ESO Gold Road preview: A sneak peek at the new Scribing feature

The next chapter of ESO, Gold Road, features an incredible new ability: Scribing. While not as powerful as Spellmaking was in previous games, it still offers some remarkable flexibility in how players battle across the world of Tamriel. I recently had a chance to get a peek at Gold Road and explore the world itself, but I wanted to focus on this great, new power.

I’m a sucker for customization, and being able to play an MMO in the way that I see fit. That’s what makes ESO so great, and the Gold Road addition of Scribing lets me customize my spells even further. While it’s a limited number of skills, that doesn’t change how great it feels.

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What is the Scribing feature in ESO Gold Road?

No matter what weapon type you wield, there's a customizable skill waiting (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

During your exploration of ESO Gold Road, players can unlock Scribing during one of the chapter’s quest chains. This will ultimately lead them to a place known as the Scholarium. Here’s where you can actually customize your skills, which was teased in the original reveal of this content drop.

Once in the Scholarium, you can create some special weapon skills, and adjust the features of those skills. Do you want an Elemental Explosion that instead Stuns, triggers status ailments, and also afflicts the targets with something like Brittle? That’s possible, and it’s easy to do!

You can make a selection of skills and do some truly extraordinary things. You can add poison to powers, you can make skills pull enemies towards you, and buff/debuff in almost any way you see fit. You can stack Poison Damage with a Physical DOT in ESO Gold Road, and wrap that new Scribing ability up with Vulnerability!

Through Scribing, players can make nearly anything they want (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

The way it works is players head to the Scholarium and use the altar to begin work. This costs Luminous Ink as a resource as well. Focus, Signature, and Affix scripts go next, each with a special list of adjustments you can make. It’s an amazing system, and while it won’t likely fill your bar up with new powers, you can take them from your Weapon Tree in the Skills Menu anytime - once you’ve crafted it.

When it comes to the limits of Scribing in Gold Road in ESO, there are a set of specific skills in a few different trees that you can access. In addition, as you complete quests and other tasks in Elder Scrolls Online, you can also change the colors of your attacks, giving them a brilliant new flair.

Below is the list of the currently known Scribing skills that are available in the game, once you’ve taken part in the quest chain:

Weapon skills

• Traveling Knife (Dual-wield weapon)
• Vault (Bow)
• Mender’s Bond (Restoration Staff)
• Elemental Explosion (Destruction Staff)
• Shield Throw (One-hand and Shield)
• Smash (Two-handed weapon)

World skills

• Soul Burst
• Wield Soul

Guild

• Torchbearer
• Contingency

Alliance War

• Trample

This could always change in the future, but as of this writing, it’s unknown. There’s a large, beautiful region out there to explore in ESO’s Gold Road expansion. Only time will tell if something else is added, or some new secrets are uncovered.

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The Gold Road chapter launches on June 3, 2024, for PC/Macs, and on June 18, 2024, on Xbox and PlayStation consoles. It features a wealth of new content, such as this powerful new customizable set of skills.