The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom – Hands-Off Preview

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The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom – Hands-Off Preview

Necrom is the seventh chapter expansion to the long-running Elder Scrolls Online game which out in 2014, and it’s the next big installment to the world with a campaign that has 30+ hours of content, introducing new threats, zones, and a brand new class, the Arcanist, the first since the 2019 release of the Elswyer chapter that brought players the Necromancer class.

The new locations are the Telvanni Peninsula, the homeland of powerful mages and collectors of power lore that they keep to themselves. Broken up into three unique biomes, it’ll keep players experiencing new zones instead of it all being one set theme throughout. The hub city for Telvanni Peninsula is Necrom, a city that holds much lore in its walls, also known as the City of the Dead, for it is the resting place of all the noble family members across Morrowind.

The next major zone for the Necrom chapter is Apocrypha, which takes on a cosmic horror theme and reuses a familiar biome from the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim; a very green and black atmosphere, and the homeland of a Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora, the Patron of Forbidden Knowledge, and Master of Fate. The Apocrypha features a lot of books being used in the base structures; a fitting home for a God that holds the knowledge of many lifetimes, and as you adventure further into Apocrypha, you will get a look into the mind of Hormaeus Mora.

Two new companions are introduced in Necrom, the first being Azandar, a male Redguard Arcanist who seeks aid in fixing what he caused thanks to an experiment gone wrong. Although he has great knowledge, he has a slight case of madness thanks to his actions and the results. Sharp-As-Night is the second companion, a male Argonian Mercenary with no memory of his past. He just woke up one day, and thanks to muscle memory, knew he was able to fight and defend himself. He takes on odd jobs in hopes of one day being able to regain what memories he lost.

Aside from the new companions to aid you in battle, you will meet new allies along the way; servants to Hermaeus Mora and mages in Necrom that will aid you with information on what is happening in the land, and with new friends comes new enemies. One returning enemy is the Seekers, familiar to Skyrim players, and the two brand new additions are the Mind Terror, which visually reminds me of a Mind Flayer from D&D, and the Lurkers, humanoid creators from the deep. They are covered in scales and crawl around in pockets of water, but they have razor-sharp teeth ready to sink into their prey. The main antagonists for Necrom are Master Shelreni, a female Dunmer.

While she’s a Master within Tevlanni, she wants to gain all the power of the land for herself. Then we have a very interesting addition. A Daedra going by the name Torvesard. Much about him is kept as a mystery; mainly who he answers to and where he gained his powers from. Torvesard is the Daedra that is seen in the trailer for Necrom, the one that the heroes are doing battle with, and it seems he will play a major part within the chapter as you uncover more about him. Other antagonists will be brought in, but the two mentioned are the big heavy hitters for the chapter.

The new class being introduced is the Arcanist, their powers granted by Hermaeus Mora. Following the cosmic horror theme, you can attack at mid range with tentacles exploding from your hand, and a wide range of new spells and powers to shift the tide of combat. The Arcanist can be played across the three specs with a tanking class, a damage class, and healing, and a new feature that adds a fresh of breath air when playing as a healer is that instead of just hitting the heal button while targeting an ally, the Arcanist has a Beam Heal, and you will be able to freely aim and target to players.

It also has an attack that acts the same way just to add some extra immersion into the game. I think it will be a fun feature to be added. The last addition worth mentioning is the new 12-player Trial added to Sanity’s Edge. It’s being compared to Dreadsail Reef in terms of size and scope, and players will enter the mind of a powerful mage as they struggle with a war on their sanity. The Trial will be broken up into three sections, and you will need to help regain control of the mind to finish the Trial.

With Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom releasing on June 5th for PC, and the 20th for Xbox One/Series S and X, and the PlayStation 4 and 5, there is plenty of time to get ready for this new chapter, and pre-order bonuses offer in-game mounts that you can use now. Public Test Servers for Necrom start on the 17th of April, so if you want to get in early to check out the new zones and class, keep that date in mind, but sadly, console players will miss out on the test servers, as it is only for PC players.

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Written by: Shane Walsh

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