Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) has always had a relatively flexible class system ever since it launched over a decade ago. For many years now you’ve been able to build any of the game’s classes to fit into any role on a team whether it be damage-focused, tanking, or healing, with a variety of build options. But now, with the debut of the upcoming subclassing system in Update 46 (June 2 for PC/Mac and June 18 for Xbox and PlayStation,) those options are about to explode to offer a ludicrous amount of flexibility far beyond what’s already in the game.
Currently, when you make a character in Elder Scrolls Online, you must pick a single class and you’re stuck with that class forever. If you want to try something else, you’ll need to go make a fresh character and start over. That’s kind of a bummer for a game that is otherwise very generous about letting you change everything from your name, looks, faction, or even race.
Subclassing in Elder Scrolls Online
With subclassing, you’ll have more flexibility and opportunity than ever to really build your character your way by combining up to three different skill trees across all classes onto a single bar. That’s 21 different skill trees of several skills each. As the featured image at the top implies, that means you could create an all-out summoner build that utilizes pets from the Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Warden skill trees all combined together. That’s wild.
There is one small caveat though: to unlock subclassing, you’ll need to have at least one character at level 50. Once you reach that milestone, there is a short side quest to ramp you up into the system and then you’ve got access to the whole feature.
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“We wanted to introduce a way to allow our players to expand their experiences and try out all the different class skill lines we have introduced since launch,” says Carrie Day, one of the Systems Designers behind the Subclassing system at ZeniMax Online Studios. “Players who have played on multiple classes and characters will also need to think about these skill lines, and how they might be combined, totally differently than they have for the last 11 years.”
With over 3,000 different combinations, I’d definitely say they’ve accomplished their goal with this new feature.
With the Content Pass structure, Elder Scrolls Online is due to get some massive updates for the rest of this year. Subclassing and Part 1 of the Worm Cult storyline kick off in June, with another dungeon pack on the way in a few months, followed by the Writhing Wall Event which is described as a “world changing in-game event” for all players. Then Part 2 of the Worm Cult story closes out the year, so it’ll be a very busy next six months for ESO.