It has been nearly ten years since The Elder Scrolls Online has been released and enjoyed. Like many games that have been updated over the years, you’re bound to have drifted away from it. So, with that said, here are the top 10 reasons to play The Elder Scrolls Online in 2024.
Years Worth of Content
The Elder Scrolls Online has been given such a wide array of new content from year to year that when you first begin or return there’s dozens of things you could do. There are now over 40 distinct zones to explore that add up to more than 200 kilometers squared.
Since each zone has its own story quests, overland events and bosses, cities, and delves, you’ll be busy for hundreds of hours. This is especially true if you want to explore the rather in-depth Elder Scrolls lore that can be found over the game’s hundreds of quests.
Years Worth of Quality-of-Life Updates
Alongside the slew of new content and systems comes an equal amount of work done to make the game more seamless. I can safely say that ESO respects your time more than ever and is as equally accessible in that regard too. Other improvements range from a new target marker system for yourself and the things you see, to being able to easily find all of your collectibles and even favoriting them.
The developers have added Armor stations in Cyrodil so PvP players can easily change their builds on the fly. ESO’s companion system is another example of a nice quality of life addition that Zenimax has been building on with each new chapter.
ESO’s PvP is Still Fun & Active
Speaking of Cryodil and PvP, those modes still have many active players and short queue times—at least on PC. While the PvP modes themselves aren’t updated as frequently as some might like, there is still a lot of fun to be had testing your class and build against others in small arenas or huge battlefields. Some of my favorite memories are from recent Battlegrounds matches where my build allowed me to take multiple opponents at once and hold my own until my team arrived.
Playing these modes are also great for earning new set items, even if they are PvP centric with their bonuses.
Over 400 Item Sets for Huge Build Diversity
If you’re unfamiliar with the set items in ESO, then know that there are hundreds of different sets between weapons, accessories, and the light, medium, and heavy armor types. Once you have 5 items in any one of these sets, you’ll also gain powerful effects that you can nearly build around.
These effects include; while having a food buff active, your critical damage and chance increases by 13% or while standing still, you gain 465 weapon and spell damage, but while moving you can 203 health, magicka, and stamina recovery.
The Antiquity System
While the system itself is not new, the rewards that can be found when engaging with the system are constantly being updated. This is because the antiquity system is used to not just find valuables you can sell, but also things like emotes, markings, adornments, and by far the most important—Mythic equipment.
This tier of equipment is unique and rivals that of Exotic gear in Destiny 2. Especially in how you can only wear one piece due to how powerful the effects are. If you thought set bonuses were powerful, here’s a good example of the power of a recently released Mythic:
While above 50% Stamina, reduce direct damage taken by 50% and lose 968 Stamina whenever you take direct damage and that can only happen once every .25 seconds.
The New Arcanist Class
Unlike Warframe, Black Desert Online, or even the aging Vindictus, The Elder Scrolls Online’s previous new class (The Warden) was released back in 2017. Fast forward to 2023 and ZeniMax Online Studios finally released the Arcanist, a brand-new class with eldritch properties that channels runes to cast powerful beams of deadly magic. It’s one of the first classes to use a system that allows you to build up a resource from a few skills so that you can use said resource to empower your other skills—whether they be for more damage or more heals.
The Arcanist is a great addition to the game and their balanced kit of damage, defense, and healing lets you experiment with various playstyles that have a focus on both direct and area of effect spells.
The Infinite Archive Roguelite Mode
In late 2023, ZeniMax Online Studios released a brand new, fully fleshed out mode for players to dive into. Dubbed the Infinite Archive, this mode allows up to two people to dive into randomly generated areas populated with random enemies. Each room has three waves of enemies, and after two rooms you fight a random boss from a pool of nearly 70 total bosses.
The kicker is that each room gives you a powerful buff that lasts for just the next room, but killing a boss gives a less powerful buff that lasts the entire run. Then, after every boss, you receive a special currency used to upgrade the mode on top of loot you can sell or use! All in all, it’s a very refreshing mode that ZOS could easily build on.
More Optimized Than Ever
I remember playing ESO many years ago. Most of the time the game ran well enough but higher end performance was certainly desired. In places like Cryodil’s PvP zone, it was hot garbage and less than 30 fps during sieges and players zerging each other. Fast forward to today and Zenimax not only further optimized the game, but also included technologies like Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR.
A more recent optimization is software occlusion where things you can’t see behind objects are culled and don’t render—for if your GPU needs a bit more help than your CPU. Nowadays, on PC I rarely dip below 70fps (even in cities) at 3440×1440 on maxed settings with a modest gaming laptop. I promise it’s not a flex as much as it hopefully shows that the game generally runs better.
The Game Still Visually Holds Up
While ESO has never been on the bleeding edge of graphical fidelity, it has always been the kind of game that looks pleasing to the eye. And a description like that is born from a subtle combination of good enough graphics and an inspired art direction. While certainly truer in the newer zones than the older ones (and on newer consoles), ESO is still visually appealing enough to give you that sense of immersion whether you enjoy 1st or 3rd person.
Additionally, it wasn’t too long ago that Zenimax introduced a screenspace global illumination setting for SSAO that takes into account extra bounces of light for more realistic depth and shading. It’s definitely the occasionally new settings like that which keep The Elder Scrolls Online from looking too aged. I hope Zenimax can continue to introduce new visual settings like that to keep the game looking sharp for another decade.
SpellCrafting in 2024?!
One of the most anticipated new features the fans of ESO have been clamoring for is a spell crafting system. Except for Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls games have always had some kind of spellcrafting that allows for custom spells and the combination of spell effects.
In a recent letter to the game’s community, Zenimax made it known that 2024 would be a great year full of new systems. Combine that with a new trailer showing off an emote that has a character changing the color of her flames and the community is confident that spellcrafting may be a feature in 2024’s new chapter release.
All in all, The Elder Scrolls Online has never been in a better spot to return to or even try for the first time.
