Sign Up
  • Verification Code
I want to get information about activities, sales and personal offers

or continue with social networks

twitch google steam reddit discord
Already have an account?
Log In
Remember me Forgot your password?

or continue with social networks

twitch google steam reddit discord
Not a member? Sign up now

Elder Scrolls Online Class Reworks 2026 | Pure-Class Identity, Subclass Balance & Gradual Skill Updates

Posted: Dec 06, 2025 Views: 19

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.

Elder Scrolls Online Class Reworks 2026 | Pure-Class Identity, Subclass Balance & Gradual Skill Updates

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.

Surplus stock:
Connecting to online customer service, please wait.

.