Creative Director at Zenimax Online Studios, Rich Lambert, provided some tidbits on the process of creating Elder Scrolls Online's new Arcanist class during the latest episode of Xbox Podcast, saying that it will be different than anything that the studio has built before.

"This class is something that’s very different than anything that we’ve really built before. It’s really tightly integrated into the overarching storyline and themes. So a lot of the inspiration for this class centers around Hermaeus Mora and this thirst for forbidden knowledge. It is a little bit darker." Rich Lambert said about the Arcanist class. He also claimed that it gives a cosmic horror vibe with a unique sound that the audio team has not heard before.



The Arcanist class has three major skill lines that offer some very different ways to play the game - Herald of the Tome, Apocryphal Soldier, and Curative Runeforms which serves as a healing mechanism. Herald of the Tome is essentially a DPS line, while Apocryphal Soldier is more like a tanky line that protects the Arcanist from lethal damage. Rich Lambert iterated that the class is more focused on a combo point system, but the general concept revolves around individual abilities compounded with the core mechanics.

"You can control some abilities that aren’t spenders or builders from the onset, but you can Morph them to do that. So there’s just this huge tool chest to really dig into and play with, and lots of interesting choices for the players to make to really get the mastery of this class.” Lambert elaborated on the builders of Crux, which makes abilities do slightly or completely different things. Players will be able to control abilities that aren't spenders thanks to Morphs.

The development team talked a lot about what are the class's defining characteristics and ways to make the Arcanist different from anything else they have done. Consequently, they came up with the idea of increasing the influence of Hermaeus Mora on the Arcanist. "There’s a lot of influences of Hermaeus Mora on this character and it just ties in so well to this overarching story,” Lambert added.

Elder Scrolls Online previously announced new zones and the new Arcanist class as part of the Necrom expansion, which will release on June 20.

Posted: Feb 15, 2023 12:17 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/elder-scrolls-online-arcanist-class-very-different/