The Elder Scrolls Online Racial and Guild Skills Editorial

The editors over at MMORPG.com have slapped up a new editorial that focuses entirely on the racial and guild skills that we’ll be able to make use of in ZeniMax’s The Elder Scrolls Online. The beauty (or drawback) of playing a massively multiplayer title is that these skills are going to be modified, rearranged, and potentially removed as time goes on and balancing issues make themselves apparent:

That’s right, as if you didn’t already have enough choices to worry about in ESO, it was highlighted at the recent QuakeCon that your race will play a significant role in your character building as well. Each race, from Nord to Breton will have its own skill tree tied directly to its chosen race. Granted, you catch a glimpse of the tree at 8:30 into the video below, and the Dark Elf tree doesn’t look too in depth. Still, I count four distinct class skills to level, plus one ultimate ability to wield that only Dark Elves will have access to.

Each class also has three distinct skill lines, and these tend to be more robust than the race specific skills. The Templar Nick Konkle was playing had Aedric Spear, Dawn’s Wrath, and Restoring Light. I assume that each of these refers to the different roles the class can tackle, with Restoring Light sounding distinctly (healy). Paul and Nick also showed how each skill can be leveled up through use and (morphed) down one path or another to change how that skill works. Way back when, Paul talked to us during a press event and said that down the road, if you want to go back and level up a skill down another morph path, you can do that as well. You can only have one version of the skill active at any time, but they won’t limit your choice and progress just because you might hit the level cap before exploring your character’s full potential.