously, a Necromancer would be perfect for this persona, so there is a chance we could get something just like that the next time we see more companions, since it is currently the only unrepresented companion class. 

Upgrade/Craft Companion Gear 

I’d also love to see some upgrades to the companion system as a whole, like being able to upgrade their gear instead of praying that RNG gives you the item, quality and trait you’re looking for. 

Upgrade Equipment Like We Can At The Transmute Station 

There are some other quality of life crafting improvements I would love to see too, like being able to upgrade my equipment right to ESO Gold instead of going upgrade by upgrade, kind of like you can at the transmute station. 

System To Swap Under Leveled Mats 

I’d also love a way to convert my low level crafting materials to materials that I’ll actually use. 

In Fallout 76, there is an ammo converter to swap round types. A system like this for those mostly unnecessary crafting levels would be awesome. 

Include Furnishing Mats In Surveys 

It would also be a very welcomed change for survey maps to start including furnishing materials as another source for obtaining them. 

Triggers, Spawn Points & Interactive Furniture 

As far as housing itself goes, I’d love to be able to set a spawn point, and it would be great to add new interactive items for setting traps or triggers. 

I could see the housing community putting these types of items to great use in things like mazes or games. 

More Houses For Gold 

And some new, smaller houses for gold would be great too! It’s been a long time. 

Change Hair Without Appearance Change Token 

In terms of character customization, I will continue to pray that ZOS will one day let us change our hair color without an appearance change token. Maybe by just adding a new slot to the outfit station? 

More Options At The Armory Station 

I’d also love the option to save some more things to an armory build, like the role you use to queue for a dungeon when you’re using that build, or even being able to save the mount.  

This would give us more incentive to use the armory slots and lessen the amount of things to change when you swap your build. 

More Combat Pet Skins 

I have also been asking for this one for a very long time, but I’d love to see more skins for the combat pets like the warden bear or the sorcerer’s scamp. 

More Collectibles Tied To Achievements 

Most players would agree that getting some more in game collectible unlocks, like mounts or pets available through rewards, would also be very welcomed. 

Improve The Old Content! 

But one of my biggest wishes for the year is that we see some love given to the content released 10 years ago!

Give us some new textures, upgraded NPC models, new events, or a return to the story. 

Guilds & Glory Event Starts Jan 18

I will say that this wish is looking promising, with the Guilds and Glory celebration being the first event for 2024! 

So, with the reveal in just a few days, what’s on your ESO wishlist? Any ideas on what the adventure for this year may be? Don’t forget to turn into that reveal stream to find out!