Today we are going to take a look at the ESO Scribing system. Scribing is being introduced with the 2024 Gold Road Chapter. Think of Scribing as a precursor to Spellcrafting – ESO is set around 1,000 years before games like Oblivion where fully-fledged Spellcrafting can be found. Scribing will give players more choices in the customization of their skills.
When Scribing launches with the Gold Road Chapter you will be able to modify new skills from the Weapon Skill lines and Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Soul Magic, Assault, and Support Skill lines. However, you won’t be able to touch all of them. Scribing introduces new skills that you first have to unlock for each of the skill lines mentioned above. One of the new skills is a Bow backflip. You can decide to leave a poison cloud on the ground or a healing circle, for example.
How Does Scribing Work in ESO
Players will be able to collect and customize skills with which they can edit their primary, secondary, and tertiary effects. Each of the skill lines listed below will have at least one unlockable Skill for Scribing when the Gold Road launches for The Elder Scrolls Online.
Zenimax may expand Scribing into more skills and skill lines after the release of Gold Road, but we do not know for certain at this stage – nothing has been confirmed, this is only speculation on our part.
Scribing requires two new resources added to the game – Grimoires and Scripts.
Grimoires are the basic element of newly created spells and define how the ability looks and functions (the look can be further customised with the new Styling system). For example, your chosen Grimoire may be for a projectile ability or a leap.
Once you have decided which Grimoire you want to use, you further customise the ability by adding Scripts. There are three types of Scripts, and you can apply one of each to your new skill:
- Primary Script – Defines the crux of the ability’s effect – is it a damage shield? Is it a heal? Is it a damage ability? If it deals damage, what type of damage does it deal – poison, fire, frost, or something else? These fundamentals of the ability are defined by the Primary Script.
- Secondary Script – The Secondary effect applies an extra effect to the ability. For example, you can add unique buffs or debuffs to the ability, restore resources to an ally or convert a Soul Gem to Ultimate.
- Tertiary Script – These typically add named buffs or debuffs to your ability – things like Minor Prophecy, Minor Force, Minor Maim, Lifesteal, Off-Balance, etc.
To be clear, the possibilities mentioned above are only a small selection of what is expected to be available, and the Gold Road Chapter is still nearly half a year away, so some things may be changed by the time it becomes available. We will get a much better idea of exactly what Scribing will offer us when the Gold Road PTS becomes available.
Is Scribing the Same as Spellcrafting?
Spellcrafting has been high on the list of many ESO players’ most desired features for ESO for many years, and many are asking if Scribing is simply another name for Spellcrafting.
The best answer to this question is “not quite”. Spellcrafting in other games like TES IV: Oblivion gave players a great deal of free reign to reshape the magic system and create spells as they saw fit. Scribing on the other hand gives you some free reign, but you must stay within certain constraints, you cannot freely pick and choose any effects from the game and mash them together, you can only work with what is offered by the Grimoires and Scripts available in the game.
Responding to questions on the matter, Zenimax explicitly stated that Scribing is not Spellcrafting, but a “precursor to Spellcrafting”. There are two interpretations of this statement – either this means that Scribing is a test run and full Spellcrafting is going to be added eventually, or it is merely referring to the lore surrounding Spellcrafting – ESO is set around 1,000 years before the other Elder Scrolls games, and the mages of Tamriel haven’t yet attained sufficient mastery over magic to devise entirely new spells as they see fit.
How Can I Get Started with Scribing?
To access Scribing, you must own the Gold Road Chapter.
The Gold Road Chapter will introduce a new NPC called Ulfsild, a magical historian researching the precursors of magic. Players can find and speak to Ulfsild to embark on a new quest line that explains how Scribing works, along with a story arc that provides some of the lore and story behind Scribing. We don’t yet know how progression will work with Scribing – will there be a skill line similar to the Psijic Guild, or is simply collecting the Grimoires and Scripts all you need to do?
Styling System – Skill Transmog for ESO
The Gold Road will also finally add Skills Styling as part of the Scribing system in ESO. Styling will allow you to change the looks of Skills visual FX. That means you could turn a red fire breath into a purple fire breath. There will be 22 styles available when the Gold Road launches.
You can find out more about Skill Styling here.
