Elder Scrolls Online Items

On April 2nd, The Elder Scrolls Online Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk will begin. Over the three months from April 2nd to July 8th, a wealth of free content will be added to the game.

This marks the official end of the previous model, which relied on large annual Chapters and paid content updates. It may well be one of the most exciting changes ESO has seen in a long time. Let's take a closer look at what this shift will bring to players.

What Is a Season?

You may already be familiar with the term “season” from other games, but in ESO, it's a brand-new concept.

Fundamentally, a season replaces Chapters and DLCs. The development team will still maintain the familiar quarterly update rhythm, but all new content will be directly accessible to every player without requiring an ESO Plus subscription or any separate acquisition of new DLC. This includes fresh quests, dungeons, zones, and gameplay systems.

The developers have stated that they don't want to lock themselves into a fixed template. Some seasons may focus on story and narrative, others on system overhauls, some on quality-of-life improvements, and still others on bold experiments.

Why the Shift to a Season Model?

The developers realized that Chapter model not only created a barrier in terms of cost but also caused confusion among players. On Discord and Reddit, players repeatedly asked: What content should they get? Which Chapters do they need? What is required to keep up with the current mainstream gameplay? What is optional?

Beyond the confusion, Chapter model also seemed to lock the open-world team into an 18-month development cycle, where everything had to revolve around that year's major Chapter. This made it difficult for them to respond quickly to player feedback.

They believe the new season model will provide the development team with greater flexibility, allowing them to adjust direction in a timely manner, address emerging issues, and fix designs that aren't working.

Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk

Base Game

The release of Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk on April 2nd should be considered a transitional phase, but for new players, it's still exciting. At that time, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Orsinium will all become part of the base game for every player.

Of course, this isn't brand-new content. If you've already experienced these zones and completed their storylines, the change will have limited personal impact. But at the very least, even if you cancel your subscription in the future, you'll still retain access to this content.

Season Zero offers much more than that. It also includes a series of quality-of-life updates, such as finally raising the furnishing placement limit for some houses, and adding new mounts that can be obtained using Elder Scrolls Online gold. Going forward, the developers may move more items out of Crown Store or provide more options outside of it.

Night Market

Perhaps the most eye-catching new feature is Night Market – a PvE zone with higher difficulty. It is designed for group play, with all enemies posing a greater threat, making it more suitable for max-level players. It also offers both 4-player and 12-player raids.

Between April 29 and June 17, you can earn reputation with one of three factions by completing activities in this zone. Each faction offers different rewards in terms of items and costumes, and as your reputation grows, that faction's merchants will unlock more goods. Once Night Market starts, it is sure to become a major focus for players.

Class & Skill Line Updates

Season Zero will also include the previously mentioned Dragonknight class update, along with changes to Werewolf skill line and Two-Handed skill line. Although these are existing skill lines, the changes seem to introduce new incentives, encouraging players to invest time in them again to unlock new skill styles or other collectibles. Additionally, PvP will see significant changes that go beyond Vengeance mechanic, introducing a brand-new progression system along with various PvP-exclusive rewards.

Tamriel Tomes

On April 2, the game will also introduce Tamriel Tomes system – which you can think of as a kind of Battle Pass. It will replace the daily login rewards, Endeavor system, and the content pass.

A very important note: while the new gameplay content is free-for-all players, and part of Tamriel Tomes is also free, unlocking all collectibles within a season – meaning all cosmetic items – will require a fee for that season's Tamriel Tomes.

Starting with Season 0, all new gameplay content will be completely free for players who already owns ESO or plays through Game Pass. The developers have clearly stated that there will still be optional paid items. While optional paid features will still exist, most of ESO's content will be accessible to all, potentially attracting a large influx of new players.

Crossplay

There are also some practical changes worth noting. After Season Zero, each season will last three months, and updates for PC and consoles will go live simultaneously. This is likely a necessary step in preparing for cross-platform play.

The developers have confirmed once again that cross-platform play is actively being developed, although it sounds like it is not expected to launch within 2026. But the sooner this feature arrives, the better – crossplay can ensure that there are enough players for in-game activities, making it easier for everyone to find teammates, while also allowing the community to actively report bugs and suggest improvements. In short, it would create a positive feedback loop.

How do you feel about ESO's Season Zero? Are you looking forward to the changes ahead? Dawn and Dusk will be here soon – let's hope it brings positive changes to The Elder Scrolls Online.

The Elder Scrolls Online development team is focused on a major class rework project, aiming to rewrite classes to maintain balance and better reflect their established lore.

This information primarily stems from a new developer memo released by the combat team. They state that this is a long-term project, and updates will not be released all at once. Class reworks will be rolled out gradually throughout 2026, and may continue beyond.

Development Team Design Philosophy

To differentiate classes sufficiently and showcase unique gameplay and presentation, the developers plan to redesign them, focusing on their backgrounds, abilities, appearances, strengths, and weaknesses. This redesign incorporates two core concepts:

Source Of Power

Source of Power refers to the origin of these classes' power within the game. Why and how they became the class, whether their power originates from their bloodline or the deity they worship, all determine the foundation of their ability design. For example, Dragonknight's power originates from dragon fire and earth energy, while Arcanist's power comes from a pact with the demon god Hermaeus Mora.

Power Fantasy

Power Fantasy refers to the manifestation of abilities, such as the skills used by a class and their role in combat, allowing players to experience the unique feel of playing that class. For example, there's the assassin class, which excels at stealth, Nightblade, and Templar, which fights directly using divine energy.

Development Team's Goal

The development team hopes to make each class capable of fulfilling any role, including tank, healer, and DPS. This only means achieving the goal, not necessarily being the optimal one.

They want each class to match its power fantasy in terms of abilities, animations, and sound effects. Current older classes will also receive visual and auditory modernizations to bring them up to the level of classes like Arcanist.

The official plan is to use player feedback and game data to guide class updates, ensuring changes are satisfying in terms of mechanics and themes while maintaining their uniqueness.

Current Class Issues

While the development team has clearly stated that these ideas are positive, the current class identities in the game remain somewhat ambiguous.

Low Class Differentiation

Aside from distinct classes like Necromancer, many classes lack clear differentiation. Skill kits from different classes are functionally too similar. They perform similarly in direct healing, single-target DoTs, and AOE skills, with the main differences being only in buffs, debuffs, and visual effects.

For example, Nightblade should be more deeply integrated into the theme of shadows and trickery; they could emphasize the interaction between stealth and backstab damage. The description of Templar's Holy Power is not specific enough. The official description should clarify whether his focus should be on healing or tanking.

Subclassing System

The most serious imbalance currently facing classes lies in the subclassing system. Subclassing involves mixing and matching skill lines from different classes, which are far more powerful than using a single class. Even if a pure class player use Elder Scrolls Online gold to get the meta sets, it performance is still not as well-rounded as a subclass player.

The main reason for this problem is that subclasses were not considered in the initial class design of ESO. This has led to huge differences in the current skill lines of each class, while subclasses can create overly powerful configurations.

How To Solve The Problems?

The official solution is to reorganize class skill lines, distributing key abilities so that no single skill line can provide all the tools needed to achieve the goal.

Although the subclassing system essentially competes with the default class features, it gives players the initiative to build the experience, allowing for free combinations. The official team will not eliminate this gameplay.

For pure class players, there should be more powerful, satisfying, and achievable class features. For players using subclasses, they can freely customize their playstyles, but may need to sacrifice class-specific features. The strength gap between the two classes is narrowing.

Even without directly nerfing skills, a more balanced distribution of abilities will prevent players from focusing on the optimal skill tree as much as before, inevitably leading to a loss in DPS.

However, this helps improve the overall health of the game, especially addressing the current issues in PvE and PvP caused by an unfavorable difficulty curve and gameplay convergence.

Their ultimate goal is to give pure classes a powerful and satisfying class identity and strength, while simultaneously narrowing the strength gap between subclasses and pure classes, while allowing them to retain the freedom to shape their identity or pursue specialized power.

Update Order

The official update order for the upcoming classes has been announced. This order may be adjusted, and the entire process may take up to two years.

• 1. Dragonknight
• 2. Warden
• 3. Sorcerer
• 4. Templar
• 5. Nightblade
• 6. Necromancer
• 7. Arcanist

Dragonknight

Official They also announced their direction for Dragonknight's adjustments, intending to position it as an attire warrior.

Refinement

Dragonknight will be given a unique damage-over-time parameter. A new passive skill called Avalanche will be added to Earthen Heart skill line, allowing Dragonknight to accumulate damage by stacking damage bonuses during combat; interrupting the attack will lose this bonus.

Reconfiguring

Dragonknight rework will retain the core resource management principle of "fire requires fuel," but provide a more satisfactory internal solution. For example, the reworked skill Inhale has been moved to Ardent Flame skill line, and Dragonknight will be able to recover a certain percentage of lost resources over time before unleashing the classic explosion.

Reworking classes is one of the most fundamental changes to the game. If done poorly or hastily, it could be a disaster for ESO simplification, but the information revealed so far is generally positive. This move may also bring back some players who left after the subclass system was introduced.